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November 6, 2007 

Afghan suicide blast leaves 100 dead or wounded
by Sardar Ahmad
KABUL (AFP) - Around 100 people including six lawmakers were killed or wounded in a suicide bombing Tuesday at a sugar factory in northern Afghanistan, one of the worst attacks since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Government officials said the bomber blew himself up in the factory in the northern province of Baghlan just as a parliamentary economics committee was visiting.

"Several people, including civilians, children and at least six MPs were martyred," presidential spokesman Homayun Hamidzada told AFP.

Officials were not immediately able to provide a breakdown of the dead and wounded in the immediate aftermath of the late afternoon blast in the town of Pul-i-Khumri, about 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Kabul.

"According to initial reports from our local health and hospital officials, there are 100 people killed and injured," Ahmad Shah Shokohmand, director of provincial health departments in the public health ministry in Kabul told AFP.

"In one hospital we have got 42 people admitted and in another hospital nine bodies have been brought," Shokohmand said.

The interior ministry said earlier that 50 were dead and wounded. It was a suicide attack, spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

Afghan media cited witnesses saying mutilated bodies littered the scene of the attack, which was covered in blood. Many of the wounded were in a critical condition, they said.

There were about 18 MPs in the delegation that visited the factory, said a lawmaker in Kabul, Daud Sultanzai. His information was that five MPs were dead and at least three wounded.

Bodyguards and other members of the delegation were also killed, he added.

The lawmakers were on a tour of Baghlan province, another parliamentarian, Shukria Barakzai, told AFP in Kabul.

Those dead included Mustafa Kazimi, who headed the parliament's economics committee and a former government commerce minister, she said.

"The president condemned this attack in the strongest terms possible," said Hamidzada, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai.

"This is the act of the enemies of the people of Afghanistan."

A helicopter was sent from Kabul to evacuate some of the wounded, according to a parliament official. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said it was also mustering help.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but there have been around 120 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, most of them blamed on the extremist Taliban movement waging an intensifying insurgency.

However, one of the Taliban's main spokesmen, Zabihullah Mujahed, said his organisation was not involved in the latest attack.

Northern Afghanistan, including Baghlan, has seen relatively little of the daily violence plaguing Afghanistan and blamed on the Taliban.

The hardline Islamic Taliban were in government from 1996 until they were ousted in late 2001 by a US-led coalition following the September 11 attacks that year in the United States.

The Taliban's insurgency has grown in strength year after year -- more than 5,000 people have been killed in unrest this year, most of them rebels.

In the past week, insurgents have also driven security forces out of three districts in southern and central Afghanistan, and claim to have captured the areas. The government says it will launch operations soon to drive them out.

About 25 "terrorists" were meanwhile killed in an air strike in the western province of Badghis late Monday, an army general said.

The Taliban are allied with the Al-Qaeda network and are said to be trained and supplied across the border in Pakistan, where rebel leaders are thought to have fled after their government was driven out.

While the Taliban lead the campaign against the government, other Islamist outfits are also involved. They include that of former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who operates in the north and east.
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Bombs targeting Afghan lawmakers kill 64
By AMIR SHAH Associated Press November 6, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan - Two bombs targeted a group of lawmakers in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing at least 64 people, including five members of parliament, in the deadliest attack in the country since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, officials said.

The bombs exploded outside a sugar factory in the northern province of Baghlan as the lawmakers were about to enter. The twin blasts struck children, elders and government officials who had gathered to greet the visiting delegation of 18 lawmakers from the lower house, officials said.

At least 64 people were killed, said a government minister who asked not to be identified because he was releasing information not yet made official. At least five members of parliament were among those killed, he said.

Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker, said 18 of the 249 lower house parliamentarians had traveled to Baghlan province, and that 13 were dead or "in danger."

Baghlan lies about 95 miles north of Kabul.

If the death toll is confirmed, the attack would be the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Taliban bombers have killed regional governors in the past, but never have militants killed so many high-ranking officials in one attack.

In June, a bomb tore through a bus carrying police instructors in Kabul, killing 35 people.

Kamin Khan, a police official, said people "everywhere" were dead and wounded, including police, children, lawmakers and officials from the Department of Agriculture.

Among the lawmakers killed was Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, a former Afghan commerce minister and a powerful member of the Northern Alliance, said the lawmaker's secretary, Ahmadi, who gave only one name. Kazimi also served as the spokesman of the largest opposition group in Afghanistan, the National Front.

