Posts Tagged ‘Taliban’

State visit to UK: Britain pledges ‘enduring friendship’ with Pakistan

During Premier Gilani’s five-day state visit to Britain, the British prime minister categorically stated that the UK will be an “enduring friend” to the government and the people of Pakistan and vowed to build a “deeper and stronger relationship”.

Both countries also vowed to strengthen bilateral trade to £2.5 billion by 2015 as part of “a jointly-owned” Pakistan-UK Trade and Investment Roadmap.

“Both countries are committed to working together as equals to create conditions for greater prosperity and security in Pakistan and the UK,” a joint-statement issued at the end of the talks said.

Regarding democracy, the joint-statement noted it was an “important time for Pakistan” and the current government was the “longest-serving civilian government in the country’s history”.

The prime ministers discussed trade, economic growth and development, cultural co-operation, security and education and reviewed the progress being made since the two leaders made the commitment in April 2011 in Islamabad for a deeper and broader dialogue.

They also discussed the shared national security challenges and the cooperation in counter-terrorism.

Prime Minister Cameron also pledged his support for a return to international cricket being played in Pakistan and offered to share the UK’s experience in protecting large sporting events. The visiting Pakistani delegation was briefed on the UK’s preparations for the Olympics.

Prime Minister Gilani also briefed his British counterpart on the recommendations approved by parliament regarding reengagement with the US as well as the ongoing Pakistan-India peace process.

Pak-UK Trade and Investment Roadmap

The leaders agreed upon “a jointly-owned” Pakistan-UK Trade and Investment Roadmap to actively pursue joint activities on trade and investment promotion.

The roadmap aims at creating a UK-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce in Pakistan to complement existing trade bodies in the UK and to develop business ties with such entities.

Both premiers urged UK companies to look at the opportunities Pakistani markets present and build on the success of the over 100 UK-based companies already engaged in business with Pakistan.

Prime Minister Gilani pledged his government’s full support in ensuring an enabling business environment to attract and sustain UK trade with, and investment in, Pakistan.

OBL debacle

Pinning the responsibility on the rest of the world and a “universal intelligence failure”, Prime Minister Gilani categorically denied that Pakistan was “complicit” in sheltering former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“There is no complicity. I think it’s an intelligence failure from all over the world,” Premier Gilani said in an interview with The Guardian.

The premier also denied that Pakistan’s military was aware of Bin Laden’s hideouts, or had deliberately withheld information about his whereabouts.

Responding to Hillary Clinton

Responding to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s claim that al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri was residing in Pakistan, the prime minister denied having any information about it.

He instead pleaded that such intelligence be shared with Pakistani authorities.

He gave the same response when asked about reports that suggested Taliban leader Mullah Omar was present in the country. “The CIA is far more powerful than Pakistan’s intelligence service, and would have a better idea about that.”

Relations with other countries

Premier Gilani also admitted to The Guardian that relations with the US have not been “too normal” of late, but maintained that the premier intelligence agencies of both countries have been working together to “achieve” their high-level targets.

On relations with India, Gilani said that Pakistan was “serious” about resolving all core issues with India, including the thorny subjects of Kashmir and Siachen.

(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM NEWS DESK AND APP)

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2012.

Flashback May 11: Rogue ISI and the real Zaid Hamid

Flashback is an experimental feature looking back at the top articles on this date featured on The Express Tribune website.

May 11, 2011

Bin Laden in Pakistan: ‘Rogue ISI, army men may have known of hideout’

Former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf has said that it is possible that rogue members of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the military knew of Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad.

“As a policy, the army and the ISI are fighting terrorism and extremism, al Qaeda and the Taliban. But rogue elements within are a possibility,” Musharraf said in an interview with ABC News Chief Law and Justice Correspondent Chris Cuomo.

Prayers for Bin Laden in National Assembly

Parliamentarians were stunned on Tuesday when a lawmaker led prayers for al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, defying calls from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi that he needed permission to do so.

At the National Assembly session, Maulvi Asmatullah, an independent candidate from NA-264 stood up and said Bin Laden had reportedly been given funeral services by the Americans and “we should pray for him”.

The prayer service hardly lasted a minute in which two JUI-F legislators from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, former federal minister Attaur Rehman and Laiq Muhammad Khan, participated.

