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US again accuses Pakistan of providing "refuge" to Taliban
US working for 'win' in Afghanistan: Burns
US urges aggressive NATO action against Taliban
US cash brings hope to Afghanistan
EU officials to attend Berlin meeting on Afghanistan
Can More Aid Save Afghanistan?
PM appoints point man for Afghan mission
Afghanistan appeals to Pak for help
Taliban spokesman claims killing of an Afghan intelligence official
Two police officers gunned down in Kandahar
Pakistan probes Taliban link to Marriott bombing
World Economic Forum: Aziz forced to defend Pakistan’s record on Afghanistan
Durrani calls for Pakistan-US accord on Afghan strategy
Afghanistan: Analyst Discusses Increased U.S. Effort
Minister vows more facilities for carpet producers
Two children killed, five wounded in explosion
500 officials hold illegal arms
Land dispute claims six lives in Nangarhar
US again accuses Pakistan of providing "refuge" to Taliban
Fri Jan 26, 7:44 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States has again charged Pakistan of providing "refuge" to Taliban militants fighting American and NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
"The Taliban increased its insurgency in 2006. It's a real problem," US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
"There is a problem of forces coming from Pakistan into Afghanistan to attack and then to return to Pakistan to seek refuge and refitting," he said at a media briefing on US efforts to frame a new strategy in Afghanistan with NATO to ward off the renewed Taliban threat.
Pakistan helped the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in 1996 but dropped the hardline movement in 2001 after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States blamed on Al-Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin laden was sheltered in Afghanistan.
Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf is now a key US ally in the "war on terror" but the country's lawless northwestern tribal areas have reportedly become a sanctuary for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled Afghanistan.
Two weeks ago, US spy chief John Negroponte charged that Pakistan was harboring Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, in an annual "threat assessment" to the US Congress.
The Director of National Intelligence Negroponte pointedly said "the Taliban and Al-Qaeda maintain critical sanctuaries" in Pakistan, which he also linked to the raging insurgency in Afghanistan.
Pakistan bristled at his remarks, with the foreign ministry describing them as "questionable criticism" and urging Negroponte to acknowledge the country's role in breaking the back of Al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The ministry said Pakistan had done more than any other country to fight terrorism.
"We of course are working very closely with President Musharraf and with the Pakistan military and the Pakistan intelligence services to see that Pakistan will do more and make a concerted effort to strike at those terrorist training camps in north and south Waziristan and in Baluchistan," Burns said.
"That is a major priority for our relations with Pakistan now," he said.
Burns acknowledged Pakistan's relentless efforts to contain the Taliban problem but said more should be done by Islamabad as well as Afghanistan.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Musharraf have blamed each other for the Taliban problem and, at one stage, US President George W. Bush had to mediate in the row, inviting them to a White House dinner.
"We're working very closely with President Karzai and President Musharraf to see that the Pakistani and Afghan local establishments and militaries can work more effectively together," Burns said.
"You've seen that sometimes, they have public disagreements, but in the main, both governments have indicated to us that they know they have to have coordination and cooperation between them to be successful," he said.
The United States, which is devising a new strategy with NATO in Afghanistan, has announced it will spend an extra 10.6 billion dollars in the war-torn country and extend the tour of duty of more than 3,000 US troops there by four months.
Around 4,000 people were killed in the insurgency last year -- many of them rebels -- and US officials say suicide attacks have more than quadrupled since 2005.
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US working for 'win' in Afghanistan: Burns
Press Trust of India Washington, January 26, 2007
Acknowledging that one of the major problems is of Taliban coming from Pakistan, attacking inside Afghanistan and then slipping back, a senior US official on Friday said the objective of the Bush administration is a "win" in that country.
"The Taliban increased its insurgency in 2006. It's a real problem. There is a problem of forces coming from Pakistan into Afghanistan to attack and then to return to Pakistan to seek refuge and refitting," Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns said.
He said his government will be seeking nearly USD 11 billions from Congress in increased aid to Afghanistan over a two year period; over and above the USD 14 billions that has been given to that country over the last five years.
Burns said Washington was in close consultation with Islamabad ensuring that Pakistani forces will "do more" and strike terrorist training camps in the tribal areas.
"We are working very closely with President (Pervez) Musharraf and with the Pakistani military and the Pakistani intelligence services to see that Pakistan will do more and make a concerted effort to strike at those terrorist training camps in North and South Waziristan and in Baluchistan. That is a major priority for our relations with Pakistan," he said.
"Now, we have a very close relationship with President Musharraf... We're working closely with Pakistan. But we do think a greater effort must be made on both sides of the border to defeat Al Qaida, because it's also attacking across the border, as well as the Taliban," he added.
"We're working very closely with President Karzai and President Musharraf to see that the Pakistanian-Afghan political establishments and militaries can work more effectively together...It's an abiding preoccupation of ours".
Burns essentially recounted what the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had said in Europe earlier-that the goal in Afghanistan is victory.
