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Meeting to discuss Afghan border
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Islamabad Monday, 27 October 2008
A meeting to discuss the problems of the violent Pakistan-Afghanistan border is due to begin in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
Bomber in Police Uniform Kills 2 Americans in Afghanistan
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times October 27, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide attacker in police uniform blew himself up inside a police station in the northern province of Baghlan on Monday, killing two American soldiers and wounding another, Afghan officials said.
U.S. troops say Afghan security guards attacked them
Mon Oct 27, 6:18 am ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Monday they had launched an air strike that killed a number of private Afghan security guards only after coming under fire from that position.
Kidnapped Afghan politician found in well
Sun Oct 26, 2:08 pm ET
KABUL (AFP) – A one-time Afghan presidential candidate and relative of the late king was rescued Sunday with the son of a prominent Kabul banker from a well where they had been held by kidnappers, an official said.
'Taliban' kidnap 14 road workers in Afghanistan: ministry
KABUL (AFP) – Taliban militants abducted 17 Afghans working for a private road construction company in eastern Afghanistan at the weekend and are still holding 14, the interior ministry said Monday.
U.S. helicopter shot down in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on Monday, but none of the 10 soldiers on board were killed, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
Suspected US strike kills Pakistan Taliban chief
by S.H. Khan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A Taliban commander and at least 15 others died in a suspected US missile strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.
In Afghanistan, even logistics teams are on the front line
October 27, 2008, 3:29 pm
FORWARD BASE NIJRAB, Afghanistan (AFP) - Nineteen vehicles in a convoy for US troops were torched in southern Zabul province at the weekend by men who claimed to be from the Taliban
Wardak summoned over border tribes plan
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 27 October 2008
Parliament calls in defense minister to face questions about arming tribes
THE DEFENCE minister was summoned before Parliament to answer questions about the arming of border tribes against Taliban militants.
Attackers gouge out Afghan man's eyes
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Armed assailants attacked a man and gouged out his eyes in front of his family during a gruesome assault in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.
Bangladeshi gov't decides to reopen embassy in Afghanistan
People's Daily - Oct 27 1:24 AM
The Bangladeshi caretaker government decided to re-open the Bangladesh Embassy in Afghanistan and open new ones in Greece, Sudan and Sierra Leone aiming to boost economic and bilateral relations with these four countries.
Pakistani FM calls for closer co-op with Afghanistan to counter terrorism
People's Daily - Oct 27 1:24 AM
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Monday emphasized the need for closer cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan to effectively counter and completely eliminate the menace of terrorism and extremism.
Push to negotiate with the Taliban will begin Monday
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers – Sun Oct 26, 5:42 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A major push to open negotiations with the Taliban on both sides of the Pakistan - Afghanistan border will begin Monday at a summit of leading political figures from the two countries
Tenure of Indian diplomats in Afghanistan increased
October 26, 2008
New Delhi (PTI): Notwithstanding the high level of threat to Indian Missions and staff in Afghanistan, India has decided to increase the tenure of diplomats and other personnel by six months in its Consulates in Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat provinces.
Afghanistan drops down freedom table
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 27 October 2008
Media group says freedom of speech is under threat in the country
AFGHANISTAN is one of the worst countries in the world for freedom of speech, a media rights group says.
'Your daddy's dead': family breaks news of businessman's murder in Afghanistan
By Kate Rawlings Monday, 27 October 2008 Independent, UK
The former wife of a British businessman who was shot dead by his own security guard in Afghanistan has described how she had to break the news of his death to their young son.
Wrong Way in Pakistan
Washington Post, United States By Marvin G. Weinbaum Monday, October 27, 2008
In its eagerness to reverse the mounting insurgency in Afghanistan, the United States has embarked on a policy course that could shatter our vital strategic partnership with Pakistan. By allowing American combat forces to freely
Drugs theory in Afghan DHL killings
FT.com By Jon Boon 10/26/2008
Investigators examining the mysterious killing of two foreign DHL executives by one of their own guards in Kabul on Saturday are considering a possible link to heroin smugglers.
Taliban free remaining victims of mass abduction
www.quqnoos.com Written by M Reza Sher Mohammadi Monday, 27 October 2008
Final group of the 120 kidnapped workers are released after month-long ordeal
Kabul was a fun city for foreigners; is it becoming the new Baghdad?
Until about three years ago Kabul was an exotic and exciting posting for an ambitious young aid worker or a diplomat; if you were sensible it was safe enough to meet Afghans, go to parties and restaurants, and shop in the bazaars.
By Nick Meo The Telegraph (UK) October 25, 2008
Today, after the Taliban resurgence and the growth of banditry, it is starting to look as dangerous as Baghdad at its worst.
Kambakhsh to Fight On
Mazar journalism student found guilty of blasphemy gets death sentence commuted – but his family is determined to have conviction overturned.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Jean MacKenzie (ARR No. 303, 23-Oct-08)
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh is finally off death row. But the 24-year-old journalism student who was sentenced to death for blasphemy has little cause to rejoice: he now faces 20 years in jail for the offence.
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Meeting to discuss Afghan border
By Charles Haviland BBC News, Islamabad Monday, 27 October 2008
A meeting to discuss the problems of the violent Pakistan-Afghanistan border is due to begin in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.
The joint Pakistani-Afghan meeting is known as a mini-jirga - a smaller version of a jirga or council that met last year in the Afghan capital Kabul.
The meeting will continue discussing ways of promoting peace in the region.
Peace along the border has been elusive so far with rising militant raids from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
Missiles thought to be fired by the Americans from the Afghan side have also landed in Pakistani border regions and led to casualties.
Even away from the border, Pakistan's own Taleban are waging an internal insurgency.
It is hoped that the latest talks, in which 25 Pakistani and Afghan delegates will participate, will advance the slow process of trying to make peace through dialogue.
But dialogue will not be easy.
These delegations are led by senior government figures, not by people from the most troubled areas.
The Taleban in Afghanistan have reiterated that they are not interested in dialogue unless foreign troops leave the country.
And the violence is complex.
In Pakistan some tribes have taken up arms against the Taleban - some of them because they are sick of Taleban tactics, others because they are Shias victimised by the Sunni Taleban.
The Pakistani state, too, is giving ambiguous signals.
