KABUL – Hundreds of polling stations could be closed in Afghanistan's most violent regions, raising concerns that many ethnic Pashtuns will be unable to vote in next month's presidential elections. That could undermine the legitimacy of the election, cause turmoil and possibly deprive President Hamid Karzai of a first-round victory.
Afghan authorities plan to establish about 7,000 polling centers across the country for the Aug. 20 balloting. But security officials are unsure whether voting can take place in about 700 of them, said Noor Mohammad Noor, a spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission.
At least 500 will probably not open because of security fears, according to a Western official working on the elections. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to comment publicly on the process.
Nearly all those polling stations are located in Pashtun areas of the south and east where the Taliban insurgency is the strongest, the official said. Most are in the Pashtun provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Wardak and Ghazni.
Taliban spokesmen have called on Afghans not to vote in the election but have not explicitly threatened to attack polling stations.
A low turnout in Pashtun areas could cost Karzai support among his fellow Pashtuns, who tend to vote by ethnicity even though many of them are disenchanted with the president because of his ties to the Americans. Karzai's chief rival in the 39-candidate field, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, is popular in northern Tajik areas, which are more peaceful and more likely to have a strong turnout.
Karzai is widely assumed to be the front-runner but if he fails to win more than half the votes in the crowded field, he would face a runoff with the second-place finisher in October. Karzai could be vulnerable if his opponents rally around an alternative candidate in the runoff.
If Abdullah runs stronger than expected, Pashtuns may not accept the outcome. If Karzai claims a first-round victory, it is also uncertain that the Tajiks would believe the results were valid.
Abdullah is half Pashtun but is closely associated with the Tajiks because he was a top adviser to the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, a top Tajik commander. Massoud was assassinated by al-Qaida two days before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
With so much uncertainty, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, called the upcoming ballot "the most complicated elections I have seen."
About 17 million registered voters are eligible to vote for Afghanistan's next president and provincial council members. Even without the threat of violence, the logistics of setting up polling centers in an impoverished country of deserts, towering mountains, few roads and poor infrastructure are challenging.
Authorities plan to use 3,100 donkeys to ferry ballots to some of the country's most inaccessible regions that trucks and even helicopters cannot reach.
Eide said it "is not in the interest of anybody" that a "significant proportion of the population" is unable to vote so that "the result does not reflect the will of the Afghan people."
"It's important for all of us to see these elections reflect the will of the people," he said.
Interior Minister Hanif Atmar said some polling stations may have to be changed but pledged that Afghan security forces would be present at all voting sites.
Nevertheless, fears of violence are running high. On Tuesday, gunmen opened fire on a provincial campaign manager for Abdullah in eastern Afghanistan. The campaign manager was wounded and a driver was killed.
The attack occurred one day after the convoy of one of Karzai's vice presidential running mates, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, came under fire in northern Afghanistan. Fahim, the former commander of the Afghan alliance that ousted the Taliban in 2001, escaped injury but a cameraman working for his campaign was wounded.
Interior Ministry officials say there have been about 20 attacks against politicians or their aides in the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, the NATO-led force said an Afghan civilian was killed and five others wounded Tuesday after its troops clashed with insurgents in Zabul province in the south. It said six civilians were treated at a NATO base but one died.
The issue of civilian casualties has been a constant source of friction between Karzai and the U.S. military commanders. Soon after assuming command of NATO and U.S. forces last month, Gen. Stanley McChrystal ordered troops to limit the use of airstrikes to prevent civilian casualties.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Powell: Harvard scholar might have reacted quickly
WASHINGTON – Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was mildly critical Tuesday of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose angry response to a Cambridge, Mass., police officer touched off a national debate involving President Barack Obama.
Powell, interviewed by CNN's Larry King, criticized the way Gates dealt with Sgt. James Crowley, a white officer who responded to reports of a possible break-in by arresting the black professor at his home on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was soon dropped.
Gates "might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it," said Powell, one of the nation's most prominent African Americans.
"I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal," he said.
But, Powell said, Gates was just home from China and New York and "all he wanted to do was get to bed."
When asked about the incident at a news conference, Obama said the police acted stupidly. The president subsequently toned down his criticism but not his denunciation of racial profiling generally.
Powell said he was the target of racial profiling many times and he sometimes got mad.
On one such occasion, he said, he tried to meet someone at Reagan National Airport "and nobody thought I could be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy."
Asked how he dealt with the situation, Powell said "You just suck it up. What are you going to do?"
"There is no African American in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation," Powell said.
But, he said, "when you are faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him. I was taught that as a child.
"You don't argue with a police officer," Powell said.
Powell, interviewed by CNN's Larry King, criticized the way Gates dealt with Sgt. James Crowley, a white officer who responded to reports of a possible break-in by arresting the black professor at his home on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was soon dropped.
Gates "might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it," said Powell, one of the nation's most prominent African Americans.
"I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal," he said.
But, Powell said, Gates was just home from China and New York and "all he wanted to do was get to bed."
When asked about the incident at a news conference, Obama said the police acted stupidly. The president subsequently toned down his criticism but not his denunciation of racial profiling generally.
Powell said he was the target of racial profiling many times and he sometimes got mad.
On one such occasion, he said, he tried to meet someone at Reagan National Airport "and nobody thought I could be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy."
Asked how he dealt with the situation, Powell said "You just suck it up. What are you going to do?"
"There is no African American in this country who has not been exposed to this kind of situation," Powell said.
But, he said, "when you are faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him. I was taught that as a child.
"You don't argue with a police officer," Powell said.
Help sought for treatment of ailing boy
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=190408
PESHAWAR: Poor parents of a seven-year-old minor have appealed to the NWFP chief minister and the philanthropists for help in the medical treatment of their son. Shehzad, a daily wager, said doctors had recommended operation for the treatment of his son Faizan who is suffering from a back problem. He said due to abject poverty, he could not afford to pay Rs50,000 for the medical treatment of his son.
The resourceless person appealed to the provincial government and the philanthropists for help in the treatment of his minor son. The patient could be contacted on phone numbers 0333-9373364/0344-9112415/0332-5422491. The donations can be deposited in Account No 63566-7 in HBL Corporate Branch, Peshawar Cantt.
PESHAWAR: Poor parents of a seven-year-old minor have appealed to the NWFP chief minister and the philanthropists for help in the medical treatment of their son. Shehzad, a daily wager, said doctors had recommended operation for the treatment of his son Faizan who is suffering from a back problem. He said due to abject poverty, he could not afford to pay Rs50,000 for the medical treatment of his son.
The resourceless person appealed to the provincial government and the philanthropists for help in the treatment of his minor son. The patient could be contacted on phone numbers 0333-9373364/0344-9112415/0332-5422491. The donations can be deposited in Account No 63566-7 in HBL Corporate Branch, Peshawar Cantt.
Pakistan committed to combating terror
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is committed to combating terror in all forms and manifestation and this commitment flows out of its own conviction rather than any compulsion, Senate Chairman Farooq H Naik said on Tuesday. He was addressing a group of students from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan – currently on a two-week training programme under the auspices of the Heinrich Boll Stiftung Foundation of Germany – at the Parliament House. “The country has made laudable sacrifices in the global war on terror to make the world a more peaceful place to live in,” Naik said. He said the world must acknowledge Pakistan’s pioneering role in the war on terror. Despite a multitude of problems that it is facing, Pakistan’s commitment to combating terrorism remains strong. As a result of our efforts, the tide is turning and the terrorists are on the run, he added.
Donkeys, guns and trucks - elections Afghan-style
KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Almost as many donkeys as trucks will be used to take ballot papers to remote areas of Afghanistan for next month's presidential election, which the U.N. chief envoy said on Tuesday was the most complicated he'd ever seen.
U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide visited a massive warehouse in Kabul where Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) is making final preparations for the huge logistical task presented by the Aug. 20 presidential poll.
Afghanistan's 17 million-odd eligible voters will cast their ballots in some 7,000 voting centres or 28,500 smaller voting stations across Afghanistan's 34 provinces and 356 districts.
Many will be set up on mountainsides or by rivers in remote areas where the only access is on the backs of donkeys.
"I emphasise that these are the most complicated elections I have seen," Eide told reporters.
"I mentioned to you how inaccessible the country is, how challenging the whole logistical operation is, and also the fact that the country is a country in conflict," he said.
The election is being staged against the backdrop of increased violence across the country after thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched major operations in southern Helmand province this month. [ID:nLR336228] The Helmand operations are the first under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan. Washington is pouring in thousands more troops this year, in part to provide security for the election.
Security is the foremost concern, with attempts made on the lives of two candidates, including President Hamid Karzai's senior vice-presidential running mate, in the past week.
POOR SECURITY
Voter registration was conducted across Afghanistan late last year and early in 2009 except for five districts in Helmand, where poor security meant registration only began last week.
Eide said security was "an issue of concern" and that the IEC and security forces were in the final phases of planning.
"The aim is to make as much of the country as possible secure for elections to take place," Eide said.
Logistics in a country of vast deserts, and high, craggy mountains and valleys were almost as much of a challenge as running an election at the same time as a growing insurgency.
A fleet of 3,500 trucks will carry voting materials to the polling stations, as well as 3,000 donkeys "to get people to the most remote areas", Eide said.
Local and international observers have warned that poor security and rampant corruption mean widespread voter fraud in either registration or the casting of ballots could be possible, but Eide said everything possible was being done to avoid that.
Voters will have their fingers inked before casting ballots. There were complaints in the last election in 2004 that the ink could be rubbed off easily but Eide said that had been addressed.
"I challenge you to try and find a material that will take the ink away without taking my finger away," Eide said.
President Hamid Karzai, seeking re-election after winning Afghanistan's first direct elections in 2004, is a clear front-runner in a field of 38 challengers.
He was widely criticised for pulling out of the first televised debate of the campaign last week against his two main rivals, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.
"It has not been perfect but it has been a good and informative campaign so far ... and I hope that that will encourage the Afghan people to come out and vote," Eide said.
"I think it's been a quite vibrant debate where the candidates have, as we urged them to, behaved with dignity."Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:31am EDT
(For full coverage on Afghanistan, double click on [ID:nAFPAK])
By Paul Tait
KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Almost as many donkeys as trucks will be used to take ballot papers to remote areas of Afghanistan for next month's presidential election, which the U.N. chief envoy said on Tuesday was the most complicated he'd ever seen.
U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide visited a massive warehouse in Kabul where Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) is making final preparations for the huge logistical task presented by the Aug. 20 presidential poll.
Afghanistan's 17 million-odd eligible voters will cast their ballots in some 7,000 voting centres or 28,500 smaller voting stations across Afghanistan's 34 provinces and 356 districts.
Many will be set up on mountainsides or by rivers in remote areas where the only access is on the backs of donkeys.
"I emphasise that these are the most complicated elections I have seen," Eide told reporters.
"I mentioned to you how inaccessible the country is, how challenging the whole logistical operation is, and also the fact that the country is a country in conflict," he said.
The election is being staged against the backdrop of increased violence across the country after thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched major operations in southern Helmand province this month. [ID:nLR336228] The Helmand operations are the first under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan. Washington is pouring in thousands more troops this year, in part to provide security for the election.
Security is the foremost concern, with attempts made on the lives of two candidates, including President Hamid Karzai's senior vice-presidential running mate, in the past week.
POOR SECURITY
Voter registration was conducted across Afghanistan late last year and early in 2009 except for five districts in Helmand, where poor security meant registration only began last week.
Eide said security was "an issue of concern" and that the IEC and security forces were in the final phases of planning.
"The aim is to make as much of the country as possible secure for elections to take place," Eide said.
Logistics in a country of vast deserts, and high, craggy mountains and valleys were almost as much of a challenge as running an election at the same time as a growing insurgency.
A fleet of 3,500 trucks will carry voting materials to the polling stations, as well as 3,000 donkeys "to get people to the most remote areas", Eide said.
Local and international observers have warned that poor security and rampant corruption mean widespread voter fraud in either registration or the casting of ballots could be possible, but Eide said everything possible was being done to avoid that.
Voters will have their fingers inked before casting ballots. There were complaints in the last election in 2004 that the ink could be rubbed off easily but Eide said that had been addressed.
"I challenge you to try and find a material that will take the ink away without taking my finger away," Eide said.
President Hamid Karzai, seeking re-election after winning Afghanistan's first direct elections in 2004, is a clear front-runner in a field of 38 challengers.
He was widely criticised for pulling out of the first televised debate of the campaign last week against his two main rivals, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.
"It has not been perfect but it has been a good and informative campaign so far ... and I hope that that will encourage the Afghan people to come out and vote," Eide said.
"I think it's been a quite vibrant debate where the candidates have, as we urged them to, behaved with dignity."
U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide visited a massive warehouse in Kabul where Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) is making final preparations for the huge logistical task presented by the Aug. 20 presidential poll.
Afghanistan's 17 million-odd eligible voters will cast their ballots in some 7,000 voting centres or 28,500 smaller voting stations across Afghanistan's 34 provinces and 356 districts.
Many will be set up on mountainsides or by rivers in remote areas where the only access is on the backs of donkeys.
"I emphasise that these are the most complicated elections I have seen," Eide told reporters.
"I mentioned to you how inaccessible the country is, how challenging the whole logistical operation is, and also the fact that the country is a country in conflict," he said.
The election is being staged against the backdrop of increased violence across the country after thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched major operations in southern Helmand province this month. [ID:nLR336228] The Helmand operations are the first under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan. Washington is pouring in thousands more troops this year, in part to provide security for the election.
Security is the foremost concern, with attempts made on the lives of two candidates, including President Hamid Karzai's senior vice-presidential running mate, in the past week.
POOR SECURITY
Voter registration was conducted across Afghanistan late last year and early in 2009 except for five districts in Helmand, where poor security meant registration only began last week.
Eide said security was "an issue of concern" and that the IEC and security forces were in the final phases of planning.
"The aim is to make as much of the country as possible secure for elections to take place," Eide said.
Logistics in a country of vast deserts, and high, craggy mountains and valleys were almost as much of a challenge as running an election at the same time as a growing insurgency.
A fleet of 3,500 trucks will carry voting materials to the polling stations, as well as 3,000 donkeys "to get people to the most remote areas", Eide said.
Local and international observers have warned that poor security and rampant corruption mean widespread voter fraud in either registration or the casting of ballots could be possible, but Eide said everything possible was being done to avoid that.