"We believe it is achievable. We're very proud of what we've done. But when the strategic situation changes, when the Taliban have mounted a much more vigorous threat to the Afghan government to the local authorities...We need to respond to that threat. And that's what this $10 billion in assistance represents," Burns said.
He rejected the contention that the Taliban has grown because Washington took the eye off the ball. "Not at all. Not at all. We've had a constant level of over 20,000 American troops in the country for the last two and a half years. We've made a supreme effort. We have been focused on Afghanistan from October of 2001 on" he said.
"And when you're in a fight like this and when the conditions of the fight change and when the numbers of the opponents grow, you adjust, and that's what we're doing. And the Pentagon's announcement on Thursday of maintaining an additional number of American troops in Afghanistan is an indication that on the military side as well as the economic side. We're going to step up and try to meet this threat," Burns added.
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US urges aggressive NATO action against Taliban
by Lorne Cook
BRUSSELS (AFP) - NATO agreed to step up military and economic efforts to counter Afghan insurgents and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for a "new offensive" against Taliban-led fighters.
The United States has already announced it will spend an extra 10.6 billion dollars in Afghanistan and extend the tour of duty of more than 3,000 US troops there by four months.
"The message has been clear that the international community intends to keep up the initiative in Afghanistan," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after talks between alliance foreign ministers in Brussels.
"That means more reconstruction and we have heard more nations stepping up to the plate as far as their activities are concerned in the field of reconstruction and development," he said.
Scheffer said extra troops would probably be discussed when NATO defence ministers meet in the Seville, Spain on February 8-9.
With the Taliban expected to step up attacks this spring as the weather warms, Rice said the allies must launch a broad campaign across several fronts.
"If there is to be a 'spring offensive', it must be our offensive," she told the ministers.
"It must be a political campaign, an economic campaign, a diplomatic campaign, and yes, a military campaign," she added in remarks prepared for the conference.
Rice presented details of the new 10.6-billion-dollar aid package for the next two years.
Since 2001 US spending in Afghanistan has totalled 14.2 billion dollars.
The new money would in part finance extra Afghan army and police forces. Two billion dollars will go to develop roads, electrical power supplies, rural development and counter-narcotics operations.
"These are substantial new US commitments -- financial, military and political -- to advance our common effort in Afghanistan," Rice said.
"Every one of us must take a hard look at what more we can do to help the Afghan people -- and to support one another," she said.
There was no immediate announcement from other countries of increased resources, other than from Greece, which offered to send "10 to 13 combat tanks" to the Afghan army, although it ruled out expanding its 170-strong military contingent within the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
But NATO spokesman James Appathurai forecast: "Allies are going to step up their civilian, military and economic efforts, with increased pledges for funding ... and more forces on the ground."
However the upbeat assessment belied developments in Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer whose border regions with Pakistan are a haven for drug runners and extremists like the Al-Qaeda network.
Around 4,000 people were killed in the insurgency last year -- many of them rebels -- and US officials say suicide attacks have more than quadrupled since 2005.
In Kabul, an Afghan analyst told AFP that the US package was not the answer.
"The former Soviet Union also spent billions of dollars on modern weapons and military facilities but they failed to defeat the resistance with hardship and weapons," said analyst Waheed Mujda.
The US offer is partly aimed at easing European concerns that Washington is so focused on Iraq that it might leave them to shoulder the burden in Afghanistan, US officials said.
NATO leads some 33,000 troops from 37 nations under ISAF, which is trying to spread the influence of President Hamid Karzai's weak central government to outlying regions.
But the Taliban, ousted by a US-led coalition in 2001, is preparing to expand its insurgency in spring.
"What we have to do is get a comprehensive approach that means we can tackle all those difficult problems including corruption and the opium trade," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said.
Scheffer said the allies urged Pakistan, where Al-Qaeda is believed to have a base, to do more to stop insurgents crossing in and out of Afghanistan.
Slovakia said on Friday it might accede to NATO's request to transfer its contingent of 57 soldiers from Kabul, where they are renovating the airport, to the southern province of Kandahar, where much of the fiercest fighting has taken place.
But Prime Minister Robert Fico, who had just returned from the Taliban heartland, ruled out allowing the Slovak troops to engage in combat.
"This is a engineers' unit, not a combat unit, and we will never approve of it leaving its well-protected base," he said.
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US cash brings hope to Afghanistan
By Alastair Leithead BBC News, Kabul Friday, 26 January 2007, 22:04 GMT
However committed the international community is to Afghanistan's future, it has to keep a firm eye on an exit strategy.
It will, of course, take years to bring stability after decades of war, and the primary concern is security - how hard international forces can hit the insurgents this year and how well Afghanistan's own police and army perform.
The announcement of new American money will certainly give the fledgling forces a serious leg-up.
The pledge of $8.6bn (£4.39bn) over just two years to build the Afghan security services is more than twice the entire budget America has come up with in the last five post-Taleban years.
It will buy arms and equipment, mentoring and training, and will attempt to create a force capable of securing Afghanistan itself, but that is a big ask.