The army has been announcing military successes in one tribal area, Bajaur, and says its operation against militants will continue for many more months.
Yet parliament last week passed a resolution saying the military should work towards pulling out of the tribal areas.
One thing these delegates may agree on is the need to bring economic development to these places.
Yet with the militants blowing up schools and security still dismal, that is not an immediate prospect.
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Bomber in Police Uniform Kills 2 Americans in Afghanistan
By ABDUL WAHEED WAFA and CARLOTTA GALL The New York Times October 27, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A suicide attacker in police uniform blew himself up inside a police station in the northern province of Baghlan on Monday, killing two American soldiers and wounding another, Afghan officials said.
An eight-year-old boy was also killed in the blast and five Afghan policemen were wounded.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack, naming the suicide bomber as Abdul Ahad. He said that the bombing caused far higher casualties than those reported by Afghan and American officials.
An American military spokesman, Maj. John Redfield, confirmed that two coalition soldiers were killed and three wounded in the suicide bombing. He did not give the nationality of the other wounded soldiers, nor did he say what they were doing at the police station.
U.S. personnel are involved in police training and mentoring and work closely with Afghan security officials in many provinces in Afghanistan.
Afghan officials said the attack happened as American police trainers were inside the building talking with Afghan police officials and their guards were in the yard where the bomber detonated the explosives on his body.
“Two American soldiers and a child were killed and one American and five Afghan soldiers were wounded,” said Abdul Rahman Sayedkhili, the police chief of Baghlan.
He said the attacker managed to infiltrate the compound by wearing a police uniform during a large meeting of district chiefs, who arrived with many bodyguards.
Baghlan is a relatively peaceful province as there is no active insurgency there, but was the scene of one of the bloodiest suicide attacks last year in which up to 72 people were killed, including five parliamentarians and more than 50 schoolchildren.
Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kabul.
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U.S. troops say Afghan security guards attacked them
Mon Oct 27, 6:18 am ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) – U.S. forces in Afghanistan said on Monday they had launched an air strike that killed a number of private Afghan security guards only after coming under fire from that position.
Afghan provincial authorities said on Sunday they were investigating reports that 20 private security guards had been killed in a U.S.-led coalition air strike southwest of Kabul.
A provincial government source said U.S.-led forces called in the strike to fend off an attack by Taliban insurgents on several posts of the local security company that guards a road construction project in the Giro district of Ghazni.
But a spokesman for U.S. forces said coalition troops called in air support after they were ambushed from multiple positions, including that occupied by the private security guards.
"Early yesterday, a coalition unit was on their way to their objective when they came under fire from multiple locations," said U.S. forces spokesman Colonel Gregory Julian.
"They tried to withdraw but could not and they had no alternative but to call in close air support," he said.
"Afterwards they discovered there were casualties with contract security uniforms and therefore an investigation was launched to determine what happened."
Afghanistan has suffered a marked escalation of violence this year, the bloodiest period since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to give up al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by foreign troops in operations against Taliban militants in Afghanistan this year, according to Afghan officials and aid groups.
While Taliban insurgents have killed more ordinary Afghans in their attacks, the issue of civilian casualties caused by international troops has led to a rift between the Afghan government and its Western backers.
The hardline Islamist Taliban have extended both the size and the scope of their insurgency in the last two years with scores of suicide and roadside bombs backing a campaign of guerrilla warfare and intimidation.
(Reporting by Jon Hemming; editing by Roger Crabb)
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Kidnapped Afghan politician found in well
Sun Oct 26, 2:08 pm ET
KABUL (AFP) – A one-time Afghan presidential candidate and relative of the late king was rescued Sunday with the son of a prominent Kabul banker from a well where they had been held by kidnappers, an official said.
Royalist politician Humayun Shah Asifi was kidnapped in the city nearly a week ago and the banker's son Abdul Latif was taken a few days earlier, in some of the latest in a rash of criminal abductions in the capital.
They were found together in a one-by-two metre (yard) hole dug at the end of a five-metre well on the northeastern edges of the city, intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh told reporters.
The top of the well had been covered with earth and wood weighing hundreds of kilogrammes and an air vent had supplied oxygen into the "room".
The freed men were at the briefing where Asifi, in his 60s, gave a brief account of his ordeal, saying they had been held in a "tiny hole."
Saleh, head of the National Directorate of Security, said eight people linked to the abductions had been arrested.
Kabul has seen an escalation in kidnappings this year, notably of wealthy Afghans or their relatives.
Saleh said criminals were not being properly punished and called on the judiciary to hang them.
Rising crime and extremist attacks this year have led to a serious deterioration in security in Afghanistan, which is struggling to cope with a insurgency led by the Taliban who have also carried out scores of kidnappings.
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'Taliban' kidnap 14 road workers in Afghanistan: ministry
KABUL (AFP) – Taliban militants abducted 17 Afghans working for a private road construction company in eastern Afghanistan at the weekend and are still holding 14, the interior ministry said Monday.
The rebels attacked the local office of the Afghan company in the northeastern province of Kunar early Sunday and rounded up the workers, the ministry said in a statement.
"Three of the abducted were freed hours later but there is no news on the fate of the 14 others," it said.
The ministry blamed the abduction on a local Taliban commander named Mullah Nasrullah but no one has claimed responsibility.
The extremist Islamic Taliban were forced from government in late 2001 in a US-led offensive launched after they did not hand over Al-Qaeda leaders for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Now waging an insurgency, they have abducted scores of Afghan and foreign nationals, most often targeting people working for the government and its allies.
Criminal gangs seeking ransom are however also behind kidnappings in the country.
Earlier this month, Taliban in the southern province of Helmand kidnapped a busload of men whom authorities said were travelling to Iran to find work and killed many of them.
Authorities have said they have recovered a dozen bodies but the insurgent movement said 27 were killed because they were reinforcements for the security forces -- a charge rejected by the military.
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U.S. helicopter shot down in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A U.S. helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan on Monday, but none of the 10 soldiers on board were killed, according to a U.S. military spokesman.
The Taliban claimed that its fighters used a rocket-propelled grenade launcher to shoot down a U.S. Chinook helicopter in the Wardak province, about 30 miles (50km) west of Kabul.
Maj. John Redfield, a U.S. military spokesman, told CNN a coalition helicopter went down in the Wardak province after an exchange of fire with enemy on the ground.