Voters will have their fingers inked before casting ballots. There were complaints in the last election in 2004 that the ink could be rubbed off easily but Eide said that had been addressed.
"I challenge you to try and find a material that will take the ink away without taking my finger away," Eide said.
President Hamid Karzai, seeking re-election after winning Afghanistan's first direct elections in 2004, is a clear front-runner in a field of 38 challengers.
He was widely criticised for pulling out of the first televised debate of the campaign last week against his two main rivals, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.
"It has not been perfect but it has been a good and informative campaign so far ... and I hope that that will encourage the Afghan people to come out and vote," Eide said.
"I think it's been a quite vibrant debate where the candidates have, as we urged them to, behaved with dignity."Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:31am EDT
(For full coverage on Afghanistan, double click on [ID:nAFPAK])
By Paul Tait
KABUL, July 28 (Reuters) - Almost as many donkeys as trucks will be used to take ballot papers to remote areas of Afghanistan for next month's presidential election, which the U.N. chief envoy said on Tuesday was the most complicated he'd ever seen.
U.N. Special Representative Kai Eide visited a massive warehouse in Kabul where Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) is making final preparations for the huge logistical task presented by the Aug. 20 presidential poll.
Afghanistan's 17 million-odd eligible voters will cast their ballots in some 7,000 voting centres or 28,500 smaller voting stations across Afghanistan's 34 provinces and 356 districts.
Many will be set up on mountainsides or by rivers in remote areas where the only access is on the backs of donkeys.
"I emphasise that these are the most complicated elections I have seen," Eide told reporters.
"I mentioned to you how inaccessible the country is, how challenging the whole logistical operation is, and also the fact that the country is a country in conflict," he said.
The election is being staged against the backdrop of increased violence across the country after thousands of U.S. Marines and British troops launched major operations in southern Helmand province this month. [ID:nLR336228] The Helmand operations are the first under U.S. President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan. Washington is pouring in thousands more troops this year, in part to provide security for the election.
Security is the foremost concern, with attempts made on the lives of two candidates, including President Hamid Karzai's senior vice-presidential running mate, in the past week.
POOR SECURITY
Voter registration was conducted across Afghanistan late last year and early in 2009 except for five districts in Helmand, where poor security meant registration only began last week.
Eide said security was "an issue of concern" and that the IEC and security forces were in the final phases of planning.
"The aim is to make as much of the country as possible secure for elections to take place," Eide said.
Logistics in a country of vast deserts, and high, craggy mountains and valleys were almost as much of a challenge as running an election at the same time as a growing insurgency.
A fleet of 3,500 trucks will carry voting materials to the polling stations, as well as 3,000 donkeys "to get people to the most remote areas", Eide said.
Local and international observers have warned that poor security and rampant corruption mean widespread voter fraud in either registration or the casting of ballots could be possible, but Eide said everything possible was being done to avoid that.
Voters will have their fingers inked before casting ballots. There were complaints in the last election in 2004 that the ink could be rubbed off easily but Eide said that had been addressed.
"I challenge you to try and find a material that will take the ink away without taking my finger away," Eide said.
President Hamid Karzai, seeking re-election after winning Afghanistan's first direct elections in 2004, is a clear front-runner in a field of 38 challengers.
He was widely criticised for pulling out of the first televised debate of the campaign last week against his two main rivals, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and former finance minister Ashraf Ghani.
"It has not been perfect but it has been a good and informative campaign so far ... and I hope that that will encourage the Afghan people to come out and vote," Eide said.
"I think it's been a quite vibrant debate where the candidates have, as we urged them to, behaved with dignity."
Beers will settle race row
www.timesonline.co.uk
President Obama will probably have a Bud, the police officer a Blue Moon and the professor a Red Stripe, as the protagonists at the heart of a national debate on race try to bury the hatchet at the White House tomorrow night.
The white policeman and the black scholar he arrested inside his Harvard home will sit down with Mr Obama at 6pm after agreeing to share a beer in an attempt to end a painful episode for all three, especially after the President’s ill-advised decision to wade into the controversy last week.
Newly released tapes appear to contradict the police’s version of events, especially their contention that they were called to the house because they were told that “two black men with backpacks” were trying to break in.
Sergeant James Crowley arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr, a friend of Mr Obama, on July 16 after an investigation into a suspected burglary.
The professor was seen by a neighbour trying to force open his own front door. Sergeant Crowley arrested him for disorderly conduct even after he was informed that the professor lived there and no burglary had taken place. He was taken to a police station. The charges were later dropped.
Professor Gates claims that he was the victim of racial profiling. Sergeant Crowley said that the scholar was abusive and uncooperative and has refused to apologise. Mr Obama claimed that the police acted “stupidly”.
The police recording of the original emergency call by a female neighbour reveals that she never introduced the issue of race, and even suggested that the man who forced the door might live there. Lucia Whalen said that she had been “personally devastated” by reports that she was racist.
The guests’ requests for the two foreign beers tomorrow might cause a problem as they have not been stocked at the White House since President Johnson’s Administration.
Pakistan hits out at Indian nuclear sub
Global Times
Pakistan hit out at India yesterday, branding its first nuclear-powered submarine “detrimental” to regional peace and vowing to take “appropriate steps” to maintain a “strategic balance.”
“Continued induction of new lethal-weapon systems by India is detrimental to regional peace and stability,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.
India on Sunday launched the first of five planned submarines by naming the 6,000-ton INS Arihant, powered by an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor that can reach 44 kilometres an hour (24 knots).
The submarine will be armed with torpedoes and ballistic missiles.
“Pakistan believes that the maintenance of strategic balance is essential for peace and security in south Asia,” the foreign ministry said.
“Without entering into an arms race with India, Pakistan will take all appropriate steps to safeguard its security and maintain strategic balance.”
The Pakistani Navy also voiced concern. “It is a matter of serious concern not only for Pakistan but also for all littoral states in the Indian Ocean and beyond,” a spokesman said.
India is part of an exclusive group of nations, including Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, which own nuclear-powered submarines.
The vessel will undergo two years of sea trials in the Bay of Bengal before being commissioned for full service.
India conducted its first nuclear weapons tests in 1974. Pakistan then launched its own atomic weapons drive and tested its first devices in 1998.
But analysts in Pakistan brushed aside concerns of an arms race or renewed threat of war in South Asia sparked by India’s new submarine technology.
“It is not something we should worry about,” a leading Pakistani analyst on defense and security issues, Ayesha Siddiqa, told AFP.
“We have always been in a position to neutralize the Indian threat in case of war,” she said. “Its impact will be primarily on China-India relations and not India-Pakistan ties.”
Pakistan hit out at India yesterday, branding its first nuclear-powered submarine “detrimental” to regional peace and vowing to take “appropriate steps” to maintain a “strategic balance.”
“Continued induction of new lethal-weapon systems by India is detrimental to regional peace and stability,” the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said.
India on Sunday launched the first of five planned submarines by naming the 6,000-ton INS Arihant, powered by an 85-megawatt nuclear reactor that can reach 44 kilometres an hour (24 knots).
The submarine will be armed with torpedoes and ballistic missiles.
“Pakistan believes that the maintenance of strategic balance is essential for peace and security in south Asia,” the foreign ministry said.
“Without entering into an arms race with India, Pakistan will take all appropriate steps to safeguard its security and maintain strategic balance.”
The Pakistani Navy also voiced concern. “It is a matter of serious concern not only for Pakistan but also for all littoral states in the Indian Ocean and beyond,” a spokesman said.
India is part of an exclusive group of nations, including Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, which own nuclear-powered submarines.
The vessel will undergo two years of sea trials in the Bay of Bengal before being commissioned for full service.
India conducted its first nuclear weapons tests in 1974. Pakistan then launched its own atomic weapons drive and tested its first devices in 1998.
But analysts in Pakistan brushed aside concerns of an arms race or renewed threat of war in South Asia sparked by India’s new submarine technology.
“It is not something we should worry about,” a leading Pakistani analyst on defense and security issues, Ayesha Siddiqa, told AFP.
“We have always been in a position to neutralize the Indian threat in case of war,” she said. “Its impact will be primarily on China-India relations and not India-Pakistan ties.”
Investigations link LeT men to Mumbai attack
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani investigators have found substantial evidence directly connecting Lashkar-e-Taiba to last year’s Mumbai terrorist attacks which killed 166 people.
The findings provided the basis for the trial which started last week of five arrested LeT operatives by an anti-terrorism court inside Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. It is the first time that Pakistanis are being tried inside the country for carrying out terrorist attacks on foreign soil.
Political and security analysts in Islamabad said the serious nature of investigation into LeT’s involvement and the trial indicated Pakistan’s determination and commitment not to allow its territory to be used for planning and launching terrorist attacks.
An updated report on Pakistani investigation handed over to India on July 11 said the material recovered from LeT camps in Karachi and the coastal town of Thatta indicated that the terrorists were provided training and weapons by the militant outfit.
The investigation conducted by FIA gives some new and startling details about people involved in training and providing finances for the worst terrorist attack in India which heightened tensions between the two South Asian nations.
‘The investigation has established beyond any reasonable doubt that the defunct LeT activists conspired, abetted, planned, financed and established communication network to carry out terror attacks in Mumbai,’ said the report.
The LeT, which is the most powerful Pakistan-based Jihadi group, was outlawed in 2002, but it continued to operate in Kashmir. Western intelligence agencies maintain it continued its activities in Pakistan under the banner of Jamaatud Dawa, the charity wing of the group which also was declared a terrorist outfit by the UN Security Council earlier this year.
Pakistan has already arrested and charged five LeT commanders including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah with planning and facilitating the bloody assault. The other three accused are Hammad Amin Sadiq, Mazhar Iqbal alias Al Qama and Shahid Jamil Riaz, all activists of LeT.
Aamir Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman of the Mumbai attack who is now in Indian custody, in his statement named Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and some other LeT commanders for training and launching the terrorists. Kasab who came from the Fareedkot town in Punjab, was among 10 terrorists who carried out the attacks. The other nine killed during the attacks also belonged to Punjab which is the main stronghold of LeT.
The accused were produced on Saturday before a makeshift anti-terrorism court in the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
‘There are sufficient oral, direct documentary, circumstantial and scientific evidence which directly connect the accused with the commission of the offence,’ said the charge-sheet.
Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and Mazhar Iqbal (also known as ‘Al Qama’) have also been charged with planning, preparation and execution of the attacks and operational handling of the 10 terrorists. Lakhvi, the top commander of the LeT who was arrested on February 18, is a resident of Rinala Khurd in the district of Okara. He is named as the mastermind of the entire Mumbai massacre operation.
Zarar Shah, of Sheikhupura district, is a computer expert and he was in charge of communication. Mazhar Iqbal (Al Qama), a resident of Mandi Bahauddin, was the main handler.
Lakhvi and Zarar Shah are believed to have confessed to their involvement in the attacks. But Pakistani authorities have never confirmed that publicly.
According to defence attorney Shafqat Rajput, the court adjourned till August 29 after a brief hearing. ‘The trial will be conducted in camera,’ Mr Rajput said.
The court has declared 12 other LeT activists as absconders. Most of them are crew members of Al Hussaini and Al Fouz, the boats which were used to transport the gunmen to Mumbai.
Investigators here said they had recovered handwritten diaries, training manuals, Indian maps and operational instructions from the LeT camps. ‘The accused were running training camps for terrorists, providing sea and navigational training, conducting intelligence courses and directions for terrorist attack,’ the report said.
According to the new details, training sessions, codenamed ‘Azizabad’, were held in an LeT camp in Karachi from where the investigators seized militant literature, inflatable lifeboats, detailed maps of the Indian coastline, handwritten literature on navigational training and manual of an intelligence course.
Another training camp in Thatta was housed in five thatched rooms about two kilometres from a creek from where small boats sail to the sea. The terrorists also received training in this camp.
The investigators seized pocket diaries containing names of the accused and other persons and details of expenditure of the camp.
Pakistan has asked Indian authorities to provide more information about Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, the Indian nationals suspected to be involved in facilitating the attack. Both are in custody and the Indian authorities had earlier denied that any of their nationals was involved in the attacks.
During investigations, the two had confessed to visiting Lahore, Rawalpindi, Muridke, Karachi and Muzaffarabad. They were also believed to be in contact with the five accused.
The findings provided the basis for the trial which started last week of five arrested LeT operatives by an anti-terrorism court inside Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail. It is the first time that Pakistanis are being tried inside the country for carrying out terrorist attacks on foreign soil.
Political and security analysts in Islamabad said the serious nature of investigation into LeT’s involvement and the trial indicated Pakistan’s determination and commitment not to allow its territory to be used for planning and launching terrorist attacks.
An updated report on Pakistani investigation handed over to India on July 11 said the material recovered from LeT camps in Karachi and the coastal town of Thatta indicated that the terrorists were provided training and weapons by the militant outfit.
The investigation conducted by FIA gives some new and startling details about people involved in training and providing finances for the worst terrorist attack in India which heightened tensions between the two South Asian nations.
‘The investigation has established beyond any reasonable doubt that the defunct LeT activists conspired, abetted, planned, financed and established communication network to carry out terror attacks in Mumbai,’ said the report.
The LeT, which is the most powerful Pakistan-based Jihadi group, was outlawed in 2002, but it continued to operate in Kashmir. Western intelligence agencies maintain it continued its activities in Pakistan under the banner of Jamaatud Dawa, the charity wing of the group which also was declared a terrorist outfit by the UN Security Council earlier this year.
Pakistan has already arrested and charged five LeT commanders including Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Zarar Shah with planning and facilitating the bloody assault. The other three accused are Hammad Amin Sadiq, Mazhar Iqbal alias Al Qama and Shahid Jamil Riaz, all activists of LeT.
Aamir Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving gunman of the Mumbai attack who is now in Indian custody, in his statement named Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and some other LeT commanders for training and launching the terrorists. Kasab who came from the Fareedkot town in Punjab, was among 10 terrorists who carried out the attacks. The other nine killed during the attacks also belonged to Punjab which is the main stronghold of LeT.
The accused were produced on Saturday before a makeshift anti-terrorism court in the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
‘There are sufficient oral, direct documentary, circumstantial and scientific evidence which directly connect the accused with the commission of the offence,’ said the charge-sheet.
Lakhvi, Zarar Shah and Mazhar Iqbal (also known as ‘Al Qama’) have also been charged with planning, preparation and execution of the attacks and operational handling of the 10 terrorists. Lakhvi, the top commander of the LeT who was arrested on February 18, is a resident of Rinala Khurd in the district of Okara. He is named as the mastermind of the entire Mumbai massacre operation.
