Afghanistan News November 14, 2006

November 14, 2006

Afghanistan to import 300 MW power from Uzbekistan
Xinhua / November 14, 2006
The war-ravaged and energy-thirsty Afghanistan has inked agreement with Uzbekistan to import 300 MW electricity from its central Asian neighbor, Presidential spokesman Mohammad Karim Rahimi said in Kabul Tuesday.

"Afghan Minister for Water and Power Mohammad Ismael Khan signed the accord during his recent visit to Uzbekistan," Rahimi told newsmen at a press briefing.

Work on the installation of the transmission lines and poles has already begun from the border town of Hiratan, he said.

The project would be completed within the next 18 months and thus, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, would have sufficient power.

Similar agreement has already been inked with Tajikistan.

Less than 10 percent of Afghans have access to electricity while in the capital city Kabul, around 70 percent of the residents enjoy electricity, according to the Minister for Water and Power.

Khan also said a few days ago that Kabul, with a population of over 4 million, needs more than 1,000 MW power. To overcome the problem, Afghanistan has to import electricity from neighboring countries besides building more power plants in the country.

Forced marriage, abuse behind self-immolation by Afghan women
by Bronwen Roberts
KABUL (AFP) - Forced marriage and chronic abuse are among the key triggers for the growing cases of self-immolation among women in        Afghanistan, a regional conference heard.

The high rate of illiteracy -- with under 20 percent of women said to be literate -- and an incompetent justice system also meant many women cannot see their way out of problems and so take their lives, the three-day meeting heard.

The conference of about 200 people, including from other countries that have similar rates of suicide like Bangladesh,        Iran, India and Sri Lanka, was called to try to find ways to stop the phenomenon.

Experts said there were no accurate overall figures, with hospitals and police not keeping proper records and many families hiding their cases because of shame with suicide against Islam.

However non-government organisation medica mondiale presented research that showed that Kabul hospitals recorded 18 cases of self-immolation in 2005 and 36 this year.

In the western city of Herat the trend was rising with cases reported on a daily basis and 60 percent of the women involved illiterate, it said.

The reasons women and girls resorted to such drastic action included forced marriage, being given to another family to settle a dispute and conflict with in-laws, with some fathers-in-law demanding sex, it said.

"It is the final decision for women who don't have any other way to solve their problems," Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) chief Sima Simar told the meeting.

A 16-year-old survivor named Gulsum told delegates she had set herself alight after being beaten by her drug-addicted husband, a man 25 years older than her whom her father had made her marry.

"When he did not have access to heroin and narcotics, he tortured me. After midnight he would hit me."

"That night he hit me and hit my head. Blood was coming from my nose. I asked him why he was doing it and he hit me even more."

In an addled state, she pour benzine on herself and lit a flame.

Now undergoing a series of operations, Gulsum has divorced the man, a rare step in patriarchal and conservative Afghanistan where divorce is taboo and custody of children mostly goes to the husband.

Between 60 and 80 percent of marriages in Afghanistan are forced, according to the AIHRC. And although the legal age for marriage is 18, around 57 percent of girls are married before 16, according to official statistics cited by the        United Nations.

A message delivered to the meeting from President Hamid Karzai said self-immolation arose from psychological problems among women in post-conflict countries.

Deputy health minister Faizullah Kakar said biological issues such as allergens and nutritional deficiencies could also play a role in depression that may lead them to commit suicide.

But Suraya Sobhrang, also from the AIHRC, said the real causes were more to do with the poor way women were treated through cultural practises and because of inadequate state protection and impunity for perpetrators.

Women in the post-Taliban society were also becoming aware of their rights but could not find the support, through courts or legislation, to match their expectations, she said on the sidelines of the meeting.

Sobhrang estimated there was violence in about 90 percent of Afghan families which could partly be blamed on the nearly three decades of war the country had gone through.

"It is clear continuing war in Afghanistan was very much damaging to the social values but it is also clear that it isn't all to blame," she said, listing poverty, tradition and illiteracy as other factors.

Afghan unrest forces aid agencies to curb work, UN team told
KABUL, Nov 13, 2006 (AFP) - Aid agencies in Afghanistan told a UN Security Council team Monday that the worsening security situation seriously curtailed their efforts to help the war-torn and destitute nation.

The escalation in the Taliban-led insurgency meant the nation "faces the worst crisis since the ousting of the Taliban in 2001," they said in a joint statement to the UN team.

