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June 9, 2007 

Several insurgents killed in Afghanistan: coalition
KABUL (AFP) - Several Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters were killed in a gun battle early Saturday in southern  Afghanistan, the US military said as Afghan authorities announced the death of a policeman in a bomb blast.

Afghan and foreign soldiers had gone to two compounds in Zabul province on credible intelligence that they housed fighters of the allied Islamist movements, the US-led coalition force said.

As they approached, they were shot at with small arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades from a hillside, it said in a statement.

A two-hour battle followed and resulted in "several Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters killed and five militants detained."

A cache of weapons was discovered and destroyed. No civilians were injured in the operation, the counter-terrorism force said.

The coalition led the campaign that drove the Taliban out of government in 2001. It is still pursuing Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters while training the understrength Afghan security forces.

The militants stage near daily attacks mainly on the Afghan forces and their foreign allies in the coalition and separate  NATO-led force.

In an attack similar to scores carried out by insurgents, a policeman was killed in the province of Laghman by a remote-controlled bomb late Friday, a governor's spokesman said.

Three others were hurt in the blast in the volatile Alishing district about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northeast of Kabul, said the spokesman, named only as Nizamuddin.

The Afghan army arrested separately Thursday a man they said was a Taliban commander who planned attacks and explosions in the same district, Nizamuddin said.
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OK near on return of Afghan refugees
By JAMES CALDERWOOD, Associated Press Writer Fri Jun 8, 8:52 PM ET
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -  Afghanistan and Pakistan are nearing agreement on the return of the more than 2 million refugees who fled to Pakistan a quarter century ago, a U.N. refugee agency official said Friday.

"We have now reached an agreement on the language of the text" on the voluntary repatriation, Salvatore Lombardo, UNHCR representative for Afghanistan, said after talks between the two sides. "I think in that respect it (meeting) was quite successful."

Pakistan has been pushing to repatriate the refugees to Afghanistan over a three-year period, mainly in response to international criticism over cross-border attacks by Taliban militants who Pakistan says often hide in refugee camps.

The two sides have been meeting every three months under the auspices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The draft text, Lombardo said, is going back to the two governments for approval before signing. Details of the plan were not immediately available.

Since the 2001 fall of the Taliban, more than 3 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan, including more than 220,000 refugees this year.

The refugees, mostly ethnic Pashtuns from Afghan border provinces, fled to Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. More than 2.15 million refugees still remain in Pakistan.

Lombardo said the Pakistani plan envisages the refugees returning to their original homes in Afghanistan, not merely to new camps across the border.

"Those who are landless, the government will give them land," said Abdul Qader Ahadi, Afghanistan's executive minister of refugees and repatriation.

Ahadi said Kabul still faces "serious challenges, such as a lack of housing, jobs, schools, clinics, security."

"If large numbers of Afghans return ... we cannot absorb them," he said. "They may go back to Pakistan and create more problems."

At a meeting in February, the two sides agreed to close four refugee camps in Pakistan by September because of security concerns over rampant lawlessness.

Sajid Hussain Chattha, a Pakistani official for border issues with Afghanistan, said there were widespread "unlawful activities" such as gunrunning in the camps but denied any al-Qaida-related activity was there.
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Bush Meeting in Rome with Prodi on Afghanistan, Other Issues
By VOA News 09 June 2007
President Bush is meeting in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi for talks expected on Afghanistan, Lebanon, Iran, the Balkans and Kosovo.

Their talks Saturday follow discussions earlier this week at a summit of the world's eight major industrialized nations held in Germany.

Mr. Bush also stopped at the Vatican for talks with Pope Benedict on HIV/AIDS and other topics. It was their first meeting since the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became pope in 2005.

A Vatican statement says they discussed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Latin America, the situation in Iraq and of Christians in that country, as well as Africa, with particular attention to Darfur.

Earlier, Mr. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano. Discussions included fighting terrorism, nuclear non-proliferation regarding Iran, and the next steps in efforts to establish a tribunal to prosecute suspects in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Thousands of security officers had been deployed in Rome ahead of expected demonstrations against the war in Iraq and Italy's troop deployment in Afghanistan.

Mr. Bush Saturday also met with a prominent Catholic lay organization, the Sant'Egidio Community. The meeting was moved from a Trastevere district location to the U.S. embassy due to logistical concerns.

Mr. Bush travels on to Albania and Bulgaria before returning to Washington Monday.
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Losing Afghanistan: Firepower Doesn’t Always Win Wars
Middle East Online - Jun 09 1:57 AM
Foreign powers are clearly failing in Afghanistan; they neither won hearts and minds nor contributed to the stability and rebuilding of the country in any meaningful way, says Ramzy Baroud.
 
In a statement made available through the country’s Foreign Office, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri chastised the “international community” for the “abandonment” of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989. In his estimation, it was this attitude that created the conditions which eventually culminated in the rise of the Taliban, the hosts of al-Qaeda.

The statement was reportedly made at the G-8 Foreign Ministers’ recent conference in Potsdam, Germany, according to Pakistan’s Daily Times. Kasuri was, expectedly, packaging his critique within a context specific to Pakistan’s own concerns: namely the 2.4 million Afghani refugees - according to UNHCR figures – and who have crossed the border into Pakistan seeking shelter and relative safety. Moreover, Pakistan, under consistent censure for allegedly failing to hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda militants operating around its Western border, deployed 90,000 soldiers into those regions; border skirmishes, sporadic gun battles but increasingly sustained bombardment campaigns of tribal areas – suspected of being safe haven for al-Qaeda militants – have left thousands dead and wounded since the American war on Afghanistan in October 2001.

The tension created by Pakistan’s somewhat proxy role in reining in US foes is complicating the government’s mission in asserting itself as an independent entity whose main concern is the welfare of its own people. But tension in Pakistan, which runs through tribal and political lines, is hardly comparable to the simmering situation in Afghanistan itself, where anger directed at the Kabul government and its Coalition benefactors is boiling to the point that another violent upsurge is imminent.