The northern Afghan region where the blast happened is known for tensions between the mainly ethnic Tajik government leadership and remnants of the militant group Hezb-i-Islami, whose fugitive leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an ethnic Pashtun, is allied to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida but has denied organizational links.

Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary did not confirm the deaths of any parliamentarians, saying several had been taken to the hospital. He said the lawmakers were part of parliament's economic commission.

He said the government was trying to tally all the wounded and dead at the different hospitals.

He blamed the attack on the "enemy of Afghanistan, the enemy of the people of Afghanistan," a term commonly used here to refer to Taliban militants but that could also include other terrorist groups like al-Qaida.

In central Afghanistan, 60 Taliban militants on motorbikes and pickup trucks overran a district center, firing on the town from a mountain outlook, pushing out the police and cutting off the town's main road, the provinvial governor said Tuesday.

The Kajran district, in Day Kundi province, is the third overrun by militants in the last week.

Day Kundi's governor, Sultan Ali Uruzgani, said police retreated late Monday when 60 Taliban on motorbikes and trucks stormed the town. One militant was killed and one policeman wounded in fighting, he said.

Fighting broke out around Kajran five days ago, he said. Since then, the Taliban have been firing artillery into the town from a mountain overlook and on Monday blocked the main road, Uruzgani said.

Uruzgani said he asked the Afghan government and NATO for reinforcements but that the area hasn't received any such support yet. The district borders Helmand and Uruzgan provinces, which have both seen heavy fighting this year.
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Taliban rocket attack misses Mackay
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail November 6, 2007 at 10:18 AM EST
Defence Minister Peter MacKay escaped a Taliban rocket attack this morning as a small base he was visiting came under fire from insurgents.

Bodyguards for the Defence Minister removed him by helicopter shortly after two rockets landed around Forward Operating Base Wilson, a Canadian outpost about 20 kilometres west of Kandahar city.

It's unclear how far Mr. MacKay was from the blasts, one of which inflicted minor injuries on four Canadian soldiers inside the base.

The minister had been holding private meetings, and after the first impact around 11 a.m. he was whisked into an armoured vehicle for protection, out of sight journalists accompanying his visit.

The Taliban often launch old Russian 105-milimetre rockets at larger military bases in southern Afghanistan, but they usually lack any aiming devices for the weapons and they rarely inflict serious damage.

An accurate hit on a smaller base is far less common.

"There was an explosion. It was a loud bang," Mr. MacKay said afterwards at Kandahar Air Field. "When it happened, we heard the explosion, we heard the whistle overhead, we were told to get down and we did."

Colonel Stephane Lafaut, commander of the Canadian Operational Mentor Liaison Team, said it's only the second time in the last month that the forward base has been targeted.

"We're always nervous, every time it happens, because it's dangerous for our own troops," Col. Lafaut said. "But for sure, yeah, now that the minister is here we're more concerned."

Mr. MacKay said the attack disrupted his schedule today, but his visit to Afghanistan will continue.
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UN chief alarmed by Taliban bid to seize Afghan districts
Tue Nov 6, 2:17 AM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern about attempts by Taliban extremists to take control of some districts in Afghanistan.

"The Secretary General has followed with concern the recent fighting in Afghanistan, in particular around Kandahar and in Farah provinces, where formed groups of Taliban have attempted to take and hold certain districts," his spokeswoman said Monday.

Michele Montas said in a statement that Ban "underlines the crucial role that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan security forces are playing to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a host for terrorist and extremist groups."

Ban noted that "it is an unfortunate reality that such operations continue to be necessary in Afghanistan to bring about lasting peace and "a world without terrorism."

And he appealed to all governments involved in Afghanistan "to maintain their existing commitments in order to ensure the success of the joint effort to rebuild Afghanistan."

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fields 37,000 troops from 37 nations in Afghanistan. Separately, there are around 11,000 US-led coalition troops also battling militants from the ousted Taliban.

Early Monday, Taliban extremists briefly captured a third district in western Afghanistan but were driven out by Afghan forces and their international allies, officials said.

Taliban fighters in about 40 vehicles stormed into Khaki Safed district in the province of Farah around 1:30 am and took the administration headquarters, police and government officials said.

Farah province, which borders Iran, had its Gulistan and Bakwa districts seized by Taliban rebels last week after intense fighting.