Slow progress
Money has already been flowing into the Afghan National Army (ANA) coffers and there are a significant number of Afghan soldiers fighting alongside the 40,000 or so international troops, but progress has been slow and they have a very long way to go.
And the Afghan National Police (ANP) are even further behind with training and equipment.
The military strength in fighting the Taleban insurgency is Western air power and artillery, and that is something the extra cash is going to struggle to bring in the short term.
The fact that the best modern military machines cannot defeat the Taleban speaks volumes, and shows how much more difficult it is going to be for the Afghans.
But Defence Minister Gen Abdul Rahim Wardak is confident the new commitment will make all the difference.
Speaking earlier this week, when the pledge was being prepared, he was thankful the international community was finally listening to him, and finally providing the resources needed.
"All this time we have been trying, but we have been armed with 30-year-old weapons - all used during the war with the Russians," said Gen Wardak.
"The army has not been provided with the combat enablers and the result is a force that is not effective.
"I think some of the assumptions about the security threat and capabilities of the ANA were not correct - as a result of this re-assessment the international community now knows we have a firm foundation to build on."
The extra American troops - forces prepared to fight, however hard it might be - will also help bolster Nato operations.
Staying on
The last thing that 3,200 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division want to do is to stay in Afghanistan for another four months when they were preparing to go home.
But their continued presence will give the Nato commanders the extra troops they were looking for - indeed the troops outgoing International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) commander Gen David Richards said would be needed to finish off the insurgency this year.
It perhaps questions the wisdom of such strong statements when many - including the outgoing American commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Karl Eikenberry - predict a "violent spring."
The timing of the US announcement is no doubt to try to pressure Nato or partner countries to dig deep and come up with their own way of bolstering the Afghan effort.
Britain may well send a few hundred more troops, but persuading countries who are in Afghanistan to deploy to the most dangerous places, or to reinforce the mission, is not going to be easy.
Nato has promised to launch its own spring offensive - ahead of the insurgents who are widely thought to be preparing for a renewed push after losing some momentum in their campaign at the end of last year.
At the beginning of 2006, Nato and the US-led coalition certainly lost ground to the Taleban - it was a long and bloody summer.
But Gen Richards is brimming with optimism as he prepares to clear his desk and head home.
Weak government
He doubts the Taleban spring offensive will come and is confident his forces have the upper hand. Many doubt this confidence, but what is more worrying is on the political level.
Corruption and the lack of government structures are huge concerns - indeed few ministries have the capacity to spend all the aid money that is flooding in.
Afghans are often more concerned about how rotten the system is than about security.
Expectations, sky high when the Taleban were forced out in 2001 and the world rallied behind the Afghan people, are not being met, and there is a thickening cloud of disappointment drifting across the country.
Development is slow to filter through, and grand plans costing billions of dollars are all very well, but when poor Afghan people do not see their lives getting better they start feeling let down.
But if they can take one thing from the American pledge, it is that the international community is not letting Afghanistan down as yet - there is still a commitment to try to bring the country back on track.
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EU officials to attend Berlin meeting on Afghanistan
People's Daily - Jan 26 9:14 PM
Senior officials of the European Union (EU) will attend a EU-Afghanistan ministerial meeting in Berlin next Monday, when the situation in Afghanistan and the region at large will be discussed.
EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations and European neighborhood policy, will discuss with other Afghanistan stakeholders the ways to improve law and order in the country, the fight against narcotics, and regional developments including Afghan-Pakistan relations, the EU said in a press release.
Ferrero-Waldner will present a new EU aid package for Afghanistan over the next four years, worth 600 million euros in total. The package will focus on reform of the justice sector, rural development including alternatives to poppy production, and health.
The EU is one of the top donors in Afghanistan and has provided 1 billion euros in aid to the country between 2002 and 2006.
"Afghanistan's problems cannot be solved without stronger governance and respect for the rule of law," Ferrero-Waldner said Friday.
"The key challenges are to extend the government's authority into the provinces, and to stamp out narcotics production which destabilizes the country politically and economically," she said.
Source: Xinhua
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Can More Aid Save Afghanistan?
By Elaine Shannon/Washington Time Magazine Friday, Jan. 26, 2007
The Bush Administration's efforts this week to get its NATO allies to contribute more troops and money to Afghanistan — by pledging more of both from the U.S. — are a reminder of mounting problems in Washington's other war. Indeed, even if, as expected, the Administration's request for $10.6 billon more to beef up the Afghan security forces and reconstruction efforts sails through Congress, the additional funds are unlikely to arrive in time to help the Afghan security forces hold their own against the Taliban's spring offensive.
"If we had built the capacity of the Afghan national army and police, we would not be in the position we're in right now, facing a serious challenge in the spring from the Taliban," Afghan Ambassador Said Jawad told TIME on Thursday. "There was an underinvestment in building the capacity of the Afghan security forces, as well as [of] the Afghan government to deliver services. And now we are paying a price for that."