Hamid Karazi, crown president of Afghanistan in charade elections to rule over a disjointed country and discontented population is still incapable of exercising his power beyond the municipal borders of the capital; but even that level of control is gradually more difficult to maintain as a spate of suicide bombers is promising to turn Kabul into another Baghdad. But since his ascent to power in October 2004, Karzai has little to show for, save endless pledges of financial support he solicited, 40 billion USD to be exact, out of which little arrived, and the money that was made available is hardly improving people’s lives – corruption in Afghanistan is, unsurprisingly, rife. Billions have been spent in Afghanistan nonetheless, by NATO/US forces on military equipment, whose firepower effectiveness is anything but debatable among Afghani civilians.

The BBC’s Alastair Leithead reported on May 31, “Afghans’ Anger over US Bombing” merely details one of many such incidents in which scores of innocent civilians are killed; such reports are ever more rare since they are simply not newsworthy – the worth of a news story from Afghanistan is measured by whether Coalition forces incurred causalities or not. The recent killings in the village of Shindand in the Zerkoh Valley, Western Afghanistan was harrowing by any standards. 57 were reportedly killed by American bombardment; half of the dead were women and children, according to Leithead; the bombardment also destroyed 100 homes, humble dwellings that are unlikely to be rebuilt soon.

"The bombardments were going on day and night. Those who tried to get out somewhere safe were being bombed. They didn't care if it was women, children or old men," said one of the survivors. But who would believe Mohammad Zarif Achakzai, who fled his mud house with his family under the relentless bombardment? Brig Gen Joseph Votel has simply dismissed the reports of civilian causalities. “We have no reports that confirm to us that non-combatants were injured or killed out in Shindand,” he said. And that is that.

Shindand is not under Taliban control, at least not yet. Much of the country, mostly in the south but increasingly elsewhere is falling under the control of Taliban extremists. The Taliban offers job security to the men and an opportunity for revenge and even martyrdom; in many parts of Afghanistan, such offers are exceedingly appealing.

Fearless British journalist Chris Sands of the Independent, one of very few journalists reporting from Taliban controlled areas, tells me that it’s only a matter of time before Afghanistan turns into an Iraq-like inferno. Indeed, Taliban’s regrouping efforts have been astonishingly successful as of late. Taliban militants have managed to ambush and kill 16 government police officers just hours after killing seven Coalition soldiers – including five Americans – by shooting down their chopper over the Helmand province on May 30. These confirmed numbers are often balanced out with unconfirmed government report of many Taliban’s militants killed by government forces; it’s often the case that these reports overlook the much higher number of civilian casualties.

Foreign powers are clearly failing in Afghanistan; they neither won hearts and minds nor contributed to the stability and rebuilding of the country in any meaningful way – 60 percent of the country’s economy is now dependent on narcotics exports. In fact, Afghanistan represents a perfect case of the proverbial “cut and run” that President George Bush avows not to commit in Iraq. Needless to say, the only assignment that the US and its allies seem seriously committed to is that of maintaining its military regime, predicated on the utter reliance of firepower regardless of the outcome.

Afghanistan’s two foreign military missions: Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), with its 37,000 troops and the US-led Coalition: Operation Enduring Freedom are affectively losing their pseudo control over the country. Taliban is gaining strength and is regenerating, not because of their remarkable theological alternative to democracy, but precisely because all of the rosy promises made late 2001 and early 2002 yielded a most repressive regime, marred with corruption, insecurity, warlords, and incessant Coalition attacks on civilian localities throughout the country. When Afghans turn back into supporting the Taliban, one can only imagine how desperate they’ve become.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Kasuri is obviously right, though his intentions might be self-serving; “abandonment” is a befitting term to describe the so-called international community’s attitude towards Afghanistan; that abandonment brought the Taliban to power following the chaos resulting from the ousting of the Soviets and their puppet regime in 1989 – subsequent civil war in Afghanistan then killed more than 50,000 people in Kabul alone – is shaping a bizarrely similar scenario that is giving rise to the same loathed grouping; The Taliban could soon find itself in a strong bargaining position, that even the Americans themselves cannot ignore; the Taliban’s “Spring Offensive” might’ve been delayed, but the balance is clearly tipping in favor of the Taliban, in a war that promises more of the same sorrows.

Ramzy Baroud's latest book: The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press, London) is available at Amazon and from the University of Michigan Press. Baroud is a veteran journalist and a human rights advocate at a London-based NGO; he is the editor of PalestineChronicle.com; his website is RamzyBaroud.net and can be contacted at editor@palestinechronicle.com
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Afghan refugees to be moved out of Tajik capital to the regions - TV
13:35 | 09/ 06/ 2007
KABUL, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Refugees from war-torn Afghanistan currently staying in the capital of neighboring Tajikistan will be forced to move out of the city within 10 days, Afghanistan's Ariana TV said Saturday.

Law enforcement agencies in the capital, Dushanbe, told the channel that the refugees would have to be resettled in remote regions of the former Soviet republic, where they have permanent registration. About 2,000 Afghan refugees currently live in Tajikistan.

A group of Afghan refugees sent a petition on Friday to the United Nations commission on refugees in Tajikistan demanding housing and work, included in their rights as refugees, and urgently-needed food for their children.

The refugees said the decision on the part of Tajik authorities to relocate them was a hostile one. Refugee women told the channel that there are no schools or hospitals, and no jobs in remote regions where their families are registered, raising a real threat that their children will die of starvation.

Afghanistan's embassy in Dushanbe has demanded an explanation for the decision from the Tajik Foreign Ministry, the channel said.
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MacKay admits 6 Afghan abuse allegations exist
Jun 09, 2007 04:30 AM Toronto Star, Canada Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Six prisoners have complained to Canadian officials of abuse in Afghan prisons – not four, as Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said earlier this week.

The revelation, confirmed yesterday, marks another blow for the Tories on a sensitive issue they've been accused of mishandling. And the mix-up gave further fuel to opposition critics who say the government isn't taking the issue of human rights seriously.

"We've never been able to get a straight answer. The government has not taken human rights seriously. They've not been diligent at all on this matter," said New Democrat MP Dawn Black (New Westminster-Coquitlam).

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh (Vancouver South) said it appears "nobody is in charge" of the file within government circles.

