Kabul blast 80 dead over powerline dispute: Afghanistan mourns protest bombing victims

Kabul blast: Afghanistan mourns protest bombing victims 13 minutes ago Candles lit during memorial for victims of suicide bomb blast in Kabul. 23 July 2016Image copyright EPA Image caption Candles were lit at memorials for the victims in Kabul overnight Afghanistan is observing a day of national mourning following the suicide bombing of a protest march in the capital, Kabul, that killed 80 people and wounded 230. So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind Saturday's attack on members of the Shia Hazara minority. In a televised address, President Ashraf Ghani vowed to take revenge against those responsible. The UN mission in Afghanistan has described the attack as a "war crime". Tadamichi Yamamoto, head of the UN assistance mission, said the attackers had specifically targeted a large number of civilians. Advertisement What is behind the power line protest? Islamic State group: The full story On Saturday, the IS-linked Amaq news agency said two fighters had detonated explosive belts at a "gathering of Shia" in Deh Mazang square. Correspondents say the statement suggests an intention to foment sectarian strife. Thousands of members of the Hazara minority were protesting over a new power line, saying its route bypasses provinces where many of them live. The Taliban condemned the attack. People collect belongings of victims at scene of suicide bomb attack in Kabul. 23 July 2016Image copyright EPA Image caption The scattered belongings of victims were laid out at the scene for collection Man cries outside hospital in Kabul. 23 July 2016Image copyright Reuters Image caption Shocked relatives of victims gathered outside a hospital in Kabul IS has a presence in eastern Afghanistan but this is the first time it has admitted carrying out attacks in the capital. An Afghan intelligence source told the BBC that an IS commander named Abo Ali had sent three jihadists from the Achen district of Nangarhar province to carry out the Kabul attack. The interior ministry said only one attacker had successfully detonated his explosives. The belt of the second failed to explode and the third attacker was killed by security forces, the source said. Declaring Sunday a day of national mourning, Mr Ghani said: "I promise you I will take revenge against the culprits." He had earlier issued a statement saying that peaceful protest was the right of every citizen and that "opportunist terrorists" had infiltrated the crowd. The Hazaras - mostly Shia Muslims - live mainly in the centre of the country. They have long complained of discrimination. During Taliban rule in the late 1990s, many of them fled to Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan. line Who are the Hazaras? ◾Of Mongolian and Central Asian descent ◾Mainly practise Shia Islam, in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan and Pakistan ◾Thought to be the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan ◾Estimates suggest they make up 15-20% of Afghanistan's population, which is thought to be about 30 million ◾At least 600,000 Hazaras live in Pakistan, most of them in Quetta ◾Legend has it they are descendants of Genghis Khan and his soldiers, who invaded Afghanistan in the 13th Century ==================================== Sat Jul 23, 2016 | 3:54 PM EDT Islamic State claims responsibility for Kabul attack, 80 dead Afghan civil order policemen take position as Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail Afghan civil order policemen take position as Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Mohammad Ismail An Afghan man weeps outside a hospital after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail An Afghan man weeps outside a hospital after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Mohammad Ismail An Afghan woman weeps at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail An Afghan woman weeps at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Mohammad Ismail Men help an injured man outside a hospital after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail Men help an injured man outside a hospital after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Mohammad Ismail Demonstrators from Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani Demonstrators from Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Omar Sobhani Demonstrators from Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani Demonstrators from Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Omar Sobhani Afghan civil order policemen take position as Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail Afghan civil order policemen take position as Afghanistan's Hazara minority attend a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Mohammad Ismail An Afghan man weeps outside a hospital after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail An Afghan man weeps outside a hospital after a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan July 23, 2016. Reuters/Mohammad Ismail Islamic State claims responsibility for Kabul.By Mirwais Harooni | KABUL (Reuters) - Twin explosions tore through a demonstration by members of Afghanistan's mainly Shi'ite Hazara minority in Kabul on Saturday, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 230 in a suicide attack claimed by Islamic State. Graphic television footage from the site of the attack showed many dead bodies lying on the bloodied road, close to where thousands of Hazara had been demonstrating against the route of a planned multi-million-dollar power line. "Two fighters from Islamic State detonated explosive belts at a gathering of Shi'ites in the city of Kabul in Afghanistan," said a brief statement on the group's Amaq news agency. If confirmed as the work of Islamic State, the attack, among the most deadly since the U.S.-led campaign to oust the Taliban in 2001, would represent a major escalation for a group hitherto largely confined to the eastern province of Nangarhar. The explicit reference to the Hazara's Shi'ite religious affiliation also marked a menacing departure for Afghanistan, where the bloody sectarian rivalry between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims typical of Iraq has been relatively rare, despite decades of war. Islamic State is an ultra hardline Sunni group. Officials in Afghanistan's main intelligence agency, the National Directorate for Security (NDS), said the attack was planned by an individual named Abu Ali, an Islamic State militant they said was based in Achin district in Nangarhar. They said three bombers were involved in the attack. The Persian-speaking Hazara, estimated to make up about 9 percent of the population, are Afghanistan's third-largest minority but they have long suffered discrimination, and thousands were killed during the period of Taliban rule. "We were holding a peaceful demonstration when I heard a bang and then everyone was escaping and yelling," said Sabira Jan, a protester who witnessed the attack and saw bloodied bodies strewn across the ground. "There was no one to help." The Taliban, a fierce, albeit Sunni enemy of Islamic State, denied any involvement and said in a statement posted on its website that the attack was "a plot to ignite civil war". The attack succeeded despite tight security which saw much of Kabul city center sealed off before the demonstration, with stacks of shipping containers and other obstacles and helicopters patrolling overhead. An Interior Ministry statement said 80 people had been killed and 231 wounded, with local hospitals straining to cope with those being brought in. The worst previous attack against the Hazara was in December 2011, when more than 55 people were killed in Kabul during the Shi'ite festival of Ashura. That attack was claimed by a Pakistani Sunni militant group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. OUTRAGE President Ashraf Ghani declared a national day of mourning and vowed revenge, while the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, Tadamichi Yamamoto, condemned the attack as a war crime. The United States and Russia condemned the attack and renewed pledges of security assistance to Kabul. "We remain committed to work jointly with the Afghan security forces and countries in the region to confront the forces that threaten Afghanistan’s security, stability, and prosperity," the White House said in a statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated his "readiness to continue the most active cooperation with ... Afghanistan in fighting all forms of terrorism", Russian news agencies quoted a Kremlin statement as saying. Saturday's demonstrators had been demanding that a 500 kV transmission line from Turkmenistan to Kabul be re-routed through two provinces with large Hazara populations, saying they feared being shut out of the project. The government said the project guaranteed ample power to the provinces, Bamyan and Wardak, which lie west of Kabul, and that altering the planned route would delay it by years and cost millions of dollars. But the resentment felt by many Hazaras runs deeper than simple questions of energy supply. In November, thousands of Hazara marched through Kabul to protest at government inaction after seven members of their community were beheaded by Islamist militants, and several protesters tried to force their way into the presidential palace. The protests by a group whose leaders include members of the national unity government have put pressure on Ghani, who has faced growing opposition from both inside and outside the government. They also risk exacerbating ethnic tensions with other groups and provinces the government says would have to wait up to three years for power if the route were changed. The transmission line, intended to provide secure electricity to 10 provinces, is part of the so-called TUTAP project backed by the Asia Development Bank, linking energy-rich states of Central Asia with Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Omar Sobhani, Jibran Ahmad and Omar Fahmy in Cairo, Roberta Rampton in Washington and Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow; writing by James Mackenzie; editing by Hugh Lawson, Clelia Oziel and Mark Heinrich) ========================================

Afghan Hazara killings spark Kabul march of thousands

1 hour ago From the section Asia Women carry coffin of Zabul victim through streets of Kabul (11 November)Image copyright AFP Image caption Women carry the coffin of one of the Zabul victims through the streets of Kabul Taliban conflict What we know about Kunduz hospital bombing The battle for the Taliban Who are the Taliban? Battleground Kunduz: The city the Taliban seized Afghan security forces have fired warning shots into the air at a protest in Kabul over the killings of seven people from the Hazara ethnic minority. Thousands joined the march, ending at the presidential palace. Police fired shots after some protesters tried to scale the walls of a building nearby. Some of the seven victims had their throats slit - it is not clear by whom. The bodies were found in a southern province where fighting between Taliban factions has escalated recently. The marchers carried the coffins of the dead through the streets of Kabul in the pouring rain. "Today they kill us, tomorrow they kill you," some chanted. Others carried banners bearing photos of the victims and shouted "Death to the Taliban". The murdered Hazaras included four men, two women and a nine-year-old girl. Officials said they were among dozens of Hazaras kidnapped in neighbouring Ghazni province earlier this year. Afghan security forces have reportedly stopped live coverage of the protests by private television channel Ariana News TV. Afghanistan has a large population of minority Hazaras who are mostly Shia Muslims. But unlike in neighbouring Pakistan they have been largely spared attacks by Sunni militants in recent years. Who killed the Hazaras remains to be established.

