A major winter storm will continue to wallop the Northeast on Friday, a day after heavy snow closed schools, roads and caused dangerous conditions.
Parts of New York could get as much as a foot of snow Friday. The storm is the third blizzard to hit the area in a month.
"The heavy wet snow will be sufficient to bring down trees and power lines and could also cause roof collapses," the National Weather Service said.
A snow-covered tree limb fell in Central Park on Thursday, killing a 46-year-old man. New York City's Parks Department warned residents to stay out of city parks after the incident.
Parts of New York had received from 22 to 30 inches by Thursday evening, the Weather Service said. Massachusetts was averaging 22 inches across the state. Parts of Pennsylvania had as much as 12 inches. Areas in Vermont received as much as 38 inches of snow.
The storm canceled more than 1,000 flights at New York area airports Thursday, said John Kelly, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Most cancellations were at Newark Liberty International Airport, with LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy Airport also scrapping flights.
More cancellations were expected Friday, airport officials said.
The latest wintery blast hasn't yet wreaked as much havoc as did February's two earlier blizzards. Power companies in the New York area were reporting few outages.
But for some, any more snow was just too much.
"I've just been shoveling," a weary man told CNN-affiliate WBRE. "And it looks like I'll be doing so more shoveling."
Friday, February 26, 2010
More girls among child labourers than boys
Girls outstrip boys in the child workforce and the number of children working in villages is more than twice that in cities and towns, according to a survey conducted by a non-governmental organisation.More than three million children are working as labourers in different industries with the majority linked to bangle manufacturing, carpet weaving and surgical industry.
Leaders of the Global Compact Pakistan Faseehul Karim Siddiki and Zaheer Arif, addressing a press conference at the press club on Thursday, said that though the number of child labourers was more than 3.3 million but authorities have failed in protecting their rights due to the lack of will to implement international laws. They regretted the government attitude in following comprehensive policy in this regard.
The prevalence of child labour practice is because of poverty, which, if can’t be abolished altogether should at least be curtailed by reducing their working hours so that they could pursue their education as well, they said.
They said that the football industry in Sialkot has been purged of this practice but girls in agriculture and as domestics outnumber boys and the ratio of child labour in rural and urban areas is 70:30.
They called on media and anti-child labour organisations to join hands for fending off this evil, for ever.
Syed Jawed Shah, president of the Indus Development Society said that in Larkana alone there were some 24,000 children engaged in carpet and newspaper industries, besides working in different arenas. These helpless souls, he said, more often face physical, sexual and mental harassment.
The leaders proposed of forming coalition groups at district level to effectively address the issue of child labour.
They also announced of establishing a branch of Global Compact Pakistan in Larkana.
Hillary urges rich Pakistanis to pay more tax
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged wealthy Pakistanis to pay a larger share of taxes to reduce their country’s dependence on foreign aid.
In a testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the top US diplomat reminded rich Pakistanis that they had a duty to enable their government to fund schools and hospitals and to spend more on other social projects by paying taxes.
“The very well-off” in Pakistan “do not pay their fair share for the services that are needed, in health and education primarily,” she observed.
Secretary Clinton said the US, along with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, was looking for ways to pressure nations that received loans and grants to broaden their tax base.
US spending on Pakistan, she said, were designed to promote political stability, weaken terrorist elements and help the war effort in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Mrs Clinton said the US, which last year approved a non-military annual aid package of $1.5 billion for Pakistan for five years, was also trying to boost trade and other investment opportunities in that country.
She appreciated the recent steps taken by the Pakistani government to help revive the ailing economy and noted that the Obama administration had committed to some large energy projects in Pakistan.
Such projects, she said, would enable Pakistan to overcome some of its major economic challenges by “keeping the power on and keeping those factories humming”.
The Obama administration, she noted, had “ordered a redirection of our aid so that we produce results that are in line with the needs and aspirations of the Pakistani people”. Meanwhile, documents produced before the US Congress show that since Sept 11, 2001, Pakistan has received nearly $18 billion of aid from the United States, including $11.5 billion in military assistance.
A Congressional compilation of the US aid to Pakistan showed that Islamabad received $6 billion in civilian aid after the Sept 11 attacks.
The Obama administration, in its latest annual budget, has proposed $1.6 billion in military assistance and about $1.4 billion as civilian assistance to Pakistan. This takes the total US aid to Pakistan to more than $20.7 billion post 9/11.
Of the military assistance, the maximum amount of $7.345 billion has come from the Coalition Support Fund, which Islamabad does not consider foreign assistance as this is reimbursement for its efforts to combat militants along the Afghan border.
This is followed by $2.164 billion in foreign military assistance. After coming to power, the Obama administration has so far provided $1.1 billion ($400 million in 2009 and $700 million in 2010) for Pakistan from the Counter-Insurgency Fund/Counter-Insurgency Capability Fund.
For the year 2011, the Obama administration has proposed $1.2 billion for Pakistan under this category.
Non-military assistance to Pakistan has increased considerably since last year, mainly because of the Kerry-Lugar-Berman bill.
Post 9/11, Pakistan has received $6 billion as civilian assistance, most of which — $4.7 billion — comes from the Economic Support Fund. For the year 2011, the US administration has proposed $1.322 billion as economic support to Pakistan.
CIA extends war on terror to Peshawar, Quetta in Pak
America's CIA has taken its war against Taliban and al-Qaeda from the mountainous Af-Pak border region to the bases in Pakistan's Peshawar and Quetta cities, a media report said today.
The report by New York Times said that the agencies that have previously shared a "tormented relationship" are now working on the several reconnaissance missions together but their long-term strategies when it comes to the Taliban and Pakistan's role in Afghanistan's future are different.
"Successful missions sometimes end with American and Pakistani spies toasting one another with Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky, a gift from the CIA," the report said.
The Pakistani government, however, has downplayed the relationship between the ISI and CIA to avoid a backlash from the public, which disapproves of the strong American presence in their country especially when it costs civilian lives in the fighting.
The report by New York Times said that the agencies that have previously shared a "tormented relationship" are now working on the several reconnaissance missions together but their long-term strategies when it comes to the Taliban and Pakistan's role in Afghanistan's future are different.
"Successful missions sometimes end with American and Pakistani spies toasting one another with Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky, a gift from the CIA," the report said.
The Pakistani government, however, has downplayed the relationship between the ISI and CIA to avoid a backlash from the public, which disapproves of the strong American presence in their country especially when it costs civilian lives in the fighting.
Afghans Plant Flag and Their Hopes
New York Times
MARJA, Afghanistan — The black, red and green flag of Afghanistan was hoisted over the center of this onetime Taliban stronghold on Thursday, as Afghan officials symbolically claimed control after a major American-led military offensive.
While this city has emerged from the worst of the fighting, there were reports of scattered battles to the north of Marja, and American and Afghan troops continued to pursue Taliban militants. The militaries now face formidable challenges in securing the city enough for the government to begin to provide the services that it hopes will win people’s loyalty.
Residents who fled began to return, and some markets reopened Thursday. But there is little food because the major road into Marja is still mined, and the city remains a dangerous labyrinth of buried bombs, booby traps and pockets of insurgents.
With Afghan soldiers, tribal elders and residents of Marja looking on at the flag raising, the governor of Helmand Province, which includes Marja, and a top Afghan Army officer promised to restore security and stability to the city and to transform it from a bastion of the Taliban into a “symbol of peace.”
The officer, Gen. Sher Muhammad Zazai, the Afghan Army’s top commander in the Marja campaign, said the operation’s military goals were “almost achieved,” and he promised residents that the Taliban would no longer pose a threat to the area. Marja, a city of about 80,000 near the Pakistani border, had been a Taliban enclave for nearly three years.
But Gen. Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said at a news conference in Kabul that it could take up to a month for troops to defuse bombs and rout the remaining fighters. Sporadic fighting and resistance could last even longer, adding to the difficulties of setting up a fully functional local government. American military officials have described the battle for Marja as part of a larger campaign, political as much as military, to weaken the Taliban.
The governor of Helmand, Gulab Mangal, who attended the ceremony here, said that troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force would remain in the area until security was restored and that they would not allow Marja to fall again to the Taliban. He promised that reconstruction projects would begin soon and that President Hamid Karzai and the Afghan government would run the city better than the Taliban had.
“What did they do for you people?” Mr. Mangal said at the ceremony, which took place near the site of the new government offices. “Are there any schools, clinics being built by the Taliban? Are they helping you?”
Coalition officials, trying to quickly restore government services, have begun to set up schools and hire employees to fill jobs in the district government.
Afghan officials also expressed their condolences over the civilians who were killed or wounded in the offensive, which began on Feb. 12 and was the largest military campaign since the invasion in 2001. But Mr. Mangal said it was a “great achievement” that so few civilians had been killed.
The military warned of the offensive for weeks in an effort to drive away Taliban militants and keep civilian casualties to a minimum. But the Afghan human rights commission said that 28 civilians had nonetheless been killed in the fighting. At least 12 service members in the NATO force, including 8 Americans, have been killed during the campaign.
On Thursday, some shop owners complained that their goods had been stolen while they were away, and they said that they wanted compensation.
As residents watched the flag raising on Thursday, some expressed mixed feelings about the change of power. They said that the Taliban had provided order and security and that the Afghan Army now needed to prove that it could open schools, clear mines and explosives from the roads and fields, and keep the population safe.
One shopkeeper, Baz Muhammad, 25, said he had returned to Marja after fleeing and staying away for 10 days during the fighting. He said that he welcomed the arrival of Afghan forces but that he was leery of foreign troops. He said he would support the return of the Taliban if NATO troops overstepped their bounds.
“People are saying they will raid our houses at night and they will kill us or detain us,” Mr. Muhammad said.
Juma Gul, 20, said his family had remained in the city even after his grandfather was shot and killed in front of his home.
“The operation was painful and full of miseries for our family,” Mr. Gul said, adding that he wanted to see the troops leave as soon as possible. “For us, they are not useful. We don’t want them to stay in Marja. We want them to leave. For us, both the Taliban and Marines are the same. They are fighting and killing us. We don’t want either.”
NATO said Thursday that two service members had died in southern Afghanistan — one on Wednesday when an improvised explosive device blew up, and the other on Thursday from small arms fire. A statement from NATO said neither service member died as part of the Marja campaign.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Dubai real estate deals for Afghans connected to Karzai
surgar.net
KABUL -- Afghanistan's biggest private bank -- founded by the Islamic nation's only world-class poker player -- celebrated its fifth year in business last summer with a lottery for depositors at Paris Palace, a Kabul wedding hall.
Prizes awarded by Kabul Bank included nine apartments in the Afghan capital and cash gifts totaling more than $1 million. The bank trumpeted the event as the biggest prize drawing of its kind in Central Asia.
Less publicly, Kabul Bank's boss has been handing out far bigger prizes to his country's U.S.-backed ruling elite: multimillion-dollar loans for the purchase of luxury villas in Dubai by members of President Hamid Karzai's family, his government and his supporters. The close ties between Kabul Bank and Karzai's circle reflect a defining feature of the shaky post-Taliban order in which Washington has invested more than $40 billion and the lives of more than 900 U.S. service members: a crony capitalism that enriches politically connected insiders and dismays the Afghan populace. "What I'm doing is not proper, not exactly what I should do. But this is Afghanistan," Kabul Bank's founder and chairman, Sherkhan Farnood, said in an interview when asked about the Dubai purchases and why, according to data from the Persian Gulf emirate's Land Department, many of the villas have been registered in his name. "These people don't want to reveal their names."
Afghan laws prohibit hidden overseas lending and require strict accounting of all transactions. But those involved in the Dubai loans, including Kabul Bank's owners, said the cozy flow of cash is not unusual or illegal in a deeply traditional system underpinned more by relationships than laws.
The curious role played by the bank and its unorthodox owners has not previously been reported and was documented by land registration data; public records; and interviews in Kabul, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Moscow.
Many of those involved appear to have gone to considerable lengths to conceal the benefits they have received from Kabul Bank or its owners. Karzai's older brother and his former vice president, for example, both have Dubai villas registered under Farnood's name. Kabul Bank's executives said their books record no loans for these or other Dubai deals financed at least in part by Farnood, including home purchases by Karzai's cousin and the brother of Mohammed Qasim Fahim, his current first vice president and a much-feared warlord who worked closely with U.S. forces to topple the Taliban in 2001. At a time when Washington is ramping up military pressure on the Taliban, the off-balance-sheet activities of Afghan bankers raise the risk of financial instability that could offset progress on the battlefield. Fewer than 5 percent of Afghans have bank accounts, but among those who do are many soldiers and policemen whose salaries are paid through Kabul Bank.
A U.S. official who monitors Afghan finances, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly, said banks appear to have plenty of money but noted that in a crisis, Afghan depositors "won't wait in line holding cups of latte" but would be "waving AK-47s."
Kabul Bank executives, in separate interviews, gave different accounts of what the bank is up to with Dubai home buyers. "They are borrowers. They have an account at Kabul Bank," said the bank's chairman, Farnood, a boisterous 46-year-old with a gift for math and money -- and the winner of $120,000 at the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe, held in a London casino. The bank's chief audit officer, Raja Gopalakrishnan, however, insisted that the loan money didn't come directly from Kabul Bank. He said it was from affiliated but separate entities, notably a money-transfer agency called Shaheen Exchange, which is owned by Farnood, is run by one of Kabul Bank's 16 shareholders and operates in Kabul out of the bank's headquarters.
The audit officer said Farnood "thinks it is one big pot," but the entities are "legally definitely separate."
In some ways, Kabul Bank is a symbol of how much has changed in Afghanistan since 2001, when the country had no private banks and no economy to speak of. Kabul Bank has opened more than 60 branches and recently announced that it will open 250 more, and it claims to have more than $1 billion in deposits from more than a million Afghan customers.