All 10 soldiers on board were picked up and taken to safety, he said. He could not say if any were injured.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber on Monday killed two soldiers and wounded three others in northern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan said.
The spokesman provided no further details. An Afghan official said the incident took place as U.S. officials gathered to meet with the police chief in Pul-e-Khumri in Baghlan province. One American soldier and an Afghan child were killed in the attack, Afghan officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Provincial Governor Abdul Jabar Haqbeen said a man wearing a police uniform detonated his explosive-filled vest when Afghan and American soldiers stopped him from entering the police chief's office.
The chief and his American advisers were meeting inside at the time, Haqbeen said. The bomber also died in the attack, which wounded four police officers, said Abdul Rahman Sayed Khaili, the province's police chief.
Pul-e-Khumri is located about 130 miles (209 km) north of the capital, Kabul.
Attacks in northern Afghanistan are rare where militants have, until now, been relatively inactive. But officials say they are beginning to see a rise in incidents in the region and believe insurgents are gaining the support of the Pashtun minority there.
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Suspected US strike kills Pakistan Taliban chief
by S.H. Khan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A Taliban commander and at least 15 others died in a suspected US missile strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Monday.
The attack came hours before officials and tribal leaders from both countries met in Islamabad to discuss how to counter the growing threat from Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists holed up along the porous frontier.
It was the latest in a series of strikes on Pakistani soil which have raised tensions between Washington and key ally Islamabad since a new government took power in March.
Officials said Haji Omar Khan, a lieutenant of veteran Afghan Taliban chieftain and former anti-Soviet fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani, died in the incident in the lawless South Waziristan area on Sunday.
"The death toll has gone up to 16 as six more bodies have been recovered from the site. Senior Taliban commander Haji Omar died in the strike," local administration official Mawaz Khan told AFP.
Two lower-level Taliban commanders from neighbouring North Waziristan tribal district, identified only as Waheedullah and Nasrullah, were among those killed, security officials and residents in that area said.
They had gone to meet Omar at his camp, along with five militants from North Waziristan who also died. The others killed were mainly guards of the commanders.
US and Afghan officials have pinpointed Pakistan's tribal belt as a "safe haven" where militants have regrouped and allied with local tribesmen after fleeing the 2001 US-led toppling of Afghanistan's Taliban regime.
Khan, a member of Pakistan's feared Wazir tribe, was active in attacks on US-led and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan, local residents and security officials said.
He was a cousin of late Taliban commander Nek Mohammed, who was killed in 2004 in one of the first apparent US missile strikes in the region.
"Omar was sending fighters into Afghanistan and commanded them in several outings. He did not have any political affiliations and was linked to Haqqani," a security official said on condition of anonymity.
Sunday's strike was the 12th such incident in the past 10 weeks, all of which have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan.
Many have targeted militants who, like Khan, were close to Haqqani, increasingly seen in Washington as one of the prime movers behind the escalating unrest in Afghanistan.
A religious school operated by Haqqani was targeted in another suspected US missile strike last Thursday, killing 11 people.
Haqqani was one of the most prominent Afghan commanders who fought the Soviet Red Army between 1978 and 1989. He became close to Mullah Omar, the leader of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
The strike came as the New York Times reported that Washington is refraining from using its special forces on Pakistani territory following a September 3 raid that resulted in civilian casualties and vehement protests from Islamabad.
According to The New York Times, Pakistani national security adviser Mahmud Ali Durrani made an unannounced visit to Washington and voiced his country's anger in person to top White House officials.
Pakistan's upper house of parliament passed a unanimous resolution saying it "strongly condemned the missile attacks by US drones in Pakistani territory resulting in immense loss of life".
"The Senate calls upon the government to convey Pakistan's strong protest to the US" and NATO-led force in Afghanistan and seek assurances for "full respect of Pakistan's sovereignty," it said.
Such attacks are "most unfortunate" and constitute a "gross violation of our national sovereignty and territory," it went on.
Afghan and Pakistani officials held a "mini-jirga" to find a solution amid recent speculation about talks between the Afghan government and remnants of the Taliban.
The two-day meeting is a smaller follow-up to a traditional "jirga" or tribal meeting held between the two feuding neighbours in August 2007.
"Both Afghanistan and Pakistan are faced with terrorism and together they need to face the challenge," Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said at the start of the session.
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Media miss out on Afghanistan's progress, top NATO general says
By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press October 27, 2008
KABUL, Afghanistan — NATO's top commander in Afghanistan is tired of negative headlines, and he is on an offensive to counter what he sees as a wave of unwarranted pessimism in news reports coming out of the country.
U.S. Gen. David McKiernan's public relations push comes at a time when more U.S. and NATO troops have died than in any other year since the 2001 U.S. invasion, in part because Taliban militants are launching increasingly complex and deadly attacks.
"There's a lot of negative reporting. Somebody likes to report an attack somewhere and that becomes the trend in Afghanistan, or they don't report the positive events or the absolute brutality or the illegitimacy of the Taliban," McKiernan told the Associated Press in an interview Sunday.
McKiernan highlighted an event last week witnessed by NATO troops in Farah province in which insurgents planting a roadside bomb grabbed two children and used them as human shields when they were attacked by NATO forces.
The four-star general also pointed to a protest last week by about 1,000 Afghans in Laghman province over the slaying of 26 local workers by Taliban militants who stopped a bus in Kandahar and killed many on board.
"That's a rejection of the brutality of the Taliban by the people of Afghanistan, and that needs to be heard," McKiernan said in the interview Sunday.
"What happens sometimes in reporting is that there's this idea that the Taliban is at the gates of Kabul, or after Sarposa (a massive June prison break) they're about ready to take control of Kandahar, or they're resurgent in Uruzgan or Helmand, and it's just not true," he said.
McKiernan, who took command of the NATO mission in Afghanistan in June, has acknowledged that the country lacks security and governance in many regions but concluded in a news conference to weeks ago that "We are not losing Afghanistan."
Militants in July killed nine U.S. troops in Kunar province in a massive attack that almost overran a small, newly built U.S. outpost. In August, some 100 insurgents attacked French troops outside Kabul and killed 10. The same day, six suicide bombers tried to storm a U.S. base near the border with Pakistan.
