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Kabul expects new Taliban onslaught before winter: minister
Thu Sep 25, 2:08 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Taliban forces will likely stage a new wave of attacks in Afghanistan before winter sets in, the country's defense minister said as he renewed calls for a joint US-Afghan-Pakistan border force.
New efforts to free 150 Afghan hostages: official
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - The Afghan government called local powerbrokers Thursday to intervene in the hostage-taking of 150 labourers by suspected Taliban, an official said.
Bombs kill 2 policemen, 1 civilian in Afghanistan
Thu Sep 25, 12:55 AM ET Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Officials say separate bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan have killed two policemen and a civilian.
Bush Afghan review could recommend changes soon
By David Morgan Wed Sep 24, 7:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A wide-ranging Bush administration review of the war in Afghanistan could recommend changes to U.S. strategy in less than a month, officials said on Wednesday.
US presses NATO allies to target Afghan drug lords
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 24, 4:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. defense officials are pressing their NATO allies to do counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan, targeting an opium trade that fuels terror networks there.
Afghan leader seeks international help for army, police
Wed Sep 24, 3:13 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai called on Wednesday for more international aid of his country's army and police, saying it would help reduce the need for NATO-led forces and lower civilian casualties.
U.S. says Pakistan shot at U.S. copters in Afghanistan
Thu Sep 25, 12:50 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two NATO helicopters fired upon by Pakistani forces on Thursday were U.S. military aircraft operating inside Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
Afghan FM asks Pakistan to secure safe release of kidnapped diplomat
KABUL, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta in meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qurishi stressed for safe release of kidnapped Afghan diplomat
Two abducted Iranians freed in Afghanistan
Thu Sep 25, 10:16 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two Iranian nationals abducted in western Afghanistan's Herat province about 40 days ago have been freed after a ransom was paid, officials said Thursday.
'How Bagram destroyed me'
Thursday, 25 September 2008 BBC News
Jawed Ahmad has just been released from US military detention at Bagram air base near the Afghan capital, Kabul. In a rare insider's account of the base, he alleges abuse and, most controversially
Tajikistan forces kill Afghan opium smugglers
Thursday September 25, 3:24 PM
DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajik border guards have shot dead a group of Afghan drug smugglers and seized more than 250 kg (550 lb) of opium and other drugs, a border guard spokeswoman said on Thursday.
WITNESS: Return to Kabul, in a cordon of fear
By Sanjeev Miglani Wed Sep 24, 8:07 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - The rows of bombed-out and upturned Soviet era-planes that littered the ground at Kabul airport when I left five years ago are gone.
US told it must hold talks with Taliban's Mullah Omar
The US must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region, the Governor of Pakistan's lawless border areas has said.
As Crime Increases in Kabul, So Does Nostalgia for Taliban
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, September 25, 2008
KABUL -Mirza Kunduzai, 58, a slight man with a short white goatee, had almost reached his house after a day of trading in the capital's open-air currency market when his taxi was forced to stop by six heavily
Karzai scolds U.S., allies for killing of civilians
Globe and Mail, Canada PAUL KORING September 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - The killing of innocent Afghans by foreign troops imperils the credibility of the United States and its allies in the war against Taliban insurgents, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai told the United Nations Wednesday.
Militants shake off Pakistan's grip
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong By Syed Saleem Shahzad Sep 25, 2008
KARACHI-Behind closed doors in Washington, London and Islamabad a few months ago, the consensus was to initiate a strategic phase of "conflict escalation" in the region, even though it was acknowledged
LANDI KOTAL: Taliban given 24 hours to leave Landi Kotal
Dawn By Ibrahim Shinwari Sept 24,2008
LANDI KOTAL-The Mullagori tribe of Landi Kotal tehsil in Khyber Agency set a 24-hour deadline for the Taliban to leave the area or face the music, residents said on Wednesday.
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Kabul expects new Taliban onslaught before winter: minister
Thu Sep 25, 2:08 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Taliban forces will likely stage a new wave of attacks in Afghanistan before winter sets in, the country's defense minister said as he renewed calls for a joint US-Afghan-Pakistan border force.
"I believe we have experienced the worst of this year's fighting" but "we should expect one more enemy effort before winter," Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said during a visit to the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.
"There are more foreign fighters and Taliban in Afghanistan than in any time in the past few years and they are operating in more provinces than before," Wardak said.
"We are now combating a much stronger and more sophisticated enemy," he said, citing "elaborate preparation, access to better training, plenty of resources and equipment, new tactics, sophisticated planning" displayed by the Taliban.
Saying a more sophisticated enemy requires "a global strategic response," Wardak repeated his call for a joint Afghani-Pakistani and NATO-led coalition force that would target insurgent safe havens on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"We need to establish a mechanism for practical cross-border cooperation, including strengthening routine links between our military, border security and law enforcement institutions," the minister said.
The proposal was "in the very initial stage" and will need to be developed further, said Wardak, adding: "It will take time."
Given allegations that Pakistan is turning a blind eye to insurgents operating out of the country, a joint force patrolling on both sides of the border would "eliminate all the suspicion there is at the moment."
"It will be a major confidence building (step). Everybody will be fully assured of each other's sincerity," he said.
The proposal, which has yet to be publicly endorsed by the United States or Pakistan, comes as Pakistani leaders have expressed anger over strikes in the country's tribal zone by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda forces.
The proposed joint border force "will make the question of sovereignty less sensitive," Wardak said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani meanwhile reiterated Wednesday that his country would not tolerate violations of its sovereignty after a series of strikes this month.
The US Defense Department called for combined efforts to tackle the threat posed by insurgents.
"We need collectively if possible to address this threat from the tribal regions," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said.
The Pentagon was "encouraged by the recent, far more aggressive military operations that the Pakistanis are taking in the tribal areas," he told a news conference.
As for the joint force endorsed by Kabul, the spokesman added: "If they (Pakistanis) ever were to acquiesce and agree to do joint operations, that would be a good thing."
In New York, Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged the international community on Wednesday to provide more assistance for his country's army and police to enable security forces to take on a greater role in the fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.
Such a move could reduce the need for NATO-led troops and decrease civilian casualties, Karzai said, in a reference to coalition operations backed by air strikes that have resulted in numerous civilian casualties.
