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Canadian Firm Discovers Oil Field In North Afghanistan
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 24, 2012
KABUL -- A spokesman for Afghanistan's Mining Ministry, Jawad Omer, has told RFE/RL that the Canadian company Terraseis has located a large oil field in the northwestern part of the country.
Violence Decreases in Areas Transferred to Afghan Forces: Isaf
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Tuesday, 23 October 2012
The violence in areas transferred to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) is decreasing, Isaf spokesman Gen. Gunter Katz said Tuesday.
Border Talk Crosses The Line In Afghanistan
By Abubakar Siddique October 24, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Foreign diplomats visiting Kabul tread carefully when it comes to the Durand Line, knowing full well that the colonial-era border separating British India and Afghanistan is a touchy subject.
9 killed, 25 injured in Afghan night raid operation
CHAGHCHARAN, Afghanistan, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and 25 wounded in an overnight operation launched by Afghan and the NATO-led coalition troops in the western province of Ghor, a provincial official said Wednesday, adding that local residents said most victims were civilians.
Taliban ambush kills 10 Afghan troops
Associated Press By RAHIM FAIEZ 23/10/2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents killed 10 Afghan troops in an ambush in western Herat province, police and government officials said Tuesday.
Soccer Fever in Kabul
New York Times By MATTHIEU AIKINS October 23, 2012
KABUL - October days are usually crisp and clear in Kabul, but last Friday soccer fans awoke to leaden skies and an intermittent drizzle.
Roadside bomb kills 2 Afghan civilians, wounds 3
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb killed 2 Afghan civilians and wounded 3 others in Ghazni province 125 km south of Kabul on Wednesday, an official said.
3 local Taliban leaders arrested in Afghanistan: ISAF
KABUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Three local Taliban leaders have been detained by the Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops, as part of an increased campaign against insurgents in Afghanistan, the coalition forces confirmed Wednesday.
Afghanistan telecom sector evolves after decades of conflict
BBC News By Ethirajan Anbarasan 23/10/2012
Kabul - Mohammad Harun Afzali, a university student in Kabul, spends time surfing the internet, chatting on Facebook and Skyping with his relatives abroad.
Protecting Afghanistan’s environment and tourist future
BBC News By Andrew North 23 October 2012
Bamiyan - If the high mountain lakes of Band-e Amir were not in a country in its fourth decade of war they would be world famous.
Nimroz Man Detained for Attempted Rape of Daughter
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Tuesday, 23 October 2012
A man accused of attempting to rape his daughter has been detained by police in southwest Nimroz province and will face trial, officials said.
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Canadian Firm Discovers Oil Field In North Afghanistan
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan October 24, 2012
KABUL -- A spokesman for Afghanistan's Mining Ministry, Jawad Omer, has told RFE/RL that the Canadian company Terraseis has located a large oil field in the northwestern part of the country.
"This area is situated between the Khan Charbagh and Aqeena border districts, where technical research has been conducted," Omer said.
The site is in Faryab Province, near the border with Turkmenistan. Omer said more exploration would be done to get an accurate assessment of the size of the oil field.
The news comes as the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) started commercial production at an oil field in the neighboring Sar-e Pol Province on October 22.
Mining Minister Wahidullah Shahrani called it a "historic" day for his country, "that for the first time the process of commercial production of crude oil has started in Afghanistan."
The CNPC is initially expected to produce nearly 2,000 barrels of oil per day at the Amu Darya site in Sar-e Pol Province but plans for a drastic increase in volume as more wells are opened.
The CNPC signed contracts to develop oil and natural-gas fields in northern Afghanistan in December 2011.
The CNPC contract also calls for construction of Afghanistan's first oil refinery.
China is already developing a gas field across the border in Turkmenistan and has provided loans to the Turkmen government to develop the massive South Yolotan-Osman gas field in southern Turkmenistan.
The South Yolotan-Osman field is one of the world's largest, with conservative estimates claiming there are some 4 trillion cubic meters of gas there and some other estimates saying the field has more than 14 trillion cubic meters.
There is speculation that the field extends across the border into Afghanistan.
At a June summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Beijing, Afghan President Hamid Karzai also lent his support to plans for a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan to China.
Afghan gas could be included in the pipeline.
The news of the oil discovery in Faryab and start of production in Sar-e Pol has Afghan officials talking about energy self-sufficiency for the country.
Northwest Afghanistan is believed to hold vast deposits of oil and natural gas.