Kabul Bank prospers because Afghanistan, though extremely poor, is in places awash with cash, a result of huge infusions of foreign aid, opium revenue and a legal economy that, against the odds, is growing at about 15 percent a year. The vast majority of this money flows into the hands of a tiny minority -- some of it through legitimate profits, some of it through kickbacks and insider deals that bind the country's political, security and business elites.
The result is that, while anchoring a free-market order as Washington had hoped, financial institutions here sometimes serve as piggy banks for their owners and their political friends. Kabul Bank, for example, helps bankroll a money-losing airline owned by Farnood and fellow bank shareholders that flies three times a day between Kabul and Dubai.
Kabul Bank's executives helped finance President Hamid Karzai's fraud-blighted reelection campaign last year, and the bank is partly owned by Mahmoud Karzai, the Afghan president's older brother, and by Haseen Fahim, the brother of Karzai's vice presidential running mate.
Farnood, who now spends most of his time in Dubai, said he wants to do business in a "normal way" and does not receive favors as a result of his official contacts. He said that putting properties in his name means his bank's money is safe despite a slump in the Dubai property market: He can easily repossess if borrowers run short on cash. A review of Dubai property data and interviews with current and former executives of Kabul Bank indicate that Farnood and his bank partners have at least $150 million invested in Dubai real estate. Most of their property is on Palm Jumeirah, a man-made island in the shape of a palm tree where the cheapest house costs more than $2 million.
Mirwais Azizi, an estranged business associate of Farnood and the founder of the rival Azizi Bank in Kabul, has also poured money into Dubai real estate, with even more uncertain results. A Dubai company he heads, Azizi Investments, has invested heavily in plots of land on Palm Jebel Ali, a stalled property development. Azizi did not respond to interview requests. His son, Farhad, said Mirwais was busy.
Responsibility for bank supervision in Afghanistan lies with the Afghan central bank, whose duties include preventing foreign property speculation. The United States has spent millions of dollars trying to shore up the central bank. But Afghan and U.S. officials say the bank, though increasingly professional, lacks political clout. The central bank's governor, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, said his staff had "vigorously investigated" what he called "rumors" of Dubai property deals, but "unfortunately, up until now they have not found anything." Fitrat, who used to live in Washington, last month sent a team of inspectors to Kabul Bank as part of a regular review of the bank's accounts. He acknowledged that Afghan loans are "very difficult to verify" because "we don't know who owns what."
Kabul Bank's dealings with Mahmoud Karzai, the president's brother, help explain why this is so. In interviews, Karzai, who has an Afghan restaurant in Baltimore, initially said he rented a $5.5 million Palm Jumeirah mansion, where he now lives with his family. But later he said he had an informal home-loan agreement with Kabul Bank and pays $7,000 a month in interest.
"It is a very peculiar situation. It is hard to comprehend because this is not the usual way of doing business," said Karzai, whose home is in Farnood's name.
Karzai also said he bought a 7.4 percent stake in the bank with $5 million he borrowed from the bank. But Gopalakrishnan, the chief audit officer, said Kabul Bank's books include no loans to the president's brother.
Also in a Palm Jumeirah villa registered in Farnood's name is the family of Ahmad Zia Massoud, Afghanistan's first vice president from 2004 until last November. The house, bought in December 2007 for $2.3 million, was first put in the name of Massoud's wife but was later re-registered to give Farnood formal ownership, property records indicate.
Massoud, brother of the legendary anti-Soviet guerrilla leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, said that Farnood had always been the owner but let his family use it rent-free for the past two years because he is "my close friend." Massoud added: "We have played football together. We have played chess together." Farnood, however, said that though the "villa is in my name," it belongs to Massoud "in reality."
Haseen Fahim, the brother of Afghanistan's current first vice president, has been another beneficiary of Kabul Bank's largesse. He got money from Farnood to help buy a $6 million villa in Dubai, which, unusually, is under his own name. He borrowed millions more from the bank, which he partly owns, to fund companies he owns in Afghanistan.
In an interview at Kabul Bank's headquarters, Khalilullah Fruzi, who as chief executive heads the bank's day-to-day operations, said he didn't know how much bank money has ended up in Dubai. If Karzai's relatives and others buy homes "in Dubai, or Germany or America . . . that is their own affair," Fruzi said, adding that the bank "doesn't give loans directly for Dubai."
Fruzi, a former gem trader, said Kabul Bank is in robust health, makes a profit and has about $400 million in liquid assets deposited with the Afghan central bank and other institutions. Kabul Bank is so flush, he added, that it is building a $30 million headquarters, a cluster of shimmering towers of bulletproof glass.
The bank is also spending millions to hire gunmen from a company called Khurasan Security Services, which, according to registration documents, used to be controlled by Fruzi and is now run by his brother. The roots of Kabul Bank stretch back to the Soviet Union. Both Fruzi and Farnood got their education and their start in business there after Moscow invaded Afghanistan in 1979.
While in Moscow, Farnood set up a successful hawala money-transfer outfit to move funds between Russia and Kabul. Russian court documents show that 10 of Farnood's employees were arrested in 1998 and later convicted of illegal banking activity. Fearful of arrest in Russia and also in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Farnood shifted his focus to Dubai.
In 2004, three years after the fall of the Taliban regime, he got a license to open Kabul Bank. His Dubai-registered hawala, Shaheen Exchange, moved in upstairs and started moving cash for bank clients. It last year shifted $250 million to $300 million to Dubai, said the chief audit officer.
The bank began to take in new, politically connected shareholders, among them the president's brother, Mahmoud, and Fahim, brother of the vice president, who registered his stake in the name of his teenage son. Fahim said two of his companies have borrowed $70 million from Kabul Bank. Insider borrowing, he said, is unavoidable and even desirable in Afghanistan because, in the absence of a solid legal system, business revolves around trust, not formal contracts. "Afghanistan is not America or Europe. Afghanistan is starting from zero," he said.
Fahim's business has boomed, thanks largely to subcontracting work on foreign-funded projects, including a new U.S. Embassy annex and various buildings at CIA sites across the country, among them a remote base in Khost where seven Americans were killed in a December suicide attack by a Jordanian jihadiist. "I have good opportunities to get profit," Fahim said.
Kabul Bank also plunged into the airline business, providing loans to Pamir Airways, an Afghan carrier now owned by Farnood, Fruzi and Fahim. Pamir spent $46 million on four used Boeing 737-400s and hired Hashim Karzai, the president's cousin, formerly of Silver Spring, as a "senior adviser."
Farnood said he also provided a "little bit" of money to help Hashim Karzai buy a house on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Karzai, in brief telephone interviews, said that the property was an investment and that he had borrowed some money from Farnood. He said he couldn't recall details and would "have to check with my accountant."
Noor Delawari, governor of the central bank during Kabul Bank's rise, said Farnood and his lieutenants "were like wild horses" and "never paid attention to the rules and regulations." Delawari said he didn't know about any property deals by Kabul Bank in Dubai. He said that he, too, bought a home in the emirate, for about $200,000.
Fitrat, the current central bank governor, has tried to take a tougher line against Kabul Bank and its rivals, with little luck. Before last year's presidential election, the central bank sent a stern letter to bankers, complaining that they squander too much money on "security guards and bulletproof vehicles" and "expend large-scale monetary assistance to politicians." The letter ordered them to remain "politically neutral."
Kabul Bank did the opposite: Fruzi, its chief executive, joined Karzai's campaign in Kabul while Farnood, its poker-playing chairman, organized fundraising events for Karzai in Dubai. One of these was held at the Palm Jumeirah house of Karzai's brother.
The government has returned the favor. The ministries of defense, interior and education now pay many soldiers, police and teachers through Kabul Bank. This means that tens of millions of dollars' worth of public money sloshes through the bank, an unusual arrangement, as governments generally don't pump so much through a single private bank.
Soon after his November inauguration for a second term, President Karzai spoke at an anti-corruption conference in Kabul, criticizing officials who "after one or two years work for the government get rich and buy houses in Dubai." Last month, he flew to London for a conference on Afghanistan, attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other leaders, and again promised an end to the murky deals that have so tarnished his rule.
Also in London for the conference were Farnood, who now has an Afghan diplomatic passport, and Fruzi, who served as a financial adviser to Karzai's reelection campaign and also owns a house in Dubai. "If there is no Kabul Bank, there will be no Karzai, no government," Fruzi said
US, Pakistani Fight Against Taliban
Pakistan army soldiers cordon off a siteafter a blast that was apparently aimed at security forces at a busy market in Mingora, capital of Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley, 22 Feb 2010
As the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan increases its military pressure against insurgents, the fight against the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan has also been intensifying. Top U.S. military commanders are describing the recent arrests of fugitive Afghan Taliban leaders as important breakthroughs in the fight against terrorism.
In recent weeks, U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a number of high level Taliban arrests and deaths in Pakistan. Analysts cite these developments as evidence of increased coordination.
Tasneem Noorani was Pakistan's Interior Secretary when Washington and Islamabad began pursuing an anti-terror strategy in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
He says what started out as a strong relationship between the two countries gradually eroded as U.S. officials continually called for Pakistani authorities to "do more" to target Taliban members who fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
But Noorani says the United States now appears to be pleased with Pakistan's focus on defeating its local Taliban movement.
"Over the years, I think what has happened is that now the cooperation, the quid pro quo by the U.S., there seems to be more realization since then in terms of winning the hearts and minds of [the] people of Pakistan, which wasn't there I think in the first few years," he said.
On his recent trip to Islamabad, U.S. General David Petraeus, who oversees the war in Afghanistan, expressed support for the Pakistani military's strategy of securing its recent gains against the Pakistani Taliban before taking the offensive against Afghan Taliban strongholds in the tribal regions.
General Petraeus also said the arrests of Afghan Taliban leaders in the cities of Karachi and Quetta are the result of intelligence breakthroughs between the United States and Pakistan.
The director of Pakistan's government-funded Institute of Strategic Studies Tanveer Khan agrees.
"The differences on the Pakistani attitude toward the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban, I think it has narrowed. And that I'm sure provides the basis for greater ability of cooperation, better coordination [and] better sharing of the actionable intelligence," said Khan.
He also says NATO's large-scale military operation in southern Afghanistan and U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of a possible troop pullout starting next year has convinced Pakistan it is time to act.
"Pakistan is acting on the assumption, by and large, that some kind of end game in Afghanistan is beginning to shape up and Pakistan is deeply concerned that it should figure in the end game," he added.
But despite the apparent improvements in coordination between the two countries' fight against the Taliban, former Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani says Pakistan has been disappointed in U.S. efforts on its behalf to broker peace with India.
"There was a big segment of Pakistanis who thought [the] U.S. would pressurize India into some kind of an arrangement whereby the problems between India and Pakistan would be resolved so that Pakistan would be left with unstinted attention to attend to the western border, but unfortunately that hasn't happened," said Noorani.
Top Pakistani and Indian diplomats are meeting for the first high-level talks between the two countries since the Mumbai terrorist attacks in late 2008.
Regional analysts believe the diplomatic contact will help reduce bi-lateral tensions, which could allow Pakistan to intensify its military efforts to secure its northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan.
As the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan increases its military pressure against insurgents, the fight against the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan has also been intensifying. Top U.S. military commanders are describing the recent arrests of fugitive Afghan Taliban leaders as important breakthroughs in the fight against terrorism.
In recent weeks, U.S. and Pakistani officials have reported a number of high level Taliban arrests and deaths in Pakistan. Analysts cite these developments as evidence of increased coordination.
Tasneem Noorani was Pakistan's Interior Secretary when Washington and Islamabad began pursuing an anti-terror strategy in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
He says what started out as a strong relationship between the two countries gradually eroded as U.S. officials continually called for Pakistani authorities to "do more" to target Taliban members who fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan.
But Noorani says the United States now appears to be pleased with Pakistan's focus on defeating its local Taliban movement.
"Over the years, I think what has happened is that now the cooperation, the quid pro quo by the U.S., there seems to be more realization since then in terms of winning the hearts and minds of [the] people of Pakistan, which wasn't there I think in the first few years," he said.
On his recent trip to Islamabad, U.S. General David Petraeus, who oversees the war in Afghanistan, expressed support for the Pakistani military's strategy of securing its recent gains against the Pakistani Taliban before taking the offensive against Afghan Taliban strongholds in the tribal regions.
General Petraeus also said the arrests of Afghan Taliban leaders in the cities of Karachi and Quetta are the result of intelligence breakthroughs between the United States and Pakistan.
The director of Pakistan's government-funded Institute of Strategic Studies Tanveer Khan agrees.
"The differences on the Pakistani attitude toward the Pakistani Taliban and the Afghan Taliban, I think it has narrowed. And that I'm sure provides the basis for greater ability of cooperation, better coordination [and] better sharing of the actionable intelligence," said Khan.
He also says NATO's large-scale military operation in southern Afghanistan and U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of a possible troop pullout starting next year has convinced Pakistan it is time to act.
"Pakistan is acting on the assumption, by and large, that some kind of end game in Afghanistan is beginning to shape up and Pakistan is deeply concerned that it should figure in the end game," he added.
But despite the apparent improvements in coordination between the two countries' fight against the Taliban, former Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani says Pakistan has been disappointed in U.S. efforts on its behalf to broker peace with India.
"There was a big segment of Pakistanis who thought [the] U.S. would pressurize India into some kind of an arrangement whereby the problems between India and Pakistan would be resolved so that Pakistan would be left with unstinted attention to attend to the western border, but unfortunately that hasn't happened," said Noorani.
Top Pakistani and Indian diplomats are meeting for the first high-level talks between the two countries since the Mumbai terrorist attacks in late 2008.
Regional analysts believe the diplomatic contact will help reduce bi-lateral tensions, which could allow Pakistan to intensify its military efforts to secure its northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
No more Schools in Mohmand Agency
The News.com
There is now no remaining high school in the Safi subdivision of Mohmand Agency. On February 21, the militants blew up the last two that remained intact. As a result, some 20,000 pupils now have no means to learn. It means that they have less opportunity to better their prospects in life or escape the hold of militants. Reports from various parts of the tribal areas tell us how young men with no way to occupy their time are recruited by the Taliban. It is not entirely far-fetched to believe that this could be one purpose behind their onslaught on schools.
