February 20, 2006

Afghan cartoon protesters voice al Qaeda support
Monday February 20, 5:53 PM
JALALABAD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Hundreds of Afghan students demonstrated on Monday against cartoons lampooning the Prophet Mohammad, shouted support for Osama bin Laden and threatened to join his al Qaeda if Islam were insulted again.

At least 10 people were killed in several days of protests over the cartoons in Afghanistan two weeks ago but the demonstrations had largely petered out after that.

The students gathered on the campus of the university in the eastern city of Jalalabad chanting "Death to Denmark", "Death to America" and "Death to France", a witness said.

The students also chanted "Death to Karzai" and demanded that President Hamid Karzai close the embassies of Denmark, the United States and France and expel their forces from Afghanistan.

They also shouted support for al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri, chanting "Long live Osama" and "Long live al Zawahri" as well as support for an allied militant commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the witness said,

"If they abuse the Prophet of Islam again we will all become al Qaeda," the students shouted.

The protest ended without any trouble, the witness said.

Cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper last year and reprinted in other European papers have sparked worldwide protests by Muslims who believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet.

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Al Qaeda leaders not in Afghanistan: Abdullah
Monday, 20 February, 2006, 11:32 AM Doha Time Staff Reporter
Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah was sure yesterday that Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taleban leader Mullah Omar were not present in his country.

He admitted that there was a recent increase in Taleban’s operations "was a matter of concern for us".

However, he told reporters that the security situation has improved taking into consideration that 90% of the country was under the control of Taleban and Al-Qaeda."

He said that discussions between President Hamid Karzai and the Pakistani leadership concentrated on ways to stop attacks from Taleban and Al-Qaeda and to put an end to the infiltration on both sides of the border.

Abdullah said that the government’s priority was to form a national army that will be a beginning of a reconciliation.

On the issue of cartoons offending the Prophet Muhammad, Abdullah questioned the logic of destroying infrastructure and property during demonstrations in order to show resentment.

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Afghan leader confronts Pakistan over terror support
By Ahmed Rashid in Islamabad  18/02/2006 Daily Telegraph.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has handed over extensive intelligence dossiers to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf detailing how suicide bombers who attack targets in Afghanistan are being recruited, trained and equipped in Pakistan.

Although Mr Karzai stopped short of accusing Pakistan's military regime of perpetrating the attacks, he said the US and Britain would be "stepping up pressure on Islamabad" to take action to stop the attacks, as British troops soon deploy in southern Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai was on a landmark three-day visit to the Pakistani capital Islamabad which ended yesterday.

At least 30 suicide bomb attacks have killed nearly 100 people in Afghanistan, including civilians, over the past three months.

Mr Karzai faces extreme pressure at home where anti-Pakistan sentiment is rising. There have been dozens of demonstrations over allegations that Pakistan's Interservices Intelligence (ISI) is giving support to the Taliban.

"We have provided President Musharraf with a lot of very detailed information on acts of terrorism being carried out in Afghanistan and we discussed in great detail what actions Pakistan could now take," Mr Karzai told The Daily Telegraph.

"Americans are dying, a Canadian diplomat has been killed, our people are suffering, so it is time that action is taken to stop these acts of terrorism and interference in Afghanistan internal affairs.

"After all this information has been given to the Pakistanis, we will see if the bombings will stop or not. We expect results, we expect that terrorist attacks will decrease," he added.

Asked what he would do if the ISI failed to deliver and the perpetrators only went deeper into hiding, Mr Karzai said: "We will uncover them again. We have the abilities to do so and we will come again and again to talk and talk to President Musharraf."

Mr Karzai also made it clear that the US and Britain had increased diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to stop any support to the Taliban. Britain is to deploy 4,000 troops in southern Afghanistan over the next few months, mostly to the province of Helmand, where the Taliban has recently stepped up its activities.

"Britain now has a very special role to play. There will be thousands of British troops deployed in the south against the Taliban and neither Britain nor Afghanistan is in any mood to tolerate any more casualties," said Mr Karzai. "Britain will be piling on the pressure."

The Afghan dossiers include the names and addresses of Pakistani recruiters, trainers and suppliers.

"In places like Karachi, Pakistani extremist groups working on behalf of the Taliban for a fee carry out the recruitment and then bring them to safe houses in Balochistan for training and equipping with the [suicide] vests," said a senior Afghan official who accompanied Mr Karzai.

The official said that all the top Taliban commanders were known to be living in Pakistan with their families and the issue had been repeatedly raised with Pakistan.

Pakistani officials no longer deny that Taliban activity is being co-ordinated from their soil, but they insist that the government has nothing to do with it. After his two-hour meeting with the Afghan leader on Wednesday night, Mr Musharraf called on "all the progressive political elements in Pakistan" to suppress elements who may be abetting the Taliban.

Earlier Mr Musharraf - who usually is vehement in denying any kind of Pakistani involvement - told Mr Karzai that the onus of fighting terrorism "was on both the countries".

