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Karzai Challenges Taliban Chief To Run For Afghan President
July 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
President Hamid Karzai has challenged Taliban leader Mullah Omar to take part in Afghanistan's elections.
Karzai told reporters in Kabul on July 12 that "Mullah Mohammad Omar can come inside Afghanistan anywhere he wants to. He can open political office for himself, but he should leave the gun [beside]."
Afghan official: no reports of injuries from quake
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials say a strong earthquake has rattled a remote area of northern Afghanistan. There are no initial reports of injuries or damage.
Pakistan to sign MoU with U.S. on NATO supply route
ISLAMABAD, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said Thursday that it will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States for formalization of supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Taliban Commander Says Taliban Cannot Win Afghan War: Report
ABC News By MUHAMMAD LILA (@muhammadlila) 11/07/2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Taliban leadership knows it cannot win the war in Afghanistan and is prepared to accept peace with the Afghan government, but only if the militant group plays a prominent role in the country's future, according to an interview with an alleged senior Taliban commander conducted by a former high-ranking diplomat.
Can Afghanistan learn from Northern Ireland?
By Peter Taylor 12 July 2012 BBC News
There comes a point in a protracted insurgency or "terrorist" campaign when the combatants recognise that neither is going to defeat the other.
Afghans Lift Lid On Sports Under The Taliban
July 11, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Frud Bezhan
KABUL -- For years, Kabul's Ghazi Stadium was notorious not for hosting sporting events, but for the executions, stonings, and mutilations carried out there by the Taliban.
Islam key to Afghan Dream
CNN By Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan, Special to CNN Opinion July 11, 2012
Editor's note: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, one of the key figures in the plan for an Islamic center near ground zero, and author of "Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America." His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy
Militants take villagers hostage in Pakistan
July 12, 2012 Associated Press
KHAR, Pakistan – Dozens of militants coming from Afghanistan took scores of villagers hostage in Pakistan's northwest Thursday, sparking fighting that killed at least 10 people, Pakistani officials said.
Afghan Torture Allegations Rattle Relations With U.N.
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE And HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL July 11, 2012
KABUL - Relations between the United Nations and the Afghan government have deteriorated over the suggestion by a U.N. official that Afghanistan's intelligence agency used torture to extract confessions in its investigation of mysterious illnesses striking schoolgirls.
Why world must react to Taliban execution
CNN By Zainab Salbi, Special to CNN July 11, 2012
Editor's note: Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American writer, activist and social entrepreneur who is founder of Washington-based Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization aimed at helping women survivors of war
Bureaucracy slows flow of NATO trucks across Pakistani border to Afghanistan in 1st week
Associated Press July 11, 2012
ISLAMABAD - Bureaucratic delays have held up shipments to troops in Afghanistan through Pakistan, officials said Wednesday, a week after Islamabad reopened U.S. and NATO supply lines.
Police Arrest Zabul Boy's Rapists
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Four people, including the commander of a reserved police unit, were arrested this week charged with the rape of a 16-year-old boy in Zabul province, the Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
National Front Blames Kabul Clash on Poor Town Planning
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Afghanistan's government failed to develop a proper plan for Kabul city and protect lands from "land-grabbers", leading to the deadly clash between residents and police yesterday, the opposition party National Front spokesperson said Wednesday.
'Hard Questions' Remain In U.S.-Pakistan Relations
NPR By Mike Shuster July 11, 2012
A U.S. operation in the mountains near Afghanistan last November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan wanted an apology. The U.S. refused. In response, Pakistan shut down supply routes to Afghanistan for NATO convoys.
Taliban Weapon Smuggler Captured in Kandahar
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 July 2012
A weapon smuggler for the Taliban was captured in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in southern Kandahar province Wednesday, Isaf said.
Afghans Say Pakistan Behind Cross-Border Fire
Official claims more than 800 rockets land in eastern Kunar province in recent weeks.
IWPR By Hafizullah Gardesh 11 Jul 12
Afghanistan - Tensions are building along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Kabul threatening to refer Islamabad to the United Nations Security Council if rocket attacks into the eastern Kunar province do not stop.
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Karzai Challenges Taliban Chief To Run For Afghan President
July 12, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
President Hamid Karzai has challenged Taliban leader Mullah Omar to take part in Afghanistan's elections.
Karzai told reporters in Kabul on July 12 that "Mullah Mohammad Omar can come inside Afghanistan anywhere he wants to. He can open political office for himself, but he should leave the gun [beside]."
Karzai added that Omar and his associates could "create his political party, do politics, and become a candidate himself for the elections."
"If people voted for [Omar], good for him," Karzai said. "He can take the leadership in his hand."
Omar is one of the world's most wanted men, with the United States offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his capture.
He is wanted by Washington for sheltering Al-Qaeda militants from 1996 to 2001, including leader Osama bin Laden, who was deemed responsible for carrying out the September 11airliner-hijacking attacks in America in 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
The whereabouts of the one-eyed fugitive Taliban leader remain unknown since his rule of Afghanistan was ended by the U.S. invasion of the country in late 2001.
Some reports say he could be living in Pashtun tribal areas of Afghanistan or Pakistan.
Afghanistan's next presidential elections are currently scheduled to take place in 2014 --the same year as NATO-led international combat troops plan to withdraw from the country.
Earlier this year, Karzai mooted the possibility bringing the elections forward to 2013.
Speaking at a press conference in April, Karzai said he wasn't sure whether Afghanistan would be able to handle "the complete return of international forces to their homes from Afghanistan and the holding of the presidential election at the same time."
Karzai himself is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in office. He has been in power for more than a decade.
Karzai has repeatedly called on Omar and other insurgents trying to overthrow his U.S.-backed administration to renounce violence and accept peaceful reintegration.
He reiterated these calls during a press conference on July 12, saying: "All Afghans, those who aren't the puppets of others and have [only] issues with us at home – they are welcome for any talks."
The Taliban has repeatedly turned down Karzai's offers and earlier this year withdrew from exploratory talks with the United States.
With reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa
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Afghan official: no reports of injuries from quake
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan officials say a strong earthquake has rattled a remote area of northern Afghanistan. There are no initial reports of injuries or damage.
The earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey reported had a magnitude of 5.8 on the Richter scale, shook the region at 6:30 p.m. (1400 GMT) and had its epicenter in the Jarm district, located in the Hindu Kush mountains in Badakshan province.