So far, according to media reports, some 30 schools have been destroyed in Mohmand Agency. These include 12 schools for girls. Primary, secondary and institutions of higher learning have all been targeted. The pattern of attack suggests a uniform strategy and a single line of action. Indeed, despite the fierce operation against militants we hear regularly of continuing bombardment aimed at destroying schools. The Taliban thus continue their bid to push us all back into the age of darkness and deprive the people even of what limited access they have to basic amenities. We have seen this process continue for too long. The burnt, blackened ruins of schools stand in many places across the tribal areas. The time has come to ask how this destruction can be stopped. Perhaps communities, who seek education for their children, can be involved in the effort. But what is essential is that schools be protected so that even the limited chance to learn available to the children of these areas is not snatched away from them
There is now no remaining high school in the Safi subdivision of Mohmand Agency. On February 21, the militants blew up the last two that remained intact. As a result, some 20,000 pupils now have no means to learn. It means that they have less opportunity to better their prospects in life or escape the hold of militants. Reports from various parts of the tribal areas tell us how young men with no way to occupy their time are recruited by the Taliban. It is not entirely far-fetched to believe that this could be one purpose behind their onslaught on schools.
So far, according to media reports, some 30 schools have been destroyed in Mohmand Agency. These include 12 schools for girls. Primary, secondary and institutions of higher learning have all been targeted. The pattern of attack suggests a uniform strategy and a single line of action. Indeed, despite the fierce operation against militants we hear regularly of continuing bombardment aimed at destroying schools. The Taliban thus continue their bid to push us all back into the age of darkness and deprive the people even of what limited access they have to basic amenities. We have seen this process continue for too long. The burnt, blackened ruins of schools stand in many places across the tribal areas. The time has come to ask how this destruction can be stopped. Perhaps communities, who seek education for their children, can be involved in the effort. But what is essential is that schools be protected so that even the limited chance to learn available to the children of these areas is not snatched away from them
Monday, February 22, 2010
Marjah Just the Start of Afghan Campaign
VOA.COM
The U.S. general who oversees the war in Afghanistan says the fight for the southern town of Marjah is just the first operation in a long campaign.
Petraeus says the battle of Marjah is just the beginning. "This is just the initial operation of what will be a 12- to 18-month campaign, as General McChrystal and his team have mapped it out," he said.
During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Petraeus said the enemy is formidable.
He did not predict how long the operation in Marjah - a traditional Taliban stronghold - would continue. He said only that the fighting is tough. "When we go on the offensive, when we take away sanctuaries and safe havens from the Taliban and the other extremist elements that we and our Afghan and coalition partners are fighting in that country, they are going to fight back. And we are seeing that in Marjah. We will see that in other areas," he said.
The general spoke from Tampa, Florida, where he heads the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
He noted the difficulties encountered in Iraq when former President George W. Bush sent in additional troops in what was called a "surge." Petraeus was asked if, once again, Americans should prepare for significant losses. "They will be tough. They were tough in Iraq. Look, I have repeatedly said these types of efforts are hard and they are hard all the time. I do not use words like optimistic or pessimist. I use realist. And the reality is it is hard, but we are there for a very important reason and we cannot forget that," he said.
The Obama administration's Afghanistan strategy got a vote of confidence Sunday from retired General Colin Powell, who served as President Bush's secretary of state during his first term in office.
He said it is a good, comprehensive plan. But at the same time, he acknowledged he has concerns about whether or not the Afghan government can follow-up once the NATO operation pushes the Taliban out. "I hope their capability will increase. The Afghan national army is improved but clearly not up to U.S. standards yet. And the police force - they have a lot to prove, they do not yet have the confidence of the people," he said.
Powell was interviewed on the CBS television program Face the Nation.
The U.S. general who oversees the war in Afghanistan says the fight for the southern town of Marjah is just the first operation in a long campaign.
Petraeus says the battle of Marjah is just the beginning. "This is just the initial operation of what will be a 12- to 18-month campaign, as General McChrystal and his team have mapped it out," he said.
During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Petraeus said the enemy is formidable.
He did not predict how long the operation in Marjah - a traditional Taliban stronghold - would continue. He said only that the fighting is tough. "When we go on the offensive, when we take away sanctuaries and safe havens from the Taliban and the other extremist elements that we and our Afghan and coalition partners are fighting in that country, they are going to fight back. And we are seeing that in Marjah. We will see that in other areas," he said.
The general spoke from Tampa, Florida, where he heads the U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
He noted the difficulties encountered in Iraq when former President George W. Bush sent in additional troops in what was called a "surge." Petraeus was asked if, once again, Americans should prepare for significant losses. "They will be tough. They were tough in Iraq. Look, I have repeatedly said these types of efforts are hard and they are hard all the time. I do not use words like optimistic or pessimist. I use realist. And the reality is it is hard, but we are there for a very important reason and we cannot forget that," he said.
The Obama administration's Afghanistan strategy got a vote of confidence Sunday from retired General Colin Powell, who served as President Bush's secretary of state during his first term in office.
He said it is a good, comprehensive plan. But at the same time, he acknowledged he has concerns about whether or not the Afghan government can follow-up once the NATO operation pushes the Taliban out. "I hope their capability will increase. The Afghan national army is improved but clearly not up to U.S. standards yet. And the police force - they have a lot to prove, they do not yet have the confidence of the people," he said.
Powell was interviewed on the CBS television program Face the Nation.
Afghans Voice Their Fears Amid Marja Campaign
MARJA, Afghanistan — Since the American-led offensive into the last large Taliban enclave in Helmand Province began nine days ago, local Afghans have faced a dangerous and uncertain world.
Their homes are now in a region where the Marines have established a presence, the Taliban have moved into the shadows as a potent guerrilla force, and the Afghan government insists it will soon provide services and bring Marja into the national fold.
All the while, in northern Marja, the fighting grinds on at a pace of several firefights a day — a climate that has displaced many civilians and kept others hiding inside. Abdul Ajahn, an elder here, voiced a lingering fear.
“If the Taliban shoots from that side, and you are on this side, and I am in between?” he said to the Marines at a meeting arranged by a commander and local elders over the weekend. “Then I am sure you will shoot me.”
One by one at the meeting, attended by the elders of several rural villages and the leaders of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, the elders asked questions and expressed worries, summarizing local reactions to an offensive that so far had frightened and disoriented them.
How can farmers water and feed their livestock or work on crops without risking being shot? When will it be safe enough to visit the bazaar, which has been all but closed? When will searches of their homes stop? Can the mullah move through the village before dawn to open his mosque for morning prayer?
If the meeting was any indication, the Marines face local Afghans deeply worried for their safety and suspicious of American actions, even as the elders expressed an interest in collaborating with development projects once security conditions improve.
But first things first.
One elder, Yamatullah, a man with a long, fine goatee, asked the Marines to respect the people’s possessions. On many days since the Marines landed by helicopter, firefights have led to Marines chasing Taliban gunmen, often into the mud-walled compounds that ring local homes. The Marines have also conducted deliberate sweeps. “We are innocent people,” Mr. Yamatullah said. “We have a lot of expensive things in our homes. Please do not break our things or take them.”
The Marines said they would try not to disturb anyone’s homes or goods. They also told the elders that once the fighting subsided, Marja would enjoy many services and development opportunities it had lacked: police protection, mosque repair, school and medical care.
About an hour into the meeting, long bursts of rifle fire and the thump of a machine gun could be heard a few kilometers away. A Marine reconnaissance unit was in a fight.
The shura, as the meeting was called, continued nonetheless. The Marines said they wanted to keep hearing from the elders.
One man, Izmarai, vented at the Marines for setting up an outpost at a home he said he owned. He demanded they leave.
“If you want to arrest me, arrest me,” he said. “If you want to shoot me, shoot me now. You say you want to make peace and security. Then why did you make your compound in my home, and between my home and my field? Did you ask me? No.”
Mr. Izmarai was so angry that at one point he tossed stones at First Lt. Cory J. Colistra, the company’s executive officer. The Marines promised the man they would not stay on his property long. They offered to pay rent.
Mr. Izmarai was unimpressed. After the shura ended, he at first refused to shake the Marines’ hands. But later he returned, saying his presentation had been a performance. There were Taliban members at the meeting, he said, and he spoke as he did to impress them. The Marines said they were not sure what to believe. Was he telling the truth? Or playing both sides?
By this time, midday Saturday, the company had returned to the current day-to-day fight. Third Platoon set out to set up an overnight patrol base. The Taliban were waiting. A firefight ensued. A Marine was struck by a bullet in the leg; he was evacuated and in good condition.
On Sunday, the fighting was more intense. Second Platoon left its patrol base to clear an area north of a bridge that the company seized last week. It came under machine-gun fire. A Marine was shot in the hip. (The names of both Marines have been withheld pending notification of their families.)
The Marine’s bleeding was difficult to stop. The corpsman who tried to save him lost the man’s pulse, then managed to resuscitate him. He kept the man alive until a helicopter could land and carry him to a military hospital. The platoon continued its sweep. Company K felt a surge a relief.
About an hour later the radio brought grim news. The wounded Marine had died.
In all but one of the nine days Company K has been clearing a small portion of Marja, there have been multiple skirmishes. And at times two or more fights have occurred simultaneously, as patrols in different places have clashed with separate groups of Taliban. Most have not resulted in American casualties. The Taliban have often bounded away as the Marines massed supporting fire or brought in air support.
But eight members of Company K and two Afghan Army soldiers have been struck by bullets in six different engagements. Two Marines and one Afghan soldier have died. The Taliban have suffered much heavier losses. Yet they continued through the weekend to fire at most of the company’s patrols.
The civilians, meanwhile, sought cues as to what to do. So far, the small number of Afghans tending crops in the fields or looking after livestock, or even walking along roads and trails, suggested that local Afghans were not convinced that it was safe enough here to resume their routines.
Their homes are now in a region where the Marines have established a presence, the Taliban have moved into the shadows as a potent guerrilla force, and the Afghan government insists it will soon provide services and bring Marja into the national fold.
All the while, in northern Marja, the fighting grinds on at a pace of several firefights a day — a climate that has displaced many civilians and kept others hiding inside. Abdul Ajahn, an elder here, voiced a lingering fear.
“If the Taliban shoots from that side, and you are on this side, and I am in between?” he said to the Marines at a meeting arranged by a commander and local elders over the weekend. “Then I am sure you will shoot me.”
One by one at the meeting, attended by the elders of several rural villages and the leaders of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, the elders asked questions and expressed worries, summarizing local reactions to an offensive that so far had frightened and disoriented them.
How can farmers water and feed their livestock or work on crops without risking being shot? When will it be safe enough to visit the bazaar, which has been all but closed? When will searches of their homes stop? Can the mullah move through the village before dawn to open his mosque for morning prayer?
If the meeting was any indication, the Marines face local Afghans deeply worried for their safety and suspicious of American actions, even as the elders expressed an interest in collaborating with development projects once security conditions improve.
But first things first.
One elder, Yamatullah, a man with a long, fine goatee, asked the Marines to respect the people’s possessions. On many days since the Marines landed by helicopter, firefights have led to Marines chasing Taliban gunmen, often into the mud-walled compounds that ring local homes. The Marines have also conducted deliberate sweeps. “We are innocent people,” Mr. Yamatullah said. “We have a lot of expensive things in our homes. Please do not break our things or take them.”
The Marines said they would try not to disturb anyone’s homes or goods. They also told the elders that once the fighting subsided, Marja would enjoy many services and development opportunities it had lacked: police protection, mosque repair, school and medical care.
About an hour into the meeting, long bursts of rifle fire and the thump of a machine gun could be heard a few kilometers away. A Marine reconnaissance unit was in a fight.
The shura, as the meeting was called, continued nonetheless. The Marines said they wanted to keep hearing from the elders.
One man, Izmarai, vented at the Marines for setting up an outpost at a home he said he owned. He demanded they leave.
“If you want to arrest me, arrest me,” he said. “If you want to shoot me, shoot me now. You say you want to make peace and security. Then why did you make your compound in my home, and between my home and my field? Did you ask me? No.”
Mr. Izmarai was so angry that at one point he tossed stones at First Lt. Cory J. Colistra, the company’s executive officer. The Marines promised the man they would not stay on his property long. They offered to pay rent.
Mr. Izmarai was unimpressed. After the shura ended, he at first refused to shake the Marines’ hands. But later he returned, saying his presentation had been a performance. There were Taliban members at the meeting, he said, and he spoke as he did to impress them. The Marines said they were not sure what to believe. Was he telling the truth? Or playing both sides?
By this time, midday Saturday, the company had returned to the current day-to-day fight. Third Platoon set out to set up an overnight patrol base. The Taliban were waiting. A firefight ensued. A Marine was struck by a bullet in the leg; he was evacuated and in good condition.
On Sunday, the fighting was more intense. Second Platoon left its patrol base to clear an area north of a bridge that the company seized last week. It came under machine-gun fire. A Marine was shot in the hip. (The names of both Marines have been withheld pending notification of their families.)
The Marine’s bleeding was difficult to stop. The corpsman who tried to save him lost the man’s pulse, then managed to resuscitate him. He kept the man alive until a helicopter could land and carry him to a military hospital. The platoon continued its sweep. Company K felt a surge a relief.
About an hour later the radio brought grim news. The wounded Marine had died.
In all but one of the nine days Company K has been clearing a small portion of Marja, there have been multiple skirmishes. And at times two or more fights have occurred simultaneously, as patrols in different places have clashed with separate groups of Taliban. Most have not resulted in American casualties. The Taliban have often bounded away as the Marines massed supporting fire or brought in air support.