In June, Taliban militants stormed Kandahar's Sarposa Prison in a complex attack kicked off by a massive truck bomb. Some 900 inmates were freed, including 400 Taliban fighters.
The killings of three foreigners in Kabul, the capital, in the last week have added to the stream of negative headlines.
Last month in Washington, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the House Armed Services Committee that the United States is "running out of time" in Afghanistan. "I'm not convinced we're winning in Afghanistan," said Mullen, adding quickly, "I'm convinced we can."
McKiernan is trying to underscore that last point. He wants at least three more brigades of U.S. troops next year and more of "just about everything," to include transport aircraft and spy planes. He says he needs more troops not to defeat the Taliban but to help the Afghan government stand on its feet in areas it currently barely exists.
Associated Press reporter Fisnik Abrashi contributed to this report.
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In Afghanistan, even logistics teams are on the front line
October 27, 2008, 3:29 pm
FORWARD BASE NIJRAB, Afghanistan (AFP) - Nineteen vehicles in a convoy for US troops were torched in southern Zabul province at the weekend by men who claimed to be from the Taliban , police said. The guards escaped and there were reports they had assisted in the attack.
Convoys supplying the more than 60,000 international troops in Afghanistan , helping in the fight against the Taliban , are regularly attacked, looted and torched.
On Sunday, a logistics convoy pulled into Forward Base Nijrab, the latest of about 700 convoys since June to make the perilous three-hour journey from the Afghan capital.
The road that snakes through the mountains from Kabul is a rude test of both truck axles and the soldiers' mettle.
"This is nothing like Bosnia, Kosovo, Lebanon or Chad. In Afghanistan , the danger is constant," says the French sergeant major who led the mission and is only permitted by the military to give his first name, Pascal.
About 60 kilometres (37 miles) of treacherous road separates NATO's Camp Warehouse in Kabul from this fortified base in Kapisa to the northeast. Not far from here, 10 French soldiers were killed in an insurgent ambush in August.
"The main danger for a logistics convoy is the IEDs (improvised explosive devices)," Pascal says.
Most of the roughly 230 international soldiers killed in Afghanistan this year have died in bombings.
"In Bosnia, we would leave with 35 or 40 lorries with four or five armoured vehicles. Here it is the opposite -- we have four lorries for 16 armoured vehicles," says the sergeant major.
At the end of August, a logistics convoy was hit between Nijrab and Tagab, another French forward base in Kapisa province.
It caused more alarm than harm: a rocket hit a vehicle's armoured shell but did not explode -- a small miracle.
The 20 vehicles in Pascal's latest convoy include a container of ammunition, a field laundry and other goods.
But since the end of June, the 500 men in the logistics unit for the 2,700 French soldiers deployed on Afghan soil have moved far more. Clocking up 135,000 kilometres, they have transported more than 8,500 tonnes of freight.
The trucks pulling shipping containers attract the most attention because their cabins are not bullet-proofed -- "soft", in military jargon.
As they await the arrival of the heavy armoured versions, promised in the coming weeks, the soldiers make do with "system D" -- a French expression for "do-it-yourself".
Two flak jackets against each of the doors offer some protection. A man armed with an assault rifle is perched through the roof window, a position that is particularly uncomfortable with the ever-present dust swirling.
"The staff are used to it but they are looking forward to the arrival of the new vehicles," says the sergeant major.
There are other more discreet security measures.
Each vehicle is equipped with a jammer to stop bombs from being remotely detonated, by radio or mobile phone.
In the sky, fighter jets, drones and helicopters circle, monitoring for any suspicious movement down below, and are at the ready in case the vehicles are "engaged" by attackers.
Another security measure is the power of preparedness. Soldiers listen to endless repetitions of instructions about what to do in case of an explosion or an ambush.
"We have to avoid complacency at all costs," Pascal says.
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Wardak summoned over border tribes plan
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 27 October 2008
Parliament calls in defense minister to face questions about arming tribes
THE DEFENCE minister was summoned before Parliament to answer questions about the arming of border tribes against Taliban militants.
The Defense and Territorial Integrity Commission forced Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak to face questions on Sunday about the amount of control the government would have over tribes it uses to combat Islamic militants who regularly cross the border from Pakistan.
The US recently announced plans to give weapons and training to residents living along the border with Pakistan, an area which has seen a surge in violence over the last year.
US, Afghan and NATO officials often accuse Pakistan of failing to prevent militants from crossing the border to launch attack on Afghan soil.
Wardak said the ministry’s main priority was to increase the number of troops serving in the Afghan army and he pointed out that, this year, about 50% of all operations were Afghan-led.
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Attackers gouge out Afghan man's eyes
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) -- Armed assailants attacked a man and gouged out his eyes in front of his family during a gruesome assault in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.
The man, Sayed Ghulam, is recovering in a hospital in the country's largest southern city, Kandahar.
Ghulam, 52, said three armed men knocked on his door in the Sangin district of Helmand province late Thursday. After he opened the door, they punched him in the face, put the barrel of a Kalashnikov rifle in his mouth and gouged out his eyes with a knife in the presence of his wife and seven children.
"I was crying, along with my children and wife, who was screaming for help, but they didn't listen," Ghulam told The Associated Press from his hospital room in Kandahar.
Ghulam, a farmer who said he raises wheat and popcorn, said he does not know why he was attacked. "I don't have any enemies. But they were not letting me talk. They put the AK-47 in my mouth and they were punching me."
Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand's governor, blamed Taliban fighters for the attack, saying that the militants often kill innocent Afghans.
"This guy Ghulam was just a normal man, a farmer," Ahmadi said. "He didn't have any link with the government or NATO forces. He was a normal man but these killers took out his eyes in front of his family. I don't know what kind of heart these killers have."
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi denied that Taliban fighters were involved. "Whenever we carry out an attack we claim responsibility," Ahmadi said. "We didn't gouge out this man's eyes."
Ghulam, who has a black beard and whose head is almost completely wrapped in a large white bandage, said his attackers were wearing black turbans on their head like many Taliban fighters, but that he didn't know who carried out the attack.
Taliban militants sometimes carry out harsh punishments for people they accuse of being thieves or "spies" for the Afghan government. Such punishments include having hands cut off or being tarred and paraded publicly, but few reports of people having their eyes gouged out have surfaced in Afghanistan in recent years.