Badakshan Deputy Governor Shams Ul Rahman said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the quake Thursday in the sparsely populated area.
Earthquakes are common in that area. The quake was felt as far south as Kabul and in Islamabad, the capital of neighboring Pakistan.
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Pakistan to sign MoU with U.S. on NATO supply route
ISLAMABAD, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan said Thursday that it will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States for formalization of supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan last week reopened NATO supply line after the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "sorry" over the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a last November airstrike.
Foreign Office Spokesman Moazzam Ahmed Khan said that Pakistan and the United States have almost completed their technical level discussions and are now engaged in the internal processes in that regard.
Speaking at a weekly press briefing, the spokesman hoped that the MoU will be signed shortly.
Khan clarified that Pakistan had not closed down the NATO supply route for financial reasons.
"It was a principle decision aimed at protecting the country's sovereignty and integrity," the spokesman said, adding the reopening of the supply route was also not aimed at getting more money from the NATO containers.
When asked about the threatening tone of the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Khan avoided comment on the statement and said Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have had a positive interaction in Tokyo.
"During the meeting, the U.S. Secretary of State stated in clear terms that they respect Pakistani sovereignty and want well-defined and long-term partnership with Islamabad," the spokesman said.
He said there is a desire on both sides to take forward the bilateral relations for the world and the regional peace. As part of those efforts, he said the visit of Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to Washington is under consideration to further strengthen the relations.
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Taliban Commander Says Taliban Cannot Win Afghan War: Report
ABC News By MUHAMMAD LILA (@muhammadlila) 11/07/2012
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The Taliban leadership knows it cannot win the war in Afghanistan and is prepared to accept peace with the Afghan government, but only if the militant group plays a prominent role in the country's future, according to an interview with an alleged senior Taliban commander conducted by a former high-ranking diplomat.
The full interview, to be published in Thursday's edition of the British current affairs magazine New Statesmen, was conducted by Michael Semple, the former UN envoy to Afghanistan during Taliban rule and current fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard. Semple is considered an authority in Pashtun politics and reportedly still has contacts within the Taliban's senior ranks.
The Taliban commander, whose name is not revealed during the interview, is said to be a senior leader who spent time at Guantanamo Bay and is described in a preview of the article as "one of the most senior surviving Taliban commanders and confidant of the movement's leadership."
In the preview published on the New Statesmen's website, the Taliban commander says it would take "some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war" and calls al Qaeda a "plague" on Afghanistan.
Other revelations from the interview, according to the Taliban commander:
Taliban's Icy Relationship With al Qaeda "Our people consider al Qaeda to be a plague that was sent down to us by the heavens. Some even concluded that al Qaeda are actually the spies of America. Originally, the Taliban were naive and ignorant of politics and welcomed al Qaeda into their homes. But al-Qaeda abused our hospitality."
Relief at Bin Laden's Death "To tell the truth, I was relieved at the death of Osama. Through his policies, he destroyed Afghanistan. If he really believed in jihad he should have gone to Saudi Arabia and done jihad there, rather than wrecking our country."
Taliban Control of Kabul Won't Come Anytime Soon "The Taliban capturing Kabul is a very distant prospect. Any Taliban leader expecting to be able to capture Kabul is making a grave mistake. Nevertheless, the leadership also knows that it cannot afford to acknowledge this weakness. To do so would undermine the morale of Taliban personnel. The leadership knows the truth -- that they cannot prevail over the power they confront."
Controversial Taliban Policies Evolving? Maybe Later "In their time, the Taliban gained notoriety over three points: their treatment of women, their harsh enforcement of petty rules on things like beards and prayers, and their international relations. The priority now should be restoration of security. But on the other issues I anticipate that they would soften their tough policies."
Pakistan Remains a Taboo Subject "The one thing I dare not talk about is the relationship with Pakistan."
Reports of the interview come days after a videotape surfaced showing a purported Taliban execution in a village just an hour's drive from Kabul. On the video, a young woman squats on a patch of ground before a militant approaches her, firing several shots at point blank range, while a crowd of a hundred or so alleged militants cheers "Long Live the Mujahideen" in the background. The Taliban often refer to themselves as Mujahideen, or freedom fighters, trying to expel foreign invaders from the country.
The video met with international condemnation. U.S. officials denounced the crime as a cold-blooded murder, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered his security forces to apprehend those behind it.
On Wednesday in Kabul, dozens of protesters, mostly women, took to the streets to demand justice. Many held placards calling on the international community to do more to safeguard women's rights in the country, while others chanting "death to the perpetrators."
"Every day these violences and these killings are getting more and more" said Zujra Alamyar, a women's rights activist. "We want the government to take serious action and stop them."
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Can Afghanistan learn from Northern Ireland?
By Peter Taylor 12 July 2012 BBC News
There comes a point in a protracted insurgency or "terrorist" campaign when the combatants recognise that neither is going to defeat the other.
The result is military stalemate. This usually happens when the insurgents are under intense military pressure, in Afghanistan from the SAS and their US equivalents and in Northern Ireland from the SAS and undercover units.
If a remarkable interview with a senior Taliban commander in the New Statesman proves credible, then such an admission of stalemate may be acknowledged by the Taliban.
This, of course, is based on the assumption that the commander is who he says he is and his analysis is genuinely reflective of the views of Taliban leadership.
On the first count, there's little reason to doubt his authenticity given the reputation and experience of his interviewer, Michael Semple, the former UN envoy to Kabul, whose knowledge and acquaintanceship with the Taliban has been built up over many years.
It is the second count that perhaps should be viewed with a degree of scepticism given the uncompromising nature of the Taliban itself epitomised by its reclusive leader, Mullah Omar.
Nevertheless, on the assumption that what the commander says is genuinely reflective of the Taliban leadership, the parallel between the IRA and Taliban endgames would be striking.
After pursuing their "armed struggle" for 20 years, the IRA recognised they were not going to drive the "Brits" out of Northern Ireland and achieve their holy grail of a united Ireland by physical force.
Weakness
According to the Taliban commander's interview, the Taliban have reached the same conclusion as the IRA - that they are not going to win.
"The Taliban leadership know they cannot prevail over the power they confront," says the veteran commander.
This goes against the standard Taliban line that victory is in sight as the occupying forces are about to leave, driven out by the Taliban's roadside bombs, suicide bombers and AK-47s.
