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June 15, 2007 


Nine Afghans, two foreign soldiers killed in attacks
by Nasrat Shoaib
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two suicide attackers blew themselves up near  NATO convoys in southern  Afghanistan Friday, killing five Afghan children, four young men and a Dutch soldier, officials said.

A soldier with the US-led coalition died separately after being wounded in combat in the east of the country, the force said. The nationality of the troop was not announced but most soldiers in the east are Americans.

The coalition also announced that soldiers had killed more than two dozen Taliban in a series of battles across Afghanistan in the past 24 hours. A teenage boy died in the crossfire of one of the battles.

The first suicide blast was a car bomb that ripped through a residential area of the town of Tirin Kot, capital of the southern province of Uruzgan.

"Nine Afghan nationals including adults and children have been martyred," provincial police chief General Mohammad Qasim said. Five were children, aged around 12, and the rest were young men, he said.

"Seven other Afghans have been wounded including one woman," he said.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force said one of its soldiers was killed and three wounded.

The dead soldier was from The Netherlands and aged about 20, the Dutch ministry of defence said.

The soldier was the second Dutch trooper to be killed in Afghanistan where The Netherlands has about 2,200 soldiers with the 37-nation ISAF.

Another suicide bomber struck hours later in the city of Kandahar, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

"Five civilians are wounded in the suicide attack on the NATO convoy," Kandahar province police chief Ismatullah Alizay told AFP.

Suicide bombings are a hallmark of an insurgency waged by the extremist Taliban movement. Most attacks are aimed at Afghan and foreign security forces but kill more civilians.

Up to 380 Afghan civilians were killed in the first four months of this year, the  United Nations said last month.

The US-led coalition that is focused on hunting down the rebels and their allies on Friday reported a series of new deadly battles.

One erupted when Afghan and coalition soldiers raided a Taliban compound in southern Zabul province early Friday. The gunfight that followed "killed a few militants" and a teenager caught in the crossfire, the coalition said.

A search of the compound discovered a Global Positioning System device, medical supplies and a video camera, the coalition said. Three people were arrested.

Separately, warplanes pounded rebel positions in the southern province of Helmand on Thursday after troops were attacked.

"More than two dozen enemy fighters were estimated killed during the nine-hour battle," a coalition statement said.

A search found bomb-making material, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery rounds.

In neighbouring Kandahar, coalition forces opened fire on men positioning a rocket. "One enemy vehicle was destroyed and several enemy fighters were killed," the statement said.

And in Zabul Thursday, soldiers were attacked with machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades, and returned fire killing a "few enemy fighters," the coalition said.

The Taliban's insurgency has grown steadily since the group was removed from government in 2001 for sheltering Al-Qaeda chiefs behind the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York.

About 2,000 people are estimated to have died in the violence this year, most of them rebels.
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Suicide bomb kills Afghan children, Dutch soldier
By Yousuf Azimy
KABUL (Reuters) - Suicide bombers attacked foreign troops in central and southern  Afghanistan on Friday, killing five children and a Dutch soldier in a day of renewed bloodshed.

Another foreign soldier, belonging to a U.S.-led coalition force, also died in combat in eastern Paktika province on Friday as violence flared in areas where Taliban guerrillas were waging an insurgency against the government and its foreign allies.

In the first attack, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a convoy of  NATO troops in Tirin Kot, capital of the central province of Uruzgan, killing five Afghan children playing nearby, said a provincial government official, Mohammad Nabi.

Four adult civilians were also killed and seven wounded, local police chief Mohammad Qasim added.

The Dutch Defence Ministry said the attack killed a 20-year-old from the Dutch Army's 42nd Battalion and wounded three other Dutch troops.

The Netherlands has about 1,700 troops in Uruzgan as part of a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"This is another example of how the tactics of the enemies of peace and stability are tearing apart the lives of Afghans and preventing the international community from bringing reconstruction and development in areas that desperately need our assistance," ISAF spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Maria Carl said.

A second suicide bomber attacked a foreign troop convoy in the southern Kandahar city, wounding at least five civilians, a police official said. A man with explosives strapped to his body approached the convoy and blew himself up, an eyewitness added.

ISAF and U.S.-led coalition forces later said their troops had not been involved in the Kandahar incident. ISAF referred inquiries to Afghanistan's Defence Ministry, but a ministry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

A U.S. military spokesman said the soldier killed in Paktika province had died from wounds sustained in combat. He declined to give any details or the name or nationality of the soldier.

