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Afghan police arrest four over Kunduz acid attack

Police in Afghanistan's Kunduz city have arrested four suspects in connection with an acid attack on a 17-year-old girl and her family after she allegedly refused a marriage proposal.

News.com.au quoted Afghani interior ministry sources, as saying that the attack in late November attracted widespread media coverage and highlighted the dangers still facing women in Afghanistan 10 years after the ouster of the repressive Taliban regime.

The girl, Mumtaz, was seriously injured when masked gunmen broke into her home in Kunduz city and sprayed her face with acid. Her mother and sisters suffered slight burns after being splashed with the acid during the attack, her father said.

"Afghan police arrested Nasir, a suspect linked to the acid attack, and three others yesterday and they were brought to Kabul for punishment," interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told reporters.

The suspects were handcuffed and shown to the media.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has logged 1026 cases of violence against women in the second quarter of 2011, compared with 2700 cases for the whole of 2010.

Some 87 per cent of Afghan women report having experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage, according to figures quoted in an October report by the charity Oxfam.

Last month, the United Nations said that a landmark law aiming to protect women against violence in Afghanistan had been used to prosecute only just over 100 cases since it was enacted two years ago. (ANI)

Pakistan seeks road connectivity to Central Asia 

A road connectivity between Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan will 'reinvigorate historical, cultural and trade ties among the people of the region', Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said.

Gilani said he will discuss the project with officials of the two countries during his upcoming visit to the SAARC summit in the Maldives next month.

The project when completed will provide the shortest possible route between Pakistan and Tajikistan, he said.

The road will pass about eight kilometers through Afghanistan's Wakhan region, Gilani told the Gilgit-Baltistan Governor, Pir Karam Ali Shah, who called on him at his official residence here Sunday.

'I visited Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, India, Iran, China and other Central Asian republics to further my vision,' Gilani said.

He said Pakistan was keen to enhance trade with Afghanistan and beyond, and hence road and rail networks were essential.

The prime minister said he will highlight the issue at the Nov 10-11 summit since connectivity will provide an enabling environment for socio-economic development in the region.

About Rs.2 billion will be required to build the road on the Pakistani side, the official APP news agency reported.

The eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) -- India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan -- will hold their 17th summit in Male.

09-30-11

Afghanistan plans to suspend an effort to work with Pakistan and the United States to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table for reconciliation talks, according to Afghan officials.

Afghanistan has decided to cancel the October 8 meeting among senior US, Pakistani and Afghan officials to discuss ways to get the Taliban into peace talks and end the 10-year-old conflict, The Wall Street Journal quoted Deputy National Security Adviser Shaida Mohammad Abdali, as saying.

Afghanistan has also dropped plans for Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to attend a meeting in Kabul at the end of October of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Joint Commission for Reconciliation and Peace in Afghanistan, a three-month-old bilateral initiative intended to galvanize the peace process, the paper said.

Pakistani officials could not be reached to comment on the shift by Afghanistan, while officials at the US Embassy in Kabul declined to comment on Kabul's moves, it added.

Afghan leaders have been trying to compel Pakistan to openly facilitate talks between Afghanistan and Taliban leaders, the paper said. 

Afghan government officials say they are convinced that Pakistan is intent on disrupting its attempts to engage the Taliban without interference from Islamabad, it added.

Pakistani officials have publicly supported peace efforts, while asserting that Pakistan has a right to take part in Afghan reconciliation talks.

Though Afghan officials have criticised Pakistan before, the cancellations signal a change in strategy, the paper noted. 

"From now on, Afghanistan will follow 'trust but verify' approach toward Pakistan, in particular with regard to our peace effort," said Abdali, suggesting that Kabul would not readily accept Pakistan's offers of help.

Afghan officials have accused the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of organizing the plot that allowed a purported Taliban emissary to kill Syed Burhanuddin Rabbani, the head of the Afghan government's High Peace Council, which was responsible for attempts to broker a peace deal with the Taliban's top leaders, who are believed to be based in Quetta, Pakistan, the paper said.

"This was a turning point," Abdali said of Rabbani's assassination. "Definitely it goes back to the same place: Pakistan. The phone calls go all the way from here to Quetta." 

Abdali pointed out that the plot to kill Rabbani was too complicated to have been carried out by insurgents alone.