"It is the nature of war that both sides dream of victory," the commander says in the interview. He recognises the Taliban leadership "cannot afford to acknowledge this weakness", as to do so "would undermine the morale of the Taliban personnel".
Such a recognition - if genuine in the Taliban's case - is the prerequisite of resolving such bloody and protracted conflicts.
The veteran IRA Belfast commander, the late Brendan Hughes, once told me much the same as the Taliban commander when reflecting on the IRA's decision to cease hostilities and enter the peace process.
"Prominent IRA people came to the conclusion that the British military machine could not be defeated and there had to be negotiations… Otherwise the only alternative was [to carry on] a futile war."
His words did not go down well with "prominent IRA people" for reasons not dissimilar to the concerns of the Taliban leadership.
Once the IRA had made the strategic decision to end its military campaign, the way was open to a peaceful political settlement that produced the remarkable sight of Martin McGuinness sharing power with Ian Paisley and eventually shaking hands with the Queen.
However this didn't happen overnight and took many years to achieve, made possible by the behind-the-scenes activities of the MI6 officer, Michael Oatley.
For almost 20 years, Oatley had nourished a secret back channel to the IRA leadership and planted the seeds that finally led to peace.
Oatley was able to read the signs of change in the IRA's strategy and convey them to the British government that then took the necessary steps to encourage the IRA on the path to peace.
Olive branch
Again, if Michael Semple's interviewee is to be believed, a similar process may happen in Afghanistan - with Semple perhaps fulfilling a similar back-channel role.
The interview sends a powerful signal to the governments in Washington, Kabul and the coalition capitals that, however unlikely it may seem, the Taliban may be ready to move towards peace.
Michael Oatley sent the same signal, although less publicly, to John Major's government after his first face-to-face meeting with Martin McGuinness.
If what the Taliban commander says is true, the situation in Afghanistan may move in the direction first outlined in February 2011 by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she set out America's roadmap for peace.
"We will never kill enough insurgents to end this war outright," she said. "Diplomacy would be easy if we only had to talk to our friends. But that is not how one makes peace."
She went on to offer a heavily qualified olive branch to the Taliban, laying out "unambiguous red lines" for reconciliation.
"They must renounce violence. They must abandon their alliance with al-Qaeda. And they must abide by the constitution of Afghanistan," she said. She then referred to the military pressure on the Taliban "targeting their leadership and decimating their ranks".
Michael Semple's interview would seem to meet most of Mrs Clinton's demands, most significantly with regard to al-Qaeda.
"Our people consider al-Qaeda to be a plague," the Taliban commander says. "I was relieved at the death of Osama [Bin Laden]. Through his policies he destroyed Afghanistan."
Furthermore he says that the Taliban's dream of re-establishing their former emirate under Sharia law is now shelved and the Taliban will have to function "as an organised party within the country".
The IRA, too, had to shelve its dream of a united Ireland in order to enter the political process. Would the Taliban really be prepared to do the same and abandon their dream instead of playing a waiting game and simply taking over once America and coalition forces have left?
If there is a settlement, the release of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay would probably follow, as did the release of prisoners from the Maze in Northern Ireland. Given a genuine political settlement, such a step may not be beyond President Obama.
But there are grave dangers, too, harbingers of the feared civil war. When the IRA decided to enter the political process, the organisation split into dissident wings determined to carry on the "armed struggle".
Likewise, there is no guarantee that the hardliners close to Mullah Omar, who gave Bin Laden shelter and who are thought to be committed to a return to the Afghanistan he presided over under Sharia law, are likely to go along with any such settlement.
When the IRA split in 1922 over the partition of Ireland, a bloody civil war followed. A serious split in the Taliban would probably lead to an even bloodier result.
It remains to be seen whether the interview with the Taliban commander is prophetic or the herald of a false dawn.
Peter Taylor is a BBC reporter and the author of Talking to Terrorists: A Personal Journey from the IRA to Al Qaeda.
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Afghans Lift Lid On Sports Under The Taliban
July 11, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Frud Bezhan
KABUL -- For years, Kabul's Ghazi Stadium was notorious not for hosting sporting events, but for the executions, stonings, and mutilations carried out there by the Taliban.
Its playing field was so blood-soaked, it was whispered, that even grass would not grow there. Such horror stories went a long way in feeding the world's general perception that sports were banned by the Islamist regime during its rule from 1996 to 2001.
But veteran sports journalists and former Afghan athletes -- while recalling brutality in sometimes graphic detail -- also tell a different story, saying that some sports not only existed, but flourished under the Taliban.
Safi Stanekzai, a former sports journalist with Tolo News and National TV, says that Ghazi Stadium was home under the Taliban to a thriving 12-team Kabul soccer league. Remnants of the old league live on at the stadium, which today stands as a modern sports arena, through the many original teams that continue to play there.
Stanekzai writes off the mistaken notion as an example of how Western media painted a distorted picture of life in Afghanistan because of their lack of insight into how living under Taliban rule really was.
"[The West] didn't have close relations with Afghanistan then. Afghanistan was only known for war and the Taliban," Stanekzai says, adding that the media "focused a lot more on the negatives than the positives of the time. One of those positives was sport. During the Taliban a lot of people were playing sports."
Sports Allowed, Under Strict Rules
Stanekzai notes that while some traditional Afghan sports like kite-flying, dog fighting, and buzkashi, a game played on horseback with an animal carcass, were outlawed for being "un-Islamic," cricket, volleyball, and boxing gained in popularity as the Taliban banned other activities such as music, television, and cinema.
Sport was not for everyone, however. Women were strictly forbidden to participate and men were permitted to compete only if they were dressed properly. Soccer players, for example, were required to wear long-sleeve shirts, long shorts, and high socks that covered their bare skin.
Mohammad Isaq, a captain of the national soccer team before the Taliban took power, left Kabul when civil war broke out in the early1990s. When he returned in 1996 after the Taliban had taken power he was approached by Haji Salam, a Taliban commander in Kabul, who was looking to sign former national team players for a new soccer team.
Isaq, a well-known forward, says he agreed, and joined Sabawoon (Dawn), one of the dozen teams created and funded by various Taliban leaders in Kabul. Thousands gathered every week for matches at Ghazi Stadium, he says.