May 11, 2010

Sania Mirza set to rock Pakistani ads

Pakistani advertising agencies are busy doing consumer research for their clients to gauge Sania Mirza’s acceptability as their brand ambassador, a report of the Economic Times stated.

Both Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik seem to be the flavour of the season for Pakistani companies.

Will the real Zaid Hamid please stand up?

In a sense, he is the Pakistan version of Harun Yahya, the Turkish creationist and one-man marketing machine. Like Yahya, Hamid has his share of enemies and legal troubles; like Yahya, the sources of his funding and backing are rumoured to have an agenda; like Yahya, he often romanticises the past in the face of a changed contemporary context.

That is where the similarities end, however. Where Harun Yahya is on a crusade against Darwinism and evolutionary biology, pitting religion against science, Zaid Hamid’s vision is a martial, conquering, unified Pakistan.

The Predator war

In August 5th, officials at the Central Intelligence Agency, in Langley, Virginia, watched a live video feed relaying closeup footage of one of the most wanted terrorists in Pakistan. Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, could be seen reclining on the rooftop of his father-in-law’s house, in Zanghara, a hamlet in South Waziristan. It was a hot summer night, and he was …

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US bill attaches strings to Pakistan aid

WASHINGTON – A US Congressional Committee in its budgetary proposals for the year 2013 has prohibited economic and security assistance to Pakistan till it cooperates with the US in the fight against terrorism and takes action against groups like Haqqani network, Taliban, al Qaeda, LeT and JeM.
‘The legislation prohibits economic and security assistance unless the government of Pakistan is …

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Nine killed in Afghan ambushes

kabul – Five Afghan policemen and four bodyguards assigned to protect an education chief have been killed in two ambushes blamed on Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. The police were killed late Tuesday when a bomb detonated by remote control exploded under their patrol vehicle in the western province of Farah, regional police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP.
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Al Qaeda chief slams US apology for Quran burning

Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. – File Photo by AP.

DUBAI: Al Qaeda head Ayman al-Zawahiri rejected the US apology over the burning of Quran copies at a base in Afghanistan, urging all Muslims to support the Taliban, SITE Intelligence Group reported Wednesday.

“The Crusaders once again repeated their crime by insulting the holy Quran, and once again mocked the messenger of Allah,” Zawahiri said in a SITE English-language translation of his nearly seven-minute message.

In February, thousands of Afghan protesters attacked the biggest US military base in their country, at Bagram near Kabul, reacting to reports that troops inside had burned copies of the Quran.

Around 40 people were killed in several days of violent protests.

American officials say the Qurans had been confiscated from prisoners as they used them to communicate between each other. The incident led US President Barack Obama to apologise for what he described as an error.

In Wednesday’s video which the US-based SITE said was posted on extremist forums, Zawahiri criticised Obama’s apology.

“After each of their crimes, they pretend to be sorry, and they claim they will investigate what happened, which is a silly farce that Obama and his secretary repeated this time also,” said the chief of the terror network.

“The American Crusaders and their allies showed over and over again their hatred and envy of Islam, the book of Islam, the prophet (of) Islam,” Zawahiri said.

He urged Muslim across the world to “fight the enemies of Allah and the enemies of His Messenger.” Zawahiri delivered a similar message in March, urging Afghans to rise up against “Crusader pigs” after US Marines were shown in an Internet video urinating on the corpses of Taliban militants.

A fresh scandal has rocked the alliance between the United States and the Afghan government every month this year in their joint efforts against Taliban insurgents.

A US soldier in March went on the rampage and murdered 17 Afghan villagers in their homes.

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Via DAWN.com

Kidnappings threaten aid work in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The grisly murder of a Red Cross worker and a video showing an American hostage pleading for his life highlight a perilous security situation in Pakistan that aid groups say is endangering their work.

Humanitarian organisations are reviewing operations in Pakistan after the killing of Khalil Dale, whose decapitated body was found on April 29, four months after he was abducted in Quetta.

The savage murder of the 60-year-old British convert to Islam sent shockwaves through the aid community, particularly as his employer, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), has a reputation for neutrality that allows it to work safely even in the most hostile situations.

Aid groups spend millions of dollars on helping millions of Pakistanis, yet attacks on their staff are increasing, according to the Pakistan Humanitarian Forum (PHF), which represents nearly 50 international organisations.