The Taliban, in government between 1996 and 2001, have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan but have been easily ejected with the help of the multinational forces.
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20 Taliban dead in NATO-Afghan air raids: general
Tue Nov 6, 4:21 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - At least 20 Taliban-linked rebels were killed in joint NATO-Afghan air raids in western Afghanistan, an army general said Tuesday.

The raids by NATO planes and Afghan helicopter gunships targeting suspected militant hideouts in western Badghis province, on the border with Turkmenistan, were conducted late Monday, General Morad Ali told AFP.

"We carried out an operation on known terrorist hideouts. About 20 enemies were killed," said the general, who is the military commander for western Afghanistan. Other fighters fled, he added.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which is helping to quell a bloody Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, confirmed it was involved in the operation but could not give details.

Taliban militants are mostly active in southern and eastern Afghanistan but have extended their campaign into western regions in recent months, capturing two districts there last week.

The extremist Taliban were in government for five years until they were toppled in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The insurgency has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 people, mostly rebels, since January.
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Afghanistan's Karzai orders end to torture
KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai told police Tuesday to stop torturing suspects, including those involved in a Taliban-led insurgency marked by acts of brutality.

Speaking to more than 100 senior police officials in Kabul, Karzai said people were still being tortured despite improvements in his US-backed government's prison system.

"Thank God our government is 1,000 times better than it was in the past, but... there are still cases where people are threatened, even tortured," Karzai said.

"Our first task is to eliminate these tyrants, terrorists, but even if we capture such criminals, after they are captured we must treat them humanely. I repeat: respect humans and your acts must be bound to laws," he said.

Canadian rights groups have repeatedly alleged that prisoners transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops based in the south, where the Taliban's insurgency is the fiercest, are being tortured.

Canada's federal court on Monday ruled that rights groups' bid to halt the transfer of Taliban fighters captured by Canadian troops to Afghan jails could proceed.

Karzai told the police officials even "blood-sucking tyrants" should not be physically abused, and Taliban rebels must be treated humanely once they are captured.

"I want to have you promise me that we as guardians of people's security... should make the necessary efforts (so) that... the people of Afghanistan are not afraid of the government," he said.

Karzai also had praise for the country's fledgling police force, which is on the front line of the insurgency and forced to fight extremist rebels.

He said the government had to improve the care it offered the families of the roughly 700 policemen who had been killed this year.

Karzai also said improvements were needed in the payment of police salaries, which he had been told were not paid on time and were subject to irregular cuts.
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Khazaee: Iran concerned over security situation in Afghanistan
UN HQ, New York, Nov 6, IRNA
Iran's permanent UN envoy Mohammad Khazaee here on Monday voiced concern over security situation in Afghanistan and the growing threat of opium production in and drug trafficking from the country.

Khazaee voiced the concern on Iran's behalf at the 62nd UN General Assembly Session on "The Situation in Afghanistan" in New York on November 5, 2007.

The following is the full text of the Iranian envoy's speech in the UN meeting:

"In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

"Mr. President,

"May I begin by extending our gratitude to the Secretary General for his comprehensive reports on various aspects of the situation in Afghanistan, and thanking him and his Special Representative as well as all their colleagues in UNAMA for their unwavering commitment and commendable dedication to the consolidation of peace and stability in Afghanistan. We continue to stress on, and support, the central and essential role that the United Nations is playing in Afghanistan.

"Mr. President,

"In the past several years, through taking various steps in establishing democratic institutions and a vibrant political system, the Afghan people, led by President Karzai, have demonstrated their firm commitment towards a stable and democratic future.

"Moreover, the most recent report of the Secretary General on Afghanistan highlights a number of promising improvements in the economic and social fields. This, particularly, includes valuable accomplishments with regard to economic growth, education, health, building infrastructure and rural development. We commend the Afghans for these remarkable achievements and reassure them of the continuation of our full support for their endeavors to rebuild their country.

"Despite these remarkable accomplishments, much remains to be done. As indicated by the Secretary General in his report, the security situation in the country and the threat of opium production and drug trafficking have increased and continue to be of grave concern.

"Increased terrorist attacks and violence in certain parts of Afghanistan, caused by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other criminal and terrorist groups, coupled with a pervasive drug economy and the increase in the production and trafficking of narcotic drugs have created alarming challenges that seriously undermine the security of the country and beyond.

"As an immediate neighbor of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran has a vital interest in a stable, secure and prosperous Afghanistan and in an Afghanistan free from terrorism and extremism.