Zarar Shah, of Sheikhupura district, is a computer expert and he was in charge of communication. Mazhar Iqbal (Al Qama), a resident of Mandi Bahauddin, was the main handler.
Lakhvi and Zarar Shah are believed to have confessed to their involvement in the attacks. But Pakistani authorities have never confirmed that publicly.
According to defence attorney Shafqat Rajput, the court adjourned till August 29 after a brief hearing. ‘The trial will be conducted in camera,’ Mr Rajput said.
The court has declared 12 other LeT activists as absconders. Most of them are crew members of Al Hussaini and Al Fouz, the boats which were used to transport the gunmen to Mumbai.
Investigators here said they had recovered handwritten diaries, training manuals, Indian maps and operational instructions from the LeT camps. ‘The accused were running training camps for terrorists, providing sea and navigational training, conducting intelligence courses and directions for terrorist attack,’ the report said.
According to the new details, training sessions, codenamed ‘Azizabad’, were held in an LeT camp in Karachi from where the investigators seized militant literature, inflatable lifeboats, detailed maps of the Indian coastline, handwritten literature on navigational training and manual of an intelligence course.
Another training camp in Thatta was housed in five thatched rooms about two kilometres from a creek from where small boats sail to the sea. The terrorists also received training in this camp.
The investigators seized pocket diaries containing names of the accused and other persons and details of expenditure of the camp.
Pakistan has asked Indian authorities to provide more information about Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed, the Indian nationals suspected to be involved in facilitating the attack. Both are in custody and the Indian authorities had earlier denied that any of their nationals was involved in the attacks.
During investigations, the two had confessed to visiting Lahore, Rawalpindi, Muridke, Karachi and Muzaffarabad. They were also believed to be in contact with the five accused.
IDPs urge govt to provide relief package
Peshawar : The residents of tehsil Kabal and Thana, adjacent areas of district Swat, on Monday staged protest demonstration against non-provision of relief package so-far. Dozens of protesters were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans. They were also chanting full-throated slogans against the ANP-led provincial government and authorities concerned. The protesters were of the view that despite of the fact that everything had been destroyed in their areas by the militancy and the the military operation, the government has yet not provided them with any relief package. The protest rally led by an IDP Habib Khan who in his address said that for the last one month, the government had not provided any relief or any food item, adding that the real IDPs are being ignored during the distribution of packages and favoritism and nepotism had be done by the officials, for which the government machinery doe not take any action against the officials. He said that on the day of receiving relief package, when the IDPs go to the concerned offices, the officials send them back by making several excuses and also misbehave with the IDPs as if an IDP came for begging. He demanded of NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan and elected representatives of district Swat to resolve the issue and make the provision of relief package assured.
Iran opposition leader calls for more street protests
Iran's leading opposition figure called on his supporters Monday to head into the streets daily during a religious festival next week, potentially escalating tensions at a time when his election rival, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is to be sworn in for a second term.
The call for new protests was the most provocative move in weeks by former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. It was a sign that the aging bureaucrat, once a pillar of the Islamic Republic's political establishment, is growing into the role of leader of a youth-based movement that seeks greater democracy and better ties to the rest of the world. It also highlights the difficulty Iran's political powers are having trying to tame the unrest stemming from charges that Ahmadinejad stole the June 12 presidential election. Authorities have fallen back on the same tactics they used to quell protests in 1999 and 2003 -- beating and imprisoning activists. But this time, those methods have not stopped the protest, and have even divided the ranks of political conservatives.
The call for new protests was the most provocative move in weeks by former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi. It was a sign that the aging bureaucrat, once a pillar of the Islamic Republic's political establishment, is growing into the role of leader of a youth-based movement that seeks greater democracy and better ties to the rest of the world. It also highlights the difficulty Iran's political powers are having trying to tame the unrest stemming from charges that Ahmadinejad stole the June 12 presidential election. Authorities have fallen back on the same tactics they used to quell protests in 1999 and 2003 -- beating and imprisoning activists. But this time, those methods have not stopped the protest, and have even divided the ranks of political conservatives.
Pakistan’s population to double by 2050: UN
KARACHI: Pakistan’s population is growing so incredibly fast that despite decades of family planning efforts, in 40 years it will be the fourth largest country on Earth, a United Nations report said.
United Nations Population Division said Pakistan will overtake Brazil and Indonesia by 2050 to rank fourth in world population, almost doubling to 335 million from its current 180 million.
‘For a country with the resources of Pakistan that’s enormous. How can Pakistan support a population that size with jobs, education, health care? It can’t do so right now with the population it has,’ said Daniel Baker, who heads UN Family Planning Association in Pakistan.
Pakistan currently ranks sixth behind China, India, the United States, Indonesia and Brazil. On achieving independence in 1947, the country had 37 million people and was ranked 15th in the world.
In little than 60 years it has multiplied nearly five times, and now has a population growth rate of 2.2 per cent per year, according to UN population data.
The rapid population growth poses potentially disastrous consequences.
Fifty-seven per cent of Pakistan’s population is between 15 and 64, and 41 per cent are under 15. Only four per cent are over 65. Pakistan is now experiencing its largest ever youth bulge.
Police Officer Is Found Beheaded in Pakistan
NEW YORK TIMES
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The beheaded body of a police constable who was kidnapped last week in the Swat Valley was found Tuesday morning near the town of Mingora, the police said.
A police official in Swat said the killing of the constable, Jehan Zada, amounted to a “continuation of the same process,” implying that the police believe the Taliban were to blame.
Police officers have become prime targets of Taliban assassins in Swat, and the abduction and killing of the constable underscores the continuing pressure on the police there. Mr. Zada was snatched from his house in the Sangota area of the valley, the police said.
His killing also seems to demonstrate the Taliban’s reach and capability in the Swat Valley despite the presence of more than 20,000 Pakistani soldiers who have deployed there to flush out the militants.
Police also have discovered the bodies of a number of civilians beheaded by the Taliban in recent weeks, according to a senior police official in Peshawar who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing departmental policy. He said the civilians were suspected by the Taliban of being informants for the military.
Taliban attacks on the police in Swat have led to more than 800 desertions by officers over the last two years. Police officials have been unable to prevent suicide bombings, beheadings and other insurgency tactics used by Taliban fighters. And lacking specialized counterterrorism training, the police have often been unwilling to participate in anti-Taliban operations.
The killing of the constable came as hundreds of thousands of displaced people were making their way back to the Swat Valley, ordered by the authorities to return to their homes there after months of fighting between insurgents and government forces.
The army continues to battle the Taliban in several insurgent strongholds, particularly in the Matta and Kabal regions of Swat, not far from the main city, Mingora, where many refugees have reclaimed their homes. In a sign that Mingora was still not secure, the Pakistani military declined a request last week by the American envoy Richard Holbrooke to visit the town.
In those still-contested regions, the Taliban have razed houses and killed a civilian working for the police in Matta. And now, with the beheading in Mingora, counterinsurgency experts fear that the returning refugees might have been sent back too soon.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The beheaded body of a police constable who was kidnapped last week in the Swat Valley was found Tuesday morning near the town of Mingora, the police said.
A police official in Swat said the killing of the constable, Jehan Zada, amounted to a “continuation of the same process,” implying that the police believe the Taliban were to blame.
Police officers have become prime targets of Taliban assassins in Swat, and the abduction and killing of the constable underscores the continuing pressure on the police there. Mr. Zada was snatched from his house in the Sangota area of the valley, the police said.
His killing also seems to demonstrate the Taliban’s reach and capability in the Swat Valley despite the presence of more than 20,000 Pakistani soldiers who have deployed there to flush out the militants.
Police also have discovered the bodies of a number of civilians beheaded by the Taliban in recent weeks, according to a senior police official in Peshawar who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing departmental policy. He said the civilians were suspected by the Taliban of being informants for the military.
Taliban attacks on the police in Swat have led to more than 800 desertions by officers over the last two years. Police officials have been unable to prevent suicide bombings, beheadings and other insurgency tactics used by Taliban fighters. And lacking specialized counterterrorism training, the police have often been unwilling to participate in anti-Taliban operations.
The killing of the constable came as hundreds of thousands of displaced people were making their way back to the Swat Valley, ordered by the authorities to return to their homes there after months of fighting between insurgents and government forces.
The army continues to battle the Taliban in several insurgent strongholds, particularly in the Matta and Kabal regions of Swat, not far from the main city, Mingora, where many refugees have reclaimed their homes. In a sign that Mingora was still not secure, the Pakistani military declined a request last week by the American envoy Richard Holbrooke to visit the town.
In those still-contested regions, the Taliban have razed houses and killed a civilian working for the police in Matta. And now, with the beheading in Mingora, counterinsurgency experts fear that the returning refugees might have been sent back too soon.
Monday, July 27, 2009
11 militants killed, commander among 28 arrested in Swat
SWAT: Eleven militants killed and 28 including wanted militant commander Kabir have been arrested during security forces search operation in Swat and Malakand.
According to ISPR, two militants handed over themselves to security forces in Fizagat as looted items recovered from Polytechnic College during operation near Mingora. A militant has been killed and two arrested near Khawazakhela whereas seven hideouts have been destroyed.
Four suspected persons have been arrested and arms cache recovered from their possession in Chor Banda.
In Dir, six suspected militants have been arrested. National lashkar killed ten militants and arrested six during action in Karodara, Chopra and Kandao. ISPR said seven terrorists belonged to Sufi Muhammad group handed over themselves to civil administration in Mohmand Agency.
According to ISPR, two militants handed over themselves to security forces in Fizagat as looted items recovered from Polytechnic College during operation near Mingora. A militant has been killed and two arrested near Khawazakhela whereas seven hideouts have been destroyed.
Four suspected persons have been arrested and arms cache recovered from their possession in Chor Banda.
In Dir, six suspected militants have been arrested. National lashkar killed ten militants and arrested six during action in Karodara, Chopra and Kandao. ISPR said seven terrorists belonged to Sufi Muhammad group handed over themselves to civil administration in Mohmand Agency.
Barack Obama: US and China will shape 21st century
To the satisfaction of the Chinese at talks designed to usher in a new era of friendship, "not confrontation", Mr Obama said that the ties between the two powers were "as important as any bilateral relationship in the world".
"That reality must underpin our partnership. That is the responsibility we bear," he said at the first meeting of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington. In recognition of the importance of the two-day summit it has been described by analysts in the US as the "G2", after the G8 and G20 gatherings.
Mr Obama said he was under "no illusions that the United States and China will agree on every issue", but insisted closer co-operation on a range of challenges from lifting the global economy to nuclear proliferation and climate change was vital for the whole world.
In what appeared to be a co-ordinated new slogan, both Mr Obama and Hu Jintao, the Chinese president, who sent a message to the meeting, said they sought a "positive, constructive, and comprehensive relationship".
The talks are a revamped version of a meeting launched by George W Bush that focused solely on economic issues.
The new dialogue, to be held every year in alternate capitals, involves the US state department and Chinese foreign ministry and firmly underlines China's growing global footprint.
Beijing sent 150 officials to Washington for dozens of meetings with their US counterparts, bringing much of the capital to a virtual standstill.
The Chinese are still sensitive about their inferior status and pushed hard for Mr Obama to open the meeting, according to sources close to the administration, because "they are still looking for validation".
But the hosts were happy to pay tribute to China's ascendance and were optimistic about its ability to act as a responsible member of the global community.
Mr Obama and Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, made only brief reference to China's poor human rights record, which used to loom much larger in discussions.
Speaking just weeks after the eruption of ethnic violence in China's Muslim-majority Xinjiang province, which left at least 192 people dead, Mr Obama said: "We strongly believe that the religion and culture of all peoples must be respected and protected, and that all people should be free to speak their minds. That includes ethnic and religious minorities in China."
But he bracketed his criticism with acknowledgement of China's great "ancient culture" and the vibrant contribution of Chinese Americans to the US.
For the Chinese, Dai Bingguo, the state councillor, acknowledged the two states "could never be the same", and echoed his hosts by saying neither country could solve the world's problems alone.
"We are actually all in the same big boat that has been hit by fierce wind and huge waves," Mr Dai said of the economic and other crises.
The strongest message behind the scenes from Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, and his staff was that Americans are learning to save more and spend less, meaning China cannot rely on exports to the US for its growth and will have to raise domestic consumption.
The Chinese, holding $801.5 billion (£485 billion) of US treasury debt, meanwhile sought further explanations of what the Obama administration plans to do about the soaring deficits.
Though expectations are low for immediate breakthroughs on a variety of sticking points, even committed China watchers have been surprised by the speed of the growth in bilateral relations.
"There will be areas without a lot of traction," said Drew Thompson, director of China studies at the Nixon Centre think tank, running from the value of yuan to the Dalai Lama and intellectual copyright protection. "But if you don't start to build a relationship you will never achieve the progress that you want.
"There are a lot of things we can't get done without having China on board, and the Chinese are learning that they have a new role and they are leaving big footprints around the world. A certain responsibility comes with that," he added.
Britain 'will need more troops' for success in Afghanistan
www.timesonline.co.uk
Britain may need to send more troops to Afghanistan despite the success of Operation Panther’s Claw, military chiefs admit.
The scale of the challenge was revealed yesterday as it emerged that British soldiers have faced nearly 1,000 roadside bombs in the past three months. Although 3,000 troops managed to drive out about 500 Taleban during the five-week offensive, they will be fully deployed holding an area in Helmand province about the size of the Isle of Wight, their commanding officer admitted.
Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of Task Force Helmand, said that the existing troops could not be expected to mount further significant operations without reinforcements. Gordon Brown hailed the offensive as an “heroic” military success, saying it had made Britain safer and “pushed back the Taleban”. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, however, called for renewed efforts to engage the Taleban politically.
Efforts to bolster faltering public support for British involvement in Afghanistan were undermined further when the Ministry of Defence announced that two more soldiers had been killed. Brigadier Radford said that although 23 soldiers have died since the operation began on June 19, only 10 directly related to the offensive in central Helmand.
Details emerged of the “industrial” scale of the Taleban’s production of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Brigadier Radford, speaking by video link from his headquarters at Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, said there had been 153 IEDs encountered during Panther’s Claw – and 994 since April.