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New efforts to free 150 Afghan hostages: official
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - The Afghan government called local powerbrokers Thursday to intervene in the hostage-taking of 150 labourers by suspected Taliban, an official said.
Tribal elders, members of village and town councils, and other influential men have been called to meet later in the day in the town of Farah near where the workers were abducted Sunday, the deputy provincial governor said.
"We are trying to talk to them to solve this issue so the government does not have to resort to military operations," Mohammad Younus Rasouli told AFP.
"Usually, in military operations, there is harm to both the abductees and to civilians."
Authorities believe the workers, employed by a private construction company to build barracks for the Afghan army, were being held by Taliban but this has not been confirmed by the rebel group, which is active in the area.
The group was seized as they travelled in three buses through Farah to Herat city for the upcoming Eid holidays.
Rasouli said the government had reports that the men had been divided into several groups and were being held in Bala Buluk district, a Taliban stronghold about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of Farah town.
"We are trying to solve this issue via talks and negotiations. The Taliban had promised to free them all by noon two days ago but they did not keep their word," he said
"They are innocent civilians and we are trying to free them so they can spend Eid with their families."
Similar negotiations were under way in the far east of the country after four men were abducted from a mosque late Wednesday, police said.
"Last night, five people were abducted from a mosque in Gardez by Taliban," said Paktia province deputy police chief Ghulam Dastagir.
"We don't know why they were abducted, but we have reports that they were accused of working for the Afghan government."
One of the men had been freed and tribal elders were negotiating the release of the rest, he said.
The Taliban use abductions to intimidate ordinary Afghans into not supporting the Western-backed government, to raise money and secure the release of their men in jail.
But criminal gangs, sometimes linked to the extremists, are also involved in kidnappings.
In addition, Taliban militants attacked a police post in Pusht Rod district of Farah early Thursday morning, sparking a fierce exchange of fire that left five rebels dead.
"Five Taliban were killed and two policemen were wounded in the one-and-a-half-hour gun battle," Ikramudin Yawar, the police commander for western Afghanistan, told AFP.
The Taliban meanwhile claimed responsibility for new attacks on police on Wednesday and Thursday that killed two policemen and a civilian.
A remote-controlled bomb blew up a police vehicle near the southern border town of Spin Boldak late Wednesday, killing two border policemen, Kandahar province police chief Mutiullah Khan told AFP.
Another remote-controlled bomb blew up early Thursday in the nearby city of Kandahar, killing a civilian man who was crossing a road, a policeman at the scene said.
The Islamic fundamentalist Taliban group was in government in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when it was removed in a US-led invasion for sheltering the Al-Qaeda network.
Around 750 police officers have been killed in the first six months of this year, most of them in insurgency-linked attacks, and 1,250 wounded, officials said.
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Bombs kill 2 policemen, 1 civilian in Afghanistan
Thu Sep 25, 12:55 AM ET Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Officials say separate bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan have killed two policemen and a civilian.
Matiullah Khan, Kandahar's provincial police chief, says a remote-controled bomb struck a police vehicle Wednesday in Spin Boldak district, killing two officers.
Mohammad Gul, a police officer in Kandahar, says another bomb targeted a bus full of police trainers in Kandahar city Thursday, killing a civilian passerby. The bomb missed the bus.
More than 4,600 people — mostly militants — have died so far this year in insurgency-related violence in Afghanistan.
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Bush Afghan review could recommend changes soon
By David Morgan Wed Sep 24, 7:40 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A wide-ranging Bush administration review of the war in Afghanistan could recommend changes to U.S. strategy in less than a month, officials said on Wednesday.
The review, which began in earnest this week, encompasses a range of government actors including the Defense, State, Treasury and Agriculture departments and intelligence agencies under the auspices of the National Security Council and White House war czar Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, officials said.
While departments and agencies had been conducting their own reviews on Afghanistan, officials said the NSC stepped in this week to coordinate efforts into a single strategic review for President George W. Bush.
"An NSC-coordinated process is now under way," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
"We'll take a look at whatever adjustments need to be made to put Afghanistan on a proper footing," he added. "The ultimate goal is to give the president the broadest, deepest picture possible."
Johndroe said he expected the NSC review to be completed within a few weeks. That could bring changes to U.S. strategy around mid-October, just before the November 4 presidential election.
Afghanistan, where violence has soared over the past two years, has become a growing concern to U.S. officials because of safe havens inside neighboring Pakistan that have helped militants stage an increasingly deadly insurgency in the eastern tier of the country.
In recent months, Afghanistan has become a deadlier place for U.S. troops than Iraq, and U.S. officials have warned that time is running out to muster the massive development effort necessary to stabilize the country.
It was unclear how large a scale of change in strategy the Bush administration was likely to undertake with only four months to go before a new president moves into the White House.
'ADJUSTMENTS'
A high-level White House review of Iraq strategy in 2006 resulted in major changes, including a boost in troop numbers in 2007 known as the "surge" that contributed to a dramatic decline in violence there.
The United States has 33,000 troops in Afghanistan, including 13,000 under a 47,000-member NATO force. Bush said recently about 8,000 more American troops would go to Afghanistan by early next year. The NATO commander for Afghanistan has said he could need as many as 15,000 U.S. troops on top of that.
Johndroe and other officials spoke of possible "adjustments" to existing strategy. But some, including Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have expressed the need for more new comprehensive approach that would encompass Pakistan and its militant safe havens as well as Afghanistan.
"This is a Lute-driven product," said a senior defense official, referring to the general appointed in 2007 to advise Bush on policy involving Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I wouldn't necessarily assume there's going to be a complete new strategy. That's what's being considered," said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity."
The broad range of input could prove important because top administration officials including Defense Secretary Robert Gates have emphasized the need for better coordination in bringing vital development, education and investment aid to Afghanistan.
(Editing by Kristin Roberts and Peter Cooney)
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US presses NATO allies to target Afghan drug lords
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 24, 4:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON - U.S. defense officials are pressing their NATO allies to do counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan, targeting an opium trade that fuels terror networks there.
So far, the effort has not been successful, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has expressed some doubt that the allies could be convinced. As an interim measure, U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock, the top NATO commander, said Wednesday that he would like allied forces to go after drug facilities where the opium is processed into heroin.