In the wake of the Taliban ground offensive in southern Afghanistan last summer and fall, Afghan officials pledged to have 70,000 soldiers and 82,000 police officers deployed by October 2008, years ahead of schedule. But the Afghans have been pleading for help to fund the recruitment, training and equipping of those forces — and aid has been surprisingly slow in coming. Only recently, according to Jawad, has the Afghanistan government been able to raise the pay of Afghan soldiers from $70 to $100 a month. If the new U.S. aid package goes through, Jawad told TIME, the government will also be able to offer policemen $100 a month.
Even then, the wages paid by the security forces are minuscule compared to what a fighter can earn working for a heroin-trafficking warlord. Still, says Jawad, government recruiters are able to play on patriotism and moral duty. "We should not look at strictly on a dollar basis," he says. "This is building Afghanistan, and the other path is destroying Afghanistan. So people are willing to take some sacrifices providing they're able to feed their children."
The new military aid package announced Friday is designed to help equip government forces with helicopters, heavier weapons and armor, and communications gear that would give them the capacity to operate independently against Taliban guerrillas in harsh terrain. But that won't happen in time to face the Taliban's anticipated spring offensive. So, the Pentagon also announced Wednesday that 3,200 soldiers from the U.S. 10th Mountain Division will have their tour of duty in Afghanistan extended by four months. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said he is likely to ask President Bush for several thousand more American troops augment the 24,000 already there, and Washington is pressing NATO allies to provide more troops of their own — and in some cases, to ease restrictions on those forces being deployed in the combat zone in the south.
Boosting troop levels in Afghanistan is unlikely to meet the sort of congressional opposition facing President Bush's proposed Iraq troop surge. Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Evan Bayh, in fact, earlier this month urged Secretary Gates to send more soldiers to prevent failure in Afghanistan.
A major challenge facing efforts to ward off the Taliban challenge is ensuring greater cooperation from Pakistan, where U.S. and NATO officials have said Taliban leaders are based. Although, under pressure from the U.S., the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to cooperate to secure the border, Ambassador Jawad acknowledges that such cooperation ?has not been fully implemented yet."
The $2.6 billion in reconstruction aid sought by the Bush Administration will go largely to building an electrical power distribution system — only 6% of Afghans now have dependable electrical power, according to Jawad — and to constructing roads. Farmers unable to move crops to market in the cities are turning to opium growing because the harvest, reduced to opium paste, then processed to morphine base or finished heroin, is relatively imperishable and highly concentrated — and the trafficking groups handle all the transportation headaches. But Afghan and U.S. officials acknowledge that Afghanistan's viability as a state depends on whether the security and infrastructure can be put in place to nurture a legitimate economy in the hinterlands.
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PM appoints point man for Afghan mission
CAMPBELL CLARK From Saturday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is moving his foreign-policy adviser into a job as point man for Canada's initiatives in Afghanistan, signalling a shift in the tone of Canada's efforts in the country toward aid and diplomacy efforts.
David Mulroney, a career diplomat, was appointed Friday as the No. 2 bureaucrat in the Foreign Affairs Department, but also handed responsibility for co-ordinating the Afghan initiatives of all government departments.
Analysts said that the unusual appointment of a senior foreign affairs official with Mr. Harper's imprimatur to lead Afghanistan initiatives clearly places diplomats at the forefront of an Afghanistan policy that had until now been led by the Department of National Defence.
“There has only been a single-pillar approach to Afghanistan up to now, and that had been through the Department of National Defence,” said Fen Hampson, the director of Carleton University's Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.
He said that while much of the focus has been on the role of Canadian troops based in Kandahar, the appointment of Mr. Mulroney will send a signal inside Ottawa that greater attention is being paid “to both the development and the diplomatic-political side of it as well.”
The Harper government has insisted that Canadian troops must remain in Afghanistan until the country is stable, but opposition parties have charged that the Conservatives have focused on military action but neglected development aid and diplomatic efforts.
Friday, Mr. Harper said military efforts are necessary to ensure security, but acknowledged more development is needed.
“It's important that we respect our obligations toward the United Nations and also the civil population and the government of Afghanistan. We need more development. We all agree,” he said Friday.
“At the same time, Afghans in the south of Afghanistan are clear, too. We need security to have development and the government will proceed on both tracks.”
The Prime Minister's acknowledgment echoed the move by the United States Friday to step up aid and military efforts in Afghanistan.
U.S. officials announced a major injection of $10.6-billion in development aid over two years, as well as an additional 3,000 troops.
A shift in the Conservatives' tone on the Afghan mission could also serve as a reply to the criticisms of opposition parties.
While the NDP has called for a withdrawal of troops, the two larger opponents, the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois, signalled this week they will not oppose the Canadian mission now, but will criticize the way the Tories are conducting it. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion had previously called for a massive “Marshall Plan” from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to rebuild Afghanistan with more aid.