The 10-nation Security Council delegation is visiting Afghanistan on the fifth anniversary of the fall of the extremist Taliban regime to assess the UN's efforts to defeat extremism and establish democracy.

This year has been the bloodiest since the Taliban launched their insurgency, with around 3,700 people killed -- most of them rebels.

Many aid agencies had scaled down their work due to the insecurity, the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief (ACBAR) -- an nongovernment organisation umbrella body -- told the delegation in a briefing released to the media.

Some had closed projects or stopped their staff travelling in high risk areas. Others would not send expatriate staff to certain areas because of the threat.

"All aid agencies note that insecurity has greatly impacted the quality of their projects and that in areas where programmes do continue, insecurity undermines effectiveness by increasing support costs and restricting abilities to implement and monitoring properly."

"If this situation persists, then communities living in more remote areas will suffer significantly," the briefing said.

Part of the problem was that major roads were "extremely dangerous" for travellers because insurgents inspected public transport for Afghan government, UN and NGO personnel who were then accused of spying for foreigners and sometimes executed.

Around 24 Afghan NGO workers have been killed in unrest this year.

In an example of the problem, there were more than 200 attacks on education establishments and teachers from January 2005 to June 2006, most of them this year, it said.

In addition, 200,000 students were denied access to schooling due to conflict, the report said citing Human Rights Watch figures.

The report said there was an urgent need for Afghan authorities and the NATO-led force to "put all their efforts into the security sector".

However, "We remain deeply concerned by NATO's involvement in humanitarian affairs which is beyond the technical expertise of military and associated actors."

NATO's International Security Assistance Force has been carrying out some development programmes in a "hearts and minds" campaign that critics say only blurs the line between soldiers and aid workers, who are put at risk.

Afghans 'seize key al-Qaeda man'
Tuesday, 14 November 2006 BBC News
US and Afghan forces say they have captured a high-ranking al-Qaeda figure in eastern Afghanistan.

The man - named as Abu Nasir al-Qahtani by unidentified US officials and a Pakistani newspaper - is said to have been captured in the city of Khost.

US military officials said last week that a known al-Qaeda operative had been arrested in Khost.

Qahtani escaped last year from the US prison at Bagram in Afghanistan with three other suspected militants.

One of the four Bagram escapees, Omar al-Farouq, was killed in a shoot-out with British troops in Iraq in September.

Pakistan's The News daily reports that Qahtani was among six militants arrested in Khost last week.

US military spokesman Lt Col Paul Fitzpatrick declined to confirm any names.

However the US TV channel CNN quoted unnamed US officials as saying Qahtani had been detained.

Pakistan Link Seen in Afghan Suicide Attacks
By CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times November 13, 2006
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 13 — Afghan and NATO security forces have recently rounded up several men like Hafez Daoud Shah, a 21-year-old unemployed Afghan refugee who says he drove across the border to Afghanistan in September in a taxi with three other would-be suicide bombers.

Every case, Afghan security officials say, is similar to that of Mr. Shah, who repeated his story in a rare jailhouse interview with a journalist in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The trail of organizing, financing and recruiting the bombers who have carried out a rising number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan traces back to Pakistan, they say.

“Every single bomber or I.E.D. in one way or another is linked to Pakistan,” a senior Afghan intelligence official said, referring to improvised explosive devices liked roadside bombs. “Their reasons are to keep Afghanistan destabilized, to make us fail, and to keep us fragmented.” He would speak on the subject only if he was not identified.

A senior United States military official based in Afghanistan agreed for the most part. “The strong belief is that recruiting, training and provision of technical equipment for I.E.D.’s in the main takes place outside Afghanistan,” he said. By I.E.D.’s he meant suicide bombers as well. He, too, did not want his name used because he knew his remarks were likely to offend Pakistani leaders.

The charge is in fact one of the most contentious that Afghan and American officials have leveled at the Pakistani leadership, which frequently denies the infiltration problem and insists that the roots of the Taliban insurgency lie in Afghanistan.

The dispute continues to divide Afghan and Pakistani leaders, even as the Bush administration tries to push them toward greater cooperation in fighting the Taliban, whose ranks have swelled to as many as 10,000 fighters this year.

A year ago, roadside bombs and suicide attacks were rare occurrences in Afghanistan. But they have grown more frequent and more deadly. There have been more than 90 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year. In September and October, nearly 100 people were killed in such attacks.