Craddock, who spent the last three days in Afghanistan, said that some nations are concerned that expanding into counter-drug raids might cause the traffickers and insurgents to attack NATO forces more ferociously.
"This is a totally specious argument," Craddock told reporters in Kabul. "What's more ferocious than IEDs (roadside bombs) and suicide bombs?"
Gates also acknowledged this week that "we're running into some flak," from the allies, and "I'm not sure whether we'll be successful."
U.S. forces don't focus on counter-narcotics missions, and instead are fighting insurgents and training the Afghan forces. Last week, after a stop in Afghanistan, Gates told reporters that if allied troops have the chance to take out a narcotics lab or arrest a drug kingpin, they should be able to do it.
To date, the counter-narcotics effort has largely been aimed at Afghan farmers, who rely on the drug trade for their livelihoods. This shift would target those who process the drugs rather than those who grow them.
Craddock said that by attacking the drug runners, coalition forces could cripple the insurgents "because they won't have the money to pay the bomb makers and buy the materials to attack us."
Drought and anti-drug campaigns helped slash Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation by 19 percent this year compared to 2007, but a U.N. report said the country is still the world's leading source of the heroin-producing crop.
Anti-poppy campaigns in the north and east led to a drop in production there, but fields in Taliban strongholds in the south are providing higher yields. Taliban militants could still reap as much as $70 million from the harvest.
"One of the issues that the alliance has to address is the role that we play in the counter-narcotics effort," Gates told reporters in London last week. "Given how tied in it is with all the other issues in Afghanistan, that's something we ought to be willing to take on in some way. And I think that's something we'll be talking about."
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the issue may come up next month when Gates and other NATO defense ministers meet in Hungary.
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Afghan leader seeks international help for army, police
Wed Sep 24, 3:13 PM ET
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai called on Wednesday for more international aid of his country's army and police, saying it would help reduce the need for NATO-led forces and lower civilian casualties.
"I call for a redoubling of efforts by the international community aimed at enabling the Afghan national security institutions, both the army and the police, to take on a greater share of the war against terrorism and the protection of our people," Karzai told the UN General Assembly.
Most of the 70,000 international troops in Afghanistan are from the NATO alliance, which at a summit in Bucharest this year called for the "Afghanization" of the country's security sector.
As they attempt to rein in a resurgent Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan through air strikes, foreign troops have been blamed for numerous civilian casualties in the villages.
New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that civilian deaths from international air strikes had trebled between 2006 and 2007 -- from at least 116 in 2006 to at least 321 the following year.
There have been at least 119 civilians killed in US and NATO air strikes so far this year in Afghanistan, the group said, adding its figures were based on conservative estimates.
"Above all, Afghanization of the military operations is vital if the problem of civilian casualties is to be addressed effectively," Karzai said.
"The continuation of civilian casualties can seriously undermine the legitimacy of fighting terrorism and the credibility of the Afghan people's partnership with the international community," he warned.
Karzai is to meet with newly elected Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday on the margins of the UN meeting to discuss a drive to weed out Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants allegedly using Pakistani sanctuaries along their common border.
Karzai is also scheduled to meet with US President George W. Bush on Friday mostly on the "war on terror."
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U.S. says Pakistan shot at U.S. copters in Afghanistan
Thu Sep 25, 12:50 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two NATO helicopters fired upon by Pakistani forces on Thursday were U.S. military aircraft operating inside Afghanistan, the Pentagon said.
"They were U.S. helicopters," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters at a briefing. "The flight path of the helicopters at no point took them over Pakistan."
A Pakistani military spokesman said the helicopters had crossed the border into Pakistani territory, while Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, denied troops had shot at the helicopters, insisting that only warning flares had been fired.
Zardari, speaking to reporters in New York with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan was often unclear, a comment Rice agreed with, saying "yes, the border is very, very unclear."
Whitman said U.S. and NATO military officials were speaking to their Pakistani counterparts to determine what had happened and to ensure there would be no recurrence.
"This is an unfortunate incident. It just goes to demonstrate the importance of coordination along that border," he said. "The Pakistanis have to provide us with a better understanding of why this took place."
Citing early reports, Whitman said neither helicopter was hit by ground fire and did not return fire against Pakistani positions.
Officials said the aircraft would likely have fired back had they been hit. "We avoided a serious incident," Whitman said, but added: "The incident is troubling, no doubt".
Frustrated by an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the United States has stepped up attacks on militants inside Pakistan with six missile attacks and a helicopter-borne ground assault this month.
Pakistan strongly condemned the raids and said it would not tolerate any infringement on its territory. The Pakistani army has vowed to stand up to aggression across the border.
Since the September 3 U.S. commando raid in South Waziristan, there have been reports of two other incidents in which Pakistani forces were said to fire on U.S. helicopters crossing the border. In both cases, U.S. officials have denied the reports.
The Pakistani military also said it recovered a pilotless aircraft that crashed in South Waziristan this week. A Pakistani security officer described it as a U.S. aircraft that tribesmen claimed to have shot down. The Pentagon denied that any U.S. drones had been lost.
(Reporting by David Morgan, Editing by Sandra Maler)
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Afghan FM asks Pakistan to secure safe release of kidnapped diplomat
KABUL, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Afghanistan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta in meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmoud Qurishi stressed for safe release of kidnapped Afghan diplomat Abdul Khaliq Farahi, a statement of Foreign Ministry received here Thursday said.
"The meeting took place in New York during which the Afghan Foreign Minister, in addition to expressing deep concern over the abduction of council general in Peshawar, asked Islamabad to do its best in safe release of Farahi at its earliest," the statement added.
Farahi, serving council general in Peshawar and ambassador designate to Islamabad, was abducted by armed men early this week after his driver was shot dead by abductors outside Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
An Afghan delegation sent to Pakistan following the incident is still working with Pakistani officials to secure the safe release of the abducted diplomat.
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Two abducted Iranians freed in Afghanistan
Thu Sep 25, 10:16 AM ET
HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) - Two Iranian nationals abducted in western Afghanistan's Herat province about 40 days ago have been freed after a ransom was paid, officials said Thursday.