Islamic State seize 100 Iraqi tribesmen before battle for Tikrit

Islamic State seize 100 Iraqi tribesmen before battle for Tikrit Wed, Feb 25 10:18 AM EST image By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters have abducted 100 Sunni Muslim tribesmen near the city of Tikrit, local tribal leaders said on Wednesday, apparently to neutralize suspected opponents before a widely expected army offensive. Iraqi soldiers and pro-government Shi'ite militias have been massing for days in preparation for an attack on Islamic State strongholds along the Tigris River to the north and south of Tikrit, hometown of executed former president Saddam Hussein. Tikrit, about 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, has been controlled by the Sunni Muslim radicals since they swept through northern Iraq in June, scattering Iraq's security forces. Tribal leaders said Islamic State fighters had detained 42 Sunni tribesmen in the village of Rubaidha on Tuesday whom they suspected of being ready to take up arms against them. "They broke into the houses and asked for mobiles," said Hatam al-Obeidi, a Rubaidha resident who escaped to the town of Tuz Khurmatu on Wednesday. "They were checking everything in the mobiles that might show that the owner is against them," he said, adding that his own telephone had been returned to him after a gunman told him he was "clean". Last week, insurgents detained 56 men accused of belonging to a government-backed Sunni militia, said Abu Kareem al-Obeidi, who left Rubaidha for the neighboring Diyala province to avoid abduction. The militants initially set up a headquarters in Rubaidha, about 20 km (12 miles) north of Tikrit, after their June offensive, but pulled out after army helicopters mistakenly bombed the house of the local sheikh beside their base. The sheikh then asked the militants to leave, residents said. Iraq's military said around 2,000 Shi'ite militia fighters, known as the Popular Mobilisation, had arrived near Tikrit in preparation for a major operation against Islamic State. Raed Jabouri, governor of Tikrit's Salahuddin province, said on Tuesday that 5,000 fighters from the security forces and the Popular Mobilisation - formed last year with Iranian support after the rout of the army - would join "the operation to liberate Tikrit". Witnesses said the militants had on Wednesday blocked three main entrances to the south, west and north of Tikrit with 4-metre (12-foot) concrete blast walls. They also covered a bridge across the Tigris with about 1 meter (three feet) of sand in the hope of absorbing the impact of bombs. The witnesses saw a stream of SUV vehicles, apparently containing detainees, heading north toward the northern, Islamic State-controlled city of Mosul. After months of air strikes by the United States and its Western and Arab allies, Islamic State is on the defensive in several parts of the "caliphate" it declared in swathes of Iraq and Syria. In Diyala, adjoining Iran, officials say they have all but driven Islamic State out. (Additional reporting by Saif Hameed; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Kevin Liffey) ================= Islamic State in Syria abducts at least 150 Christians Wed, Feb 25 16:30 PM EST image By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday. A Syrian Christian group representing several NGOs inside and outside the country said it had verified at least 150 people missing, including women and the elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants. "We have verified at least 150 people who have been adducted from sources on the ground," Bassam Ishak, president of the Syriac National Council of Syria, whose family itself is from Hasaka, told Reuters from Amman. Earlier the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 90 were abducted when the militants carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds. The United States condemned the attacks in Hasaka and called for the immediate and unconditional release of the civilians taken captive. The State Department said hundreds of others remain trapped in villages surrounded by Islamic State fighters in violence that has displaced more than 3,000 people. "ISIL’s latest targeting of a religious minority is only further testament to its brutal and inhumane treatment of all those who disagree with its divisive goals and toxic beliefs," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement, using an acronym for Islamic State. Psaki added that Syrians are also threatened by President Bashar al-Assad's intensified bombings and air strikes in an "unrelenting campaign of terror." Syrian Kurdish militia launched two offensives against the militants in northeast Syria on Sunday, helped by U.S.-led air strikes and Iraqi peshmerga. This part of Syria borders territory controlled by Islamic State in Iraq, where it committed atrocities last year against the Yazidi religious minority. Islamic State did not confirm the kidnappings. Supporters posted photos online of the group's fighters in camouflage attire looking at maps and firing machine guns. The website said the photos were from Tel Tamr, a town near where the Observatory said the abductions occurred. Many Assyrian Christians have emigrated in the nearly four-year-long conflict in which more than 200,000 have people have been killed. Before the arrival of Kurds and Arab nomadic tribes at the end of the 19th century, Christians formed the majority in Syria's Jazeera area, which includes Hasaka. Sunday's offensive by Kurdish YPG militia reached within five km (3 miles) of Tel Hamis, an Islamic State-controlled town southeast of Qamishli, the Observatory said. At least 14 IS fighters died in the offensive, in which Assyrians fought alongside Kurds, it added. Eight civilians were also killed in heavy shelling by the Kurdish side, which seized several Arab villages from Islamic State control. Last year, Islamic State fighters abducted several Assyrians in retaliation for some of them fighting alongside the YPG. Most were released after long negotiations. RELIEVING PRESSURE Military experts said militants were trying to open a new front to relieve pressure on Islamic State after several losses since being driven from the Syrian town of Kobani near the border with Turkey. "Islamic State are losing in several areas so they want to wage an attack on a new area," said retired Jordanian general Fayez Dwiri. Since driving IS from Kobani, Kurdish forces, backed by other Syrian armed groups, have pursued the group's fighters as far as their provincial stronghold of Raqqa. A resident of Hasaka, jointly held by the Syrian government and the Kurds, said hundreds of families had arrived in recent days from surrounding Christian villages and Arab Bedouins were arriving from areas along the border. "Families are coming to Hasaka seeking safety," said Abdul Rahman al-Numai, a textile trader said by telephone. (Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes in Beirut, Doina Chiacu in Washington; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Eric Walsh) ==================== UPDATE 1-Gunmen in Afghanistan halt buses, seize 30 passengers Tue, Feb 24 08:04 AM EST (Adds Kabul truck bomb) By Sarwar Amani KANDAHAR, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen in southern Afghanistan stopped two buses traveling to the capital, Kabul, and seized around 30 people belonging to the ethnic Hazara minority, a bus company official said on Tuesday. Hazaras, who largely follow the Shi'ite sect of Islam, were persecuted by the Taliban during the 1990s, when the militant Sunni Islamists ruled most of Afghanistan. Outbreaks of sectarian violence have been rare since the Taliban were ousted by an American-led invasion in 2001, but many Hazaras continue to complain of discrimination and harassment by majority Sunni Muslim groups. The passengers were forced to leave the buses late on Monday night, after producing documents that showed they belonged to the Shi'ite minority group. "Our drivers stopped for the gunmen because they were in army uniform. They asked for documents," Nasir Ahmad, one of the bus company's managers, said in the southern city of Kandahar. "According to other passengers, most of the people abducted were Hazaras." The Taliban, now leading an increasingly violent insurgency against the government and its foreign backers, did not immediately claim responsibility but said they were investigating. The fate of the missing passengers was unknown, said Ghulum Jilani Sakhi, the deputy police chief of Zabul province, where Monday's abduction took place. "We are investigating where these people have been taken," he added. In a similar incident last July, Taliban militants stopped two minibuses in the central province of Ghor and shot dead 14 passengers identified as belonging to the Hazara group. Police on Tuesday were also investigating the suspected premature detonation of a truck bomb on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, which officials felt had been intended for the heavily guarded city centre. Glass shards from broken windows injured a bakery shop worker but no other civilian casualties were reported, said Hashmat Stanikzai, a spokesman for Kabul's police chief. Police had found six dismembered hands believed to have belonged to insurgents aboard the truck, but they had been unable to match them and determine how many individuals were involved, he added. (Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni in Kabul; Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) ========================= IS’ leader assassinated from within Iraq's Hadi al-Ameri being very forthright about his view of Iran's Khamenei as the supreme leader for all Shia here: It was expected that the disputes among the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) in Qalamoun would lead to the dismissal of its emir Abu Aisha al-Banyasi, as he was at odds with Abu al-Walid al-Maqdisi. However, the dismissal was not expected to come in the form of a killing. IS members have been drifting apart in Qalamoun, Syria, as disputes among top commanders have been escalating, leading to the dismissal of one emir and the probable assassination of another. Author Abdullah Suleiman Ali Posted February 24, 2015 Translator Steffi Chakti Original Articleاقرا المقال الأصلي باللغة العربية As-Safir revealed in an article published days ago the brittleness of the internal structure of IS in Qalamoun. Disputes among commanders were escalating, leading to the dismissal of the previous emir Abu al-Huda al-Talli and the assignment of Banyasi instead. Explosion rattles windows in Kabul's diplomatic quarter Wed, Feb 25 23:06 PM EST KABUL (Reuters) - An explosion rattled windows in the diplomatic quarter of the heavily fortified Afghan capital on Thursday morning, sending the city's embassies onto high alert. "This is a security announcement: there has been an explosion inside the city," the British embassy broadcast to staff on its compound. Further details on the location of blast were not immediately available. (Reporting by Jessica Donati; Editing by Douglas Busvine) 04:33 Embassies on high alert in Kabul after explosion rattles windows Embassies in Kabul are on high alert after an explosion shook the windows of buildings in the diplomatic quarter of Afghanistan’s capital on Thursday morning, Reuters reported. “This is a security announcement: there has been an explosion inside the city,” the British embassy broadcast to staff inside the building. The exact location of the blast is being determined. ==== As-Safir was able to secure information from a member of IS in Qalamoun’s media team who affirmed that the assignment of Banyasi did not solve the problem, and his dismissal was expected at any moment. However, and despite the gloomy situation the member depicted — describing it as a "crisis of hypocrisy" and saying that "disputes are not among individuals but are much deeper" — the dramatic escalation leading to the killing of Banyasi was not foreseen. Disputes revolved around the stand vis-à-vis Jabhat al-Nusra, especially after the arrival of Maqdisi and the issuance of a statement accusing Jabhat al-Nusra of treason and betrayal. A number of IS commanders refused to follow the lead of Maqdisi. As a result, two camps emerged, and entered in fierce conflicts. After apologizing to the commander of Jabhat al-Nusra in Qalamoun, Abu Malik al-Talli, for Maqdisi's statement, Abu al-Huda al-Talli was the first to pay the price. Subsequently, Abu Malik al-Talli was dismissed and replaced by Banyasi. Information indicates that Maqdisi was the one to name Banyasi as a replacement, based on his composure and neutrality toward the dispute that erupted over Jabhat al-Nusra. Easily convinced and influenced, Maqdisi believed Banyasi to be the best candidate. Maqdisi ended up surprised, however. Upon assuming the position, Banyasi proved no different than his predecessor, refusing to act against Jabhat al-Nusra and its commander. He also refused to take escalatory measures against the organization. This raised the ire of Maqdisi, who started to think about ousting Banyasi. At the same time, an incident took place that may have pushed the personal sensitivity between the two men to its zenith, rendering any reconciliation impossible. Maqdisi had a quarrel with Jabhat al-Nusra checkpoint guards, which ended up with his arrest and that of his guards. Banyasi mediated with Abu Malik al-Talli to release them, and indeed, he responded and Maqdisi was released a few hours later. However, following the incident, the dispute between Maqdisi and Banyasi became further entrenched and a few days later, the killing of Banyasi came as a shock to everyone. IS remained silent about the death of Banyasi and tried to keep it low profile. It was leaked that Banyasi was killed by a regime-led airstrike. However, it was not long until it was revealed that the killing resulted from internal disputes. Although some IS media figures are still trying to deny it, saying that the rumored news is yet another media propaganda barrage the organization has been facing since its inception, they were not able to give a clear answer about the true details of the killing. They hid behind the pretext that they were not able to communicate with their leadership to fact check the information. According to information leaked a couple of days ago by Jabhat al-Nusra media spokespeople, who publicly celebrated the death of Banyasi, the dispute between Maqdisi and Banyasi reached a deadlock. This happened after Maqdisi issued a fatwa against Banyasi due to his amicable ties with Jabhat al-Nusra, which was clearly shown through the mediation he made with its commander to release Maqdisi. Some Jabhat al-Nusra spokespeople noted that Banyasi had a "calm temper and was loved by everyone." Such a personality did not match the aspirations of Maqdisi, who wanted a spiteful person who can be influenced by his takfiri penchants. This is why it was imperative to get rid of him. Regardless of the details of the killing and who the perpetrators are, whether Maqdisi or Abu Balqiss (the military emir of IS), the incident will inevitably constitute a new twist of events not in the restructuring of IS but on the level of the developments in Qalamoun. This is particularly true concerning relations between IS and Jabhat al-Nusra and its repercussions on the battles fought against the Syrian army and Hezbollah. Will this incident constitute the first step toward the collapse of IS in Qalamoun or a catalyst for commanders to give up on Syrian nationals and hand the emirate over to "foreigners" with all the ensuing extremism toward other parties? On another note, Turkish forces entered Syrian territory and went as deep as 30 kilometers (19 miles) under the pretext of moving the remains of Suleiman Shah, the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. Relying on an agreement concluded with the French mandate as a pretext, Turkish authorities occupied Syrian land near the border to bury the remains before returning them to their initial location [at some future point in time]. However, it seems that the goal of Turkey is far from just restoring the remains and occupying the land. Such a move seems to be aimed at ending the aspirations of Kurds for an autonomous government in the areas under Turkish control. Moreover, Turkish authorities are preparing for the likelihood of IS launching an attack after Turkey signed an agreement with the United States to train "moderate" Syrian armed individuals in order to attack IS and other terrorist groups in Syria. Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2015/02/qalaoum-is-emir-ousted.html##ixzz3SolV4AQx ==========

Is there even one judge in this country who can convict him?

