President Obama honors legacy of Abraham Lincoln

China pledges to increase aid to Africa

Bamako -- China will continue to increase aid to Africa despite the impact of the current global financial crisis upon itself so that China and African countries will be able to weather the difficult times together through mutual support, President Hu Jintao announced on Thursday.

Hu made the pledge on behalf of the Chinese government while meeting the press with Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure.

China will also, within its capability, reduce or cancel African countries' debt and expand its trade and increase investment in Africa, to fulfill the commitments it made during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing Summit in 2006, Hu said.

The financial crunch that started in the United States last year has now spread across the world. In China, hundreds of thousands businesses have closed down and millions of migrant workers lost their jobs.

While acknowledging that China's economic development also face many difficulties due to the global economic crisis, Hu said the grave challenges rising in the times of economic downturn makes it all the more important for China and Africa to unite and cooperate with each other.

As a genuine friend of Africa, China will further take concrete actions to enrich such the cooperation, Hu said.

Meanwhile, China will also call for the international society to pay close attention to the severe adverse effect of the global economic slow-down on Africa and honor their pledge of aid to Africa, Hu said.

China-Mali Relations

Hu arrived on Thursday in Mali, the second leg of his current "Journey of Friendship and Cooperation".

Immediately after the grandiose welcoming ceremony, Hu exchanged views with Toure over bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common concerns.

During the talk, Hu made four proposals to cement the two countries' 49-year friendship and cooperation.

While continuing high level exchanges, Hu said the two countries should also expand such interactions between the two governments, parliaments, military and non-government organizations, to enhance mutual political trust.

As far as further enriching bilateral collaborations to promote mutual development, he said Chinese government will continue to encourage and support competent Chinese firms to invest in Mali and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fields of telecommunications, agriculture, infrastructure construction, including the third sugar processing factory in Mali and the No 3 bridge in Mali's capital.

The two countries will set up a joint committee on economy, trade and technology to coordinate and improve the level of collaboration.

In terms of expanding people-to-people and cultural exchanges, Hu said China welcomes Mali to participate the World Expo in Shanghai next year, to display Mali's ancient civilization and culture.

He told the media that China will offer additional 34 scholarships for Mali students to study in China and help train 65 professionals.

Meanwhile, China will ensure the completion of the 10 centers for women and children and furnish with medicines and medical facilities for a new center for treatment of malaria, which Hu will unveil Friday.

He also proposed to enhance coordination and mutual support to safeguard the interests of the developing countries.

During their talk, Hu also said China will work with Mali and other African countries to actively prepare for the fourth China-Africa Cooperation Forum and push forward the new type of strategic partnership between China and African countries to benefit the Chinese and African people.

Extending his warm welcome to President Hu Jintao's visit, Malian president said Malian people are proud of their brotherly friendship with the Chinese.

China helped Mali to make its first step towards modernization since its independence in 1960, Toure told the media.

"The collaborations between Mali and China are fruitful and of high quality," Toure said. "All the major projects that have appeared in Mali have borne the Chinese mark."

As all countries are facing the global financial crisis, Toure said that Mali and Africa need China's assistance and he is thankful for China's pledge to continue providing the support.

Toure also praised China for honoring its promises made during the China-Africa Cooperation Forum Beijing Summit three years ago.

Since the summit, progress has been made in the eight policy measures that China committed itself to support development in African countries.

For instance, the value of China-Africa trade last year surpassed $100 billion for the first time.

Hu's talk to the media, which drew the local as well as international media organizations such as BBC, AFP and Reuters, has aroused warm response from some local journalists.

Alassane Souleymane, a reporter from the Mali Broadcasting Corporation, told China Daily that China places the Malian people's interest first as its aid projects always cover education, agriculture and health.

"Hu's talk today show that our collaboration in these traditional fields are still strong and Malian and Chinese people are true friends," Souleymane said.

India welcomes Mumbai admission

India has described the admission by Pakistan that last year's Mumbai terror attacks were partly planned on its soil as a "positive development".A foreign ministry statement said India also expected Pakistan to take steps to dismantle the "infrastructure of terrorism" on its territory.Pakistan's interior minister said suspects arrested could be prosecuted.The admission was condemned by militant groups in Kashmir, who accused the government of bowing to US pressure.This is the first sign of an easing in tension between the countries over the attacks, a BBC correspondent says.Many in Delhi are genuinely surprised at what some see as a major turn-around by the Pakistani authorities, Sanjoy Majumder reports from the Indian capital.Relations had deteriorated considerably after the attacks by 10 gunmen which claimed 170 lives.Pakistan denied any responsibility in the immediate aftermath of the attacks but later admitted that the sole gunman captured alive was one of its citizens.Top Indian officials are now meeting to examine the information that has been handed over before determining their next move.
'By boat from Karachi'
"It remains India's goal to bring the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on Mumbai to book and to follow this process through to the end," the Indian foreign ministry statement said."We would also expect that the government of Pakistan take credible steps to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan."Earlier, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said eight suspects from the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group could face prosecution."Some part of the conspiracy has taken place in Pakistan," he told a news conference in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.He said six of the suspects were in custody while two others remained at large."The attackers left from Karachi on a boat hired from Balochistan [Province]," Mr Malik said.
"An e-mail claiming responsibility for the attack was sent by Zarrar Shah of the Lashkar-e-Taiba."Mr Shah was arrested at a Lashkar camp in December in Pakistani-administered Kashmir by security forces.Another man arrested at the time was Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, described as Lashkar's chief of operations.Mr Malik named Hamad Amin, a Karachi resident currently in Pakistani custody, as the mastermind behind the attacks.
Militant anger
The main alliance of militant groups in Kashmir, the United Jihad Council (UJC), condemned the Pakistani government for admitting to Lashkar-e-Taiba's involvement.
A UJC spokesman, Syed Sadaqat Hussain, said the government had done an about-turn after US envoy Richard Holbrooke's visit."Pakistan has succumbed to American pressure and fallen victim to an Indo-US conspiracy," he said.Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said that Pakistan did "not have an independent foreign policy" and had "bowed before the US".

TTP threatens to kill more ANP leaders

TTP threatens to kill more ANP leaders
PESHAWAR: A close aide of Baitullah Mehsud and senior commander of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on Awami National Party (ANP) MPA Alam Zeb Khan in Peshawar.“We carried out this attack and will continue such attacks on ANP leaders in future,” Hakeemullah Mehsud, who heads the TTP in Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber tribal regions, said in telephone calls to media offices in Peshawar. Alam Zeb Khan died of excessive injuries when a powerful bomb went off near his car in Peshawar on Wednesday. He became the first target of the Taliban since the Pukhtoon nationalist party took power last year. The ANP became a major target of the outlawed TTP after its peace deal with Maulana Fazlullah in Swat collapsed and a military operation began to target the Taliban. Asfandyar Wali Khan, central ANP president, survived a suicide attack on Eid Day at his Wali Bagh residence last year, while relatives of several ANP MPAs from Swat have also been targeted. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti announced Rs 5 million for the grieved family and recommended the federal government’s higher gallantry award for the deceased MPA. The CM’s Gallantry Medal, along with Rs 500,000 in cash, was also announced for the late MPA’s family.The chief minister assured the family members that the ANP government would bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.