But eight members of Company K and two Afghan Army soldiers have been struck by bullets in six different engagements. Two Marines and one Afghan soldier have died. The Taliban have suffered much heavier losses. Yet they continued through the weekend to fire at most of the company’s patrols.
The civilians, meanwhile, sought cues as to what to do. So far, the small number of Afghans tending crops in the fields or looking after livestock, or even walking along roads and trails, suggested that local Afghans were not convinced that it was safe enough here to resume their routines.
Pashto as official language
PESHAWAR: Different organizations working for promotion of Pashto language, culture and literature staged a rally on Sunday to commemorate the World Mother Tongue Day and urged the government to declare Pashto as the official language in the NWFP.
The rally was jointly organised by World Pashto Congress, World Pashto Conference and Pashto Jamhoori Taroon. Led by member of the NWFP Assembly Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, known Pashto literatus and columnist Salim Raz, Afzal Shah Khamosh and others, the procession started from Soekarno Chowk and after passing through Khyber Bazaar, it reached Qissa Khwani Bazaar where a public meeting was held.
The participants were holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands. They demanded of the NWFP government to declare Pashto as the official language in the province, make Pashto the medium of instruction and introduce it as a compulsory subject at school and college level.
The participants said it was a matter of satisfaction that books in the province at the primary level were in Pashto in the public sector schools but students at the private educational institutions were unaware of their mother tongue. It is due to the flawed and class-based educational system that the educated lot of the Pakhtuns is unable to write or read Pashto, said one of the speakers.
The speakers urged the provincial government to take measures for promoting Pashto language and literature. They said private organizations were trying their best for promotion of Pashto language and literature, but concrete steps were needed on part of the government towards that end. They also stressed fair treatment to other regional languages spoken in the province, saying steps should be made for promotion of other languages like Hindko, Khowar and others.
The rally was jointly organised by World Pashto Congress, World Pashto Conference and Pashto Jamhoori Taroon. Led by member of the NWFP Assembly Sikandar Hayat Sherpao, known Pashto literatus and columnist Salim Raz, Afzal Shah Khamosh and others, the procession started from Soekarno Chowk and after passing through Khyber Bazaar, it reached Qissa Khwani Bazaar where a public meeting was held.
The participants were holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands. They demanded of the NWFP government to declare Pashto as the official language in the province, make Pashto the medium of instruction and introduce it as a compulsory subject at school and college level.
The participants said it was a matter of satisfaction that books in the province at the primary level were in Pashto in the public sector schools but students at the private educational institutions were unaware of their mother tongue. It is due to the flawed and class-based educational system that the educated lot of the Pakhtuns is unable to write or read Pashto, said one of the speakers.
The speakers urged the provincial government to take measures for promoting Pashto language and literature. They said private organizations were trying their best for promotion of Pashto language and literature, but concrete steps were needed on part of the government towards that end. They also stressed fair treatment to other regional languages spoken in the province, saying steps should be made for promotion of other languages like Hindko, Khowar and others.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Accepting Peace Prize, Obama Offers ‘Hard Truth’
NYT.COM
OSLO — President Obama used his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday to defend the idea that some wars were necessary and just, remind the world of the burden the United States had borne in the fight against oppression and appeal for greater international efforts for peace.
“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: we will not eradicate violent conflicts in our lifetimes,” Mr. Obama said, addressing the paradox of receiving an award for peace as commander in chief of a nation that is escalating the war in Afghanistan as it continues to fight in Iraq. “There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”
He delivered a mix of realism and idealism, implicitly criticizing both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as inadequately appreciating the dangers of the world, and President George W. Bush as too quick to set aside fundamental American values in pursuit of security. And he embraced the concept of American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States has a special role as a defender of liberty, even as he promoted multilateralism.
In that way, he continued a pattern evident throughout his public career of favoring pragmatism over absolutes.
The address — delivered at once to a European audience that has grown skeptical about American power and to a domestic audience watching closely to see how he would handle the acceptance of an award that even he acknowledged he did not yet deserve — represented one of the broadest declarations of his foreign policy doctrine. He said that others deserved the award more, noting that his “accomplishments are slight,” but he accepted the prize with a strong endorsement of America’s place in the world.
“Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this,” Mr. Obama said. “The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.”
The Nobel lecture, a 36-minute address that the president and his aides completed on an overnight flight from Washington, carried echoes of several American presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Mr. Bush, but Mr. Obama singled out one above all: John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Obama cited Mr. Kennedy’s focus on “not a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions.”
Mr. Obama called for more robust international sanctions against nations like Iran and North Korea that defy demands for them to curtail their nuclear programs.
Weeks after being criticized for not speaking out more publicly in defense of human rights while in China, he suggested that quiet diplomacy was sometimes the most productive path, even if it “lacks the satisfying purity of indignation.”
The ceremony was the focal point of a series of events celebrating Mr. Obama’s entry into the ranks of Nobel laureates. On Thursday night, the president and his wife, Michelle, appeared in a window of the Grand Hotel, waving to thousands of people below who had gathered for a torch-light parade.
Trumpets sounded when Mr. Obama walked down the long aisle of a soaring auditorium to deliver his address. He escorted his wife, who took her seat in the front row, before he assumed his position on the stage and faced the king and queen of Norway.
The Nobel chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, opened the ceremony by explaining how the committee came to its decision two months ago. He said Mr. Obama’s leadership had been a “call to action for all of us.” As he invoked the story of Dr. King, the winner of the prize in 1964, he turned to Mr. Obama, saying, “Dr. King’s dream has come true.”
Mr. Obama pursed his lips and nodded gently as the audience applauded loudly. When he was presented his gold medal and Nobel diploma, he received a standing ovation that stretched for more than a minute. The crowd did not rise again until the conclusion of his remarks.
Mr. Obama’s speech was sober, with his remarks only sparingly interrupted by applause. He was applauded when he renewed his pledge to ban torture and close the prison at the American base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
“We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend,” Mr. Obama said. “And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it is easy, but when it is hard.”
To a European audience of academics, diplomats and Nobel laureates, he said there was “a deep ambivalence about military action today,” which he said he suspected was rooted in “a reflexive suspicion of America.” But he offered a forceful defense of the United States, saying the lessons of history should ease those suspicions. And he urged his audience to envision a hopeful future.
“Let us reach for the world that ought to be,” he said, “that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.”
He did not dwell on the specifics of his announcement last week that he would send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. But that decision, which attracted scores of peaceful demonstrators here, set the framework that Mr. Obama returned to again and again as he sought to explain his policy as an extension of the post-World War II system that contained the cold war.
“A decade into a new century, this old architecture is buckling under the weight of new threats,” Mr. Obama said. “The world may no longer shudder at the prospect of war between two nuclear superpowers, but proliferation may increase the risk of catastrophe. Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsize rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.”
Mr. Obama, who is scheduled to stay in Oslo for about 26 hours, miffed some Norwegians by not participating in some of the traditional events surrounding the peace prize ceremony, including a luncheon and a concert.
Mr. Obama, sensitive to the criticism, explained the brevity of his visit. “I only wish that my family could stay longer in this wonderful country,” he told reporters, “but I still have a lot of work to do back in Washington, D.C., before the year is done.”
The president is scheduled to return to Washington on Friday.
OSLO — President Obama used his acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday to defend the idea that some wars were necessary and just, remind the world of the burden the United States had borne in the fight against oppression and appeal for greater international efforts for peace.
“We must begin by acknowledging the hard truth: we will not eradicate violent conflicts in our lifetimes,” Mr. Obama said, addressing the paradox of receiving an award for peace as commander in chief of a nation that is escalating the war in Afghanistan as it continues to fight in Iraq. “There will be times when nations — acting individually or in concert — will find the use of force not only necessary but morally justified.”
He delivered a mix of realism and idealism, implicitly criticizing both the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as inadequately appreciating the dangers of the world, and President George W. Bush as too quick to set aside fundamental American values in pursuit of security. And he embraced the concept of American exceptionalism, the idea that the United States has a special role as a defender of liberty, even as he promoted multilateralism.
In that way, he continued a pattern evident throughout his public career of favoring pragmatism over absolutes.
The address — delivered at once to a European audience that has grown skeptical about American power and to a domestic audience watching closely to see how he would handle the acceptance of an award that even he acknowledged he did not yet deserve — represented one of the broadest declarations of his foreign policy doctrine. He said that others deserved the award more, noting that his “accomplishments are slight,” but he accepted the prize with a strong endorsement of America’s place in the world.
“Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this,” Mr. Obama said. “The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms.”
The Nobel lecture, a 36-minute address that the president and his aides completed on an overnight flight from Washington, carried echoes of several American presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Mr. Bush, but Mr. Obama singled out one above all: John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Obama cited Mr. Kennedy’s focus on “not a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions.”
Mr. Obama called for more robust international sanctions against nations like Iran and North Korea that defy demands for them to curtail their nuclear programs.
Weeks after being criticized for not speaking out more publicly in defense of human rights while in China, he suggested that quiet diplomacy was sometimes the most productive path, even if it “lacks the satisfying purity of indignation.”
The ceremony was the focal point of a series of events celebrating Mr. Obama’s entry into the ranks of Nobel laureates. On Thursday night, the president and his wife, Michelle, appeared in a window of the Grand Hotel, waving to thousands of people below who had gathered for a torch-light parade.
Trumpets sounded when Mr. Obama walked down the long aisle of a soaring auditorium to deliver his address. He escorted his wife, who took her seat in the front row, before he assumed his position on the stage and faced the king and queen of Norway.
The Nobel chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, opened the ceremony by explaining how the committee came to its decision two months ago. He said Mr. Obama’s leadership had been a “call to action for all of us.” As he invoked the story of Dr. King, the winner of the prize in 1964, he turned to Mr. Obama, saying, “Dr. King’s dream has come true.”
Mr. Obama pursed his lips and nodded gently as the audience applauded loudly. When he was presented his gold medal and Nobel diploma, he received a standing ovation that stretched for more than a minute. The crowd did not rise again until the conclusion of his remarks.
Mr. Obama’s speech was sober, with his remarks only sparingly interrupted by applause. He was applauded when he renewed his pledge to ban torture and close the prison at the American base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
“We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend,” Mr. Obama said. “And we honor those ideals by upholding them not when it is easy, but when it is hard.”
To a European audience of academics, diplomats and Nobel laureates, he said there was “a deep ambivalence about military action today,” which he said he suspected was rooted in “a reflexive suspicion of America.” But he offered a forceful defense of the United States, saying the lessons of history should ease those suspicions. And he urged his audience to envision a hopeful future.
“Let us reach for the world that ought to be,” he said, “that spark of the divine that still stirs within each of our souls.”
He did not dwell on the specifics of his announcement last week that he would send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. But that decision, which attracted scores of peaceful demonstrators here, set the framework that Mr. Obama returned to again and again as he sought to explain his policy as an extension of the post-World War II system that contained the cold war.
“A decade into a new century, this old architecture is buckling under the weight of new threats,” Mr. Obama said. “The world may no longer shudder at the prospect of war between two nuclear superpowers, but proliferation may increase the risk of catastrophe. Terrorism has long been a tactic, but modern technology allows a few small men with outsize rage to murder innocents on a horrific scale.”
Mr. Obama, who is scheduled to stay in Oslo for about 26 hours, miffed some Norwegians by not participating in some of the traditional events surrounding the peace prize ceremony, including a luncheon and a concert.
Mr. Obama, sensitive to the criticism, explained the brevity of his visit. “I only wish that my family could stay longer in this wonderful country,” he told reporters, “but I still have a lot of work to do back in Washington, D.C., before the year is done.”
The president is scheduled to return to Washington on Friday.
Japan, UN sign agreement on NWFP development
ISLAMABAD: The Government of Japan signed an agreement today with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide $12 million for peace building, governance and economic recovery for the conflict-affected areas of NWFP and parts of FATA.
Official Exchange of Notes to this effect were signed and exchanged between His Excellency Chihiro ATSUMI, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, and Toshihiro TANAKA, Country Director, UNDP, Pakistan.
Sibtain Fazal Halim, Secretary of the Economics Affairs Division, the Government of Pakistan, and Shakeel Qadir Khan, Director General of the Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority (PaRRSA), NWFP were also present.
Speaking on the occasion the Japanese Ambassador Chihiro Atsumi stated, 'This development programme by the UNDP will support the rehabilitation and resettlement of the persons wishing to return to a peaceful and secure community. As Pakistan strives to rebuild infrastructure, empower women and bring smiles and hope on the faces of the youth, I hope the region will soon regain the strength that it deserves to have.'
Appreciating UNDP’s effort in this regard, he further stated 'We appreciate the role that the UNDP has been playing in the development of Pakistan, and trust that the ongoing efforts by Pakistan and the UNDP will be a step to bring peace and stability in the area.'
The three-year programme will help IDPs reconstruct their lives as they return home. The conflict in NWFP and FATA resulted in the displacement of 2.7 million people. As peace was restored, 1.6 million people have returned so far.
Many of these return to a life of uncertainty. 53-year-old Khanum Bibi from Malakand is one of them. ‘prior to the conflict, I had managed to support my eight grand children and their widowed mother through some livestock farming and by selling embroidery. The money I saved has been spent on the displacement, my husband and son are dead, I need help to restart my business’. The much-needed and generous support of the Japanese Government will help many like Khanum Bibi.
Early recovery activities will be undertaken. These are essential to bridge the gap between relief which is immediate and rebuilding and rehabilitation which is long term.
Specifically, these early recovery activities include restoring livelihoods through cash for work on rubble removal (estimated at 2,282,500 tons) and involving the community in micro infrastructure projects such as water pumps, water pipelines, footpaths, culverts etc., which have been destroyed.
People will also be trained in different skills and supported financially to undertake small projects or businesses in the farm (agriculture, horticulture) and non-farm sectors (marble quarrying, gem and jewelry, carpentry, tourism) sectors.