Also on Friday, a Dutch aid group said two of its Afghan staff, a doctor and a driver, had been kidnapped for a $100,000 ransom in eastern Nangarhar province while they were returning from a vaccination field trip on Wednesday.

The kidnappers have threatened to behead the two men, said Geert Leerink, Asia operations director for HealthNet TPO, which is providing health care across Afghanistan.

"It's not clear who is the (kidnapping) group, if it is Taliban or a local tribal group," Leerink said. "Community leaders of the area are trying to solve the problem because they know the group."

(Additional reporting by Mark Bendeich in Kabul and Reed Stevenson in Amsterdam)
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US forced to plug helicopter gap in Afghanistan: Gates
Fri Jun 15, 9:45 AM ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) - The United States is forced to keep helicopters in  Afghanistan for the  NATO-led security force for another six months because no other ally has stepped forward, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.

Gates said NATO allies came forth with some offers of additional contributions to the 40,000-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, but not enough to meet the requirements of the force's commander.

The pledges made at a two-day meeting of alliance defence ministers included an additional maneuver battalion and some teams of advisors embedded with the Afghan security forces, he said.

Several countries also announced that they were removing restrictions on the use of their forces, Gates said, which would allow commanders to deploy them more easily to hostile areas.

But he said ISAF commander General Dan McNeil had asked for four maneuver battalions and medium to heavy lift helicopters capable of operating in Afghanistan's high mountains.

"I announced that in the absence of any available apparent substitute, that I would extend the assignment of our helicopters in Kandahar to ISAF for an additional six months," Gates told reporters.

"But I expect the allies to come up with a solution at that time in terms of helicopters that have the capability to operate in Afghanistan," he said.

A US defence official traveling with Gates said the secretary was referring to 20 CH-47 medium lift helicopters now assigned to ISAF.
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Two aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan
BRUSSELS, Jun 15, 2007 (Xinhua) -- Two Afghan staff members of a Dutch medical aid organization have been kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan, Radio Netherlands reported Friday.

The two staff members of HealthNet TPO, a doctor and his chauffeur, were on a work visit and failed to return to the hospital where they are based, said Radio Netherlands, without specifying the time of the incident.

A ransom demand for 100,000 U.S. dollars was later received by telephone. The kidnappers are threatening to behead the two men if the ransom is not paid, Radio Netherlands said.

The abduction happened in the troubled Nangahar province, where the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. forces are operating against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.

HealthNet, a non-governmental organization, has informed the United Nations mission in Afghanistan of the situation in the hope that it can mediate in the hostages' release.
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A voice for the Afghan insurgency
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / June 15, 2007
HERAT, Afghanistan - At first sight, this bustling city near the border with Iran gives a clear signal that it wants business and not violence.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, this is one region of Afghanistan that has experienced a boom in trade and commerce: new construction is rampant and real-estate prices have skyrocketed.

Nevertheless, amid the wheeling-dealing in the multicultural, multi-ethnic city, the Taliban-led insurgency that is creeping closer from the southeast cannot - and will not - be ignored, certainly if al-Haaj Farooq Hussaini has anything to do with it.

Hussaini is the very vocal and influential right-hand man of the former governor of Herat and current minister for energy, Ismail Khan, an ethnic Tajik. Hussaini uses Friday prayers to foment support for the insurgency and to stir up people to force the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country.

His outspoken views have earned him warnings from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"I speak against the occupation forces and Iranian intervention in Afghanistan every Friday sermon. I have been intimidated several times by UNAMA and ISAF, but I am not scared at all. All the prayer leaders of Herat are strongly behind me," Hussaini told Asia Times Online. He cut a formidable figure as he sat cross-legged on the floor of his office along with some followers and gave every indication that he is strong enough to achieve his goals.

During the Taliban regime (1996-2001), Hussaini went into exile in Khozistan, Iran, where he preached the Sunni sect and even converted some Shi'ite Muslims to Sunni Islam. As a result, he was arrested by the Iranian authorities and jailed for three years.

After the sacking of the Taliban, he returned to Herat along with Khan and now heads the powerful Anjuman-i-Munadyan-i-Tauheed organization, besides representing Khan's Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan in Herat.