Friday, Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said the appointment of Mr. Mulroney as co-ordinator of Afghan policy is “more a signal they are trying to control the damage and see how they can defuse the current political situation” than evidence they have developed an effective strategy.
The Conservatives have taken a narrow, military approach, making an open-ended commitment to the mission of Canadian troops in Afghanistan but ignoring the development and diplomatic efforts to make it succeed, Mr. Coderre said.
Several experts argue that the political debate in Canada about whether the Afghanistan mission is “balanced” between military action and aid is not really important.
The West has done too little, both in securing the country and rebuilding its economy, University of Ottawa political science professor Roland Paris argues. The West is losing ground because it has not been effective in helping the Afghan government provide its people with security and a functioning economy, he says.
“After 2001, parts of the country were basically neglected, and they were left insecure and unimproved,” Prof. Paris said. “Most people who analyze this mission, who don't have a political axe to grind, are basically saying the mission is under-resourced both on the security side and the development side.”
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Afghanistan appeals to Pak for help
Press Trust of India Brussels, January 27, 2007|12:35 IST
Afghanistan's foreign minister appealed to Pakistan to stop interference in his country, complaining that unnamed powers across the border are supporting terrorism.
"My appeal to our brothers in Pakistan is to stop interfering ... To stop these powerful sectors which use terrorism as an instrument of foreign policy," Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta said in an interview.
He said NATO and Afghan government forces could halt Taliban attacks if they received "constructive participation" from Pakistan.
The Afghan government has long complained that Taliban insurgents are allowed to freely cross the border to mount attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, then flee back to sanctuary in Pakistan.
Pakistan strongly denies the accusation.
Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf said accusations that Pakistani military and intelligence officials may have helped Taliban fighters cross the border were "preposterous", saying he had sent tens of thousands of troops to secure his side of the Afghan border.
NATO is seeking closer cooperation between its force of nearly 33,500 troops in Afghanistan and Pakistani authorities.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is due in Brussels on Tuesday in the highest-level visit by a Pakistani official to allied headquarters.
Spanta said NATO should use the occasion to press the Pakistanis to secure the border.
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Taliban spokesman claims killing of an Afghan intelligence official
Saturday January 27, 2007 (0759 PST) PakTribune.com, Pakistan
KHOST: A commander of Taliban and newly appointed spokesman of Taliban Salahuddin claimed killing of an Afghan intelligence official in southern Afghanistan.
He said that a Taliban shot dead director of intelligence of the Yaqoobi district in a market in Khost province the other day, according to Radio Tehran.
Similarly, he claimed killing of a score of policemen in center of the country. He told Radio Tehran that a vehicle carrying police was destroyed in Nangarhar by remote control resulting in killing all on board.
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Two police officers gunned down in Kandahar
KANDAHAR CITY, Jan 26 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Unidentified armed men gunned down two senior police officers in Popal market of this southern city Friday afternoon.
Nani Agha, head of the ninth police station, and his brother Haji Ahmad, security in charge of foreign NGOs in the province, were sitting at a shop when two armed men opened fire at them.
Kandahar police chief Esmatullah Alizai told Pajhwok Afghan News the incident happened in the Charsoo square area around 1:30pm. Owner of the shop was also killed in the attack, the police chief added.
Alizai said the two slain officials were brothers of Haji Gulali, former intelligence chief of the province. He said one of the assailants was injured in firing from policemen, but the two managed to escape the scene.
Haji Baqi, a shopkeeper and an eyewitness, told Pajhwok Afghan News he saw two armed men leaving the market soon after the firing.
In a separate incident, unidentified armed men shot dead crime branch chief of the Panjwayee district of Kandahar province in the sixth police district of this city. The assailants managed to escape.
Ahmad Farzan
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Pakistan probes Taliban link to Marriott bombing
by Rana Jawad
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Investigators probing a suicide blast at a top hotel in Pakistan's capital have said they were looking at possible links to pro-Taliban extremists fighting government forces near the Afghan border.
Police said they were examining the head, a leg and an arm of the bomber who detonated explosives strapped to his body when he was prevented from entering the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Friday, killing a security guard.
"Experts are examining the few remains of the bomber's body in a bid to identify him," said the interior ministry crisis management chief Brigadier Javed Cheema.
Officials said a sketch of the bomber could not be prepared as no witnesses had so far come forward, nor had hotel security cameras filmed the attacker.
Interior ministry officials said no group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
"We suspect (the attack) could be by militants opposed to the government's drive against Taliban elements in the tribal regions," a senior security official said on condition of anonymity.
The official said the bomber appeared to be ill-trained and poorly briefed, which suggested he was from the northwestern tribal belt rather than affiliated to better-funded sectarian groups.
"The door where he tried to enter is locked from inside and there is security present in front of it. Even if the guard had not stopped him, it would not have been possible for the bomber to enter the premises," the official said.
The pattern of the bombing closely resembled suicide bombings in Afghanistan, where scores of such attacks last year blamed on the Taliban did not cause widespread damage and killed mostly the bombers, he added.