Pakistani Taliban plot with seminaries to assault capital: police Fri, Apr 11 08:44 AM EDT By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban will coordinate with Islamist activists at major seminaries in or near the capital, Islamabad, to launch attacks if peace talks with the government fail, police said in a report obtained by Reuters. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took power last year promising to end Pakistan's insurgency through negotiations. Talks got going in February but have achieved little. The Pakistani Taliban, allied with but separate from the Afghan Taliban, are fighting to overthrow the government and impose a strict version of Islam on the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people. They called a ceasefire beginning on March 1 to facilitate the talks but it officially ended on Thursday. It is unclear if the ceasefire will be extended. Police said in the report that two well-known seminaries would support attacks in the capital and its twin city of Rawalpindi if the talks break down and the military moves against Taliban bases in areas bordering Afghanistan. "If talks between the government and the Taliban fail ... like-minded religious seminaries and mosques have been given the target of fully contributing in carrying out attacks," police said in the report, which was prepared last month. Police identified two well-known seminaries, or madrasas, on the outskirts of Islamabad. They said the two had already helped launch several attacks, including a 2009 assault on the army's headquarters in Rawalpindi. One is led by a cleric called Azizur Rehman Hazarvi. It provides "brain washing courses and lessons on sacrificing oneself for jihad", police said in the report. The other is run by Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who is on a U.S. terror watch-list and signed a 1996 fatwa or decree from Osama bin Laden in which he declared war on the United States. At Khalil's seminary, commanders provide "jihadi weapons training classes" to students from the ethnic Pashtun tribal areas which have long been militant recruiting grounds, police said. The two seminaries also host fighters who come to carry out attacks and help with "all last minute preparations", they said. Militant fighters have set themselves up with activists at hardline mosques in Islamabad before. In 2007, more than 100 people were killed when security forces assaulted the Red Mosque in the heart of the capital after well-armed fighters from the tribal areas and followers of the mosque's radical clerics running a Taliban-style movement refused to surrender. Police and government spokesmen declined to comment on the report but security officials who requested not to be identified said the information was correct. One police officer said 20 seminaries in Rawalpindi were being investigated for similar Taliban links. "KILL THEM IN THE CITIES" Khalil denied any connection with the Taliban and said his seminary was being threatened by insurgents for being pro-government. "We openly believe that any attacks against Pakistan are wrong and against Islam," Khalil told Reuters. "Ask the police to show me one arrested person who is linked to my seminary." The other cleric identified in the report, Hazarvi, was not available for comment. The Pakistani Taliban spokesman was also not available to comment but a member of the Taliban leadership council said fighters were present in all major cities and would be "unstoppable" if the talks with the government broke down. "If the government attacks us in the tribal areas, we will kill them in the cities," he said. "By the grace of god, the Taliban today are more united and present everywhere." A bomb in a market on the outskirts of Islamabad on Wednesday killed 24 people. The Taliban denied responsibility. Despite Khalil's denial of militant links, police say he runs a faction called Ansarul Ummah, which draws support from several groups linked to al Qaeda. Investigators say Ansar is a front for the banned Harkat-ul-Mujahideen that Khalil founded in 1985. Harkat was one of several militant groups patronized by Pakistan's intelligence agencies, who have long considered such groups useful assets in case of war with arch enemy India and in promoting Pakistani interests in neighboring Afghanistan. A cleric knowledgeable about hardline seminaries said he believed that Khalil had links with the Taliban and described him as a middleman for Taliban and government negotiators. Khalil's role in trying to get talks going has been reported in the media.

Muneebur Rehman, chairman of an alliance of seminaries, dismissed the findings of the police report and asked, if it were true, why authorities had not done anything. "If this report carries evidence of seminaries collaborating with Taliban for attacks, the government must go ahead and take action," Rehman said.

But security officials say they are often hamstrung because judges are too afraid to sentence militants. "Khalil has been arrested before but freed for lack of evidence," said a top official. "Is there even one judge in this country who can convict him?" (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmed in Peshawar, Eissa Saeed in Islamabad, Mubasher Bokhari in Lahore; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Khawaja Muhammad Asif speech on Hazara Shia... by alexpressed سیاستدانوں کے نام خواجہ آصف پر’’وقار۔ وقار‘‘ کے نام پر کیچڑ اُچھالا جا رہا ہے تو مجھے ’’میموگیٹ‘‘ کے لمحات بار بار یاد آنا شروع ہوگئے نصرت جاوید جمعـء 11 اپريل 2014 تبصرے صفحہ شیئر کریں صفحہ پرنٹ کریں دوستوں کو بھیجئے nusrat.javeed@gmail.com صحافی سیاست دانوں کے ساتھ دوستیاں پالنا شروع ہو جائے تو اپنے دھندے کے ساتھ انصاف نہیں کر سکتا۔ اپنی تجزیاتی حس اور ساکھ کو برقرار رکھنے کے لیے ضروری ہے کہ فاصلہ رکھا جائے۔ ہم مگر انسان بھی تو ہیں۔ صرف خبروں کی تلاش کے لیے سیاست دانوں سے ملنا ملانا پڑتا ہے تو تعلق واسطے بھی بن جاتے ہیں۔ جس قومی اسمبلی نے 1993ء سے 1996ء تک کام کیا وہ بڑی جاندار اور متحرک اسمبلی ہوا کرتی تھی۔ اس اسمبلی کی ساری رونق اپوزیشن کے چند اراکین کی بدولت تھی جو بہت محنت کے ساتھ محترمہ بے نظیر بھٹو کی دوسری حکومت کے خلاف مواد اکٹھا کرتے اور اسے بڑی ذہانت کے ساتھ قومی اسمبلی کے اجلاسوں میں پیش کرتے ہوئے میلہ لوٹ لیتے۔ خواجہ محمد آصف اس اسمبلی کو توانائی اور رونق بخشنے والوں میں سے سب سے نمایاں ہوا کرتے تھے۔ قومی اسمبلی کی پریس گیلری میں بیٹھے ہوئے میرے جیسے رپورٹروں کو ان کے بولنے کا انتظار رہتا۔ پھر تجسس یہ پیدا ہونا شروع ہو گیا کہ وہ حکومتِ وقت کے خلاف ایسا چٹ پٹا مواد کیسے اکٹھا کرتے ہیں۔ اپنے تجسس کی تسکین کے لیے ضروری تھا کہ ان سے میل ملاقات بڑھائی جائے۔ ملاقاتیں ہوئیں تو پتہ چلا کہ موصوف کی بہت ساری عادتیں اپنے ہی جیسی ہیں۔ پیٹو نہیں مگر لذیذ کھانے کا شوق۔ دوستوں کے ساتھ محفل آرائی اور اس میں دل کھول کر پھکڑ پن اور لطیفہ بازی۔ انگریزی زبان والا Jolly Good Fellow جو بے ایمان نہیں۔ اخبار، رسالے اور کتابیں بھی شوق سے پڑھتا ہے اور پارسائی کے دعوے کیے بغیر چند اصولوں پر کوئی سمجھوتہ کرنے کو ہرگز تیار نہیں ہوتا۔ موصوف نواز شریف کے بے تحاشا وفادار بھی تھے۔ مگر اس وفاداری کا اظہار فدویانہ انداز میں کبھی نہ کرتے۔ آف دی ریکارڈ محفلوں میں اپنے لیڈر اور جماعت پر شدید تنقید کو وہ خندہ پیشانی سے برداشت کرتے اور کبھی کبھار اس ضمن میں واضح کوتاہیوں کا اعتراف بھی کر ڈالتے۔ سردار فاروق خان لغاری مرحوم نے مگر وہ اسمبلی توڑ دی۔ نئے انتخابات ہوئے۔ نواز شریف دوسری بار اس ملک کے وزیر اعظم بن گئے۔ انھوں نے خواجہ آصف کو نج کاری کی وزارت دے دی اور چٹ پٹی خبروں کا متلاشی صحافی اس وزیر سے دور ہو گیا۔ پھر جنرل مشرف نے نواز شریف کے خلاف فوجی بغاوت کر دی۔ خواجہ آصف کو جنرل امجد کے ماتحت احتساب والے اٹھا کر پتہ نہیں کہاں لے گئے۔ میرے جیسے چند صحافیوں نے بڑی مشکلوں کے بعد ان کا پتہ لگایا۔ کافی تشدد کے ذریعے خواجہ آصف سے ’’کرپشن کہانیاں‘‘ برآمد کرنے کی کوشش ہوتی رہی۔ جب کچھ بھی برآمد نہ ہو سکا تو انھیں رہا کر دیا گیا۔ ان پر اس پورے عرصے میں جو گزری وہ ایک دلخراش داستان ہے۔ اس کے ساتھ حقیقت یہ بھی ہے کہ خواجہ آصف وہ واحد سیاست دان تھے جن کے ساتھ ہونے والے سلوک کے بارے میں جنرل امجد نے باقاعدہ ایک بیان کے ذریعے معافی بھی مانگی تھی۔ اس معافی کے باوجود خواجہ آصف بجھ سے گئے۔ 2002ء کی قومی اسمبلی میں منتخب ہو کر آئے تو بیٹھے اپوزیشن ہی کی نشستوں پر لیکن مولوی مدن والی بات نہ رہی۔ 2008ء کے بعد کچھ بحال ہوئے۔ مگر مجھے ہمیشہ گلہ یہی رہا کہ بجائے اپنے کیس کو ماضی کی طرح قومی اسمبلی کے ایوان کے اندر رہ کر لڑنے کے وہ افتخار چوہدری کی عدالت میں جانا شروع ہو گئے۔ بات اگر کرپشن وغیرہ رکوانے تک محدود رہتی تو شاید میں اتنا خفا نہ ہوتا۔ اصل حیرت مجھے اس وقت ہوئی جب خواجہ آصف نے ’’میموگیٹ‘‘ پر بھی ایک طوفان کھڑا کر دیا اور اپنے لیڈر نواز شریف کو کالا کوٹ پہنوا کر اس قضیے کی تحقیقات کروانے کی عرضداشت کے ساتھ عدالت میں لے گئے۔ ’’میمو گیٹ‘‘ کو میں نے کبھی اس لیے بھی اہمیت نہ دی کہ اس کا مقصد صرف حسین حقانی کو فارغ کروانا نہیں تھا۔ حقیقی مقصد ان سوالات سے جان چھڑانا تھا جو پاکستان کا ہر ذی شعور شہری 2 مئی 2011ء کے بعد اٹھا رہا تھا۔ آج ہمارے ملک میں کئی برسوں سے پھیلی جو افراتفری نظر آ رہی ہے اس کے اصل اسباب 9/11 اور اس کے بعد پاکستانی ریاست کے طالبان کے بارے میں یوٹرن کے اثرات ہیں۔ غلط یا صحیح امریکی اسامہ بن لادن کو 9/11 کا حقیقی ذمے دار سمجھتے تھے۔ اسامہ اور اس کے ساتھیوں کو سبق سکھانے کے نام پر افغانستان پر قبضہ کیا گیا۔ جنرل مشرف نے اس قبضے کو آسان بنانے کے لیے امریکا کی ہر طرح سے مدد کی۔ اس مدد کی وجہ سے امریکا نے پاکستان کو اتنے ڈالر بھی فراہم کر دیے جو مشرف دور میں اقتصادی حوالوں سے تھوڑی بہت رونق لگاتے رہے۔ ستمبر 2006ء سے مگر واشنگٹن کے طاقتور حلقوں نے الزام لگانا شروع کر دیا کہ ان کے ساتھ القاعدہ اور طالبان کے حوالے سے Double Game کھیلی جا رہی ہے۔ اس الزام نے جان پکڑی تو بات 2008ء کے نئے انتخابات تک پہنچی۔ ہم بحیثیتِ قوم مگر اس الزام کی سنگینی کو پوری طرح سمجھ ہی نہ پائے۔ بالآخر امریکی ہم سے مایوس ہو گئے۔ انھوں نے اپنے تئیں ایبٹ آباد کے اس گھر کا سراغ لگا لیا جہاں اسامہ پتہ نہیں اپنی کتنی بیویوں اور بچوں سمیت بہت سالوں سے رہ رہا تھا۔ پھر اس مکان پر یکم اور 2 مئی کی درمیانی رات امریکی کمانڈر اتارے گئے۔ جنہوں نے بغیر کسی مزاحمت کے اسامہ کو ہلاک کر دیا۔ ایک عام اور بے بس پاکستانی ہوتے ہوئے میرا اصرار ہے کہ 2 مئی 2011ء کا واقعہ میرے ملک کے وقار کے لیے ایک بہت بڑا دھچکہ تھا۔ اپنے قومی وقار کی بحالی کے لیے ضروری تھا کہ ہم بڑی بے رحمی کے ساتھ اس بات کا کھوج لگاتے کہ اسامہ بن لادن ایبٹ آباد کیسے پہنچا اور وہاں اتنے برسوں تک کس طرح اطمینان سے پناہ گزین رہا۔ وہ کیا وجوہات تھیں جن کی وجہ سے یکم اور 2 مئی کی درمیانی رات امریکی طیارے ایبٹ آباد تک آ گئے تو ہماری ریاست کو خبر تک نہ ہوئی۔ ساری واردات کی اطلاع ہمیں امریکی حکام نے ٹیلی فون کے ذریعے اس وقت فراہم کی جب وہ اپنا مشن مکمل کر چکے تھے۔ قومی اسمبلی میں تھوڑے شور شرابے کے بعد ایک کمیشن ضرور بنا۔ مگر بجائے اس کی رپورٹ کا انتظار کرنے کے ہمیں منصور اعجاز نامی ایک شخص نے ’’میموگیٹ‘‘ والا طلسم ہوشربا مہیا کردیا۔ خواجہ آصف اور نواز شریف طوطا مینا کی یہ کہانی لے کر حسین حقانی اور آصف علی زرداری کو ’’غدار‘‘ ٹھہروانے کے لیے عدالتوں میں چلے گئے۔ آج جب خواجہ آصف پر ’’وقار۔ وقار‘‘ کے نام پر کیچڑ اُچھالا جا رہا ہے تو مجھے ’’میموگیٹ‘‘ والے دنوں کے بہت سارے لمحات بار بار یاد آنا شروع ہو گئے ہیں۔ خواجہ آصف کے ساتھ اپنی دیرینہ محبت کی وجہ سے میں یہ تو نہیں کہہ سکتا کہ ’’اچھا ہوا اور You Deserved It‘‘۔ ہاں خواجہ آصف پر کیچڑ اچھالنے والے سیاست دانوں سے یہ التجا ضرور کرنا چاہ رہا ہوں کہ ’’وقار‘‘ کے نام پر اپنے ایک ساتھی سیاست دان کا سر مانگتے ہوئے اتنا ضرور یاد رکھیں کہ ’’وقار‘‘ کبھی ان کے خلاف بھی استعمال ہو سکتا ہے۔