Afghan security forces say that in the same period they captured 17 suspected bombers, two of them would-be suicide bombers; NATO forces say they caught 10 people planning suicide bomb attacks in recent weeks.

Last week, for the first time, a Pakistani intelligence official acknowledged that suicide bombers were being trained in Bajaur, a small Pathan tribal area along the border. In a briefing given only on condition of anonymity, the official cited the training as one reason for an airstrike this month on a religious school there that killed more than 80 people.

The arrests of Mr. Shah and others like him, Afghan and NATO officials say, show that groups intent on carrying out attacks in Afghanistan continue to operate easily inside Pakistan.

Mr. Shah said he was one of four would-be suicide bombers who arrived in Kabul from Pakistan on Sept. 30. One of them killed 12 people and wounded 40 at the pedestrian entrance to the Interior Ministry the same day.

The attack was the first suicide bomb aimed not at foreign troops but at Afghans, and it terrified Kabul residents. The dead included a woman and her child.

By Mr. Shah’s account, it could have been far worse. Mr. Shah said he and his cohort had planned to blow themselves up in four separate attacks in the capital. That they failed was due partly to luck and partly to vigilance by Afghan and NATO security forces. But their plot represented a clear escalation in the bombers’ ambitions in Afghanistan.

Wearing a black prayer cap and long beard, Mr. Shah recounted his own involvement in the presence of two Afghan intelligence officers at a jail run by the National Directorate of Security. The Afghan intelligence officers offered up Mr. Shah because, unlike others in custody facing similar charges, his investigation was over. He is now awaiting trial.

Mr. Shah showed no signs of fear or discomfort in front of his guards. But after two weeks in detention, he complained of tiredness and headaches from a longstanding but unspecified mental condition, something his father confirmed in a separate interview at the family home in Karachi, the southern Pakistani port city.

At first Mr. Shah, who was educated through the sixth grade, denied that he intended to be a suicide bomber, but said he had gone to Afghanistan only to fight jihad, or holy war. “I was just thinking of fighting jihad against the infidels,” he said. “I was hearing there was fighting in Afghanistan and seeing it in the newspapers.”

But by the end of the hourlong conversation, he admitted that he had intended to blow himself up in Kabul, and said he regretted his actions. He was vague about the target of his suicide mission. “I did not know where I was going to do it,” he said.

After he was arrested, Mr. Shah said, he learned that one member of his group, whom he called Abdullah, succeeded in carrying out a suicide attack outside the Interior Ministry. “When I was arrested, I heard about it and I thought it must be him,” he said.

“They came here to be martyred,” he said of his three companions, all Pakistanis, all around the same age, and all also from Karachi.

Mr. Shah himself is one of the 2.5 million Afghans who live as refugees in Pakistan and who, officials on both sides of the border agree, frequently cycle through the ranks of the Taliban and other militant Islamic groups.

The would-be suicide bombers arrested recently, the Afghan intelligence official said, emerge from two clear strands.

Some are linked to extremist groups that have long been set up and run by Pakistani intelligence as an arm of foreign policy toward rival governments in Afghanistan and India. They are technically illegal and the government now says it has cracked down on them.

Others are allied with Afghan groups like the Taliban and the renegade militia commander, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, also a longtime protégé of Pakistani intelligence, who has now allied himself with the Taliban, Afghan and NATO officials say.

Like Mr. Shah, several other would-be bombers arrested recently have originated in Pakistan or were run by commanders based there, they said.

After a bombing cell of 12 people was picked up in Kabul recently, two of the men continued to receive cellphone calls while in custody, urging them to explode their bombs, the intelligence official said. The calls came from an Afghan commander called Pir Farouq, who lives in the Shamshatoo Afghan refugee camp in Peshawar, a frontier town, and is closely allied with Mr. Hekmatyar.

When Afghan intelligence, at NATO’s behest, passed on the cellphone number of Pir Farouq to Pakistani intelligence officers, their informer, a member of the commander’s inner circle, was swiftly killed, his body cut into eight pieces and dumped in the camp. NATO officials described the incident to journalists.

Another group of bombers was captured as they were planning attacks on NATO forces in northern Afghanistan. That cell was also connected to Mr. Hekmatyar, but organized by another of his commanders who lives in Quetta, a Pakistani border town, the intelligence official said.