This programme will also help the provincial and local authorities to have a coordinated response to the needs of the returnees.
At a more strategic level, UNDP will also work towards gaining a better understating of its structural causes of the conflict while addressing them in a comprehensive manner. For this purpose, peace committees and alternate dispute resolution mechanisms will be established.
The programme will focus on the conflict affected population with a special emphasis on the vulnerable, especially women-headed households; families with disabled members; families that have 10 members and an income of Rs. 7000.
Commenting on the commitment of the Japanese Government towards supporting key early recovery interventions at the time of crisis, Toshihiro Tanaka, Country Director, UNDP stated, 'UNDP and Japan have had a fruitful partnership through which Japan provided support to the national elections in 2008 and made a substantial contribution after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
'We were able to provide the critically needed transitional housing for the affectees and undertake rubble removal that lead the way to reconstruction in the affected areas.
'Japan’s timely contribution to help the IDPs will contribute significantly not only towards restoring livelihoods and micro community infrastructure but towards governance support for long-term peace and development of the conflict-affected communities'
Official Exchange of Notes to this effect were signed and exchanged between His Excellency Chihiro ATSUMI, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, and Toshihiro TANAKA, Country Director, UNDP, Pakistan.
Sibtain Fazal Halim, Secretary of the Economics Affairs Division, the Government of Pakistan, and Shakeel Qadir Khan, Director General of the Provincial Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Authority (PaRRSA), NWFP were also present.
Speaking on the occasion the Japanese Ambassador Chihiro Atsumi stated, 'This development programme by the UNDP will support the rehabilitation and resettlement of the persons wishing to return to a peaceful and secure community. As Pakistan strives to rebuild infrastructure, empower women and bring smiles and hope on the faces of the youth, I hope the region will soon regain the strength that it deserves to have.'
Appreciating UNDP’s effort in this regard, he further stated 'We appreciate the role that the UNDP has been playing in the development of Pakistan, and trust that the ongoing efforts by Pakistan and the UNDP will be a step to bring peace and stability in the area.'
The three-year programme will help IDPs reconstruct their lives as they return home. The conflict in NWFP and FATA resulted in the displacement of 2.7 million people. As peace was restored, 1.6 million people have returned so far.
Many of these return to a life of uncertainty. 53-year-old Khanum Bibi from Malakand is one of them. ‘prior to the conflict, I had managed to support my eight grand children and their widowed mother through some livestock farming and by selling embroidery. The money I saved has been spent on the displacement, my husband and son are dead, I need help to restart my business’. The much-needed and generous support of the Japanese Government will help many like Khanum Bibi.
Early recovery activities will be undertaken. These are essential to bridge the gap between relief which is immediate and rebuilding and rehabilitation which is long term.
Specifically, these early recovery activities include restoring livelihoods through cash for work on rubble removal (estimated at 2,282,500 tons) and involving the community in micro infrastructure projects such as water pumps, water pipelines, footpaths, culverts etc., which have been destroyed.
People will also be trained in different skills and supported financially to undertake small projects or businesses in the farm (agriculture, horticulture) and non-farm sectors (marble quarrying, gem and jewelry, carpentry, tourism) sectors.
This programme will also help the provincial and local authorities to have a coordinated response to the needs of the returnees.
At a more strategic level, UNDP will also work towards gaining a better understating of its structural causes of the conflict while addressing them in a comprehensive manner. For this purpose, peace committees and alternate dispute resolution mechanisms will be established.
The programme will focus on the conflict affected population with a special emphasis on the vulnerable, especially women-headed households; families with disabled members; families that have 10 members and an income of Rs. 7000.
Commenting on the commitment of the Japanese Government towards supporting key early recovery interventions at the time of crisis, Toshihiro Tanaka, Country Director, UNDP stated, 'UNDP and Japan have had a fruitful partnership through which Japan provided support to the national elections in 2008 and made a substantial contribution after the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.
'We were able to provide the critically needed transitional housing for the affectees and undertake rubble removal that lead the way to reconstruction in the affected areas.
'Japan’s timely contribution to help the IDPs will contribute significantly not only towards restoring livelihoods and micro community infrastructure but towards governance support for long-term peace and development of the conflict-affected communities'
Pakistanis mark rights day as abuses reach peak
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The International Human Rights Day of 2009 falls amidst the cruel realities being faced by Pakistanis.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) is perturbed at the suffering of people in Pakistan owing to the brutality unleashed by militants as well as the destruction caused by internal conflicts in many parts of the country.
A series of bomb attacks carried out by militants killing thousands of civilians as well as members of the security forces has been devastating. Children and women have been most vulnerable to the accesses of militants. Schools have not been spared and women living in the conflict zones are totally immobilised. Pakistan is facing one of its worst challenges to protect the rights of its citizens.
HRCP recognises that it is the primary obligation of the government to protect the lives of civilians against the inhuman accesses of militant groups, yet, it calls for respect for human dignity during any armed operation carried out by government forces. Regrettably, credible reports indicate that the security forces too have committed human rights violations during operations.
The so-called counter-insurgency operations carried out by the military and paramilitary forces have used heavy artillery, killing an unknown number of civilians. Access to independent observers and the press is denied by the security forces. According to government sources, several hundred people have involuntarily disappeared and a large number of families of the missing individuals accuse the security forces and intelligence agencies of perpetrating the crime.
Torture is used by the security forces as a matter of routine. Reports received by HRCP reveal inhuman methods of torture employed by the security establishment in Balochistan. People are blindfolded, hung upside down,
burnt, given electric shocks, whipped, beaten with iron rods, kept under extreme glare of lights and their heads doused in water. Despite, several reports issued by the press, accounts by the victims in courts and to the media and incidents reported by national and international human rights bodies, the government has never responded to these allegations in any constructive or coherent manner. A bland denial is no response – on the contrary it only adds salt to the wounds of the victims.
HRCP is equally concerned about army operations carried out in areas of Fata and Malakand Division. Independent sources have complained about reprisals from armed militias operating under the patronage of security forces. There are verified reports of extrajudicial killings of suspected militants and their family members and arbitrary arrests of several individuals. Mass graves have been identified but the government has failed to investigate these allegations and has not been able to establish the identity of the dead.
It is imperative that in these trying days human rights concerns be expressed in an unambiguous and impartial manner and watchdog bodies orient themselves with the international humanitarian and human rights law during armed conflicts. It is essential that everyone remains entitled to the enjoyment of human rights, whether in time of peace or armed conflicts.
It is important to give particular attention to the education of all members of security and other armed forces, and of all law enforcement agencies, in the international law of human rights and international humanitarian law applicable to armed conflicts. There are limitations on the use of force even during conflict and on opposing forces too. It is prohibited to launch attacks on civilian populations and the use of weapons which cause unnecessary suffering to combatants or which endanger civilian populations in the area of conflict is restricted and in some cases even prohibited.
Finally, HRCP would like to draw the attention of the government that they are obliged, as soon as circumstances permit, to report the number of those killed, injured or missing owing to the conflict. It is essential that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) be given access to prisoners of the conflict, the UNHCR and relief workers get free and unimpeded access to those in need of humanitarian assistance and that independent journalists be allowed to visit areas of conflict without being followed or directed by government agents.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
General amnesty for Baloch leaders
ISLAMABAD: Baloch leaders are “true patriots” and the government is considering granting general amnesty to aggrieved elements in Balochistan, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Thursday.
Addressing a gathering in connection with World Human Rights Day, Gilani said all “Baloch leaders are patriots and no one can doubt their patriotism. We have offered Baloch leaders an opportunity for negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues and expect a positive reply”.
The prime minister said the government was ready to talk to all Baloch leaders to bring them into the national mainstream. He said the government had released 93 detained Baloch leaders and if the need arose, the government would grant a general amnesty to Baloch leaders to normalise the province’s situation.
Progress: Gilani said the government had made progress in recovering the missing Baloch persons, a number of whom had returned home.
Gilani said Pakistan was against drone attacks as they had proved counterproductive in curbing terrorism.
Pakistan hopes: The prime minister said the country has taken up the issue with the US through all possible channels, and hoped that the government’s efforts to convince Washington to halt drone attacks would bear fruit.
To a question regarding India’s involvement in Balochistan via Afghanistan, Gilani said the issue had been brought up during his meeting with the Indian prime minister in Sharm El Sheikh.
He said the joint statement issued after the meeting clearly mentioned that all issues would be taken up in bilateral dialogues.
“Therefore, it proves that Indians themselves have agreed to talk about their involvement in Afghanistan,” he said.
The prime minister said the democratic government was stable and “there is no danger to democratic system”.
“The political leadership is very mature ... some have remained in exile and others have been behind bars for years,” he said, adding the government would complete its five-year tenure.
Gilani said the government was committed to creating a society free of exploitation and deprivation. He said the Pakistan People’s Party had an unflinching commitment to the cause of human rights. “To translate this commitment into reality, the party had established the Ministry of Human Rights in its previous tenure to provide an institutional framework for the implementation of the policies enshrined in the party’s manifesto,” Gilani said
Addressing a gathering in connection with World Human Rights Day, Gilani said all “Baloch leaders are patriots and no one can doubt their patriotism. We have offered Baloch leaders an opportunity for negotiations to resolve all outstanding issues and expect a positive reply”.
The prime minister said the government was ready to talk to all Baloch leaders to bring them into the national mainstream. He said the government had released 93 detained Baloch leaders and if the need arose, the government would grant a general amnesty to Baloch leaders to normalise the province’s situation.
Progress: Gilani said the government had made progress in recovering the missing Baloch persons, a number of whom had returned home.
Gilani said Pakistan was against drone attacks as they had proved counterproductive in curbing terrorism.
Pakistan hopes: The prime minister said the country has taken up the issue with the US through all possible channels, and hoped that the government’s efforts to convince Washington to halt drone attacks would bear fruit.
To a question regarding India’s involvement in Balochistan via Afghanistan, Gilani said the issue had been brought up during his meeting with the Indian prime minister in Sharm El Sheikh.
He said the joint statement issued after the meeting clearly mentioned that all issues would be taken up in bilateral dialogues.
“Therefore, it proves that Indians themselves have agreed to talk about their involvement in Afghanistan,” he said.
The prime minister said the democratic government was stable and “there is no danger to democratic system”.
“The political leadership is very mature ... some have remained in exile and others have been behind bars for years,” he said, adding the government would complete its five-year tenure.
Gilani said the government was committed to creating a society free of exploitation and deprivation. He said the Pakistan People’s Party had an unflinching commitment to the cause of human rights. “To translate this commitment into reality, the party had established the Ministry of Human Rights in its previous tenure to provide an institutional framework for the implementation of the policies enshrined in the party’s manifesto,” Gilani said
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Growing number of IDPs
PESHAWAR: Authorities acquired 7,800 kanals of land to expand the Jalozai camp for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) to cope with the continuing influx of uprooted families from the troubled tribal agencies.
The existing camp is full to capacity forcing the authorities to suspend registration for the time being. Besides acquiring more land for the expansion of the camp, officials are exploring other avenues to accommodate the displaced people.
In-charge Jalozai IDP camp, Zahir Shah, told The News they had capped registration at the facility due to lack of space. He said 119,000 individuals of 17,000 families from Khyber, Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies had been registered in 15 phases of Jalozai camp. An additional 7,000 families, he added, had been registered as host families. “These families are not willing to stay here due to several reasons,” he said and added they were being provided with relief items.
The camp has 10,900 families from Bajaur, 2,400 from Mohmand and 3,700 from Khyber Agency. Zahir Shah said IDPs from Khyber and Bajaur agencies were still streaming into the camp to take shelter, but they were cramped for space. The military continues operation in parts of Bajaur Agency where warplanes were reported to have pounded suspected positions of militants in Mamond area during the last several days.
People uprooted from Bajaur are also being registered in a camp in Wali Kandao area of Lower Dir district. Another 2,000 displaced families are living in Katcha Garhi camp in Peshawar. The security forces are also engaged in an operation codenamed “Khwakh Ba De Sham” (I will fix you!) in Khyber Agency to clobber fugitive non-Taliban militant commander Mangal Bagh and his supporters.
Military action is also in progress in South Waziristan from where around 59,000 families have been displaced. However, Nadra verified some 36,000 families to have been affected by operation Rah-e-Nijat against the leadership of banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. No camp has been established for the IDPs from Waziristan and they are living with host families or in rented homes.
Camp in-charge Zahir Shah said they had acquired 6,000 kanals of land in Jalozai but most of it was unusable because it is uneven and full of ditches. He said they could make use of only 1,900 kanal of land where tents could be pitched. Work for levelling the area was underway, he added. He said they had obtained 1,800 kanals of land in addition to 6,000 kanals and also received orders from the district coordination officer to billet IDPs in Industrial Estate. It was learnt the authorities would resume registration only after finding out as to how many families could be accommodated in the new portion.
Zahir Shah said the IDPs in Jalozai were being provided with food and non-food relief items and all other facilities. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has been giving tents, quilts, blankets, mats, buckets and jerry cans as non-food items and atta, biscuits, sugar, pulses and ghee as food items. However, he said due to winter cold they needed more blankets to protect the IDPs, particularly elderly persons, from cold.
Six schools have also been established in the camp in which double shift was being run. “Twelve hundred students read in a single shift,” Shah said. Moreover, the Pakistan Army has set up a 50-bedded hospital with different specialist doctors and all other facilities. “The treatment here is free of cost. Patients are admitted to it and kept for several days but serious ones are referred to LRH and Pabbi hospital,” he said. This facility, he claimed, was in addition to six basic health units established at the camp.
The existing camp is full to capacity forcing the authorities to suspend registration for the time being. Besides acquiring more land for the expansion of the camp, officials are exploring other avenues to accommodate the displaced people.