Taliban Gains Under Weak Karzai Rule, U.S. Aide Says

WASHINGTON — The new director of national intelligence warned Thursday that Afghanistan’s weak and corrupt government is failing to halt the spread of Taliban control, and said public support for the Taliban and local warlords was increasing. The assessment underscored in stark terms the obstacles facing the Obama administration as it vows to focus more American troops and attention on deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. The intelligence chief, Dennis C. Blair, described the American-backed government of Hamid Karzai as increasingly ineffective and unpopular.Mr. Blair delivered his assessment in written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee, offering the government’s first public accounting of the national security challenges facing the new administration. Mr. Blair also reiterated that no improvement in Afghanistan was possible without Pakistan taking control of its border region but said that Pakistan’s government was losing authority over that territory and that even more developed parts of Pakistan were coming under the sway of Islamic radicalism.Mr. Blair did say that a top echelon of Al Qaeda’s leadership hiding in the Pakistani mountains has been battered in recent months — the result of a barrage of strikes by drone aircraft operated by the Central Intelligence Agency. But American intelligence officials have long said that dismantling Al Qaeda’s safe haven in Pakistan would take more than a campaign of airstrikes against the group’s leadership, but a sustained effort by Islamabad to develop and govern the semiautonomous tribal lands.Mr. Blair’s written testimony was made public as he prepared to appear in person before the intelligence committee on Thursday afternoon. For the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, the annual threat report does not list Al Qaeda as the most immediate threat facing the United States. Instead, Mr. Blair devoted the beginning of his testimony to the implications of the economic crisis and the “likelihood of serious damage to U.S. strategic interests.”The crisis spawned by American markets, the report read, “has increased questioning of U.S. stewardship of the global economy and the international financial structure.”Mr. Blair also cited growing concern among American spies that North Korea could be using a covert uranium enrichment program to produce fissile material for its small arsenal of nuclear weapons. Officials in Washington believe that North Korea is preparing for another long-range missile test, in an attempt to demonstrate an ability to threaten cities along the west coast of the United States.Reversing Afghanistan’s downward spiral is a top priority for President Obama, who has pledged to send thousands more American troops there. In his testimony on Thursday, Mr. Blair, the president’s top intelligence adviser, laid bare the challenges standing in the way of the White House meeting its goals.His critique of Mr. Karzai’s government was withering.“Kabul’s inability to build effective, honest, and loyal provincial and district-level institutions capable of providing basic services and sustainable, licit livelihoods erodes its popular legitimacy and increases the influence of local warlords and the Taliban,” Mr. Blair reported.Taliban gunmen on Wednesday demonstrated just how far they could penetrate the inner workings of the Afghan government, storming government buildings and even taking control of the Ministry of Justice.In a departure from previous years, when the heads of several intelligence agencies joined the director of national intelligence to deliver the threat testimony, Mr. Blair on Thursday is facing the committee alone. The message was clear: that the Obama administration plans for Mr. Blair to exert greater control over American spy agencies and for him to take on a more public role at the top of the intelligence pyramid.

Mehdi Hassan admitted to hospital

KARACHI: Veteran ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan was brought to a private hospital in Karachi Thursday after his heath deteriorated.The singer was hospitalised following a lung infection and was getting treatment in an intensive care unit (ICU). Talking to Geo news, Hassan’s son Arif Mehdi requested Sindh government to bear the expenses for his father’s treatment. Mehdi Hasan has been bestowed with the title “Shahenshah-e-Ghazal”. He is a legendry Ghazal singer and a former playback singer for Lollywood films.

Pakistan ‘must take responsibility’ for fighting terrorists: UK

LONDON: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown stressed on Thursday that "Pakistan has responsibilities upon itself" to fight war against terrorism due to the continued presence of al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan.
Gordon Brown said that Britain was ready to help Pakistan to deal with terrorism problem. "We can see the flow, unfortunately, of terrorists from Pakistan to Afghanistan, and we know that if we are dealing with the al-Qaeda problem we are dealing with a problem that exists in Pakistan as well as Afghanistan," the British leader said.
Answering questions at a hearing of the chairpersons of British parliamentary committees, Brown welcomed a two-month review of Afghanistan and Pakistan policies announced by the Obama administration.
He said he had met the US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke in the last few days to discuss the review.
"It is important to recognise that, first of all, we have got to take action against the new type of threat that we have got. Secondly, that means taking action on the borders, working with the Pakistani authorities, to deal with the terrorist problem there," Brown said.
However, he said, British policy in Afghanistan must complement military action in order to ensure the country's social and economic development and strengthen army, police and local government.
He said he expected a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) April 03 and 04 to come up with "a new set of proposals about how we deal with the evolving situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan"

Zardari, Asfandyar discuss political, law & order situation

Zardari, Asfandyar discuss political, law & order situation F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and Awami National Party (ANP) chief Asfandyar Wali on Thursday discussed the current political and law and order situation of the country. The meeting, held at Aiwan-e-Sadr, also discussed the latest development in investigations of the Mumbai terror attacks and the forthcoming Senate elections. According to sources the President while talking to the ANP Chief, reiterated Pakistan's commitment to bring the culprits of the Mumbai terror attacks to the justice. He said that Pakistan has fulfilled its obligation as was pledged earlier to the international community by sharing with Indian authorities of the findings by Federal Investigative Agency based on information based on the information given by the Indian authorities. The President urged the Indian government to positively respond to the questions given by Pakistan in order to continue the investigations in an effectively way. The sources said that President Zardari said that terrorists were common enemy of the both neighbouring countries and called for joint efforts to eradicate terrorism. The leaders also discussed the overall law and order situation of the country particularly the Frontier Province. The President condoled with the ANP leader on the sad demise of MPA Alamzeb Khan who was killed in a bomb attack in Peshawar on Wednesday. Zardari strongly condemned the terror attack saying that the government was committed to wipe out terrorism and extremism and such kind of incidents would not discourage the government. The sources said that the ANP leader apprised the President of the NWFP government commitment to eradicate the terrorism and extremism and help restore peace in the troubled areas. They said that the two leaders also discussed the forthcoming Senate elections.

US envoy arrives in Afghanistan

The new US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has arrived in Kabul on what is being described as a fact-finding mission.He is to meet senior Afghan officials to discuss issues including the worsening security situation.On Wednesday, co-ordinated Taleban attacks in the Afghan capital killed at least 27 people.President Obama has repeatedly said that Afghanistan's problems cannot be addressed in isolation.Some analysts have suggested that Wednesday's attacks may have been an attempt by the Taleban to overshadow Mr Holbrooke's visit.Mr Holbrooke's trip to Afghanistan follows a four-day visit to neighbouring Pakistan.Reports say that in talks with Pakistani leaders he stressed Washington's financial commitments to the country but underlined the need to purge militant sanctuaries in the north-west region, along the Afghan border.
Politician killed
Mr Holbrooke also visited the North West Frontier Province to see the security situation there at first hand.While in Peshawar, a local politician was killed by a roadside bomb.Before leaving for Afghanistan, Mr Holbrooke met Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and leader of Pakistan's main opposition party.After their meeting, Mr Sharif told reporters that Mr Holbrooke said he understood many Pakistanis' feelings about US drone attacks inside the country.The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan, in Islamabad, says Mr Holbrooke is being seen as a key player in a renewed effort to reverse the deteriorating situation on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.Mr Holbrooke has said he is in the region to "listen and learn", before reporting back to President Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Before his trip the envoy called the situation in Pakistan "dire".