In Mr. Shah’s case, he and his companions had all studied at the same religious school, or madrasa, at Masjid-e-Noor, a mosque in Mansehra Colony, a working-class district in northeastern Karachi. Mr. Shah said he studied there for four years, earning the title hafiz, given to one who has memorized the Koran.

The madrasa was run until recently by Maulavi Abdul Shakoor Khairpuri, who, Mr. Shah said, was a member of a banned jihadi group, Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen. Mr. Shah said it was the maulavi who sent them on the suicide mission.

The maulavi had given him a note addressed to a man called only Umar, who was waiting for them when they arrived in Kabul. Bearded, aged 28 or 29, Umar was a Taliban member from Kandahar, Mr. Shah said.

The note directed Umar to give the group explosives and stated that the equivalent of about $1,400 would be given to the families of each bomber after they finished their mission, Mr. Shah said.

Umar handed them a white rice bag. Inside were four khaki vests, with three pockets sewn on each side of the chest where the explosives were placed. “It has wires leading to a remote control and when you press the button it explodes,” Mr. Shah said.

“The vests were heavy,” he added. “There were a lot of explosives.”

Mr. Shah then started looking for a taxi. Someone, apparently an intelligence agent, offered to show him but led him instead to the intelligence office, where he was arrested. The other bombers slipped away with their vests. So did Umar.

The Afghan intelligence official confirmed much of Mr. Shah’s story. So did Mr. Shah’s father, Ahmed Shah, interviewed last month at his home in a run-down tenement on the east side of Karachi, though he said he did not know where his son had gone after leaving home three weeks ago. The gaps and discrepancies in the father’s and son’s accounts seemed to indicate that neither was telling the full story.

When told why his son was in jail in Kabul, the father grew angry, but showed no surprise. “How can one feel when someone leaves the house without caring for his children — he has two small children,” he said, a boy of 4 and a girl of 2.

“We got tired of talking to him; you could not talk to him,” the father said. “Such a disobedient child, who does not care about anyone, who does not look after his parents, should go to hell.”

Mr. Shah’s teacher at the local mosque also contradicted Mr. Shah’s account.

Maulavi Khairpuri, interviewed at his home next to the Noor mosque, denied being a member of the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahedeen, as Mr. Shah had said. But he did acknowledge being the local secretary of a pro-Taliban party, Jamiat-ul-Ulama-i-Islam.

The maulavi said he had no idea that Mr. Shah had gone to Afghanistan. He denied sending Mr. Shah on the suicide mission. “He was not brave enough to do that,” he said dismissively.

Day marking ouster of Taliban unnoticed
Violence, poverty pervasive 5 years later
Jason Straziuso ASSOCIATED PRESS Tuesday, November 14, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan — A chuckle rang out from under the blue burqa as the mother of eight rifled through a mound of children’s sweatshirts. "Yes," the woman said, "life is better today. I can go shopping by myself."

An Afghan barber smiled as he recalled a shop full of customers waiting to shave their Taliban-mandated beards. The eyes of a janitor lit up as he described Northern Alliance fighters rolling into town.

"That’s when the music started," said the janitor, Jan Mohammed.

On Nov. 13, 2001, the Taliban regime that imposed a harsh brand of Islam fled Kabul as Northern Alliance fighters backed by a U.S.-led coalition poured in. Residents celebrated in the streets.

No official celebrations were held yesterday, and no Afghans approached in street interviews knew it was the five-year anniversary. Many smiled when reminded of the Taliban’s fall, though some lamented the deteriorating security.

A high-level report released Sunday found that violence has risen fourfold over 2005 and that more than 3,700 people have died in 2006 because of insurgency-related violence.

Still, Pashtun, a 40-year-old who goes by one name, said she appreciates being able to go shopping by herself before winter settles in.

"The years the Taliban was in Kabul, I was like a prisoner," she said, as other women nodded in agreement. "For five years I had to stay at home."

The Taliban forced all women to cover themselves and did not allow them to leave home without a male escort, meaning widows had to rely on other family to survive.

The regime also banned music and movies, didn’t allow kite-flying and forced all men to wear long beards.

At the city’s central cinema, janitor Jan Mohammed said he was happy when the Taliban fell, thinking Afghanistan would have a new era of freedom and security.

"But it’s not that good now," he said. "The other big problem today is figuring out how to feed your children."

Five years after the Taliban’s ouster, poverty is still endemic in Afghanistan, and the cost of living has risen sharply. Many women still suffer from abuse and discrimination, and the drug trade is out of control. And despite the presence of about 40,000 U.S. and NATO troops, the insurgency is unabated.