"He [Salam] determined a salary for us and fully funded our team's expenses. From that we were able to support our families as well as continue to play soccer," Isaq recalls. "The Taliban commanders made bets among themselves. He liked us to watch movies on game days, so we would go to his house."
A Brighter Future
Isaq considers himself lucky to have been paid for what he loved doing, especially since there were virtually no jobs in Kabul at the time. He says that while gambling was strictly illegal under Shari'a law, which the Taliban enforced, many commanders would place bets of weapons, cars, and even houses on the matches
Although Isaq, who retired three years later in 1999, has fond memories of the time, there are memories of the Taliban's heinous public punishments that still haunt him. One particular memory, the day he arrived for his first training session, continues to turn his stomach.
"We did some warm-ups and went to do some shooting practice. When I lifted a barrel that was in the middle of the pitch, I found six amputated hands," Isaq says. "When I saw them it really affected me. I left the training session and the stadium and went home. I felt sick for one or two weeks."
Isaq, who has a part-time coaching role with the Afghan Paralympics team, says he has been encouraged by the strides made in sport in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.
He points to the completely refurbished Ghazi Stadium and the country's first Olympic medal -- the bronze won in taekwondo at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing -- as cases in point.
Isaq is hopeful that the country will add to its medal tally in the London 2012 Olympics, where Afghanistan will be represented by three athletes, two competing in taekwondo and another in judo.
He says sport has an important role in uniting Afghans and showing the world that there is more to Afghanistan than just war and bloodshed.
The Olympics "will give us a chance to introduce ourselves to the world and establish social and cultural relations. It will also encourage peace," Isaq says. "When Afghan athletes travel outside the country to compete, they also improve their technique and skills."
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Islam key to Afghan Dream
CNN By Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan, Special to CNN Opinion July 11, 2012
Editor's note: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is chairman of the Cordoba Initiative, one of the key figures in the plan for an Islamic center near ground zero, and author of "Moving the Mountain: Beyond Ground Zero to a New Vision of Islam in America." His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Policy, and Time magazine named him among the 100 most influential people of the world. Daisy Khan is executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and founder of WISE & Global Muslim Women's Shura Council.
We watched in horror this week at the execution of an Afghan woman who was shot nine times while a crowd of roaring men who call themselves Muslim cheered and screamed. We were reminded of a similar tragedy that took place in 1999 in which a mother of five, clad in a blue burqa, was shot dead in a soccer stadium in Kabul. Both of these women were wrongfully accused of adultery, as there was no proof, evidence, fair trial, due process or justice.
The similarities between the two slayings signaled to us that not much has changed in Afghanistan in the decade since the United States first became involved there. When we Americans ask why we have failed in Afghanistan, we blame the Afghans' antiquated tribal practices and their hate of America's freedom, and most of all, we blame their religion: Islam. Though we have said it over and over again, let us reiterate once more: The actions of these men were in absolute and supreme violation of God's laws, and Islam does not condone unmitigated violence of any kind. Period.
Though the U.S. declared the promotion of women's rights, human rights and democracy as its policy goals before invading Afghanistan, it would appear that all three were lost in our efforts to establish a "secular" democracy in an Islamic Republic.
When our government deployed our troops intending to eliminate al Qaeda and the Taliban and establish a new government in Afghanistan, we took responsibility for the future of its people. Is it not tragic, after all the bloodshed and the billions of taxpayers' dollars spent, that there could be a resurgence of the Taliban and this kind of unimaginable violence? When the U.S. leaves Afghanistan permanently, Afghan women will undoubtedly suffer.
Throughout the past decade, our policymakers have failed to take into account the important role that religion held (and still holds) in the structure of Afghan society. If we want to affect the way that Afghans conceptualize important notions such as justice, we must understand the forces in their lives that guide their decisions.
After 30 years of constant warfare, unstable political, civil and governmental systems and a dismal education system, many Afghans look to religious authorities to guide their actions. The solution to fighting extremism and affecting change in Afghanistan lies within the religious system; secular ideologies that are imposed on Afghans are alien to them.
Having said this, Americans do not have to sacrifice our goals of spreading democracy and peace to the Afghan people.
Just as our Founding Fathers established "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as basic rights for all Americans, so too does Islam establish the protection and preservation of life, religion, family, intellect, property and dignity for all. We must look for ways in which such rights can be realized, and ways in which we can work with Afghans to address these injustices.
In 2006, Daisy founded the Women's Islamic Initiative on Spirituality and Equality (WISE), a social justice movement that works to reclaim women's rights in Islam. Its Global Muslim Women's Shura Council of scholars and activists were so compelled by the level of violence against women that they published "Jihad Against Violence," (PDF) a report that condemns both violent extremism and domestic violence.
The response to this report, along with WISE's Imam Training Program to End Violence against Women in Afghanistan, was overwhelming. Many Afghan imams confided in us that the scriptural evidence that we provided helped them to realize that they were propagating distorted and incorrect interpretations of the Quran, unintentionally.
The value of these religious literacy trainings were so transformative that we were told, "The U.S. government should not have spent billions (on the war); they should have spent millions and involved the imams (with regards to women's rights), and everything would have been different today." Similarly, an Afghan woman told us, "imams are our only shield against the Taliban."
The Arab Spring has forced U.S. policymakers to acknowledge the fundamental importance of engaging with religious-political movements in the Middle East, and efforts to include these movements are gradually making their way into our foreign policy.
As Muslims, we know that it is only in the religious sphere that we can achieve our vision of peace, democracy, prosperity and the realization of human and women's rights in Afghanistan, and prevent atrocities like public executions from ever happening again.
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Militants take villagers hostage in Pakistan
July 12, 2012 Associated Press
KHAR, Pakistan – Dozens of militants coming from Afghanistan took scores of villagers hostage in Pakistan's northwest Thursday, sparking fighting that killed at least 10 people, Pakistani officials said.
In the eastern part of the country, Taliban gunmen opened fire on a compound housing policemen, killing nine of them, officials said.
The militants who staged the cross-border attack appeared to be targeting members of an anti-Taliban militia in Kitkot village near Pakistan's Bajur tribal area, said Tariq Khan, a local government official.
Pakistan has railed against Afghan and NATO forces for not doing enough to stop Afghanistan-based militants from launching cross-border attacks, but has received little sympathy. The U.S. and Afghan governments have long complained that Pakistan allows sanctuary to militants fighting in Afghanistan.