Pakistan wish list exposes Holbrooke challenge

Pakistan— US envoy Richard Holbrooke leaves Pakistan Thursday with a wish list for aid, but in no doubt about the challenge of eradicating Islamist havens in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation.Paying a first visit to Pakistan, Afghanistan and India to conduct a major review of US policy in the "war on terror", Holbrooke spent three days hearing a litany of woes and requests from the government and the military.
Pakistan has been a vital US ally since former president George W. Bush invaded neighbouring Afghanistan to oust the extremist Taliban regime in Kabul for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks.But relations between Washington and Islamabad have soured, not least in the wake of dozens of suspected US missile strikes against militants on Pakistani territory, which has weakened and embarrassed an already unpopular government.The United States is impatient over Pakistan's reluctance or inability to eradicate Islamist "safe havens" used to attack Western forces in Afghanistan.Pakistan wants an end to US missile strikes and billions of dollars in military and civilian aid to combat the Islamist threat in their own backyard.Military commanders say they urgently need attack and transport helicopters, drones for surveillance and targeting locations, night vision goggles for pilots and foot soldiers; and jammers to neutralise landmines and roadside bombs.
Pakistan, whose 500,000-strong military -- the fifth largest in the world -- has deployed 110,000 troops in the semi-autonomous tribal areas on the Afghan border -- says it has only dozens of night-vision goggles.Lack of equipment precludes military operations at night, allowing Taliban fighters to operate with impunity under the cover of darkness."This is an absolute must for the army to sustain its operations. It has to be better equipped and it must get these things," one senior military official told AFP on condition of anonymity."We hope that with the change in administration, the offer to review policy and to understand Pakistan's perspective we'll get these things," he said.On the surface, the signals have been encouraging.
Pakistan declared that new US President Barack Obama and President Asif Ali Zardari agreed on "active engagement" to turn the tide in the war on extremism.Officials here are quietly optimistic that the days of Bush unilateralism -- when they felt Pakistan was undermined and intelligence ignored -- are over."A new package of economic assistance with a separate military component is expected. US reports say it involves 1.5 billion dollars a year, but we have to see what finally comes out," said defence analyst Talat Masood."It (the visit) was meant to convey in strong terms that Pakistan has to eliminate Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries in the tribal area and Pakistan has to get control of these areas," said Masood.But Pakistan and the United States have so far disagreed on the enemy.Pakistan draws a distinction between those Taliban who confine their attacks to US troops in Afghanistan and others, like the Taliban in its Swat valley, who attack Pakistani soldiers and carry out suicide bombings here.But the United States wants Pakistan to take direct action against militants who are fighting its forces across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan says first it must secure its own backyard -- more than 1,500 people have been killed in extremist bombings across the country in 20 months and more than 1,500 troops have died since Pakistan joined the "war on terror".Neither is Pakistan reassured that its perceived number one threat -- from India and the dispute over Kashmir -- is not in Holbrooke's mandate.The next step for Pakistan will be Washington.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's office said Holbrooke invited officials for talks in March. Pakistan's army chief General Ashfaq Kayani is scheduled to visit Washington later this month for the first time since taking office.

Special Envoy Heads to Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan was due to arrive in the Afghan capital Thursday afternoon, one day after a coordinated series of Taliban suicide attacks here underscored the deteriorating security in Kabul and across the country.Security forces here remained on high alert Thursday, not only in preparation for the arrival of the U.S. envoy, Richard C. Holbrooke, but also because a Taliban spokesman claimed eight bombers remained at large in the city and were still “looking for a chance.” The spokesman described Wednesday’s attacks as retaliation for the mistreatment and torture of Taliban prisoners.The suicide bombers and Taliban gunmen struck government buildings at three sites in Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding 57. It was a complex and highly organized attack that demonstrated the ease with which the insurgents could penetrate even a heavily fortified place like Kabul.At the Justice Ministry, five Taliban guerrillas armed with explosives and Kalashnikov rifles killed two guards, stormed inside and took control of the building for more than an hour. Frightened employees, including the justice minister, barricaded themselves in their offices while the armed men stalked the halls for victims. At least 10 people were killed, including 2 who were shot in the cross-fire between government forces and the insurgents, security officials said.Afterward, security forces carried the mangled bodies of the attackers out of the building and, in a sign of deep disrespect, dumped the bodies unceremoniously on the concrete forecourt. All eight attackers at the three sites were killed in addition to their 20 victims, the Interior Ministry said.
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Holbrooke met with the former Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, in the Pakistani city of Lahore. His tour of the region was part of a ground-up review of American policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan ordered by Mr. Obama, who met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Wednesday to discuss plans to bolster American force levels here.The brazen nature of the attacks was certain to influence the debate among administration officials over the strength of the Taliban, who control much of the countryside and have steadily encroached on Kabul.The attacks also highlighted the fluid and murky nature of the insurgents’ ties with terrorist networks in Pakistan’s tribal areas, which Mr. Holbrooke visited briefly on Wednesday under Pakistani military escort.One senior official in Washington said initial intelligence indicated that Wednesday’s attack was probably planned or supported by the Pakistan-based network of Jalaluddin Haqqani.Mr. Haqqani’s group was also implicated in the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul last summer and might have had the assistance of members of Pakistan’s intelligence agency in that operation, American officials have said.The attacks on Wednesday were the most audacious since the embassy assault. And in an eerie echo of the attacks in Mumbai, India, in November, which Indian and American intelligence officials say have been traced to a Pakistani militant group, the Taliban gunmen on Wednesday sent three messages to Pakistan seeking the “blessing of their mastermind,” said Amrullah Saleh, director of the Afghan national intelligence service.Moments later, they began “indiscriminate killing” inside the Justice Ministry, Mr. Saleh said. Officials said 21 people had been detained, but it was not clear what linked them to the attacks.The multiple coordinated strikes cloaked Kabul, a dusty and chaotic city of four million, in panic for the entire day. Miles of Kabul’s principal thoroughfares were blocked off, as police officers and soldiers rushed to reinforce scores of checkpoints.Hours later, there were fears that other bombers were still roaming Kabul. In addition to the eight bombers who struck the Justice Ministry, the Education Ministry and the directorate for prisons.Across the city, many streets were empty as residents were too scared to go outside. The attacks clearly unnerved Afghan officials.“The enemy still has the capability to bring this amount of weapons and explosives inside the city of Kabul and find their way to government institutions,” said Hanif Atmar, the interior minister. He promised new and strict security measures that would be “uncomfortable” for residents, but necessary. Many parts of the capital are already sectioned off for security, and foreign embassies sit behind layers of checkpoints and blast walls.The most confidence-shaking attack, at the Justice Ministry, began about 10 a.m., when five Taliban fighters took over three of the building’s four floors. The ministry is in the heart of the capital, a few hundred yards from the presidential palace.Employees locked their doors and dived for cover inside their offices. There was “chaos on all four floors,” said Habib Mushakhas, a senior ministry official, after the police rushed him out of the building. “I heard an explosion, then a firefight. There was a lot of blood in the corridors. I saw one dead body.”A little more than an hour after the attack, security forces counterattacked. Scores of soldiers and police officers rushed into the building and scaled ladders onto upper floors. More than 20 shots were fired. Soon after, ambulances took several police officers and soldiers away, their feet hanging off of stretchers poking out the open doors. It was not clear whether they were wounded or dead.Eventually, the police and soldiers retook enough of the building to begin evacuating dozens of survivors. Then they rushed children out from the kindergarten classroom inside the ministry.The police also began removing civilian bodies. By early afternoon they said they felt confident that they had defeated the gunmen, and they called an impromptu news conference in the Justice Ministry’s forecourt.But minutes later they realized that one Taliban attacker was still inside, and a handful of different security forces — the police, the Afghan Army and national intelligence officers — went searching for him. A nervous commander barked into his radio, “Try to recognize each other, and don’t shoot our own guys.”A radio call came from a commander inside the building. “We’ve cornered him,” he said. “Could you order us to shoot? We are worried because we think there are children and other civilians around.”Two commanders outside talked. “What should we do?” one said. “Shoot him!” said the other.Moments passed, and the commander inside the building said: “There’s nobody here. We should attack.”
“Attack!” came the response from a commander outside.
About 60 shots were fired over the next 20 minutes. Finally, the last gunman was dead. But so, too, were two more civilians whose bodies were brought outside and laid on stretchers. Security officials later said two hostages were killed in the cross-fire as government forces killed the last gunman.All of the gunmen had worn suicide-bomb vests, but none of the vests had detonated. The government forces had defused and stripped them from the bodies, which bore large gashes and bullet holes, or had arms ripped partly from shattered shoulders.As security forces fought to take back control of the Justice Ministry, a single Taliban suicide bomber was killed as he tried to attack the Education Ministry.Across town, two more Taliban bombers killed and wounded more people at the Prisons Department. One bomber blew himself up at a security checkpoint in front of the prisons building, while witnesses said the other bomber used the distraction to run inside.Gholam Farouk Wafa, a 35-year-old policeman, said he was attending a training class inside with 60 other policemen when they saw a clean-shaven man with a large backpack come to the door. One of the policemen fired two shots at him, and the man fled upstairs, where he detonated his bomb, Mr. Wafa said.Reporting was contributed by Lynsey Addario, Abdul Waheed Wafa and Sangar Rahimi from Kabul; Taimoor Shah from Kandahar, Afghanistan; David E. Sanger and Eric Schmitt from Washington; and Mark McDonald from Hong Kong.