Afghanistan enjoyed a period of relative calm after the Taliban ouster. But this year, insurgents have launched a record number of roadside bombs and suicide attacks.

via The Columbus Dispatch

Afghan president to visit Himachal tomorrow
New Delhi, Nov 14, IRNA
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will arrive here on a two-day visit on Wednesday, official sources said on Tuesday.

An alumnus of Himachal Pradesh University, Karzai will visit his alma mater after his arrival here and interact with faculty members and students.

This will be his second visit to Shimla after becoming president of Afghanistan. He was conferred an honorary doctorate degree by the university during his visit in April 2003.

"This is a private visit of the Afghan president and no other engagement has been fixed," an official source said.

Karzai will arrive here by helicopter and stay at the Cecil Hotel.

Karzai had met old friends and visited shops and eateries that he frequented as a student during his last visit.

He would leave the state on November 17, the sources said.

Support for Taliban grows in rural Afghanistan as villagers lose hope: elders
Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006 The Canadian Press
QALAT, Afghanistan (CP) - Five years after the Taliban's fall, tribal leaders from the sun-baked mud villages around Qalat, an ancient town east of Kandahar, say life isn't much better.

They enjoy neither peace nor the benefits of new development, they say. And they blame the growing popularity of violent anti-government militants on the failure of international forces to keep their word. "There is no security here," says Neamat Khan, 35, director of a local construction agency.

He made the comments at the base for the local Provincial Reconstruction Team where members of the United Nations Security Council met local elders Tuesday.

The visit to gauge progress and plot strategy is the council's first trip to Afghanistan in three years.

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Promised roads, wells, schools and medical clinics have been slow in coming, especially in the isolated rural areas where they are arguably most needed.

"Day by day, support for the Taliban is increasing," said Khan, his blue eyes intense and a long turban draped over his shoulder.

The bleak assessment hardly matches much rosier scenes drawn by NATO commanders in recent weeks. Coalition leaders have repeatedly stressed that the South is increasingly safe, the Taliban is on the run, and aid projects are on track.

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UN Security Council spokesman Adrian Edwards seemed to back the local viewpoint.

"Security this year has certainly got worse," he said.

Suicide bombings and roadside blasts have soared, while the national opium trade - supplier of much of the world's heroin - broke records.

Edwards quickly noted that Afghanistan has made obvious progress in the last five years "from less than zero." There is now an elected government, a new constitution, hundreds of new schools and wells, and long stretches of freshly paved highway.

But the battle for the "hearts and minds" of local people is being lost, says Khan.

Villagers are increasingly bitter over the rate at which young men are mistakenly rounded up as insurgent suspects and detained by foreign troops, he said.

"People are very angry about this."

Hundreds of civilians in the South have also been displaced from their homes and vineyards flattened by NATO bombings in recent combat missions.

"In general, people are not happy with the United Nations or NATO," said Khan.

Farmer and tribal elder Hakim Khan says foreign troops should woo local support by diverting huge sums away from military operations and into local projects. Clean water, improved roads and better salaries for Afghan security forces would go farther to bolster government support, he suggests.

Dutch Maj.-Gen. Ton Van Loon recognizes that battle-fatigued Afghans are sick of fighting after almost three decades.

But troops can't pack up just yet, he said.

"We cannot accept insurgents taking control," and sabotaging aid efforts, Van Loon said.

"If we need to fight the Taliban, we will fight the Taliban. There is no doubt whatsoever about that."

Still, Van Loon said it's "crucially important" that momentum shift from combat to reconstruction.

Also vital is the involvement of anyone who is committed to building a democratic Afghanistan, he added. Even former Taliban should be included if they've genuinely changed tack, he said.

"What they've been in the past, to me, is less relevant. We need to talk to the Afghans."

Local guidance is indispensable in a notoriously complex political realm. NATO forces must be ever wary when acting on tips to avoid being used as pawns in time-honoured tribal feuds.

"They are the experts," Van Loon said of local elders. "We are like the blind boxer. We can hit very hard, but they will need to talk to us to make sure that we hit the right targets."

Kabul ready to boost ties with Tehran
Kabul, Nov 13, IRNA
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta here on Sunday evening underlined the need to continue Tehran-Kabul cooperation in all areas.

During a meeting with Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Mehdi Safari, Iran's participation in the ongoing reconstruction process in Afghanistan was discussed by the two sides.