In-charge Jalozai IDP camp, Zahir Shah, told The News they had capped registration at the facility due to lack of space. He said 119,000 individuals of 17,000 families from Khyber, Bajaur and Mohmand tribal agencies had been registered in 15 phases of Jalozai camp. An additional 7,000 families, he added, had been registered as host families. “These families are not willing to stay here due to several reasons,” he said and added they were being provided with relief items.
The camp has 10,900 families from Bajaur, 2,400 from Mohmand and 3,700 from Khyber Agency. Zahir Shah said IDPs from Khyber and Bajaur agencies were still streaming into the camp to take shelter, but they were cramped for space. The military continues operation in parts of Bajaur Agency where warplanes were reported to have pounded suspected positions of militants in Mamond area during the last several days.
People uprooted from Bajaur are also being registered in a camp in Wali Kandao area of Lower Dir district. Another 2,000 displaced families are living in Katcha Garhi camp in Peshawar. The security forces are also engaged in an operation codenamed “Khwakh Ba De Sham” (I will fix you!) in Khyber Agency to clobber fugitive non-Taliban militant commander Mangal Bagh and his supporters.
Military action is also in progress in South Waziristan from where around 59,000 families have been displaced. However, Nadra verified some 36,000 families to have been affected by operation Rah-e-Nijat against the leadership of banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. No camp has been established for the IDPs from Waziristan and they are living with host families or in rented homes.
Camp in-charge Zahir Shah said they had acquired 6,000 kanals of land in Jalozai but most of it was unusable because it is uneven and full of ditches. He said they could make use of only 1,900 kanal of land where tents could be pitched. Work for levelling the area was underway, he added. He said they had obtained 1,800 kanals of land in addition to 6,000 kanals and also received orders from the district coordination officer to billet IDPs in Industrial Estate. It was learnt the authorities would resume registration only after finding out as to how many families could be accommodated in the new portion.
Zahir Shah said the IDPs in Jalozai were being provided with food and non-food relief items and all other facilities. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has been giving tents, quilts, blankets, mats, buckets and jerry cans as non-food items and atta, biscuits, sugar, pulses and ghee as food items. However, he said due to winter cold they needed more blankets to protect the IDPs, particularly elderly persons, from cold.
Six schools have also been established in the camp in which double shift was being run. “Twelve hundred students read in a single shift,” Shah said. Moreover, the Pakistan Army has set up a 50-bedded hospital with different specialist doctors and all other facilities. “The treatment here is free of cost. Patients are admitted to it and kept for several days but serious ones are referred to LRH and Pabbi hospital,” he said. This facility, he claimed, was in addition to six basic health units established at the camp.
Pakistan continues to execute children
NEW YORK: Five countries, led by Iran, account for all executions of children in the world, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday, urging an end to the practice.
Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen are the only countries that continue to impose the death penalty on people younger than 18 when they committed a crime. The United States outlawed execution of juvenile offenders in 2005.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the United Nations, which holds its annual General Assembly next week, to pressure for greater protections for children.
'We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death penalty,' said HRW's Clarisa Bencomo. 'These few holdouts should abandon this barbaric practice so that no one ever again is executed for a crime committed as a child.' All states have ratified or acceded to treaties ensuring that children are not sentenced to death, HRW said, but the five in question allow the punishment in certain cases.
According to the HRW website, in Pakistan, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 bans the death penalty for crimes committed by persons under 18 at the time of the offense, but authorities have yet to implement it in all territories. With only 29.5 percent of births registered, juvenile offenders can find it impossible to convince a judge they were children at the time of the crime. Pakistan executed one such juvenile offender, Mutabar Khan, on June 13, 2006.
According to AFP, Iran executed 26 of the 32 juveniles put to death since January 2005. Iranian law allows such penalties for girls of at least nine and boys of 15 or older, the report said. Six juvenile offenders have been executed there this year, the report said.
Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen are the only countries that continue to impose the death penalty on people younger than 18 when they committed a crime. The United States outlawed execution of juvenile offenders in 2005.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the United Nations, which holds its annual General Assembly next week, to pressure for greater protections for children.
'We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death penalty,' said HRW's Clarisa Bencomo. 'These few holdouts should abandon this barbaric practice so that no one ever again is executed for a crime committed as a child.' All states have ratified or acceded to treaties ensuring that children are not sentenced to death, HRW said, but the five in question allow the punishment in certain cases.
According to the HRW website, in Pakistan, the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance of 2000 bans the death penalty for crimes committed by persons under 18 at the time of the offense, but authorities have yet to implement it in all territories. With only 29.5 percent of births registered, juvenile offenders can find it impossible to convince a judge they were children at the time of the crime. Pakistan executed one such juvenile offender, Mutabar Khan, on June 13, 2006.
According to AFP, Iran executed 26 of the 32 juveniles put to death since January 2005. Iranian law allows such penalties for girls of at least nine and boys of 15 or older, the report said. Six juvenile offenders have been executed there this year, the report said.
Boys’ school blown up in Bara
BARA/PESHAWAR: Unidentified men blew up a boys’ school in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency late on Tuesday, sources said on Wednesday.
They said the men arrived at the Government High School for Boys at Shlobar and kidnapped the school watchman. Later the men blew up the school. No deaths were reported as the blast occurred late at night, they added.
According to AFP, Taliban blew up two schools in Khyber Agency, officials said. They said most of the buildings were reduced to rubble but no one was injured.
“Both main school buildings were completely destroyed,” said Shafeerullah Wazir, the top administrative official of the district, adding only two classrooms remained standing in the two adjacent schools. Wazir said the Taliban had buried large quantities of dynamite around the outer walls of the schools. “Both Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam are involved in this act,” he said.
Getting Tough With Pakistan
President Obama seems ready to deliver on a threat Candidate Obama made over two years ago–that, if Pakistan doesn’t go after its terrorists, he will.
The Surge in Afghanistan, according to White House leaks, comes with “a fairly bald warning that unless Pakistan moved quickly to act against two Taliban groups they have so far refused to attack, the United States was prepared to take unilateral action to expand Predator drone attacks beyond the tribal areas and, if needed, to resume raids by Special Operations forces into the country against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.”
In August 2007, then-Sen. Obama took flak for saying what the Bush White House was dancing around in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas:
“There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”
Pervez Musharraf, who bilked Bush for American billions without delivering on promises to go after those terrorists, is gone now, but the Pakistani military is still playing the same shell game, and one element of the new Afghanistan policy is to squeeze them into delivering more results for the new $7.5 billion they will be getting over the next five years.
Ever since bin Laden escaped into Pakistan eight years ago, the US has pursued a so-called “hammer and anvil” strategy to crush militants in the border areas.
The Surge in Afghanistan, according to White House leaks, comes with “a fairly bald warning that unless Pakistan moved quickly to act against two Taliban groups they have so far refused to attack, the United States was prepared to take unilateral action to expand Predator drone attacks beyond the tribal areas and, if needed, to resume raids by Special Operations forces into the country against Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.”
In August 2007, then-Sen. Obama took flak for saying what the Bush White House was dancing around in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas:
“There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.”
Pervez Musharraf, who bilked Bush for American billions without delivering on promises to go after those terrorists, is gone now, but the Pakistani military is still playing the same shell game, and one element of the new Afghanistan policy is to squeeze them into delivering more results for the new $7.5 billion they will be getting over the next five years.
Ever since bin Laden escaped into Pakistan eight years ago, the US has pursued a so-called “hammer and anvil” strategy to crush militants in the border areas.
U.S. men arrested in Pakistan, says embassy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five American men were arrested in Pakistan this week and are being investigated for alleged links to extremist groups, the Pakistani embassy in Washington said on Wednesday.
The five men, students in their 20s from northern Virginia, were picked up from Sargodha in Punjab province in Pakistan on Tuesday, said embassy spokesman Imran Gardezi.
He did not give further details on the circumstances of their arrest, their names or where they were being held.
"The reasons for their visit to Pakistan are being investigated," said Gardezi. "They are being investigated for alleged links to extremist groups."
The FBI said in a statement it was in contact with the families of the five as well as law-enforcement authorities in Pakistan.
"We are working with Pakistan authorities to determine their identities and the nature of their business there, if indeed these are the students who had gone missing. Because this is an ongoing investigation, we will not be able to provide further details at this time," the FBI said.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. embassy in Islamabad was also seeking information about the five.
"If they are American citizens, we of course are going to be very interested in the charges that they've been detained on and what sort of circumstances they're being held," said Kelly.
Asked about the five, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined comment but reiterated the United States was concerned about the work of extremist groups in Pakistan, particularly in the border areas with Afghanistan.
"We know we've got to work more closely with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to try to root out the infrastructure of terrorism that continues to recruit and train people," she said.
News of the five students came as a Chicago man with Pakistani roots, accused of scouting targets for the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday at his first court appearance since his October arrest.
Peshawar, epicenter of jihad
(Reuters)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani provincial minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti spends much of his time handing out envelopes containing checks. Some people suffering from shrapnel wounds limp to collect them.
Others weep and hug him after the names of their deceased sons are read out as dozens await their turn.
It has become a ritual in Peshawar, where those devastated by bombings -- the worst in the country in a militant campaign against the government -- receive compensation from authorities.
"We are facing an insurgency at its best. It's natural that I have to give maximum time for these activities," Hoti, Chief Minister for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) , told Reuters. "If we lose this war. God forbid. This country will go to the dogs."
Peshawar and its surrounding areas near the border with Afghanistan are the epicenter of the battle against militants, who recently raised security alarm bells with a suicide bombing and gun attack near Pakistan's military headquarters, 30 minutes from the capital.
Failure to contain violence in Peshawar could mean more operations like that one because it would make it easier for militants to get to large cities and strategic areas, spreading more chaos and fear in the nuclear-armed country.
Authorities seem well aware of that, judging by Peshawar's siege atmosphere. Military and state police check vehicles for weapons and bombs at checkpoints. Behind them soldiers with machineguns keep an eye out for suicide bombers.
Sandbags have been placed in front of vital businesses. School children are taught drills to follow in the event of a bomb.
DASHED HOPES, FEAR OF DEATH
But tight security may only produce short-term success in Peshawar, a run-down city 105 miles northwest of Islamabad, once home to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Militants often exploit poverty and unemployment, enticing impressionable young men with promises of glorious holy war. Winning long-term trust in the state is half the battle.
"It's not only the military operations. Military operations are to be followed by relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation," said Hoti.
"The space that was exploited by these (militant) elements. We need to fill that space. Administrative issues, political issues. The social sector. Poverty. You name it. A system of good governance."
Two students in a market area reinforced that view. Taliban fighters in their village paid other young men "good" money to join the group and take up arms, they said. At first Peshawar had offered high hopes. Until the bombings killed more and more people, hundreds since October.
They spend their time hanging out in a hunting gun shop and making small talk with its owner. The ripple economic effects of violence has cut his sales to a rifle a month.
"I am afraid I am going to die," said one of the students, Azhar Farooq.
During the 1980s, Peshawar became a den of spies and jihadis when the United States and Saudi Arabia covertly funded a mujahideen guerrilla war to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Pakistan also supported the effort. It's a bitter irony.
Nowadays, Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali Khan sits at his desk explaining how Taliban, al Qaeda and criminal elements are coordinating in a shadowy network trying to terrorize the city.
Khan is a confident hard-nosed man who says he has no doubts the police will emerge victorious, perhaps in a few months. But his description of the police force's resources, and the methods of the enemy, highlighted the magnitude of the task.
The police force needs highly sophisticated bomb and weapon detectors. They only own a handful to improve the safety of a city of 1.5 million.
Militants, on the other hand, are brainwashing boys as young as 14, or threatening to blow up their homes and families, to force them to become suicide bombers, said Khan.
For now, he must rely on police officers like Inspector Khaista Khan, whose picture hangs on a wall outside the police chief's office. On Saturday, he was killed after pouncing on a suicide bomber outside a Peshawar court who killed nine people. The act may have prevented a much higher death toll.
"A suicide bomber comes and the policeman goes and hugs him and takes all the blast for himself and protects the public. I think this needs motivation, devotion to duty and courage," Khan told Reuters. "This you can only find in the Peshawar police."
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani provincial minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti spends much of his time handing out envelopes containing checks. Some people suffering from shrapnel wounds limp to collect them.
Others weep and hug him after the names of their deceased sons are read out as dozens await their turn.
It has become a ritual in Peshawar, where those devastated by bombings -- the worst in the country in a militant campaign against the government -- receive compensation from authorities.
"We are facing an insurgency at its best. It's natural that I have to give maximum time for these activities," Hoti, Chief Minister for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) , told Reuters. "If we lose this war. God forbid. This country will go to the dogs."
Peshawar and its surrounding areas near the border with Afghanistan are the epicenter of the battle against militants, who recently raised security alarm bells with a suicide bombing and gun attack near Pakistan's military headquarters, 30 minutes from the capital.
Failure to contain violence in Peshawar could mean more operations like that one because it would make it easier for militants to get to large cities and strategic areas, spreading more chaos and fear in the nuclear-armed country.
Authorities seem well aware of that, judging by Peshawar's siege atmosphere. Military and state police check vehicles for weapons and bombs at checkpoints. Behind them soldiers with machineguns keep an eye out for suicide bombers.
Sandbags have been placed in front of vital businesses. School children are taught drills to follow in the event of a bomb.
DASHED HOPES, FEAR OF DEATH
But tight security may only produce short-term success in Peshawar, a run-down city 105 miles northwest of Islamabad, once home to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Militants often exploit poverty and unemployment, enticing impressionable young men with promises of glorious holy war. Winning long-term trust in the state is half the battle.
"It's not only the military operations. Military operations are to be followed by relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation," said Hoti.
"The space that was exploited by these (militant) elements. We need to fill that space. Administrative issues, political issues. The social sector. Poverty. You name it. A system of good governance."
Two students in a market area reinforced that view. Taliban fighters in their village paid other young men "good" money to join the group and take up arms, they said. At first Peshawar had offered high hopes. Until the bombings killed more and more people, hundreds since October.