Turkey condemns attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan

ANKARA, Feb. 12-- Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that Turkey harshly condemned the heinous attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Turkey strongly condemns the terrorist attacks in Afghan capital city of Kabul and Pakistani city of Peshawar, those attacks harmed regional peace, security and stability," said a statement posted on the ministry's website."The attacks once more indicated the heinous face of terrorism," it added.The statement said that Turkey was following the developments in Kabul with concern. It also expressed sorrow over death of a Pakistani lawmaker, Alam Zeb Khan, in the Peshawar attack.The statement also said Turkey attached vital importance to efficient international cooperation and solidarity in fighting against terrorism and it would continue to support efforts aimed to restore regional peace and stability.A bomb killed a lawmaker and wounded six others Wednesday in Peshawar.On the same day, eight Taliban gunmen attacked three Afghan government buildings in a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul.

Suicide Attackers Storm Kabul Offices, Killing 19

KABUL, Afghanistan — Attackers firing automatic rifles and wearing explosive vests stormed the Justice Ministry in central Kabul on Wednesday while others burst into another government building in the north of the city, triggering chaos as ministry workers fled, witnesses said.

At least 19 people were killed and 54 wounded in the coordinated attacks, the ministry of public health said. Eight attackers also died, the authorities said. The Taliban took responsibility for the assaults.

Coming on the eve of a scheduled visit by Richard C. Holbrooke, President’s Obama’s newly appointed special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, the attacks displayed the apparent ease with which Taliban insurgents who control much of the Afghan countryside can also breach the defenses of the heavily-fortified capital.

That, in turn, underlined the severity of the challenge facing American policy-makers who have declared the war in Afghanistan a high priority for the new administration in Washington and who plan to almost double American troops levels with the deployment of some 30,000 additional soldiers.

In one incident on Wednesday, assailants stormed into the Justice Ministry in central Kabul. In another at around the same time, suicide bombers blew themselves up at the ministry’s corrections department in northern Kabul, according to Gen. Mohammad Arif, a senior officer in the prisons service.

The Taliban claimed that several other suicide bombers may still be at large in the city.

Police officials said five gunmen wearing suicide vests burst into the Justice Ministry, shot dead an official at the entrance and then spread out into the building. The police initially said all of them were killed by Afghan intelligence officers who entered the building in pursuit.

Hours after the attack, the police said they believed one assailant had been cornered in the ministry but security forces were unable to move in further because children were trapped at a kindergarten inside the building.

But, after a gun battle in which 60 shots were fired, the police said that the attacker had been killed.

By mid-morning in Kabul, the police said, explosives experts were trying to defuse the explosive vests on the bodies of dead attackers. In tallying the dead, it was nt immediately clear where the bulk of the killing had happened.

“There’s chaos on all four floors,” Habib Mushakhas, a senior ministry official, said after he was evacuated from the building. “I heard an explosion, then a firefight. There was a lot of blood in the corridors. I saw one dead body.”

At one point in the melée, Justice Minister Sarwar Danesh told The Associated Press by mobile telephone that he was holed up in the building, where a number of gunmen were also hiding.

“There is still fighting. They used grenades and AK-47s,” Mr. Danesh said. “There are workers still inside the building in their offices,” the A.P. reported.

At around the same time as the assault on the ministry, gunmen attacked the Justice Ministry’s corrections department in northern Kabul, the authorities said.

“Suicide bombers armed with assault rifles tried to storm inside the building but faced resistance from our security guards,” General Arif, the senior prisons department officer, said. “One of the suicide bombers succeeded to enter the ground floor and blew himself up in the lobby, where we are teaching police officers. The other suicide bomber blew himself up outside the building.”

Sabawoon Gulzay, 22, a student who witnessed the attack, said he saw two people with assault rifles attacking security guards at the government building.

“I was very afraid,” he said. He ran back into his house and heard two loud explosions which shattered all the windows of his home.

Zabiullah Mujaheed, a Taliban spokesman, said the militants sent 16 suicide attackers into Kabul and five of them entered the Justice Ministry. The whereabouts of the others was not immediately clear. “Five of them entered the ministry and the others are around Kabul,” the spokesman said.

Beheading of Polish engineer.......A SAD NEWS !!!!

This video is from youtube.com,I am not sure if its reaaly him,but its very sad and I offer my condolences to his family in Poland,Readers comments are welcome on this story.This is regarding recent beheading of a Polish engineer! This is so shocking and disappointing for Pakistan and Pakistanis. I on behalf of my country want to console the grieved family of Polish engineer. I want to appeal to the government of Pakistan to catch hold of these terrorists who not only involve in henious crimes but also defaming Pakistan and Islam. I am, sometimes, amazed that some of our people say that negotiations may be done with such people. How come negotiations can be done with such criminals. The government should first establish its writ over areas under control of Taliban who have approximately captured 12,000 sq km. These terrorists are to be handled with iron hand and to crush like Sri Lankan forces crushed Tamil Tigers. By doing this the terrorists are defaming Pakistan. Polish company has already left Pakistan and again no Polish company will visit this country as they have such terrible experience. No foreign country will like to invest in Pakistan again as what we do to our guests. Similarly what our people did it with UNHCR representative who was here to help earthquake affected people of Balochistan. Will ever UN send his representative to Pakistan again! I am sure if people of Pakistan do not take a united stand against Taliban we are heading for self destruction.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- Pakistani authorities have not confirmed that a kidnapped Polish engineer is the man that was beheaded on a Taliban video, despite assertions from Polish officials that they are certain the man is Piotr Stanczak.
"We want to be absolutely sure," said Abdual Basit, a spokesman for Pakistan's foreign office."Hopefully we would be able to confirm it shortly, but unless we are 100 percent sure, it would be premature for us to react."He noted that the Pakistani government is waiting to be informed by "concerned authorities."News of Stanczak's death came on Friday. Polish officials have said they were kept in the dark during negotiations for his release, but Basit denied that.Stanczak was kidnapped September 28 from the city of Attock in the Punjab province. He had been based there for a Polish survey company searching for natural gas.Polish embassy spokesman Peter Adams said there had been no demands for ransom. The Taliban had demanded the release of Taliban prisoners being held by the government and a pullout of government security forces from the tribal areas.Adams said all efforts had been made by Polish authorities to pressure the Pakistani government to do whatever it could to secure Stanczak's release."From the Polish side we did whatever we could, pressuring the Pakistani government on the presidential and prime minister level," Adams said. "Problem was, this was solely Pakistan's responsibility. Demands were only towards (the) Pakistan government."While there were assurances that the Pakistani government was doing everything it could and that Stanczak would be freed soon, Adams said it was never clear what the government was actually doing to secure his release."We are waiting for confirmation and waiting for any answer (about) how this happened and why did this happen," Adams said.Kidnappings and attacks against foreigners have risen sharply in recent months throughout the country. Most recently, an American working for the United Nations was kidnapped in Quetta, and Peshawar has also been the scene of various attacks against foreign diplomats and journalists.