Safari, who arrived in Kabul Sunday afternoon, also met with Afghan Finance Minister Anwar Ul-Haq Ahady. The two officials reviewed issues pertaining to the reconstruction process and plans to hold a session of the Tehran-Kabul Joint Economic Commission in the near future.

In related developments, the Iranian envoy met and conferred with Afghan President Hamed Karzai on Monday.

Latest developments in bilateral relations, the ongoing reconstruction process in Afghanistan and mutual security concerns were discussed in the meeting.

President Karzai in the meeting also highlighted the key role played by the Islamic Republic of Iran in defending regional peace and tranquility.

PM asks US to think about exit strategy from Afghanistan
Pakistani Newspaper (thepakistaninewspaper.com)
WASHINGTON, Nov 13: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Monday politely asked the United States to think about an exit strategy from Afghanistan.

In an interview with the Washington Times, Aziz gave an implicit reminder that the US must leave Afghanistan eventually, in consultation with the Afghans, their neighbours and myriad stakeholders.

"History is full of examples where we didn't focus too much on exit strategy," Aziz said. "A good exit strategy is one which leaves that country, that area, peaceful, economically and politically empowered. ... "We are the most important stakeholder, and we are there for life. We cannot take off; countries cannot change their neighbours."

The Times quoted the PM saying Pakistan, a key ally in the war on terror, welcomes an expected reappraisal of US policy in Iran and Afghanistan, and thinks military action alone is "not the answer" to the threat posed by extremists in the two countries."

Shaukat Aziz told the newspaper that he would like to see a more nuance approach to battling extremism, which includes massive investment and economic assistance to the two countries in order to build a sense of well-being for the poor and disenfranchised.

In New York for meetings at the United Nations, Aziz also said the world needs to focus more seriously on Afghanistan's narcotics trade, which is becoming an increasingly important source of terrorist financing. By some estimates, the trade accounts for half of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.

An American commission headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton is expected to recommend strategies for the Iraq war before year's end, a development that Mr. Aziz welcomed.

"We believe that conflicts like Iraq, Afghanistan and so on need to be carefully reviewed because military action is not the answer or the solution to such a crisis," he said. "We must work on winning the hearts and minds of the people. We have to involve the people, to give them the sense that the world cares and their future tomorrow will be better than yesterday."

The United States has spent about $38 billion on infrastructure and development projects in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, but Aziz said more must be done to address "root causes," namely poverty and hopelessness, and to make extremist ideologies less attractive.

The prime minister gave an implicit reminder that the United States must leave Afghanistan eventually, in consultation with the Afghans, their neighbors and myriad stakeholders.

"History is full of examples where we didn't focus too much on exit strategy," Aziz said. "A good exit strategy is one which leaves that country, that area, peaceful, economically and politically empowered. ... "We are the most important stakeholder, and we are there for life. We cannot take off; countries cannot change their neighbours." Aziz declined to comment on the US midterm elections last week or the resignation Wednesday of Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

He downplayed Washington's continued demands that Pakistan do more to prevent al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from crossing in and out of Pakistan, arguing that it is in Pakistan's national interest to fight narcotics, extremism and terrorism in Afghanistan.

With parliamentary elections due late next year, the Pakistan government faces a delicate balancing act, seeking to address US demands without alienating a Pakistani public that could deliver its votes to a political coalition that is thought to be aligned with the Taliban.

"In our neighbourhood, a lot of events are taking place that can impact us," said Aziz, whose military sustained more than 40 deaths in a suicide bombing last week.

"We are not doing this to please anybody; we are doing this in our own national interest. ... Terrorism knows no borders." The prime minister also defended his country's agreement to allow tribal leaders to take charge of one portion of the 1,700-mile border with Afghanistan, saying that the area is difficult to police.

Asked whether similar deals may be struck in other tribal, agencies, he said: "If we can restrict activity that is prejudicial to our security, it will be done. At the right time and right place we will do more."

Aziz is a member of an elite panel advising the United Nations on how to consolidate and better coordinate aid activities in the field. His staff said he had no official contacts with Washington during the visit, focusing instead on the local Pakistani community and economic business.

'Taleban law' passed in Pakistan
Tuesday, 13 November 2006 BBC News
Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP) has passed a bill setting up a Taleban-style department under a cleric to enforce Islamic morality.

It gives the new department the power to use the police and media for the promotion of Islamic values.