One of the men, who was supplying material for an Iranian construction company, was released Thursday and an engineer working for the company was freed Wednesday, the provincial foreign relations department chief told AFP.
The two went missing on August 14 while they were travelling from the western city of Herat to Islam Qala on the border with Iran.
"They are both freed -- one of them was freed yesterday and one today," said the official, Homayoun Kamgar.
"According to the abductees, they were freed after they paid some ransom but we don't know how much and how," he said.
Kamgar said the two had told officials they were held by their captors in neighbouring Farah province.
The provincial intelligence chief, Habibullah Habib, confirmed the release of the two Iranians.
Citing the Iranian consulate in the province, Kamgar said the two had already left Herat for Iran.
There has been a spike in kidnappings in Afghanistan this year, notably in the relatively prosperous cities of Kabul and Herat.
Some have been carried out by extremist Taliban insurgents but criminal gangs seeking ransom are also involved.
There had been at least 22 registered cases of kidnapping in Herat in the past six months, according to the province's criminal investigation police chief Ali Khan Husseinzada.
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'How Bagram destroyed me'
Thursday, 25 September 2008 BBC News
Jawed Ahmad has just been released from US military detention at Bagram air base near the Afghan capital, Kabul. In a rare insider's account of the base, he alleges abuse and, most controversially, that prison guards mishandled the Koran. He spoke to the BBC's Martin Patience.
For Jawed Ahmad the last 11 months have been the worst of his life.
"They destroyed me financially, mentally and physically," says Mr Ahmad, 21, wearing a traditional shalwar kameez and sporting a thin, wispy beard.
"But most importantly, my mother is taking her last breath in hospital just because of the Americans."
Mr Ahmad was detained for almost a year in the Bagram air base where US forces imprison suspected Taleban and al-Qaeda fighters. He was freed last Saturday.
The facility has a controversial past - two Afghans were beaten to death by their American guards in 2002.
'Don't move'
Jawed Ahmad was a well-known journalist in Kandahar working for Canadian TV and on occasions the BBC. Previously, he had spent two and half years as a translator for American special forces.
So, when a press officer from an American military base asked him to come for a chat, he thought nothing of it - these people were supposed to be his friends after all.
"At once around 15 people surrounded me and dropped me to the floor," says Mr Ahmad, becoming increasingly animated as he spoke.
"They shouted at me saying 'don't move' and then they take me to the prison."
Mr Ahmad says that the prison guards - he assumes they were American - then hit him and threw him against truck containers.
But he says that the abuse did not end there.
"For nine days they didn't allow me sleep. I didn't eat anything - it was a very tough time for me," he says. "Finally, they told me you're going to Guantanamo Bay."
He was accused of supplying weapons to the Taleban and having contacts with the movement.
Mr Ahmad protested, saying that as a journalist it was his job. They then, he says, shaved his head and put him in an orange jump suit.
But before leaving Kandahar - his guards had one final message.
"I will never forget it," he says. "They said 'you know what?', and I said 'what' and they said there is no right of journalists in this war."
'Unconscious'
Despite the threat of being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Mr Ahmad was flown to Bagram air base about 70km (40 miles) north of the capital, Kabul.
It's where the US military detains about 600 prisoners whom they define as unlawful combatants.
"When I landed first of all they stood me in snow for six hours," he says. "It was too cold - I had no socks, no shoes, nothing. I became unconscious two times."
He continued: "They learned one word in Pashto 'jigshaw, jigshaw' - it means 'stand up'. And when I became unconscious they were saying 'jigshaw'."
For the next 11 months Mr Ahmad was held at the facility - he says that he was unsure why he was there, and when, if ever, he would be released.
He says he and his fellow prisoners were taunted continuously by the guards.
"I thought they were animals," he says. "When they cursed me, I cursed them twice. I challenged them."
Mr Ahmad says he was sent into solitary confinement after an article appeared in the New York Times about his incarceration, which apparently irritated the guards.
He says he was chained in the cell in stress positions making it almost impossible to sleep.
But most inflammatory of all, Mr Ahmad says that other prisoners told him that the guards mishandled the Koran.
"They didn't do it only one time, not two times, they did it more than 100 times. They have thrown it, they have torn it, they have kicked it."
The day Mr Ahmad learned he was being set free was an emotional moment.
"Sometimes I laughed, sometimes I cried, sometimes I prayed," he says. " Finally, the next morning they just released me."
Denial
In a statement, the US military at Bagram air base said that there was no evidence to substantiate any claims of mistreatment.
They added that Mr Ahmad had been turned over to the Afghan government as part of a reconciliation programme.
But Mr Ahmad says that he will pursue justice for what has happened to him.
"I will fight to my last breath to get my rights," he says. " I will knock on the door of Congress, I will ask Obama, I will ask Hilary Clinton, even Bush - I will not leave any person."
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Tajikistan forces kill Afghan opium smugglers
Thursday September 25, 3:24 PM
DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajik border guards have shot dead a group of Afghan drug smugglers and seized more than 250 kg (550 lb) of opium and other drugs, a border guard spokeswoman said on Thursday.
Ex-Soviet Tajikistan lies on the main trafficking route out of neighbouring Afghanistan -- the world's top producer of opium and its refined form, heroin -- to western Europe.
Yelena Alekseyeva, the spokeswoman, said a number of Afghan smugglers were killed in a shootout with Tajik forces on the border but could not say how many.
"During the operation a large quantity of drugs was seized and a number of criminals were killed," she said.
With treacherous terrain and leaky borders, Tajikistan is a haven for drug smuggling out of Afghanistan which produced a record 8,200 tonnes of opium last year.
The impoverished nation has struggled to contain the problem since independence from Moscow, with analysts saying its security forces intercept only a fraction of the total traffic.
(Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Matthew Jones)
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WITNESS: Return to Kabul, in a cordon of fear
By Sanjeev Miglani Wed Sep 24, 8:07 PM ET
KABUL (Reuters) - The rows of bombed-out and upturned Soviet era-planes that littered the ground at Kabul airport when I left five years ago are gone.
But returning to the Afghan capital, which I last saw just before the spring of 2003 when it was starting to find its feet after the Taliban were driven out by U.S.-led forces, is both surprising and disconcerting.
"It looks better but it feels worse," says a Western diplomat, summing up his four years in Kabul.