Eid in Quetta begins with bombs, blasts, bullets, bodies death and disaster

QUETTA: A suicide bomber killed 30 people including Deputy Inspector General Operations (DIG) Fayyaz Sumbal and Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) Shamsur Rehman at the funeral of a policeman in Quetta on Thursday in the third deadly attack on government targets in two weeks. The blast took place just before the funeral prayers of SHO City Mohib Ullah – killed during a firing incident in Alamu Chowk, Quetta - commenced at the Police Lines mosque. Provincial chief secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad confirmed that at least 30 people were dead and 62 wounded. 21 of the dead are known to be police officers. Others are yet to be identified, though the victims are said to include children. “They are not Muslims. They are not humans,” said Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera. ”We have no other option but to fight against terrorists. We have made sacrifices and we will continue to do so and we will not bow down.” The funeral was attended by around 300 to 400 people, including the top police officials of the area. While DIG Operations and DSP died on the spot, IG Balochistan and CCPO survived the attack. The police immediately cordoned off the area and rescue operation was started. Injured were shifted to the hospital. A member of the bomb squad said that the suicide bomber was wearing a jacket packed with ball bearings and shrapnel. He tried to enter the mosque where senior officers lined up to offer prayers for their colleague. On being stopped by police, the bomber detonated his explosives just outside the mosque, several witnesses said. It was not yet clear how the bomber had passed through several other layers of tight security. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack and ordered instant aid for the victims. He also called the Balochistan chief minister and sought a report on the blast. Meanwhile, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have claimed responsibility for the attack. =========== At least 9 people killed, severa­l injure­d in multip­le attack­s. By Web DeskPublished: August 9, 2013 Share this article Print this page Email . Relatives and colleagues gather near the caskets of victims killed in a suicide bomb attack before funeral ceremony at a police headquarters in Quetta August 8, 2013. PHOTO: REUTERS QUETTA: At least nine people were killed and several others injured in multiple attacks in Quetta on Friday, Express News reported. One person was killed in a firing incident that took place early morning on Sariyab Road. “Two people were targeted. One of them died. One was injured,” said an Express News correspondent. In a separate incident, at least eight people were killed and many were injured during Eid prayers along the eastern bypass. Commissioner Quetta while on his visit to review to security situation of the city today, said the city lacked personnel to secure every location. Yesterday, a suicide bomber killed 30 people including Deputy Inspector General Operations (DIG) Fayyaz Sumbal and Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP) Shamsur Rehman at the funeral of a policeman in Quetta — the third deadly attack on government targets in two weeks. ================== Hazara killers — supported from Punjab to the Middle EastZofeen Ebrahim | 6 months ago 37 Send to Kindle The February 16 bombing that killed over 90 people and injured more than 160, many of them critically, was the second major attack on Pakistan’s minority Shia Hazaras this year. — AP/File Photo In the aftermath of the Quetta massacre, the arrests of a few Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants have been looked upon warily as nothing more than a ploy to placate an angry nation. If there was sincerity and strategic considerations behind this move, however, the headquarters of the Sunni extremist group in Punjab would have been dismantled much earlier. But with elections approaching, a full-fledged and whole-hearted operation against such militant groups seems highly unlikely, especially in the Punjab, the breeding ground of sectarian militants. This has much to do with the fact that in Punjab, extremist and militant groups have a strong electoral presence. “I doubt that there will be a real crackdown,” says author and journalist, Zahid Hussain, talking to Dawn.com: “The Punjab government has been looking the other way for too long and pursues the policy of appeasement.” He added that it had even made a covert deal for the release of LeJ leader Malik Ishaq. Hussain has serious reservations about Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority, for example. The authority was created in 2009 under an executive order. “It remains dormant and a toothless body because the bill has yet to be passed in the National Assembly. There is also the unresolved matter of whether it should fall under the umbrella of the interior ministry when in the original charter, it was to be under the prime minister,” he explains. Seconding Hussain, defence analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi added: “The Punjab Government is known for patronising the LeJ and (its predecessor) Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).” But it’s not only the Punjab government complicit in the inaction against extremist sectarian outfits. The centre hasn’t appeared earnest about the issue either. And so the scourge of extremism will continue, as was seen last week when terror revisited the Shia Hazaras on Kirani Road in the south-western Pakistani city Quetta. The attack was also a grim reminder that without a national consensus in Pakistan on how to deal with domestic terrorism, the next attack is not far behind. The bomb that killed over 90 people and injured more than 160, many of them critically, was the second major attack on Pakistan’s minority Shia Hazaras this year. A twin-suicide attack at a snooker club on January 10 had killed 92 and wounded 121. With the Hazara community living huddled together in certain localities, they have become an even easier prey and large numbers can be annihilated in minutes.

Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) Chairperson Abdul Khaliq Hazara told Dawn.com that the terror and fear had reached such a crescendo that the Hazaras had stopped venturing out of their locales. “There is no place left in Quetta that remains safe for Hazaras, be it an educational institution, school, bus stops, government offices or a marketplace. Public space is increasingly shrinking for us,” he said. Where the LeJ derives power from The LeJ, which claimed responsibility for these attacks, is born out of SSP. It also has ties with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). In fact, some of the top TTP leaders, like the current spokesperson, Ehsanullah Ehsan, were all members of LeJ in Punjab, before they became part of the TTP. “These groups morph and gel and even support each other,” says Rizvi, who fears that “unless the government adopts a tough position and keeps up the pressure over an extended period of time” these attacks will continue. Equally, if the government decides to pull the rug from under them, and has some successes to show to the people, it will gain legitimacy. “Nothing succeeds like success, and we saw that in Swat once the government decided to go all out; their efforts were lauded not criticized,” he points out. The HDP chairperson agreed that “The state is more powerful than the militants. We believe the state knows who the culprits are and if it wants it can round up the militants, cleanse the city off them, even kill them, in just three days.” But, he adds, “They don’t want to.” According to Rizvi, “Organisations like the LeJ, the SSP and the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat (ASWJ) are politically convenient, especially for all the Punjab-based political parties and even the present Punjab government – and they will not go beyond a certain point to enrage them.” “So while they will condemn acts of sectarian attacks and militancy, they will never muster the courage to condemn a particular group,” he explains. In addition, says Rizvi, these groups have embedded themselves in society by setting up schools, hospitals, mosques and other welfare organisations and created a strong support base, including those in the lower ranks of the police and the intelligence agencies.” “There is no place left in Quetta that remains safe for Hazaras, be it an educational institution, school, bus stops, government offices or a marketplace. Public space is increasingly shrinking for us.”