He said: "Therefore it is incumbent on both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the governments, the intelligence agencies and the military of both sides, to jointly co-operate, co-ordinate and fight this evil."

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India to join Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline
NEW DELHI, FEB 20 (PTI)
Ahead of the visit of US President George Bush, India has decided to join the US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline to import natural gas to meet the fuel needs of its growing economy.

New Delhi, earlier this month participated for the first time as an "observer" in the 9th meeting of the steering committee of the TAP project and has since decided to join the 3.5-billion dollar project.

"We have 90-days to get necessary official approvals to join the project. Once approved by the Cabinet, the project will be renamed TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline)," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told PTI here.

Officials said the pipeline from Turkmenistan would be more easier to implement than the Iran-Pakistan-India line as it already had the backing of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Moreover, unlike IPI, the project does not run the risk of being blacklisted for participation by US and European financers and companies.

US has been encouraging Pakistan to abandon the IPI project and consider TAP for meeting its gas needs. The Bush administration accuses Tehran of harbouring nuclear weapon ambitions and has called for its isolation.

The proposed natural gas pipeline would stretch from the Turkmenistan/Afghanistan border in southeastern Turkmenistan to Multan, Pakistan (790 miles, 1,271 kilometers), with a 400-mile (640-kilometer) extension to India. Estimated cost of the project is 2.9 billion dollars for the segment to Pakistan and an additional 600 million dollars for the extension to India.

The pipeline would offer a much-needed financial boost to war-ravaged Afghanistan in form of transit fee. "Ofcourse there are security implications but once Afghans see huge economic benefits flow in the form of jobs and multi-million dollar transit fee, they will ensure the pipeline is safe," an official said. Though New Delhi was not considering TAP as an alternate to IPI, it saw the implementation of the latter as much easier.

Besides, the tough posturing adopted by Iran on sale of gas in form of LNG to India has forced New Delhi to look at other sources, the official said.

Tehran is yet to ratify the 22-billion dollar deal to export 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG for 25-years from 2009 to India despite the initial agreement being signed in June 2005.

The proposed TAP pipeline will carry natural gas from the Dauletabad Field, in southeastern Turkmenistan at a rate of up to 2 billion cubic feet per day (20 billion cubic meters per year). US energy firm Unocal, the previous owner of Dauletabad field, had in October 1997 stated that the fields had been independently certified reserves of more then 25 trillion cubic feet (708 billion cubic meters).

The Government of Turkmenistan has guaranteed deliverability of 25 trillion cubic feet (708 billion cubic meters) of natural gas exclusively for the Central Asia Gas Pipeline. Much or all of this gas is expected to come from the Dauletabad Field.

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Foreigners Warned to Register Details in Afghanistan's Herat
Monday February 20, 1:54 PM
HERAT CITY, Feb 20 Asia Pulse - Officials in Afghanistan's western Herat province Sunday warned all foreigners to register their details with the Labour and Social Works Department, the authority dealing with entry to the province, or otherwise they would be dealt with severely according to the law.

Director of the provincial Labour and Social Works department Said Muhammad Hussain Hussaini told Pajhwok Afghan News the step was taken to boost security in the region and to help identify the number of foreign workers here.

They had been directed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Works to register the names of all those foreigners who were working for any domestic or foreign NGOs.

It would be better if this internationally existing rule had been implemented in the past, he said, adding now all the foreigners working for any organization should record their names with the department to avoid any legal action against them.

However, he would not specify what legal action would be taken against those who failed to register.

At present, officials don't have any precise number of foreign workers in the province, he added.
 
Director of Foreign Affairs Muhammadullah Afzali said the step would be helpful in maintaining law and order.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

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NATO troops come under attack in west Afghanistan
 KABUL, Feb. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Unknown militants attacked the NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in the western Farah province of Afghanistan in the wee hours of Monday, spokesman of the multinational force said.

"Tonight at around 12:55 (0825 GMT) the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Farah went under attack by mortar and small arms fire by unknown number of insurgents. ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) troops responded to fire with both small arms and mortars," Ricardo Cristoni told newsmen at a news briefing.

Farah PRT, a civilian-military unit is one of the 19 Provincial Reconstruction Teams run by NATO and the U.S. military to enhance reconstruction and stabilization process in Afghanistan.

It is the first time that militants target NATO forces in the relatively peaceful province of Rarah.

Meanwhile, spokesman of the multinational force said that the rounds of mortars impacted outside the compound fence without any damage or casualties.

"Later on ISAF troops have searched and secured the area reporting no presence of the attackers," Cristoni emphasized.

He put the attack on the enemies of Afghanistan, a term used against the remnants of Taliban's former fundamentalist regime.

Remnants of Taliban who staged a violent comeback early last year have vowed to intensify their activities against foreign troops in the coming spring when the weather gets warm.

The militias also beheaded two local employees of Afghanistan intelligence service in Farah last week.

To stabilize security in the post-Taliban country NATO has decided to deploy additional 6,000 troops in the restive southern provinces where hundreds of Taliban-linked militants are said to have holed up.