"Whenever a story breaks out, they don't have their facts straight," he said.

The confusion was sparked earlier this week when Day told a Commons committee the government has received four allegations of possible abuse since February.

However, in late April, Day said Canadian officials had heard two first-hand allegations from prisoners captured by Canadian troops who complained of abuse after being transferred into Afghan custody.

Day refused to clarify the matter at the committee meeting, leaving MacKay, who was appearing with him, to field the questions.

"There are, in fact, four allegations. Those allegations ... have been brought to our attention," MacKay said.

He repeated the statement in French, saying that one complaint was made in Kandahar and three in Kabul.

That was later confirmed by a MacKay spokesperson, who told the Star in an email that there were two new cases of possible abuse.

In fact, there have been six reports of abuse – four since Canada signed a new prisoner transfer agreement with Afghan authorities on May 3, said France Bureau, a Foreign Affairs spokesperson.

Three complaints originated in Kabul and three in Kandahar, she said.
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Singapore detains suspected jihadist, 4 alleged terror group members
The Associated Press Saturday, June 9, 2007
SINGAPORE: Singaporean authorities said they have detained a local man who intended to join mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan after being influenced by extremist propaganda on the Internet, and four suspected members of the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

All are being held under the Internal Security Act, which allows arrest without charges and indefinite detention without trial, the Home Affairs Ministry said.

The suspected jihadist, a 28-year-old former lecturer named Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, traveled to a Middle Eastern country last October to learn Arabic to communicate with mujahedeen fighters, it said in a statement late Friday.

Abdul Basheer was planning to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in Pakistan before crossing over into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban, the ministry said.

Before his arrest in the unidentified Middle Eastern country in February, Abdul Basheer had purchased an air ticket to Pakistan, but he was repatriated to Singapore before he could make the flight, the ministry said.

It described Abdul Basheer as a "self radicalized" former lawyer and lecturer at a school who in late 2004 decided that he had to become part of what radical Muslims consider a holy war, or jihad, to defend territories and ideals they see as being under attack by the West.

It said his views were shaped by radical discourse that he actively followed on the Internet.

"There is a troubling new phenomenon today of individuals who are self-radicalized, independent of direct recruitment by established terrorist groups," the ministry said.

Authorities also detained four Singaporeans suspected of being members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a loose network of Muslim militants, between November 2006 and April, while five previously detained JI suspects were released at the beginning of June, it said. It did not explain the delay in announcing the detentions.

The four detainees, identified as Ishak Mohamed Noohu, Mohamed Hussain Saynudin, Mohamed Yassin Mohamed Nooh and Ibrahim Mohd Noor, are alleged to have undergone terrorist training with various militant groups in the Philippines, Pakistan or Malaysia, the statement said.

The ministry said they had plotted attacks on foreign targets in the city-state or helped raise funds for Jemaah Islamiyah.

Singapore — a close ally of the U.S. — was recently named an al-Qaida target according to a transcript from al-Qaida operative Khalid Sheikh Mohamed's so-called Combatant Status Review Tribunal, held recently at the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The island nation was also the apparent target of a plot by Jemaah Islamiyah to blow up the U.S. Embassy, a U.S. Naval facility and other Western targets in 2001. Nearly 40 alleged operatives were arrested in a security swoop then.
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What is a burqa?
The Associated Press Friday, June 8, 2007
Burqas typically consist of a round, embroidered cap on the top and long fabric extending out on all sides. The fabric in front has a webbed viewing slit with embroidery around it, and extends to the thighs. The sides and back are pleated, allowing a gentle billowing in the wind as well as freedom of movement.

In conservative Afghan families, a girl will start wearing a burqa in her early teens, when she hits puberty or physically looks like a woman.

Conservative Afghans believe a woman should not be seen by men outside her family, which is a serious matter of dignity and honor.

A woman puts on her burqa before leaving home and wears it when walking around town, sitting in the car or shopping. She sometimes pulls the front of the burqa back over her head to reveal her face, so she can see and breathe more freely, but if she passes a man, she will quickly pull the burqa back down.

Afghan elders and academics say the burqa is believed to have come from northern Afghanistan or India, and spread across the country in the late 1800s.

In the 20th century, King Amanullah Khan and Prime Minister Mohammad Daud both tried unsuccessfully at separate times to get rid of the burqa, but it has never gone away in the provinces and outside central Kabul.

When the Taliban came into power in 1996, they mandated that women could not leave home without a male relative or their burqa. Women were allowed out unaccompanied and burqa-free again after the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
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Taliban gone, but burqa still here — with new fabrics, less fuss
The Associated Press Friday, June 8, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan: Without lifting her all-covering veil, an Afghan woman examines blue burqas draping the walls of a Kabul shop. She fingers various shades of pleated fabric — steel gray-blue, lighter and brighter blues_ and pulls them off their hooks, one by one, to see if the cap fits and length is right.

She is young, maybe in her early-20s. Though she's hidden beneath the burqa she already wears, she is obviously meticulous about her looks — like many Afghan women under the veil. She wears a pretty, emerald green matching tunic and pants, and cute, strappy sandals.

Touching the blue or white embroidered designs with fingers adorned with glossy red nail polish — which was banned under the Taliban — and gold rings, she haggles a price with the male shopkeeper.

"I'm happy wearing it. This is Afghan culture," says the shy young woman, her captivating, kohl-ringed eyes glimpsed through the window of burqa webbing over her face.

After buying a new burqa at the outdoor shop in the capital, she hurries off before giving her name.

Despite advances in women's rights — including the right to venture out in public without a male relative — since the Taliban regime fell more than five years ago, many Afghan women still wear the shroud-like gowns that were mandatory under the hardline militia's rule.

A bustling cottage industry supports the continuing demand. But the traditional art of dyeing and pleating the flowing garments is disappearing, as cotton is replaced by imported synthetics that do not lose their color or shape.

The mandatory burqa law went the way of the Taliban five years ago, and many women in the capital swapped their full-length burqas for simpler, lighter scarves that cover their hair, neck and shoulders, in the name of liberation and simply comfort.