Pakistani officials have, however, rejected the charges. 

"ISI isn't exporting any kind of terrorism to Afghanistan or aiding the Haqqani network," ISI chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha told a meeting of Pakistani politicians and military leaders on Thursday, according to politicians who attended the conference. (ANI)

American Killed in Attack on Kabul CIA Office - 09-27-11

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul confirms one American has been killed and another injured in a shooting incident inside an annex of the U.S. embassy in Kabul in which an Afghan employee of the embassy was killed. 

According to the U.S. Embassy spokesman, the shooting incident occurred Sunday night, inside a building that is an annex of the U.S. Embassy. According to Afghan security forces and embassy officials who did not want to be named, the building is used as an office for the Central Intelligence Agency.An Afghan employee apparently opened fire on Americans, killing one and wounding another, before being killed himself. The injured American's wounds were not life threatening.

The attack comes on the heels of the murder of the Afghan government's chief peace negotiator last week, and an insurgent attack on the U.S. Embassy and nearby NATO headquarters nearly two weeks ago. That attack shut down parts of the capital for 20 hours.

NATO spokesman Carsten Jacobson echoed US officials recent assertions that insurgents here are changing their tactics. 

"We have seen a number of high-level assassinations and we have seen an increase of complex attacks," said Jacobson. "We see that more from a military point of view as a sign of weakness than of strength, but we of course have understanding for the people of Afghanistan who see these attacks and fear that the situation is not good for their security."

One of those Afghans is Ahmed Wali Massoud, a former member of government and now opposition politician. He says the Taliban has clear targets - former resistance fighters.

"For the past six months at least, we can see that so many people got killed, especially those elites which belonged to the former resistance forces, they were the real enemy of them, so therefore they want to wipe them out," Massoud said. 

President Hamid Karzai has formed a team to investigate the murder of his peace envoy last week. His opponents say if he does not come up with adequate answers, the people will take to the streets. A protest about the recent attacks is scheduled in Kabul on Tuedsday.

Afghanistan tells UN of future partnerships after departure of foreign forces

 22 September 2011 – Afghanistan is negotiating strategic partnerships with its international partners, including the United States and the European Union, to guarantee the country’s security, stability and economic development once international forces in the Asian nation leave in 2014, the country’s Foreign Minister told the General Assembly today.

“In the context of these future partnerships, the principle of Afghan sovereignty, and the centrality of the Afghan State, must be given credence – that the manner of our continued partnership should conform to the requirements of a sovereign Afghanistan,” said Zalmai Rassoul, delivering an address on behalf of President Hamid Karzai.

Mr. Karzai was in New York earlier this week to attend the Assembly’s annual general debate but returned to Afghanistan after the assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani – the former president who had been serving as a peace envoy.

Dr. Rassoul said that all “parallel structures” created by the international community, including security, governance and development arrangements, would have to be dismantled to make way for the emergence of genuine and capable indigenous institutions.

He said the role of the United Nations must also be adjusted to the requirements of Afghan sovereignty.

“I welcome the review of the mandate of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan [UNAMA] as authorized by the Secretary-General. Over the months ahead, we look forward to participating in this review and its desirable conclusion.”

Dr. Rassoul pointed out the Afghanistan had over the past decade undertaken numerous initiatives to promote regional cooperation with a view to boosting trade and other economic activities.

The country had, however, learned that unless there are bold moves to address political differences and the lack of trust and confidence the divides the region, cooperation will remain just an aspiration.

A regional conference convened by Turkey in Istanbul on 2 November will focus on political and security issues, he said.

The Foreign Minister said the current Afghan administration had a reconciliation policy that is based on a commitment to making the political process more inclusive and providing Taliban militants and other extremists based outside the country with an alternative to violence.

“Clearly, without sincere cooperation from regional and international partners, notably the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, this strategy will not succeed,” he added. 

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'Pak must stop treating Afghanistan like its colony and come down hard on Haqqani network'  09-20-2011

Pakistan must stop treating Afghanistan like its colony and fight the war against terror for its own good, according to an editorial in a leading Pakistani newspaper.

The editorial in the Daily Times also said that instead of complaining about the United States' "do more" mantra, Pakistan should take swift action against the Haqqani network.