Around 9,200 strong NATO-led ISAF has been stationed in the war-raved country to help Afghan government ensure security throughout the central Asian state.

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We will bleed you, Taliban says
The Toronto Star Feb. 19, 2006. 01:42 AM MITCH POTTER MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
A little more electricity, a little more water, a few more roads and a lot more fear. That's how Kandahar has changed in the four years since foreign soldiers took up residence following the fall of the Taliban.

Afghans still need help with health care, education, power, irrigation and virtually every plank upon which to build a civil society. But if the incoming Canadian troops can offer anything to this deeply conservative city and the volatile province beyond, let it be security.

So say Afghans beyond the gates of coalition headquarters at Kandahar Airfield, where the excruciatingly slow march toward a better life is now threatened daily by a resurgent Taliban.

Kandahar school principal Ehsan Ullah crystallized the point yesterday in an interview with the Star, reaching into his pocket to produce the death threat he discovered earlier in the day on the steps of the Sherzai Education Centre.

"We will bleed you," said the single page of red ink written in Pashto.

It was a classic "night letter," an intimidation tactic Taliban loyalists began adopting in 2004.

The threat was aimed at Ullah because among his 1,900 students are some 380 girls, a gender unworthy of education under the austere tenets of Taliban ideology.

"I am under threat, the students are under threat," said Ullah. "There have been attacks, schools have been burned.

"But we cannot give up. If we close the school, it is like shutting off a light. We have to keep going. My worry is for the girls. They are so vulnerable. We need security. We need the Canadians and the other foreign troops."

A few of Ullah's female students have drifted away in recent months, too afraid to continue their studies in English and computer sciences.

But the bravest, the ones who still attend classes, yesterday described their worries that the freedom they have only just tasted is beginning to slip away.

"We want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers," said Soriya, 17. "We want to go to university. But right now there is not enough freedom."

This is not the first time for Canadian troops in Kandahar. But the battle group converging on this ancient Afghan capital will nearly treble to 2,200 the size of that initial deployment of 800 troops in February 2002.

Just as the city has changed, so too has the mission. Canadians will be in command of precarious Kandahar province, and together with NATO partners in the neighbouring provinces, the assignment calls for action against the Taliban-inspired insurgents who have destabilized southern Afghanistan with suicide bombs and roadside blasts in recent months.

What the new arrivals will find is a far more claustrophobic Kandahar than the one Canadians saw four years ago, when Western journalists and aid workers could walk the streets insulated from danger by traditional Pashtun hospitality.

Today's Kandahar, which has ballooned past the half-million population mark with the arrival of returning refugees, is now a patchwork of no-go zones where the smattering of Westerners who are rarely seen in public.

Gazes previous visitors remember as warm today seem indifferent, at best.

There are a few startling signs of economic progress, most notably half a dozen steel and glass office buildings which, at as much as six-storeys high, rank as veritable skyscrapers by Kandahar standards.

Their green-tinted glass facades offer a jarring splash of colour in a city overwhelmingly made up of single-stall shops built of dun-coloured mud brick and countless metal shipping containers.

But one block deeper into the warren of market stalls, bare-dirt alleys reveal Kandahar's impoverished legion of hand-workers, turning out simple tin boxes, scrap-wood tables and water urns from used tires.

They don't have the electricity, the machinery or the training to do anything else.

In Kandahar's main square stands the city's first Western style coffee shop, called, well, The Coffee Shop.

It is the brainchild of Afghan-American entrepreneur Mohammed Naseem, who was raised in Kandahar before moving with his family to the coffee-mad city of Seattle.

"When I came back in 2002, people were in shock," he says. "I was clean-shaven, driving around the city on my motorcycle wearing blue jeans. Nobody could believe what they were seeing."

Two Internet cafés have sprung up since then. And Naseem is building a third atop his coffee shop with a special area for women, who until now have found no available public Web access.

For the past three days, many of the Kandaharis interviewed by the Star dismissed outright the suggestion that Taliban support exists in the city.

The stock answer is to export all attribution for recent attacks to Pakistan, which, in the words of auto mechanic Abdullah Rodi, 25, "wants to control us, just like before."

However much truth can be found in that answer, at least some Afghans here describe a kind of Pashtun paradox setting in as the Taliban insurgency deepens.

On one side, they say, revelations of sometimes-blatant corruption among Afghanistan's post-Taliban leaders have dimmed enthusiasm for the new regime and its U.S.-led coalition backers.

On the other side, pro-Taliban agitators are working to incite a population famed for its historic abhorrence of foreign occupation. Just ask the British. Or the Russians.

"The Taliban has some support, I cannot deny it," says Naseem. "But I live in what is basically a ghetto, one of the very poorest areas of the city, and I would say that even there well more than half of the people of Kandahar want the Canadians to be here.

"But I also would urge the Canadians to watch their aid dollars much more closely than the Americans did. When the foreign aid goes into corrupt Afghan hands, it reflects on the donor as well. Watch it closely. Please."