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Violence Decreases in Areas Transferred to Afghan Forces: Isaf
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Tuesday, 23 October 2012
The violence in areas transferred to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) is decreasing, Isaf spokesman Gen. Gunter Katz said Tuesday.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, Gen. Katz emphasised the strength of the ANSF saying that the transition is successfully underway and violence has decreased in areas where the transition has already happened.
However, he noted that threats from the enemies are still strong but they are under severe pressures from the security forces.
"We have a success in our campaign; the transition process is well on the track, all the areas where transition is taking place have a clear decrease of violence, you can actually have the statistics," he said.
"Yes we still have enemy-initiated attacks, we still keep on pressuring them, not in the ordinary areas but in the former safe havens today, there is still a fight going."
The planning of the Nato mission's draw down in Afghanistan and new mission after 2014 is underway, Nato civilian spokesman Dominic Medley said at the same briefing.
"The meeting of Nato and Isaf Defense Minister in Brussels started to plan for that new mission after Isaf [the name of the current mission]. The military planners started working on it now, and early next year we will see the next steps and by the middle or end of next year Nato will expect the final decision to be taken on that new mission," Medley said.
"So the commitment to the new mission is there and the planning is underway but I can't give you the numbers of trainers involved in that new mission," he added.
The Afghan security forces are expected to peak at 352,000 and more than ninety percent of the forces are being trained by Afghan instructors, Katz said.
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Border Talk Crosses The Line In Afghanistan
By Abubakar Siddique October 24, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Foreign diplomats visiting Kabul tread carefully when it comes to the Durand Line, knowing full well that the colonial-era border separating British India and Afghanistan is a touchy subject.
Merely affirming a long-standing policy when it comes to the contentious demarcation can be viewed by Afghans as a step too far, as the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, discovered following an interview with a private Afghan television channel this week.
"Our policy is that border is the international border," Grossman said on October 21. "I think it is time to lift everybody's vision here to a regional conception of what the region could be."
It was no secret that Washington considers the Durand Line -- established by British India and the Kingdom of Afghanistan in 1893 -- the modern-day border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland offered reminders of that fact during an October 23 press briefing in which she was questioned about Grossman's comment. "Our policy on this has not changed," she said. "It was correctly stated by Ambassador Grossman that we see this as the internationally recognized boundary."
But the comments have nevertheless raised hackles in Afghanistan, which has not recognized the Durand Line as its eastern border since Pakistan's partition from the British Raj in 1947.
The Afghan daily "Weesa" this week quoted several Afghan lawmakers describing Grossman's statement as interference in domestic Afghan affairs.
And the official reaction was curt, with the Afghan Foreign Ministry issuing a statement on October 23 saying that Kabul "rejects and considers irrelevant any statement by anyone about the legal status of this line." The status of the Durand Line, the statement added, was a matter of "historic importance for the people of Afghanistan."
'An Issue For Pashtuns, And Pashtuns Only'
The Durand Line is indeed divisive. It runs directly through traditional Pashtun lands, splitting one of the world's largest tribal societies in two. Those to the west of the line are Afghan; to the east Pakistani.
Abdul Ghafoor Liwal, the head of Kabul's Center for Regional Studies of Afghanistan, says the Durand Line is considered a top national issue in the country, but one that is up to the Pashtuns themselves to decide.
"Recognizing the legitimacy of this line is in the hands of the masses that live on either side of the border. This is also the formal position of the Afghan government," Liwal says. "This is why the Afghan government has protested against this [Grossman's] statement."
The United States is not alone on this issue, as new U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James Cunningham noted. "The United States, as many other countries, have long recognized the Durand Line as the boundary between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he told journalists in Kandahar on October 23.
But there are those in Afghanistan who would rather not be reminded of that fact. "I think talking about such [controversial] issues will have negative consequences for relations between America and the people of Afghanistan," Aryan Yoon, a member of the foreign-relations committee of the Afghan parliament, said this week. "I think it will benefit both countries if we desist from talking about such issues."
Liwal, whose government-funded think tank researches strategic and foreign-policy issues, says most Afghans still dream of a return of the much bigger and united Afghanistan that existed before the advent of European colonialism in South Asia.
Modern Afghanistan emerged from the fragmentation of the Durrani dynasty, an 18th-century Pashtun empire based in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Internal rivalries and wars eventually weakened the dynasty's hold on regions that today constitute Pakistan and northern India.