The militants who attacked Thursday came from Afghanistan's Kunar province and took hundreds of villagers hostage, including anti-Taliban militiamen, said Khan.
The Pakistani army surrounded the village and killed eight militants, prompting the insurgents to retaliate by killing shooting to death two militiamen, he added.
Soldiers have retrieved scores of villagers, but dozens more are still held by the militants or trapped in their homes by the fighting, said Khan and two security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The army called in gunship helicopters for support but have not used them yet for fear of civilian casualties, said Khan.
The information could not be independently verified because the area is largely off-limits to reporters.
The police targeted in the eastern city of Lahore were training to become prison guards, said Habibur Rehman, the chief of police in Punjab province, where Lahore is the capital.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was revenge for police torture of their fighters in prison. He spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
In addition to the police who were killed, eight were also wounded, said Salman Saddiq, a government official.
One of the wounded, Shafqat Imran, said that eight to 10 attackers, who had their faces hidden behind hoods, stormed into the compound and started shooting randomly. They shouted "God is great," then shot the policemen one by one, said Imran, speaking from a hospital bed.
The police who were attacked were recruited from northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a one-time base for the Taliban, and were brought to Lahore for training, said Rehman.
The Pakistani military launched a massive offensive against the Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Swat Valley in 2009, and many militants were captured and imprisoned.
The leader of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, escaped and is believed to be based in eastern Afghanistan, where he has been sending fighters back across the border to attack northwest Pakistan.
The Pakistani Taliban have killed thousands of soldiers, police and civilians over the past few years, declaring war on the government to get it to break ties with the United States and establish Islamic law throughout the country.
The government is also facing a decades-long insurgency by nationalists in southwest Baluchistan province who demand greater autonomy and a larger share of the province's natural resources.
Officials discovered the bodies of six coal miners and a doctor Thursday who went missing on July 7 and are suspected of having been killed by Baluch separatists, said senior government official Naseebullah Bazai.
The latest violence came against the backdrop of serious political instability in Pakistan.
The country's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to reopen an old corruption case against President Asif Ali Zardari, a demand that the premier's predecessor, Yousuf Raza Gilani, ignored, leading the judges to convict him of contempt of court and remove him from office.
Aiming to avoid an identical fate for Ashraf, the ruling coalition pushed a new law through parliament this week that provides the prime minister and other senior government officials with greater protection against being charged with contempt. Zardari signed the bill Thursday, shortly before the Supreme Court hearing, said presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar.
The opposition criticized the new law as undermining the court's authority, and the judges have indicated they may strike it down as unconstitutional.
The judges told Attorney General Arfan Qadir during a court session Thursday that the prime minister has until July 25 to write a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to reopen a graft case against Zardari that dates back to the late 1990s, said Fawad Chaudhry, a lawyer for the ruling Pakistan People's Party.
The government has long refused the court's demand, claiming the president has immunity from prosecution while in office. Ruling party supporters have accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry of relentlessly pursuing the case because of bad blood between him and Zardari.
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Associated Press writers Zaheer Babar in Lahore, Pakistan, Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, and Asif Shahzad and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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Afghan Torture Allegations Rattle Relations With U.N.
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE And HABIB KHAN TOTAKHIL July 11, 2012
KABUL - Relations between the United Nations and the Afghan government have deteriorated over the suggestion by a U.N. official that Afghanistan's intelligence agency used torture to extract confessions in its investigation of mysterious illnesses striking schoolgirls.
Hundreds of schoolgirls have been hospitalized in Afghanistan in recent weeks, reporting symptoms such as dizziness, fainting and nausea. Afghan authorities have blamed the incidents on poisonings by insurgents opposed to the education of females.
The Taliban have denied responsibility for the incidents. In a June statement, the Taliban decried what they called a media war that was being waged through the "false allegations of the invaders and their hired media."
U.S. officials said the tests they have carried out showed that the illnesses in girls' schools were caused by naturally occurring pathogens, suggesting that any sickness wasn't intentionally spread.
The National Directorate of Security, or NDS, Afghanistan's domestic intelligence agency, announced the arrest last month of several suspects, including two young girls it alleged to have been involved in a Taliban plot to poison schoolgirls in the northern province of Takhar.
James Rodehaver, the official in charge of the human-rights unit at the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, raised concerns about whether suspects in the Takhar case had been coerced, in comments reported in recent days by international news organizations including Newsweek and Agence France-Presse.
Mr. Rodehaver also criticized Afghan authorities for releasing videotaped confessions, which he described as a violation of due process and the right to a fair trial.
Such criticism isn't new. The U.N. last year released a report documenting what it said was the torture and mistreatment of detainees by the NDS and Afghan police. But Mr. Rodehaver's most recent comments provoked a sharp response from the Afghan intelligence service.
In a statement, the NDS called Mr. Rodehaver's remarks baseless and accused U.N. officials of providing moral support to the Taliban by denying that insurgents were involved in the alleged school poisonings.
The U.N.'s latest criticism, the statement said, was the equivalent to "launching of a psychological war against the Afghan security forces."
Mr. Rodehaver couldn't be reached to comment.
Tensions have long simmered between the Afghan government and the international agencies that hold its purse strings. At an international conference in Tokyo on Sunday, donor nations pledged at least $16 billion in development aid through 2015 for Afghanistan—provided the Afghan government makes efforts to boost the rule of law.
International organizations have repeatedly questioned the Afghan authorities' poisoning theory. A World Health Organization official said the organization concluded the outbreak of illnesses was a case of "mass hysteria," not poisoning.
"After collecting samples, we came to the conclusion that this was not intentional school poisoning," the official said.
Reports of alleged girls' school poisonings have regularly surfaced in Afghanistan over recent years. The Afghan government hasn't report any confirmed deaths in these incidents.
Not all Afghan officials seem to agree on the cause of such incidents. Amanullah Iman, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Education, said the country had seen "some cases of mass hysteria this year." The incidents, he said, "were not planned poisonings, and were accidents."
Mr. Iman added, however, that "some people have been doing this intentionally" and that the outbreaks of mass illness were planned.
"We don't have the resources to find out who is behind it," he said. "It's the security organizations' responsibility to find out who is doing this."
Local officials, however, insist that this isn't a case of mass hysteria. Abdul Jabar Taqwa, the governor of Takhar, disputed recent reports dismissing the poisoning allegations.