In Kabul, two high-profile Afghan kidnapping victims were freed by intelligence officials Sunday after being discovered in a well where their captors had kept them, officials said.
Captors had demanded $5 million each for Humayun Shah Asifi, a former presidential candidate in the country's 2004 elections, and a second hostage, the son of the owner of a major bank chain, said Amrullah Saleh, chief of Afghanistan's intelligence department. The two, abducted separately, had been held for less than a week.
Officials arrested eight people suspected of being involved in the kidnappings, he said.
Kidnapping of high-profile and wealthy Afghans is a growing problem. Criminal gangs demand high ransoms for the release of their hostages. The kidnapping crime wave has caused some Afghan businessmen to flee the country.
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Bangladeshi gov't decides to reopen embassy in Afghanistan
People's Daily - Oct 27 1:24 AM
The Bangladeshi caretaker government decided to re-open the Bangladesh Embassy in Afghanistan and open new ones in Greece, Sudan and Sierra Leone aiming to boost economic and bilateral relations with these four countries.
The council of advisers of the caretaker government at its meeting Sunday took the decision of establishing the new embassies in Athens, the capital of Greece, in Khartoum of Sudan and in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, and re-establishing the embassy in Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, leading newspaper The Independent reported Monday.
Presided over by Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, the council meeting approved proposals placed by the Foreign Ministry for opening and re-opening the Bangladesh missions.
About the setting up of new embassy in Greece, the advisory council was apprised that presently over 20,000 Bangladeshi expatriates live in Greece, and the number is on the increase. Following the setting up of the embassy, there is scope for immigration of increased number of Bangladeshis to Greece while trade, economic and bilateral relations would increase with the country.
Regarding embassy in Freetown, it was apprised that there are huge potentials, good reputation of Bangladesh UN peacekeepers in Sierra Leone and possibility of export of Bangladesh pharmaceuticals.
Sudan is an oil-rich country wherein about 4,000 Bangladeshis live.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Afghanistan was closed down in 1989 due to war in that country.
Source:Xinhua
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Pakistani FM calls for closer co-op with Afghanistan to counter terrorism
People's Daily - Oct 27 1:24 AM
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Monday emphasized the need for closer cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan to effectively counter and completely eliminate the menace of terrorism and extremism.
Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day Pak-Afghan mini peace jirga here, Qureshi said, "Both the countries have suffered immensely and continue to suffer at the hands of extremism, militancy and terrorism and the situation demands a joint and comprehensive strategy to cope with the situation to bring peace and stability in the whole region."
Around 50 members from both countries are participating in the "jirga-gai" or mini-jirga, to explore ways for cooperation to deal with the threat of terrorism and extremism in both countries, according to News Network International (NNI) news agency.
The meeting will review the process of implementation of decisions taken in the grand joint jirga held in Afghan capital Kabul in August last year and decide date for the next grand jirgato be held in Pakistan.
"Together we are developing a forward looking vision of peace, prosperity and development of our peoples and the region," Qureshi said.
"It is also a resolve of the government to cooperate closely with the brotherly people and government of Afghanistan in overcoming their difficulties emanating from terrorism," he said.
The leader of the Afghan Jirga Abdullah Abdullah called upon the members of the jirga to put their heads together to devise a strategy for promoting peace as the people from both sides have attached great hopes from them to work for bringing peace and stability in the region, reported NNI.
Both nations have to move together and explore opportunities for not only for them but for the whole region, he said, adding that both two countries had no choice but to work together in brotherly manner to achieve the common goal of peace.
He assured that Afghan government would extend hand of cooperation to Pakistan to further strengthen ties between the two countries.
The leader of the Pakistani delegation, Owais Ahmed Ghani stressed the need to focus with great sincerity to work for resolving the problems and bring peace. Dialogue is the only way to resolve the issue but it is a very complex situation that needs great sincerity and endeavors to overcome the challenge, he said.
Source:Xinhua
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Push to negotiate with the Taliban will begin Monday
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers – Sun Oct 26, 5:42 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A major push to open negotiations with the Taliban on both sides of the Pakistan - Afghanistan border will begin Monday at a summit of leading political figures from the two countries, as the U.S.-backed governments in Kabul and Islamabad face a mounting threat from Islamic extremists.
Pakistani Taliban , based in the country's tribal border area with Afghanistan , have joined the battle in Afghanistan and also taken on Islamabad . Nevertheless, the assembly of 50 people, called a jirga, which will meet for two days in Islamabad with the backing of both governments, is likely to question the continued presence of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan .
Rustam Shah Mohmand , a participant and a former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan , said it's impossible to deal with the Taliban while Western forces remain in Afghanistan . He also said that the Kabul and Islamabad governments must drop their insistence that they'll negotiate only with Taliban who've disarmed.
"You talk to people who have taken up arms and are battling you; you just can't be an escapist and say only those willing to lay down their arms," said Mohmand. "In the Afghanistan and tribal areas context, it is ridiculous. People don't lay down their arms in this culture."
The Bush administration is divided about the wisdom of trying to negotiate with the Taliban and also about the idea that more moderate Taliban can be drawn away from their extremist colleagues.
While some officials, particularly in the White House , think negotiations are a trap, Defense Secretary Bob Gates and some military officers have encouraged talks, and some military commanders in Afghanistan , led by the British, have said that they cannot defeat the Taliban on the battlefield.
"These problems are, in the ultimate analysis political problems," said Afrasiab Khattak , a delegate and the "peace envoy" of the administration in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province , which borders Afghanistan . "Political problems do not have military solutions."
Khattak, however, warned against a hasty retreat from Afghanistan .
"The Western countries cannot afford to withdraw just like that, because the war will go to them," he said. "The choice is either fight in Helmand or Paris , fight in Kandahar or New York ."
This year has been the most violent in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion toppled the Taliban regime. Signs that Western will may be collapsing have panicked many Afghans, who fear that the international community is about to abandon them once again, as it did after the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989.
"It looks like NATO just wants to find a quick solution, so they can declare victory and leave Afghanistan ," Haroun Mir , the deputy director of the Afghan Center for Research and Policy Studies in Kabul .
Mir said that the Taliban have been transformed from the nationalist zealots who seized power in Afghanistan in the mid-90s into global jihadists under the influence of al Qaida , and would use negotiations to buy time to re-group.