President Pervez Musharraf condemned the suicide attack and said it would not affect the "unwavering commitment" of the government to root out terrorism and extremism from the country.
Pakistan is under pressure to curb Taliban activity in its lawless tribal zone bordering Afghanistan.
Afghanistan says the Taliban uses the area to recruit and train fighters for cross-border attacks on Afghan, NATO-led and US forces.
Kabul has also accused the Pakistani government and intelligence services of backing the insurgency, which claimed around 4,000 lives in 2006, the deadliest year since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001.
Pakistan denies the charges. It says it has deployed 80,000 troops in the tribal region to hunt down the militants, with nearly 1,000 insurgents and 700 soldiers killed in the fighting since 2002.
Meanwhile, the authorities placed major cities, including Karachi and Peshawar, on high alert after the Marriott blast, and the US and Britain warned their nationals to exercise caution.
The attack happened hours before a Republic Day function at the hotel hosted by the high commission of neighbouring India, which is loathed by Pakistani radicals because of a dispute over the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal told the ceremony, which was held despite the bombing, that the attack was evidence that terrorism knew no boundaries.
"There has been speculation about what might and might not be the target of this attack but what it establishes really is that it (terrorism) has no borders and it is a common enemy," he said.
"We must fight this common menace together in order to defeat it", Pal said.
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World Economic Forum: Aziz forced to defend Pakistan’s record on Afghanistan
* PM says neither govt nor ISI supporting Taliban
* Says Taliban crossing over into Pakistan to recruit Afghan refugees
* Regrets assault of NYT correspondent by intelligence agents
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was hoping to use the annual five-day meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) – Jan 24-28 – in Switzerland to promote Pakistan on the international stage as a progressive economy amenable to foreign direct investment.
However, as he made his entrance at Davos, all international focus appeared to centre on whether or not Pakistan was committed to the global war on terror or whether it was allowing Taliban fighters to cross over from its soil to launch attacks against Afghan and foreign troops across the border.
In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, (published on Thursday), Prime Minister Aziz found himself defending Islamabad’s position that it supported a peaceful and stable Afghanistan and was not deliberately endeavouring to destabilise its neighbour.
However, he was forced to go on record as admitting that Taliban sympathisers were active in the country’s frontier regions near the Pak-Afghan border. But, he stressed, that neither the government nor the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were supporting pro-Taliban elements. He described as “ridiculous” the notion that Pakistan was in some way or other supporting Taliban fighters or affording them safe havens.
He also rejected as “equally ridiculous” charges that the ISI was acting independently of the government to support the Taliban, stressing that “The Pakistani intelligence service is a disciplined service, and they act in line with the government”.
Thus he summed up the situation by saying “the core of the problem is in Afghanistan” and the weak writ of the Kabul government.
Indeed, the prime minister went on to suggest that rather than militants crossing into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the reverse was, in fact, true. Taliban operatives, he suggested, were crossing into Pakistan to recruit members from among the three million Afghan refugees currently residing in Quetta, Peshawar and other cities close to two countries’ shared border.
However, whether his assertions will be sufficient to assure the American media remains to be seen. Afghanistan has long claimed that Taliban chief Mullah Omar is residing at a Quetta-based safe haven, a claim Pakistan vehemently denies.
And while Aziz took the opportunity to again stress that while Islamabad had no idea where Mullah Omar of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden were hiding, they were “certainly not in Pakistan” – he could not avoid being asked to comment upon Sunday’s incident involving a correspondent for The Times, who was reporting from Quetta on allegations of Pakistani intelligence agencies’ pro-active support of a resurgent Taliban.
Carlotta Call had reportedly uncovered anecdotal evidence in and around Quetta supporting the intelligence agency-Taliban nexus, when suddenly, plainclothes intelligence agents entered her hotel room and assaulted her while detaining her photographer, Akhtar Soomro.
Ms Gall confirmed that their computers, notes and mobile telephones had been confiscated, adding that the intelligence agents had subsequently tracked down their sources. She also remained adamant that her journalist visa had imposed no restrictions on where she could report.
When asked to comment on the incident, Prime Minister Aziz refrained from addressing the question of intelligence agents tailing and intercepting Ms Gall. All he said was that she “should not have been where she was, legally” since she had violated the terms of her visa by visiting Quetta without having secured prior government authorisation.
But he did say that it was “regrettable she got bruised in that interaction”, adding that the government was investigating the matter. “We don’t condone behaviour that is physical harassment.”
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Durrani calls for Pakistan-US accord on Afghan strategy
* Says ‘trust deficit’ key problem between Pakistan and Afghanistan
* Pakistan fighting for its soul, committed to defeat extremism
WASHINGTON (Daily Times Pakistan): Any “kink” in the “collective armour” of the United States and Pakistan in Afghanistan will “only benefit the enemy”, Ambassador Mahmud A Durrani said on Thursday.