Last year during Ashura (an important day on the Shi'ite calendar) there were major clashes in Herat between Shi'ites and Sunnis, leaving 185 people dead. Since Hussein Anwari, Khan's replacement as governor, is a Hazara Shi'ite, Hussaini is bitterly opposed to him and does his best to marshal Sunni support against the governor. Hazaras constitute about 15% of Herat province.

Hussaini proudly related how he led Sunni rioters against Shi'ites. "I am not particularly against the Shi'ite religion, but when they are sacrilegious towards elders of our faith, serious differences brew."

What prompted Kabul to install a minority Shi'ite as governor remains an unanswered question, although international agencies working in Kabul say that Anwari is well qualified and does not play the Hazara or Shi'ite card. Nevertheless, this is not the way people in a tribal society think or function - they work under their own paradigms in which religion and ethnicity are key factors.

Changing allegiances

Khan has always been believed to have been supported by the Iranians, but he has visibly changed in recent months by hitting out at "foreign intervention" in Herat, a clear reference to Tehran.

At the same time, the US-backed administration of President Hamid Karzai has also distanced itself from the hardline Sunnis of the Jamiat-i-Islami Afghanistan, even though its leader, Khan, is a cabinet minister.

As a result, foes of the past - the Pashtun Taliban and ethnic Tajiks loyal to Khan - have drawn closer together.

Hussaini stresses that he supports any force working against the withdrawal of foreign forces.

"Whether it is Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or the Taliban, whoever fights against occupation forces, I support them," Hussaini said. "I have the same views on most of the things in which the Taliban believe. We follow the same school of thought, but I disagree with brutalities, like beheading people.

"At the same time, suicide attacks are not permissible in Afghanistan. Top Muslim scholars like [Egyptian] Yosuf al-Qardawi sanctioned suicide attacks, but only against Israelis. Here in Afghanistan it is not allowed because it is a Muslim country."

Hussaini would not be drawn into commenting on al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden other than to say that he respects him because he fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, otherwise he "never got a chance to meet him and therefore I do not know much about him".

Commenting on the insurgency, Qazi Bismal, a teacher at the University of Herat and the head of the Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, Herat province, said, "There is no armed resistance anywhere in Herat city, but there is a lot of political resistance against foreign forces through the words of people like Farooq Hussaini. We cannot say right now what the outcome of this sort of resistance will be."

UNAMA believes that the insurgency is multi-faceted and poses a serious challenge.

"The Taliban are not the only component of Afghanistan's insurgency. There is factional fighting in parts of the country, insecurity caused by drug traffickers and those fighting because they have been intimidated or paid to do so," said Aleem Siddiqui, a spokesman for UNAMA.

"They all form important elements of this insurgency. We are seeing concerted action to deal with all these elements. As we have made clear, defeating the insurgency will require more than military might, we need to see increased development, improved governance and better coordination of efforts between Afghanistan and its neighbors to deal with cross-border fighters," said Siddiqui.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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France To Send 150 Additional Trainers To Afghanistan
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
PARIS, June 15, 2007 -- France is preparing to expand its training efforts with the Afghan army, planning to deploy an additional 150 instructors to the country.

The country's Defense Ministry's spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said providing high quality training to the Afghan forces and especially its officers is an "absolute priority." A 50-strong French training team is already on the ground. The exact timing and assignment of the additional contingent of trainers has yet to be decided.
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Afghanistan Hopes To Be Free Of Polio In Two Years
By Haslinda Zainal
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 (Bernama) -- Afghanistan targets to fully eradicate the deadly poliomyelitis (polio) virus within two years with the support of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states, said its Health Minister Dr Muhammed Amin Fatimi.

He said some 7.4 million children in Afghanistan needed to be immunised against polio and that there was also the need for education programmes on it (polio immunisation) as some families with limited knowledge were against vaccination of their children, fearing the vaccine might cause harm to them.

Polio is a highly infectious disease and mainly affects children under five years of age. It is easily transmitted in unsanitary conditions with the virus entering the body through the mouth and multiplying in the intestine.

The viruses then invade the nervous system and can cause total permanent paralysis in a matter of hours. In order for a country to be considered polio-free, there must be no new reported cases for two years. Afghanistan recorded two cases so far this year.