The release of details of Panther’s Claw gave Mr Brown an opportunity to wrest back the political initiative over Afghanistan after the controversy over troop levels and helicopters.But Mr Miliband caught Downing Street by surprise, using a speech to Nato leaders in Brussels to deliver an uncompromising message aimed at President Karzai of Afghanistan. Mr Miliband called for a programme of “reintegration and reconciliation” for moderate Taleban. He rejected talks with insurgents who were fighting British troops in Helmand, telling Channel 4 News: “If they [the Taleban] carry on trying to kill British troops, then of course we can’t reconcile them into the system, because they will be making a choice of violence.”
The two deaths announced yesterday take the total losses to 191 since 2001. Neither was linked to Panther’s Claw. A soldier from The Light Dragoons was killed by an explosion while he was on a vehicle patrol in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand. A soldier from the 5th Regiment Royal Artillery was killed by an explosion during a foot patrol in Sangin, in northern Helmand.
Britain may need to send more troops to Afghanistan despite the success of Operation Panther’s Claw, military chiefs admit.
The scale of the challenge was revealed yesterday as it emerged that British soldiers have faced nearly 1,000 roadside bombs in the past three months. Although 3,000 troops managed to drive out about 500 Taleban during the five-week offensive, they will be fully deployed holding an area in Helmand province about the size of the Isle of Wight, their commanding officer admitted.
Brigadier Tim Radford, commander of Task Force Helmand, said that the existing troops could not be expected to mount further significant operations without reinforcements. Gordon Brown hailed the offensive as an “heroic” military success, saying it had made Britain safer and “pushed back the Taleban”. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, however, called for renewed efforts to engage the Taleban politically.
Efforts to bolster faltering public support for British involvement in Afghanistan were undermined further when the Ministry of Defence announced that two more soldiers had been killed. Brigadier Radford said that although 23 soldiers have died since the operation began on June 19, only 10 directly related to the offensive in central Helmand.
Details emerged of the “industrial” scale of the Taleban’s production of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Brigadier Radford, speaking by video link from his headquarters at Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, said there had been 153 IEDs encountered during Panther’s Claw – and 994 since April.
The release of details of Panther’s Claw gave Mr Brown an opportunity to wrest back the political initiative over Afghanistan after the controversy over troop levels and helicopters.But Mr Miliband caught Downing Street by surprise, using a speech to Nato leaders in Brussels to deliver an uncompromising message aimed at President Karzai of Afghanistan. Mr Miliband called for a programme of “reintegration and reconciliation” for moderate Taleban. He rejected talks with insurgents who were fighting British troops in Helmand, telling Channel 4 News: “If they [the Taleban] carry on trying to kill British troops, then of course we can’t reconcile them into the system, because they will be making a choice of violence.”
The two deaths announced yesterday take the total losses to 191 since 2001. Neither was linked to Panther’s Claw. A soldier from The Light Dragoons was killed by an explosion while he was on a vehicle patrol in Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital of Helmand. A soldier from the 5th Regiment Royal Artillery was killed by an explosion during a foot patrol in Sangin, in northern Helmand.
Editorial: Stop targeting China’s political system
Global Times
No matter how differently Western media outlets reported the March 14 incident in Tibet last year and the recent riots in Urumqi, their comments shared the same judgment toward the Chinese government. China’s political system was often the single target attacked quickly and easily.
“One party dictatorship,” “China’s Communist leadership” and “the continued rule of the Communist party” are terms the Western media liked to use while underreporting the severity of the riots and the brutal attacks on innocent people.
This stereotypical thinking shows Western media outlets always feel the political system of their particular country is absolutely superior to China’s.
Once something bad happens in China, they simply blame China’s political system. In their eyes, it is inevitable for such a “backward and flawed” political system to have problems. With no change in the system, China and its government can never solve these problems.
However, every country is distinct and complex. There must be many factors that lead to the occurrence of social and ethnic problems, instead of just one. It is unwise and irresponsible to blame everything on China’s political system.
For example, the imbalance of development and the increasing gap between the rich and the poor are universal problems in China’s transition from planned economy to market economy. This problem becomes entangled with ethnic issues in areas where ethnic minorities live.
As a result, many Western media outlets criticize China’s problems with its policy toward ethnic minority groups and further attack China’s political system. But these problems have nothing to do with the system.
Actually, China’s current political system, in the past decades, has made remarkable achievements in developing the economy, improving the well-being of the Chinese people of all 56 ethnic groups, and promoting the country’s role in the international community. China’s governmental system was the practical choice of the Chinese people and revolutionaries after a long search and struggle.
History and reality have proved it to be the right choice, one in keeping with China’s characteristics.
The Western media’s prejudice toward and ignorance of China’s political system’s achievements stem from deep-rooted distrust of the system’s capability to survive and to succeed.
Any country, including Western countries, cannot be free of social and ethnic problems in its development. Serious social problems such as racial issues and the high rate of crime are rife in the US and other Western countries.
In recent years, social and racial unrests of various scales happened in Western countries such as the US, France and Germany.
If Chinese media simply attribute all this to the US’ political system, it will be “nonsense” to Western media and do nothing good to build mutual understanding between the two countries and the two peoples.
It is time for the Western media to take an objective approach toward understanding and explaining China’s problems and changes, one which is less simplistic and more open-minded.
Only in this way can they tell the truth and achieve mutual trust.
Boys trained for suicide bombing arrested
MINGORA: Security forces have seized 14 vehicles equipped for suicide attacks and arrested nine people trained for suicide bombings and other subversive activities.
The suspects, the vehicles and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, computers and other equipment seized during an operation were shown to journalists here on Sunday.
Mingora Operational Commander Brig Tahir Hameed said the operation Rah-i-Rast was under way in Swat to secure the remaining pockets of resistance. ‘The security forces have achieved major successes during the search and clearance operation in Swat.’
He said the forces had recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition, vehicles and furniture of schools and banks which militants had looted.
He said normalcy had been restored in 95 per cent of the district, including the city of Mingora, and the operation would continue till the elimination of militants.
A 15-day ban from Monday has been imposed on rickshaws in the valley and owners have been asked to get stickers for their vehicles from police stations.
Brig Hameed said the overall law and order situation was improving. He said several children brainwashed and trained for suicide attacks had been captured.
He said terrorists had deprived the children of an opportunity to get education and their parents had handed them over to the security forces.
He said arrangements were being made to enrol them in schools with free board and lodging and give them monthly scholarship.
The 14 vehicles prepared for suicide attacks, 35,000kgs of explosives, 50 computers, hundreds of guns, over 100 pistols, thousands of rounds and electronic goods seized from militants and their hideouts were displayed at the press briefing
The suspects, the vehicles and a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, computers and other equipment seized during an operation were shown to journalists here on Sunday.
Mingora Operational Commander Brig Tahir Hameed said the operation Rah-i-Rast was under way in Swat to secure the remaining pockets of resistance. ‘The security forces have achieved major successes during the search and clearance operation in Swat.’
He said the forces had recovered a large quantity of arms and ammunition, vehicles and furniture of schools and banks which militants had looted.
He said normalcy had been restored in 95 per cent of the district, including the city of Mingora, and the operation would continue till the elimination of militants.
A 15-day ban from Monday has been imposed on rickshaws in the valley and owners have been asked to get stickers for their vehicles from police stations.
Brig Hameed said the overall law and order situation was improving. He said several children brainwashed and trained for suicide attacks had been captured.
He said terrorists had deprived the children of an opportunity to get education and their parents had handed them over to the security forces.
He said arrangements were being made to enrol them in schools with free board and lodging and give them monthly scholarship.
The 14 vehicles prepared for suicide attacks, 35,000kgs of explosives, 50 computers, hundreds of guns, over 100 pistols, thousands of rounds and electronic goods seized from militants and their hideouts were displayed at the press briefing
Military hits ‘suicide bomb centre’, kills 20: official
PESHAWAR: Attack helicopters Monday killed 20 militants and destroyed four hideouts, including a training centre for suicide bombers in the northwest tribal belt, the paramilitary said.
The operation was carried out in Tirah valley, 35 kilometres (21 miles) southwest of Landi Kotal, the main town in the Khyber tribal region that straddles a main supply route for Nato troops in Afghanistan.
‘Military helicopters shelled militant hideouts Monday afternoon killing 20 rebels and destroying four of their hideouts,’ a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Major Fazal-ul-Rehman, told AFP.
He said that the hideouts included a training centre where rebels used to train suicide bombers and foot soldiers, adding that the air strikes were ordered after an intelligence tip-off.
Death tolls released by government are impossible to confirm in areas that are remote and largely cut off from independent media coverage.
Magnitude 5.2 quake strikes northern Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: A moderate earthquake on Monday rocked parts of northwest Pakistan, officials said.There were no immediate reports of casualties but tremors were felt in Mansehra and Malakand at 12:24 p.m., Zahid Rafi, a senior officer at Pakistan's meteorological department,told AFP.The quake had a magnitude of 5.2 and the epicentre was located in Balakot, about 138 kilometres north of Islamabad, he said.The quake was also felt in Islamabad and parts of central Punjab province, he said.The US Geological Survey put the quake at 5.1 and said it struck at 12:23 p.m. 138 kilometres north of Islamabad and 77 kilometres east of Mingora, the main town in the Swat district.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
As Swat's exiles journey home, gunfire suggests problems may not be over
Joy of return tempered by army warning that many Taliban are still on the loose
guardian.co.uk
When Bakht Biland reached his house, having run the gauntlet of tense army checkpoints, bullet-pocked hotels and the deserted city square where the Taliban used to string up their bloodied victims, he had just one thought. "Finally," said the 55-year-old taxi driver, prising open his front door. "I will sleep in a soft bed tonight."
Small comforts carry big hopes in the Swat region of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The misery of war could be nearing an end now; and, after 12 weeks of battles between the Pakistan army and the Taliban, exiled residents are flooding home.
The crowded, steamy, camps of the plains are emptying as convoys of buses, trucks and even rickshaws thunder up the mountain road into Swat, twisting through a landscape dotted with the debris of recent battle. So far, 500,000 of an estimated 2 million displaced people have returned to the valley and surrounding Buner and Dir districts, according to government figures.
Yet the joy of return is tempered by worries that the fight is not truly over. Shortly after Bakht reached Mingora on Friday an ugly noise echoed across the city: the rattle of a helicopter gunship spewing bullets at a Taliban hold-out across the river.
"I don't think the Taliban can come back," said Bakht cautiously, fingering his prayer beads. "But if they do, we'll have to flee again. That would be the worst thing."
The journey home started in a small camp off a busy road in Mardan district, which has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis. At dawn his seven children loaded their meagre possessions into the rear of a pick-up. Then his burka-clad wife clambered into the back. They left behind two small canvas tents, unbearably muggy even at eight at the morning, which had collapsed in a monsoon squall two nights earlier. "It's time to leave," he said.
Security was tight. Long tailbacks formed at checkpoints as soldiers waving wand-like devices checked for explosives. Bakht's van was channelled through a giant, million-dollar x-ray scanner imported from Canada.
As the road climbed into the mountains it passed Churchill Picket, a small fort where Winston Churchill battled restive tribesmen over a century ago, then levelled into Swat. Tank tracks scored the valley road, sometimes swerving through orchards, and many shops and houses had been crushed. But the fighting seemed to have been limited: buildings, not neighbourhoods, were destroyed.
Bakht's van halted at a petrol station, where volunteers with an Islamic charity handed out snacks.
A small man with a grey beard, Bakht admitted he once had a soft spot for the Taliban. He was drawn to their Islamic ideals, he said, particularly to the radio sermons of their clerical leader, Maulana Fazlullah. "His voice was so sweet. Even if you heard it, you would support him."
His enthusiasm waned as Qur'an thumping turned to Kalashnikov fire earlier this year. As mortar shells whistled over their roof, Bakht's children lay awake at night, crying with fear. And so, reluctantly, he fled on 15 May, carrying a few bundles and the equivalent of £25 in his pocket. Now, going back, his worry was whether his house had been hit.
An ominous sight greeted him on the edge of Mingora: a clutch of soldiers standing over a pair of blindfolded men – Taliban suspects captured a few hours before. It was a mixed blessing: a sign of the army's newfound resolve, but also a reminder of the lingering menace.
A few intersections in Mingora had been damaged by fighting, but in general most buildings were left unscathed. Soldiers, paramilitaries and police patrolled the streets. Reviving the police is seen as an urgent priority; under the Taliban, Swat's police were killed, kidnapped or scared into quitting. Now the government is recruiting 2,000 "community police", effectively a civilian militia, to flush the militants out.
Bakht's van curled through the narrow streets into Green Chowk. Under the Taliban this junction was the city's most notorious spot, a place where the militants dumped their bloodied victims – tribal leaders, women dancers, teachers – on a concrete plinth. Now the authorities plan to rename it Peace Square or Martyrs' Square. Finally, Bakht was home, pulling up outside his four-room house. To his great relief, it was untouched. "I only had a cheap lock," he said. "We had never left home before."
Speaking from behind the privacy of an ajar door, his wife, Hajra, said she was happy to be back. But, she added in an accusatory tone, she was embarrassed that their daughter, who had got married while they lived in the tent, had not received a proper send off. Bakht winced but said nothing.
Normal life was slowly percolating through the rest of the city, too. Teenagers whacked cricket balls on the grounds where clerics once delivered fiery anti-government speeches. Older men grumbled about the high price of food and lack of mobile phone coverage, but expressed relief at being home.
Not everyone had left. Shamin Khan, an elderly eccentric with plastic flowers pinned to his clothes, emerged from his quarters with tales of how he had been victimised by both sides – kidnapped for two days by the Taliban, who accused him of being a spy, and shot at by army snipers, who mistook him a Taliban.
Across the river, at Imam Dehri, the Taliban headquarters was empty, its chairlift link to the main city destroyed. An army spokesman, Major Nasir Khan, said that up to a quarter of the Taliban's 5,000 fighters were still on the loose, mostly concentrated in remote pockets along the border with Dir. There was no word of Fazlullah, he said, but the security forces had just captured two vehicles belonging to him. "We're not leaving anything to chance this time," he said. "The menace will be eliminated."
But the returning refugees will need more than words. At dusk, vehicles were still entering Mingora, filled with hot, tired and anxious families.