Poland condemns killing of citizen in Pakistan

WORLD COMMUNITY MUST TAKE ACTION ON THESE SHAMEFUL CRIMES BY IGNORANT RELIGIOUS FANATICS,TALIBAN.
Pakistan — Poland condemned as "bestial" the apparent beheading of one its citizens by Pakistani militants, a killing that underscored the challenges facing a new U.S. envoy who arrived in the region Monday to try to stem the terror threat.
Pakistan has witnessed several attacks on foreigners in recent months as its overall security has deteriorated amid a growing al-Qaida and Taliban-led insurgency that is also destabilizing neighboring Afghanistan. In early February, an American U.N. worker was abducted in the southwestern city of Quetta, purportedly by separatists.
The Polish hostage, Piotr Stanczak, was abducted close to the Afghan border on Sept. 28 by armed men.On Sunday, the Taliban released to local and foreign media organizations a seven-minute video of him apparently being beheaded. A man on the film says Stanczak was killed because the Pakistan government refused to exchange him for Taliban prisoners.If confirmed, Stanczak's death would apparently be the first killing of a Western hostage in Pakistan since U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl was beheaded in 2002.Polish security services minister Jacek Cichocki said Monday in Poland that in his opinion "that is the Pole and the film is authentic," adding final confirmation would have to wait until diplomatic and consular services receive the body.Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said the video showed a "bestial execution" and that he would try to ensure the killers were punished.Stanczak was surveying oil and gas fields for Geofizyka Krakow, a Polish geophysics institute."We believed the whole time, even up to the last minute, that the kidnapping affair would end well. Now, we know that's not the case," Leopold Sulkowski, president of the institute, told reporters in Krakow, Poland."At this sad and tragic moment, we can't find clear or strong enough words to condemn the monstrous and criminal act."The video was given to an Associated Press reporter Sunday in northwestern Pakistan on a flash drive by an intermediary who said he obtained it from the Taliban. The AP has elected not to distribute the images. Other international media also reported receiving or viewing footage of the killing.Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman Shahidullah Baig said Sunday the government was investigating the existence of the video. He did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.Violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan has soared since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001. Many militants fled across the border to Pakistan, establishing bases and continuing to attack U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.President Barack Obama has made resolving the Afghan war a key focus of his foreign policy, appointing diplomat Richard Holbrooke as a special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan.Holbrooke, who was the White House envoy to the Balkans in the Kosovo conflict, arrived in Pakistan late Monday on a trip that is also scheduled to take him to Afghanistan and India."The United States looks forward to reviewing our policies and renewing our commitment and friendship with the people of Pakistan," he said in a statement. He is scheduled to stay in the country until Thursday, according to the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.The State Department has described the visit as a listening tour to help form the basis of future American policy decisions in the region.
At a security conference in Germany over the weekend, Holbrooke described the Afghan campaign as "one theater of war straddling an ill-defined border.""We have to think of it that way and not distinguish between the two," he said.Also Monday, at least 14 people died and six others were wounded when mortar shells hit a house twice in the Darra Adam Khel area, a local government official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.It was unclear who fired the shells, but the second landed as people gathered to help those struck by the first.
Darra Adam Khel lies just outside the semiautonomous tribal regions, where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have long had strongholds.

Taliban's darkness descends on Swat Valley

Article from: The Australian
"GUL Makai" finished the Seventh Grade at her private school in Pakistan's Swat Valley last December. But the holidays brought little joy for the young Afghan, her friends or family.In a diary that she writes under a pen name for the BBC's Urdu service she documents the miseries of life in the former tourist mecca, whose mountains have become a stronghold of militant Islamists."Our parents are very scared," she writes in one entry. "They told us they would not send us to school until or unless the Taliban themselves announce on the FM channel that girls can go to school."Just 160km from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, the picturesque valley - once famed for its cosmopolitan ski resort and liberal, artistic community - has become a symbol of the Pakistani Government's inability to crack down on a jihadist movement that is threatening to destabilise the country.Almost daily, residents in Mingora, the only major town in Swat, find four to five headless bodies on the streets, victims of the Taliban.Responsible for the reign of terror is radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, a Talibani leader known as Radio Mullah for his fiery sermons broadcast nightly via a pirate FM radio frequency.Fazlullah stepped up his campaign in Swat after November's Mumbai attacks when Pakistan redeployed troops to the border with India. In just a few months he is said to have increased his area of control from less than a third to more than 80 per cent of the 9000sqkm area.In December, he announced all education for girls would cease by January 15 - when private schools were due to reopen - prompting Pakistani newspaper The News to editorialise: "The beautiful valley now enters a time of darkness."The number of schools blown up or torched stands at 181, and militants have blown up power grids, bridges, gas lines and hotels.Last week, Fazlullah demanded 40 provincial ministers and local government officials appear before a Taliban court to answer charges of causing unrest in the area, or face death.Kamran Bokhari, senior South Asia analyst with US-based global intelligence company Stratfor, says Swat now represents a "red line" for the Pakistani Government.Bokhari says the Taliban and al-Qa'ida have long had strongholds in the neighbouring Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a special autonomous zone along the Afghan border, but Swat is in the heart of the North Western Frontier Province and "very much part of Pakistan"."Swat is extremely important because if it does completely fall to the militants, or the army is unable to re-establish the writ of the state, then that would be the first district in Pakistan proper to fall," he told The Australian.The US views Swat as the most dangerous of the militant strongholds because its terror camps feed into the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan - the Western coalition's main front in the war on terror.Pakistani Interior Affairs Minister Rehman Malik told the Senate last week that the organisations behind the trouble in the valley included al-Qa'ida, Tehrik-i-Taliban, Tanzeem-i-Islami, Tora Bora and Qari Mushtaq.Swat is likely to be at the top of Richard Holbrooke's agenda this week when he meets Pakistani leaders in Islamabad on his first visit as the US's special envoy to South Asia.While the Government has been fighting Fazlullah's insurgency since 2007, many believe the strife in the region might have been averted far earlier had former president Pervez Musharraf shut down the cleric's broadcasts, which tapped into local frustration with corruption and the judicial system."Absolutely everyone listens to the daily radio broadcasts, because they don't know if a rival has made an accusation that puts them on the list," a Mingora resident widowed by the Taliban told local media."It gives them an opportunity to present their side of the case to the Taliban, and be acquitted in the following day's broadcast."The military has made little headway and has alienated many residents who suspect government troops of tipping off militants before attacks and accuse them of killing more civilians than militants.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani vowed last week that his Government would swiftly crush the insurgency. But he added that military action was not the only solution, suggesting negotiations with Fazlullah might still be an option."You can't imagine how bad it is," Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal politician whose home in Swat was bombed in December, said of the security situation. "It's worse day by day."Haji Adeel, a senator and senior ANP leader, told Dawn television that security was so dire that "no governor, chief minister or the Prime Minister can venture to go there".Those with the means have already relocated to Islamabad or Peshawar. Up to a third of the Swat's 1.5 million population are said to have fled - and the region's poorest residents began flooding out last week after the Government opened two relief camps around Mingora.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs projected last week that the situation in Swat and FATA tribal areas could significantly worsen over the next 12 months, displacing a further 625,000 people.