Kandahar once had a movie theatre, but it was burned down by CIA-backed mujahideen fighters during the 1980s guerrilla war against Soviet occupation and today a mosque stands in its place.

Today, some Kandaharis have quietly opened their homes to formerly banned entertainments in the post-Taliban era. Music, videos and bootleg DVDs abound in the markets.

One video merchant, who identifies himself only as Mahmoud, 28, sells such titles as Die Harder and Girls Who Wrestle.

Mahmoud says he is happier today than when, under the Taliban, he enjoyed a government job as a clerk in the former regime's motor vehicle branch.

He's indifferent to the arrival of Canadian troops, saying they're really just the same as Americans.

"There is no difference between their armies, I think. But we will like the ones who respect us, and help us build our own army to the point where it can keep Afghanistan safe and strong."

Abdul Nabi, 28, is a third-generation gold seller who began work in his father's shop at age 6. In the time of the Taliban, he says, women were not allowed into his shop and were required to make their selections from the street.

"Business is a bit better, but I don't want this for my children," says Nabi, the father of two sons and an 8-year-old daughter.

"I never had the chance to go to school. Now, all my children are studying. It's not important to carry on the family business. I want them to be doctors, engineers."

Closer to the Canada-led Provincial Reconstruction Team compound known as Camp Nathan Smith on the outskirts of Kandahar, a better sense of the Canadians is taking hold.

By far the smaller of Canada's two deployments in the region, the PRT has won over some of the children who play in the sandlot next door with the donation of a basketball.

These Afghan children laugh heartily when asked whether they are bothered by the sight of guns in the hands of their new neighbours. "We are Afghans," one says. "How could we be afraid of guns?"

They fall silent when asked how long they would like to see the Canadians remain. The eldest boy, 11-year-old Popal, finally delivers the verdict — exactly six years.

"I will be old enough to join the Afghan National Army," Popal says. "Then, I can take over the job of protecting our people."

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Liberty memorial in Zabul being reconstructed
KANDAHAR CITY, Feb 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Work is underway to reconstruct the liberty memorial in Kalat, which was destroyed during years of war and civil strife.

The memorial was erected in 1973 during the era of Mohammad Daud Khan. However, it was bitterly damaged during decades of war and civil strife.

The monument is built by the US-led provincial reconstruction team (PRT) at the cost of $18,000, Kalat mayor Janat Gul said on Monday.

Speaking to Pajhwok Afghan News, Gul said work was underway to construct a big park around the minaret to provide entertainment to people of Zabul as well as the neighbouring provinces.

Appreciating the move, vice president of the Tarnak Literary Society Naseer Ahmad Faizan said it was the first time the government had taken a step to promote cultural activities in the province.

Abdul Ghafoor, resident of Kalat, said construction of the minaret and park would add to the beauty of the provincial capital.

Lamenting the performance of the provincial government, Ghafoor said no developmental works had been done in the province. He alleged the money allocated for reconstruction was gobbled up by a few influential.

Bismillah Lodin, director of the Information and Culture Department, said he had met the PRT officials in Kandahar a few days back and demanded of them to reconstruct historical sites in Zabul.

He said the officials assured them of reconstructing the Zabul's Bala Hisar Fort as well as replica of Ahmad Shah Baba's arrow in the city.

Reported by Saeed Zabuli & translated by Daud

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Pakistan to hold Int. donors conference for Afghan refugees repatriation, rehabilitation
The Pakistan Link - Feb 19 7:51 AM
ISLAMABAD, Feb 19 : Pakistan has decided to convene international donors conference with the cooperation of UNCHR for the repatriation and rehabilitation of Afghan refugees in Afghanistan.

The conference will be held in another country during next year and assessment of the expenditure to be incurred on the repatriation and rehabilitation of Afghan refugees in Afghanistan.

The donors countries will also be asked to donate funds for reconstruction process in refugees areas after their return to Afghanistan.

Projects will also be prepared and presented in the conference about the affected areas of Pakistan by Afghan refugees.

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Explosion leaves one dead, five injured in Nangarhar
JALALABAD, Feb 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): An explosion in front of a house in the Speen Ghar district of the eastern Nangarhar province left one man dead while five others belonging to the same family sustained injuries.

Residents said the blast took place in front of a house in the Goshtal village Sunday evening. Mohammad Anwar, dweller of the area, told Pajhwok Afghan News owner of the house Murad Khan died on the spot while five members of his family, including his wife and children, suffered injuries.

Confirming the blast, spokesman for the provincial police headquarters Colonel Abdul Ghafoor suspected a personal feud behind the incident. He said a search had been launched to net down the culprits.

Separately, police discovered two landmines in the Biyar area last night. The explosive devices were later defused with the help of the provincial reconstruction team (PRT), added the spokesman.
Ezatullah Zawab

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'Suicide-ready' Taliban lie in wait for troops
By Massoud Ansari in Kila Saifullah, Pakistan
The Telegraph (UK) February 19, 2006
Stroking his long beard and flashing a smile, Mohammed Khwaja, a Taliban organiser in the lawless borderlands of Pakistan's tribal areas, contemplated the imminent arrival of British troops in Helmand province.