The NWFP is governed by an alliance of religious parties, the MMA, that is sympathetic to the Taleban.

It has already introduced measures such as the banning of music on public transport.

The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hassan in Karachi says the wording of the bill has been deliberately left vague and therefore open to different interpretations.

Critics say this leaves it open to misuse by politicians in the future.

Opposition MPs wore black armbands and staged a walkout from the assembly, saying their proposed changes to the law had been ignored.

The move comes only days before the federal assembly is due to debate moves to water down Islamic laws on divorce that have been denounced by women's groups.

The Hisba (Accountability) bill was passed in the NWFP assembly by a majority of 66 to 30.

'Important step'

Last year, the province's governor refused to sign a similar bill into effect, and the Supreme Court declared aspects of the proposed law unconstitutional.

Under the constitution, the provincial governor is obliged to agree to the latest version, as he is only allowed to veto a bill once.

He must give his assent within 30 days of the bill being presented to him.

Some of the provisions in the 2005 bill that the Supreme Court criticised have been dropped.

The department will not now have its own police force. It will, however, be able to requisition police "to promote virtue and prevent vice".

In other concessions, the power to cap spending on weddings or to enforce an Islamic dress code in public has been removed.

The legislation also allows the department to tackle issues like honour killings of women, child labour and ensuring the rights of minority religious groups.

"We had promised an Islamic system to the nation and approval of the Hisba bill is an important step in that direction," NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani was quoted as saying by the Associated Press news agency.

Correspondents say that it remains to be seen which areas of its remit the department will choose to focus on.

Last year, President Pervez Musharraf denounced the original bill as a breach of fundamental human rights.

Joint security centre set up in Panjshir
BAZARAK, Nov 13 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A joint military centre for Afghan and NATO-led ISAF was opened in the northern Panjshir province to ramp up coordination of districts with the provincial capital to bolster security in the region.

Addressing a ceremony, commander of the US-led coalition Combined Task Force-76 Benjamin Freakly said the centre was aimed to improve security situation in the province by strengthening coordination in national army, police and the intelligence force.

Governor of Panjshir Bahlol Baheej said although security was good in his province, but they still needed some more measures to ensure peace and security. He said Panjshir had a strategic position since it neighbours seven other provinces, including the most volatile Kapisa of which Tagab district had been the scene of frequent clashes.

The governor said the new centre would help in barring the militants from the province and thus peace would be restored here. The military centre is equipped with modern communication means to ensure contacts with ministries of interior and defence as well as the intelligence directorate in Kabul.

Surrounded by high mountains, Panjshir has been one of the calmest provinces to the north of Kabul since the fall of the Taliban. It served as the resistance centre for the Northern Alliance troops fighting the Taliban before a US-led campaign toppled the regime in late 2001.
Farid Tanha

Feature: False testimony for sale
Habib Rahman Ibrahimi
KABUL, Nov 12 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A number of people may be seen near courts in Kabul city to record false testimony in return of money.

Allegedly admitting statement of such witnesses by the courts has encouraged the act that has deprived many of their due rights. Azizullah, a resident of Kabul, has also once used such fake witnesses. He told Pajhwok Afghan News he had no relatives in Kabul and he also used such false witnesses for buying home here.

The faux witnesses have also brought the people on the verge of destruction by losing their own property. A resident of Kunduz introducing himself as Abdur Razaq said he was fighting a case against a powerful man in Kabul.

He said: "I gave him my home on rent, but with help of false witnesses he captured it." These hired witnesses are not only used in land disputes but also in other conflicts.

He said same pictures of allegedly false witnesses might be seen in books specified for the purpose.

Though not bluntly rejecting the existence of such hired witnesses, Chief Justice of the Kabul High Court Muzafarudin Tajali said he had not seen such people.

Chief Justice Abdul Salam Azimi had appointed trained judges in various courts of Kabul, Tajali added. He said they would not allow anybody for recording false statement. Tajali said he had heard about such hired witnesses and had started efforts to nab them.

The false witness is not confined to Kabul but the problems also may also be observed in other provinces of the country. A judge, requesting anonymity, told this news agency that large number of people in provinces also record false testimony in return of money. Tajali said only testimony of close relatives would be lawful in cases of inheritance or tying knot.

He said identity cards of the witnesses were checked in courts to discourage repetition of false witnesses. He said a witness must be mature Muslim and nobel citizen.

According to law a person caught recording false statement would be jailed from three months to a year imprisonment.