The arrival of the British in northern India in the 19th century posed a major challenge to the Afghan and Turkic powers that had dominated the subcontinent for centuries. After losing a major war to the Afghans in 1842, the British eventually captured parts of Afghanistan and formally annexed them through an arbitrary treaty in 1879. Their forces occupied Kabul at the time.
The contentious 1893 treaty between Afghan King Amir Abdur Rahman and Mortimer Durand, the foreign secretary of British India, formalized the areas under the control of the two governments.
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9 killed, 25 injured in Afghan night raid operation
CHAGHCHARAN, Afghanistan, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Nine people were killed and 25 wounded in an overnight operation launched by Afghan and the NATO-led coalition troops in the western province of Ghor, a provincial official said Wednesday, adding that local residents said most victims were civilians.
"According to initial reports by our security forces, nine people were killed and 25 others injured during a night raid operation against militants conducted by Afghan Special Forces supporting by the coalition troops in Sharhrak district overnight, " a spokesman for provincial government, Abdul Hai Khatibi, told Xinhua.
After local residents claimed that several women and children were among the casualties, the local government has launched an investigation into the incident to determine whether the killed were militants or civilians, he said.
Meantime, the NATO-led coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) confirmed that the ISAF is aware of reports of possible civilian casualties during the operation in the province 360 km west of Kabul.
"(The) ISAF can confirm an incident early this morning in Shahrak district, Ghor province in which an Afghan and coalition security force killed several insurgents during an operation to detain a Taliban leader," the ISAF's Joint Command said in a text sent to Xinhua via email.
"The ISAF takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously, and is assessing the facts surrounding this incident. We will release more information as appropriate," it added.
The incident came months after the Afghan government and the United States signed an agreement in Kabul in April to allow the Afghan forces to take the lead in the controversial night raids, a tactic that the coalition says is critical in the fight against the Taliban insurgents.
Three civilians were accidentally killed during an operation in eastern Logar province over the weekend, Afghan and coalition forces said.
The deaths of civilians by NATO-led troops during operations against Taliban fighting Afghan and about 100,000 coalition forces have long been a contentious issue between the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO forces in the insurgency-hit country.
Afghan officials had in the past stressed such deaths would further undermine the war against Taliban and terrorist groups and inflame an anti-foreign sentiment in the country.
A total of 1,145 Afghan civilians were killed and 1,954 injured in conflicts in the first six months of 2012, 15 percent down in overall civilian casualties compared with the same period last year, according to a mid-year UN report released in capital Kabul in August.
The UN report attributed 80 percent of the civilian deaths to the attacks of Taliban insurgents and other armed groups opposing the Afghan government, another 10 percent of the deaths were attributed to the Afghan and NATO-led forces and 10 percent were unattributed in the first six months this year.
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Taliban ambush kills 10 Afghan troops
Associated Press By RAHIM FAIEZ 23/10/2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - Taliban insurgents killed 10 Afghan troops in an ambush in western Herat province, police and government officials said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the provincial governor, Muhiudin Noori, said the Afghan troops — which included both soldiers and police — were searching late Monday for a group of insurgents who had earlier set up a roadblock, stopping and seizing passing vehicles, when they were ambushed.
Five policemen, including the district commander and five soldiers died in the ensuing firefight, Noori said. There were no insurgent casualties, but police later arrested 25 suspects found in the area, he said.
Also Tuesday, an American service member was killed in an insurgent attack in the east, the U.S. military said in a statement. It did not provide further details about the attack. The latest death makes at least 12 American service members killed so far this month and 265 killed so far this year.
The Herat ambush was the bloodiest single incident for Afghan security forces this year in western Afghanistan — an area where the insurgents have been less active than in their strongholds in the east and west of the country.
In recent months, Taliban guerrillas have been switching tactics and increasingly targeting Afghan security forces as the international coalition continues its drawdown toward a planned withdrawal of the majority of combat troops in 2014.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai condemned "in the strongest possible terms" a NATO raid on Sunday in Logar province in which he said four children were killed.
A presidential statement said coalition troops carried out the operation in Baraki Barak district in an effort to apprehend two armed militants. But this resulted in the deaths of the four children who were tending to their animals in the same area, it said.
Din Mohammad Darwesh, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the victims were between 10 and 13 years old.
NATO on Tuesday acknowledged that its forces "may be responsible for the unintended, but nonetheless tragic, death of three Afghan civilians" during the operation in Baraki Barak district. Coalition commander U.S. Gen. John R. Allen expressed his condolences to the families of those killed.