"We thought that it would be between us and the US, but it looks like souls of the British buried in the Helmand after they were killed by the Afghan warriors in the 19th century may be feeling bored.

"Now they are calling their grandchildren to be reunited with them in hell," he said.

By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, close to where 962 British troops were slaughtered at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880.

If Khwaja has his way, it will be Afghan suicide bombers, rather than their forebears who used gunfire and artillery against the occupying foe, who will inflict casualties against the 21st century British force.

A committed jihadist who fought against American forces after they invaded following the September 11 attacks, he now dispatches young Afghan refugees (mohajir) from Pakistan's tribal areas to carry out attacks inside their homeland.

Khwaja, 32, also a mohajir, boasted that he had already "supplied" several dozen "suicide-ready Talibs" to camps inside Afghanistan in preparation for a spring offensive designed to hit the first British troops to begin patrolling in Helmand.

"Everyone here is convinced about jihad and to sacrifice his life," he said. "Once they sign in, they do not need any special kind of indoctrination. They simply are to be clad with a jacket laden with dynamite sticks and to blow themselves up next to the target.

"The Americans had either confined themselves to their bunkers or they were uselessly patrolling in the air. Once they are joined by several thousand British, you will be witnessing Talibs blowing themselves up left, right, and centre."

In recent months, Khwaja's job description has undergone a subtle change. He used to spirit fighters across the border and then facilitate the return of their bodies if they were shot.

Now, he arranges one way trips because a switch of tactics from hit-and-run operations to suicide missions means there are no bodies to return.

Born in an Afghan village close to Kila Saifullah, beside the Pakistan border, Khwaja was raised in a devout Muslim household.

In 2001, he fought against the Americans in Kunduz, in south-western Afghanistan, before moving north to the capital Kabul. After Kabul fell, he was part of the retreat to Kandahar, where he was a member of a crowd addressed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader.

According to Khwaja, Mulla Omar addressed the gathering through a loudspeaker from inside his bunker and uttered only few sentences, in which he told his followers to return to their respective places and to wait for the next call.

After two years of lying low in Pakistan and with Mullah Omar still at large, Khwaja was one of the Taliban who decided to regroup and mount renewed attacks against American forces and their Afghan allies.

Now, he said, he and other senior Taliban operatives had concluded that suicide bombings are the way to weaken the resolve of the British.

"We realised that we were losing too many men in traditional guerrilla warfare. But when it comes to a suicide mission, we can be one against many."

Khwaja said the adoption of the suicide tactic had come after close study of events in Iraq. Far from being borne "out of desperation", as President Hamid Karzai has said, it was a calculated move to give the Taliban campaign fresh impetus.

A Pakistani official said the Taliban's al-Qaeda allies, who also have a presence in the borderlands and Helmand, had schooled the Afghans in suicide attacks.

The resurgence of the Taliban has been felt most strongly in the southern provinces of Helmand, Zabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan, where 1,600 were killed last year. Since November, there have been 15 suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan, killing 70, including a Canadian diplomat and American and Afghan soldiers.

Syed Abdul Sattar Shah, of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a Pakistani pro-Taliban movement, in Quetta, said that the Taliban now had the public support needed to defeat the British.

After the Taliban regime fell at the end of 2001, poor Afghans had expected a "sea of dollars" from American incomers but had instead got "peanuts" from the occupation.

Sardar Haji Lashkari, a tribal chief in Baluchistan, said Afghans now saw the Taliban as becoming the dominant force in the south. "Many of them have started joining the Taliban bandwagon as an investment for the future."

In Kila Saifullah, there was no doubting the popularity of the Taliban. "They never had a dearth of volunteers, but they needed funds as well as logistics," said Mullah Abdul Wahid, a local cleric. "Now, within a few months they have proved that they are still a force to be reckoned with."

Khwaja said he was relishing the arrival of British soldiers. "We intend to trap them and kill them all. There will be no opportunity for escape."

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Robbers hold up bank car in Kabul
Sunday, 19 February 2006 BBC News
A vehicle carrying $300,000 belonging to a Pakistani bank has been robbed at gunpoint in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The car, operated by the Habib Bank of Pakistan, was stopped by men in police uniform who hijacked it and drove it off with the staff still inside.

When the guards refused to leave the car, the robbers opened fire, injuring a police guard and a cashier.

A BBC correspondent says the incident will increase security fears, especially among foreigners.

Fears re-ignited

The car was carrying a Pakistani bank employee, as well as security guards, en route to the Standard Chartered Bank, when it was stopped, says the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul.

The two injured people are now in a stable condition in hospital after the shooting incident in the centre of the city.

"We want the Afghan government to provide us with security when we carry cash," said Khalid Abdul Aziz, the manager of Habib Bank's Kabul branch.

"We want the Afghan government to insure us and pay the money back to us. We don't have any security."