"Decades of war also affected our health care system. However, after the collapse of the Taliban regime, the new government developed a National Health Policy, which has been implemented very successfully for the good of the Afghan people," Dr Muhammed Amin told Bernama on the sidelines of the KL-OIC Health Ministerial Conference 2007, which ended today at Bandar Sunway, near here.

He added that the country was not only intensifying efforts to address this but also other health problems like malnutrition among children, poor sanitation and difficulty in getting access to clean water.

"We are giving more scholarships to our men and women to take up various health courses so that all Afghans can look forward to a better future ahead in regard to the health of their families," added Dr Muhammed Amin.
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Afghanistan's pockets of peace open to travellers
By Sei Chong June 15, 2007
MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Tell people working in Afghanistan that you're there just to look around, and the response is likely to be the same - raised eyebrows followed by an incredulous: "You're here on holiday?".

Reports of suicide bombings in Kabul and attacks elsewhere are enough to keep even longtime expatriates from exploring the capital, let alone the country.

But there's a side to Afghanistan rarely seen in news reports: the bustling street life in Kabul and the serenity of the northern country, scenes that demonstrate how fear does not dictate the lives of the vast majority of Afghans.

Travel in Afghanistan is not risk-free. Backpacking is not recommended, and forget about the south, the stronghold of the militant Taliban movement. But daily updates on the security situation and a good guide can allow for safe travel in other parts.

Kabul is well worth a few days, a city of 4 million that is busy remaking itself, covered in clouds of dust kicked up by an endless stream of cars, armoured vehicles and people.

But to see up close what peace looks like in Afghanistan and to better meet the locals, head north, starting in Balkh, once called by Arabs "the mother of cities", 23 km west of Mazar-i-Sharif.

It has a rich history: Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan both conquered this region, which was also the birthplace of Zoroaster. Now eroded walls enclosed vast fields that once held a majestic city.

Balkh is home to Afghanistan's first mosque, the Masjid-i-No Gumbad, or Nine Towers. Most of the domes are gone, but restoration work has begun on what remains. The mosque, dating back to the ninth century, was once a dazzling white, as newly exposed parts of pillars show.

Heading further west, stretches of green fields flank a two-lane highway to Andkhoy, a sleepy town that time seems to have forgotten. It perks up on Mondays and Thursday, when people from neighbouring areas come to sell their goods.

Foreigners are rare in Mazar-i-Sharif, but in Andkhoy, they are non-existent. A distant glimpse of a visitor will have children crowding around a school window, standing on chairs for a better look. Men will openly stare but smile when asked for a picture.

"If they see a foreigner, maybe he or she is coming from the moon," joked Sakhi Danishjo, who leads tours in northern Afghanistan for Great Game Travel.

The Afghan sense of hospitality is evident instantly, and not just in Andkhoy. Visit any shop, and the owner is likely to ask you to lunch or offer you tea. Walk around some ruins, and someone who lives nearby will venture to answer your questions or to ask you a few of his own.

Afghans are more likely to approach foreign men or foreign women accompanied by a man, as the customs governing how men and women interact are stricter in the north compared with in Kabul.

As a result, female travellers have less leeway in moving around, but there's one place they can go that their male counterpart can't, and that is women's day at the Shrine of Hazrat Ali, the turquoise blue mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Every Wednesday, the city's women shed their dingy royal blue or black burkas and put on their brightest clothes -- hot pinks, blues, yellows. Calf-length denim skirts are paired with tight long-sleeved blouses. Many go with their head uncovered.

It has a feel of a huge party, and only women and children are invited. Foreigners who have dressed for comfort may feel more out of place than usual, especially after being looked up and down by a woman in full makeup, sequins and heeled sandals.

Like most of Afghanistan, it's a side of the country that you'd never glean just from reading the news reports.
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Iran forcibly deports 100,000 Afghans
By ALISA TANG Associated Press Fri Jun 15, 3:55 AM ET
AFGHANISTAN-IRAN BORDER - Dumped at this frontier outpost alongside hundreds of weary Afghan laborers, Khalil Jalil stepped out of Iran and back into Afghanistan only days after he said Iranian authorities beat him, threw him in the trunk of a car and locked him in a detention center.

The 23-year-old's violent ejection is part of a broad Iranian crackdown on illegal Afghan migrants that has pushed more than 100,000 deportees across the border the past two months, leaving hundreds of Afghan families stranded without shelter and straining the impoverished country's resources.