"Sirajuddin Haqqani's statement about having shifted to Afghanistan sounds hollow. The Haqqani network might not be present in North Waziristan now as some reports suggest that they have moved to Kurram Agency. Our intelligence agencies are well aware of their presence in the country," the editorial said.

"Instead of supporting the Afghan Taliban, we must realize that in the end, the Taliban - be they local or otherwise - are no one's friends, but themselves. The attacks by the Pakistan Taliban from across the border show that they have found support from the Afghan Taliban," it added.

It further said that the US-led war in Afghanistan is far from over.

"It has already spilled into our borders and when the foreign troops leave, there is more danger of an escalation in the Taliban's activities," the editorial said.

The editorial further stressed that Pakistan should not take the US warnings lightly. (ANI)

Taliban Vow to Send US to 'Dustbin of History'

The Taliban is lashing out at the United States, calling the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan "a permanent stigma on the face of Western democracy."

Saturday's statement from the Taliban also warns the U.S. that the Afghan people have an "endless stamina for war" and says the Taliban will send America to "the dustbin of history."

The Taliban statement comes one day before the U.S. marks the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon, which killed nearly 3,000 people.

The statement accuses the U.S. of using the attacks as a pretext to martyr innocent Muslims.

The Taliban gave al-Qaida a safe haven in Afghanistan before the 9/11 attacks, allowing the terrorist group to set up training camps for would-be terrorists, and refused to hand over bin Laden to the U.S.

U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, then under Taliban control, in early October 2001, the start of an effort to track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Ground forces soon followed.

That effort ousted the Taliban from power and helped weaken al-Qaida, forcing Osama bin Laden and other top commanders into hiding.

U.S. special forces tracked down Osama bin Laden, killing him this past May in neighboring Pakistan.

U.S. forces remain in Afghanistan, but the U.S. is expected to complete a withdrawal of its troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

US Response to 9/11 Taints Muslim Image of America

It has been 10 years now since Islamic terrorists attacked the United States and focused the world's attention on America's relationship with the Muslim world.

Most Muslims around the world condemned the September 11 terrorists attacks on the United States in 2001. But many consider the U.S. response to the terror attacks far worse: The ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. NATO's military intervention in Libya. And support for regimes that use the threat of terrorism to justify suppressing dissent.

This too often overshadows America's efforts supporting freedom and democratic values, says Steven Kull, the director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland.

"There's the bad America that doesn't always live up to those values and is seen as being unfriendly to Islam, ready to use military force irrespective of international law and not promoting democracy," Kull said.

Egypt
Esam El-Erian is a leader of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a group that was once banned for opposing the military-led rule of Hosni Mubarak.

He argues that U.S. military operations kill more people than Islamic terrorists and that using force to bring stability and impose democracy in Muslim countries is a failure.

"Defeated in Afghanistan, yes. They failed to reconstruct a nation. Defeated in Iraq, yes. They failed to build a model of democracy," El-Erian said.

Opinion polls show that President Barak Obama's efforts to engage the Muslim world have had little impact on such attitudes.

Indonesia
Indonesia is a rare exception that holds a positive view of the U.S.

The fact that President Obama lived there as a boy, that the country has undergone significant democratic progress and that Indonesia also has suffered terrorist attacks may account for the more favorable rating.

Even so, a vocal minority in Indonesia opposes U.S. military policy, and U.S. ties to Israel. Last year, Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of peace activists sparked protests in Jakarta.

"President Obama has to prevent Israel from doing this kind of thing, and not to protect or cover up for Israel," said Indonesian University student Sahid Sundana.

Tunisia
In Tunisia, some criticize the U.S. for not offering enough support to pro-democracy groups, but this man detects a change in American policy.

"The Americans are starting to have an interest in Tunisia, even becoming passionate. I have the impression they will help the Tunisians and are beginning to," one Tunisian said.

Steven Kull adds that U.S. plans to draw down forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. support for Israeli-Palestinian peace, could eventually improve Muslims' view of America. But, he says, the U.S. must also work with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic groups.

"They are going to be part of any democratic process that emerges in the Muslim world. And the U.S. needs to take a more friendly stance toward that, not be so suspicious of those countries," Kull said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has indicated the U.S. is ready to take a step in that direction and engage Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, but Esam El-Erian says so far there has been no contact.

Ten years have passed since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and Muslim attitudes about America remain a causality of the war of terror.