Khurshid Ali, a clothes trader, poked his head out a window as his vehicle crawled through a security check. "I had been happy to return earlier," he said. "But I just heard some gunfire a few moments ago. We had been told the fighting was over."
guardian.co.uk
When Bakht Biland reached his house, having run the gauntlet of tense army checkpoints, bullet-pocked hotels and the deserted city square where the Taliban used to string up their bloodied victims, he had just one thought. "Finally," said the 55-year-old taxi driver, prising open his front door. "I will sleep in a soft bed tonight."
Small comforts carry big hopes in the Swat region of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province. The misery of war could be nearing an end now; and, after 12 weeks of battles between the Pakistan army and the Taliban, exiled residents are flooding home.
The crowded, steamy, camps of the plains are emptying as convoys of buses, trucks and even rickshaws thunder up the mountain road into Swat, twisting through a landscape dotted with the debris of recent battle. So far, 500,000 of an estimated 2 million displaced people have returned to the valley and surrounding Buner and Dir districts, according to government figures.
Yet the joy of return is tempered by worries that the fight is not truly over. Shortly after Bakht reached Mingora on Friday an ugly noise echoed across the city: the rattle of a helicopter gunship spewing bullets at a Taliban hold-out across the river.
"I don't think the Taliban can come back," said Bakht cautiously, fingering his prayer beads. "But if they do, we'll have to flee again. That would be the worst thing."
The journey home started in a small camp off a busy road in Mardan district, which has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis. At dawn his seven children loaded their meagre possessions into the rear of a pick-up. Then his burka-clad wife clambered into the back. They left behind two small canvas tents, unbearably muggy even at eight at the morning, which had collapsed in a monsoon squall two nights earlier. "It's time to leave," he said.
Security was tight. Long tailbacks formed at checkpoints as soldiers waving wand-like devices checked for explosives. Bakht's van was channelled through a giant, million-dollar x-ray scanner imported from Canada.
As the road climbed into the mountains it passed Churchill Picket, a small fort where Winston Churchill battled restive tribesmen over a century ago, then levelled into Swat. Tank tracks scored the valley road, sometimes swerving through orchards, and many shops and houses had been crushed. But the fighting seemed to have been limited: buildings, not neighbourhoods, were destroyed.
Bakht's van halted at a petrol station, where volunteers with an Islamic charity handed out snacks.
A small man with a grey beard, Bakht admitted he once had a soft spot for the Taliban. He was drawn to their Islamic ideals, he said, particularly to the radio sermons of their clerical leader, Maulana Fazlullah. "His voice was so sweet. Even if you heard it, you would support him."
His enthusiasm waned as Qur'an thumping turned to Kalashnikov fire earlier this year. As mortar shells whistled over their roof, Bakht's children lay awake at night, crying with fear. And so, reluctantly, he fled on 15 May, carrying a few bundles and the equivalent of £25 in his pocket. Now, going back, his worry was whether his house had been hit.
An ominous sight greeted him on the edge of Mingora: a clutch of soldiers standing over a pair of blindfolded men – Taliban suspects captured a few hours before. It was a mixed blessing: a sign of the army's newfound resolve, but also a reminder of the lingering menace.
A few intersections in Mingora had been damaged by fighting, but in general most buildings were left unscathed. Soldiers, paramilitaries and police patrolled the streets. Reviving the police is seen as an urgent priority; under the Taliban, Swat's police were killed, kidnapped or scared into quitting. Now the government is recruiting 2,000 "community police", effectively a civilian militia, to flush the militants out.
Bakht's van curled through the narrow streets into Green Chowk. Under the Taliban this junction was the city's most notorious spot, a place where the militants dumped their bloodied victims – tribal leaders, women dancers, teachers – on a concrete plinth. Now the authorities plan to rename it Peace Square or Martyrs' Square. Finally, Bakht was home, pulling up outside his four-room house. To his great relief, it was untouched. "I only had a cheap lock," he said. "We had never left home before."
Speaking from behind the privacy of an ajar door, his wife, Hajra, said she was happy to be back. But, she added in an accusatory tone, she was embarrassed that their daughter, who had got married while they lived in the tent, had not received a proper send off. Bakht winced but said nothing.
Normal life was slowly percolating through the rest of the city, too. Teenagers whacked cricket balls on the grounds where clerics once delivered fiery anti-government speeches. Older men grumbled about the high price of food and lack of mobile phone coverage, but expressed relief at being home.
Not everyone had left. Shamin Khan, an elderly eccentric with plastic flowers pinned to his clothes, emerged from his quarters with tales of how he had been victimised by both sides – kidnapped for two days by the Taliban, who accused him of being a spy, and shot at by army snipers, who mistook him a Taliban.
Across the river, at Imam Dehri, the Taliban headquarters was empty, its chairlift link to the main city destroyed. An army spokesman, Major Nasir Khan, said that up to a quarter of the Taliban's 5,000 fighters were still on the loose, mostly concentrated in remote pockets along the border with Dir. There was no word of Fazlullah, he said, but the security forces had just captured two vehicles belonging to him. "We're not leaving anything to chance this time," he said. "The menace will be eliminated."
But the returning refugees will need more than words. At dusk, vehicles were still entering Mingora, filled with hot, tired and anxious families.
Khurshid Ali, a clothes trader, poked his head out a window as his vehicle crawled through a security check. "I had been happy to return earlier," he said. "But I just heard some gunfire a few moments ago. We had been told the fighting was over."
Nicolas Sarkozy in hospital after minor attack, 'doing well'
President Nicolas Sarkozy has been admitted to the Val-de-Grace military hospital in Paris Sunday, after suffering a 'minor' nerve attack while exercising, officials in his entourage said. He is reportedy 'fine' and awaiting exam results.
Hazaras May Play Key Role in Afghan Vote
WashingtonPost.com
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 25 -- For generations, Afghanistan's Hazara minority has occupied the humblest niche in the country's complex ethnic mosaic. The political power structure has been dominated by the large southern Pashtun tribes, followed by the slightly less numerous northern Tajiks.
During various periods in history, the Shiite Hazaras have been forced from their lands and slaughtered in bouts of ethnic or religious "cleansing." In more recent times, they have often been relegated to lowly jobs as cart-pullers or domestic servants. The abused boy in the novel and movie "The Kite Runner," which generated much controversy here, came from a family of Hazara servants.
But the group now stands poised to play a decisive role in the Aug. 20 presidential and provincial council elections. It has produced a popular presidential candidate, independent Ramazan Bashardost, who is an extremely long shot but has been traveling the country nonstop, preaching a message of government reform and social justice.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun who is seeking reelection, and his major challengers are aggressively courting the Hazara vote. The group makes up as much as 20 percent of the country's electorate and had high voter-registration and turnout rates in the last presidential election, in 2004.
"We have become kingmakers," said Mohammed Mohaqeq, a leader of the main Hazara political party, Wahdat-e-Islami, who agreed to support Karzai in return for pledges that Hazaras would be given control of several ministries and possibly a newly created province. "I cannot get elected, because my Pashtun brothers might not support me, but our people can make a big difference in deciding who wins," he said.
Mohaqeq has been campaigning in various provinces for Karzai, who has remained largely invisible during the run-up to the elections. Mohaqeq's party has organized an army of campaign workers and has fielded a slate of 14 candidates for the upper house of parliament and provincial councils, including one young man whose posters depict an old Hazara cart-puller bent under a load of goods.
Karzai, whose second vice presidential pick is a Hazara, took pains to appease conservative Hazara leaders in March by approving a controversial Shiite family law, even though it outraged human rights groups because it subjected Hazara women to the absolute control of their fathers and husbands.
Yet the political emancipation of Afghanistan's Hazaras, whose children are flocking to universities and office jobs, has created a generational and political split in a community that long fell in lockstep behind ethnic militia or religious leaders such as Mohaqeq as a matter of survival.
Many older or less educated Hazaras still express strong loyalty to such leaders and say they intend to follow their political instructions on voting day. But many others, including students and former refugees who have returned after years in Iran, said they value their political independence.
"I am Hazara, but we have rights now, and no one can tell me how to vote," said Farahmuz, 33, a laborer who joins dozens of men each morning at a traffic circle, hoping to obtain a few hours of work. "I don't want ethnic issues to come up in these elections, because they can destroy the country again," he said.
Many Hazaras said their sentimental favorite for president is Bashardost, 44, a reformist legislator and former planning minister whose office is in a tent across the street from parliament. He has been campaigning in much the same style, accepting government-provided planes to reach distant provinces but then mingling with voters in parks and markets.
"I like Mr. Bashardost because he understands our problems," said Jawad, 25, a Kabul resident who grew up in exile in Iran and now supports his elderly parents as a construction worker. "He doesn't campaign in luxury vehicles like the others. He came to Shar-i-Nau Park on foot and sat there in a tent and listened to the people."
Reached on his cellphone Saturday in a noisy market in Khost province, Bashardost said he had discovered "a big distance between the ordinary people and the politicians in Kabul," adding: "I am sure we are going to see a revolution on August 20." He also said he had received a surprisingly large amount of support from Pashtuns at home and abroad. "This is something very new for Afghanistan," he said.
As a minority group that has long faced economic exploitation and social oppression, Hazaras seem to be taking particular advantage of political freedoms that have opened up since the fall of extremist Sunni Taliban rule in late 2001.
At a new private Shiite college in Kabul, teachers and students said the elections are important for their community, no matter who wins, because they represent a step toward modern, democratic practices that can help overcome Afghan traditions of ethnic and tribal competition.
"We need to develop the values and practices of democracy," said Amin Ahmadi, the college director. "Unfortunately, ethnic issues still play a large role in our country, and people don't trust leaders from other ethnic groups. But if we can have fair, transparent and peaceful elections, that will matter more than if we get a good or a bad president."
In West Kabul, the rundown but bustling heart of the capital's Hazara community, every public surface is papered with campaign posters. Yet many cart-pullers, mechanics and other workers said they are fed up with both national and ethnic politics. They said that their community suffers from widespread unemployment and poverty, but that no one in power has done anything to help.
"We are not happy with our government, and we are not happy with our own leaders," said Imam Ali Rahmat, 61, who sells firewood. "To them, we are just made of grime and dust. To us, they are just made of false promises. We need a change and we need new leaders, because we have lost our way."
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 25 -- For generations, Afghanistan's Hazara minority has occupied the humblest niche in the country's complex ethnic mosaic. The political power structure has been dominated by the large southern Pashtun tribes, followed by the slightly less numerous northern Tajiks.
During various periods in history, the Shiite Hazaras have been forced from their lands and slaughtered in bouts of ethnic or religious "cleansing." In more recent times, they have often been relegated to lowly jobs as cart-pullers or domestic servants. The abused boy in the novel and movie "The Kite Runner," which generated much controversy here, came from a family of Hazara servants.
But the group now stands poised to play a decisive role in the Aug. 20 presidential and provincial council elections. It has produced a popular presidential candidate, independent Ramazan Bashardost, who is an extremely long shot but has been traveling the country nonstop, preaching a message of government reform and social justice.
Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun who is seeking reelection, and his major challengers are aggressively courting the Hazara vote. The group makes up as much as 20 percent of the country's electorate and had high voter-registration and turnout rates in the last presidential election, in 2004.
"We have become kingmakers," said Mohammed Mohaqeq, a leader of the main Hazara political party, Wahdat-e-Islami, who agreed to support Karzai in return for pledges that Hazaras would be given control of several ministries and possibly a newly created province. "I cannot get elected, because my Pashtun brothers might not support me, but our people can make a big difference in deciding who wins," he said.
Mohaqeq has been campaigning in various provinces for Karzai, who has remained largely invisible during the run-up to the elections. Mohaqeq's party has organized an army of campaign workers and has fielded a slate of 14 candidates for the upper house of parliament and provincial councils, including one young man whose posters depict an old Hazara cart-puller bent under a load of goods.
Karzai, whose second vice presidential pick is a Hazara, took pains to appease conservative Hazara leaders in March by approving a controversial Shiite family law, even though it outraged human rights groups because it subjected Hazara women to the absolute control of their fathers and husbands.
Yet the political emancipation of Afghanistan's Hazaras, whose children are flocking to universities and office jobs, has created a generational and political split in a community that long fell in lockstep behind ethnic militia or religious leaders such as Mohaqeq as a matter of survival.
Many older or less educated Hazaras still express strong loyalty to such leaders and say they intend to follow their political instructions on voting day. But many others, including students and former refugees who have returned after years in Iran, said they value their political independence.
"I am Hazara, but we have rights now, and no one can tell me how to vote," said Farahmuz, 33, a laborer who joins dozens of men each morning at a traffic circle, hoping to obtain a few hours of work. "I don't want ethnic issues to come up in these elections, because they can destroy the country again," he said.
Many Hazaras said their sentimental favorite for president is Bashardost, 44, a reformist legislator and former planning minister whose office is in a tent across the street from parliament. He has been campaigning in much the same style, accepting government-provided planes to reach distant provinces but then mingling with voters in parks and markets.
"I like Mr. Bashardost because he understands our problems," said Jawad, 25, a Kabul resident who grew up in exile in Iran and now supports his elderly parents as a construction worker. "He doesn't campaign in luxury vehicles like the others. He came to Shar-i-Nau Park on foot and sat there in a tent and listened to the people."
Reached on his cellphone Saturday in a noisy market in Khost province, Bashardost said he had discovered "a big distance between the ordinary people and the politicians in Kabul," adding: "I am sure we are going to see a revolution on August 20." He also said he had received a surprisingly large amount of support from Pashtuns at home and abroad. "This is something very new for Afghanistan," he said.
As a minority group that has long faced economic exploitation and social oppression, Hazaras seem to be taking particular advantage of political freedoms that have opened up since the fall of extremist Sunni Taliban rule in late 2001.
At a new private Shiite college in Kabul, teachers and students said the elections are important for their community, no matter who wins, because they represent a step toward modern, democratic practices that can help overcome Afghan traditions of ethnic and tribal competition.
"We need to develop the values and practices of democracy," said Amin Ahmadi, the college director. "Unfortunately, ethnic issues still play a large role in our country, and people don't trust leaders from other ethnic groups. But if we can have fair, transparent and peaceful elections, that will matter more than if we get a good or a bad president."
In West Kabul, the rundown but bustling heart of the capital's Hazara community, every public surface is papered with campaign posters. Yet many cart-pullers, mechanics and other workers said they are fed up with both national and ethnic politics. They said that their community suffers from widespread unemployment and poverty, but that no one in power has done anything to help.
"We are not happy with our government, and we are not happy with our own leaders," said Imam Ali Rahmat, 61, who sells firewood. "To them, we are just made of grime and dust. To us, they are just made of false promises. We need a change and we need new leaders, because we have lost our way."