Some women wear larger chadors, which come down to the thighs but still reveal the face. These scarves come in cotton or wool, and various colors and designs. Schoolgirls wear small white scarves that cover their hair, while young women wear bright scarves with glitter and rhinestones.

But the burqa remains ubiquitous in conservative regions inhabited by Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and across the border in northwestern Pakistan.

In the southern city of Kandahar and outlying villages, few women venture onto the street without one — or even walk outside their homes at all. Conservative Afghans believe a woman should not be seen by men outside her family — a serious matter of dignity and honor.

Many women complain how uncomfortable a burqa is. It's difficult to breathe, and wearing the tight burqa cap all day tangles their hair and puts uncomfortable pressure on the scalp. When they comb their hair, it falls out in clumps.

Some women who only started wearing the burqa during the Taliban were so unaccustomed to their muffled sensory perception and vision that they would stumble and fall.

But those who wear the burqa say it gives them freedom from harassment by men on the streets, as well as their families. They say they feel naked without it. Some choose the burqa as a form of protest against Western culture and clothes.

Nasrin Marzid, a mother in her early 40s, put her thumb and forefinger up to her temples to show where the cap and its long, heavy cloak used to squeeze her head.

"My forehead hurt, so I just wear a chador now," said Nasrin. "My husband can't say anything because it was causing me pain."

The best burqas are made of cotton — breathable and cool in summer, warm in the winter. But they've been largely eclipsed by the polyester Herati burqa, which keeps its pleats and color.

Cotton ones have to be dyed occasionally because they fade, and then re-pleated each time they are laundered or dyed.

Shah Wali works at a tiny shop in Kabul and used to dye about 250 to 300 burqas per week before the Herati burqa, named after the western city where it is believed to have originated, first came into vogue about 10 years ago.

Now, because the new Herati burqa does not fade, Wali does only about five a week, using a small cauldron heated by a wood-burning fire. His profession is rapidly fading out, and he said he would gladly trade his cauldron for a taxi to drive for a living instead.

Wali's daughter, Hanifa Rahimi, 18, has the tiring, tedious job of pleating. She earns 10 Afghanis, about 20 U.S. cents, for each burqa, which has between 320 and 400 pleats and takes about half an hour to finish.

She wets the garment with a mixture of egg whites and starch, and then folds each pleat, working her way down the burqa 15 centimeters (6 inches) at a time. She then sets it to dry in the sun, weighed down by several stones to keep the pleats intact.

Large-pleated burqas cost about 250 to 400 Afghanis, or about US$5 (€3.75) to US$8 (€6) each; those with more pleats cost 1,500 Afghanis, around US$20 (€15). Burqas also come in different sizes and with embroidered designs around the webbing at the eyes and on the edges.

Most burqas are blue, though it's not clear why this has become the color of choice. In the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, women opt for white. In Kabul shops, they also come in grass green, cardinal red and mustard yellow, but they are mostly sold as souvenirs to foreigners.

Women use older burqas for going to the market or running errands. For weddings and other important functions they wear nicer, newer burqas, which they take off once they enter segregated areas for women.

Women usually cover their arms all the way to their wrists, and their legs to their ankles. Under the burqa, which still reveals the front of the legs, older women dress more traditionally, with long skirts layered over old-fashioned, white, frilly, ankle-length underpants, and black, low-heeled shoes. Younger women wear colorful and trendy tunics with loose-fitting pants and, often, platform sandals.

Sometimes women wear low-cut or sleeveless blouses for special occasions, but put on fake sleeves so they look like they are wearing long-sleeved shirts.

They often wear a lot of makeup, which comes off on the burqa, and which is mainly for friends and family, though the eyes can still be seen through the burqa's webbing.

Burqa-clad women can be identified as young, old or fashionable by the way they walk, their clothes, shoes, bracelets, rings and nail polish.

Still, for many wearers the burqa is less a fashion accessory than a burden, foisted on them by overprotective male relatives who won't let them venture outside without it.

Dr. Saibzada, an obstetrician at a maternity hospital in Kabul, said that her husband could not care less if she wore a burqa or not. But their family members — most of them illiterate — dealt her an ultimatum.

"They told me that if I want to stop wearing the burqa, then I have to stop working, so I do it to keep my family happy," she said at the hospital, her burqa pulled back to reveal her face so that only the crown of her head, shoulders and back were covered.

"I want to stop wearing the burqa, but my family won't let me."

Khaja Ahmed Sadeqi, chief cleric at a mosque north of Kabul, said that was un-Islamic.

"If a woman wants to wear a burqa, no one should say don't wear it. It is her choice. If a woman does not want to wear a burqa, and someone forces her to do so, this is a violation of Islamic law," said Sadeqi, who also serves as a Supreme Court judge.

"The Afghan burqa is merely a social custom. In some areas, this social custom has become religion."
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Playing with Fire in Afghanistan's North
Recent protests in Jowzjan may signal attempts to chip away at central government.
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in northern Afghanistan (ARR No. 256, 8-June-07)
The idea that northern Afghanistan is a safe and sleepy place is fast becoming a thing of the past. The spreading Taleban presence, a thriving trade in illicit arms, and now violent political manoeuvring are turning formerly calm provinces into increasingly volatile areas that could soon pose a serious threat to the Kabul government.

Most recently, the capital of Jowzjan province, Shiberghan, was the scene of a massive protests that spilled over into violence, leaving at least ten people dead and 40 injured.

Thousands of supporters of General Abdul Rashid Dostum rioted on May 28 in Shiberghan. They were demanding the removal of Jowzjan’s governor, Juma Khan Hamdard, whom they accused of incompetence and ethnic prejudice.

Hamdard is an ethnic Pashtun, in a province dominated by Uzbeks loyal to Dostum.

Protesters poured into the streets and then attacked the governor’s residence. The local authorities claim that some of the demonstrators were armed and fired shots at police. The police opened fire, killing and wounding dozens.

The provincial authorities declared a state of emergency, closing schools, shops and government offices. They also imposed a curfew.

“This action was not directed against me; it was a plot by Dostum against the Islamic State of Afghanistan,” Hamdard told IWPR. “We have photographic proof that his supporters ripped down [President Hamed] Karzai’s portrait from police headquarters during the protests and replaced it with Dostum’s.”