"We strongly deny those remarks," he said. "Those are baseless."
Citing the confessions, he said alleged plotters were paid to spread poisonous powder, and that the alleged ringleader, a mullah, had been arrested.
"We detained the mullah, we found the warehouse where all these chemicals were stocked," he said. "Some of the girls are still in the hospitals, in Takhar, Kabul and in Pakistan. We seek mercy for those girl victims. What else could be the evidence?"
Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
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Why world must react to Taliban execution
CNN By Zainab Salbi, Special to CNN July 11, 2012
Editor's note: Zainab Salbi is an Iraqi American writer, activist and social entrepreneur who is founder of Washington-based Women for Women International, a humanitarian organization aimed at helping women survivors of war
The execution of Najiba, an Afghan woman in her 20's, shot 13 times in front of a cheering crowed in Parwan province -- and seen widely online in a grainy cell phone video -- is a show of confidence by the Taliban.
It's unclear why she was shot, but local officials offer various reasons for her execution.
She was reportedly executed last month for adultery, a crime that is indeed punishable in Islam. But for an adultery charge to be proved, Islam requires four eyewitness accounts that match precisely.
This is nearly impossible in cultures like Najiba's, where sexual acts are extremely discrete. But that religious requirement is irrelevant in any case to the Taliban, whose fanatic view of Islam has been nothing but a violation of the spirit of the religion itself.
Manhunt under way for Taliban who shot woman in public execution amid cheers
After an hour-long trial, Najiba was shot either by her Taliban husband or someone else. (One version of the story is she had affairs with two Taliban members.) But this case is less about Najiba and more about the Taliban demonstrating its power, even as the United States and Afghanistan attempt negotiations with the Taliban.
You see, women are like the canary in the coal mine: What happens to them is an indicator of a larger political direction for the society.
The Taliban has consistently used women to demonstrate its power. When it first took over much of Afghanistan in 1996, it imposed the harshest seclusion and prosecution of women in modern history. Afghan women suffered under house imprisonments. They were forbidden education and any form of mobility, to name only a few of its brutal prohibitions.
But when the international community entered Afghanistan in 2001 and started introducing laws to protect women's rights, albeit in very basic ways, the Taliban retreated as its political and military power was weakened. In the past two years, however, and particularly since the international community started talking about withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban began boldly resuming its own rules in provinces where they have recently regained control, such as Parwan province. And this has been reflected in one act of violence toward women after another.
Through such public acts -- sometimes recorded, as this one was -- the Taliban is demonstrating its complete disregard of the Afghan government and the national rule of law.
Women's rights cannot be taken lightly, nor can they be seen as a marginal issue separate from the political process of a country. The international community entered Afghanistan with a clear promise to protect women's rights and invest in creating opportunities for women to stand up on their feet.
Afghan women took advantage of the opportunities that were presented. They ran for and took political offices, they sent their daughters to school, they took loans from microcredit entities and started new business, and they worked in factories all at personal risks.
They are now asking whether the international community is planning to abandon them as forces prepare to depart Afghanistan in 2014, and they are worried, very worried indeed.
Educated and uneducated women working in all sectors in the country are asking the same question: "Is the international community going to sacrifice its promise to protect us from the rule of the Taliban in order to reach political settlement with it?"
If it is, then all the efforts of every soldier, every taxpayer, every humanitarian worker who has worked -- and in some cases, died -- in Afghanistan will have been in vain.
To abandon the protection of women's rights to seek political agreement with a force of repression is to risk a return not only to insecurity in Afghanistan, but I'd dare say to the world.
The Taliban only started its acts of violence with women. We have to remember that it did not stop there. That violence eventually affected every Afghan man and child, and it eventually came to America and impacted the world. The taping of Najiba's execution is the Taliban's message that it is confident. What's going to be the message back to them from the Afghan government and the international community? Will it be to demonstrate that women's rights and protections are valued in actions, in addition to the political statements already made condemning the execution? We all are responsible for the answer to that question.
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Bureaucracy slows flow of NATO trucks across Pakistani border to Afghanistan in 1st week
Associated Press July 11, 2012
ISLAMABAD - Bureaucratic delays have held up shipments to troops in Afghanistan through Pakistan, officials said Wednesday, a week after Islamabad reopened U.S. and NATO supply lines.
So far, only a handful of supply trucks have crossed the border, which Pakistan closed to the convoys last November after American airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani border troops. Islamabad agreed to reopen the supply routes on July 3, after months of negotiations and a U.S. apology over the incident.
Two trucks carrying supplies to U.S. and NATO troops passed through the Chaman border crossing in the southern province of Baluchistan last Thursday. A Pakistani customs official said no other trucks have crossed since then.
Four trucks from the port city of Karachi arrived at the border Wednesday and were expected to cross on Thursday, the official said. Chaman is one of two border crossings used to transport NATO supplies.
Trucks have yet to pass at Torkham, the second crossing, a regional official in northern Pakistan said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
Since the official resumption of the supply route, not a single fuel truck has left either of the two main ports in Karachi, said Israr Shinwari, president of the All Pakistan Tankers Association.
He blamed bureaucracy for the delay, saying that procedures and paperwork must be completed before goods and fuel can even be loaded on the trucks.
Goods shipments appeared likely to resume before fuel supply, Shinwari said, and the tankers are expected to move in about a week.
Pakistan is a notoriously bureaucratic country where obtaining permits or processing paperwork can take a frustratingly long time.
Before the closure, 150 to 200 trucks carrying NATO supplies crossed the border daily.
Few expected shipments to reach those numbers immediately after Pakistan reopened the supply lines, and the delay did not appear to reflect a change of heart on the side of the Pakistani government. The trucks have been waiting in Karachi for months and need maintenance and proper customs clearance before any movement can take place, officials and drivers said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said in a statement Wednesday that Pakistan decided to reopen the supply lines “in the interest of regional peace and stability.” He made the comments during a meeting with the outgoing U.S. ambassador, the statement said.
Security also appeared to play a role in the delay.
Mansoor Ahmad, a representative of a company that has 100 containers waiting for shipment in a warehouse in Karachi, said his firm was worried about security, given recent anti-NATO protests in Pakistan.