We are sitting in a darkened Indian restaurant with its shutters fully lowered. Armed guards opened the door just a fraction to allow a small group of us in.
Before, when I came from New Delhi for a month as one of a stream of people on temporary assignment, I had spent an Indian evening in a run-down Sikh temple up a squalid back alley: a kind driver had deposited me there thinking I was homesick.
A tall Sikh in trousers and shirt uncharacteristically did not invite me in, but kept saying "we don't really want anything, we just want to be left alone and allowed to practice our faith," his eyes darting up and down the street.
To me the very idea that Sikhs could be living here still after the years of the Taliban had been remarkable.
There were pock-marked government buildings and houses, and men and children with an arm or a leg amputated because of a land mine blast in the world's most mined nation.
Former soldiers, members of the private army of one or other warlord who fought for control of Afghanistan after the Soviets were driven out in 1989, walked the streets in military fatigues, figuring out a future now the war was over.
Now I'm back, most of that has gone.
There's no more confusion in the small immigration control office, or at the baggage belt in a dark corner of the damp building. You are quickly waved through, your bags safely arrived, and whisked off in Kabul's crisp early morning air.
Traffic clogs the dusty, potholed streets, people crane their necks out of cars hollering at each other to give way, smiling school girls in twos or threes wait by the roadside for a ride home in crowded minibuses.
Mobile phone shops have sprung up everywhere, and everyone uses the phones in a country where the landline network has yet to be rebuilt.
Shalwar-clad men stand at street corners selling Afghani currency for dollars in one hand and pre-paid phone cards in the other.
In the stadium where the Taliban conducted public executions, the grass has grown and there is a football game on between local boys dressed in red and blue, their shouts rising over the traffic. In streets where I remember seeing mudhouses cheek by jowl, mansions have been built.
INSECURITY
But I look at Kabul's high-walled compounds with their blast barriers, sandbags and concertina wire running all around to keep suicide bombers as far away as possible, and realize things can turn ugly very quickly.
Five years on, the walls of the embassies and other foreign organizations have grown taller, there are more checkpoints and more roads are either cordoned off completely or regulated.
I begin to feel the insecurity that the city lives with, and struggle to understand the contradictions of a place whose bustling streets belie a sense of foreboding.
"Back then we were seen as liberators after the darkness of the Taliban years, now we are probably seen as a necessary evil," says the diplomat in the restaurant.
An assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai during a military parade in April, a bombing on the Indian embassy in July and last month's Taliban ambush of French soldiers outside Kabul have added to a sense of siege.
Over the next few days, I hunt for more people who can talk to me about the changes, particularly the expats who arrived with so much optimism after the fall of the Taliban.
I remember during my last trip lots of foreigners and Afghans who had spent most of the war years abroad had come back, and you could feel the sense of hope.
Even something as simple as listening to music, banned by the Taliban, seemed a luxury, a promise of good times ahead.
The talk then was of setting up schools, creating opportunities for women, establishing new media, rebuilding Afghanistan, brick-by-brick, well by well. Now the conversation is just as likely to be about bomb attacks.
"There is dynamism, there is money, but there is tension," says Anne Feenstra, an architect from the Netherlands who teaches at Kabul University.
"It is still the culture of the gun here, whether it is the Americans dropping bombs from a safe distance or the Taliban or the warlords. Nobody feels secure, nobody plans anything, you don't know what will happen next year."
Everyone has been affected.
A woman covered in the all-encompassing blue burqa used to sit outside the Reuters office every day, arms outstretched for alms, one of the many who lined the streets. Denied education or work by the Taliban, they could do little but beg.
But she rarely comes now, the office guards tell me, because it's difficult for her to get past the security checkpoint that has been set up on our street after a couple of foreign missions moved in. Once in a while the woman, whose face I have never seen and to whom I have never spoken, gets past a lenient guard.
"It has become more unsafe, that is the change that has taken place," says Abdul Rehman, our office guard who was here when I last came. He tells me not to venture out on foot in the evening even for a short walk.
If this is Kabul, the insecurity outside is worse. Bit by bit, large parts of the country have become no-go areas.
"Each month the red lines draw closer," says G.B. Adhikary, country director of Action Aid.
(Editing by Sara Ledwith)
(Kabul Newsroom + 93 799 335 284)
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US told it must hold talks with Taliban's Mullah Omar
The US must broker a power-sharing agreement with the head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, in order to establish peace in the region, the Governor of Pakistan's lawless border areas has said.
By Isambard Wilkinson in Peshawar The Telegraph (UK) / September 25, 2008
Owais Ghani, who governs the North West Frontier Province and its adjoining tribal areas, is the most prominent figure to date to publicly advocate holding talks with militant commanders leading the insurgency against coalition forces in Afghanistan.
His thinking reflects that of the conservative hardcore of Pakistan's military hardliners who are accused by Western intelligence operatives of supporting the Afghan Taliban as a "hedging policy" to maintain influence in Afghanistan.
"They have to talk to Mullah Omar, certainly – not maybe, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Haqqani group," Mr Ghani told The Daily Telegraph in an interview in Peshawar.
"The solution, the bottom line, is that political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan."
The governor's remarks are likely to cause controversy among Pakistan's allies in the US-led "war on terror" and at home where the ruling Pakistan's People's Party is opposed to the Taliban.
Mullah Omar went into hiding during the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. British intelligence believes that he has his headquarters in Quetta in southwestern Pakistan.
In 2006, Mr Musharraf acknowledged that some retired Pakistani intelligence officials may still be involved in supporting their former Taliban protégés whom they worked with during the 1990s when Pakistan helped the movement sweep to power in Afghanistan.
Jalaluddin Haqqani is a veteran commander of the American-backed Afghan war against Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and developed links with Osama bin Laden during that period.
Haqqani has had close links with the CIA and Pakistani intelligence agencies, notably the military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The New York Times reported in July that the CIA had given the prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, evidence of the ISI's continued involvement with Haqqani, who is now leading militants against coalition forces in Afghanistan, along with evidence of ISI connections to a suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul that killed nearly 60 people on July 7.
The Hezb-e-Islami, the Mujahideen faction of the former Afghan prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was one of the groups which helped end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan but has had links with Pakistan since 1978.