According to Hamdard, the demonstrators had the same aim when they mobbed his residence.

“They wanted to attack the governor’s house, burn the national flag of Afghanistan and the president’s portrait,” he said. “They wanted to hoist the banner of Junbesh-e-Melli and put up Dostum’s picture.”
According to Hamdard, Dostum himself appeared in Shiberghan on the day of the protests, accompanied by armoured Land Cruisers and dozens of armed guards.

“We tried to keep Dostum’s men from entering the governor’s house, but they kept up their attacks and they opened fire on the police, so the police and army had to defend themselves,” he said.
General Mohammad Khalil Aminzada, chief of police in Jowzjan province, denied that the security forces had fired on peaceful protesters.

“This was not a demonstration; it was an armed attack on the governor’s house,” he told IWPR. “There were police in placed a first defensive ring around the site, but protestors used extreme violence to break that line. They then proceeded to the governor’s residence, injuring three policemen. When they got to the second and last line of defence, Afghan National Army forces had to shoot.”

FORMER MILITIA CHIEF TURNED POLITICIAN STILL WIELDS POWER
Shiberghan is Dostum’s home base, from where the Uzbek general maintained a tight grip of large parts of the north during the civil war of the early Nineties.
His political faction, Junbesh-e-Milli-ye-Islami, is firmly rooted in the north.

Dostum was one of the best-known of the Afghan “warlords”. After starting out as a militia leader fighting for the Soviet-backed regime against the mujahedin, he went on to ally himself or fight against almost all the warring sides in the subsequent internecine strife. There have been persistent allegations of human rights abuses committed by his troops.

While popular among his Uzbek supporters, Dostum is disliked by Afghanistan’s Pashtun majority, in large part because of atrocities committed against the Taleban.

According to reports from well-placed insiders, Dostum still has tens of thousands of men under arms in the north. If this is the case, it would be testimony to the failure of foreign-backed disarmament programmes such as DDR (Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration) and DIAG (Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups).

According to the governor, Dostum is on a mission to recapture some of his lost glory. “This constitutes pressure on central government; Dostum is trying to claw back some of his lost privileges and take back some of his former posts,” he said.

Earlier in President Karzai’s administration, Dostum held the post of deputy defence minister for a time. In a highly controversial move, the president brought Dostum to Kabul in early 2005 to fill the largely ceremonial post of chief of staff to the armed forces high command. The general has reportedly chafed at his lack of any real authority.

REPORTS OF MEN ARMING IN THE COUNTRYSIDE
Nor is the general confining his efforts to Shiberghan, according to Hamdard.

“Dostum is once again distributing weapons to his old commanders and militias and inciting people to rise against the government in all the villages of Jowzjan,” he said. “Right now, guns have been distributed to all the villages around the capital. If they are not completely disarmed, things could get dangerous.”

Police chief Aminzade agreed that the security situation was deteriorating.

“This Junbesh-i-Milli is not a political party, although unfortunately it has covered itself under this title,” he said. “In fact, it is a military faction within the government.”

He said Dostum had armed 4,000 men and deployed them around the entire city.

“If the government does not deal seriously with this problem, violence against the government will continue,” he said.

PRO-DOSTUM PARTY SAYS HAMDARD MUST GO
Junbesh rejects all the accusations, and denies it had a hand in fomenting violence, which it blames instead on the governor.

“This was a popular movement,” said Sayed Noorullah, the Junbesh party. “We, as a political party, support this democratic initiative.”

Humayoon Khairi, Dostum’s spokesman, agreed.

“The protestors had legal and democratic demands,” he told IWPR. “They were not armed, nor were they violent - the government just shot them.

“The real blame for the violence lies with the governor. People under his command shot the protestors. If the governor was not behind it, then he is incompetent in that he did not control his police.”
Khairi said the unrest would continue until Hamdard was gone.

“If the governor does not leave his post, and if those who shot the protesters are not brought to court, then there will be more extended demonstrations in all the northern provinces,” he said.

During the war against the Soviets, Hamdard was a commander with the largely Pashtun faction Hezb-e-Islami led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is now branded a terrorist by the United States.

After the fall of the Taleban, Hamdard aligned himself with Dostum and became governor of Baghlan province. He was removed from that post, also in the wake of demonstrations, and assigned to Jowzjan.
His relations with Dostum have since soured considerably.

KARZAI TO MEDIATE
The Afghan government has sent a delegation of parliamentarians and some ministers to Jowzjan to investigate the incident.

Mueen Mrastial, a member of parliament appointed spokesperson for the delegation, told a press conference in Mazar-e-Sharif on June 2, “After viewing a video recording of the demonstration, we have concluded that it was orchestrated by Junbish-e-Milli. Protestors were holding Dostum’s portrait and shouting ‘Long Live Dostum’. This clearly indicates that Dostum was behind it.”

Mrastial said President Karzai would try to mediate in the conflict. “Karzai has asked the governor and Dostum to come to Kabul so that he can talk to them in person, and I hope this problem will be solved peacefully,” he said.

Karim Rahimi, spokesman for the president’s office, told reporters in late May that those found to be responsible for the violence would be prosecuted.

“Every Afghan has the right to protest in a peaceful manner, but the government will never allow protests to turn violent and result in killing,” he said.

WERE THE PROTESTS ORCHESTATED BY THE NEW AFGHAN OPPOSITION?
Some observers believe the unrest has less to do with Dostum’s pique at losing power than with the emergence of a new Afghan political force, the National United Front. They argue that the new group may be trying to assert itself by shaking the government’s grip in the provinces.

“Junbesh is now a branch of the National United Front, and this action against the government is, in fact, a move by the Front,” said Qayum Babak, a political analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif.

The National United Front was set up just three months ago, bringing disparate political forces together in a bloc opposed to the central government.

“Dostum and the rest of the opposition have more power than the government, and they want to run the northern provinces themselves,” said Babak.

“If the Karzai administration gives in to their demands, it will be the beginning of an erosion of governmental authority in other provinces as well.”