It is very easy for the LeJ, a predominantly Punjabi group to thrive in Balochistan, he further explains. “With a non-existent provincial government and the support of the Taliban, the place became a safe haven.” The LeJ made inroads in Balochistan and had steadily spread its wings (since 2004-05), where the ethnic Hazara community has been their main target. Talking to Dawn.com, senior journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai said: “Call it infiltration, or what you will, but the LeJ has succeeded in recruiting many Baloch, once considered quite secular.” According to Hussain, the Baloch have “been indoctrinated into hating the Hazara community.” Khaliq points out that the whereabouts of the militant camps was common knowledge. According to reliable sources, the training camps are run in Mastung and Khuzdar, from where earlier attacks on Shia pilgrims going to Iran have taken place. Those who are apprehended, meanwhile, are released for want of enough evidence – and if the evidence is there, it’s not produced in the courts. The desire to eliminate Shias altogether is also constantly fed from the outside. “A proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia is being waged in Balochistan.” says Khaliq. It is widely held that these anti-Shia militants receive funding from the Sunni-Wahabi sheikhdoms of the Arab world. The Shias, on the other hand are perceived to be supporting Iran. Hussain, meanwhile, expresses surprise over the mushrooming of madressas in Balochistan, which lacks “even the most basic facilities for locals”. The senior journalist adds that it’s common knowledge such ‘nurseries’ of extremism were being financed by Sunni-Wahabi leaning Middle Eastern countries. So where do the agencies come in? Some experts are also of the view that these assaults are carried out to deflect international attention from the ongoing separatist movement in Balochistan. The HDP spokesperson insists that such acts of terrorism are carried out in collusion with the security and intelligence agencies. Yusufzai, however, does not believe in this commonly held viewpoint. “These agencies would never allow their own country to get destabilised and they would never want to eliminate the Shia community. After all there are many Shias within these organisations too,” he points out. According to Yusufzai, the intelligence agencies’ ‘incompetence’ can be attributed to “overwork”. “Their hands are full with the ongoing separatist movement in one province, and the attacks by the TTP in others – and then these other militants fanning sectarianism. And if that were not all; these agencies are also being used for political purposes!” says Yusufzai. Hussain plays down the involvement of the agencies, but adds, “They have the knowledge of who the culprits are but they are not focused on fighting these groups. So while they may not be in direct collusion; by their inaction they are helping these extremists gets stronger.” ================= In Afghanistan, a small player brings big changes Source: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 02:46 PM Author: Marco Niada View full size slideshow For nine years I have been funding the construction of schools in Afghanistan, and I travel there every year to monitor their implementation. I operate in the province of Bamiyan, in the highlands of the Hindu Kush, the so-called Valley of the Buddha, named after those statues which were destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001. The population, ethnic Hazara and Shi’ite, suffered the Taliban’s fanaticism more than any other group, seeing entire villages destroyed and suffering mass executions. Perhaps this is why the region has remained impervious to Taliban resurgence until today. This has enabled me to work quietly and steadily and be part of a process of development that is beginning to show visible results. Since 2004, when I came to Bamiyan for the first time, thanks to the opportunity presented to me and my wife Maria Rosario by Filippo Grandi, then director of the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) in Afghanistan, our small organization, Committee Arghosha Faraway Schools, has made great progress. Named in 2005 after the first school built in the remote valley of Arghosha, at a height of 3200 metres and 30 km north of the legendary lakes of Band e Amir, our association, in addition to myself and Filippo, includes my wife and her brother, Paolo Lazzati. In nine years, we have funded the construction of 8 schools, (with the ninth coming this autumn), three courses of professional training for 300 teachers, three courses of computer use and English for 30 neo-graduate girls, and built a library in the biggest of the schools, Chardeh, which houses over 700 girls. Our projects focus on the female population, as out of 3,500 students attending the schools, 2,500 are girls, 4 of the 9 schools that we built are for girls only (the others are mixed), while of the 120 teachers on the Afghan state payroll teaching in our schools, 30 are women, a very high level by the standards of Afghans. Shuhada, the Afghan NGO that plans and and builds the schools that we fund, was also founded by a woman, Sima Samar, now chairman of the National Commission of Human Rights in Afghanistan and, in the past, vice president of the first Karzai government. Our other tutelary female is Habiba Sarabi, Governor of Bamiyan, the only woman governor of an Afghan province. Sarabi is a big supporter: on April 13th, despite the commitments between Kabul and Bamiyan, she came to attend the inauguration of our eighth school in Dar and Ali, on a rainy but cheerful day for the more than 350 pupils who will go on to study in a stone structure replacing an old one made of mud. This year I decided to prolong my stay in Afghanistan in order to understand the impact of our commitment to education during all these years of operations in this wonderful country. In fact, I had second thoughts, since the media and experts continue to bombard us with negative messages about the future of the country, in view of the withdrawal of foreign troops. Did we throw our money into the furnace? I owed an answer to our donors, given that in all these years we have raised and spent $ 1.1 million. And I owed it to the Afghans: in fact we have involved about 20,000 people, mostly farmers and shepherds, sending their 3,500 children to school every day. Instead of spending the usual week in the country, coinciding with the opening of a new school, this time I took a month's vacation to travel to the four corners of Bamiyan province, visiting all the schools. I travelled over 1,600 km (1,000 miles) by car on rough roads, between 2500 and 3500 metres above sea level, I flew over the valleys of the Hindu Kush by plane and helicopter, looking over crops and recently built homes. I met the principal representatives of the province: Governor Sarabi, the mayor of Bamiyan, Khadim Hussain Fitrat, the dean of Bamiyan University, Sakhidad Saleem, local journalists and managers of various departments, from Economy, Labour and Tourism/Culture. I also met our Ambassador in Kabul, Luciano Pezzotti, since Italy has various cultural projects and cooperation in Bamiyan, from the restoration of the Buddha, to that of the ruins of the citadel of Gholghola, and including some road works. After much wandering I am convinced that despite the doubts and uncertainties, the province of Bamiyan is moving in the right direction and that the money we spent was the best investment of our lives. The welfare of the inhabitants of the valleys continues to improve, though slowly. Agriculture in the wealthiest areas begins to mechanize, replacing wooden ploughs with tractors. All around you can see new fruit trees and masonry structures to store potatoes, known throughout Afghanistan for their top quality. Over the last 5 years in Bamiyan 3 banks have established branches, and half a dozen hotels have been built, with the aim of attracting what is still a weak flow of tourists, mostly Afghans. The herds and flocks grow visibly. Many people have a Chinese or Iranian motorcycle. It is now rare to encounter barefoot children in the villages, while 10 years ago they were the majority. All adults have good quality shoes. In many schools girls in the higher grades, who once covered their eyes and lowered their gaze, now still keep their heads covered, but look you straight in the eye and ask questions directly. In one school they even complained about the poor quality of English teachers and asked me if I could find better ones, maybe a native speaker ...If you ask higher grade students what they want to do when they grow up, everyone is aiming for university. In one particular school, Zarin, the girls have made it clear that they have no problem with going away to study in large cities such as Kabul, Mazar, Herat or even Kandahar, which is ridden with Taliban infiltration. The majority of students want to become doctors or teachers and even much-needed engineers: you often hear children shouting in chorus "inginaar", a term which for them has to do with everything that is modern, from engines and bridges to canals in the fields. The girls have raised their head in recent years, and although soberly, they now take care of their appearance, sporting stylish shoes and handbags, even if they have to walk for more than an hour on rocky paths to reach a destination over 3,000 metres above sea level. Infant mortality has been reduced drastically by virtue of the construction of polyclinics. According to data from Mohammed Reza Ada, director of the provincial Department of Education, 85 schools were built in the last 7 years, also thanks to our small contribution. A total of 353 are now operational, with 142,000 students attending, compared with 82,000 in 2005. Moreover, girls rose from 39% to 46% of all pupils. Today, in many areas, the female component has reached a majority. As a sorcerer's apprentice who embarked on an experiment both for fun and out of curiosity, to discover the unexpected effect of his actions, I realized the powerful impact that education has on people's lives. First, there is a concrete and visible result: about a mile south of Arghosha, our first school, a dam has been built to manage the valley’s water supply, while a mile further north, a clinic has been built by the New Zealand military (PRT), drastically reducing mortality at childbirth. The same happened in Kamati, a school at the foot of the highest Hindu Kush mountain, the Koh e Baba, where a clinic was built a year ago by the Swiss NGO Help Schaffausen and a system of canals is now in place. In Chardeh, which is next to a school for 1800 boys, there is a large outpatient clinic built by US Aid and even a bazaar, which has flourished in recent years. In Sar and Qul, a bridge was built two years ago over a stream which the girls had had to wade through for the previous three years. A clinic was also built a couple of years ago. Zarin, Sar and Qul have also attracted large NGOs such as Save the Children: The Japanese division of the famous organization has in fact built the walls surrounding the buildings. We are a small organisation, but nonetheless we have moved in the right direction at the right time, especially with the right people operating in the field. In some instances, we were even able to lead the way for big charitable organizations. And our activity is proving successful. Just before leaving the country I was able to lay the foundation stone of our ninth school, Ghorab, in a moving ceremony for the students and residents of the valley. The school completes a structure built years ago by Care International that was no longer big enough to accommodate the growing number of students, who were forced to study in tents. Our small size has allowed us to be more flexible than others, maintaining at the same time a tight control over everything we do. We are also in continuous contact with our Afghan operators who are by now old friends. From them we demand absolute honesty and transparency. So far there has been no need from our side of any sort of guidance on that matter, judging from some anecdotes -- like that of a truck carrying bricks that 5 years ago shed its load on the way to the building site, which I only found out now, since they have never asked for a refund and were ashamed to talk about it. Or the rigour that Shuhada has shown, when some farmers in a valley wanted to sell the land where the school was to be built instead of donating it, as all villagers do. Our local correspondents suggested that we hold on, threatening to go to another valley to build the school. That was a very effective threat and finally we got what we wanted. My long journey into the centre of Afghanistan has convinced me that for us the crucial year 2014 will be a year like any other. The building of our tenth school will symbolically celebrate the tenth year of our presence in the country. We will continue to work as long as our Afghan friends ask us and our donors allow it. The best antidote to those who destroy is to build. Of stones in Afghanistan there are plenty, and we won’t leave any stone unturned. The author is Chairman of Arghosha Faraway Schools. To know more visit www.arghosha.org This article originally appeared on Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy's leading financial newspaper, on May 24, 2013. ========================= FEATURE-Uncertain future for Afghan businesswoman as West leavesSource: Reuters - Sat, 3 Aug 2013 10:00 PM Author: Reuters Liza Ghausi Nooristani, chief executive of Mutaharek Construction Company, works on her laptop at her office in Kabul July 28, 2013. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani * Woman's company built schools, roads, bridges in east * Projects ending as Western troops leave * USAID aims to help women set up small businesses By Jessica Donati KABUL, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The United States and its allies have put promoting women's rights at the core of their 12-year mission in Afghanistan and Liza Ghausi Nooristani has profited nicely from their intervention. Nooristani is one of the few women in conservative, male-dominated Afghanistan to set up and run a relatively big company. And she has done it in the mountainous eastern war zone. She has been undaunted by the danger and the death threats and her construction company has been building schools, roads and government offices, largely paid for by a flood of aid money that followed the arrival of U.S. troops. "In the eastern part of Afghanistan, which is dangerous for security, I was the first woman to have a construction company, and I travelled without a bodyguard or gun," said Nooristani, chief executive her firm, Mutaharek Construction Company. She won her first contract in 2007, to build a village school worth $10,000. Since then, her company has handled a host of projects, with the biggest worth as much as $800,000. But now Nooristani faces the prospect of the withdrawal of Western troops. For Afghan women in general, the exit of most foreign troops by the end of next year could mean a slip back in the rights they have managed to secure over the past decade. For Nooristani, a round-faced woman with sad eyes, the withdrawal of Western forces and the aid programmes they have promoted also means a sharp fall in business. "As soon as the provincial reconstruction team left they stopped the projects," Nooristani said in an interview, referring to joint military-civilian teams set up to consolidate military gains with development. Nooristani is not only going to miss the projects but also the Western way of doing business.