They spend their time hanging out in a hunting gun shop and making small talk with its owner. The ripple economic effects of violence has cut his sales to a rifle a month.
"I am afraid I am going to die," said one of the students, Azhar Farooq.
During the 1980s, Peshawar became a den of spies and jihadis when the United States and Saudi Arabia covertly funded a mujahideen guerrilla war to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Pakistan also supported the effort. It's a bitter irony.
Nowadays, Peshawar police chief Liaquat Ali Khan sits at his desk explaining how Taliban, al Qaeda and criminal elements are coordinating in a shadowy network trying to terrorize the city.
Khan is a confident hard-nosed man who says he has no doubts the police will emerge victorious, perhaps in a few months. But his description of the police force's resources, and the methods of the enemy, highlighted the magnitude of the task.
The police force needs highly sophisticated bomb and weapon detectors. They only own a handful to improve the safety of a city of 1.5 million.
Militants, on the other hand, are brainwashing boys as young as 14, or threatening to blow up their homes and families, to force them to become suicide bombers, said Khan.
For now, he must rely on police officers like Inspector Khaista Khan, whose picture hangs on a wall outside the police chief's office. On Saturday, he was killed after pouncing on a suicide bomber outside a Peshawar court who killed nine people. The act may have prevented a much higher death toll.
"A suicide bomber comes and the policeman goes and hugs him and takes all the blast for himself and protects the public. I think this needs motivation, devotion to duty and courage," Khan told Reuters. "This you can only find in the Peshawar police."
PM orders army pullout from seven checkpoints
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Wednesday reached out to disgruntled exiled Baloch leaders offering talks and announcing the abolishment of several check-posts and replacement of army with the FC as a goodwill gesture.
The prime minister also ordered the handing over of Sui to FC forces, following an earlier announcement of handing over a military cantonment in Kohlu.
Offering an olive branch, Gilani promised to personally visit veteran Baloch leaders to carry forward the process of reconciliation. ‘We have never shied from meeting any stakeholder,’ said Gilani.
The prime minister’s statements came as he winded up a debate on the Balochistan Package in the joint session of Parliament. During the session Gilani said that out of nearly a thousand missing people, 262 had returned while assuring that the rest would return soon.
The check posts that have been ordered to close by PM Gilani include Othal, Lehri, Dera Allah Yar, Sheikh Wasil, Gawal, Zero Point and Islamzai.
He said on his directive, the FC was now replacing the army and as a first step, the army had been withdrawn from Kohlu cantonment. He said measures were being taken to place the FC under the direct control of the Chief Minister of Balochistan.
Announcing a series of measures, Gilani said orders for payment of dues amounting to Rs120 billion for Balochistan have been issued.
The premier said that his government wanted to convert all B-areas of Balochistan into A-areas, which would restore the writ of normal law enforcement agencies across the province.
He announced Rs1 billion each for the flood victims of Balochistan and for the development of Dera Bugti.
PML-N MNAs, on the other hand, alleged that the Balochistan package was an agreement between Islamabad and Quetta which ignored the demands of the underprivileged population.
The prime minister also ordered the handing over of Sui to FC forces, following an earlier announcement of handing over a military cantonment in Kohlu.
Offering an olive branch, Gilani promised to personally visit veteran Baloch leaders to carry forward the process of reconciliation. ‘We have never shied from meeting any stakeholder,’ said Gilani.
The prime minister’s statements came as he winded up a debate on the Balochistan Package in the joint session of Parliament. During the session Gilani said that out of nearly a thousand missing people, 262 had returned while assuring that the rest would return soon.
The check posts that have been ordered to close by PM Gilani include Othal, Lehri, Dera Allah Yar, Sheikh Wasil, Gawal, Zero Point and Islamzai.
He said on his directive, the FC was now replacing the army and as a first step, the army had been withdrawn from Kohlu cantonment. He said measures were being taken to place the FC under the direct control of the Chief Minister of Balochistan.
Announcing a series of measures, Gilani said orders for payment of dues amounting to Rs120 billion for Balochistan have been issued.
The premier said that his government wanted to convert all B-areas of Balochistan into A-areas, which would restore the writ of normal law enforcement agencies across the province.
He announced Rs1 billion each for the flood victims of Balochistan and for the development of Dera Bugti.
PML-N MNAs, on the other hand, alleged that the Balochistan package was an agreement between Islamabad and Quetta which ignored the demands of the underprivileged population.
Nawaz Sharif seeks accountability
Editorial: www.thefrontierpost.com/
PML-N leader and former two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday advised the party’s committee of legal experts preparing recommendations for the forthcoming accountability law that such a law should be so enacted as not to spare the corrupt from penalty nor should it allow exemption to anyone on any ground. Mr Sharif’s assertion can not be disputed because the application of law must be indiscriminate and no person, no matter how influential he or she may be, should escape accountability. Nevertheless, Mr Sharif must also have heard about the golden principle of Islam, which he always claims to be adhering to as part of his faith, that whosoever talks of the other’s accountability, must offer himself for the same first of all. If he does so or has a political will to do so, he will certainly be asked questions as to how had he and his family, including younger brother and Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, have been able to acquire so huge a wealth as to be reckoned the fourth wealthiest family of Pakistan. This is no secret that the Sharifs total asset was one Ittefaq Foundry when he was appointed as Punjab finance minister by Gen Ziaul Haq’s military regime in 1981. Ayub Khan’s period produced a new class of industrialists and notorious 22 families. But when Gen Zia’s era ended in an air crash, this notoriety was well wedded to “The Gang of Four” and the Sharifs were its leaders with a wealth accumulated to Rs12 billion. Others were the Chaudhries from Gujrat (Rs 3.5 billion), the Saifullahs, in-laws of Ghulam Ishaq Khan, (Rs2 billion) and Dr Basharat Elahi, brother-in-law of Gen Zia, (Rs1.7 billion). All their money came from borrowings from banks and developmental financial institutions and this scam still reverberates minds. Also still in the memory is an ordinance that Punjab governor promulgated in Dec 1988 raising the chief minister’s discretionary fund (then Nawaz Sharif) from Rs100,000 to “any reasonable limit” and that was effective retrospectively (from Dec 1985) because the ordinance was issued to give legal cover to Mr Sharif doling out Rs40 million to journalists, political leaders and others as political bribery. It was not a miracle but a handiwork of the Sharifs that that the House of Ittefaq gave birth to some 30 odd companies within less than a decade to top the list of rich families which later expanded its industrial empire beyond Pakistan to become the fourth business family of Pakistan with assets accumulating to $4billion as against $50 million in the 1990s and merely 10 per cent of it when he became a provincial minister. How more money was added to his huge kitty had a certain link to schemes like the Motorway, the Iqra funds “Apna Ghar” and “Mulk Sanwaro”. Nawaz Sharif certainly owes an explanation for obtaining loans amounting to Rs1.365 billion for Itteafq Foundry, Ittefaq and Brothers sugar mills, from banks and DFIs within six months in his first stint as the country’s chief executive. Besides, he must also take the people in confidence about the purchase of 500 acres of land at Raiwind, naming it Jati Umra, the village the family left in India upon partition. This land was purchased very cheap after the Zia regime, in mid 1990s, declared the area a duty-free industrial zone. Subsequently, this vast residence was so built as to have a helipad, zoo, pastures, agricultural and fruit and vegetable farms. Of late, the house of Hamza Shahbaz, the latest of the family’s political debutant, around Murree is also under the shadow of a scandal of supplying gas at the expense of 16 villages. All this must stand trial soon after the accountability law is enacted.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Peshawar sealed again to avert terror threat
PESHAWAR: The Saddar and Qissa Khwani bazaars remained completely sealed again on Tuesday to avert any terrorist attack. Motorists were diverted to other routes and only pedestrians were allowed to enter Saddar Road and Qissa Khwani, causing hardships to customers, commuters and traders.
The offices of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on the Arbab Road in Saddar were closed Tuesday morning on the instructions of the police. There were reports that the PIA premises could be targetted by the terrorists. The offices were got vacated and security tightened to avert an attack. Way back in 1986, the PIA offices were bombed killing five people, including the airlines staffers and visitors, and injuring many others.
Police contingents have been deployed at over 100 check points to search vehicles entering the city limits. There are checkposts along the Ring Road, in the suburbs and within the urban limits.
Despite all precautionary measures, a suicide bomber once again succeeded in hitting his target in the most sensitive part of Peshawar where the Sessions Courts, the Home Department, MPAs Hostel, the Governor’s House, Civil Secretariat and the Central Prison are located.
“Why hundreds of policemen are posted at such a large number of security checkpoints when they could not stop the entry of suicide bombers due to absence of sophisticated gadgetry. Amid this so-called strictest security that only bothers the public, bombers have succeeded in striking targets thrice on Khyber Road, once in Meena Bazaar and once outside the Sessions Courts causing a huge loss of precious lives,” said Mohammad Idrees Bacha, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz from Sakhakot who is running his business in Peshawar.
A senior officer of the police disclosed the force had only six detectors and 12 sniffers for the entire provincial metropolis that was why the terrorists succeeded in their designs.A detector can find explosives within a 100 meters radius when the cops handling the machine continue walking all over.
“We have requested for explosive detectors for at least half of the over 100 security checkpoints to ensure foolproof security. The lower quality of explosive-detector costs Rs2.2 million while a scanner costs Rs130 million,” the official said.
He admitted majority of the cops even don’t know how to handle explosive detectors and sniffers. “We are looking for other modern gadgetry and have talked to people abroad to look for more sophisticated scanners,” he added.
The Frontier Police chief Malik Naveed Khan told The News they had ordered explosive-detectors and other gadgets but import of the devices takes time. “We will soon be able to detect explosives in a car by getting the required gadgetry. We are looking for devices that can detect explosives even from 500 metres,” he said.
People are concerned over the hollow claims of senior government officials and security officials about improvement in the situation. “They just make these claims to get media coverage. Nothing really has been done to improve the situation,” said Engineer Suleman.
The offices of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on the Arbab Road in Saddar were closed Tuesday morning on the instructions of the police. There were reports that the PIA premises could be targetted by the terrorists. The offices were got vacated and security tightened to avert an attack. Way back in 1986, the PIA offices were bombed killing five people, including the airlines staffers and visitors, and injuring many others.
Police contingents have been deployed at over 100 check points to search vehicles entering the city limits. There are checkposts along the Ring Road, in the suburbs and within the urban limits.
Despite all precautionary measures, a suicide bomber once again succeeded in hitting his target in the most sensitive part of Peshawar where the Sessions Courts, the Home Department, MPAs Hostel, the Governor’s House, Civil Secretariat and the Central Prison are located.
“Why hundreds of policemen are posted at such a large number of security checkpoints when they could not stop the entry of suicide bombers due to absence of sophisticated gadgetry. Amid this so-called strictest security that only bothers the public, bombers have succeeded in striking targets thrice on Khyber Road, once in Meena Bazaar and once outside the Sessions Courts causing a huge loss of precious lives,” said Mohammad Idrees Bacha, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz from Sakhakot who is running his business in Peshawar.
A senior officer of the police disclosed the force had only six detectors and 12 sniffers for the entire provincial metropolis that was why the terrorists succeeded in their designs.A detector can find explosives within a 100 meters radius when the cops handling the machine continue walking all over.
“We have requested for explosive detectors for at least half of the over 100 security checkpoints to ensure foolproof security. The lower quality of explosive-detector costs Rs2.2 million while a scanner costs Rs130 million,” the official said.
He admitted majority of the cops even don’t know how to handle explosive detectors and sniffers. “We are looking for other modern gadgetry and have talked to people abroad to look for more sophisticated scanners,” he added.
The Frontier Police chief Malik Naveed Khan told The News they had ordered explosive-detectors and other gadgets but import of the devices takes time. “We will soon be able to detect explosives in a car by getting the required gadgetry. We are looking for devices that can detect explosives even from 500 metres,” he said.
People are concerned over the hollow claims of senior government officials and security officials about improvement in the situation. “They just make these claims to get media coverage. Nothing really has been done to improve the situation,” said Engineer Suleman.
Peshawar Police foil terror bid
Peshawar police on Tuesday foiled a terror bid in Bakhshupul area of the city when they defused four bombs weighing 40 kilogrammes each, a private TV channel reported.The channel said police, after receiving a tip off about a possible terror bid in Bakhshupul area, dispatched the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) to the area, which defused all four bombs planted in the area.BDS Inspector General Shafqat Malik said the bombs could have destroyed everything within a 100-kilometre radius had they not been defused.
Editorial: Countrywide threat
Daily Times
Pakistan is the target of terrorist attacks almost every day now. The spread and range of attacks seems to be widening with each passing day. On December 7 we saw two major cities — Peshawar and Lahore — being targeted and the very next day the office of a sensitive agency in Multan was also rocked by blasts. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Peshawar Sessions Court while the twin blasts in Lahore occurred at the Moon Market, which is considered one of the busiest markets in the city.
Attacks in three major cities of Pakistan highlight the reach of the militants. The terrorist network seems not only to be strengthening, its choice of targets too is widening. In Peshawar they targeted the judiciary; in Lahore they targeted civilians, including women and children, while in Multan they targeted the security agencies. The militants have targeted the security forces time and again; the GHQ attack proved that they have the means to target one of the best guarded places in the country. Security checkposts, offices of intelligence agencies, the Naval Complex, police academies, etc., have been the target of the militants. To execute attacks against the high-profile security apparatus takes more time and planning while targeting civilians is a far easier task. Now there is a generalised terror campaign against the public. This is a serious threat for the entire country.