In an address delivered at the National Defence University on Wednesday, Durrani, smarting under mounting criticism of Pakistan’s alleged backing of Taliban elements, said the bigger problem between the two proud nations of Pakistan and Afghanistan was “trust deficit”. Pakistan in spite of its best efforts to fight terrorism is not seen to be doing the right thing. Besides being accused of not doing enough “we are in fact being accused of aiding and abetting the terrorists”. Senior US and Afghan officials have said Pakistan needs to do more to eliminate safe havens for the Taliban in Pakistan. NATO commanders in Afghanistan on the other hand are saying that Pakistan has helped international forces far more than is widely known. He quoted Lt Gen David Richards, the outgoing NATO Commander in Kabul, who observed: “Pakistan is determined to bear down on the insurgency but when they help us, they get no credit for it. No one says thank you.”
Durrani said it should be asked if it is stability or instability in Afghanistan that is in Pakistan’s strategic interest. Instability in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion in 1979, he added, had had a serious blowback effect on the internal stability of Pakistan. The resulting extremist culture and an abundance of weapons have caused a serious law and order situation and a broader security dilemma. He asked if fostering religious extremism, at home or in Afghanistan, is in Pakistan’s interest and emphasised that it certainly was not. In fact, Pakistan is today fighting for its soul and is committed to defeat extremism, he said.
The ambassador said that peace, stability and prosperity in Afghanistan were vital for the long-suffering people of that country as well as for Pakistan and its reform agenda. He listed the steps Pakistan had taken for the stability of Afghanistan. He emphasised that Pakistan had provided all assistance to the Karzai government in parliamentary and presidential elections and despite the military standoff with India in 2001-2002, Pakistan did not reduce its military deployments along the Afghan border. Pakistan, he told his audience made up of serving Afghan and Pakistani military officers on a training course at the university, was also actively participating in the reconstruction process in Afghanistan, despite its fiscal constraints. “If in spite of all these efforts our friends and allies doubt our commitment, then what can I say,” he observed without disguising his bitterness.
Durrani rejected what he called “speculative theories” that Pakistan wanted a particular type of government in Kabul, stressing that any government that the Afghan people choose for themselves would suit Pakistan. “In spite of the blame game, Pakistan is comfortable with President Karzai,” he added. He said to overcome the existing mistrust, the two sides must talk frankly, “but not through the media”. He said that while it was “convenient” to externalise the causes of Afghanistan’s current problems, especially the resurgence of the Taliban, the Taliban were essentially an Afghan phenomenon. He listed the steps Pakistan had taken to prevent cross-border movement but said that it could not be entirely eliminated. He pointed out that Afghan history showed that military force alone did not offer an answer to the problems of alienation and insurgency. A comprehensive strategy, compromising military, political and economic components, will be more successful, he added.
He said Pakistan had pursued this approach of reconciliation and reconstruction in the agreement concluded with tribal leaders in North Waziristan Agency. This agreement has led to a decline in violence and militancy in the agency. There is no basis for assertions that it has increased violent incidents in Afghanistan. On the contrary, NATO statistics show that violent incidents have since declined.
Durrani concluded by stressing that instability in Afghanistan had almost always had a negative fallout for Pakistan. “We do not want problems on our borders with Afghanistan. I can assure you that Pakistan has many other internal problems to keep us occupied for a long time. We will heave a sigh of relief when stability returns to Afghanistan and our tribal areas,” he added.
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Afghanistan: Analyst Discusses Increased U.S. Effort
By Andrew Tully
January 25, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- The United States will seek $10.6 billion for reconstruction and security in Afghanistan, a significant increase in funding, given that Washington has spent a little more than $14 billion for that country in the more than six years since the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban government. In the meantime, the U.S. administration is ordering 3,200 troops already in Afghanistan to stay there for at least four more months. The moves follow a year of increased fighting between NATO forces and a resurgent Taliban, and as allied forces await an expected Taliban offensive in the spring. RFE/RL spoke about U.S. policy on Afghanistan with James Phillips, a veteran foreign policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank.
RFE/RL: How much of a difference will it make to keep the 3,200 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan for at least four more months?
Phillips: I think it will make a difference in that it'll be a signal to the Afghan government, to the Afghan people and to Pakistan that the U.S. is in Afghanistan to stay. But I don't think by itself it will be decisive. I think also there needs to be an increase of economic aid and reconstruction in Afghanistan to build support for the government.
RFE/RL: Which is more important, an enhanced military presence or the political and economic aid?
Phillips: I think, in the long run, the economic and political side [of U.S. and NATO assistance] will be crucial. But in order to build a better future, [Afghans] need greater security aid from the U.S. and from NATO.
RFE/RL: Besides U.S. forces, how involved are other NATO troops in Afghanistan in security?
Phillips: While some NATO allies have been very forthcoming, such as Britain, Canada, and Poland, for example, others have attached caveats that restrict the use of their troops. In addition to more troops, it would be very helpful if these caveats could be eliminated to improve the mobility of NATO troops, it would free up more of them to operate where the Taliban is strongest -- the south and east along the border [with Pakistan].