On Monday thousands of people rallied in Islamabad against the government’s decision to reopen the supply lines. Anti-American sentiment in Pakistan is high, in part due to the continued strikes by American drones aimed at militant targets in tribal areas, and because the U.S. has accused Pakistan of harboring militants that attack its forces in Afghanistan.
More protests are scheduled for the coming days.
The Taliban and other militant groups have threatened to attack trucks carrying NATO supplies. Before the closure, militants sometimes shot at or bombed the trucks.
A test run to Chaman was successful, Ahmad said, with four trucks arriving safely at the crossing on Wednesday. The company is now assessing how to proceed.
“We can’t take risks in such a situation. We are concerned about security,” he said.
One truck driver in Karachi acknowledged that the anti-NATO protests were a concern.
“There are protests against the supply. The religious forces are not accepting this (decision). We are very concerned over the situation,” said Azeemullah, who, like many people in the country, uses a single name.
Also in Karachi, a bomb attached to a bicycle hit a bus carrying employees of Pakistan’s main space agency, killing at least one person and wounding 23 others, senior police officer Naeem Akram said.
There was no claim of responsibility, and it was not clear whether the bus was specifically targeted.
___
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed and Asif Shahzad contributed to this report.
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Police Arrest Zabul Boy's Rapists
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Four people, including the commander of a reserved police unit, were arrested this week charged with the rape of a 16-year-old boy in Zabul province, the Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqqi Interior Ministry spokesman said Wednesday.
The other three arrested were a shopkeeper and two policemen.
Mobile phone video footage of a policeman raping a 16-year-old boy was leaked four or five days ago. Sediqqi said the real committer of the rape was the policeman Baryalai, but the other three were also involved.
"Local police in Zabul investigated the issue closely and arrested four people including two police soldiers, a police reserves unit commander and a shopkeeper in Qalat city," Sediqqi said.
"The suspects have been submitted to the organs of justice," Sediq Sediqqi, adding that the prosecutors should sentence them to the severest of possible punishments.
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National Front Blames Kabul Clash on Poor Town Planning
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Afghanistan's government failed to develop a proper plan for Kabul city and protect lands from "land-grabbers", leading to the deadly clash between residents and police yesterday, the opposition party National Front spokesperson said Wednesday.
The fight between Afghan police and residents of the Reshkhor area of Kabul on Tuesday caused civilian causalities, including three civilian deaths.
"Government's weakness in developing a city plan and protecting lands from land grabbers is a problem which cannot be solved by opening fire on poor residents," Faizullah Zaki said at a press conference Wednesday.
He urged the government to prosecute those who shot at the civilians protesting.
Zaki also accused the government of failing to create jobs for the villagers to prevent their flow to the cities which creates such problematic residential issues.
The Ministry of Interior spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said the government regrets the incident.
"The clash between residents and the police was sad. I wish the incident had not happened," he said at a press conference Wednesday. The incident began when Kabul municipality official, in coordination with Kabul police department, tried to destroy alleged illegally-built houses in the Padola area of Kabul which the residents claimed to have paid more 100 thousand Afghanis for each piece of land.
Three civilians were killed and several others were wounded in the incident.
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'Hard Questions' Remain In U.S.-Pakistan Relations
NPR By Mike Shuster July 11, 2012
A U.S. operation in the mountains near Afghanistan last November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan wanted an apology. The U.S. refused. In response, Pakistan shut down supply routes to Afghanistan for NATO convoys.
After intense talks, two border crossings were reopened last week to convoys for the U.S. and NATO forces.
Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, Sherry Rehman, was at the center of the negotiations. Afterward she called it a moment of great opportunity for the two countries.
"Now that it's resolved to both sides' satisfaction, I would think that we could use this time and space to build on convergences," she said. "There are many differences that we have been able to narrow in the last few months."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was also involved in the negotiations, was more candid about the "hard questions," as she put it, that remain between the U.S. and Pakistan. "I said many times that this is a challenging but essential relationship," she said. "It remains so, and I have ... no reason to believe that it will not continue to raise hard questions for us both."
Analysts in Pakistan have their doubts that things between Pakistan and the U.S. will now turn rosy.
"Is it going to open up avenues for improvement, greater improvement in relations?" Ayesha Siddiqa said. "I'm a bit skeptical."
There are several hard questions that have been impossible to resolve.
One is the U.S. drone attacks against militants inside Pakistan. The Pakistani government says it wants them to stop, although it is widely believed that the government really wants access to the intelligence the CIA uses to choose targets.
Pakistanis of all stripes hate the drone attacks, retired Lt. Gen. Saleem Haider said.
"You can't undertake unilateral attacks on Pakistan's soil and say that you are friends of Pakistan and you will be a non-NATO ally," he said. "There's a contradiction in this."
Even more difficult is the issue of the Haqqani network, a pro-Taliban, pro-al-Qaida insurgent group that finds sanctuary in northwest Pakistan and crosses the border freely to attack U.S. and NATO forces.
The U.S. believes the group is essentially a subsidiary of Pakistani intelligence.
This problem cannot be resolved to the satisfaction of the U.S., Siddiqa said. "Here is an issue of strategic divergence," she said. "The Pakistani government does not want to pursue and kill Haqqani and his network — simple as that."
In Pakistan these divergences with the U.S. are deeply felt, and they've given rise to intense anti-Americanism, evident at a protest of thousands this week and a march from Lahore to Islamabad. In Lahore a few days ago, many slogans and banners called for closing the border to NATO resupply convoys once again and for jihad against the U.S.
There is also deep suspicion here that Pakistan's government is colluding with the Americans. Pakistanis believe there is public posturing while something else goes on in private.
"Most Pakistanis are clear that the Americans do what they do in and around this country, not in spite of the Pakistani leadership, but with the consent of the Pakistani leadership," said Aasim Sajjad, a professor of history at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad.
Sajjad said he believes that under these circumstances, the U.S. will always have the upper hand.
One senior American official says this is a "relationship that really matters," and that military and intelligence cooperation need real improvement.
Whether the two sides are capable of pulling that off is another of those hard questions.
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Taliban Weapon Smuggler Captured in Kandahar
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 11 July 2012
A weapon smuggler for the Taliban was captured in a joint Afghan and Nato troops operation in southern Kandahar province Wednesday, Isaf said.
The smuggler was detained in Kandahar's Zharay district along with several suspected insurgents, Isaf said in a statement.