Last week two Nepalis were kidnapped in the centre of Kabul.

Despite a large police and security presence in the city, there will now be renewed fears about safety for international workers, says our correspondent.

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Durand line serves as a line of hate: Karzai
via Kashar News, Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Feb 19 (SANA): Dubbing Durand line as a line of hatred Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said he does not accept this line as it has raised a wall between the two brothers.

He said this while talking to the journalists after offering condolence over the death of Khan Abdul Wali Khan.

Karzai described the demise of Wali Khan as an irreparable loss to the whole world, especially for Pakhtuns and other nations in the region. The Afghan president hailed Wali Khan as an unforgettable and towering figure in the region’s political history, who had devoted his entire life to brining prosperity to the people.

The last surviving son of the illustrious Khudai Khidmatgar Movement founder Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan passed away on January 26 after a protracted illness at the ripe age of 89. “Wali Khan was not a leader of Pakhtuns in Pakistan alone; he was a venerable figure for all Pakhtuns around the world and that is why I have come here today to represent the Afghan nation in offering condolences to his family,” Karzai remarked. Karzai sympathised with Wali Khan’s son and ANP central president Asfandyar Wali Khan and Begum Nasim Wali Khan. The bereaved family thanked Karzai for showing so much of respect to the former opposition leader, saying it was reflective of the strong bonds of fraternity between Pakhtuns on both sides of the border.

“We appreciate President Karzai’s visit, which really signifies that the Afghan nation and we are like body and soul that can never be separated,” said Asfandyar Wali Khan.

After offering fateha, Karzai spoke of the issues he discussed with the Pakistani leadership during his three-day visit. In response to accusations by some quarters in Pakistan that Afghanistan was inciting violence in Balochistan, Karzai said his country remained a victim of terrorism and thus unable to foment trouble elsewhere. “Unfortunately, Afghanistan itself is suffering terrorism and is unable to create problems for others,” reiterated the Afghan leader, who claimed Pakistan had held out a firm assurance to act against miscreants intent upon creating instability in his country.

Karzai assured Afghanistan would not let any one to spoil the relationship between the two nations. We will not allow any country, any government with whom Afghanistan has relations, to interfere in our ties with Pakistan, or to use our soil against Pakistan.”

About the killing of three Chinese engineers in Balochistan and its possible links to Afghan warlords and Indian consulates in Afghanistan, the visiting leader said his administration was keeping an eye on such elements. He, however, asserted warlordism and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan were a thing of the past.

Regarding the presence of high-value targets in the region, Karzai admitted there was a need to intensify the exchange of information for the sake of stability in Afghanistan. He also referred to the ongoing reconciliation campaign, spearheaded by former president Sibghatullah Mujaddedi.

The Taliban figures, with no links to al-Qaeda or other terrorist organisations, had been asked to return and find jobs in the government or other institutions, said Karzai, who went on to mention the example of Maulvi Arsala Rehmani.

However, he hastened to explain the offer was not for Mullah Omer, “who is answerable to the Afghan people, to the Muslims for the crimes against Islam, stopping children from going to schools.

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Afghan Traders Seek Foreign Markets for Their Products
Monday February 20, 2:47 PM
BAMYAN CITY, Feb 20 Asia Pulse - Local traders in Afghanistan's central Bamyan province Sunday demanded the newly established Chamber of Commerce and Industries Department create a market for their goods abroad.

The branch was officially launched during a ceremony attended by a large number of government officials and businessmen.

One of the local traders, Haji Fida welcomed the setting up of the new department and dubbed it as a useful step that would boost business in the region.

In a brief chat with Pajhwok Afghan News, Haji Fida said, there were about 3,000 traders and workers in this province and their long-awaited demand was the creation of markets for their goods abroad.

Citing an example of the carpet and rug industry in the province, he said they didn't have any market for these products so far and urged the newly established department to take effective steps in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Governor of Habiba Sarabi also directed the Chamber of Commerce to find foreign markets for the producers, as currently the traders had to sell them for lower prices.       

Haji Chaman, a local trader, who was named as director for the newly formed department said they would try to find good markets for the produces abroad.

The department was aimed at solving the problem of the traders, he added.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

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INTERVIEW-Australian move on Afghan troop hike due soon
20 Feb 2006 05:33:54 GMT By Sonya Hepinstall and James Grubel
CANBERRA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Australia will soon announce a near doubling of its troops in Afghanistan in order to partner with Dutch forces preparing to deploy in the volatile south of the country, Australia's defence minister said on Monday.

Minister Brendan Nelson said the addition of 200 troops into Afghanistan, half of them devoted to reconstruction efforts, would bring the total contingent to over 500, including 200 special forces in the country since mid-2005.

"The NATO preference is that they (the Dutch) partner with Australia," Nelson told Reuters in one of his first interviews since becoming defence minister.

"That is a matter that is before active and current consideration of our government. We are generally disposed to agreeing to that request."