Pakistan forms committee to question Sufi Muhammad
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has constituted a committee to investigate the cases against pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Sufi Muhammad who was arrested Sunday in northwestern Peshawar City, The security forces also detained the cleric’s two sons, Ziaullah and Rizwanullah, in a raid in Peshawar City.The special joint committee will comprise officials from the federal and provincial security agencies, the report said.
Pakistan police detain pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Pakistani police have detained pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Mohammad, accusing him of helping militants in the country's northwest and sabotaging the government's fight against them, an official said on Sunday.
Mohammad helped broker a deal between the government and the Taliban in February to end violence in the northwest Swat valley, but the pact collapsed after militants refused to lay down arms and began expanding their influence in nearby districts.
Security forces subsequently launched an offensive against the militants in Swat and nearby districts nearly three months ago, as the Taliban's advances raised concerns about the stability of the U.S. ally and the safety of its nuclear weapons.
"We have detained him as his activities could disturb the law and order situation and after an inquiry we'll file cases against him," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the North West Frontier Province.
"He has been involved in activities which help militancy and militants and sabotage government efforts to combat them," he told a news conference in Peshawar.
Mohammad is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Fazlullah, whose spokesman said last week he was alive and unhurt, contrary to earlier reports by the military that he was injured.
The spokesman, Muslim Khan, vowed the Taliban would continue to fight on in Swat.
The military says it is in the final stages of its operation in Swat and has started helping to bring the roughly 2 million people displaced by the fighting back to their homes.
However, security forces continue to face pockets of resistance, and critics say few militant leaders have been eliminated, making it more likely they will be able to regroup.
Mohammad helped broker a deal between the government and the Taliban in February to end violence in the northwest Swat valley, but the pact collapsed after militants refused to lay down arms and began expanding their influence in nearby districts.
Security forces subsequently launched an offensive against the militants in Swat and nearby districts nearly three months ago, as the Taliban's advances raised concerns about the stability of the U.S. ally and the safety of its nuclear weapons.
"We have detained him as his activities could disturb the law and order situation and after an inquiry we'll file cases against him," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the North West Frontier Province.
"He has been involved in activities which help militancy and militants and sabotage government efforts to combat them," he told a news conference in Peshawar.
Mohammad is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Fazlullah, whose spokesman said last week he was alive and unhurt, contrary to earlier reports by the military that he was injured.
The spokesman, Muslim Khan, vowed the Taliban would continue to fight on in Swat.
The military says it is in the final stages of its operation in Swat and has started helping to bring the roughly 2 million people displaced by the fighting back to their homes.
However, security forces continue to face pockets of resistance, and critics say few militant leaders have been eliminated, making it more likely they will be able to regroup.
Iraq Veterans Find Afghan Enemy Even Bolder
NEW YORK TIMES
NAWA, Afghanistan — In three combat tours in Anbar Province, Marine Sgt. Jacob Tambunga fought the deadliest insurgents in Iraq.
But he says he never encountered an enemy as tenacious as what he saw immediately after arriving at this outpost in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. In his first days here in late June, he fought through three ambushes, each lasting as long as the most sustained fight he saw in Anbar.
Like other Anbar veterans here, Sergeant Tambunga was surprised to discover guerrillas who, if not as lethal, were bolder than those he fought in Iraq.
“They are two totally different worlds,” said Sergeant Tambunga, a squad leader in Company C, First Battalion, Fifth Marines.
“In Iraq, they’d hit you and run,” he said. “But these guys stick around and maneuver on you.”
They also have a keen sense of when to fight and when the odds against them are too great. Three weeks ago, the American military mounted a 4,000-man Marine offensive in Helmand — the largest since President Obama’s troop increase — and so far in many places, American commanders say, they have encountered less resistance than expected.
Yet it is also clear to many Marines and villagers here that Taliban fighters made a calculated decision: to retreat and regroup to fight where and when they choose. And in the view of troops here who fought intensely in the weeks before the offensive began, fierce battles probably lie ahead if they are to clear the Taliban from sanctuaries so far untouched.
“It was straight luck that we didn’t have a lot more guys hit,” said Sgt. Brandon Tritle, another squad leader in Company C, who cited the Taliban’s skill at laying down a base of fire to mount an attack.
“One force will put enough fire down so you have to keep your heads down, then another force will maneuver around to your side to try to kill you,” he said. “That’s the same thing we do.”
In other parts of Helmand the Taliban have been quick to mount counterattacks. Since the offensive began, 10 Marines have been killed, many of them south of Garmser in areas thick with roadside bombs. In addition, British forces in Helmand, who often travel in lightly armored vehicles, have lost 19 men, all but two from bombs.
All told, Western troops have died in greater numbers in Helmand this month than in any other province in Afghanistan over a similar period since the 2001 invasion.
It is unclear whether the level of casualties will remain this high. But the Taliban can ill afford to lose the Helmand River Valley, a strip of land made arable by a network of canals that nourish the nation’s center for poppy growing.
“This is what fuels the insurgency,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine brigade leading the offensive.
For now, the strategy of the Taliban who used to dominate this village, 15 miles south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, is to watch and wait just outside, villagers and Marines here say.
“They all escaped,” said Sardar Gul, a shopkeeper at the Nawa bazaar. Mr. Gul and others who reopened stores after the Marines arrived estimate that 300 to 600 Taliban fled to Marjah, 15 miles to the west and not under American control, joining perhaps more than 1,000 fighters.
Marine commanders acknowledge that they could have focused more on cutting off escape routes early in the operation, an issue that often dogged offensives against insurgents in Iraq.
“I wish we had trapped a few more folks,” the commander of First Battalion, Fifth Marines, Lt. Col. William F. McCollough, told the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who visited Nawa. “I expected there to be more fighting.”
When the full battalion arrived in Nawa in early July, the Taliban “knew we were too powerful for them” and left, said Staff Sgt. Michael Placencia, a platoon sergeant in Company C.
But he predicted the Taliban would stand and fight if Marines were to assault Marjah, describing them as a “more efficient” foe than the insurgents he saw as a squad leader in Anbar in 2005 and 2006.
“They will come back, and they will try to take this back and pin us down,” said Maj. Rob Gallimore, a British officer who trains Afghan soldiers here. He hopes that the Marines do not spread themselves too thin and that they focus instead on building a deep bond with locals in places they occupy, a classic counterinsurgency tactic.
So Marines are bracing for a fight against guerrillas who, they discovered in June, are surprisingly proficient at tactics the Marines themselves learned in infantry school.
“They’d flank us, and we’d flank them, just like a chess match,” said Sgt. Jason Lynd, another squad leader in Company C.
In June the Marines ended up in sustained firefights the first four times they left their outpost. The Taliban were always overmatched — attacking the Marines with only one-third the number of men — but they pressed the fight, laying complex ambushes and then cutting off Marines as they made their way back to base.
One fight began after Marines stopped three vans, which they let go. Fifteen minutes later they took fire from two homes near where they had been pursuing a suspicious man they wanted to question. They cleared both buildings, but were then attacked by gunmen behind the homes, some of whom, the Marines believe, had been in the three vans, a few disguised in burqas.
Somehow, none of the Marines were hit in the secondary ambush. “They tried to suck us in, and their plan worked,” Sergeant Tritle said. “They just missed.”
No Marines were killed in the two weeks they were here in June.
In contrast to Iraqi insurgents, the Taliban do not seem to have access to large artillery shells and other powerful military munitions that Anbar fighters used to kill hundreds of Marines and soldiers. The bombs found so far have been largely homemade with fertilizer, though they have still killed more than 20 British soldiers and United States Marines to the north and south of Nawa.
“If they had better weapons, we’d be in real trouble,” said Lance Cpl. Vazgen Matevosyan.
What the Taliban lack in munitions they make up for in tactics, even practicing “information operations” and disinformation, Marines say. Knowing the Marines listen to their two-way communications, they say, the Taliban describe phony locations of ambushes and bombs.
“They’re not stupid,” said Lance Cpl. Frank Hegel. “You can tell they catch on to things, and they don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Taliban Attack Police Station
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the main police station in the southeastern city of Khost on Saturday, officials said. They set off gun battles that went on for hours and left 7 militants dead and 14 other people wounded.
Also on Saturday, a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb during a patrol around Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province.
Zemeri Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said all the attackers in Khost were killed, but the Defense Ministry later said that one attacker might have escaped.
NAWA, Afghanistan — In three combat tours in Anbar Province, Marine Sgt. Jacob Tambunga fought the deadliest insurgents in Iraq.
But he says he never encountered an enemy as tenacious as what he saw immediately after arriving at this outpost in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. In his first days here in late June, he fought through three ambushes, each lasting as long as the most sustained fight he saw in Anbar.
Like other Anbar veterans here, Sergeant Tambunga was surprised to discover guerrillas who, if not as lethal, were bolder than those he fought in Iraq.
“They are two totally different worlds,” said Sergeant Tambunga, a squad leader in Company C, First Battalion, Fifth Marines.
“In Iraq, they’d hit you and run,” he said. “But these guys stick around and maneuver on you.”
They also have a keen sense of when to fight and when the odds against them are too great. Three weeks ago, the American military mounted a 4,000-man Marine offensive in Helmand — the largest since President Obama’s troop increase — and so far in many places, American commanders say, they have encountered less resistance than expected.
Yet it is also clear to many Marines and villagers here that Taliban fighters made a calculated decision: to retreat and regroup to fight where and when they choose. And in the view of troops here who fought intensely in the weeks before the offensive began, fierce battles probably lie ahead if they are to clear the Taliban from sanctuaries so far untouched.
“It was straight luck that we didn’t have a lot more guys hit,” said Sgt. Brandon Tritle, another squad leader in Company C, who cited the Taliban’s skill at laying down a base of fire to mount an attack.
“One force will put enough fire down so you have to keep your heads down, then another force will maneuver around to your side to try to kill you,” he said. “That’s the same thing we do.”
In other parts of Helmand the Taliban have been quick to mount counterattacks. Since the offensive began, 10 Marines have been killed, many of them south of Garmser in areas thick with roadside bombs. In addition, British forces in Helmand, who often travel in lightly armored vehicles, have lost 19 men, all but two from bombs.
All told, Western troops have died in greater numbers in Helmand this month than in any other province in Afghanistan over a similar period since the 2001 invasion.
It is unclear whether the level of casualties will remain this high. But the Taliban can ill afford to lose the Helmand River Valley, a strip of land made arable by a network of canals that nourish the nation’s center for poppy growing.
“This is what fuels the insurgency,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine brigade leading the offensive.
For now, the strategy of the Taliban who used to dominate this village, 15 miles south of the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, is to watch and wait just outside, villagers and Marines here say.
“They all escaped,” said Sardar Gul, a shopkeeper at the Nawa bazaar. Mr. Gul and others who reopened stores after the Marines arrived estimate that 300 to 600 Taliban fled to Marjah, 15 miles to the west and not under American control, joining perhaps more than 1,000 fighters.
Marine commanders acknowledge that they could have focused more on cutting off escape routes early in the operation, an issue that often dogged offensives against insurgents in Iraq.
“I wish we had trapped a few more folks,” the commander of First Battalion, Fifth Marines, Lt. Col. William F. McCollough, told the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who visited Nawa. “I expected there to be more fighting.”
When the full battalion arrived in Nawa in early July, the Taliban “knew we were too powerful for them” and left, said Staff Sgt. Michael Placencia, a platoon sergeant in Company C.
But he predicted the Taliban would stand and fight if Marines were to assault Marjah, describing them as a “more efficient” foe than the insurgents he saw as a squad leader in Anbar in 2005 and 2006.
“They will come back, and they will try to take this back and pin us down,” said Maj. Rob Gallimore, a British officer who trains Afghan soldiers here. He hopes that the Marines do not spread themselves too thin and that they focus instead on building a deep bond with locals in places they occupy, a classic counterinsurgency tactic.
So Marines are bracing for a fight against guerrillas who, they discovered in June, are surprisingly proficient at tactics the Marines themselves learned in infantry school.
“They’d flank us, and we’d flank them, just like a chess match,” said Sgt. Jason Lynd, another squad leader in Company C.
In June the Marines ended up in sustained firefights the first four times they left their outpost. The Taliban were always overmatched — attacking the Marines with only one-third the number of men — but they pressed the fight, laying complex ambushes and then cutting off Marines as they made their way back to base.
One fight began after Marines stopped three vans, which they let go. Fifteen minutes later they took fire from two homes near where they had been pursuing a suspicious man they wanted to question. They cleared both buildings, but were then attacked by gunmen behind the homes, some of whom, the Marines believe, had been in the three vans, a few disguised in burqas.
Somehow, none of the Marines were hit in the secondary ambush. “They tried to suck us in, and their plan worked,” Sergeant Tritle said. “They just missed.”
No Marines were killed in the two weeks they were here in June.
In contrast to Iraqi insurgents, the Taliban do not seem to have access to large artillery shells and other powerful military munitions that Anbar fighters used to kill hundreds of Marines and soldiers. The bombs found so far have been largely homemade with fertilizer, though they have still killed more than 20 British soldiers and United States Marines to the north and south of Nawa.
“If they had better weapons, we’d be in real trouble,” said Lance Cpl. Vazgen Matevosyan.
What the Taliban lack in munitions they make up for in tactics, even practicing “information operations” and disinformation, Marines say. Knowing the Marines listen to their two-way communications, they say, the Taliban describe phony locations of ambushes and bombs.
“They’re not stupid,” said Lance Cpl. Frank Hegel. “You can tell they catch on to things, and they don’t make the same mistake twice.”
Taliban Attack Police Station
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests and armed with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the main police station in the southeastern city of Khost on Saturday, officials said. They set off gun battles that went on for hours and left 7 militants dead and 14 other people wounded.
Also on Saturday, a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb during a patrol around Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province.
Zemeri Bashary, an Interior Ministry spokesman, said all the attackers in Khost were killed, but the Defense Ministry later said that one attacker might have escaped.
Afghan suicide attack increases pressure on Pakistan
TALIBAN militants struck at government buildings in the city of Khost in southeastern Afghanistan yesterday with suicide bombs, AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, wounding 14 people, including two police officers, and provoking fears of a bloody election campaign.
At least three suicide bombers blew themselves up during the onslaught, which began in the early afternoon near a US military base. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, said later that Afghan forces had surrounded the attackers.