The man was "responsible for the movement of insurgents and equipment throughout the Kandahar" as well as attempting to facilitate a poison-based attack, according to Isaf.
He had acquired a large amount of explosives materials, it said.
Meanwhile, Isaf said that during a search operation for a Taliban leader in the Charkh district of eastern Logar province, security forces identified two insurgents and killed them with a "precision airstrike".
No civilians were harmed and no civilian property was damaged, Isaf added.
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Afghans Say Pakistan Behind Cross-Border Fire
Official claims more than 800 rockets land in eastern Kunar province in recent weeks.
IWPR By Hafizullah Gardesh 11 Jul 12
Afghanistan - Tensions are building along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Kabul threatening to refer Islamabad to the United Nations Security Council if rocket attacks into the eastern Kunar province do not stop.
Wasefullah Wasefi, spokesman for the provincial government in Kunar, said in late June that some 850 rockets had been fired from neighbouring Pakistan into Kunar in recent weeks, displacing around 500 families. Ten people had been killed or injured since the shelling started in May, he said. More reports of attacks have come in since Wasefi made the claim.
President Hamid Karzai’s office contacted the Pakistani government about the ongoing attacks, and said it would refer the matter to the Security Council if the bombardment does not stop.
Residents of Kunar’s Dangam, Sirkanay and Asmar districts staged protests against the attacks for several days in late June, at one point blocking the main road from Kunar to Jalalabad, the capital of neighbouring Nangarhar province, for several hours.
The demonstrators vowed to continue until the Afghan government applied pressure on Pakistan to stop the rocket fire.
Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul strongly denied that the country’s military was firing on Kunar.
Embassy press officer Akhtar Munir said insurgents operating on either side of the border could be firing the rockets in the hope that Afghans would blame Pakistan.
“There is no evidence to suggest that Pakistan has attacked Kunar province with rockets,” Munir said. “It is just propaganda to defame Pakistan.”
People often mistakenly pointed the finger at Pakistan when such incidents occurred, he said, stressing that “the people of Afghanistan are all brothers and sisters”.
“We do not want our brothers, sisters and children to be killed in Afghanistan. These claims are groundless,” he said.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security, rejected the embassy’s version of events, and insisted that the rockets belonged to the Pakistani military.
“We now have enough evidence to prove that the rockets used in these attacks belong to the Pakistani army,” the agency’s spokesman Shafiqullah Taheri told Reuters news agency on July 2.
Maulavi Shahzadah Shahed, a member of parliament from Kunar, also blamed the Pakistani military, arguing that the rockets weighed 120 kilogram and were therefore too heavy for either the Afghan or the Pakistani Taleban to transport.
He also alleged that Kunar residents had witnessed the rockets being fired from the vicinity of Pakistani military installations.
“The sun cannot be hidden with two fingers. Residents of border regions of Kunar have seen the areas from which the rockets are fired with their own eyes,” he said.
Kunar is mountainous and heavily forested, and borders Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, over which Islamabad has limited control.
The area experienced similar tensions in June 2011, when Afghan officials accused Pakistan of firing rockets into both Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.
Government sources in eastern Afghanistan said at the time that more than 520 rockets had landed in the area in a matter of weeks, killing 26 civilians and forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes. (See Afghan-Pakistan Tensions Over Rocket Fire.)
A Pakistani army spokesman said at the time that a few munitions might have accidentally landed across the border as security forces countered militant incursions from Afghanistan, but insisted it had not fired rockets into the country deliberately.
One year on, mutual allegations of covert attacks are swirling along this volatile frontier area.
On July 2, Pakistan said to 60 Afghan soldiers had crossed from Paktia province into Pakistan, provoking clashes that killed two local tribesmen, AFP news agency reported. Afghanistan denied the allegation.
There have also been claims that insurgents crossed into Pakistan through Kunar late last month and launched a particularly brutal attack.
On June 27, Taleban militants released video footage showing the severed heads of 17 Pakistani soldiers laid out on a white sheet. Responsibility for the beheadings was claimed by the Pakistani Taleban, although the attackers had entered from Kunar, AFP reported, citing a senior security official in Peshawar.
Maulavi Faqir Mohammad, a commander in the Pakistani Taleban, told the BBC’s Persian service that the group accepted responsibility for this attack, but the raid was not launched from inside Afghanistan.
Since the source of the latest rocket attacks remains unclear, a range of theories are circulating in Kabul.
Abdul Satar Sadat, a political analyst, suggested that Pakistan was using the attacks to try to extend its territorial control into Afghanistan.
“As far as I am aware, Pakistani forces have advanced up to 20 kilometres into different areas during the last year,” Sadat alleged.
The two neighbours are separated by the disputed Durand Line – a poorly-defined border established by an 1893 agreement. Kabul does not recognise the line, which Pakistan would like to see formalised as the official frontier.
Sadat said Pakistan would be happy if Afghanistan reported the bombardment to the UN Security Council, so that the legitimacy of the Durand Line could also be raised there – “something Pakistan has longed for for years”, he said.
He said Kabul may have been initially reluctant to speak out about the bombardment because it wished to avoid discussing the Durand Line.
Another analyst, Fazel Rahman Oria, said Islamabad might be in aggressive mood because it felt outmanoeuvred by Kabul and Washington, particularly in light of their recent agreement on relations beyond the 2014 withdrawal of foreign troops. (For more on this, see Afghan Parliament Approves US Partnership.)
As for the Afghan government, he said, it had its hands full just ensuring its own survival and was therefore reluctant to tackle Pakistan, he said.
“We have a very weak state,” Oria said. “This government does not want to get involved in such matters, it just wants to live for a few more days. The Afghan people have no expectations of this government.”
Some Afghans have questioned why Kabul has not launched a robust military response.
Kunar resident Gol Ahmad fled to Kabul after the shelling started, and said that rather than going on the offensive, Afghan border troops deployed there had moved to the main provincial town Asadabad and other more built-up areas.
“They are protecting themselves by setting up security checkpoints close to people’s houses and the highways,” he claimed. “They are protecting themselves by locating themselves near people.”
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi told a press conference that the military would respond whenever it received orders to do so.
“The Afghan armed forces are completely prepared to take action against the rocket attacks by Pakistan, but we are waiting,” he said. “We will take action in accordance with any order issued by the presidential office.”
Hafizullah Gardesh is IWPR’s Afghanistan editor.
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