Since 2009, at least 19 aid workers have been murdered and more than 20 abducted across Pakistan by militants and criminals, the PHF said.

“This trend of increased targeting of humanitarian aid organisations and personnel will further impede the ability of humanitarian agencies to provide life-saving and life-enhancing support to the most vulnerable population,” the PHF warned.

According to the PHF, at the end of 2011 there were more than 200 foreigners and 10,000 locals working in Pakistan for international aid organisations under its aegis. The ICRC is not part of the PHF.

On Sunday a video emerged of kidnapped US development worker Warren Weinstein urging President Barack Obama to save his life by agreeing to his abductors’ demands.

The 70-year-old was snatched after gunmen tricked their way into his Lahore home in August last year, and Pakistani officials believe he is being held by al Qaeda and Taliban extremists in the northwest.

The kidnapping of Weinstein in Lahore, and an Italian and a German in Multan – both cities previously regarded as relatively safe – has further rattled NGO nerves.

“A few people have pulled out of coming for monitoring visits – we’ve had auditors coming from Europe and at the last minute they’ve decided not to come,” an official with one major Western aid group told AFP.

“We’ve really tightened up our security. For Islamabad our security guy says the risk is still low, but kidnappings are increasing, and from places like Multan – we never would have expected that.”

Many in the aid community have been deeply critical of the CIA’s decision to run a fake vaccination programme in a bid to identify Osama bin Laden before he was killed last May, saying the link with espionage has endangered aid workers.

Pakistan arrested the doctor recruited by the CIA to run the programme. Bin Laden’s killing in Pakistan ignited a wave of restrictions on foreigners across the country, limiting their movements and restricting visas.

A staff member with another international NGO said that while most aid workers accepted that a certain level of danger is part of the job, the ICRC’s reputation made the Dale case all the more shocking.

“The ICRC is considered to be globally one of the most non-partisan, objective organisations. It does its utmost to tread the centre ground, so that is a concern to individuals like me,” the staff member said.

Senior ICRC officials from Geneva travelled to Pakistan after Dale’s murder to meet authorities and review the organisation’s presence in the country.

A few days before Dale’s abduction, the ICRC had already said it was planning to scale back its presence in Pakistan.

An internal source said this was to do with tensions with the authorities and problems getting visas for foreign staff, but the process could be sped up following the murder.

One option being considered, the source said, is to cut ICRC operations back to their level before a 2005 earthquake in Kashmir that killed more than 75,000 people.

That would leave just five expatriate staff in Islamabad and a hospital in Peshawar, down from about 100 foreigners at the start of the year.

US bill prohibits aid to Pak till it cooperates on terror war

A US Congressional committee in its budgetary proposals for the year 2013 has prohibited economic and security assistance to Pakistan till it co-operates with the US in the fight against terrorism and takes action against groups like Haqqani network, Taliban, al-Qaida, LeT and JeM.
“The legislation prohibits economic and security assistance unless the government of Pakistan is cooperating with …

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Pakistan militants vow holy war for bin Laden

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Militants vowed to continue fighting the United States, a year since the death of al Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden.—File Photo

MIRANSHAH: Militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan on Tuesday distributed pamphlets pledging holy war to mark the first anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden, albeit a week late.

Masked militants armed with assault rifles handed out copies of the pamphlet from pick-up vehicles in Miranshah, the main town of the tribal district that has become known as Pakistan’s premier al Qaeda and Taliban hub.

“Let us pledge today that we will continue our jihad (holy war) and sacrifice our lives and property in the way of Allah like Sheikh Osama did,” it said, unsigned and dated May 2, the anniversary of the Al-Qaeda leader’s killing by US troops.

“Today, a year since Sheikh Osama bin Laden embraced martyrdom, the enemy America is repenting. It is facing defeat and Pakistan’s future is also bleak,”it said.

The pamphlet distribution followed two days of rare fighting between troops and Islamist militants in Miranshah that killed 19 soldiers and civilians, officials said.

Gunbattles in North Waziristan are relatively rare because of an agreement between insurgents and the military not to attack each other.

Pakistan has resisted US pressure to conduct a major offensive in the district, saying it is too overstretched fighting homegrown insurgents elsewhere in the tribal belt.