There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the number of victims in the two statements.
In recent months, Karzai has criticized the international military coalition for what he said was the killing of civilians in Afghanistan, for not going after terrorist safe havens in neighboring Pakistan and for not providing the Afghan forces with all the weapons they need.
The criticisms drew an angry response from U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who earlier this month said the Afghan leader should occasionally say "thank you" to allied forces who are fighting and dying in Afghanistan, rather than criticizing them.
Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Kabul contributed to this report.
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Soccer Fever in Kabul
New York Times By MATTHIEU AIKINS October 23, 2012
KABUL - October days are usually crisp and clear in Kabul, but last Friday soccer fans awoke to leaden skies and an intermittent drizzle.
Still, the open-air bleachers of Kabul’s main soccer stadium were packed, with 5,000 spectators, while outside the police, toting AK-47s and wooden batons, kept an overflow crowd at bay. It was the final match of the Afghan Premier League’s first season, a feverishly exciting day in a city whose youth desperately lack opportunities for wholesome entertainment.
Taking to the astroturf were Toofan, or “Typhoon,” Harirod from Herat and Simorgh Alborz (named after a mystical bird) from Mazar-i-Sharaf. Both teams, and the league itself, were created a little over month before, after a reality-TV-style search for players put on by Tolo, the country’s most popular television broadcaster. Despite their newness, the teams had already attracted a devoted following of fans around the country, as well as the attention of President Hamid Karzai himself. Some spectators at Friday’s match had made long journeys, spanning the chasm between life in the cities and the countryside, where the war mainly takes place.
“The Taliban stopped us on the way,” said Abdul Sameer, a 23-year-old student from Herat who had driven with friends through the volatile south to reach Kabul. He laughed when I asked him if they had explained they were going to the soccer finals. “They would have killed us! We said we were going to the doctor.”
Unlike some other pastimes written up in the Western press as symbols of Afghanistan’s ostensibly nascent modernity — for example, an expensive new bowling alley — the soccer league is enjoyed by a broad spectrum of Afghan youth. A ticket to the final was 50 Afghanis, or about $1, well within the means of even a day laborer.
And in a city where parks and public spaces are rare, and crowds typically are associated with danger, there was a festive normality to the occasion. There was even — albeit in the V.I.P. section in the stands — a large contingent of women and children, whose public entertainment options are almost nonexistent.
“The women were telling one of our female staff that they loved watching men compete without killing each other,” Zaid Mohseni, chief operating officer of Tolo’s parent company, told me. With its dubbed Indian soap operas and local reality-TV shows where men and women mingle, Tolo has pushed the boundaries of what’s admissible as family entertainment in Afghan living rooms. But the soccer league was the broadcaster’s first major foray into redefining public space. Mohseni said the company was surprised by the level of demand, with each of the Friday games selling out.
Of all the changes that have come to Afghanistan since 2001, the country’s dramatic urbanization — it has one of the highest rates in the world — must be among the most significant. The cities have remained havens from the war’s daily violence, as well as beneficiaries of the aid boom. Driven by returning refugees and rural migrants escaping poverty and violence, Kabul’s population is estimated to have grown from two million to more than five million in 10 years. This has resulted in an urban population that is young — 67 percent of the country is under 25 — and hungry for novelty and entertainment.
On the other hand, having benefited the most from the post-2001 order, the urban population stands to lose more than people in the countryside should things go badly wrong as U.S. and NATO troops hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces by 2014. At the very least, they are looking down the barrel of a severe economic correction, as international spending, currently the largest portion of the country’s G.D.P., dries up.
Herat drew first blood, scoring within the opening minute. As the sun set behind the mountains that ring Kabul and the stadium’s lights came on, the crowd’s energy remained feverish. Looking at the stands packed with fans cheering in unison — young people who’ve known a decade of food security, relative peace and uninterrupted schooling — I couldn’t help but wonder how they would react to the tougher times that lay ahead. Mass mobilization in Afghanistan remains limited, but if anyone can upend the country’s political order, it is the urban youth.
Toofan Harirod, the team from Herat, finished the first half ahead, 2-0, but then their stamina waned and their opponents started looking more dangerous. The game tightened, and with a few minutes left in regular time, Simorgh Alborz scored their first point. Toofan Harirod held on, however, and carried the title, along with a $15,000 prize.