But in the civil war that followed in the early 1990s, his group of fundamentalist Sunni Muslim Pashtuns clashed violently with other Mujahideen factions in the struggle for control of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The Hezb-e-Islami was blamed for much of the terrible death and destruction of that period, which led many ordinary Afghans to welcome the emergence of the Taliban.
Some of his party members are part of the Afghan parliament and he is said to have taken part in back-channel negotiations with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
Mr Ghani said that all three militant commanders were in Afghanistan.
"They are a power group that has to be preserved to seek political solutions we would not destroy them because then you are contributing to further instability," he said.
He denied that Pakistan "wants the Taliban back".
He added: "No sir, we have no favourites in Afghanistan."
Mr Ghani said that West must accept that the "Mullah is a political reality".
However he denied that Pakistan is supporting them by pointing out that it had handed over key Taliban ground commanders operating in Helmand province where British forces are based.
Senior American commanders and policymakers are considering a shift in strategy in Afghanistan. The chairman of the US joint chief of staffs, Admiral Mike Mullen, recently said that failure there was possible and "time was running out".
Mr Ghani said: "You are headed for failure. I think Afghanistan is practically lost. It is compounding our problems."
The governor added that the West must hold talks with the Taliban as al-Qaeda was regrouping from Iraq to Afghanistan. Russia had begun to supply weapons to militants and that the Afghans were intolerant of foreigners on their soil and so were staging "a national uprising".
"To eliminate the Taliban you have to slaughter half the Afghan nation," said Mr Ghani.
President Karzai routinely renews his call for peace talks. Members of a cross-border Afghan-Pakistani tribal council agreed last year to pursue talks with the Taliban.
The initiative received initial encouragement from the Taliban but its leadership then set preconditions for the 50,000 US and Nato troops to be withdrawn and Islamic law to be restored to the country.
Washington rejects talks with the Taliban maintaining that America will not negotiate with "terrorists".
Mr Karzai and the United Nations have stipulated that a key condition for peace talks is that the Taliban must accept the constitution that was signed by Mr Karzai in 2004.
It is doubtful that the America's allies in Afghanistan-which is formed among ethnically distinct groups from the Pashtun Taliban, the Northern Alliance, would accept such talks.
Mr Ghani said that Mr Karzai "does not represent any power group – tribal, religious or political and therefore like the people in his government he is dependant on foreign power. He is therefore an obstacle to dialogue and peace."
He described Pakistan's military strategy as one of containment. "We are not looking for quick fixes. We want to hold it to a level where we can just tolerate it until Afghanistan settles down," said Mr Ghani.
When asked about allegations that Pakistan has used the Taliban to retain its influence in Afghanistan, Mr Ghani replied: "We could counter that by saying India uses the Northern Alliance."
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As Crime Increases in Kabul, So Does Nostalgia for Taliban
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, September 25, 2008
KABUL -Mirza Kunduzai, 58, a slight man with a short white goatee, had almost reached his house after a day of trading in the capital's open-air currency market when his taxi was forced to stop by six heavily armed men dressed in Afghan National Army uniforms.
For the next week, Kunduzai recounted, he endured one horror after another -- beaten unconscious, hooded and handcuffed, strung up by his wrists and ankles, dumped in a filthy latrine -- while his family frantically tried to raise the kidnappers' astronomical ransom demand of $2 million.
"I was 95 percent sure I was a dead man," Kunduzai said last week. "They said if my family went to the police, they would chop off my fingers and send them to my wife. I begged them to be reasonable. I offered them my house and my farmland back home. Finally, they agreed to settle for $500,000 and released me. I am poor again, but I am thankful to be alive."
While Taliban insurgents stage increasing attacks in the Afghan countryside, equally fast-expanding violent crime -- kidnappings, carjackings, drug-related killings and highway robberies -- is plaguing the capital of 5 million and the vital truck and bus routes that connect the country's major cities. It is making some Afghans nostalgic for the low-crime days before 2001, when the Taliban sternly ruled most of the country.
Today's problem, which experts say is intertwined with widespread official corruption, opium trafficking and the get-rich-quick boom of postwar aid and reconstruction, is threatening to destroy public confidence in the government of President Hamid Karzai and drive away what little investment the desperately poor country is attracting.
Police and soldiers are everywhere in Kabul -- patrolling traffic circles and markets, cruising in open pickup trucks. Armed private guards stand outside newly built glass offices and wedding salons. Every week, more streets are blocked by massive concrete barricades to shelter embassies, official buildings and compounds used by U.S. and NATO forces.
"The security situation is normal. Our police are honest and patriotic, and they are getting stronger day by day," Gen. Ali Shah Paktiawol, chief of criminal investigations for the Kabul police, said in a brief interview Tuesday. He dismissed concerns about growing urban insecurity as "enemy propaganda" and said many so-called kidnappings turn out to be romantic elopements.
But on Wednesday morning, Paktiawol narrowly escaped assassination when a remote-controlled bomb exploded under his vehicle on the outskirts of Kabul, where he had gone to investigate the late-night shooting of three policemen. The general escaped with minor injuries, but his three bodyguards were killed. Officials blamed the Taliban.
In the streets and shops of this sprawling city, many residents say they have virtually stopped going out at night. Wealthy families and traders such as Kunduzai have reported dozens of kidnappings for ransom this year -- often by gangs they believe to be members of the security forces.
The burgeoning drug trade, by which Afghan opium reaches international markets and provides more than 75 percent of the world's heroin, has brought ever-more weapons and wealth into the criminal orbit, corrupting cooperative officials and eliminating scrupulous ones.
Two weeks ago, Alim Hanif, the chief judge of the country's Central Narcotics Tribunal and a man known for rare honesty in a graft-ridden system, was assassinated in Kabul. Officials said he had received numerous phone and text messages warning him to acquit a suspected drug dealer or face death.
Another problem is the continued sway of militia bosses who fought Soviet troops in the 1980s and still command groups of armed loyalists in the capital and other cities. According to diplomatic reports, some of these groups are involved in private security forces that extort money from wealthy businesspeople; others are police or other public security officers who use their uniforms and weapons to abet a variety of crimes.