Bin Laden was killed on May 2 2011 in a secret US Navy SEAL operation in a walled-off compound in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. Pakistan went on high alert last week over fears of revenge attacks, but the anniversary passed off peacefully.

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Via DAWN.com

22 Taliban militants killed in eastern Afghanistan

Afghan soldiers and NATO – led coalition troops eliminated 22 Taliban militants in an operation in the country’s eastern Paktika province Monday night, an Afghan army spokesman said Tuesday. “Afghan National Army (ANA) backed by coalition forces raided a Taliban hiding place in Nike district Monday night, killing 22 armed militants, “army spokesman Ajmal Zhwak said. He said no security force …

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US aid worker: Investigators track down Weinstein kidnappers

Warren Weinstein, 71, was abducted from his residence in the upscale Model Town neighbourhood of Lahore on August 13, 2011. He was the country director for JE Austin Associates, a US-based consultancy which works with the US Agency for International Development.

An FBI team visited the offices of the deputy inspector general of police (investigation branch) and superintendent of police at Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) to get updates on the investigations.

The team was told that Pakistani agencies have arrested two al Qaeda operatives who were part of the eight-member ring involved in Weinstein’s kidnapping, sources told The Express Tribune. One of them took part in the kidnapping while the other was the facilitator.

However, the remaining six members of the network, including al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri and his Pakistani cohort Afzaal Hussain, could not be arrested because they are hiding in the tribal regions and neighbouring provinces of Afghanistan.

The FBI team’s visit coincided with the release of a video message by al Qaeda’s media arm in which Weinstein has been shown pleading for his life and asking President Barack Obama to accept his captors’ demands.

Although he didn’t spell out the demands, last year al Zawahiri had said that Weinstein would be freed if the US stopped drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen and released al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, including the 9/11 suspects in Guantanamo Bay.

According to the Joint Investigation Report, the eight members of the network also include Saifur Rehman, a resident of Chak No 37, Pakpattan district, Hafiz Muhammad Imran, alias Abbas, a resident of Sodhraan More, Gujranwala district.

Saif told investigators that he had rented a room in Dogar Plaza, situated near the Tokhar Niaz Baig neighbourhood of Lahore, where the kidnappers had stayed for three days (August 11 to 13). Saif also confessed that he had only arranged accommodation for the kidnappers.

Hafiz Imran told investigators that he had done recce on the residence of Weinstein for two days before his kidnapping. Later he also actively took part in the kidnapping. The pair identified the remaining three members of their network by their pseudonyms as Saeed, Talha and Ali.

During the identification parade in the court of Judicial Magistrate of Model Town, Syed Naeem Abbas, the security guards who were posted at Weinstein’s residence on the day of kidnapping identified Hafiz Imran, sources told The Express Tribune. The guards have been included in the list of witnesses in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th, 2012.

US envoy to Pakistan to depart this summer

WASHINGTON: The US ambassador to Islamabad, Cameron Munter, plans to step down this summer, and the Obama administration, hoping to improve dismal ties with Pakistan at a crucial time for its war in neighboring Afghanistan, is considering a senior official at its Kabul embassy to replace him.

The White House is focusing on Richard Olson, who has orchestrated US development and economic activities in Afghanistan since June 2011, to succeed Munter when he departs in coming months, sources familiar with the discussions said. Olson would have to be formally proposed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate. The White House declined to comment on a personnel matter.

Munter, who was sworn in as ambassador to Pakistan in October 2010, has served during a period of unprecedented turbulence and suspicion between the two countries, whose uneasy alliance since the September 11, 2001 attacks has centered around the fight against Islamist militants operating from Pakistan.

The series of bilateral crises in the past 18 months has included Pakistan’s arrest of a CIA contractor in early 2011; the top-secret US raid that killed Osama bin Laden just 50 km (30 miles) from Islamabad a few months later; and Pakistanis’ outcry over ongoing US drone strikes in western tribal areas.

The event that plunged those ties into deep freeze was the US air assault in November 2011 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. For months afterwards, Pakistan refused visits by senior US officials; only in the last few weeks have visits resumed.

Munter’s tenure has also coincided in a shift in US policy toward Pakistan, as hopes in the early days of the Obama administration for a more robust US-Pakistan engagement, including high-level visits and massive civil and military aid, have slowly been overtaken by mutual mistrust and frustration.