"They (Pakistani and Afghan governments) think that if they engage with the Taliban , they can isolate al Qaida . This is a big mistake," Mir said. "The new generation of Taliban makes no distinction between themselves and al Qaida ."
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Tenure of Indian diplomats in Afghanistan increased
October 26, 2008
New Delhi (PTI): Notwithstanding the high level of threat to Indian Missions and staff in Afghanistan, India has decided to increase the tenure of diplomats and other personnel by six months in its Consulates in Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat provinces.
The decision is significant as India has decided to reduce the tenure of its diplomats and other staff in Islamabad from three to two years because of security considerations.
The government has decided to extend the tenure of diplomats and other staff of these Consulates from 18 months to two years, officials sources said.
The decision will apply to those who are yet to complete half of their tenure in these stations, the sources said.
Those officials and other personnel, who have already completed half of their tenure, can also opt for the extended tenure of six months for which they will have to apply to the Ministry of External Affairs, they said.
The government took the decision after reviewing security situation in these crucial Consulates of trouble-torn Afghanistan.
The decision is significant as it comes despite the high level of threat to Indian Missions and staff in Afghanistan which was highlighted by the audacious suicide attack on the Embassy in Kabul three months back.
India lost a Brigadier-rank Defence Attache and a senior IFS officer along with two security personnel in the attack that is believed to have been carried out by the Taliban in league with Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI.
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Afghanistan drops down freedom table
Written by www.quqnoos.com Monday, 27 October 2008
Media group says freedom of speech is under threat in the country
AFGHANISTAN is one of the worst countries in the world for freedom of speech, a media rights group says.
A new report released by Reporters Without Borders (RWB) says freedom of speech in the country is under threat, ranking Afghanistan 156th out of 173 countries.
Afghanistan ranked 142 last year, but a series of attacks against journalists and media organisations in the last year has forced RWB to drop the country down the table.
Iceland, Norway and Norway came first to third respectively.
The head of the National Union of Journalists said Afghanistan’s position in the world table was unfair, arguing that neighbouring countries such as Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Iran were far more restrictive on freedom of speech.
North Korea and Eritrea came last in the table.
The Ministry of Information and Culture said the Afghan government fully supported press freedom and freedom of speech despite the recent case of student journalist Pervez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for circulating an article about women’s rights.
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'Your daddy's dead': family breaks news of businessman's murder in Afghanistan
By Kate Rawlings Monday, 27 October 2008 Independent, UK
The former wife of a British businessman who was shot dead by his own security guard in Afghanistan has described how she had to break the news of his death to their young son.
Julie Wilson said she would never forget the look on 10-year-old James' face as she told him that his father, David Giles, 42, the deputy director of delivery firm DHL's operation in the war-torn country, had been killed.
Mr Giles and a South African colleague, Jason Bresler, were shot dead in Kabul on Saturday by a local DHL security guard who then killed himself, Afghan officials have said.
James was at the cinema when Mrs Wilson discovered what had happened. "When he walked in we sat him down and said, 'James, something very terrible has happened; your daddy's dead,' " she said.
"We were very open and honest with him and told him to ask us any questions he wanted. But I'll never forget the look on his face as the news hit him. He went so pale and quiet."
Mrs Wilson said James had sobbed as the news began to sink in. "David used to bring back miniature DHL vans when he came to visit and James gave them to his cousin," she said.
"One of the first things he said when we told him David had died was he asked if it would be possible to get his DHL toys back. He also asked if his nan would be bringing anything of his dad's back to the UK. It's heartbreaking because although he's too young to fully comprehend what's happened to David, you can tell he's trying to cling on to his memory."
Mrs Wilson, 37, said Mr Giles was a doting father. "When I first fell pregnant in 1998 he was ecstatic. But I was poorly and gave birth three months early," she said. "David supported me through that time. He was my rock."
They returned to the UK but drifted apart after seven years of marriage, separating in 2004, the year Mr Giles was offered a job with DHL in the Middle East. Mr Giles made regular trips to Hull, East Yorkshire, to see his son, with the last visit taking place a fortnight ago.
"David took him on day trips, rock-climbing and even redecorated his bedroom. He was so proud," Mrs Wilson said. "They will be the best memories James could possibly have of his dad. We had plans to go out there and visit him but now it's too late."
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Wrong Way in Pakistan
Washington Post, United States By Marvin G. Weinbaum Monday, October 27, 2008
In its eagerness to reverse the mounting insurgency in Afghanistan, the United States has embarked on a policy course that could shatter our vital strategic partnership with Pakistan. By allowing American combat forces to freely conduct raids into Pakistani territory, a move that President Bush authorized in July, the United States intends to pressure Pakistani leaders to step up the fight against militants ensconced in the borderlands. But this policy threatens cooperation between the two countries, possibly to the breaking point.
Pakistani insurgents, initially staggered by the U.S. reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, have rebuilt their organizations in the border regions; from those havens, they launch attacks against U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan. The 80,000 to 120,000 Pakistani troops that have engaged the insurgents since 2003 have been funded by the United States at a cost of $1 billion a year. Yet whether it is because troops are ill-equipped, poorly trained or unmotivated, operations have been inconsistent and incomplete.
As the Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda have regrouped, Washington has come to question the sincerity of Pakistan's effort. U.S. officials, concerned that elements in Pakistan's security forces are sympathetic to the insurgents and more interested in protecting than pursuing them, understandably want to deal with the threat if Pakistan will not or cannot.
But there is too much at stake for the United States to risk dangerous, misguided policies. Neither intrusions by U.S. Special Forces nor missile attacks by drones will, by themselves, take out the thousands of insurgents and their allies along the frontier. They also cannot seriously disrupt the global terrorist network. No one proposes deploying the tens of thousands of U.S. troops that it would take to saturate the tribal region and sustain any successes. And fighting a united tribal nation on its turf would cause massive civilian casualties. Even a more covert U.S. approach, designed to play radicalized tribal groups against one another, would likely reveal that their hatred for America exceeds any historic or personal animosities.