Muhammad Farid Hakimi, another political analyst in the north, thinks it is Dostum’s personal ambition that has set Junbesh on a collision course with Karzai’s government.

“Dostum has never been happy with the post given him by the central government,” said Hakimi. “So he and his partners are trying to pressure the government into giving him more privileges.”

However, he agreed that the National United Front is playing some role in the process.

“The Karzai administration has lost the ability to manage the country,” he said. “The National Front wants power in the provinces. We are going to see more and more of this types of protests. If the situation continues like this, the crisis will spread in Afghanistan day by day.”

The situation in Shiberghan highlights the fact that Karzai now has two opposition fronts to contend with - the Taleban and the “jihadi” parties.

The National United Front has denied playing an active role in the protests.

Mustafa Kazimi, spokesperson for the Front, told a press conference in late May that the government was just looking for a scapegoat.

“The government is trying to repress the people,” he said. “We advise the government to maintain an open dialogue with the people. Blaming some party for everything that happens is not helpful.”

“DAMN THEM ALL!”
People in Shiberghan are incensed by the renewed outbreak of violence.

“Damn them all!” said Muhammad Anwar, a shopkeeper. “The price of food is sky-high, and the shops are all closed. I don’t care whether we have a governor or not – but we were living in peace. Now the city is full of soldiers, and we can’t sleep at night for fear of fighting.”

He shed tears as he added, “It is just like the civil war years. We were just starting to learn to breathe again, and now these leaders are at it again.

“By God, it is enough! We cannot tolerate these power-hungry people any more. Please, please, leave us alone.”

Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi is an IWPR staff reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif. 
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Afghan national police dying at record rate
The Washington Times 06/08/2007 By Jason Motlagh
KABUL, Afghanistan -National police are dying at a record rate so far this year and need urgent financial and technical support if a robust Taliban insurgency is to be defeated in distant provinces, the Interior Ministry says.

More than 200 police officers have been killed since late March, with a marked increase in suicide and roadside bombings compared to last year, ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told The Washington Times.

"We've lost a big number of our police forces in attacks this year. We are witnessing big casualties," he said.

Police are more vulnerable than Afghan army and international security forces because they are often the only law enforcement on the ground in isolated areas of the southern and eastern provinces, where the Taliban are most active, Mr. Bashary said.

The deadliest recent attack on police was a Taliban ambush last week in southern Zabul province that left 16 officers dead. On Wednesday, a district police chief in eastern Paktika province was killed when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle.

In another incident last Friday, militants attacked a police officer's house in southern Ghazni province, killing five members of his family, according to local officials, indicating that even relatives or those who cooperate with police are targeted.

The spokesman noted that despite some improvements in staffing and training, the police force still has "low capacity and capability" to cope with an enemy that regularly strikes with heavy weapons such as mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

"What the police have to face them and resist are AK-47s, and at the maximum, PKMs. That's it," he said, referring to a higher-caliber Soviet-made machine gun.

The combination of poor equipment and low salaries has made it difficult to recruit sufficient numbers of police, especially in risk areas, he said.

Some districts with populations of more than 100,000 have relied on just 25-30 men whose duties are stretched over law enforcement, protecting civilians from roving Taliban militants and drug eradication.
The average Afghan policeman makes just $70 a month, but the Interior Ministry still expects to boost ranks by 20,000 men from the current level of roughly 62,000 over the next two years.

Officers only will receive a raise in salary due to continued funding shortages, Mr. Bashary said.

Traditional tribal policing systems being formed

By comparison, Afghan army troops earn $100 a month plus up to $60 more for travel expenses. The Taliban is known to pay four times this amount thanks to high drug profits.

Analysts say lackluster salaries and slim prospects for advancement have the added backlash of encouraging graft and predatory tendencies in the Afghan police to a degree that has fed distrust among the people they are meant to protect.

"Often little more than private militias, [the national police] are regarded in nearly every district more as a source of insecurity than protection," said a recent report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.

"Instead of gaining the confidence of communities, their often-predatory behavior alienates locals further."

To compensate, some provinces have seen the formation of traditional tribal policing systems. The Ghazni provincial police chief, for example, has said he could summon at least 500 militia if needed, with similar claims from officials in other troubled provinces.

A United Nations-World Bank report released in November says drug-related corruption has severely undercut efforts to combat opium production, which is expected to top last year's record harvest.
Mr. Bashary conceded that corruption is a grave threat in all its forms, calling on foreign partners to help the Afghan government provide better pay and equipment to police.

"The international community needs to pay much more attention to the police because it's them you'll find on the ground engaging with people and their everyday needs," he said. "They need to be much supported and much enhanced if we want good results here."
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Losing Afghanistan
Khaleej Times BY RAMZY BAROUD 9 June 2007
IN A statement made available through the country's Foreign Office, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khursheed Mahmood Kasuri chastised the "international community" for the "abandonment" of Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989. In his estimation, it was this attitude that created the conditions which eventually culminated in the rise of the Taleban, the hosts of Al Qaeda.

The statement was reportedly made at the G-8 Foreign Ministers' recent conference in Potsdam, Germany, according to Pakistan's Daily Times. Kasuri was, expectedly, packaging his critique within a context specific to Pakistan's own concerns: namely the 2.4 million Afghan refugees -- according to UNHCR figures – and who have crossed the border into Pakistan seeking shelter and relative safety. Moreover, Pakistan, under consistent censure for allegedly failing to hunt down Taleban and Al Qaeda militants operating around its Western border, deployed 90,000 soldiers into those regions; border skirmishes, sporadic gun battles but increasingly sustained bombardment campaigns of tribal areas – suspected of being safe haven for Al Qaeda militants – have left thousands dead and wounded since the American war on Afghanistan in October 2001.

The tension created by Pakistan's somewhat proxy role in reining in US foes is complicating the government's mission in asserting itself as an independent entity whose main concern is the welfare of its own people. But tension in Pakistan, which runs through tribal and political lines, is hardly comparable to the simmering situation in Afghanistan itself, where anger directed at the Kabul government and its coalition benefactors is boiling to the point that another violent upsurge is imminent.