Today, many officials in Washington appear to have resigned themselves to what they call a “transactional” relationship, limited largely to a degree of cooperation on counter-terrorism and some US military and civilian assistance.

The expected nomination of Olson, who served as US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates until 2011, does not appear to represent a change to US policy toward Pakistan, but it could enable a fresh start after a dark period.

“When two governments understand one another as poorly as those in Washington and Islamabad do, the interpretive abilities of a good ambassador become paramount,” said Ronald Neumann, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Bahrain and Algeria, and the current president of the American Academy of Diplomacy

Typical posting of two years in ‘hardship posts’   

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Munter informed his staff on Monday that he had decided not to extend his tenure in Islamabad for a third year.

“Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, but given the grueling pace and difficult working conditions, the expectation for hardship posts like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan is that ambassadors would usually serve for two years,” another US official said. “Some have served longer terms; some have served shorter terms.”

A productive relationship with Pakistan over the next two years will be crucial if the Obama administration is to withdraw most of its troops from neighboring Afghanistan as planned without letting the country slide into civil war.

In a speech last fall, Olson warned of the perils the United States would face if it walked away from central and South Asia when the West’s war in Afghanistan winds down.

After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, “the United States rapidly disengaged from Afghanistan and Pakistan in a series of decisions for which we would ultimately pay a significant price,” Olson said.

A central theme – and stumbling block – in US-Pakistan ties has been US belief that Pakistan has failed to act against militants attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Some US officials have openly accused Pakistan of direct support for certain militants allied with the Taliban. The switch also comes at a sensitive moment in Pakistan, after the head of its weak civilian government was convicted of contempt of court and its parliament demanded an end to drone strikes and a US apology for the soldiers’ deaths.

Munter was an ally of Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s larger-than-life envoy to the region before he died in 2010. Munter came to Islamabad from Baghdad and also served as US ambassador to Belgrade.

Obama to host Nato’s Rasmussen at White House

— Photo by Reuters

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama will host Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in the Oval Office on May 9, the White House said late Monday.

“The two leaders will discuss final preparations for the Nato Summit the President will host in Chicago on May 20-21,” the White House said in a two-sentence statement.

The United States will push to modernize the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, deepen partnerships and hammer out details of the Afghanistan withdrawal at the summit, White House officials said earlier.

The United States also hopes to use the summit, set to be held in Obama’s hometown of Chicago, to highlight and deepen Nato’s global partnerships.

There are some 130,000 foreign soldiers, most from Nato nations, fighting alongside some 350,000 Afghan security personnel in a bid to help Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government reverse the Taliban-led insurgency.

On Monday Karzai summoned the Nato commander and the US ambassador to warn that civilian casualties in military operations threatened a strategic pact he has signed with the United States.

The pact covers relations between the two countries when US-led Nato forces helping Karzai’s government fight a Taliban insurgency pull out in 2014.

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Via DAWN.com

US envoy to Pakistan to depart this summer

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US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter. — File Photo by Reuters

WASHINGTON: The US ambassador to Islamabad, Cameron Munter, plans to step down this summer, and the Obama administration, hoping to improve dismal ties with Pakistan at a crucial time for its war in neighboring Afghanistan, is considering a senior official at its Kabul embassy to replace him.

The White House is focusing on Richard Olson, who has orchestrated US development and economic activities in Afghanistan since June 2011, to succeed Munter when he departs in coming months, sources familiar with the discussions said.

Olson would have to be formally proposed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate. The White House declined to comment on a personnel matter.

Munter, who was sworn in as ambassador to Pakistan in October 2010, has served during a period of unprecedented turbulence and suspicion between the two countries, whose uneasy alliance since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks has centered around the fight against militants operating from Pakistan.

The series of bilateral crises in the past 18 months has included Pakistan’s arrest of a CIA contractor in early 2011; the top-secret US raid that killed Osama bin Laden just 50 km (30 miles) from Islamabad a few months later; and Pakistanis’ outcry over ongoing US drone strikes in western tribal areas.

The event that plunged those ties into deep freeze was the US air assault in November 2011 that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

For months afterwards, Pakistan refused visits by senior US officials; only in the last few weeks have visits resumed.