So what is left? There simply are no quick fixes. The cooperation of the Pakistani military and its intelligence services, working with a civilian government, remains indispensable. At the moment, however, the Pakistani people offer no support; polls reveal that fewer than 20 percent of Pakistanis view the United States favorably. The U.S. invasion of Iraq galvanized their belief that, as in Afghanistan, the war was essentially about defeating Muslims. The United States alienated even our Pakistani friends by pursuing policies that came to be perceived as trying to salvage the presidency of Pervez Musharraf and thwart democratic processes.
While there is some comfort to be found in President Asif Ali Zardari's views on combating terrorism, having Zadari as Musharraf's replacement in the role of U.S. point man will not help to build build a popular consensus against extremism. Just last week the Parliament voted unanimously to condemn the latest U.S. missile attack on Pakistani territory. If Zardari tries to blunt criticism of the United States, his governing coalition could be threatened. And the likely victor as prime minister in a new election, Nawaz Sharif, has a strongly jaundiced view of U.S. involvement in the frontier and Afghanistan.
Proposals geared toward helping the United States regain the trust of Pakistanis are under consideration. Most, like the Biden-Lugar bill, recognize the importance of nonmilitary assistance that addresses Pakistan's endemic social problems and infrastructure deficits. Measures that help Pakistan weather its economic crisis will have an effect, as will a more favorable trade policy, especially on textiles. The United States can also be more convincing in its commitment to civilian rule and democracy.
By contrast, openly violating Pakistan's territory will make matters worse. And Pakistan can easily retaliate. Most supplies for U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan are delivered to the port of Karachi and then shipped by road to Afghanistan. Early last month, trucks seeking to cross the border were stopped, a warning of what might happen if U.S. raids continue. Pakistan's most senior military officer, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, has said the army will defend Pakistani sovereignty at all costs. Cross-border raids risk provoking direct confrontation between U.S. and Pakistani forces and could accelerate the growing dissension in military ranks over continued Pakistani alignment with the United States.
Terrorist sanctuaries are unacceptable. But eliminating them requires Pakistan's cooperation. The bombing of the Marriott in Islamabad last month was a reminder that we are fighting different faces of the same war. Continuing to carry out uninvited, inconclusive U.S. cross-border attacks will make finding cooperation with Pakistan more elusive.
The writer is a scholar in residence at the Middle East Institute and a former State Department intelligence and research analyst on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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Drugs theory in Afghan DHL killings
FT.com By Jon Boon 10/26/2008
Investigators examining the mysterious killing of two foreign DHL executives by one of their own guards in Kabul on Saturday are considering a possible link to heroin smugglers.
Jason Bresler, the South African country director of DHL, and his UK deputy David Giles, were killed after their car arrived outside the their office in central Kabul.
Security officials say it is possible that the killings were linked to traffickers angry at Mr Bresler’s efforts to prevent DHL being used as a conduit for a portion of Afghanistan’s heroin output.
Mr Bresler had personally overseen the disposal of nearly three kilograms of heroin that had been sewn into a quilt and put in parcel.
He had also ordered a new set of sniffer dogs be sent to Afghanistan after the previous pack had failed to detect drugs concealed in parcels.
In another attempt to evade DHL’s security procedures, traffickers had concealed heroin inside cricket pads that they hoped to ship out of the country.
Afghanistan’s narco-traffickers are part of a $3bn (2.4bn, £1.8bn) a year business and are some of the most dangerous people in the country.
DHL said in a statement it was fully co-operating with authorities and that in order not to hinder the investigation no further information could yet be released.
The interior ministry confirmed that one of the guards employed by Saladin, a local security company, had shot the men before shooting himself, with “one bullet under his chin”, according to the ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. “No one knows if this person was recruited [to carry out the killing] or there was infiltration of the enemy,” Mr Bashary said.
The interior ministry said the guard responsible for the deaths had been recruited only a month previously.
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Taliban free remaining victims of mass abduction
www.quqnoos.com Written by M Reza Sher Mohammadi Monday, 27 October 2008
Final group of the 120 kidnapped workers are released after month-long ordeal
THE TALIBAN have freed the 37 kidnapped Afghan workers who were snatched from the western province of Farah about one month ago as part of one of the country’s largest ever mass kidnappings.
About 120 co-workers were also abducted but were later released by the militants. The group was seized after being mistaken for soldiers.
The Governor of Farah Province, Roohul Amin, said the workers were freed after intervention from tribal elders. No concessions were given to the kidnappers to secure the release, he added.
Also in Farah, Taliban fighters killed three Afghan policemen after the militants ambushed a police convoy in the Bala-Balook district, Amin said.
The rebels escaped after launching the attack.
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Kabul was a fun city for foreigners; is it becoming the new Baghdad?
Until about three years ago Kabul was an exotic and exciting posting for an ambitious young aid worker or a diplomat; if you were sensible it was safe enough to meet Afghans, go to parties and restaurants, and shop in the bazaars.
By Nick Meo The Telegraph (UK) October 25, 2008
Today, after the Taliban resurgence and the growth of banditry, it is starting to look as dangerous as Baghdad at its worst.
Any foreigner arriving for the first time will be given hair-raising warnings about the risks of kidnapping, armed robbery and terrorist attack. Many have armed bodyguards assigned at all times and new businesses specialise in selling technical gadgets that can track an individual's every move by GPS in case of abduction. Where there's risk, there's profit.
Aid workers who could wander the city's bazaars at will in 2005 are now banned from leaving their hotels, which look like fortresses with razor wire and Kalashnikov-toting guards at the entrances.
The threat is real and, many think, worsening: six international aid workers have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan, and two Britons have died in the capital in the last week alone.
The Taliban is not the only danger – although they carry out the worst attacks, like the deadly suicide bombing of the showpiece Serena Hotel last January.
Like elsewhere in Afghanistan, Kabul is lawless. Admittedly there have never been so many police on the streets, and helicopters circling the skies above. New blast barriers and machine-gun posts seem to sprout almost weekly.
But as faith in the government has waned, crime has grown. Men who 10 years ago were ragged bandits preying off penniless refugees are now armed robbers who kidnap wealthy Afghan businessmen. They go for Westerners too if they think they can get away with it.
Just how dangerous the city has become is a matter for debate. Most of its foreign residents would agree that it is not as bad as Baghdad was when kidnapping was at its height and most fervently hope that Kabul is unlikely to ever get so bad.
But living behind walls and watching endless DVDs while worrying about kidnapping is not much fun. Organisations like the UN now have serious recruitment problems.