Like Jalil, many of the deportees come with stories of abuse: Men beaten so badly that their legs and collarbones were broken, and legal refugees whose government-issued cards were cut into pieces by police.

Iran denies the allegations of abuse and says it has forced laborers back home because the 1.5 million undocumented Afghan migrants are an enormous burden on its economy.

As a result, about 2,000 Afghans a day are being sent out of Iran, where many sought better jobs or a stable home outside war-torn Afghanistan. Most are men, but entire families are being kicked out as well.

At the Islam Qala border crossing, about 75 miles west of the Afghan city of Herat, 1,200 people flow back into Afghanistan a day. Some carry suitcases, but several wear their work uniforms and are penniless, not having had a chance to collect their salaries or savings.

One man had only crumbling bits of stale bread, a small bottle of water and another of soda tied up in a tattered black scarf.

Iran has sent undocumented Afghans home every year and announced these deportations in advance. But the numbers have been staggering, with more than 100,000 deported the past two months compared with 146,387 deported in all of 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.

Jalil entered Afghanistan wearing a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, the only possessions he could grab after two men in army uniforms and two in plainclothes woke him up with kicks and punches.

"They yelled at us, 'Get out, Afghan trash!'" Jalil said, describing how he was handcuffed to another laborer and thrown in the trunk of a green sedan.

He had lived in Iran for seven years, and his parents and siblings were still there. They had entered with passports and visas but stayed on after their documents expired.

Like many interviewed here, Jalil said he paid his own $11 bus fare to be deported. Others said they bribed authorities to be deported immediately rather than being locked up in filthy, overcrowded detention centers.

"It is not how humans treat other humans. The rooms were full, so they put us in the bathrooms," said Nabiullah Jamshidy, 28, who had been deported after living in Iran for 14 years.

Noor Ahmad Mohammadi, who performs medical checkups at the border, said that in the past month he has seen about seven deportees severely beaten, with broken collarbones, legs, arms and stitches on their faces.

Iranian authorities "are behaving very badly with the deportees," said Naik Mohammad Azamy, head of the UNHCR office in Islam Qala. "Maltreatment is common, and abuses for all of them."

Iran's ambassador to Afghanistan dismissed the allegations as "propaganda and rumors," but said the government would respond to any documented claims.

"We believe there are huge rumors inside Afghanistan because many Afghan refugees don't want to return to their country. They mention many things, but most of them are not reality," Ambassador Mohammad R. Bahrami said.

About 1.5 million illegal migrants live in Iran on top of 950,000 registered Afghan refugees, he said. Some go legally and carry on with their lives after their passports expire, while others pay to be smuggled by human traffickers.

The enormous number of Afghan refugees and undocumented migrants takes a huge chunk out of Iran's subsidized health care and basic infrastructure, Bahrami said.

Iran originally had planned to deport 5,000 illegal migrants per day but scaled that back at Afghan President Hamid Karzai's request. Bahrami said deportations would continue until a "suitable conclusion to our project."

Once back in Afghanistan, deportees receive assistance from U.N. agencies and aid organizations, and move on to larger cities or home. But many have been living in Iran for decades and have nowhere to go.

Hundreds of Afghans, including several families, are living "in the open air" without shelter, UNHCR said.

The deportations have infuriated lawmakers, who last month voted to oust the Repatriation and Refugee Minister Mohammad Akbar Akbar for mishandling the issue.

U.N. and Afghan officials have found that some refugees with documents issued by the Iranian government have suffered the same ordeals as the illegal migrants.

Ahmad, an 18-year-old who was born in Iran and had never set foot in Afghanistan, had heard that illegal migrants were being violently rounded up and deported, but his pink government-issued refugee card meant he was legal.

At a traffic roundabout where day laborers gather, a man in blue jeans and a white button-down shirt offered Ahmad a job making bricks at $1 for 200 bricks. The man led him to a red minibus, and as Ahmad looked at the other Afghans in the vehicle he realized he had been caught.

He was going to show the Iranian police his refugee card, but he said he saw police kicking several detainees and cutting their cards into pieces. He hid his own under his shirt.

At Islam Qala, an Iranian policeman told deportees that anyone with a refugee card would be released, but Ahmad was too scared his would be destroyed.