"Iran has always been unequivocal in its condemnation of the heinous terrorist acts committed in Afghanistan and has extended its full support to the efforts of the Afghan Government to improve the security and economic situation in the country. We believe that the increase in insecurity in Afghanistan and recent increased terrorist activities well suggest that the unwarranted attempts made by certain foreign powers in Afghanistan to appease some terrorist groups have proved to be wrong and counterproductive.

"Undoubtedly, to address the insecurity in Afghanistan, full national ownership of Afghans over the security of their country should be expedited. This can be done through, inter alia, strengthening the autonomy and integrity of the Afghan national security forces, and increasing home-grown security. Reconstruction of infrastructures, capacity-building and utilizing regional potentials for the reconstruction of the country can also contribute to the improvement of the situation in Afghanistan.

"Mr. President,

"Unfortunately, with producing 93 percent of the world's opiates, Afghanistan is experiencing the biggest opium harvest in its history.

The cultivation, production of, and trafficking in narcotic drugs in Afghanistan, which adversely affect that country's economic reconstruction and undermine its stability and security along with that of the wider region, especially neighboring countries, continue unabated.

"In our view, the impact of a pervasive drug economy on the security, rehabilitation and reconstruction of Afghanistan and the fact that terrorism and insurgency feed on drug production and trafficking, should always be kept in sight in all efforts to address the security situation and reconstruction of Afghanistan.

"Combating this menace requires a long-term and multifaceted strategy and more serious efforts by Afghanistan and the international community. Indeed, the present situation attests to the bitter fact that the international community has not been so far successful in curbing the scourge of narcotic drugs in Afghanistan, and those foreign forces in the country that have been entrusted with certain responsibilities in this regard, have not fulfilled their task satisfactorily.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has fought a costly and deadly war against heavily armed drug traffickers, almost single-handedly. Over the past 25 years, we have lost about 4000 of our great and brave law enforcement personnel who have sacrificed their lives to fight this vicious threat. We continue to be resolute at the forefront of the world-wide war against drug traffickers, and encourage others to join us in this important fight in order to save our present as well as future generations from the devastating impacts of this calamity.

"Mr. President,

"By pledging half a billion dollars in grants and credit to the reconstruction of Afghanistan, Iran has been actively participating in the country's reconstruction. We have been engaged in various infrastructure activities in Afghanistan, including in road construction, manpower training, electricity projects, humanitarian services and many other projects. Moreover, we have just started our second phase of developmental assistance to Afghanistan, amounting to $50 million, at a demanding time, while several important agreements, including a general agreement on bilateral cooperation and on capacity building of Afghan ministries, were also signed between the two countries during our President's visit to Kabul in August 2007.

"Furthermore, Iran has endured huge costs during the past three decades by hosting almost 3 million Afghan brothers and sisters as refugees. We earnestly hope that the conditions in Afghanistan would facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Afghan refugees to their home country in a more timely and promising manner.

"Before concluding, Mr. President, allow me to thank the delegation of Germany for their efforts in the negotiating process of the draft resolution at hand.

"Thank you Mr. President."
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Korea to send civilian health workers to Afghanistan
The Chosun Ilbo November 6, 2007
Early next year the Korean government plans to send up to 30 civilian medical workers to Afghanistan to offer free services there.

Yonhap News Agency reported quoting Korean government sources that Seoul intends to continue supporting reconstruction in Afghanistan even after withdrawing its troops from the country at the end of this year as scheduled.

The Korean government reportedly plans to propose the medical dispatch to the National Assembly in the near future for approval.

Korea has dispatched two military contingents to Afghanistan to provide medical services and help in reconstruction efforts.

Meanwhile Seoul's defense ministry says it will complete the pullout of some 200 Korean non-combat troops in Afghanistan before the presidential election in mid-December.
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Afghan prospects beyond our control
James Travers The Toronto Star November 6, 2007 Ottawa
Afghanistan today is a house under renovation in a rotting neighbourhood. With Pakistan plunging even deeper into dictatorship and regional instability rising, prospects for Afghanistan and Canada's mission there are as uncertain as they are laced with risk.

Particularly troubling is that this country has a big stake in events it can't control. Despite Defence Minister Peter MacKay's appeal to Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf to reinforce democratic institutions instead of resorting to martial law, Canada is just a passenger in a foreign policy the U.S. is driving.