"I won't take a project from the government because the government's people are corrupt," she said. "The government does not think women have any worth, nobody has time for females ... they just say women are just for the home to wash their clothes."

ENEMIES An official for the USAID development agency said Afghan businesswomen were still "outside the inner circle". While they had made progress, they faced difficulties in doing business in a very bureaucratic system largely run by men. "Licenses for exports and other permits are the main concerns of women," the official said. The agency has launched a $200 million programme to help women aged 18-30 build up their skills and create more than 3,500 small businesses. Nooristani has her enemies, some of whom object to her doing what she does because she's a woman. "First of all the Taliban, but also common people, because of the way they think," she said with a shrug. She has received death threats and escaped a bomb attack. Despite the danger, her husband and six children support her, while her sisters, all of them housewives, admire her, she said. But some relatives take a dim view of her work. Nooristani spent part of her childhood in Pakistan to escape Afghanistan's interminable conflict. She later studied at university in both Kabul and New Delhi. She is driven, she says, by her determination to help women in the countryside gain access to education. With the development projects drying up, Nooristani has set up a firm called New Lalazar Limited, which supplies and services office equipment, mainly to foreigners in Kabul. If the new business founders, she said she would return to her home province of Nuristan in the east to help the people, perhaps teaching in the schools she built. "The people there don't know a car, they don't know electricity because they don't have it, so I'm going to work for those people, I'm going to help out those people." (Editing by Robert Birsel) ===================

Sadness in excess

It hurt to see the Reside­ncy partly burnt; but it hurt more seeing the injure­d girls, jawans, grievi­ng relati­ves. By Kamran ShafiPublished: July 4, 2013 Share this article Print this page Email . The writer is a columnist, a former major of the Pakistan Army and served as press secretary to Benazir Bhutto kamran.shafi@tribune.com.pk I was to give you “far sadder stuff” from my trip to Quetta with the HRCP, in continuation of my piece of last week, wasn’t I? Well, a most sad event, yet another killing of yet more innocent Hazaras took place mid-week just as I was marshalling my thoughts and feelings. So, the dark glasses and the burqas and the helmets didn’t help, did they? For when we met Hazara political leaders just 12 days ago, they said that whilst they were generally a liberal, educated, outgoing people, even their women and girls had begun to wear burqas to hide their Hazara features. The men and boys wore dark glasses all the time for the same reason, and those who owned motorcycles wore helmets even while buying/delivering stuff in the marketplaces, even in the intense heat for the same reason. But none of that helped did it? For the murdering, heartless sectarian terrorists hit them while they were at prayer at an imambargah, where you would only find Shias. What would the Hazara do now? Which cave will they now cower in? Sitting ducks poor things, who gave us our second Commander-in-Chief; courageous fighter pilots; and excellent soldiers with a sense of duty par excellence. WHEN will the mayhem end? And why not sooner rather than later when the perpetrators are known by their OWN admission of guilt? Punjab is the largest, most powerful province in the country which professes that it will look after the other smaller, more challenged ones, Balochistan leading. Well then, why not straightaway; why not today, when one of the heads of the hydra-headed monster stares us in the eye? But back to our mission; the first stop of which was a call on the new chief minister of Balochistan, Dr Abdul Malik. I liked him instantly: light and quick of step; straight backed; bright eyes that looked directly at you; a quick wit and an earthiness that only comes with years of very middle-class political activism. May God and nature be kind to him, and may he be able to (or is “allowed to” the word I want?) do the good work he is surely cut out to do. The recent visit of the prime minister’s to Balochistan and his reiterating that all the agencies of the State must help the new government by following its instructions, is a step in just the right direction. Indeed, I was most heartened to see that possibly the most important person in this whole blessed tamasha, the only English equivalent being “shemozzle”, of Balochistan, the DG ISI was also asked to be there by the PM. The man who holds all the strings of all the puppets, the IG Frontier Corps (who refused to interact with us, BTW! Indeed, who didn’t even return our telephone calls for a meeting!) had to be there willy-nilly too, which can only spell good for poor old Balochistan. Our next visit was to the Balochistan Medical Complex (BMC) where the dead, dying and injured girls from the Women’s University (ages 16 to 23, shame on you gentlemen and women terrorists), just down the road, were taken after the blast in their bus. You have to see the site of a suicide bombing to believe it, which is all I will say. Immediately after, we went to the Women’s University where the tragedy took place and met Vice Chancellor Mrs Sultana Baloch who, strong woman though she is, was still in tears talking about her girls. One was in tears oneself hearing her recount the ordeal they all went through: the complete panic that even the university for young Balochistani girls from all over, even Zhob, was not safe in the monstrous place we have made our country. It was great to see the HRCP volunteer the services of trauma counsellors from Lahore and Karachi at its own expense if the University thought it would be helpful for those most affected by the mental anguish that such an event surely generates. The thing that stood out most was the spirit with which the young girls wanted the University to reopen and classes to restart. Maybe this generation that has seen the worst of it will, in the end, defeat the monsters? We then visited the CMH to see the three girls being cared for there and were impressed by the quality of care and of the equipment, second to none in the country, that was being used. All three were in great spirits and wanting to return to their university like their other fellow-students. We also saw a police DSP and a Havildar of the FC, also gravely injured in the attack at the BMC and were told by the smart Lt Col, who was taking us around that, the police officer had barely survived. The next day at 7.30 in the morning saw us on our way to Ziarat to visit the blown-up Residency in which the Quaid-e-Azam spent some few days when he was mortally ill. It is a hulk of what it was, burnt to ashes, even parts of the two great chinars in the front lawn, charred. Brought back memories when two friends. Lts Sabir Ali and Abdul Haque, and I of the same rank, actually stayed in rooms right adjacent to the Residency itself in August 1967. It hurt to see part of our national heritage burnt down; but it hurt infinitely more to see the distraught VC of the Women’s University; the injured girls and jawans, and the grieving relatives of the dead. Buildings can be rebuilt; the dead cannot be brought back and the lives of their loved ones cannot be put together again. P S: Might one suggest to the PkMAP gentleman who said buildings such as the Quetta Residency brought back memories of the Raj (which is why it was destroyed) to burn down the Quetta Governor’s House and destroy the rail line to Quetta too? Listening, Abdus Samad Khan Achakzai? Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2013. Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.

United States to meet Taliban to seek Afghan peace

United States to meet Taliban to seek Afghan peace Tue, Jun 18 13:58 PM EDT By Mark Felsenthal, Hamid Shalizi and Dylan Welch WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - The United States will meet the Taliban this week for talks aimed at achieving peace in Afghanistan, where the United States and the insurgents have fought a bloody and costly war for the past 12 years, U.S. officials said on Tuesday. The Taliban opened an office in Doha, the Qatari capital, to help restart talks and said it wanted a political solution that would bring about a just government and end foreign occupation of Afghanistan. A senior U.S. official said the talks would start in Doha on Thursday, but President Barack Obama cautioned against expectations of quick progress, saying the peace process would not be easy or quick. U.S. officials say they hope this week's talks will pave the way for the first-ever official peace negotiations between the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban, which has waged a 12-year insurgency to oust Karzai's government and eject U.S.-led NATO troops from the country. U.S. officials said the process could take many years and be subject to reversals.

"This is an important first step towards reconciliation; although it's a very early step," Obama said after a G8 meeting in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. "We anticipate there will be a lot of bumps in the road." U.S. officials said that in the talks in Doha, the United States would stick to its insistence that the Taliban break ties with al Qaeda, end violence, and accept the Afghan constitution, including protection for women and minorities.

U.S. officials said it would be the first U.S. meeting with the Taliban in several years. It was expected to involve an exchange of agendas, followed by another meeting a week or two later to discuss next steps. A U.S. official said he expected the initial meeting would be followed within days by another between the Taliban and the High Peace Council, a structure set up by Karzai to represent Afghanistan in such talks. A senior Afghan official said the Taliban had held secret discussions with the Afghan government and were willing to consider talks involving the High Peace Council. The Taliban have until now said they would not countenance peace talks with the Karzai government, which they consider a stooge of the United States and other Western nations. In opening the Qatar office, the Taliban said it sought a political solution, but said no dates had been agreed for talks. "There are no scheduled dates," Tayeb Agha, a former chief of staff to the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, said in remarks carried live on al Jazeera television. Another Taliban representative, Mohammed Naeem, told a news conference at the opening of the Doha office that the Islamist group wanted good ties with foreign countries. "We want to keep good relations with all of the world countries, in particular with our neighboring countries," he said. "But the Islamic emirate (Taliban) sees the independence of the nation from the current occupation as a national and religious obligation." Tiny, gas-rich Qatar has been an enthusiastic supporter of reconciliation efforts in a number of political crises and wars affecting the Muslim world including those in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Lebanon and Darfur, often hosting peace talks on its own soil to try to prove it can punch above its weight in international diplomacy. 'NEED TO BE REALISTIC' The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the level of trust between the Afghan government and the Taliban was low, and played down expectations that the talks would quickly lead to peace. "We need to be realistic," said one official. "This is a new development, a potentially significant development. But peace is not at hand." News of the planned talks comes as the United States and its allies in NATO seek to meet a deadline of the end of next year for an end to foreign combat operations in Afghanistan. This would allow them to withdraw the majority of their troops and wind down an engagement launched after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 that has cost hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives. Obama said peace would only come through an Afghanistan-led process, and commended Karzai for taking a courageous step toward peace. He stressed that the U.S. military effort would continue in spite of the peace efforts.

"We don't anticipate this process will be easy or quick but we must pursue it in parallel with our military approach. And we in the meantime remain fully committed to our military efforts to defeat al Qaeda and to support the Afghan national security forces," Obama said.

Despite the accompanying words of caution, the announcement of the planned talks does represent a significant step forward in the peace process, which has struggled to achieve results despite years of attempts.

A team of envoys from the Taliban flew to Qatar in early 2012 to open talks with the U.S. government. But the Taliban suspended the talks in March 2012, saying Washington was giving mixed signals on the nascent Afghan reconciliation process. Karzai, speaking on Tuesday as the U.S.-led NATO coalition launched a final phase of security transfers to Afghan forces, said his government would send a team to Qatar, but said the talks should quickly be moved to Afghanistan. "We hope that our brothers the Taliban also understand that the process will move to our country soon," Karzai said.