The government and the security agencies need to take stock of the situation and come up with new strategies to counter this rise in terrorist activity. They also need to stop living in denial about certain things. For terrorist attacks in Peshawar and surrounding areas, it can be said that there is an involvement of the local people or militants from FATA, but can the same thing be said about Lahore or Multan? For a long time now the authorities have not been very forthright about the seminaries in south Punjab. There is a strong presence of jihadi outfits in south Punjab and if we do not take steps to deal with them immediately, it would be too late and there might be another ‘South Waziristan’ on our hands very soon. It seems as if the nexus between other jihadi organisations and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is getting stronger. Intelligence reports have also warned of terrorist attacks in Karachi at the airport, hospitals, and against foreigners. Karachi is already a tinderbox waiting to explode. The ethnic divide in the city has led to many casualties in the past and if the terrorists manage to give an ethnic colouring to the attacks, the situation could become serious. After the Lahore attack, the authorities said that since it is a large city, it is hard to monitor activities citywide. These remarks apply with greater force in Karachi.
One of the inherent difficulties in countering terrorism is devising a mechanism to prevent these attacks. For that we need good intelligence and police work so that pre-emptive action could be taken. Only then can a terrorist attack be stopped. Once the attack is launched, it is very difficult to stop it. The terrorists have launched a campaign to paralyse state institutions and intimidate the public. There is a dire need to launch a public awareness campaign about suspicious characters, vehicles and objects and to persuade the public to report these to the concerned authorities. The state’s security agencies cannot be present everywhere. In order to prevent catastrophes, the state needs to mobilise the public. The public can be the eyes and ears of the state. A political consensus is needed to launch this campaign. Rehman Malik’s efforts to bring the ulema on board are commendable, but now it is time that all political parties come together and launch a countrywide campaign against terrorism.
Pakistan is the target of terrorist attacks almost every day now. The spread and range of attacks seems to be widening with each passing day. On December 7 we saw two major cities — Peshawar and Lahore — being targeted and the very next day the office of a sensitive agency in Multan was also rocked by blasts. A suicide bomber blew himself up at the Peshawar Sessions Court while the twin blasts in Lahore occurred at the Moon Market, which is considered one of the busiest markets in the city.
Attacks in three major cities of Pakistan highlight the reach of the militants. The terrorist network seems not only to be strengthening, its choice of targets too is widening. In Peshawar they targeted the judiciary; in Lahore they targeted civilians, including women and children, while in Multan they targeted the security agencies. The militants have targeted the security forces time and again; the GHQ attack proved that they have the means to target one of the best guarded places in the country. Security checkposts, offices of intelligence agencies, the Naval Complex, police academies, etc., have been the target of the militants. To execute attacks against the high-profile security apparatus takes more time and planning while targeting civilians is a far easier task. Now there is a generalised terror campaign against the public. This is a serious threat for the entire country.
The government and the security agencies need to take stock of the situation and come up with new strategies to counter this rise in terrorist activity. They also need to stop living in denial about certain things. For terrorist attacks in Peshawar and surrounding areas, it can be said that there is an involvement of the local people or militants from FATA, but can the same thing be said about Lahore or Multan? For a long time now the authorities have not been very forthright about the seminaries in south Punjab. There is a strong presence of jihadi outfits in south Punjab and if we do not take steps to deal with them immediately, it would be too late and there might be another ‘South Waziristan’ on our hands very soon. It seems as if the nexus between other jihadi organisations and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is getting stronger. Intelligence reports have also warned of terrorist attacks in Karachi at the airport, hospitals, and against foreigners. Karachi is already a tinderbox waiting to explode. The ethnic divide in the city has led to many casualties in the past and if the terrorists manage to give an ethnic colouring to the attacks, the situation could become serious. After the Lahore attack, the authorities said that since it is a large city, it is hard to monitor activities citywide. These remarks apply with greater force in Karachi.
One of the inherent difficulties in countering terrorism is devising a mechanism to prevent these attacks. For that we need good intelligence and police work so that pre-emptive action could be taken. Only then can a terrorist attack be stopped. Once the attack is launched, it is very difficult to stop it. The terrorists have launched a campaign to paralyse state institutions and intimidate the public. There is a dire need to launch a public awareness campaign about suspicious characters, vehicles and objects and to persuade the public to report these to the concerned authorities. The state’s security agencies cannot be present everywhere. In order to prevent catastrophes, the state needs to mobilise the public. The public can be the eyes and ears of the state. A political consensus is needed to launch this campaign. Rehman Malik’s efforts to bring the ulema on board are commendable, but now it is time that all political parties come together and launch a countrywide campaign against terrorism.
Peace rally denounces terrorism in country
PESHAWAR: A protest rally organised by Amn Tehreek (AT) against terrorism was held here on Tuesday. Large number of people from all walks of life participated in the rally to condemn recent wave of terrorism in the country. The rally demanded of the government to bring the perpetrators to justice. The rally was led by Convener Amn Tehreek Muhammad Idrees Kamal. Other who participated in the rally included Peshawar Press Club President Shamim Shahid, Dr. Syed Alam Mehsood, member of Tajir Itehad Khalid Ayub, members of Women Action Forum Rakhshanda Naaz, Samina Afridi, Nusrat Bibi. The participants of the rally were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans 'no to suicide attacks, no to terrorism'. The rally started from Peshawar Press Club and peacefully ended at Sessions Court's gate where a huge suicide explosion occurred on Monday last. They laid down floral wreath at the gate of sessions court to express solidarity with the members of bereaved families and paid tribute to the martyrs. The participants chanted slogans against suicide bomb blasts and demanded for exposing elements behind these coward acts of terrorism. They urged Ulema and Masaik-e-Kiram to openly speak up against suicide attacks and supported the government’s stance in fight against militancy and terrorism. The protestors demanded the government to arrest real culprits and award exemplary punishment to masterminds of the suicide and bomb blasts to avoid such attacks in future.
No room for false moves in Pakistan
www.guardian.co.uk
Immensely problematic though Afghanistan has become, Pakistan is emerging as a far bigger, potentially more dangerous challenge to western security interests, officials and analysts in Kabul say. The west's central dilemma is how to obtain Islamabad's full support in "degrading" al-Qaida, Taliban and other militant Islamist groups on both sides of the Durand line – the British-designated de facto Afghan-Pakistani border – without fatally undermining the Pakistani government's legitimacy in the eyes of its own people.
"Pakistan is the big coming problem," one analyst here said. "The US and Nato countries have to convince the Pakistanis that they are not going to cut and run in Afghanistan [as happened after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989 and again, arguably, after the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001].
"Three-quarters of Pakistan's borders are contested, by the Iranians in the west, along the Durand line, by India in Kashmir, by China. Pakistan would prefer an unstable Afghanistan to a hostile one. It worries what India might do there. If we want their help, we have to be able to offer Pakistan geopolitical stability," the analyst said.
Speaking before Barack Obama unveiled his revamped Af-Pak strategy last week, US officials described Pakistani co-operation as essential to achieving western objectives. "We can't succeed [in Afghanistan] without Pakistan," one official said. "And if you don't win in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will automatically be imperilled, and that will make Afghanistan look like child's play."
Yet Obama's speech was notable for its vagueness about Pakistan's role. "We will strengthen Pakistan's capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists," he said.
Obama gave no new indications as to how this might be achieved, beyond the additional economic and development aid and intelligence assistance already offered, or what the US would do if its wishes were ignored.
Washington is ostensibly worried that public admonitions or hectoring could backfire. But General James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, reportedly exhibited no such inhibitions during a private visit to Islamabad last month. Jones is said to have warned that if Pakistan did not deliver, the US might be impelled to use "any means at its disposal" to secure the border region. This implied a threatening escalation in a country that already feels its sovereignty is under assault from American drone attacks.
The area in question, known historically as Pashtunistan, was deliberately divided by Henry Durand and the British in 1893. It is home to about 15 million Pashtuns on the Afghan side and 28 million on the Pakistan side. They do not see themselves as belonging to either state; nearly all the Taliban forces come from there. It is the quintessential "ungoverned space".
Yet despite all this, western officials say Pakistani leaders, preoccupied with the strategic challenge posed by their old enemy, India, have still to make a "strategic shift" away from the Afghan Taliban, who it sponsored in the 1990s.
In particular, tougher Pakistani action is sought against the so-called Quetta shura, the Taliban's ideological headquarters, and militant groups bent on provoking confrontation with India.
"For the Pakistanis, the Afghan Taliban are still an insurance policy. We have to persuade them that the Taliban are a threat, not an ally, and that the result of [the US-led surge] will be stable, friendly Afghanistan," one official said. Trying to provide such reassurance, Obama has offered to facilitate an India-Pakistan rapprochement, a demarche that has met with a deafening silence on both sides.
One possible consequence, should the US over-reach, could be the collapse of President Asif Ali Zardari's weak and unpopular administration. Conspiracy theorists say this may be Washington's intention; that it may prefer to deal with the Pakistani military, as during the era of former strongman General Pervez Musharraf.
Maleeha Lodhi, a Pakistani former diplomat and influential columnist, says frenetic western cajoling is fraught with risks for Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment is widespread and extremists are pursuing a daily campaign of terror attacks to destabilise the country.
"Intensified fighting in Afghanistan, far from diminishing the threat of more instability in Pakistan, will enhance it. The military escalation on Pakistan's border could produce a spillover of militants," Lodhi said. "It will enhance the vulnerability of US-Nato ground supply routes … Protecting these supply lines will overstretch Pakistani forces at present engaged in quashing the Pakistani Taliban.
"The surge could also lead to an influx of more Afghan refugees. It could also provoke a spike in violent reprisals in Pakistan … It is therefore imperative for Islamabad to try to persuade the US to modify its strategy," she said.
Trouble is, Obama, like Gordon Brown, is a man in a hurry with a war to win. One political shove too hard, one cross-border drone attack too many, or another Mumbai-style attack by Pakistani-based groups on an Indian target, and Pakistan could swiftly join the descent into chaos.
Immensely problematic though Afghanistan has become, Pakistan is emerging as a far bigger, potentially more dangerous challenge to western security interests, officials and analysts in Kabul say. The west's central dilemma is how to obtain Islamabad's full support in "degrading" al-Qaida, Taliban and other militant Islamist groups on both sides of the Durand line – the British-designated de facto Afghan-Pakistani border – without fatally undermining the Pakistani government's legitimacy in the eyes of its own people.
"Pakistan is the big coming problem," one analyst here said. "The US and Nato countries have to convince the Pakistanis that they are not going to cut and run in Afghanistan [as happened after Soviet troops withdrew in 1989 and again, arguably, after the Taliban regime was overthrown in 2001].
"Three-quarters of Pakistan's borders are contested, by the Iranians in the west, along the Durand line, by India in Kashmir, by China. Pakistan would prefer an unstable Afghanistan to a hostile one. It worries what India might do there. If we want their help, we have to be able to offer Pakistan geopolitical stability," the analyst said.
Speaking before Barack Obama unveiled his revamped Af-Pak strategy last week, US officials described Pakistani co-operation as essential to achieving western objectives. "We can't succeed [in Afghanistan] without Pakistan," one official said. "And if you don't win in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will automatically be imperilled, and that will make Afghanistan look like child's play."
Yet Obama's speech was notable for its vagueness about Pakistan's role. "We will strengthen Pakistan's capacity to target those groups that threaten our countries, and have made it clear that we cannot tolerate a safe haven for terrorists," he said.
Obama gave no new indications as to how this might be achieved, beyond the additional economic and development aid and intelligence assistance already offered, or what the US would do if its wishes were ignored.
Washington is ostensibly worried that public admonitions or hectoring could backfire. But General James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, reportedly exhibited no such inhibitions during a private visit to Islamabad last month. Jones is said to have warned that if Pakistan did not deliver, the US might be impelled to use "any means at its disposal" to secure the border region. This implied a threatening escalation in a country that already feels its sovereignty is under assault from American drone attacks.
The area in question, known historically as Pashtunistan, was deliberately divided by Henry Durand and the British in 1893. It is home to about 15 million Pashtuns on the Afghan side and 28 million on the Pakistan side. They do not see themselves as belonging to either state; nearly all the Taliban forces come from there. It is the quintessential "ungoverned space".
Yet despite all this, western officials say Pakistani leaders, preoccupied with the strategic challenge posed by their old enemy, India, have still to make a "strategic shift" away from the Afghan Taliban, who it sponsored in the 1990s.
In particular, tougher Pakistani action is sought against the so-called Quetta shura, the Taliban's ideological headquarters, and militant groups bent on provoking confrontation with India.
"For the Pakistanis, the Afghan Taliban are still an insurance policy. We have to persuade them that the Taliban are a threat, not an ally, and that the result of [the US-led surge] will be stable, friendly Afghanistan," one official said. Trying to provide such reassurance, Obama has offered to facilitate an India-Pakistan rapprochement, a demarche that has met with a deafening silence on both sides.
One possible consequence, should the US over-reach, could be the collapse of President Asif Ali Zardari's weak and unpopular administration. Conspiracy theorists say this may be Washington's intention; that it may prefer to deal with the Pakistani military, as during the era of former strongman General Pervez Musharraf.
Maleeha Lodhi, a Pakistani former diplomat and influential columnist, says frenetic western cajoling is fraught with risks for Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment is widespread and extremists are pursuing a daily campaign of terror attacks to destabilise the country.
"Intensified fighting in Afghanistan, far from diminishing the threat of more instability in Pakistan, will enhance it. The military escalation on Pakistan's border could produce a spillover of militants," Lodhi said. "It will enhance the vulnerability of US-Nato ground supply routes … Protecting these supply lines will overstretch Pakistani forces at present engaged in quashing the Pakistani Taliban.
"The surge could also lead to an influx of more Afghan refugees. It could also provoke a spike in violent reprisals in Pakistan … It is therefore imperative for Islamabad to try to persuade the US to modify its strategy," she said.
Trouble is, Obama, like Gordon Brown, is a man in a hurry with a war to win. One political shove too hard, one cross-border drone attack too many, or another Mumbai-style attack by Pakistani-based groups on an Indian target, and Pakistan could swiftly join the descent into chaos.
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