“Herat didn’t play very well. They just got lucky,” grumbled Mohammad Nadim, a Simorgh fan from Kabul. He and his friends started attending matches the week before. “I didn’t watch soccer before, but now we’re going to follow every game.”
Matthieu Aikins is a magazine writer living in Kabul. You can follow him on Twitter.
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Roadside bomb kills 2 Afghan civilians, wounds 3
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A roadside bomb killed 2 Afghan civilians and wounded 3 others in Ghazni province 125 km south of Kabul on Wednesday, an official said.
"The tragic incident took place in Muqar district at 11:30 a.m. local time today when a mine planted by Taliban rebels struck a civilian car killing two people and injuring three others," governor of Muqar district, Sahib Khan told Xinhua.
The victims are a couple and their three kids, he added.
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3 local Taliban leaders arrested in Afghanistan: ISAF
KABUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Three local Taliban leaders have been detained by the Afghan forces and the NATO-led coalition troops, as part of an increased campaign against insurgents in Afghanistan, the coalition forces confirmed Wednesday.
"Afghan and coalition forces yesterday confirmed the arrest of Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Rahman in Kunduz province Oct. 19," the coalition or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a press release providing daily operational updates.
He is accused of being the planner and coordinator behind several high-profile attacks in northern Afghanistan, including the hijacking of fuel trucks in Kunduz in 2009 and the killing of several ISAF soldiers in 2010 in the province 250 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, the ISAF release added.
Another Taliban leader was captured in eastern Logar province, some 60 km south of Kabul earlier Wednesday.
"The arrested leader maintained close ties to Haqqani network leadership and was directly involved in planning vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED) attacks against Afghan and coalition forces in the province," it said.
The Taliban-linked Haqqani network mostly operating in eastern Afghan provinces and capital Kabul is responsible for many high- profile attacks against the security forces.
"Afghan and coalition officials today confirmed the death of Haqqani leader Ehsan, who was killed along with another insurgent by Afghan and coalition forces Monday after being observed executing a mortar attack against Forward Operating Base Shank in Logar province," the release said.
In addition, the joint forces killed two insurgents after being attacked by small arms fire during a partnered patrol in Wardak province on Tuesday. The combined force engaged the three attackers, killing two and forcing a third to flee the area in the province 35 km west of Kabul, according to the release.
The joint forces also detained another Taliban leader in Kandahar province 450 km south of Kabul on Tuesday.
The detained leader was responsible for assassination attempts, IED attacks, and facilitation of lethal aid throughout Kandahar province. During the operation, the security force also detained three suspected insurgents, the coalition release said.
Separately, Afghan police detained a 10-member group of terrorists in Helmand province 555 km south of Kabul on Tuesday.
"The group of armed men were detained in provincial capital Lashkar Gah and were responsible for subversive activities in the city and surrounding areas besides launching armed robberies throughout Helmand," provincial police chief Nabi Ilham told reporters earlier Wednesday.
Taliban militants have yet to make comments.
Afghan forces and some 100,000 NATO-led coalition troops have intensified cleanup operations against Taliban and other militant groups throughout the country recently but the insurgents in response launched armed attacks and carried out IED and suicide attacks against them.
Abdul Khalil Mubariz, the administrative district chief of Purchaman district in Farah province, 695 km west of Kabul, was killed in an IED attack Tuesday afternoon while travelling to a remote area to check police checkpoints, a spokesman for provincial government, Abdul Rahmand Zhwandy, told Xinhua.
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Afghanistan telecom sector evolves after decades of conflict
BBC News By Ethirajan Anbarasan 23/10/2012
Kabul - Mohammad Harun Afzali, a university student in Kabul, spends time surfing the internet, chatting on Facebook and Skyping with his relatives abroad.
He may sound like an average youth in any developing country.
But access to these services, which are almost taken for granted in developed nations, hasn't always been easy in this war-torn country.
Ten years ago, Afghanistan had little or no access to the internet. The country's communication network was in disarray.
After three decades of bitter conflict and instability, its infrastructure was in ruins .
Locals say during the Taliban regime there were only a handful of public telephone booths in Kabul to make international calls. People used to wait in long queues for hours to use the phone.
The other option for many Afghans was to go to neighbouring Pakistan to make an international call.
But things have changed dramatically since then.
'Telecom sector has evolved'
According to the World Bank, Afghanistan only had 57,000 fixed and mobile telecommunication subscribers in 2002.