RFE/RL: What are the caveats, and which countries are operating under which caveats?
Phillips: I believe they're classified, so it's not clear which countries have which caveats. But, for instance, I've heard some refuse to fly at night, which makes it very difficult to use them for transport purposes. And others have stipulated that they don't want to get involved in anti-riot activity against Afghan crowds.
RFE/RL: You were in Afghanistan last autumn. While you were there, were you able to learn at least which countries have caveats, even if you don't know what these limitations are?
Phillips: I'm not sure which ones, but my impression is that there's a lot of them. That's something I couldn't learn when I went to Afghanistan. The ISAF force is very closed-mouthed about it.
RFE/RL: Earlier, you said the extended stay of 3,200 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan would send a message to Pakistan. What would that message be?
"It's my impression that there are elements within the Pakistani government that are waiting for the U.S. and NATO to get tired in Afghanistan."
Phillips: It's my impression that there are elements within the Pakistani government that are waiting for the U.S. and NATO to get tired in Afghanistan so [Pakistanis] can reinsert [into Afghanistan] some of their allies from the Taliban movement. Also, I think, Pakistanis tend to be fearful that a nationalist Afghanistan will stir up trouble with Pakistan's large Pashtun majority [in the part of Pakistan] which straddles the border. [Pashtuns] dominate Afghanistan, but they're an important minority in Pakistan.
RFE/RL: Many in Washington say they expect a new spring offensive like -- or maybe even stronger than -- the one that the Taliban staged a year ago. Do you expect one?
Phillips: I would be surprised if the Taliban doesn't try to stage a spring offensive because there's a rhythm for fighting in Afghanistan where the wars tend to close down in the winter, when the mountain passes are clogged with snow, and then the war lurches forward in the spring, when the snow melts. Based on experience last year, which was more intense fighting than previous years, I would expect the Taliban to try to make a move in the spring. Part of the rationale behind holding [U.S.] troops over is to preempt the offensive.
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Minister vows more facilities for carpet producers
KABUL, Jan 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Minister for Commerce and Industries Dr Mohammad Amin Farhang Thursday said the carpet producers would be provided with loans, modern equipment and marketing facilities.
On his return of attending the carpet exhibition in the United States, the minister told a news conference, 60 carpets were sold in one day in the expo held on January 18 in Atlanta State. Afghan officials discussed problems of the Afghan carpet producers with the US officials, who assured them full cooperation. He said they would also arrange such exhibitions in other cities of the United States and Germany to promote Afghan products.
Mustafa Besharat
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Two children killed, five wounded in explosion
KABUL, Jan 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Two children were killed and five more were wounded when an old mortar shell exploded at a military barrack in Kabul on Thursday.
An eyewitness, Mohammad Sharif, said the children were playing with the shell this morning in Mahtab Qala area, to the west of capital when it blew up suddenly
All the victims are among nine to 13 year-old. A local man Javed Ahmad, who shifted the wounded children to nearby hospital said health situation of the injured as critical. Destroyed tanks have been positioned near the blast. Most of the people become victims to such explosives remained from the past wars.
Ahmad Khalid Moahid
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500 officials hold illegal arms
KABUL, Jan 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Over 500 government officials have their own militia and they also hold illegal weapons, spokesman for the general disarmament body Afghanistan New Beginning Programme (ANBP) said on Thursday.
In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News Ahmad Jan Nawzadi said the district chiefs and other high-ranking officials were among the illegal arms holders.
He said 27,461 different types of light and heavy weapons had been collected under the Disarmament of Illegal Armed Group (DIAG). United Nations and other donor agencies grant fund to DIAG.
He said commanders and armed groups of the Mahmud Raqi, capital of the central Kapisa province, fully cooperated with DIAG. The spokesman said they would launch reconstruction projects in the areas where the commanders had cooperated with the DIAG officials.
Adrain Edwards, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), also confirmed that some government officials had support of the armed groups. He said UN was trying to extend disarmament programme to other parts of the country. Spokesman for the interior ministry Zmaray Bashari said they would deal the illegal arms holders according to the law. About 1,800 armed groups are still operative across the country.
Ahmad Khalid Moahid
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Land dispute claims six lives in Nangarhar
KABUL, Jan 25 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Six people were killed over land dispute between two tribal elders in the Khogiani district of the eastern Nangarhar province on Thursday.
District chief Dadak Zalmay told Pajhwok Afghan News the clash erupted between two malaks (chieftains) in Bahar village this morning, which resulted in death of six people from the two sides.
Zalmay said initial investigations revealed that there was a longstanding land dispute between families of Malak Qayum and Malak Shah Wali. He said police had been sent into the area to control the situation.
Nangarhar police spokesman Colonel Adul Ghafoor said eight people had also been wounded besides the five deaths.
Witnesses said the fighting erupted after members of Malak Shah Wali's family started levelling a graveyard to erect a market. However, the rival family interrupted as they claimed the ownership of the land, which resulted in exchange of fire.
Abdul Mueed Hashmi
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