Taliban's darkness descends on Swat Valley

Article from: The Australian
"GUL Makai" finished the Seventh Grade at her private school in Pakistan's Swat Valley last December. But the holidays brought little joy for the young Afghan, her friends or family.In a diary that she writes under a pen name for the BBC's Urdu service she documents the miseries of life in the former tourist mecca, whose mountains have become a stronghold of militant Islamists."Our parents are very scared," she writes in one entry. "They told us they would not send us to school until or unless the Taliban themselves announce on the FM channel that girls can go to school."Just 160km from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, the picturesque valley - once famed for its cosmopolitan ski resort and liberal, artistic community - has become a symbol of the Pakistani Government's inability to crack down on a jihadist movement that is threatening to destabilise the country.Almost daily, residents in Mingora, the only major town in Swat, find four to five headless bodies on the streets, victims of the Taliban.Responsible for the reign of terror is radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, a Talibani leader known as Radio Mullah for his fiery sermons broadcast nightly via a pirate FM radio frequency.Fazlullah stepped up his campaign in Swat after November's Mumbai attacks when Pakistan redeployed troops to the border with India. In just a few months he is said to have increased his area of control from less than a third to more than 80 per cent of the 9000sqkm area.In December, he announced all education for girls would cease by January 15 - when private schools were due to reopen - prompting Pakistani newspaper The News to editorialise: "The beautiful valley now enters a time of darkness."The number of schools blown up or torched stands at 181, and militants have blown up power grids, bridges, gas lines and hotels.Last week, Fazlullah demanded 40 provincial ministers and local government officials appear before a Taliban court to answer charges of causing unrest in the area, or face death.Kamran Bokhari, senior South Asia analyst with US-based global intelligence company Stratfor, says Swat now represents a "red line" for the Pakistani Government.Bokhari says the Taliban and al-Qa'ida have long had strongholds in the neighbouring Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a special autonomous zone along the Afghan border, but Swat is in the heart of the North Western Frontier Province and "very much part of Pakistan"."Swat is extremely important because if it does completely fall to the militants, or the army is unable to re-establish the writ of the state, then that would be the first district in Pakistan proper to fall," he told The Australian.The US views Swat as the most dangerous of the militant strongholds because its terror camps feed into the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan - the Western coalition's main front in the war on terror.Pakistani Interior Affairs Minister Rehman Malik told the Senate last week that the organisations behind the trouble in the valley included al-Qa'ida, Tehrik-i-Taliban, Tanzeem-i-Islami, Tora Bora and Qari Mushtaq.Swat is likely to be at the top of Richard Holbrooke's agenda this week when he meets Pakistani leaders in Islamabad on his first visit as the US's special envoy to South Asia.While the Government has been fighting Fazlullah's insurgency since 2007, many believe the strife in the region might have been averted far earlier had former president Pervez Musharraf shut down the cleric's broadcasts, which tapped into local frustration with corruption and the judicial system."Absolutely everyone listens to the daily radio broadcasts, because they don't know if a rival has made an accusation that puts them on the list," a Mingora resident widowed by the Taliban told local media."It gives them an opportunity to present their side of the case to the Taliban, and be acquitted in the following day's broadcast."The military has made little headway and has alienated many residents who suspect government troops of tipping off militants before attacks and accuse them of killing more civilians than militants.Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani vowed last week that his Government would swiftly crush the insurgency. But he added that military action was not the only solution, suggesting negotiations with Fazlullah might still be an option."You can't imagine how bad it is," Muzaffar ul-Mulk, a federal politician whose home in Swat was bombed in December, said of the security situation. "It's worse day by day."Haji Adeel, a senator and senior ANP leader, told Dawn television that security was so dire that "no governor, chief minister or the Prime Minister can venture to go there".Those with the means have already relocated to Islamabad or Peshawar. Up to a third of the Swat's 1.5 million population are said to have fled - and the region's poorest residents began flooding out last week after the Government opened two relief camps around Mingora.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs projected last week that the situation in Swat and FATA tribal areas could significantly worsen over the next 12 months, displacing a further 625,000 people.

Barack Obama envoy Richard Holbrooke warns of 'a new Iraq' as he heads to Pakistan

President Obama’s special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan hit out at previous US policy in the region yesterday as he embarked on his first tour of South Asia in his new job.“I have never seen anything like the mess we have inherited,” Richard Holbrooke said at a security conference in Munich that was also attended by top Afghan, Pakistani and Indian officials. “It is like no other problem we have confronted, and in my view it’s going to be much tougher than Iraq,” he added.
The 67-year-old former ambassador to the UN arrives in Pakistan this morning, and will head for Afghanistan on Thursday and India next Monday on a mission to overhaul US policy in the region. Mr Holbrooke has a reputation as a hard-nosed negotiator, best known for brokering the Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995.However, he has little experience of South Asia’s political minefields, few personal contacts in the region and no guarantee that his interlocutors will even be in power for much longer. President Zardari of Pakistan is chronically weak, with only nominal control of the army. President Karzai of Afghanistan looks increasingly unpopular at home and abroad ahead of presidential elections in August. India also faces national elections by May and Manmohan Singh, its 76-year-old Prime Minister, is recuperating at home after a heart bypass.Relations between all three countries are especially fraught because India blames Pakistani spies for the attacks on Mumbai in November as well as the bombing of its embassy in Kabul in July. Mr Holbrooke’s visit to Afghanistan will be overshadowed by recent criticism of President Karzai in Washington and rumours that President Obama is looking for a replacement. Mr Karzai will try to deflect US criticism by accusing Pakistan of allowing al-Qaeda and the Taleban to shelter in its northern tribal areas.“We know today what we seemed to neglect for several years – that terrorism did not emanate from Afghanistan’s villages and people; that there were sanctuaries outside our borders where terrorism might be defeated,” Mr Karzai told the conference.

EU condemns execution of Polish engineer in Pakistan

BRUSSELS-- The European Union (EU) on Monday condemned the execution of a Polish engineer, who was kidnapped in Pakistan by Taliban militants in September 2008. Both EU foreign and security policy chief Javier Solana and EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said they were shocked by the death of Piotr Stanczak, who worked as an engineer geologist. "Solana condemns this heinous crime, which highlights the extremely dangerous and unstable situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and wishes to express his solidarity with Mr. Stanczak's relatives and the Polish government," Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach said. Ferrero-Waldner said: "The perpetrators of this appalling terrorist crime must be pursued and brought to justice. I condemn in the strongest possible terms this despicable act of violence which cannot be justified under any circumstances." She said the EU remains steadfast in its support for strengthening the institutions of the Pakistani state, and is ready to support all efforts to reinforce stability in the country.A video distributed to news organizations showed Stanczak was apparently beheaded by his kidnappers.

Pakistan identified as biggest foreign policy test

Pakistani soldiers target militant positions in the tribal region, an increasing threat to the country's new and fragile democracy. Washington's newly appointed special envoy is due to arrive in Islamabad today, as Barack Obama's administration tackles what may turn out to be its greatest foreign policy challenge: a nuclear-armed country hurtling towards chaos.According to Obama's aides, Pakistan is the nation that really "scares" him. The country is threatened by a growing Islamist insurgency, economic collapse and a crisis of governance as it struggles to establish democratic rule. The Obama administration believes Pakistan is key to its objectives of pacifying Afghanistan and going after al-Qaida and has appointed a pugnacious diplomatic troubleshooter, Richard Holbrooke, as a special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan."We often call this situation Afpak," said Holbrooke at a conference in Munich yesterday, before flying to Islamabad. "There will be more focus on Pakistan," he said. "A new and fragile democracy has emerged ... but the situation in Pakistan requires attention and sympathy."Leaks of a US military review, conducted under David Petraeus, the American general in charge of the region, say he has concluded that Pakistan, not Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran, is the most urgent foreign policy issue facing Obama.Pakistan is al-Qaida's headquarters, while its tribal territory, which runs along the Afghan border, is used by the Taliban to launch attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan. Some Pakistani extremists who previously focused on Afghanistan, have now turned inwards, spawning a vicious Pakistani Taliban movement which challenges the writ of the state. Obama warned in a television interview this month that the spillover of the war in Afghanistan risks "destabilising neighbouring Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons".The security situation in Pakistan seems to deteriorate daily. Last week's headlines, for instance, included: a bombing of a religious procession in the central town of Dera Ghazi Khan, which claimed at least 27 lives; government helicopter gunship attacks that killed 52 militants in the Khyber area of the tribal region; the kidnapping of a senior UN official by gunmen; and the beheading of a Polish engineer who was abducted five months ago. A videotape of the execution was released last night by his captors.
A year ago democracy was restored after eight years of military rule but many believe the government is in a state of paralysis, as an unwieldy coalition and a cabinet of about 70 ministers jockey for position - ever wary of the army, which has ruled Pakistan for most of its existence. Government decision-making is concentrated in the hands of President Asif Zardari, creating a log-jam, critics say."Yes, we have a million problems. We had lots of inherited issues and perhaps a slowness to get the government off the ground," said Farahnaz Ispahani, a member of parliament for the Pakistan People's party, which leads the coalition. "But I do feel that we're slowly and gradually moving towards better governance."However, the government has been unable to forge a political consensus on the fight against terrorism, with opinion divided between political parties, who favour military action against the extremists and those who want to negotiate, even within the ruling coalition.As a result, no clear direction has been given to the army. In tandem with the security crisis, the economy, which was saved from bankruptcy late last year by an IMF loan, is plagued by inflation and a collapse in economic activity."The civilian leadership is weak and fearful of the inevitable in Pakistan, that it oversteps the mark and runs the risk of being removed [by the army]," said Rashed Rahman, a political analyst based in Lahore. "It's a non-functional government."The army has repeatedly shown that it will not bow to civilians on national security, refusing a government order last year, for instance, to place the top spy agency, the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence, under government control.Armed extremists appear to be able to spread unchecked, with a Taliban-style mini-state now existing 100 miles from Islamabad, in Swat valley. Many Pakistanis are asking whether the country's armed forces are unable or unwilling to take on the jihadists, who are rapidly pushing their influence out from their base in the tribal area."We always say that we have one of the most powerful armies, yet how come we cannot even cut off the supply routes [for the militants] in Swat?" said Bushra Gohar, a member of parliament for the Awami National party, part of the ruling coalition. "We are patronising terror. The training camps and safe havens are still there. This has to stop."The top priority for Washington will be getting Pakistan to take more concerted military action in the tribal territory. The Obama administration is promising more non-military aid, with a plan to triple social and economic assistance to $1.5bn a year.Western diplomats believe the military's top brass, including army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and head of the ISI, Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, are committed to fighting the extremists, but that there are problems further down the ranks.The deep confusion in Pakistan also envelops the role of the US and other western powers, who many believe are secretly supporting the extremists, in order to destabilise Pakistan. And while most Pakistanis do not agree with the Taliban's methods, their message of enforcing Islam resonates.Mosharraf Zaidi, a columnist for The News, a Pakistani daily, said: "Nobody knows what to believe. There is no clarity in Pakistan about who's behind the extremists. For one group of people it's Raw [the Indian intelligence agency], for another group of people it's the CIA, for another group of people it's the ISI. In that scenario, the idea that there's political will in Pakistan to solve this is absurd. You can't have political will when you don't even know who the enemy is."