A decade later, it has a vibrant and fast-growing telecom sector, a far cry from the days of Taliban.
According to official figures, the country's five telecom operators now share about 18 million subscribers. The mobile networks cover more than 85% of the population.
"It's a great change for us. I still remember how difficult it was to talk to our relatives abroad 10 years ago. Now, we can easily communicate with anyone inside the country and abroad," says Mr Afzali.
Etisalat Afghanistan, which was the first mobile phone company in the country to introduce the high-speed third generation (3G) network, says the potential for growth is enormous.
"The telecom sector has evolved in the past three years in Afghanistan," says Yasser Aboul Amayem, chief commercial officer of the firm.
"Operators are moving from providing only voice to much more than that.
"We see a huge demand for the data, surely because of the lack of entertainment resources."
And with more than 65% of Afghanistan's estimated population of 28 million being under 25 years of age, the service providers are hopeful that demand for these services will continue to increase.
Challenges ahead
But while mobile phone growth in the past decade has been impressive, internet penetration in the country continues to remain low.
Of that 28 million population, there are just above a million internet users in Afghanistan. A lack of computers, chronic electricity shortages and weak economic conditions are just some of the reasons for the industry's sluggish growth.
But officials say the arrival of 3G network can change the situation.
"We thought if we issue 3G licences we can expand internet access to people. Now we have widespread cellular services available and subscribers can access internet from their phones," Hassam Baryalai, Technical Deputy Minister in the Afghan Communications Ministry tells the BBC.
Afghanistan has also embarked on an ambitious plan to connect the entire country with fibre optics. Mr Baryalai says 20 provinces have already been connected with a fibre-optic network, which in turn has been linked with neighbouring countries.
The Afghan telecom sector has attracted about $1.8bn (£1.1bn) in foreign investment. Officials say this has resulted in the creation of nearly 200,000 jobs for Afghans.
The government is also getting revenue from the telecom companies through taxes, mobile frequency charges, rental fees and by auctioning the 3G network.
Last year, it earned $190m in revenue from the sector.
Security risks
But the situation is not completely rosy for the Afghan telecom sector.
The deteriorating security situation is a major source of concern. There have been Taliban attacks on the telecommunications infrastructure, raising concerns among the business community that this may reduce investment in the sector.
Last year, a number of mobile phone masts were destroyed by the Taliban after the telecom companies refused to shut down communications during night time.
Taliban militants wanted night time transmission to stop to prevent security forces from getting tip-offs by intercepting their phone calls.
But the government at that time warned the mobile companies that their licences could be revoked if they caved in to Taliban orders.
A recent report by the Brussels-based think tank the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned that the departure of Nato forces in 2014 could be followed by the government's collapse and even civil war, unless steps were taken now.
It said the Afghan police and army were unprepared to handle the situation. But the government has dismissed the ICG report.
Afghan officials insist that they are taking enough security measures to protect local and foreign investors.
"Of course, security will affect the growth of the sector. But will not affect the investment. We can assure foreign investors and also existing investors in the sector to keep their continuity beyond 2014," says Mr Baryalai.
These are uncertain times in Afghanistan. But the fast-growing communications network is one of the few success stories in the war-torn country.
Afghans are hoping that the story will have a happy ending.
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Protecting Afghanistan’s environment and tourist future
BBC News By Andrew North 23 October 2012
Bamiyan - If the high mountain lakes of Band-e Amir were not in a country in its fourth decade of war they would be world famous.
Outsiders lucky enough to see them today are often lost for words when they first set eyes on the ethereal blue of their waters and the Martian-orange and red cliffs surrounding them.
The lakes, in Bamiyan province, are Afghanistan's first-ever national park, and draw thousands of local visitors every year. The government hopes foreign tourists will one day come too.
If that sounds quixotic now, so too may the UN and the government's launch here of the country's first-ever environmental protection plan - with a solar-powered kettle one of its signature initiatives.
But for those living in Bamiyan's isolated mountain valleys, the most immediate threat is not the Taliban but drought, partly induced by human activity.
Climate change is making things worse and the lakes could be at risk too.
Glaciers in the province's Koh-e Baba mountains, the western end of the Hindu Kush, recede further each year.
The climate adaptation programme, as it's known, "is not luxury, it's life", says Bamiyan Governor Habiba Sarabi after climbing up to Qazan, one of 18 mountain farming communities involved in the $6m (£3.75m) scheme.