The raid came as the United States asked Pakistan for help in ensuring a peaceful election campaign. Islamabad has been asked to send troops to key points along its border with Helmand to stop Taliban militia crossing back and forth.
For the past two weeks, 4,500 US marines have been engaged in Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword), their largest offensive yet. They have grabbed a swathe of territory in southern Helmand.
Although July has been the deadliest month for foreign troops in the eight-year war, with 66 killed, including 20 British men, military officials say the operation has so far faced less resistance than expected.
But this is because the Taliban faded away and officials are well aware that the militants can be eliminated only if Pakistan stops allowing them sanctuary. Border controls led to surprisingly peaceful polls in 2004 and 2005.
The request to Pakistan was made during a visit to Islamabad last week by General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, and General Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador to Kabul. It was reinforced by President Barack Obama’s special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who is visiting the region.
Nato commanders and the Afghan government have long complained about the sanctuary the Taliban enjoy in Pakistan where they send their wounded, train and recruit fighters and raise funds. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader, and his senior associates operate from Quetta, and journalists often receive calls from Taliban spokesmen in Peshawar.
But Pakistan’s military has recently taken a tough new stance after Taliban forces launched a spate of suicide attacks and took over the Swat valley, a former tourist area 70 miles from the capital. “We suddenly realised we could be left an army without a country,” said one general.
However, with Swat almost cleared after three months of fighting and Pakistani troops moving into the border areas of Waziristan to pursue Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, there is concern that Islamabad seems to have no interest in taking on militant groups that are using its territory to attack western forces over the border.
A senior US official said: “We still don’t see any evidence that Islamabad has politically or militarily made a decision to go after the Afghan Taliban.
“As far as we’re concerned, they will only turn the corner when they tell the Quettashura [tribal council], ‘You have a choice – go back home and either negotiate or fight, but you’re not welcome here’.”
McChrystal said last week: “What I would love is for the government of Pakistan to have the ability to eliminate the safe havens that the Afghan Taliban enjoy.”
Briefings by senior Pakistani military indicate that they still divide Taliban into good and bad. “They cause no trouble to us,” replied one general when asked about Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Waziristan warlord closest to Al-Qaeda.
“What we have to consider is what happens when the foreign troops leave Afghanistan,” said another. “If the Taliban then take over, we don’t want to be on the wrong side.”
Pakistan has objected that American operations in southern Afghanistan are forcing more militants over its side of the border.
“There is a need for better coordination at the military level,” said Shah Mehmud Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister. “Pushing the buck over won’t solve the problem as with such a porous border the buck will just go back again.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times in Islamabad, Qureshi insisted that his country would no longer give sanctuary to Mullah Omar and the Afghan Taliban.
“We are clear we have to deal with all elements that are challenging the writ of the government and making Pakistan or other places insecure,” he said. “We don’t want our soil, our national territory, to be used against anyone.”
“We’re no more differentiating between good terrorists and bad terrorists. They’ve created havoc, made our environment insecure, and wherever they are, we’ll take them on.”
Asked specifically if this would include Mullah Omar and his Quetta shura, which runs the Afghan Taliban, the minister replied: “Absolutely, we’ll be taking them on.”
At least three suicide bombers blew themselves up during the onslaught, which began in the early afternoon near a US military base. General Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, said later that Afghan forces had surrounded the attackers.
The raid came as the United States asked Pakistan for help in ensuring a peaceful election campaign. Islamabad has been asked to send troops to key points along its border with Helmand to stop Taliban militia crossing back and forth.
For the past two weeks, 4,500 US marines have been engaged in Operation Khanjar (Strike of the Sword), their largest offensive yet. They have grabbed a swathe of territory in southern Helmand.
Although July has been the deadliest month for foreign troops in the eight-year war, with 66 killed, including 20 British men, military officials say the operation has so far faced less resistance than expected.
But this is because the Taliban faded away and officials are well aware that the militants can be eliminated only if Pakistan stops allowing them sanctuary. Border controls led to surprisingly peaceful polls in 2004 and 2005.
The request to Pakistan was made during a visit to Islamabad last week by General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, and General Karl Eikenberry, the US ambassador to Kabul. It was reinforced by President Barack Obama’s special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who is visiting the region.
Nato commanders and the Afghan government have long complained about the sanctuary the Taliban enjoy in Pakistan where they send their wounded, train and recruit fighters and raise funds. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader, and his senior associates operate from Quetta, and journalists often receive calls from Taliban spokesmen in Peshawar.
But Pakistan’s military has recently taken a tough new stance after Taliban forces launched a spate of suicide attacks and took over the Swat valley, a former tourist area 70 miles from the capital. “We suddenly realised we could be left an army without a country,” said one general.
However, with Swat almost cleared after three months of fighting and Pakistani troops moving into the border areas of Waziristan to pursue Baitullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, there is concern that Islamabad seems to have no interest in taking on militant groups that are using its territory to attack western forces over the border.
A senior US official said: “We still don’t see any evidence that Islamabad has politically or militarily made a decision to go after the Afghan Taliban.
“As far as we’re concerned, they will only turn the corner when they tell the Quettashura [tribal council], ‘You have a choice – go back home and either negotiate or fight, but you’re not welcome here’.”
McChrystal said last week: “What I would love is for the government of Pakistan to have the ability to eliminate the safe havens that the Afghan Taliban enjoy.”
Briefings by senior Pakistani military indicate that they still divide Taliban into good and bad. “They cause no trouble to us,” replied one general when asked about Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, the Waziristan warlord closest to Al-Qaeda.
“What we have to consider is what happens when the foreign troops leave Afghanistan,” said another. “If the Taliban then take over, we don’t want to be on the wrong side.”
Pakistan has objected that American operations in southern Afghanistan are forcing more militants over its side of the border.
“There is a need for better coordination at the military level,” said Shah Mehmud Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister. “Pushing the buck over won’t solve the problem as with such a porous border the buck will just go back again.”
In an interview with The Sunday Times in Islamabad, Qureshi insisted that his country would no longer give sanctuary to Mullah Omar and the Afghan Taliban.
“We are clear we have to deal with all elements that are challenging the writ of the government and making Pakistan or other places insecure,” he said. “We don’t want our soil, our national territory, to be used against anyone.”
“We’re no more differentiating between good terrorists and bad terrorists. They’ve created havoc, made our environment insecure, and wherever they are, we’ll take them on.”
Asked specifically if this would include Mullah Omar and his Quetta shura, which runs the Afghan Taliban, the minister replied: “Absolutely, we’ll be taking them on.”
Banks to reopen in Mingora
MINGORA: The State Bank has directed all commercial banks to reopen their branches in Mingora city on Monday.
Official sources told Dawn that the central bank had issued directives to restart operations because of a majority of displaced people had returned home.
The banks have also been told to facilitate disbursement of salaries to government employees.
The local business community has been facing problems because of closure of banks since April last when militants extended their activities to the headquarters of Swat.
Now normalcy has returned to the city and 80 per cent of shops and business centres have reopened. The main bazaars and markets are full with customers.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
The NWFP government announced on Saturday that educational institutions would reopen on Aug 1.
Minister for Higher Education, Qazi Assad, said authorities concerned had been asked to prepare feasibility reports for rebuilding of schools and colleges.
Sources said district authorities had been directed to submit a report on damaged schools and those occupied by security forces and to make alternative arrangements for reopening them.
Around 200 schools have been destroyed completely or partially by insurgents.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Security developments in Pakistan, July 25
ISLAMABAD - Security forces killed 13 militants in clashes in the northwestern Swat valley and the nearby Buner district in the past 24 hours, the military said in a statement on Saturday. Independent verification of casualty figures is unavailable.
* LAKKI MARWAT - A suspected suicide attack wounded five policemen and eight civilians in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, police official Habibullah said.
LOWER DIR - Security forces killed 16 militants in Lower Dir on Friday, paramilitary officials said of the northwestern district where troops have been battling insurgents for nearly three months.
QUETTA - Security agencies killed a suspected terrorist and arrested seven, including an Arab national, during a raid on a house in the southwestern Quetta city on Saturday, intelligence officials said. Suicide jackets, arms and explosives were also seized.
MIRANSHAH - Two Pakistani helicopter gunships on Saturday fired at a suspected house near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border, killing a woman and wounding three, witnesses said.
MIRANSHAH - Pakistani Taliban shot dead an Afghan refugee in a village south of Miranshah, accusing him of being a U.S. spy and dumped his body on a roadside with a threat -- anyone spying for the United States will meet a similar fate, witnesses and intelligence officials said on Saturday.
KOHAT - Seven policemen were wounded while trying to defuse an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside along the Indus Highway in the northwestern region of Kohat on Saturday, security officials said.
* LAKKI MARWAT - A suspected suicide attack wounded five policemen and eight civilians in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, police official Habibullah said.
LOWER DIR - Security forces killed 16 militants in Lower Dir on Friday, paramilitary officials said of the northwestern district where troops have been battling insurgents for nearly three months.
QUETTA - Security agencies killed a suspected terrorist and arrested seven, including an Arab national, during a raid on a house in the southwestern Quetta city on Saturday, intelligence officials said. Suicide jackets, arms and explosives were also seized.
MIRANSHAH - Two Pakistani helicopter gunships on Saturday fired at a suspected house near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border, killing a woman and wounding three, witnesses said.
MIRANSHAH - Pakistani Taliban shot dead an Afghan refugee in a village south of Miranshah, accusing him of being a U.S. spy and dumped his body on a roadside with a threat -- anyone spying for the United States will meet a similar fate, witnesses and intelligence officials said on Saturday.
KOHAT - Seven policemen were wounded while trying to defuse an improvised explosive device planted on a roadside along the Indus Highway in the northwestern region of Kohat on Saturday, security officials said.
Asfandyar to meet Nawaz on NWFP renaming
ISLAMABAD: Central President of Awami National Party (ANP) Asfandyar Wali Khan is likely to meet PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif within next few days in a bid to get his support as well as to create consensus for changing the name of NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa.
According to sources, as there is a consensus among majority of the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms on the issue of renaming the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa, therefore, the ANP has decided to get the support of the PML-N, and Asfandyar Wali will soon meet Nawaz Sharif in this regard.
The meeting is expected on the return of Mian Nawaz Sharif from London next week. Presently, the PPP, MQM, JUI-F, JWP, NP and BNP-A are in favour of renaming the province as Pakhtunkhwa while the PML-N, Jamaat-e-Islami and PML-Q are opposing it.
The ANP is set to raise the issue in the upcoming meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms that is scheduled for Tuesday (July 28). The ANP wanted that its demand should be incorporated in the constitutional amendments, the sources said. The sources said the ANP wished that once it got the support of the PML-N, the name of the province would be changed with consensus rather than majority.
According to sources, as there is a consensus among majority of the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms on the issue of renaming the NWFP as Pakhtunkhwa, therefore, the ANP has decided to get the support of the PML-N, and Asfandyar Wali will soon meet Nawaz Sharif in this regard.
The meeting is expected on the return of Mian Nawaz Sharif from London next week. Presently, the PPP, MQM, JUI-F, JWP, NP and BNP-A are in favour of renaming the province as Pakhtunkhwa while the PML-N, Jamaat-e-Islami and PML-Q are opposing it.
The ANP is set to raise the issue in the upcoming meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms that is scheduled for Tuesday (July 28). The ANP wanted that its demand should be incorporated in the constitutional amendments, the sources said. The sources said the ANP wished that once it got the support of the PML-N, the name of the province would be changed with consensus rather than majority.
TB outbreak in camps – a new source of worry
Around 340 new cases of Tuberculosis have been detected amongst those displaced from the war-affected areas. This has become a source of worry for TB control authorities as their centers in Malakand closed down when the military operation began in the area. As a result, treatment of the existing TB patients was stopped and the contagious disease spread rapidly among other IDPs.
While talking to DawnNews, Deputy Manager National TB Control Program Dr Ubaid said besides the normal patients of TB, cases of Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR TB) rose at an alarming rate.
More than 300,000 new cases of TB were detected in 2008 in Pakistan, among which 15,000 were those of MDR-TB.
He asserted that TB is a curable disease and the health department and its subsidiaries are working to eradicate the menace. Among the total cases detected, 944 were those who had already been infected before coming to the camps. An additional number of 340 patients became infected after their arrival at relief camps.
This statistics were revealed at a seminar organized by the NWFP TB Control Program in Peshawar.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ubaid said previous cases of TB have been retrieved and the patients are back on medication, meanwhile new cases that have been diagnosed have also started their treatment.
Apart from pediatric medicines, TB authorities have ensured that anti-TB medicines are also available at all camps, he added.
‘Uninterrupted treatment is the fundamental requirement of successful treatment of TB,’ he said. ‘Any interruption or delay could lead to serious complications.’
More than 23,000 patients have been treated under the NWFP TB control Program this year; however, 17,000 people are still deprived of treatment.
Pakistan ranks eighth among the countries with the highest burden of tuberculosis in the world and is responsible for 5.1 per cent of the total national disease burden.
Friday, July 24, 2009
The deal that wasn’t
Dawn Editorial
It was the opinion of this paper that ‘the Pakistan government is counting its chickens before they’ve hatched.’ That assessment was made in mid-May, a few days after the foreign minister proclaimed that a nuclear power deal with France was all but done and dusted.
Even though Paris made no such promises, at least not in public, Shah Mehmood Qureshi insisted that ‘France has agreed to transfer civilian nuclear technology to Pakistan.’ Mr Sarkozy, he claimed, said there was no reason why Pakistan should be treated differently from India in terms of access to nuclear power technology. The French take was altogether different, with Mr Sarkozy’s office clarifying that he had offered to help Pakistan improve its nuclear safety capability. This position was confirmed on Thursday by the French secretary of state for foreign trade, who told the press in Islamabad that her country’s partnership with Pakistan in the realm of civilian nuclear energy would be limited to safety and security issues. Clearly the chickens haven’t hatched, and the government must be censured for acting with undue haste and indulging in hype.