He said an announcement was likely "very soon" and possibly this week. The cabinet, which must endorse the decision, is meeting on Tuesday in the capital, Canberra.

The Dutch will be joining NATO forces preparing to expand into southern Afghanistan this year, giving them management of all international peacekeeping and allowing the United States to withdraw some forces from the area, power base of the former ruling Taliban and the most dangerous region in the country.

The Dutch, who have been reluctant to take on risky military engagements since the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, have been keen to ensure that this new mission focuses on reconstruction and not the U.S.-led war on terror.

WHY FIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ?
Critics of Prime Minister John Howard, who has been called the deputy sheriff of Asia for his close ties to U.S. President George W. Bush, have asked why Australia needs to fight in Afghanistan or Iraq when there are threats closer to home.

A poll published on Monday showed 20 percent of 1,000 voters felt going to war with Iraq was the worst thing Howard had done in his 10 years in office, the largest number among the choices.

Nelson, defence minister for just three weeks but speaking in an office already filled with family photographs and a large model of an F/A-18 fighter, defended the decision.

"Iraq and Afghanistan are no less important priorities than the effort made in East Timor, the Solomon Islands, the support of the PNG (Papua New Guinea) government," he said, referring to Asian hot spots where Australia has committed troops.

"The nature of terrorism is such that it's not something you wait to turn up on your beaches before you do something about it," said the former education minister and medical doctor.

Australia has about 1,300 defence personnel in and around Iraq, including 450 troops in a southern province who are guarding Japanese engineers. Australia has promised to keep its forces there as long as Japan maintains its presence.

Nelson said Australia's forces guarding the Japanese were likely to stay in Iraq, regardless of what the Japanese decide.

"Our disposition is deploy probably most of those troops to another task in Southern Iraq," he said.

INDONESIA AND THE PHILIPPINES
Australia has gradually strengthened its security relationship with Indonesia and is currently negotiating a status of forces agreement with the Philippines, which is trying to root out al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf insurgents in its far south islands.

The United States has already stationed some 200 advisers on one of the islands and holds regular military exercises in the area. Nelson confirmed Australia also already had a military presence in the Philippines, but refused to elaborate. "We do have a presence but I'm not prepared to confirm the extent," he said.

Australia's security relationship with Indonesia has improved dramatically since the two began cooperating on anti-terrorism efforts after the first Bali bombing killed 202 people, 88 of them Australians, in October 2002.

Canberra has poured A$36.8 million into a Jakarta-based counter-terrorism training programme and is now conducting joint exercises with Indonesia's Kopassus special forces somewhere in Australia for the first time since 1997, Nelson said.

Despite all the strengthened military ties in the region, however, Nelson said his first visit as defence minister would be to the Middle East.

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Afghan youth became S.J. doctor, then literary star
By Glenn Lovell Mercury News Sun, Feb. 19, 2006
Kites? Who has time for kites? They require a freedom and frivolity usually associated with the endless summers of youth.
``I haven't flown one in ages. Who has time for such things?'' laughs Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-American author whose ``The Kite Runner'' has sold more than 3 million copies and become a publishing world phenomenon.

``Between writing the second book, about women in Afghanistan, and traveling for the first one, I really haven't had time for much of anything,'' says Hosseini, a physician who immigrated to San Jose as a teenager in 1980. ``The book came out of the gates slowly -- there were days when I couldn't pay people to read it -- but then something happened, and it just took off . . . and changed my life drastically.''

That ``something'' was a network of book clubs and indie booksellers. They devoured Hosseini's autobiographical first novel and handed it off to others . . . and the word spread: Here is a new author who deserves your attention.

According to the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, ``The Kite Runner'' has been the No. 1 or 2 fiction paperback in the Bay Area since it came out in paper in May 2004. The book was third -- after the latest Harry Potter and ``A Million Little Pieces'' -- on BookScan's list of top 200 titles of 2005.

To make time for his frenetic new career -- the second novel is due out in early 2007 -- Hosseini put his day job as a doctor on hold. There weren't enough hours in the day, he says, to see patients and juggle deadlines, speaking engagements and meetings on that inevitable ``Kite Runner'' movie, expected to go before the cameras in western China, Morocco and Fremont's Little Kabul in the fall.

On a more personal note, he and wife Roya, a lawyer for Intel Capital, have two young children and a new home in the South San Jose foothills, where hawks hover by day and coyotes call at night.

``Sometimes the hawks swoop past our bedroom window -- you can see their eyes,'' says Hosseini, eyes widening for effect. ``We get all kinds of animals up here. When the coyotes kill something and go into a feeding frenzy, they make this gleeful howling sound. It's very unsettling.''

A mountain retreat with predators nipping at the borders -- somehow, it feels like a metaphor for the author's life, which he calls ``blessed'' but which has not been without incident.
In 1976, the Hosseini family departed Kabul for Paris, where diplomat father Nasser Hosseini had been assigned to the Afghan Embassy. Plans to return home in 1980 were thwarted by the Soviet invasion. ``So my dad applied for political asylum and we moved from Paris to here. I was 15 years old.''