Following the post-9/11 pattern, Washington's priorities are the War on Terror and a modicum of stability in a country that is nuclear armed and riven by Islamic extremism. The result is a reaction to Musharraf's imposition of draconian emergency powers with a diplomatic "tsk, tsk."

Committed to Musharraf's carefully packaged proposition that he's preferable to the alternatives, the U.S., with Canada watching nervously, is understandably reluctant to roll the dice on reform in Pakistan even if it advances the democratic model Washington and its allies promote. Musharraf is playing to that pragmatism by disguising his political survival in a promise to more vigorously control fundamentalists, including those flowing across the Afghanistan border.

Canada's casualties speak poignantly to what is at best Pakistan's failure and at worst its president's duplicity. In either case, this country finds itself in the awkward position of potentially benefiting militarily from Musharraf's trampling of the very freedoms Canadians are dying to defend next door.

Contradictions are hardly strangers to global complexity: For domestic political and international policy reasons, Ottawa continues ignoring the will of Palestinians as expressed by ballots, not bullets. But they serve the useful purpose of challenging all of us to test the simplistic, often jingoistic explanations for how the nation acts on the world stage.

Then and now, Afghanistan is an instructive example. First, Ottawa stumbled into war there largely hoping to please George W. Bush and without much grasp of local realities. And now, powerful forces beyond its control threaten Canada's blood and money investment.

While Ottawa debates staying in Afghanistan beyond 2009, the viability of the NATO mission is being decided in other capitals.

If Musharraf's strong-arm tactics lead to chaos, Canada's already skittish allies will be even more reluctant to share the Afghanistan combat burden. Worse, if U.S. sabre-rattling at Iran morphs into a variation of the Iraq blunder, Afghanistan will become so inhospitable that Ottawa's question will not be how long should the troops stay but how they can be brought home safely.

That concern isn't new to the departments of foreign affairs or defence. It's news to many Canadians kept in the dark by Liberals and Conservatives about both the core considerations underlying the Afghanistan mission and regional conditions that were never benign and are now self-evidently toxic.

The point isn't that Canada should cut and run, or shirk offshore duty. It's that politicians must speak clearly and citizens listen closely when young lives and tax billions are at risk.

If nothing else, the escalating Pakistan crisis teaches that lesson to a country lulled by leaders into believing it is master of its own Afghanistan fate.
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Norway could send more troops to N Afghanistan 
www.chinaview.cn  2007-11-06 07:16:44
STOCKHOLM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Defense Minister Anne-Grete Stroem-Erichsen said there is now a need to send more troops to the front line in Northern Afghanistan, according to reports reaching here on Monday.

The fighting for the control of the area west of Meymaneh in the Fayab region has been going on for several months. The Defense Minister is now of the opinion that there is a need to strengthen the military presence in the north with helicopters as well as ground forces, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported.

"We need helicopters to make our troops more mobile. The infrastructure in the Faryab region is difficult. In addition we will strengthen guards and security," the Norwegian Defense Minister said to NRK.

On Saturday, a Norwegian ISAF unit in Mazar-e Sharif came under fire from a group of 20 insurgents near the town of Ghowrmach.

There are around 500 Norwegian soldiers in the NATO-led ISAF force in Afghanistan.
Editor: Wang Hongjiang 
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TAP gas pipeline project: Pakistan asks India to confirm its position
Daily Times (Pakistan) November 6, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has asked India to affirm its position, by November 9, whether or not would it join talks on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project that are likely to be held in December this year at Islamabad, sources told Daily Times.

A high-level official in petroleum ministry told this scribe that all the stakeholders have been asked to forward their comments to chalk out agenda of the meeting.

India has also been asked to inform the stakeholders regarding its participation in the talks aimed at materialising the billion dollars project, the official said.

India has earlier been participating in the talks as an observer. It would, however, become a stakeholder in the project after joining the coming talks. Pakistan would import 3.2 billion cubic feet gas from Turkmenistan which then would be shared with India.

“India would have to make a formal request to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s facilitation to join the talks,” the official said.

After India becomes a member, the project will be named as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project.

Costs on the proposed project are being estimated at six to seven billion dollars. Though the ADB is presently sponsoring the project, other investors would also be invited to carry out the scheme.