Munter’s tenure has also coincided in a shift in US policy toward Pakistan, as hopes in the early days of the Obama administration for a more robust US-Pakistan engagement, including high-level visits and massive civil and military aid, have slowly been overtaken by mutual mistrust and frustration.

Today, many officials in Washington appear to have resigned themselves to what they call a “transactional” relationship, limited largely to a degree of cooperation on counter-terrorism and some US military and civilian assistance.

The expected nomination of Olson, who served as US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates until 2011, does not appear to represent a change to US policy toward Pakistan, but it could enable a fresh start after a dark period.

“When two governments understand one another as poorly as those in Washington and Islamabad do the interpretive abilities of a good ambassador become paramount,” said Ronald Neumann, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Bahrain and Algeria, and the current president of the American Academy of Diplomacy.

Typical Posting Two Years

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Munter informed his staff on Monday that he had decided not to extend his tenure in Islamabad for a third year.

“Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president, but given the grueling pace and difficult working conditions, the expectation for hardship posts like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan is that ambassadors would usually serve for two years,” another US official said.

“Some have served longer terms; some have served shorter terms.”

A productive relationship with Pakistan over the next two years will be crucial if the Obama administration is to withdraw most of its troops from neighboring Afghanistan as planned without letting the country slide into civil war.

In a speech last fall, Olson warned of the perils the United States would face if it walked away from central and South Asia when the West’s war in Afghanistan winds down.

After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, “the United States rapidly disengaged from Afghanistan and Pakistan in a series of decisions for which we would ultimately pay a significant price,” Olson said.

A central theme – and stumbling block – in US-Pakistan ties has been US belief that Pakistan has failed to act against militants attacking US troops in Afghanistan.

Some US officials have openly accused Pakistan of direct support for certain militants allied with the Taliban.

The switch also comes at a sensitive moment in Pakistan, after the head of its weak civilian government was convicted of contempt of court and its parliament demanded an end to drone strikes and a US apology for the soldiers’ deaths.

Munter was an ally of Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s larger-than-life envoy to the region before he died in 2010.

Munter came to Islamabad from Baghdad and also served as US ambassador to Belgrade.

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Via DAWN.com

NWA operation ‘in the offing’ as 13 troops beheaded

MIRANSHAH – Taliban militants killed 14 soldiers in Miranshah, beheaded all but one of them and hung two of the heads from wooden poles in the centre of town, officials said Monday.The killings in Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal area, highlight the situation facing the military in dealing with the militancy.The US has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan launch an offensive …

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Afghan president raps Nato, US over civilian deaths

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Afghan President Hamid Karzai. — File Photo by AP

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai summoned the Nato commander and the US ambassador on Monday to express concern about civilian deaths in recent operations, his office said in a statement.

Karzai warned that if Afghan lives were not protected the Strategic Partnership Agreement he signed with US President Barack Obama last week would lose its meaning, the statement said.

Tens of civilians, including women and children, had been killed in Nato bombardments in four provinces since Saturday, the statement charged.

“The Afghan president this evening summoned Nato Commander General John Allen and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker for an emergency meeting at the Presidential Palace,” the statement said.

He “expressed his concerns about the civilian casualties incurred by our people in four provinces” — Logar and Helmand in the south, Kapisa in the east and Badghis in the northwest.

The president said civilian casualties always hurt Afghan-American relations, adding that Afghanistan had signed the strategic pact with the US to prevent such incidents and safeguard the lives of Afghans.

“If the lives of Afghans are not protected, the strategic partnership will lose its meaning,” the statement quoted the president as saying.

Civilian casualties have always been a sensitive issue in the US-led war against a Taliban insurgency and have often been the cause of tense relations between Kabul and Washington.

The number of civilians killed has risen steadily each year for the past five years, reaching a record of 3,021 in 2011, the great majority caused by militants, according to UN statistics.

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Via DAWN.com

US secretly releases high-level Taliban in exchange for pledges of peace: WP

The United States has for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees from a military prison in Afghanistan as part of negotiations with insurgent groups, a bold effort to quell violence but one that U.S. officials acknowledge poses substantial risks, Washington Post reported Monday.
As the United States has unsuccessfully pursued a peace deal with the Taliban, the “strategic …

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