Some of these memories found their way into ``The Kite Runner,'' Hosseini's 2003 novel about childhood friends Amir and Hassan, bound by a love of kite fighting, torn by the antipathy of the Pashtun (Sunni Muslims) ruling class for the Hazaras (Shiite) underclass. Forbidden under Taliban rule, kites returned to the skies over Kabul in 2001, when the fundamentalist regime fell to the Northern Alliance. Hence, their importance in Afghan culture: They've come to symbolize deliverance from cruel oppression, spiritual rebirth.

In San Jose, Khaled's father Nasser -- again like the transplanted Pashtun father of the book -- was forced to go on welfare and accept food stamps before landing a job as a driving instructor. ``In Kabul, he was on the giving end of charity, so, yes, it was an embarrassing time.''

Father and son scoured yard sales and kept a stall at the flea market on Berryessa Road, where they shared memories of home with others in the South Bay's burgeoning Afghan community.

``My dad and I and a buddy of his had this little van. We'd fill the thermos with tea and get up early in the morning on Saturday and play Afghan music as we drove up and down streets, looking for garage sales.

``Then, on Sunday, we'd go to the flea market and sell all this junk.''

Hosseini, who spoke Farsi and French when he arrived here, says at first he felt like a social outcast at Independence High School in San Jose. ``But it was sink or swim, and I was fluent in English by the end of my freshman year. There was a period of adjustment, but I must say, in my 25 years here, I have personally never felt any kind of discrimination, even after 9/11.''
He majored in biology at Santa Clara University, and then -- ``because the notion of being a writer seemed so unattainable'' -- entered medical school at the University of California-San Diego. He practiced medicine for eight years, five in Mountain View.

A born storyteller, Hosseini spent the pre-dawn hours at his computer, weaving fanciful plots. ``The Kite Runner'' began as a short story about kite fighting, in which a contestant attempts to sever his opponent's line and capture his kite. It evolved into something more, a story about boys from different ethnic sects, and how one betrays the other and carries the guilt for 20 years, until he returns to Kabul to learn the truth about his heritage and redeem himself.

Hosseini says he felt similar pangs of remorse when he returned to Kabul in 2003, on the eve of the book's publication, and heard ``chilling stories'' about how the Taliban had beaten women in the streets and dragged men to the mosque to pray eight times a day. He also visited Kabul Museum, which now housed crates of smashed antiquities.

He returned home with ``a palpable sense'' of survivor's guilt, the author acknowledges. ``I was born into a society where I was one of the elite, sort of the upper crust. And as an adult, watching one atrocious development after another from afar, you do come to feel a sense of `What did I do to deserve this?' There's an unease about unearned position.''

``The Kite Runner'' has for the most part ``been embraced'' by the Afghan establishment,'' says Hosseini, ``but definitely there are people whom the book rubs the wrong way. They object to the issue of ethnic contempt raised by the novel. It hit a raw nerve. It's a very sensitive issue in Afghanistan.''

At a reading for the Society of Afghan Professionals in Fremont, he was almost shouted down by a vocal minority that said he had aired ``dirty laundry'' best kept private. ``Somebody got up and said, `You have done what the Soviets failed to do -- portray Afghanistan in a very negative light,' '' the author recalled.

Wali Ahmadi, who teaches Afghan literature at UC-Berkeley, and other experts have argued that Hosseini, in dramatizing his country's ethnic strife, has overstated and simplified the problem. ``If the antagonism between Pashtun and Hazara were as pervasive as Hosseini portrays it,'' says Ahmadi, ``this would have led to the disintegration of Afghanistan and its erasure from the map. He has exaggerated the animosity for dramatic effect in what is, essentially, a traditional, `action-packed' novel.''

Hosseini agrees that the Pashtun-Hazara division is less pronounced in the Bay Area. ``The ambient culture here is so powerful, it dilutes everything,'' he says. ``But you'd be surprised that not everybody who lives in exile here has the same disdain and scorn for the Taliban that you think they should have.''

The author's new novel could be even more controversial. Tentatively titled ``Dreaming in Titanic City'' (Hosseini's lobbying for something catchier), it will consider the intertwining lives of two Afghan women, one from the country, the other from the city. ``It's set entirely in Afghanistan and starts in the mid-'50s and stops at 9/11,'' he says.

Once again, Roya -- on sabbatical from her job -- will act as her husband's ``at-home editor.'' Neither ``Kite Runner'' nor the new book could have been written without her input, he says.

``Luckily, I'm not plagued by sophomore writer's block. So I'll turn in the third draft to her this week and hear what she has to say. She has a very good ear for dialogue.''

As for the ``Kite Runner'' movie, that will be shot by director Marc Forster (``Monster's Ball''), who has scouted locations in Fremont, where some of the book takes place. ``I saw a first draft of the script, which was pretty faithful to the book,'' reports the author. ``They've found two boys in London they're very excited about. They tell me they want to make it as real and authentic as possible, not some Hollywoodized version of