The official said that matters concerning the availability of adequate gas reserves in Turkmenistan, third party certification of reserves, project structure, and security and gas pricing would be discussed during the meeting. As security threats in Afghanistan tend to hamper the billion-dollar project, the Afghan government would be asked to ensure necessary security measures so that the project could be materialised. The projected is expected to be completed by 2011-12. Turkmenistan claims to have gas reserves of 159 trillion cubic feet at its Daulatabad fields with Russia being its major importer.
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Musharraf plays his last ace
By Syed Saleem Shahzad Asia Times Online / November 6, 2007
KARACHI - President General Pervez Musharraf's second coup was his ace card to extend his stay in power. Washington's tacit approval for the implementation of "extraordinary powers" was conditional on increased endeavors against militancy in Pakistan in support of the US-led "war on terror". But with Musharraf having played his last card, anything could happen.

Musharraf's declaration of an emergency on Saturday, which, according to Pakistani Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afghan, is a blend of emergency and martial law, is primarily aimed at preventing the Supreme Court from invalidating Musharraf's October 6 victory in presidential polls.

Following the declaration, troops entered the Supreme Court building in Islamabad and "escorted" Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry out, his services "terminated". Chaudhry, who, along with six other judges had declared the emergency null and void, announced he would continue his struggle. The president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association Aitzaz Ahsan and other members of the lawyers' body were also arrested. Scores of lawyers were arrested in Karachi on Monday during a protest rally outside the High Court.

However, Musharraf, playing to audiences in the West, has done his best to paint the emergency as a declaration of war against Islamic militancy, especially in the tribal areas, where the army is already fully engaged. For instance, speaking on national television on Sunday, Musharraf "appealed" to the West to understand the necessity for imposing the emergency.

The crisis in Pakistan coincides with a fresh Taliban offensive in southwest and northwest Afghanistan, in addition to the main battle in the southeast. The Western command in Afghanistan sees Pakistan's North Waziristan and South Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan as the epicenter of these major Taliban maneuvers.

As a result, Washington had little choice but to give Musharraf the green light for his emergency as it desperately needs his help.

Musharraf has placed scores of judges under house arrest, implying that they had sided with the militancy in releasing over 60 "dangerous terrorists", besides reopening the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) in Islamabad. The hardline mosque had been closed since troops stormed it in July to flush out militants.

Many political opponents and human-rights activists have been arrested, while a list of journalists to be detained was due to be finalized on Monday. The electronic media have also been disrupted.

More than 50 defiant judges are likely to become the flagbearers of a new struggle against the authorities, despite their house arrest.

Cricketer-turn-politician Imran Khan, who emerged as the most prominent voice of civil society in earlier struggles of the judiciary, has apparently escaped house arrest. He is underground at present and is negotiating with the bar councils for a powerful joint struggle to mobilize the masses on the streets.

Musharraf is likely to announce a schedule for national elections by Thursday - they were due to take place in January. Former premier Benazir Bhutto, earmarked in a US-initiated plan for a powersharing deal with Musharraf, has returned from a trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where she had previously lived in exile. She traveled there last Thursday and apparently returned at the instigation of the US to support Musharraf in a transition of power. The thorny issue of Musharraf, the army's chief of staff, giving up his uniform has been put on the back burner.

Back on the border

In the bigger picture, on Sunday fresh troops (all non-Pashtun) were mobilized for a new operation in North-West Frontier Province. At the same time, militants in South Waziristan released 211 soldiers they had been holding captive for several weeks after receiving assurances of a staggered army withdrawal from the area. Tribal elders are the guarantors of the deal.

This deal places the decision-makers in military headquarters in Rawalpindi in a bind as Musharraf, having received Washington's "blessing" for now, should be waging war, not making deals with militants.

Whether Musharraf survives this new storm is one issue, but what is really at stake is the future of the "war on terror" in the region.

Should militants and the political opposition - temporarily after the same goal - force out Musharraf, fighting the US war in Pakistan would be very heavy baggage for his successors.

Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
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Kyrgyzstan to continue supporting U.S. operation in Afghanistan
BISHKEK, November 6 (RIA Novosti) - Kyrgyzstan will make every effort to provide support to the United States in their anti-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, the Kyrgyz Security Council secretary said Tuesday.

The U.S. established a military base in the region in 2001 using the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan as a spearhead for operations in Afghanistan, during the U.S.-led invasion by coalition forces against the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.

"When it comes to the fight against terrorism, drugs trafficking and religious extremism, we have always sided with the antiterrorism coalition," Tokon Mamytov said at a meeting with Admiral William J. Fallon, the commander of the U.S. Central Command.