Hamid Karzi, crown president of Afghanistan in charade elections to rule over a disjointed country and discontented population is still incapable of exercising his power beyond the municipal borders of the capital; but even that level of control is gradually more difficult to maintain as a spate of suicide bombers is promising to turn Kabul into another Baghdad. But since his ascent to power in October 2004, Karzai has little to show for, save endless pledges of financial support he solicited, 40 billion USD to be exact, out of which little arrived, and the money that was made available is hardly improving people's lives – corruption in Afghanistan is, unsurprisingly, rife. Billions have been spent on Afghanistan nonetheless, by NATO/US forces on military equipment, whose firepower effectiveness is anything but debatable among Afghan civilians.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead reported on May 31, "Afghans' Anger over US Bombing" merely details one of many such incidents in which scores of innocent civilians are killed; such reports are ever more rare since they are simply not newsworthy – the worth of a news story from Afghanistan is measured by whether coalition forces incurred causalities or not. The recent killings in the village of Shindand in the Zerkoh Valley, Western Afghanistan was harrowing by any standards. 57 were reportedly killed by American bombardment; half of the dead were women and children, according to Leithead; the bombardment also destroyed 100 homes, humble dwellings that are unlikely to be rebuilt soon.

"The bombardments were going on day and night. Those who tried to get out somewhere safe were being bombed. They didn't care if it was women, children or old men," said one of the survivors. But who would believe Mohammad Zarif Achakzai, who fled his mud house with his family under the relentless bombardment? Brig Gen Joseph Votel has simply dismissed the reports of civilian causalities. "We have no reports that confirm to us that non-combatants were injured or killed out in Shindand," he said. And that is that.

Shindand is not under Taleban control, at least not yet. Much of the country, mostly in the south but increasingly elsewhere is falling under the control of Taleban extremists. The Taleban offers job security to the men and an opportunity for revenge and even martyrdom; in many parts of Afghanistan, such offers are exceedingly appealing.

Fearless British journalist Chris Sands of the Independent, one of very few journalists reporting from Taleban controlled areas, tells me that it's only a matter of time before Afghanistan turns into an Iraq-like inferno. Indeed, Taleban's regrouping efforts have been astonishingly successful as of late. Taleban militants have managed to ambush and kill 16 government police officers just hours after killing seven Coalition soldiers – including five Americans – by shooting down their chopper over the Helmand province on May 30. These confirmed numbers are often balanced out with unconfirmed government report of many Taleban's militants killed by government forces; it's often the case that these reports overlook the much higher number of civilian casualties.

Foreign powers are clearly failing in Afghanistan; they neither won hearts and minds nor contributed to the stability and rebuilding of the country in any meaningful way – 60 per cent of the country's economy is now dependent on narcotics exports. In fact, Afghanistan represents a perfect case of the proverbial "cut and run" that President George Bush avows not to commit in Iraq. Needless to say, the only assignment that the US and its allies seem seriously committed to is that of maintaining its military regime, predicated on the utter reliance of firepower regardless of the outcome.

Afghanistan's two foreign military missions: Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), with its 37,000 troops and the US-led Coalition: Operation Enduring Freedom are affectively losing their pseudo control over the country. Taleban is gaining strength and is regenerating, not because of their remarkable theological alternative to democracy, but precisely because all of the rosy promises made late 2001 and early 2002 yielded a most repressive regime, marred with corruption, insecurity, warlords, and incessant Coalition attacks on civilian localities throughout the country. When Afghans turn back into supporting the Taleban, one can only imagine how desperate they've become.

Pakistan's Foreign Minister Kasuri is obviously right, though his intentions might be self-serving; "abandonment" is a befitting term to describe the so-called international community's attitude towards Afghanistan; that abandonment brought the Taleban to power following the chaos resulting from the ousting of the Soviets and their puppet regime in 1989 – subsequent civil war in Afghanistan then killed more than 50,000 people in Kabul alone – is shaping a bizarrely similar scenario that is giving rise to the same loathed grouping; The Taleban could soon find itself in a strong bargaining position, that even the Americans themselves cannot ignore; the Taleban's "Spring Offensive" might've been delayed, but the balance is clearly tipping in favour of the Taleban, in a war that promises more of the same sorrows.

Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian author and journalist. His latest volume: The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle (Pluto Press: London) is available at Amazon.com. He is the editor of PalestineChronicle.com and can be contacted at editor@palestinechronicle.com 
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An insurgency beyond the Taliban
Asia Times 06/08/2007 By Syed Saleem Shahzad 
HERAT - Most insurgency-related activity in Afghanistan over the past year, with the Taliban at the core, has been concentrated in the southwest and southeast of the country.

However, trouble is brewing in the northwest, along the Iran-Afghanistan border, although the underlying motivations for opposing the Kabul administration and North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led forces are markedly different from other regions.

Into the lion's den From Herat, our car traveled for two hours on the state-of-the art highway that loops across the country to Kandahar in the southeast. We then turned off on a minor dirt road toward the Shindand district of Herat province.

As far as the eye could see there were dusty plains and dry mountains. The going was rough, but the driver did not want to slow down in this notoriously lawless district, in stark contrast to Herat city and its surrounds.

After more than an hour we stopped at the half-burned building that serves as the Kabul-anointed district administration's headquarters. The building was set on fire by an angry mob after a NATO bombardment in the last week of April of Bakht village in Shindand district in which 136 people died.

NATO claimed that the victims were Taliban, but all subsequent reports show that most of them were ordinary citizens, and the raid has resulted in a surge of support for the insurgency. Afghan officials have even confirmed that 57 of the dead were civilians.

This was the second major development in April in the area in favor of the insurgency. The first was Iran's deportation of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees to the area - their resentment is driving them into the arms of the insurgency (see Iran forces the issue in Afghanistan, Asia Times Online, June 8).

Haji Mohammed Alam is the administrator of the district. Sitting in a room in which a picture of President Hamid Karzai hangs, Alam, a Barakzai Pashtun educated in Russia, expressed his concern over the April bombing.

"There are no Taliban or al-Qaeda in Shindand. People settle their old tribal feuds by feeding wrong information to NATO. NATO then carries out a bombing on the civilian population without proper investigations," Alam said.