After the fatal shooting last week of Gayle Williams, the Christian aid worker who was shot dead by Taliban gunmen in the street, even a walk in the autumn sunshine can seem dangerous.
The Afghanistan NGO Security Office advises on safety for aid workers, and director Nic Lee does not think the Taliban are generally targeting foreigners in the capital but advises expatriates to exercise extreme caution.
"There's been a lot of panicky talk about aid workers getting ready to flee the country but nobody I know sees it like that.
"But there have been some high-profile attacks and that has brought it home just how dangerous Kabul has always been. What worries us is that there is a continual escalation in threat levels across the country."
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Kambakhsh to Fight On
Mazar journalism student found guilty of blasphemy gets death sentence commuted – but his family is determined to have conviction overturned.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Jean MacKenzie (ARR No. 303, 23-Oct-08)
Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh is finally off death row. But the 24-year-old journalism student who was sentenced to death for blasphemy has little cause to rejoice: he now faces 20 years in jail for the offence.
Kambakhsh’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said that the family will challenge this week’s Court of Appeal verdict, which defence lawyer Mohammad Afzal Nooristani termed “unfair, motivated by the political interests of some people”.
Ibrahimi, visibly shaken, told reporters that the verdict was evidence that the Afghan judiciary was “totally uncivilised”.
“They do whatever they want; they do not care about anything,” he said.
The courtroom was packed on Tuesday, October 21, as journalists, diplomats, and civil society activists gathered for what they hoped would be the denouement of the Kambakhsh affair. The young man has been in prison for nearly a year, and the case has been stalled for over four months in the Kabul Appellate Court.
Parwez Kambakhsh was arrested on October 27, 2007, in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, for allegedly downloading and distributing an article from the Internet that excoriated Islam’s policies regarding women. According to witnesses in court this week, the police action was prompted by a complaint from a fellow student, Ghulam Seddiq.
Ghulam told the court that he was given the article by yet another student, who said that it had been written by Kambakhsh.
“When I began to read, I experienced Islamic emotions,” he said in his statement. “I then went to the security department of the university. I played an active role in getting Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh arrested.”
But the case nearly fell apart with a witness known only as Hamed, a fellow student, who exploded a bombshell just minutes into the trial.
His statement, that he had been given the offending article by Kambakhsh, had been particularly damning at earlier hearings. But this week, when asked if he stood by his statement, he simply said “no”.
“I was forced,” he maintained, telling the court that a professor of literature had taken him to the university director’s office the previous October and there, two strangers, whom he supposed to be from the National Security Directorate, instructed him to write a statement against Kambakhsh.
“I wrote what they told me,” he said. “I was scared. They threatened my mother, my father.”
When prosecutor Akhmad Khan Ayar indirectly threatened him with prosecution for perjury, the young man said, “I accept responsibility.”
Hamed added that, when he was brought face to face with Kambakhsh soon after the latter’s arrest, Kambakhsh looked as if he had been beaten. “There was an injury to his face,” said Hamed. “And when I tried to hug him, he said ‘please stay away from me. My body is in pain.’”
Kambakhsh’s lawyers had claimed that the young man had been tortured after his detention; a medical exam conducted more than six months after the alleged abuse was inconclusive.
The defence lawyer and the prosecutor exchanged heated remarks throughout the process. The presiding judge, Abdul Salaam Qazizada, called for order by banging on one of the dozen or more microphones that nearly hid him from view.
The debate centered on Kambakhsh’s character; a succession of professors from Balkh University were brought in, all of whom complained that Kambakhsh asked provocative questions in class.
“He asked questions that made it seem that he was not sure of his beliefs,” said Shahabuddin Saqeb, a teacher from the Sharia faculty.
Kambakhsh himself could not sit quietly during the trial, rising repeatedly to confront his accusers. When one professor claimed that the young man had asked why Islam was a religion of tyranny, Kambakhsh could barely control himself.
“I asked why Islam is perceived as a religion of tyranny!” he shouted. “I asked what we could do about it.”
The prosecutor repeatedly hectored the defendant, at one point turning to him and shouting, “Do you believe that Allah is One? Allah says that your religion is complete. Do you believe this? Or do you have doubts?”
At one point, the judge threatened to clear the court, as murmurs of protest rose from the back of the room.
After a break for lunch, the three-judge court returned to deliver their ruling.
“The court has sentenced Sayed Parwez Kambakhsh to 20 years fro the crime he has committed,” said Qazizada. “But this is not the final hearing, he has the right to appeal.”
The next step is the Supreme Court, and the defence team will file the appeal soon, according to Ibrahimi.
Diplomats have been working behind the scenes to free Kambakhsh. Some sources have said that they are reluctant to put too much pressure on President Hamed Karzai to release the young student, fearing that this would contradict the principle of an independent judiciary.
“But the trial itself has not been according to legal principles,” said one diplomat, speaking privately.
Karzai is said to be waiting for the Supreme Court to issue its decision, according to sources who have met with him. He has also repeatedly assured Kambakhsh advocates, who range from family members up to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that the young man will soon be freed.
Kambakhsh was originally sentenced on January 22, in a summary proceedings by a Balkh primary court. The accused was given no access to legal counsel, and no opportunity to defend himself.
His family expended considerable time and resources to have the case moved to Kabul for appeal. The case opened in May, but adjourned after four sessions, on June 15.
Defence lawyer Nooristani has complained publicly that the case has violated all legal time limits set out in the penal code, and that Kambakhsh should be released on these grounds alone.
But this seems to have made little impression on the judiciary.
The next step is the appeal to the Supreme Court; if the high court does not overturn the sentence, there is likely to be renewed pressure on Karzai to pardon the young man.
Just days away from his first anniversary in prison, Kamblahsh showed little emotion when the verdict was read. He looked calm, and a bit more robust than he has at previous appearances.
With the appeal pending, Kambakhsh has been jailed on the premises of the Court of Appeal, a much less harsh environment than dreaded Pul-e-Charkhi prison, where he was briefly held after his transfer to Kabul. According to his brother, Yaqub, Kambakhsh will be able to stay there jail until the Supreme Court delivers its decision.
But given the performance of the Appeals Court, this could take some time.
Jean MacKenzie is IWPR’s programme director in Afghanistan.
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