The U.S. Ganci airbase, or Manas, located 30 kilometers (17 miles) east of the Kyrgyz capital, accommodates 1,000 U.S. troops along with nine refueling and cargo planes supporting antiterrorism operations in Afghanistan.

Mamytov also said that the development of cooperation with the U.S. is one of the top priorities for Kyrgyzstan, but the sides still have to resolve some problems caused by the presence of American servicemen in the country.

Among the problems he named emergency dumping of aviation fuel by U.S. Air Force pilots, which raises serious concern among local environmentalists, and asked the U.S. to complete the investigation into the death of a Kyrgyz national by a U.S. soldier in last December as quickly as possible.

Alexander Ivanov, 42, a driver at the fuel supply company Aircraft Petroleum Management and father of two, was shot dead December 6 by U.S. airman, Zachary Hatfield, while undergoing a routine security check at the Manas airbase. The Americans said Hatfield reacted to a threat.

Fallon said in turn that the U.S. is ready for closer cooperation with Kyrgyzstan and will definitely provide Kyrgyzstan with the results of the investigation, which will be completed in the nearest future.

Although Russia applied pressure on Bishkek to demand the withdrawal of American troops, the impoverished nation of five million needs U.S. support and the military base, which is leased for $150 million annually under a new agreement, has generated jobs and is a strong contributor to the Kyrgyz economy.

Russia has established its own military base in Kyrgyzstan as a counterweight to the U.S. airbase at Manas.
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Afghan woman poet Nadia Anjuman remembered two years on
by Beatrice Khadige Tue Nov 6, 1:00 AM ET
KABUL (AFP) - Two years ago police discovered the battered body of Nadia Anjuman, a young Afghan poet already known in literary circles for her poignant poems about the misery of being a woman in Afghanistan.

Police arrested her husband on charges of beating her to death in their home in the western city of Herat; he confessed to the assault but not to murder. Today the case is classified by the courts as "suicide."

The death of the 25-year-old thrust her work into the spotlight and today her poems -- written in the Dari language, which is close to Persian -- have been translated into several languages.

They speak of the pain of Afghan women, trapped in a conservative culture torn apart by nearly three decades of war that were followed by the 1996-2001 rule of the extremist Taliban -- known for their harsh treatment of women.

An extract from "Useless", for example, reads: "Happy the day when I will break the cage/When I will leave this solitude and sing with abandon/I am not a weak tree that sways with every breeze/I am an Afghan girl and it is right that I always cry."

Anjuman's work evokes "a great sorrow directly linked to her status as a woman and an Afghan," says Leili Anvar, a literature expert who has translated some of her poems into French.

Under the Taliban, girls could not go to school, women were barred from working and confined largely to their homes.

The removal of the fundamentalist regime has seen few improvements to the lives of most Afghan women, who suffer abuse and discrimination.

Women still chose to end their lives through self-immolation, including in Herat, an ancient city of two million people and known for its art, culture and literature.

Anjuman "was becoming a great Persian poet", the head of the respected Herat Literary Circle, Ahmad Said Haqiqi, said at the time of her death on November 4, 2005.

Anvar, who has dedicated several pages of an upcoming anthology of Afghan poetry to Anjuman, agrees. "When one considers her age, the extreme maturity of her work is astonishing," she says.

Anjuman "showed a great mastery of Persian free verse and of the music of language," she told AFP.

One of the late poet's professors at the University of Herat, Mohammad Daud Munir, says her work showed a "deep and comprehensive thought."

"Her absence has left a gap in the literary community of Herat," he said.

Anjuman's first collection, "Gul-e-dodi" ("Dark Red Flower"), came out a few months before she died and while she was a university student.

The Herat Literary Circle has since released a second collection of 80 poems and her work is regularly published, Munir says.

Abroad, beside the publication due in France, Anjuman's work has also been translated into English and Italian.

The memory of the young woman is fresh among those who were close to her.

Her best friend, Nahid Baqi, who studied with her at university, is bitter.

"Everyone wants to forget," she told AFP. "There was pressure on the authorities to conclude that it was a suicide."

Anjuman's husband, Farid Ahmad Majeednia, who is the head of the Herat University library, says she has written only about the Taliban period and before she was married.

"All of her poems are a narration of sorrow and sadness which is a result of being imprisoned behind home walls," says Majeednia, who is raising the couple's young daughter.

"Now almost two years later, my hands and legs still tremble when I think of her death and her absence," he says.

"After Nadia's death lots of things have ended for me."
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