SWAT VALLEY....Headmaster flees a ‘living hell’

PESHAWAR: Sitting on a cold floor in a mud house on the outskirts of provincial capital, Akbar Ali fights back tears about getting his five children and pregnant wife out of "hell" in turbulent Swat valley.When extremists came to his village, his life as a respected local headmaster fell apart. Today he hears that Aligrama has become a ghost village, overrun by rebels and damaged by army shelling.The displaced say civilisation as they knew it has collapsed in the picturesque and historic valley.A lucrative tourist industry for Western and Pakistani holidaymakers after skiing and mountain hikes - decimated."The lives of ordinary people in violence-hit Swat get worse and worse. It's like living in hell. There's no trade. Nobody's safe. Militants rule most of the area and anybody who opposes them is killed," he said.
"Everything in Swat is destroyed, they are bombing schools, killing notables and targeting government employees."All women's institutions are closed. There is no entertainment, no CD or music shops, and most hairdressers are closed," he added.
Ali's nightmare began about 14 months ago when Taliban warned him to close the girls' section of his village school, the 41-year-old said."Masked militants armed with rocket launchers, small and heavy weapons started patrolling our village.
"First they told us to sack the female staff at school and then ordered us to close the female section or face the consequences," he told this news agency.
"So we were forced to shut the classes where some 135 female students were getting an education. This created panic among the boys and the number of students dropped from 435 to 125," he said.Six months ago, he fled Aligrama for nearby Mingora, the main town in the region. The militants closed in again, killing teachers and bombing schools, so he left restive Swat in January and followed five of his brothers to the city.Local residents say 41 families from troubled Swat are living in the village of Mosa Zai, on the outskirts of the provincial metropolis where Ali has found refuge.
Ordinary families renting houses or staying with relatives in the city - which has a population of 2.5 million people in addition to 1.7 million Afghan refugees, according to local authorities - say they were caught between the security forces and Taliban.Local officials said last week that 20,000 people had fled Swat recently. Witnesses talk about men, women and children walking down from the mountains in the freezing cold often with just the clothes on their backs.
"Ten people were killed in our village and dozens more wounded in fighting in recent months," Ali said."The Taliban killed an elected women councillor and her husband, and beheaded two others 'spying' for the government. Six people died in government shelling in various incidents."Every time there was fighting, there was a curfew but the victims were innocent civilians"."Almost the entire village has evacuated. Only those with nowhere to go have stayed," he said.People newly displaced here told Ali, the village had fallen to the militants and Taliban fighters were in control of five kilometres (three miles) of road heading to the towns of Kabal to Kanju.
He said anyone who opposes the militants is liquidated."Not even the police can protect us, police can't leave the police station, they're living like prisoners in police stations," he added.Local residents say the government has lost control of most if not the entire valley. Ali further said militants were demanding land tax and rents previously collected by local administration officials."We cannot trust either party as both - Taliban and the security forces - treat civilians as sub-human," Ahmad Gul, another resident from Aligrama said.As a man, Ali said he would have been happy to face death, but that he had to keep his wife and children from danger.Here, his wife gave birth to her sixth baby, a healthy girl, and he was just happy that mother and children were safe and well."We have suffered enough. Every family in Swat has buried loved ones and the death toll is still rising

UN begins relief work for people from Swat

The United Nations (UN) relief organisations have begun their relief activities for the people affected by the ongoing military operation in Swat, a private TV channel reported on Sunday. The details released by the UN said its relief subsidiaries, the WHO, the UNHCR, the WFP and UNICEF were sending relief goods to Swat. Twelve trucks carrying food, medicine, tents and other essential items have arrived in Mingora from Peshawar, the channel added. The UN coordinator in Pakistan said half of the population in Swat had been affected by the military operation and people had deserted their homes and were living in camps. daily times monitor

Two Taliban Are Killed in Revenge by Afghans

THATS GREAT STORY,KILL THOSE IGNORANT TALIBAN WHO ARE INVOLE IN KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE,ALL PEACE LOVING PEOPLE IN AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN SHOULD UNITE AND CRUSH THOSE IGNORANT RELIGIOUS FANATICS...Mwaqar
KABUL, Afghanistan — On Saturday, something typical happened in eastern Afghanistan: Two Taliban guerrillas assassinated a top local politician.But on Sunday, something very unusual occurred, according to witnesses and Afghan intelligence officials.
Hundreds of people from around the district of Dara-e-Noor joined with the local police to corner the Taliban assassins. A firefight broke out. Eventually the wounded Taliban were captured. But instead of turning them over to the authorities, the villagers trussed the men to a tree and punched and kicked them to death.
Revenge killings are not unusual in Afghanistan; when the Taliban executed accused murderers in Kabul before the American invasion they would shout, “In revenge, there is life!”But such killings against the feared Taliban are relatively rare. The episode in Dara-e-Noor represented an uncommon response from local villagers, one motivated at least in part by an angry fear that Afghanistan’s deeply corrupt judicial system would turn the killers loose.The mob dragged the wounded assassins away from their hideout and made quick work of them, Hassan Khan, a local tribal elder, said in a telephone interview. “The people punched them with their fists and kicked them with their legs and whatever they had in their hand” until they were dead, he said.“The people were very angry and upset because of the atrocious actions” of the killers, Mr. Khan said. “So when people get angry, no one can stop them.”
Conditions may have been ripe for such an unusual reprisal, some in the community said. The politician who was assassinated, Qazi Khan Mohammed, the secretary of the Nangarhar Provincial Council, was a highly respected local leader. And the region around Dara-e-Noor has always been home to people loyal to a powerful anti-Taliban commander named Hazrat Ali.Moreover, it was not only villagers who appeared to rejoice in the killing of the assassins. The Afghan intelligence service issued a statement on Sunday that almost seemed to endorse the revenge killing, which, however popular in Dara-e-Noor, was contrary to the rule of Afghan law.“Such action, and the rapid decision by people against the criminals, shows the hatred and anger against the Taliban and terrorists,” the statement said. ( Its account also varied slightly from that of the villagers and the police, saying that one attacker was killed by the provincial secretary’s bodyguards on Saturday and that the other assassin was arrested but then killed on the orders of tribal elders.)It may not have been such a surprise that the Afghan intelligence service would highlight an illegal, extrajudicial killing. Three months ago the head of the service, Amrullah Saleh, appeared on national television and criticized the judicial system as freeing kidnappers and other criminals.While local vigilantes had the upper hand in Dara-e-Noor, the Taliban took credit for a deadly attack at the other end of Afghanistan, in restive, opium-dominated Helmand Province.There, two American servicemen were killed Sunday by a two-stage roadside bomb, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman. He said the Taliban had structured the bomb in such a way as to make whoever defused the smaller charge on top of the device think the danger had passed.
In reality, said the governor’s spokesman, Dawood Ahmadi, a much larger explosive was hidden beneath. As the men tinkered with what they believed was an already defused bomb, the much larger bomb on the bottom exploded, killing the two Americans, both advisers to the Afghan police, Mr. Ahmadi said. An Afghan policeman was also killed, while an interpreter and two other police officers — one of them the acting district chief — were wounded, he said.Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, said the Taliban were behind the blast, which he described as a trick device. “We will carry out more attacks against NATO and Afghan forces all over Afghanistan in the future,” he said.An American military statement said only that “two coalition service members” were killed in the blast, along with an Afghan national policeman and an Afghan civilian.