That said, France’s refusal to sell civilian nuclear technology to Pakistan smacks of an obvious double standard. India, like Pakistan, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India and Pakistan both conducted nuclear tests in the ‘90s that were widely condemned in the West. A US moratorium on nuclear trade with India, dating back to the ‘70s, was already in place and Pakistan too had been placed under sanctions. Yet, in a major deal, the US has since agreed to sell reactors to India while Pakistan continues to be ostracised by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
Significantly, the US-India agreement does not require the latter to cap fissile material production at a time when most nuclear powers are cutting back on the same. And though a system of checks and safeguards have been guaranteed on paper, the American technology transferred to India could be used to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
None of this is India’s fault, of course. It pressed its case and used its clout and got what it wanted. New Delhi’s position was probably helped by the fact that, unlike Pakistan, India does not have a history of nuclear proliferation. But times have changed. Pakistan is trying to make a new beginning, and it must be recognised by the international community that this country’s economic and social progress is being impeded by an energy crunch that is worsening by the day. Nuclear power can go a long way in easing the burden.
Black males' fear of racial profiling very real, regardless of class
Los Angeles Times
Several African American professionals find professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s recent encounter with police all too easy to relate to. Their lingering question is when to speak up.
Like Henry Louis Gates Jr., they are professionals, men of status and achievement who have excelled in a nation that once shunned black men.
And for many of them, their only shock -- upon learning of the celebrated scholar's recent run-in with police -- was the moment of recognition.
They know too well the pivotal moment Gates faced at his Massachusetts home. It was that moment of suspicion when confronted by police, the moment one wonders, in a flash of panic, anger, or confusion -- Maybe I am being treated this way because I'm black.
Next comes the pivotal question -- Do I protest or just take it?
Kwame Dunston says he has made the calculated choice to take it -- repeatedly. The public school administrator says he has been pulled over more than 20 times in the last decade, but had rarely been issued a ticket. What factor other than race, he wondered, would account for all of those stops?
"It's more important for me to make it home than to fight for a cause I'm not going to win," he said.
Dunston, 36, a New York resident who was in Atlanta this week, pointed to the interior of his 2006 Toyota Camry. It was showroom clean. He doesn't want police to think he has something to hide.
"My job," Dunston said, "is to make sure they don't have any question about what's inside the car."
Such anxiety, deeply rooted in the African American experience, has endured into the era of the first black president.
For many black men, the feeling of remaining inherently suspect never goes away, no matter their wealth and status and the efforts by police forces to avoid abuses in profiling.
Lawrence Otis Graham, author of a book on affluent African Americans, said wealthy blacks may, in fact, be subjected to more racial profiling than others.
In upscale white neighborhoods, they sometimes stand out. In fancy restaurants, they're sometimes mistaken for help. "We become almost numbed by the constant presumptions," said Graham.
Those issues came crashing back into the spotlight with the arrest of Gates, a 58-year-old Harvard University professor, on July 16.
Early that afternoon, Cambridge police showed up at Gates' home, responding to a tip on a possible break-in. Gates was inside the house, after reportedly forcing open a stuck door.
According to his police report, Sgt. James Crowley asked Gates to step outside to talk, and Gates began screaming, accusing Crowley of being a "racist police officer."
Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct, a charge later dropped. A number of people -- most prominently, President Obama -- rushed to his defense.
But Lorenzo Wyche, 32, is among those who wonder whether Gates picked the right time to take a stand. Wyche, a black restaurateur and Atlanta resident, said that his generation may not be as quick to ascribe nefarious motives to police as Gates' generation. "I didn't grow up with dogs chasing me down," he said.
And yet Wyche is also gripped at times by the gnawing suspicion that his black skin makes him a target. He was recently driving in midtown Atlanta. In front of him, an attractive white woman walked across the road, catching his eye. Behind him, a white policeman turned on his lights and pulled Wyche over.
But there would be no fireworks. The officer warned Wyche about an expired tag on his Porsche, and drove away.
"So that was my moment," Wyche said, with a laugh. "Did he run my tag just because I stared at this white girl?"
Wyche figures he will never know whether he was profiled. And he prefers this mystery to a truncheon or the butt of a gun. At the same time, however, the difficulty in proving profiling has created problems for police. Last year, members of the Los Angeles Police Department's civilian oversight panel were incredulous when LAPD officials announced that not one of more than 300 racial profiling complaints was found to have merit.
A later review of department documents by The Times showed that no claims of profiling -- more than 1,200 -- had been upheld in at least six years. (Racial profiling isn't confined to black men; women and other groups can be targeted as well.)
But LAPD Chief William J. Bratton dismissed the criticism, saying that profiling allegations hinge on what the officer was thinking at the time, and therefore are nearly impossible to prove without a confession.
"How," he said, "do you get inside someone's mind?"
For some black men, the solution is to try to avoid the possibility of confrontation altogether. Graham, the author, lives with his family on a large spread in the mostly white suburb of Westchester, N.Y. When the house alarm goes off, his wife goes to the front gate to meet police. He fears they will mistake him for an intruder.
Vibert White, a history professor at the University of Central Florida, recalled driving along a highway in Indiana, and spotting a line of cars that had pulled to the side of the road. All of the drivers were black men. So White, too, pulled over, figuring that was expected of black men.
An officer walked up and asked him why he stopped.
"I told him that I'd seen the line of cars and just reacted," said White, 51. "He told me, 'Sir, you can go on with your business.' I realized how deeply ingrained this lesson had become -- of not causing a ruckus, of just playing the game, of doing what you needed to do in order to live your life."
Years earlier, he had challenged a traffic stop and ended up in handcuffs.
In Detroit, Tony Spearman-Leach, 42, chief communications officer of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, said he gets tailed by police three or four times a year. He gets pulled over, on average, once a year, but has never received a ticket.
He keeps his replies clear, respectful and short. Each time the officer walks up to his black 1991 Volvo S-70 sedan, his mind weighs the same questions.
"I know it's because I'm black, and I'm driving the most conservative car you can get your hands on," Spearman-Leach said. "But you have to weigh what to do. If I fight, am I going to escalate the matter? Is this a battle worth fighting?"
Leach's answer has always been no. But before the Gates incident, other black voices had been encouraging people to say yes.
In January, Baratunde Thurston, a contributor to the influential blog Jack & Jill Politics (which bills itself as a voice of the "black bourgeoisie") argued that with a black president entering office, it was important to speak up about such issues, rather than bury the lingering problems of race.
In the past, speaking up has sometimes brought real change. In 1992, Robert L. Wilkins, a Washington, D.C., attorney, refused a Maryland trooper's attempt to search his rental car with a drug dog. His federal lawsuit forced the state to enact a new training regimen for troopers, and put an end to race-based blanket drug sweeps.
But fighting back does not always yield such clear results.
In 1997, Aaron Campbell Jr. argued with sheriff's deputies in Orange County, Fla., after being pulled over for a lane-change violation. He was pepper-sprayed and thrown in the back of a police car. Campbell also happened to be a major in the Miami-Dade Police Department.
"I think that if I was a white major on the turnpike, and was stopped unlawfully, they would have said, 'Hey major, go on about your business.' "
Campbell was found guilty of resisting arrest. The sheriff's deputies said race had nothing to do with it. Campbell's federal civil suit went nowhere.
Several African American professionals find professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s recent encounter with police all too easy to relate to. Their lingering question is when to speak up.
Like Henry Louis Gates Jr., they are professionals, men of status and achievement who have excelled in a nation that once shunned black men.
And for many of them, their only shock -- upon learning of the celebrated scholar's recent run-in with police -- was the moment of recognition.
They know too well the pivotal moment Gates faced at his Massachusetts home. It was that moment of suspicion when confronted by police, the moment one wonders, in a flash of panic, anger, or confusion -- Maybe I am being treated this way because I'm black.
Next comes the pivotal question -- Do I protest or just take it?
Kwame Dunston says he has made the calculated choice to take it -- repeatedly. The public school administrator says he has been pulled over more than 20 times in the last decade, but had rarely been issued a ticket. What factor other than race, he wondered, would account for all of those stops?
"It's more important for me to make it home than to fight for a cause I'm not going to win," he said.
Dunston, 36, a New York resident who was in Atlanta this week, pointed to the interior of his 2006 Toyota Camry. It was showroom clean. He doesn't want police to think he has something to hide.
"My job," Dunston said, "is to make sure they don't have any question about what's inside the car."
Such anxiety, deeply rooted in the African American experience, has endured into the era of the first black president.
For many black men, the feeling of remaining inherently suspect never goes away, no matter their wealth and status and the efforts by police forces to avoid abuses in profiling.
Lawrence Otis Graham, author of a book on affluent African Americans, said wealthy blacks may, in fact, be subjected to more racial profiling than others.
In upscale white neighborhoods, they sometimes stand out. In fancy restaurants, they're sometimes mistaken for help. "We become almost numbed by the constant presumptions," said Graham.
Those issues came crashing back into the spotlight with the arrest of Gates, a 58-year-old Harvard University professor, on July 16.
Early that afternoon, Cambridge police showed up at Gates' home, responding to a tip on a possible break-in. Gates was inside the house, after reportedly forcing open a stuck door.
According to his police report, Sgt. James Crowley asked Gates to step outside to talk, and Gates began screaming, accusing Crowley of being a "racist police officer."
Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct, a charge later dropped. A number of people -- most prominently, President Obama -- rushed to his defense.
But Lorenzo Wyche, 32, is among those who wonder whether Gates picked the right time to take a stand. Wyche, a black restaurateur and Atlanta resident, said that his generation may not be as quick to ascribe nefarious motives to police as Gates' generation. "I didn't grow up with dogs chasing me down," he said.
And yet Wyche is also gripped at times by the gnawing suspicion that his black skin makes him a target. He was recently driving in midtown Atlanta. In front of him, an attractive white woman walked across the road, catching his eye. Behind him, a white policeman turned on his lights and pulled Wyche over.
But there would be no fireworks. The officer warned Wyche about an expired tag on his Porsche, and drove away.
"So that was my moment," Wyche said, with a laugh. "Did he run my tag just because I stared at this white girl?"
Wyche figures he will never know whether he was profiled. And he prefers this mystery to a truncheon or the butt of a gun. At the same time, however, the difficulty in proving profiling has created problems for police. Last year, members of the Los Angeles Police Department's civilian oversight panel were incredulous when LAPD officials announced that not one of more than 300 racial profiling complaints was found to have merit.
A later review of department documents by The Times showed that no claims of profiling -- more than 1,200 -- had been upheld in at least six years. (Racial profiling isn't confined to black men; women and other groups can be targeted as well.)
But LAPD Chief William J. Bratton dismissed the criticism, saying that profiling allegations hinge on what the officer was thinking at the time, and therefore are nearly impossible to prove without a confession.
"How," he said, "do you get inside someone's mind?"
For some black men, the solution is to try to avoid the possibility of confrontation altogether. Graham, the author, lives with his family on a large spread in the mostly white suburb of Westchester, N.Y. When the house alarm goes off, his wife goes to the front gate to meet police. He fears they will mistake him for an intruder.
Vibert White, a history professor at the University of Central Florida, recalled driving along a highway in Indiana, and spotting a line of cars that had pulled to the side of the road. All of the drivers were black men. So White, too, pulled over, figuring that was expected of black men.
An officer walked up and asked him why he stopped.
"I told him that I'd seen the line of cars and just reacted," said White, 51. "He told me, 'Sir, you can go on with your business.' I realized how deeply ingrained this lesson had become -- of not causing a ruckus, of just playing the game, of doing what you needed to do in order to live your life."
Years earlier, he had challenged a traffic stop and ended up in handcuffs.
In Detroit, Tony Spearman-Leach, 42, chief communications officer of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, said he gets tailed by police three or four times a year. He gets pulled over, on average, once a year, but has never received a ticket.
He keeps his replies clear, respectful and short. Each time the officer walks up to his black 1991 Volvo S-70 sedan, his mind weighs the same questions.
"I know it's because I'm black, and I'm driving the most conservative car you can get your hands on," Spearman-Leach said. "But you have to weigh what to do. If I fight, am I going to escalate the matter? Is this a battle worth fighting?"
Leach's answer has always been no. But before the Gates incident, other black voices had been encouraging people to say yes.
In January, Baratunde Thurston, a contributor to the influential blog Jack & Jill Politics (which bills itself as a voice of the "black bourgeoisie") argued that with a black president entering office, it was important to speak up about such issues, rather than bury the lingering problems of race.
In the past, speaking up has sometimes brought real change. In 1992, Robert L. Wilkins, a Washington, D.C., attorney, refused a Maryland trooper's attempt to search his rental car with a drug dog. His federal lawsuit forced the state to enact a new training regimen for troopers, and put an end to race-based blanket drug sweeps.
But fighting back does not always yield such clear results.
In 1997, Aaron Campbell Jr. argued with sheriff's deputies in Orange County, Fla., after being pulled over for a lane-change violation. He was pepper-sprayed and thrown in the back of a police car. Campbell also happened to be a major in the Miami-Dade Police Department.
"I think that if I was a white major on the turnpike, and was stopped unlawfully, they would have said, 'Hey major, go on about your business.' "
Campbell was found guilty of resisting arrest. The sheriff's deputies said race had nothing to do with it. Campbell's federal civil suit went nowhere.
Peshawar bazaar shut after bombing threat
PESHAWAR: The historic Qissa Khwani bazaar and nearby trade centres were closed and security outside mosques in the city was tightened for Friday prayers following intelligence reports that suicide bombers had been tasked to carry out attacks on places of worship.
The roads around important mosques in cantonment and city areas were barricaded and traffic was diverted to other routes for the prayers time. No one was allowed to park vehicles near the mosques, especially those near government offices. Guards were deployed outside the mosques to check every suspicious person.
“We have received tip-off that a suicide bomber has been assigned to carry out attack on worship places during the Friday prayers,” a police official, pleading anonymity, said.He added that initially there were reports that the attackers may be on motorbike, but later the reports suggested he would be using a car.
Heavy police contingents blocked the main Qissa Khwani Road by placing barbed wire outside the Khan Raziq Shaheed police station.Also, barriers were erected near Qasim Ali Khan mosque in Misgaran Bazaar to block the route from Chowk Yadgar side for the Friday prayers. The movement of vehicles into the area was banned after shopkeepers, vendors and customers moved out of the area. Apart from the main Qissa Khwani Bazaar, the Kabari Bazaar, Mohalla Jhangi, Jehangirpura, Dalgaran, Misgaran and parts of Koochi bazaar also remained closed for three hours.
“After every blast, hoax or tip-off, clients avoid visiting bazaars for several days. The trend has ruined not only our business, but of thousands of others having shops in Qissa Khwani and nearby markets,” said Abdul Majid, president of the plastic market, Muhammad Ali Johar road on the back of Qissa Khwani.
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