U.S. officials said the goal was to ensure that Afghanistan does not remain a haven for terrorism and to defeat al Qaeda. "The one thing that we do believe is that any insurgent group, including the Taliban, is going to need to accept an Afghan constitution that renounces ties with al Qaeda, ends violence, and is committed to protection of women and minorities in the country," Obama said. The officials said the United States would want the Taliban to make clear its intention to sever ties with al Qaeda. "One of the things we will want to talk about from the very beginning is how they're going to cut ties with al Qaeda," an official said. "How quickly, exactly how they're going to do it, how quickly." A U.S. official said the talks would be conducted on the Taliban side by its political commission, with the authorization of Mullah Omar, and also represent the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network. James Dobbins, the new special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will lead the U.S. side. The Haqqanis are considered the United States' deadliest foe in Afghanistan and the top U.S. and NATO commander in the country cast doubt on Tuesday over whether it could make peace. "All I've seen of the Haqqani would make it hard for me to believe they were reconcilable," U.S. General Joseph Dunford told Pentagon reporters by phone from Kabul. U.S. officials said they expected detainee exchanges to be discussed in the talks. The United States will ask for the safe return of U.S. Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who has been a prisoner since June 2009, the officials said. He is thought to be being held by Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan. (Additional reporting by Mirwais Harooni in Kabul, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Amena Bakr and Yara Bayoumy in Dubai, Jeff Mason in Enniskillen and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by David Brunnstrom; Editing by David Storey and Jim Loney) ====================== Taliban's Qatar office stokes Karzai's ire Afghan government is angry the Taliban raised their flag and vowed to continue fighting after opening their Doha centre. Ali M Latifi Last Modified: 21 Jun 2013 06:53 Kabul, Afghanistan - Standing at a podium with his image emblazoned on the wall behind him, Afghan President Hamid Karzai earnestly tried to earn the world's confidence in his government the day his military formally took over security from NATO. With NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen standing next to him, Karzai called June 18 "a great day where the Afghan people will see their own children providing protection to their lives and to their country". But events that transpired before and after Tuesday's press conference have brought the complicated web of Afghan policy to the world stage. Hours after Karzai spoke, the world's attention shifted to a press conference some 4,000 kilometres away, held by the other central party in the Afghan conflict, the Taliban. The highly orchestrated event marking the opening of a much-delayed Taliban political office in Doha, Qatar was the result of year-long negotiations between Washington and representatives of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, as the Taliban refers to itself. Statements made by Taliban officials Sohail Shaheen and Mullah Naeem - speaking in English and Pashto - immediately stoked the ire of the Karzai government, which also spent much of the last year trying to engage in direct talks with the group. Talks cancelled A day after the announcement, the Afghan government called off negotiations between Kabul and Washington on a bilateral security agreement. A statement released by the presidential palace said the suspension was in response to "the contradiction between acts and the statements made by the United States of America in regard to the Peace Process". "The only purpose the Taliban's office in Doha ought to serve is as an address for holding their leaders accountable for their terror and attempts at denying ordinary Afghans a peaceful future." - Afghanistan 1400 group statement This "contradiction" was most evident in the black-and-white flag of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan that hung behind the two Taliban representatives, a move an official involved in the negotiations told Al Jazeera came as a shock to Washington. "Until the last minute, the White House never cleared the Taliban to hang their flag," the official said, requesting anonymity because he wasn't authorised to speak to the press. Karzai had specifically raised the issue of the flag during a March meeting with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, because it leads to the perception that "there are two states within the Afghan nation", said the official. Another contradiction at the Taliban's presser was a vow to continue fighting until a ceasefire is signed. Qasim Yar is a senior member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, the body tasked by the Karzai government to negotiate with the Taliban. He said what was said at the press conference came as a surprise. "When they enjoy the Qatari's assistance, financial, logistics - an office, a building, and political protection - and support of the US, and then from there they command that Afghan children be killed, women be killed, the elderly be killed … what does this mean? "It means that their terrorist attacks are under the protection of the Qatari government and the US government," Yar said. Initially optimistic about Afghan representatives being dispatched to Doha, the Karzai's attitude had abruptly changed by Wednesday. "As long as the peace process is not Afghan-led, the High Peace Council will not participate in the talks in Qatar," Karzai said. Unilateral decision The cessation of talks around the bilateral security agreement has further highlighted the tempestuous relationship between Afghanistan and the United States. Afghan President Hamid Karzai on June 18 [Reuters] Those familiar with the events that led to the political office's opening framed it as a unilateral decision borne out of US frustration with the Karzai government. Washington's decision was relayed to Karzai during a recent phone call between the Afghan president and John Kerry, the US secretary of state. "We can't keep waiting for you. Your government keeps saying they're in communication with the Taliban, but we have seen no progress", Waheed Mozhdah, a former official in the foreign ministry of the Taliban government, quoted Kerry as saying. Along with growing impatience towards the Afghan government, Mozhdah said Washington was compelled to talk by recent Taliban inroads with Iran and Lebanon. A June 4 statement issued by Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a Taliban spokesman, confirmed a Taliban delegation headed by the chief of the political office had embarked on a three-day visit to Tehran to make "heard the voices and demands of [the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan's] people and Mujahideen". The presence of heavy machinery in the western province of Herat "usually found in Lebanon" further worried the US, Mozhdah told Al Jazeera. Specific directives Long wary of the relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan, Mozhdah said the potential of a partnership with Iran - a country that, unlike Pakistan, the US has little leverage over. That "really frightened the United States", he said. Even though talks broke down last year officially, the CIA and Britain's MI6 intelligence service have been talking unofficially to the Taliban since then. The official involved in the negotiations said once the decision had been made by Washington to officially sanction the political office in the Qatari capital, the Taliban was given specific directives, including severing ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network. From the perspective of one neighbourhood in Herat At the Doha press conference, the Taliban representatives said their "independent Islamic system" in Afghanistan "will [not] allow anyone to cause a threat to the security of countries from the soil of Afghanistan". That statement, said the official, "was the Taliban's way of saying they are distancing themselves from al-Qaeda, without having to say it outright". Further, those Taliban involved in negotiations must not return to the battlefield. "If the violence continues, there is no political gravitas," the official said. For the Taliban, adhering to US demands would pay dividends. "In the next few months, we will see four Taliban prisoners in Guantanamo handed over to Qatari authorities," he said, adding that issue had led to the original breakdown of official talks last year. The Taliban also stand to gain a security role in Afghanistan, the official said. However, speaking to Al Jazeera after the Doha press conference, Mohammad Sohail Shaheen said without a ceasefire, "[Taliban-led] attacking will continue in parallel with the peaceful talks for peace". That pledge was fulfilled only hours later when the group took responsibility for rocket attacks that killed four US soldiers near Bagram Air Base, 60 kilometres north of Kabul. Return to the past? The Taliban has shown little interest in speaking with the Karzai government. The Doha office was conceived as "an address only to negotiate with the US", Mozhdah said. The refusal of the Taliban to speak to Karzai and his government is both political and personal. Taliban officials cut the ribbon at the official opening ceremony of a Taliban Afghanistan Political Office [EPA] According to Daoud Sultanzoy, a former Afghan MP, a Taliban willingness to approach a government that is seen as "void of support in this country, it will be seen as contradictory to what they say they stand for". On a personal level, the official involved in negotiations the Taliban hates Karzai. As a Kanadahari Pashtun working with what the Taliban see as "occupying" forces, Karzai "is seen as a traitor", he told Al Jazeera. Mozhdah said the Taliban were actively trying to court the Afghan political opposition, with whom they are keen to negotiate. For many Afghans, especially young ones, any talks with the Taliban should come with caveats. Afghanistan 1400, a group that refers to itself as "a national movement of Afghanistan's new generation", warned the Doha political office should not be "perceived as any openness of the people of Afghanistan, in particular our new generation, to backtracking on the hard-won achievements of the past decade". "The only purpose the Taliban's office in Doha ought to serve is as an address for holding their leaders accountable for their terror and attempts at denying ordinary Afghans a peaceful future," the group said in a statement released on Wednesday. These statements were echoed by Pashtun Women Viewpoint, a London-based group whose members include female academics, activists, and writers. Heelai Noor, the group's co-founder, told Al Jazeera by excluding the Afghan government in the Doha negotiations, Qatar and the United States were "supporting a group, which was ironically deemed a terrorist organisation by the whole world until recently, over a legally elected democratic government in Afghanistan". ====================

Hazara Democratic Party (Official)