"The government is weak, and it has an enormously high level of tolerance for crime, abuse and corruption," said Nader Nadery, an official of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. "If you have power and money, you don't have to account for your actions. Instead of the rule of law, there is a state of impunity, which is one of the factors contributing to the growth of the Taliban."
Although Taliban fighters routinely hang and behead people in rural areas, the growth of crime and the lack of justice are the reasons most frequently cited by Afghans who support the reconstituted Islamist militia. More and more, people here look back to the era of harsh Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, describing it as a time of security and peace.
One group whose lives and livelihoods now face constant danger from armed criminals are the truckers and bus drivers who ply the highways between Kabul and the major provincial cities of Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad. Although vulnerable to Taliban attack, the drivers say they are just as often ambushed and robbed by well-armed thieves.
Mohammed Hussain, 40, was driving one of two passenger buses traveling together on a lonely stretch of highway from Herat to Kabul last week when heavily armed men attacked about 4 a.m. The gang shot at Hussain's fleeing bus, leaving bullet holes in the windows, and stopped the second bus, forcing it off the road and into a village. There they searched every passenger at gunpoint, confiscating money and jewelry.
"I was lucky. I had 57 passengers, including women and children," Hussain said. "The thieves wait for us in the dark, and they have powerful weapons. If we go to the police for help, they are either scared or involved in crime themselves. In the Taliban time, the roads were totally safe. You could drive anywhere in the country, 24 hours a day. Now, you take your life in your hands every time you leave on a trip."
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Karzai scolds U.S., allies for killing of civilians
Globe and Mail, Canada PAUL KORING September 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - The killing of innocent Afghans by foreign troops imperils the credibility of the United States and its allies in the war against Taliban insurgents, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai told the United Nations Wednesday.
Mr. Karzai, increasingly seen as the leader of an embattled government propped up by foreign forces, conceded that the insurgency now raging across the south and east of Afghanistan has grown markedly in the past year despite 60,000 foreign troops and a huge effort to train and equip the Afghan army.
“Terrorist forces have significantly increased their attacks and brutality and enjoyed freedom in their sanctuaries,” Mr. Karzai told the UN General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders.
The Afghan President called for even more foreign soldiers, echoing U.S. generals, who said another 10,000 combat troops are urgently needed.
Earlier this week, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. military was so overstretched that, even with the expected drawdown in Iraq, the needs in Afghanistan couldn't be met until some time next year.
“We do not have the forces to send three additional combat brigades to Afghanistan at this point,” Mr. Gates said.
As the Taliban insurgency has ramped up, including audacious attacks in the heart of the capital Kabul, a series of successful ambushes of Canadian, French and U.S. troops and the liberation of hundreds of prisoners in Kandahar prison, the reputation of foreign forces has been severely tarnished by air strikes gone wrong that killed scores of innocents.
“Civilian casualties can seriously undermine the legitimacy of fighting terrorism and the credibility of the Afghan people's partnership with the international community,” Mr. Karzai said. Hundreds of civilians have been killed this year, along with more than 200 foreign soldiers and an estimated 4,500 insurgents.
Last month, more than 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed when U.S. warplanes bombed an extended-family gathering after flawed intelligence targeted the group as jihadists.
Although it is major air strikes like last month's that garner international headlines, the ongoing killings of civilians by foreign troops, including incidents involving Canadian soldiers, also saps Afghan support for the counterinsurgency.
Mr. Karzai said there was an urgent need “for a redoubling of efforts by the international community aimed at enabling the Afghan national security institutions, both the army and the police, to take on a greater share of the war against terrorism and the protection of our people.”
In the interim, Mr. Karzai wants more foreign troops because it may reduce the reliance on air strikes, but he also wants more money and equipment for the Afghan National Army because, he said, that's the best way to avoid civilian casualties.
The “Afghanization of the military operations is vital if the problem of civilian casualties is to be addressed effectively,” he said.
However, Western military officers deployed in Afghanistan and expert analysts say it will take years before the still small and ineffective Afghan army is capable of defending the vast, rugged and impoverished country, especially with the Taliban and al-Qaeda operating almost unchecked from safe havens in largely ungoverned provinces of neighbouring Pakistan. Meanwhile, several countries with major combat contributions in southern Afghanistan, including Canada, have already announced they are pulling out. The Netherlands intends to cease combat operations in 2010 and Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced he will bring Canada's troops home the next year.
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Militants shake off Pakistan's grip
Asia Times Online, Hong Kong By Syed Saleem Shahzad Sep 25, 2008
KARACHI-Behind closed doors in Washington, London and Islamabad a few months ago, the consensus was to initiate a strategic phase of "conflict escalation" in the region, even though it was acknowledged that the price for this would be a surge in militancy in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This is what happened, and, given the popularity of the Taliban among Pashtun tribes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, peace treaties were then viewed as the best solution, provided the terms and conditions were set by the international and regional players and not by the Taliban.
This did not work, as militant activities have broken the will of Pakistan's leaders, so much so that they are using back channels to sign new peace agreements, but this time on the Taliban's terms.
But the militants are obsessed with their own "conflict escalation" until their ultimate goal is reached, whether in the shape of Taliban rule or broader regional peace agreements.
The devastating suicide attack on the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad at the weekend in which more than 80 people died is viewed from a different perspective in the Pashtun-dominated tribal areas, where militancy has a strong foothold.
Journalist Rahimullah Yousufzai, a renowned expert on Pashtun culture, tribalism and the Taliban, argues that just as Islamabad's elite, foreign diplomats and undercover international intelligence agents are devastated by the Marriott bombing, the tribals are equally incensed by the daily aerial bombardment of Bajaur Agency and Dara Adam Khel in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The Pakistani security forces don't make any concessions for the holy Muslim month of Ramadan and its main rituals, such as the pre-dawn feast (sahur) and the evening breaking of the fast (Iftar).
The tribals believe that non-Pashtun Pakistanis don't care about the massacre of Pashtun tribes by the security forces or the large-scale displacement of people - over 400,000 have been displaced from Bajaur during recent operations there.
The upshot is that the writ of the state of Pakistan has been reduced to the offices of the chief minister and the governor's house in the capital of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), Peshawar.