He crossed the border and stepped into Afghanistan for the first time ever. The UNHCR, which is helping to reunite Ahmad with his family in Tehran, asked that he only be identified by his first name so as not to jeopardize his case.

"I don't want anything from the Iran government. I just want them to send my mother, brother and sisters here to Afghanistan," said Ahmad, whose father died seven years ago. "Even if we die of hunger here, it would be better than me being alone and them being there without me. I'm the head of the family."
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No proof of Mulla Omar's presence in Balochistan, believes Boucher
The News International (Pakistan) June 15, 2007
QUETTA: US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher on Thursday praised Islamabad's role in the "war on terror" and agreed to the Pakistani assertion that there was no solid evidence of Mulla Omar's presence in Balochistan.

Boucher met Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yusuf here on Thursday. During the meeting, Jam Yousuf dispelled the impression that Quetta was the Taliban headquarters. "There is no headquarters of Taliban in Quetta, nor Mulla Omar or Osama bin Laden are present in Quetta or any other part of Balochistan," he said, according to an official statement.

The statement said that Boucher agreed that there was no concrete "evidence that Mulla Omar was present in Balochistan" and that he appreciated Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism.

The statement said Jam informed the US assistant secretary of state that Pakistan was an important ally of the United States in the global war on terror and President Gen Pervez Musharraf was determined to eliminate terrorism from the country with the support of the people. "Pakistan's soil would in no way be used for terrorist activities," he said while pointing out that special measures had been taken to stop the movement of terrorists on the porous Pak-Afghan border.

He also briefed the US official about the background of terrorist incidents in the province. Jam said terrorist activities had been controlled significantly, following effective measures taken by the government in the province.

Referring to the presence of Afghan refugees in the province, Jam said Pakistan was seeking an honourable repatriation of the refugees. However, he stressed the need for improving the law and order situation in Afghanistan. "Around 1 million refugees are living in the province and majority of them do not want to go back to their country due to the poor law and order situation."

Referring to the measures adopted for the development of the province, he said the province was being developed on a fast-track - thanks to the special interest being taken by President Musharraf. He said work was in progress on projects amounting to some Rs 200 billion in the province.

During the course of the meeting, wide-ranging issues, including elimination of terrorism in the region, cross-border movement on the Pak-Afghan border at Chaman, fencing of the border and introduction of the biometric system, deployment of security forces and vigilance of the border, prospects of international investment in Gwadar and other mega projects, were discussed.

Expressing deep interest in development of Gwadar, Boucher assured that the US investors would be informed about the prospects of investment in Balochistan and motivated to make investment in the province.

Boucher also met opposition leader in the Balochistan Assembly, Mir Kachkol Ali, and other opposition leaders including PPPP's Shafiq Ahmed Khan, PkMAP's Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal and Azam Musakhail.
During the separate meetings with the opposition leaders, different matters of mutual interest came under discussion. Kachkol Ali reportedly sought the role of the US in the restoration of democracy, independence of judiciary, holding of free and transparent elections and setting up of an autonomous Election Commission. He also sought the support of the US government in resolving the problems of Balochistan.

He presented a memorandum on the issues of Balochistan which included non-implementation of the resolutions adopted by the Balochistan Assembly, centralisation of administrative and financial powers with the Centre instead of the provinces, not taking the people of the province into confidence over the mega projects launched in the province, etc.

Meanwhile, Boucher visited a display centre for the draft electoral rolls set up by the Election Commission of Pakistan at the St Mary School, Quetta Cantonment, and also talked with the staff present there. Provincial Election Commissioner Javed Khursheed briefed him on the preparations of the electoral rolls and other related matters.

Extraordinary security arrangements were made for Boucher's visit. Some areas, especially those leading to the Chief Minister's House and the Balochistan Assembly, were literally sealed. Educational institutions located on the Zarghoon Road were closed and the students were asked to leave when they reached there on Thursday morning.

APP adds: Boucher also visited the border town of Chaman where he saw biometric system installed by Pakistan on Pak-Afghan border with the objective to check illegal cross-border movement.

He appreciated the system and hoped that it would help stop terrorists fighting in Afghanistan from entering Pakistan. He urged Afghan authorities for taking effective measures in this regard. Earlier, Col Masood Ahmed of Balochistan Frontier Corps briefed Boucher about the security arrangements at the Pak-Afghan border at FC Fort Chaman.
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