Alam then telephoned Haji Nasru, the strongman of the Shindand district and a younger brother of slain Pashtun warlord Amanullah Nasru.

Soon we were sitting in the administrator's car heading toward the district of Zair-e-Koh, which is ruled by Nasru. The Karzai-appointed administrator was only allowed to take one police guard - no Afghan police or army are allowed into Nasru's domain. A checkpoint on top of a mountain pass manned by armed men in civilian dress marked the beginning of this domain. Armed guards in a jeep then escorted us.
"The people in Zair-e-Koh don't trust the Afghan legal system. In the past few months, religious scholars have established themselves in the villages. Each village has at least four clerics, and they settle disputes in a simplistic manner," Alam observed as we rode along.

To underline some of the tensions in the area, the administrator said that while Herat province is the only one in Afghanistan to have uninterrupted power supply, electricity is not available in Shindand.
The reason is that legendary Afghan warrior against the Soviet resistance, Ismail Khan, a Tajik, was ousted as governor of Herat and as a token gesture made minister of energy. He now makes sure that his Pashtun adversary in Shindand is kept in the dark.

After driving on a difficult track for an hour, we reached Nasru's compound. He's a thin, tall man and warmly hugged and kissed his visitor. "I am Haji Nasru," he said, adding with a smile, "Nasru the oppressed."

As it happened, a traditional tribal council was in session. It was full of elders and with relatives of those killed in the NATO bombardment.

"Every time our opponents, especially Ismail Khan, spread stories that Shindand is full of Pakistanis and Chechens - but with no evidence - NATO carries out a bombardment, and those who are killed are Afghans.

"The governor of neighboring Farah province does not have control in his area and he always blames Shindand as a hotbed of Taliban and al-Qaeda activities. But we always question this, 'If there are al-Qaeda or Pakistani fighters in Shindand, why do NATO troops not show their bodies?'" Nasru said.

"The last time they bombed villages in our district we asked for the reason. They named Mullah Akhtar Mohammed as Taliban and active in the area. But Mullah Akhtar is an ordinary person and has nothing to do with the Taliban. Of course, there were many Taliban living in our area, but now they have left the Taliban movement. But calling them Taliban and bombing them will serve no purpose; instead, it will complicate the situation," Nasru said.

Nasru's village of Kosh, about 7 kilometers from the main bombing site of Bakht village, was also hit, including his house and a school built by an Italian reconstruction team.

"Now the government admits that 57 among the dead were civilians, but it refuses to compensate their families. Only the International Committee of the Red Cross provided some aid," Nasru said.

At this point an elderly man jumped up, brandishing two identity cards issued by the Election Commission of Afghanistan. "They were my relatives. They were killed in this incident and said to be Taliban. But if they were Taliban, they could not have been registered on the election list, because the Taliban are strictly forbidden from registering for voting."

Nasru continued. "You know, we are loyal to President Hamid Karzai's government, but our opponents settle their scores against us through NATO. Sometimes they blame us for growing poppy, but you can see there is none. And sometimes they blame us for harboring Pakistani and Chechen fighters, but they never succeed in proving their presence here, dead or alive."

A visibly angry tribal elder picked up on the implicit threat in Nasru's comments: "I tell you one thing, that resentment against NATO is growing among us. They suddenly conduct raids in our areas and do not care about the sanctity of our homes. The next time this happens, I will declare war against them."

Haji Bismal, a middle-aged villager, continued the theme. "NATO has a bizarre explanation for everything. Once they arrested some people from our area and took them to Bagram base [near Kabul]. They were asked to recite some verses from the Koran. When they did, they were declared as Taliban.

"I tell you, the Soviet army was far better than the Americans. At least they used to warn us before an attack to withdraw our families and children. NATO does not care about anything, and it bombs an area without caring about women and children. You will have seen our devastated homes; what relation do we have with any fighting or with the Taliban?"

Administrator Alam has petitioned Kabul to have Shindand, which is predominantly Pashtun in an otherwise Tajik-Sunni province, declared a separate province. Karzai agreed in principle, but the matter is winding its way through the bureaucracy.

During the Taliban regime (1996-2001) many people from Shindand joined the Taliban, but eventually moved on to exile in Iran. Now they are being returned against their will. And incidents like the bombing of Bakht serve as a catalyst to increase the anti-foreign movement in northwestern Afghanistan, even if it has nothing to do with the Taliban movement.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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Netting big drug smugglers beyond govt capacity: Minister
KABUL, June 7 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Top-ranking functionaries might be linked to the drug commerce, but netting them was beyond government control, the counter-narcotics minister said on Thursday.
"We can't drag anyone, particularly the big guns, to court in the absence of incriminating evidence," Eng. Habibullah Qadri told a news conference here. All those apprehended hitherto were small-time traffickers, he admitted.

The minister recalled a government official, recently arrested on drug charges by the Interior Ministry, was ordered freed by court for lack of inctrovertible proof. Without naming the official, Qadri added, even residents of the area had confirmed his complicity in the unlawful trade.

"So far, no big fish could be netted, because we are unable to touch the real culprits," acknowledged the minister, who argued the counter-narcotics personnel needed advanced training and equipment to tape suspects' telephone calls and conduct elaborate investigations against them.

As of now, according to the minister, 900 drug-related cases are being processed by prosecutors. The Interior Ministry estimates 110,000 Afghan nationals are involved in drug smuggling.

Qadri explained the government was not reliant on poppy eradication and prosecution of smugglers alone in its counter-narcotics campaign.

He added they were working on a five-year national strategy that envisaged an alternative livelihood programme for poppy farmers, detoxification of addicts and proper enforcement of relevant laws.

For combating the menace, the minister said, they had set up a Counter-Narcotics Trust Fund (CNTF) within the framework of his ministry. Around 23 millions dollars from the fund have so far been spent on a large number of reconstruction projects.

The CNTF has received $42 million of the $75 million pledges made by a dozen countries, led by Britain with $44 million assistance.
Reported by Zubair Babakarkhel
Translated & edited by S. Mudassir Ali Shah
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