Information gathered by Asia Times Online through contacts in the Taliban suggests that over the past few months of military activities in the tribal areas, the Taliban have identified the main weakness of the Pakistani security forces in Bajaur - they cannot take control of land. Instead, they have resorted to aerial bombing, which allows the militants to easily take shelter in the maze of mountains that runs across the border into the Afghan province of Kunar.
If the Pakistani forces do try to establish land control, militants can quickly return to Bajaur and force them to retreat.
The Taliban's main regional commander, Qari Ziaur Rahman, has alone taken custody of over 100 Pakistani security personnel. As the number of prisoners soars, the conviction of the security forces to attack the militants weakens.
The situation further deteriorated this week when the Taliban's commander in Mohmand Agency, Abdul Wali, previously largely impartial in the recent conflict, joined hands with Rahman and sent hundreds of fresh guerrillas to attack the Pakistani security forces.
A senior Pakistani defense analyst admitted that despite the difficulties, the Bajaur operation was the only ray of hope for the security forces. If this battle is lost, Pakistan will not be able to stop the march of the Taliban towards the cosmopolitan centers of the country.
Already, the Taliban's success in Bajaur has emboldened them. They have made incursions into Peshawar and, loaded with sophisticated weaponry, they have forced the police to restrict themselves to their stations.
This enabled the Taliban on Monday to abduct Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Islamabad from the upscale Hyatabad neighborhood of Peshawar, and this in broad daylight. Abdul Khaliq Farahi was apparently first taken to Khyber Agency and remains missing. It is likely he will be used as a Taliban bargaining chip in any negotiations with Kabul.
The Taliban have shown they will go to any lengths in their struggle, even if it means harming fellow Pakistani citizens, including Muslims.
On Monday, the Taliban tried unsuccessfully to hit the main oil depot of Peshawar. According to a militant who spoke to ATol, the aim was to wipe out Peshawar's power for at least 15 days, during which time the Taliban could launch attacks.
Four rockets were also fired at Peshawar's airport on Monday and again on Tuesday. If nothing else, these attacks have created something of a reign of terror in the provincial capital. This is likely to spill over to the outskirt districts of Shabqadar, Charsada, Matni, Dara Adam Khel and Kohat. For the past two weeks, a main trade artery - the Kohat tunnel - has been closed to traffic due to military operations in Dara Adam Khel.
One of the most significant developments has been in the strategic Khyber Agency, the main North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply route into Afghanistan.
The majority population here has traditionally been of the anti-Taliban Sufi school of thought. A recent tribal council (jirga) decided to close down the activities and offices of all religious organizations in the agency. The only exception, the jirga agreed, would be the Taliban. It was mutually agreed that the Taliban would not disturb the peace in the area or intervene in local affairs, and the tribes would not get involved in the Taliban's activities.
On Sunday, the Taliban seized four containers belonging to NATO. According to militants who spoke to ATol, they were carrying food and water supplies.
Swat Valley continues to be in the hands of militants, despite intense military operations. On Tuesday, a suicide car bomb killed nine Pakistani soldiers at a security checkpoint in the northwest of the valley.
Taliban commander Abdul Wali has also declared war against Pakistani security forces in Mohmand Agency.
The North Waziristan and South Waziristan tribal areas are completely ruled by the Taliban. On Tuesday, militants shot down a US Predator drone in South Waziristan.
In sum, across NWFP, the only areas that remain outside the militants' grip are a few government buildings and military camps, and even these are under attack. This can safely be termed a mass Taliban-led tribal rebellion against Pakistan.
An added woe for the leaders in Islamabad is information acquired by the security agencies suggesting the growing strength of militant organizations in the largest province of Punjab. These groups could carry out attacks such as the one on the Marriott.
In response to this creeping militancy, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, is talking with US officials about creating a joint border force comprising American, Afghan and Pakistani troops to hunt down the Taliban.
At the same time, in Islamabad, the federal advisor to the Interior Ministry, the powerful Rehman Malik, recently contacted the Taliban leader in South Waziristan, Baitullah Mehsud, and other Taliban commanders such as Faqir Muhammed to negotiate a ceasefire agreement.
The offers were turned down. This leaves Islamabad in a very awkward situation. It cannot afford another Marriott incident, let alone attacks in major towns and cities. It needs more breathing space, but the militants are not prepared to provide it, leaving conflict escalation the only remaining option.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com
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LANDI KOTAL: Taliban given 24 hours to leave Landi Kotal
Dawn By Ibrahim Shinwari Sept 24,2008
LANDI KOTAL-The Mullagori tribe of Landi Kotal tehsil in Khyber Agency set a 24-hour deadline for the Taliban to leave the area or face the music, residents said on Wednesday.
They said that Mullagori tribesmen held an emergency meeting and decided that the Taliban militants would be evicted from the area after the expiry of the deadline.
Taliban fighters are entrenched in the neighbouring Mohmand tribal region where the security forces are conducting an operation against them.
The Mullagori tribe decided that militants from the neighbouring agency would not be allowed to enter the area and those already living in the area would be evicted after the expiry of the deadline.
They urged the militants to leave the areas voluntarily or armed action would be initiated against them.
Meanwhile, a 100-member armed force of Mullagori tribe would carry out joint patrolling with the Khasadar Force to check activities of militants in the area.
The armed volunteers would extend all out support to the security forces and conduct joint patrolling with the Khasadars to ensure maintenance of law and order in the area, tribal source said.
POWER DISCONNECTED: Tribal Electric Supply Company has disconnected power supply to a number of government offices and educational institutions in Landi Kotal for non-payment of electricity dues, officials say.
Tesco officials in Landi Kotal said that the action was taken after repeated notices about the recovery of outstanding bills were not adhered to by the defaulting institutions and government offices.
He said that power supply had been disconnected to Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Government High School for Boys, boys’ hostel of Government Degree College, Customs Colony, agriculture office and Animal Husbandry Hospital.
Officials said notice had also been served on Agency Headquarters Hospital to deposit their outstanding dues by September 25, otherwise their power supply would also be disconnected.
PRISONERS’ FREED: The political administration released 20 prisoners on Wednesday, officials said.
The assistant political agent said that the released prisoners were involved in minor cases and were released in connection with the festivities of Eid-ul-Fitr. Apart from some locals, few Afghan nationals were also among the released prisoners who were arrested for minor offences.
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