Afghan leader cites cross-border terror as major threat, praises better ties with Pakistan

MUNICH - Afghan President Hamid Karzai called cross-border terrorism one of the greatest threats confronting his country and said improved ties with Pakistan were helping to combat the problem.

Speaking Sunday to a gathering of world leaders and top security officials, Karzai praised new U.S. administration's more regional approach to fighting terror and welcomed President Barack Obama's appointment of Richard Holbrooke as a special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Security can ... not come to Afghanistan, or to the region, or to the international community without better coordination with our neighbors," Karzai said.

He also repeated his call to integrate moderate Taliban back into Afghan society, inviting them to participate in fall elections.

"We will invite all of those Taliban who are not part of al-Qaida, who are not part of terrorist networks, who want to return to their country, who want to live by the constitution of Afghanistan, who want to have a normal life, to come back to their country," Karzai said.

For his part, Holbrooke described the Afghan campaign as "one theater of war straddling an ill-defined border."

"We have to think of it that way and not distinguish between the two," he said.

Violence in both Pakistan and Afghanistan has risen steadily since U.S.-led forces drove the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in 2001. Many militants fled to Pakistan's border regions, where they have established bases and continue to attack U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's new government, elected last year, appears keener to crack down on Taliban bases on its side of the border used by extremists — a commitment welcomed by both Afghanistan and the United States.

The extremists are also blamed for a surge in suicide attacks on Western, government and military targets within Pakistan, including last year's devastating blast at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

"Our neighbors are suffering with us," Karzai said, citing the November terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, as well as the violence in Pakistan.

But, he said Afghanistan's diplomatic ties with its neighbors are getting stronger.

"There is greater understanding with Afghanistan and its neighbors in the region," Karzai said, a message reinforced by Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Quershi, who spoke of a "new era of understanding and cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan."

Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, said that was news he was "very happy" to hear.

"Working relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan ... have to be effective if we're going to solve this problem," Jones said. "We've learned over time that problems in Afghanistan are not just uniquely confined to one country — it's a regional problem set."

The U.S. has been pushing for allies to send more troops to the region — a theme struck forcefully at Sunday's closing session by British Defense Minister John Hutton.

"(NATO cannot) consistently ... look to the Americans for all the heavy lifting," he said, adding other alliance members "should be looking to do more."

"Combat roles right now are ... the most precious contribution to the campaign," he said. "We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions right now are of the same value."

But German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung stuck to Berlin's contention that there should be added focus on civil reconstruction.

"There will be no development without security, but without development we won't have security either," Jung said. "We won't win with military alone."

To this end, he said Germany was increasing its commitment to train Afghan police forces and was stepping up reconstruction aid.

Jung said Germany thought the number of troops in Afghanistan was sufficient, given NATO's roughly 55,000 forces there and the fact that Washington was preparing to double American troops to about 60,000.

NATO's top official chastised European nations on Saturday for refusing to commit more troops to Afghanistan, in comments that appeared directed at Germany and France.

Taliban courts in Swat and Dir

Situation in Swat and Dir is dismal, as writ of the state is being challenged by the Taliban, who according to a press report, have set up their high court in Kabal, upper Swat. Harassed by the militants, people are taking their cases to the Taliban High Court (THC), and they are beheading people who defy the Taliban or try to leave the village and hanging the corpses from the lampposts to terrorize the people. This means that they are using people as human shield because if they leave the area, the security forces can pound and eliminate them. People of Swat being sick and tired of the situation staged a rally in Chakdara against the Taliban's expanding role in Dir. Like in other parts of the province, legal fraternity on Friday completely boycotted the court proceedings in Peshawar against the use of derogatory statements by Swat Taliban against lawyers in which Taliban had stated that lawyers should be killed and the courts in Swat closed down. Meanwhile, a meeting of the lawyers chaired by Peshawar High Court Bar Association President Abdul Latif Afridi was also held. He told the meeting that the lawyers were the most dignified community of the society and yet they receive threats. The Taliban have been emboldened by the support from some political parties and a section of the people. Qazi Hussain Ahmed of Jamaat-i-Islami and Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam have never condemned the actions of the militants who have been challenging the writ of the state, destroying girls' schools and barbers' shops. These leaders and leaders of Tehrik-e-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League-N have opposed every action against the militants and always ask the government to negotiate with the militants. But they never spell out the methodology and name the militants with whom the government should hold negotiations. Or if negotiations fail, what next should be done? In the past, central as well as provincial governments had signed agreement with the local Taliban but they are not willing to wean from enforcing their perception of sharea. They also insist they will cross the international Pak-Afghan border to help their Afghan brothers. But such acts have created problems for Pakistan, as international community suspects that Pakistan state has a hand in encouraging the militants. Leaders of the above political parties do not realise that army action is imperative when civil administration and police fail to control the situation, which is provided in the Constitution. They should understand that the 1973 Constitution was unanimously adopted by all hues and shades. There was consensus that no law can be made contrary to Islamic injunctions. If the above leaders and militants wish to change the Constitution they have to have two-third majority in the assemblies. Since Jamaat-i-Islami and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam do not see any possibility of having that majority they want to use the pressure of the militants to enforce their perception, which is at variance with the broad majority of the people of Pakistan. They should declare in no unequal terms if they want to bring about a change through peaceful or through violent means. The latter course is, however, fraught with dangers, and these politico-religious parties would get nothing out of it, as the militants would not accept their leadership. Anyhow, there is awareness among the people. Awami National Party (ANP) women Parliamentarians constituted a jirga to look after the affectees of Swat military operation in Swat and would visit the valley to meet with political leaders and displaced persons. Provincial leaders, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani should establish their camps in Swat to boost morale of the security forces and also convey the message to the militants that the nation is united against them.

U.S. soldiers killed while disabling bomb in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan-- Two U.S. soldiers were killed while trying to disable a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Sunday.The U.S. military said it is trying to gather more details about the incident.The soldiers were part of a convoy of coalition soldiers accompanying Gulab Mangal, the governor of Helmand province, to a village where he intended to talk to residents about alternatives to opium farming.The convoy came upon two bombs stacked on top of each other, said journalist Abdul Tawab Qureshi.When the soldiers tried to disable the bombs, the second one went off, he said. The blast also killed a translator and an Afghan police officer.Mohammed Nader, the police chief of the province's Nad Ali district, was critically wounded.Over the years, opium and heroin, both derivatives of the poppy, have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan.Though southern Afghanistan still provides about two-thirds of the world's opium and heroin, poppy cultivation has dropped by 20 percent to its lowest level since 2006.