'Disaster-prone'
Some 3,000m (9,800ft) above sea level, this is always going to be a tough place to live and farm.
But it's got tougher as trees and vegetation have been cut down for fuel - creating the beginnings of a high-altitude dust bowl.
In an Afghan version of the Grapes of Wrath, more families are being forced to leave every year.
Like shaved heads, most of the hillsides are bare, with just the occasional stubble of green.
It also means villages are more exposed to "flash-flooding in spring and summer and avalanches in winter", says Andrew Scanlon of the UN Environment Programme.
But he is now overseeing the planting of new trees and turf along Qazan's valley.
Against the repetitive clanging of hammer on metal, workers in Bamiyan city are building scores of cleaner, more-efficient stoves.
Run by an Afghan NGO called the Conservation Organisation for the Afghan Mountains (COAM), the workshop sells them on preferential terms to local villages and it already has more orders than it can fulfil.
Mr Scanlon wants to expand the scheme elsewhere.
COAM is promoting another energy-saving device, the solar kettle.
It is basically a large satellite dish which reflects sun-rays onto a kettle suspended in the middle.
The bigger the dish the quicker the boil - but the one they are selling for about $100 can make a cup of tea in 20 minutes.
Yet with Nato forces retreating over the next two years, taking large chunks of aid money with them, there are concerns whether this tentative momentum can be maintained.
The New Zealand run civilian-military provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Bamiyan is due to close early next year.
Catching up
There are questions, too, over the future of Bamiyan's best-known landmark - the remains of the larger of its two rock Buddhas, blown up by the Taliban months before the US-led invasion in 2001.
The vast cave, or niche, carved into the mountainside 1,500 years ago looms over Bamiyan like a ghostly sentinel - and a permanent reminder of what happened.
But the niche is in "imminent danger of collapse", says Brendan Cassar of Unesco - the UN's cultural agency - and they need funding to shore it up.
Security concerns are pressing in too - from districts around Bamiyan where the Taliban and other armed groups have become more active.
That has had a knock-on effect on the small indigenous tourist trade here.
If foreign tourists are still a fledgling species here, Band-e Amir national park usually attracts a steady flow of Afghan visitors.
But there's been a sharp fall in numbers this year, as the threat along the road towards Bamiyan has risen.
The park itself is still a long way from being managed like protected reserves elsewhere in the world. A guard with a piece of rope across the road is the gate-post.
There is little control on villagers who live next to the lakes. They have often used grenades and other explosives for fishing. Rubbish sometimes gets dumped in the waters.
But it is important to keep locals involved, "so they benefit", says Mostapha Zaher, the energetic head of Afghanistan's environmental protection agency - and grandson of the former king.
He admits he's been called "unrealistic" for his dreams of developing national parks while the country is still in conflict.
But Mr Zaher insists it will happen, with plans underway for a second park in the Wakhan corridor - the finger of mountainous territory that takes Afghanistan all the way to China.
The UN deputy envoy Michael Keating, who has championed the environmental programmes, echoes his optimism: "Twenty years ago who would have thought Cambodia could become a tourist destination?"
To Afghans, the lakes are sacred waters and they believe have healing properties.
Perhaps one day, they will help heal Afghanistan too.
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Nimroz Man Detained for Attempted Rape of Daughter
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian Tuesday, 23 October 2012
A man accused of attempting to rape his daughter has been detained by police in southwest Nimroz province and will face trial, officials said.
The daughter, a 14-year-old student in Year Eight, said that since she was a young girl her father has tried to rape her, but had failed.
"My father was affectionate with me since I was small and tried to rape me, but he could not," the girl told TOLOnews Tuesday.
She has asked for her and her family's identity to not be disclosed.
The family were aware of the situation and said that the father had driver his son out of the house because he was trying to stop his father.
Head of Nimroz Women's Department Amina Hakimi said the daughter and the mother came to the women's office in the capital Zarang asking what they could do after the abuse had been happening for years.
They put together some documentation of the events and submitted it to the police who arrested the man last Thursday.
"The girl is in eighth class at school. Her father sexually abused her in front of his wife," she said.
The man allegedly made the daughter sleep in the bed with him and his wife and on some occasions removed her clothes and took photographs, according to Hakimi.
Head of the provincial police criminal department Abdul Hadi Azizi the man would face trial.
"The case is under investigation and if the accusation proves right, the man will face a penalty," he said.
Hakimi said the man's relatives have warned for him to be found innocent.
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