این اے 89جھنگ سے نامزد دہشت گرد ملا احمد لدھیانوی کا کھلم کھلا شیعہ کافر کا فتویٰ شیعت نیوز مانیٹرنگ ڈیسک مسلم لیگ (ن) نے قومی اسمبلی کے حلقہ این اے 107گجرات سے کالعدم لشکر جھنگوی سے تعلق رکھنے والے چوہدری عابد رضا کو پارٹی ٹکٹ دینے کے بعد سابق گورنر پنجاب سلمان تاثیر(مرحوم) اور توہین اسلام کرنے والے والی عیسائی خاتون آسیہ بی بی کو قتل کرنے والے کالعدم سپاہ صحابہ پاکستان کے سابق سرگرم کارکن سردار عبادڈو گر کو بھی این اے 178 مظفر گڑھ سے پارٹی ٹکٹ جاری کردیا ہے مجلس وحدت مسلمین پاکستان کے حمایت یافتہ اُمیدوار صوبائی اسمبلی سید اختر عباس شیرازی نے جھنگ سٹی میں اپنے اختتامی سیاسی جلسے سے خطاب کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ میری پہچان میرے علاقے کی غریب عوام ہے۔ یہ جنگ جو میں لڑ رہا ہوں یہ دراصل اس خطے کے محروم لوگوں کی جنگ ہے۔ ہر روز کی طرح آج بھی میرے خلاف ایک شوشہ چھوڑا گیا کہ میں شیخوں کے حق میں دستبردار ہوگیا ہوں۔ لیکن یہ شیخ ایک سید کو مروا تو سکتے ہیں لیکن خرید نہیں سکتے۔ اختر شیرازی کا مزید کہنا تھا کہ مجھے دو کروڑ روپے کی آفر کی گئی شیخوں کی جانب سے لیکن میں نے اپنے ضمیر کاسودا نہ کیا۔ ان کا کہنا تھا کہ مجھے تحصیل ناظم کی آفر کی گئی لیکن میں نے غریبوں کا ساتھ نہ چھوڑا۔ مجھے ضلع کے چیئرمین شپ کی آفر کی گئی لیکن میں نے یہ سب اپنے ورکروں اور قوم کی عزت وسربلندی کی خاطر ٹھکرا دیا۔ لیکن افسوس ہے کہ بعض لوگ لاکھوں میں بک گئے اور میری مخالفت کی حد کر دی۔ جلسے میں شریک اہلسنت حضرات نے اختر شیرازی کی حمایت کا اعلان کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ ہماری جنگ لڑنے ہم میں سے ہی ہمارا نوجوان میدان میں آیا ہے، ہم کٹ تو سکتے لیکن سید کے ساتھ دھوکہ نہیں کرسکتے۔ اس موقع پر جلسے کے شرکاء نے اختر شیرازی کے حق میں بھرپور نعرے بازی کی اور اس بات کا یقین دلایا کہ گیارہ مئی کو محب اہلبیت ایک سید کو کامیاب کرا کے جناب سیدہ کے سامنے سُرخرو ہوں گے۔ A Lashkar-e-Jhangvi-linked terror suspect who has already spent five years in jail on murder charges and had known links with a slain al-Qaeda linchpin Amjad Hussain Farooqi is running for a National Assembly seat from Gujrat on a PML-N ticket. Chaudhry Abid Raza Gujjar had been handed down death sentence under section 302 and section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act 1997 for the murder of six people during a failed assassination attempt on the former Nazim of Gujrat, Ghulam Sarwar Bhooch, in 1998. شیعہ علماء کونسل پاکستان نے تحصیل احمد پور سیال میں حلقہ این اے91 سے نجف عباس خان سیال اور پی پی82 میں آزاد اُمیدوار غضنفر جبوانہ اور پی پی83 میں عون عباس سیال کی حمایت کا اعلان کر دیا ہے۔ ''اسلام ٹائمز'' سے گفتگو کرتے ہوئے شیعہ علماء کونسل تحصیل احمد پور سیال کے آرگنائزر قیصر عباس سیال نے بتایا کہ این اے91، پی پی82 اور پی پی83 پر امیدواروں کی حمایت کا فیصلہ علامہ سید ساجد علی نقوی کے حکم پر کیا گیا ہے - یاد رہے کہ حلقہ پی پی82 میں مجلس وحدت مسلمین کے نامزد اُمیدوار علامہ مظہر کاظمی کے بھائی علامہ سید اظہر حسین کاظمی ہیں۔ Soldiering on: Ruqayya Hashmi fights for Shia Hazara community in Balochistan By Waqas Naeem Published: May 10, 2013 Undaunted by terrorist threats, Dr Ruqayya Hashmi fights for the Shia Hazara community in Balochistan. ISLAMABAD: In several cities across Pakistan, political parties and candidates have faced threats and deadly attacks on the basis of political ideology. But, in Quetta, Dr Ruqayya Saeed Hashmi has battled a different kind of threat throughout her election campaign. She is a Shia Hazara politician, contesting elections for NA-259 from the platform of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), in a city where over 150 Hazaras were killed in 2013 alone. On January 10, the Hazara community sat in protest for four straight days with the dead bodies of their relatives, after nearly a 100 people were killed in a massive bombing carried out by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. But despite the imposition of governor’s rule, ostensibly to provide better security to Quetta’s Hazara population, terror struck a Shia Hazara neighbourhood in the city again on February 16, killing at least 67. Once again the LeJ claimed responsibility. In the protests which followed this attack, Hashmi was on the frontlines, outraged and vocal. Hashmi, 62, thinks her presence at the protests has made her a target for the Laskhar-e Jhangvi and allied terrorist outfits. She and her political workers have received death threats. Her campaign activities have been confined to a limited area but she has braved it out by going door-to-door to ask for votes. Residents want to vote but they also have apprehensions about election day violence, she said. “Candidates are mobilising people to vote but then there are threats of violence which have scared the voters,” she said. Nevertheless, she is optimistic that the voter turnout percentage in Quetta city will be above the national average. Security for the Hazara community is among Hashmi’s top priorities. If elected, she wants to bring about legislation, through mutual political consensus, to ensure the safety of the Hazaras. “I will try to gather the support of all political parties on grounds of humanity for safety and security of the people of Quetta city, especially the Hazara community,” she said. A Quetta native, she has twice been a member of the Balochistan Assembly on the reserved seats for women. She is also proud of the eight years she served as an Army doctor in Quetta and often identifies herself as a soldier. An activist from her student days; she retained her connection with politics when she married into the Hashmi family, which has been involved with politics from pre-partition days. Her husband, Saeed Ahmed Hashmi, has been elected to the Balochistan Assembly from Quetta in the past and is contesting again this year. The Hazara community has around 30,000 votes, according to Hashmi. “The Hazara men and women recognise the importance of their vote,” she said. But the community’s vote might be divided between Hashmi and the Hazara Democratic Party’s Abdul Khaliq Hazara. “I will give every candidate a tough time because I am a woman, a doctor, a soldier and because I belong to the brave Hazara community.” If she doesn’t win, there is always plan B: she is number 1 on the PML-Q list of reserved women candidates for the Balochistan Assembly. ================ Dont forget azbr amzi mullahs (kafir, terrorists) mne Sunni shia jang mushna hamesha. They are only using hussain a.s 's name to make people vote for them and plus they are the reall enemies of hussain a.s. VOTE 4 HDP***** Everything depends on Unity, dividing vote bank into MWM, HDP will lead to success of 3rd party. "SEAT ADJUSTMENT"مافتی نشان هزارگی/مافتی نشان H.D.P ( READ,THINK n SHARE) It may well be grotesque yet it is worthy to repeatedly delienate some accounts relating to our current situation.we ve been fallen prey the direst persecution ,genocide n discrimination since a decade,lost hundreds of our beloved assets,now we r besieged into two areas and our access to universities,colleges,jobs,offices, main city....ve been entirely obstucted.simply we r passing through the most crucial n decissive phase of our history where we can either ascend n make history or descend n become part of history.so,this is not just an election but an altercational fight or front for our lives.every individual n leaders or candidates should think rationally n conclusively.they should accredit national interests, generation's future n martyrs' sacrifices rather their individual n party interests. acquisition of maximum seats,is the most prudential n rational notion for emancipation of our people n sustainence of law n order in the city.SEAT ADJUSTMENT is the ultimate hope to gain maximum seats.the leaders must join heads n hands n decide to elect only one competent candidate for each area PB.1 ,PB.2,PB.6 & NA 259 ...only then we can exersice our full power n certainly win all seats ,as incase of 1 candidate from PB2, seat ll b undoubtedly our's.regarding seat PB1,last time shafiq ahmed khan(martyred)had gotten around 4300 votes including our votes,n won the seat.we do ve around 4000 votes in PB1 & with little more effort in minorities areas of PB1 we can certainly gain few hundred more votes,(while few christians n other minorities ve already announced their solidarity with us).furthermore,we ve around 32000 votes in PB6,if we exersice our ful power n give votes to only one candidate,PB6 seat is also ours.moreover we can easily save our NA.259 n woman seat too.in this case we can send atleast 1senator or policymaker in center.(ITS NT A MYTHICAL STORY RATHER A CACULATED fact,ANY1 CAN GO THROUGH A COMPREHENSIVE RESEARCH,OR SIMPLY ASK THOSE IN PROCESS.) leaders must forget their personal conflicts for wider national interests n adjust the seats,withdraw their candidates accordingly.infact should try to participate in eachother's campaigning,its in interest of both bt nt greedy one's) .the party who initiate this cause ,is certainly the most sincere to nation.few very sincere ,competent rational n compromising faces r evident in both parties who can work for seat adjustment.the youths,nobles,intelectuals ,neutral parties,welfare societies n other organizations should volunteerly come forward , bridge the parties n force them for SEAT ADJUSTMENT.publis pressure counts alot,realize ur individual responsibilities.inspite supporting one party ,support nation n national interests n save MASSES & PARTIES... ( READ,THINK n SHARE) SOFIA WAFA SAYS: My mother is back from the HDP Rally. So Emotional! Says (Khuda Mara Sadqey Kohzad wa Khaliq kana). Says MWM is Pashtoon Kha. Ma sadqey naney kho. She says more then 10000 people were in rally, My mom says, "Asadi is also Pashtoon kha...New Discovery! and says NISHAN AZMO AZARGI YA MAFTI YA." My mom is really emotional tonight. Everything depends on Unity, dividing vote bank into MWM, HDP will lead to success of 3rd party. If a mother can understand this! she knows that the nation will be save only by giving vote to our one political party so why the others DON'T? Why the others are acting on policies of the people who never wanted Hazaras to be one? Every Hazara has the right to choose the leader by their chioce. 10000 people can not be wrong.I guess laughing is not suitable for a mother's view! do learn to respect mothers. چیف آف ہزارہ قبائل سردار سادات علی ہزارہ نے MWM کی حمایت کا اعلان کردیا۔ کربلائے کوئٹہ‎ کوئٹہ الیکشن الرٹ: طاہر خان ہزارہ حلقہ PB2 صوبائی سیٹ سے دستبردار۔ "بالٹی" کا نشان بیلٹ پیپر پر چھپا گیا ہے لیکن اب چونکہ جناب نے قوم دوستی کا ثبوت دے کر قومی مفاد کیلئے دستبردار ہوگئے تو اب مہر صرف "خیمہ" پر لگایئں جس کی حمایت میجر نادر سمیت معتبرینِ قوم نے کی ہے۔ جو حق کا نہیں حامی وہ ہم سے بچھڑ جائے خیمے میں اندھیرا ہے ، جانے کی اجازت ہے۔۔۔۔ علمدار روڈ‎ قوم کے وسیع تر مفاد کے لئے طاہر خان ہزارہ ایلکشن سے کچھ گهنٹوں قبل دستبردار ہوگئے، اپنے پیغام میں انهوں نے کہاں کہ : میں نے اپنے ساتهیوں سے مشاورت اور ضمیر کی آواز پہ اس حلقہ سے دستبردار ہوا، میں نے بہت کوشیش کی کہ ایک متفقہ امیدوار سامنے آئے مگر اقتدار کے بهوکوں کی ہٹ دهرمی کے سامنے بے بس رہا جس کا مجهے بہت افسوس ہے، عوام نے جو پزیرائ اور عزت بخشی اسے کبهی نہیں بهول سکتا، میں صرف قوم کے حق میں دستبردار ہوا ہوں کسی فرد یا پارٹی کے حق میں نہیں۔ ============ "یہاں جنگ نسل و زبان یا مذہب کی نہیں، یہاں جنگ کردار کی ہے۔ ووٹ دیتے وقت کردار کو مدِنظر رکھیں۔ اگر آدھی رات کو کوئی ہزارہ ڈاکو آپ کے گھر میں ڈاکہ ڈالنے آئے تو کیا آپ ہزارہ ہونے کے ناطے اسے خوش آمدید کہیں گے؟؟؟ یہ کہاں کی عقل مندی ہے؟ ڈاکو ڈاکو ہوتا ہے چاہے وہ ہزارہ ہو یا پنچابی یا پٹھان یا بلوچ۔ اسی طرح کسی شخص کو محض اسی لئے قبول کرنا کہ وہ ہزارہ ہے عقل و منطق کے سراسر منافی ہے۔" مجلس وحدت مسلمین کوئٹہ کے ہزارہ ٹاؤن جلسہء عام سے نوجوان رہنما جناب غلام علی کا خطاب کون سا شخص کوئٹہ کو دہشت گردی اور مسائل کے دلدل سے نکال سکتا ہے ؟ آغا رضا (مجلس وحدت مسلمین) عبدالخالق (ھزارہ ڈیموکریٹک پارٹی) محمد طاہر خان ھزارہ (آزاد) کوئی نہیں حق پہ کون ہے؟؟؟ فیصلہ آپ کا۔۔۔۔۔ ایک طرف مجلس وحدت مسلمین کا جلسہ، دوسری طرف نسل پرست ٹولے کا جلسہ، ایک طرف لبیک یا حسین (ع) اور یا علی (ع) مدد، دوسری طرف ڈھول باجے، گانے اور تالیاں!!! حق پہ کون ہے؟؟؟ فیصلہ آپ کا۔۔۔۔۔