Twenty-four militants killed on Pakistan-Afghanistan border: military

Miranshah (Pakistan – AFP 7/15/05) - Pakistani security forces have found the bodies of 24 suspected militants who died after US-led troops fired at them across the border from southeastern Afghanistan, officials said.

Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the militants were found dead in the restive North Waziristan tribal area after coalition troops fired at them during an operation on the Afghan side late Thursday.

Sultan told private GEO television that Pakistan would investigate whether troops from the 18,000-strong US-led coalition in Afghanistan had violated Pakistani airspace or land borders.

"Coalition forces had informed us about an operation against the anti-coalition militia and our troops were on stand-by also," Sultan told GEO on Friday.

"When the firing was over our troops searched the area and found 24 bodies and two twin-cabin vehicles," Sultan said. "There was no firing from our side, our troops were just patrolling and stood alert."

Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal areas share a long, porous border with Afghanistan and thousands of Pakistani troops have fought battles with militants in the region. A number of cross-border incidents have also occurred.

"Security forces have taken into custody the bodies of 24 militants in Lawara Mandi on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border," an intelligence official who requested anonymity told AFP. The US-led coalition was not immediately available for comment.

Militants from the ousted Taliban regime have stepped up attacks in the south and east of war-torn Afghanistan in recent months ahead of landmark parliamentary elections in September.

More than 600 people -- mostly militants but also civilians and around 50 American soldiers -- have died in the violence since the beginning of this year.

Afghanistan frequently accuses Pakistan of failing to crack down on extremists on its side of the border. Islamabad strongly denies the charge. The area where the militants died borders Khost province, a hotbed for ousted members of the Taliban regime.

Afghan officials said two bombs exploded in quick succession late Thursday at an election commission office situated inside a mosque in Khost city, the provincial capital, injuring two policemen.

The first blast destroyed the office and the casualties occurred when another went off nine minutes later as police reached the site, provincial deputy police chief Mohammed Zaman told AFP.

A similar attempt was foiled a week ago when police defused a bomb in the same office, Zaman added. Abdul Rehman Mohibat, the director of the UN-backed joint electoral management board, also confirmed the attack on the election office.

US and Afghan troops killed 17 insurgents in clashes on Monday and Tuesday in southern Zabul province, while a pro-government Islamic cleric was gunned downed by suspected Taliban gunmen.

US says wants more pressure on Afghan insurgents

WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan all need to put more coordinated pressure on insurgents along the rugged Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be hiding, a senior Bush administration official said on Thursday.

"I don't think we know for sure where Osama bin Laden was," said the official, who briefed a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity. "If we did, he wouldn't be there for long."

The remote and mountainous region is popular with insurgents because it is easy to cross from neighboring Pakistan and provides excellent cover. "In terms of that border area, obviously the Afghans need to do more, we need to do more and the Pakistanis need to do more and we need to do it in a coordinated way," the official said.

"The Pakistanis need to put pressure on their side of the border at the same time we and the Afghans are putting pressure on the Afghan side of the border and hopefully you catch some bad guys in the middle."

For almost four years, Washington has been on the hunt for bin Laden, the architect of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. A month later, the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban who had supported bin Laden and given him safe haven.

The official said it was important to help the Afghans stay on track for parliamentary elections in September. U.S. and Afghan officials welcomed last year's presidential election in Afghanistan as a sign that the Taliban and remnants of al Qaeda were finished, but violence has flared anew in recent months.

"Our belief is that the Taliban and the al Qaeda elements in Afghanistan were very demoralized after the first election," the official said. The increase in fighting has raised concern that the Afghan war might be widening. U.S. and Afghan officials have cautioned that the situation could get worse before the elections with foreign militants entering the country to try to disrupt the polls.

Militants Flee to Pakistan From Mountains - AP 07/14/2005

KABUL - Militants in Afghan mountains where a Navy SEAL team was ambushed and a special forces helicopter shot down have fled into neighboring Pakistan and regrouped, a provincial governor said Thursday.

However, U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said while "some of the enemy may have been able to escape" into Pakistan, many rebels remained in the mountains, surrounded by U.S. and Afghan forces.

U.S. forces lost three Navy SEALs in an ambush and another 16 troops when their chopper was downed on June 28 in Kunar province. Since then, about 300 U.S. troops backed up by attack aircraft and Afghan forces, have been hunting militants in the area.

But the Kunar province governor, Asadullah Wafa, said there had been little fighting in the area for several days. "It's been peaceful because the militants escaped across the border to Pakistan and are now sheltering about 10 kilometers (six miles) on the other side," he told The Associated Press. "They may launch quick guerrilla raids across the border and then run back into Pakistan." The governor declined to say how many militants are thought to be in the area.

The frontier snakes its way through mountains, and parts are unguarded. Rebels favor the area because of the ease of slipping across the border unnoticed and because the wooded, rugged terrain provides plenty of places ot hide.

The region has long been a haven for fighters loyal to renegade former premier Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is wanted by the United States. U.S. officials said al-Qaida fighters also were in the region.     Osama bin Laden was not said to be there — though he is believed to be somewhere along the     Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.

Yonts declined to comment on the number of rebels killed or captured, but said, "We feel very confident the operation has been very successful." "We have denied them sanctuary. There have been no more IEDs (improvised explosive devices), no more abuse of Afghans in that area," he said. "We still have a large force up there that is conducting the mission to deny sanctuary and defeat the terrorists that are there."

The fighting in Kunar comes amid an unprecedented spate of bloodshed that has left more than 700 people dead in three months and threatened to sabotage three years of progress toward peace in Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan officials have warned that the violence is likely to worsen in the lead-up to legislative elections set for September.

Bomb explosion at election office in Afghan town wounds two policemen

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) A bomb exploded at a voter registration office in southeastern Afghanistan, wounding two policemen in the latest attack by suspected Taliban insurgents aimed at derailing the country's plans for parliamentary elections, an official said Friday.

A policeman guarding the office and his supervisor, who had stopped there during a routine security patrol, were wounded in the blast late Thursday in the capital of Khost province, said Mohammed Ayub, the province's police chief. The men suffered minor injuries, he said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Ayub blamed "enemies of the election," an indirect reference to Taliban militants ousted from power in late 2001.

"The entire country of Afghanistan knows who these enemies are. They are trying to sabotage security before the elections," he said. Afghanistan is scheduled to hold parliamentary elections in September. Authorities have expressed concern over a steady stream of Taliban attacks against the government, saying they could threaten the vote, seen as a key step toward stability.

The attack comes amid an unprecedented spate of bloodshed that has left more than 700 people dead in three months and threatened to unhinge three years of progress toward peace in Afghanistan. U.S. and Afghan officials have warned that the violence is likely to worsen in the lead-up to the elections. Suspected Taliban insurgents have been particularly active in Khost, near thePakistan border, in recent months.

Foreign spy arrested in Paktia

KABUL, July 14 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghan military have arrested a foreign national in the southeastern Paktia province allegedly involved in spying, Defence Ministry's official said on Thursday.

Jalat Khan, a foreign national, was captured by Army Corps No. 203 in the area bordering Pakistan, said the ministry's spokesman General Zahir Azemi in a statement released here. The arrested man refused to disclose his nationality. The spokesman said some secret documents had also been recovered from the alleged spy; however, it did not reveal his complete identity.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai last week said a large number of spies and foreign intelligence officials were busy in Afghanistan to derail the ongoing peace process. He termed it a grave threat to Afghanistan's stability, and vowed to cleanse the country of such elements.

According to intelligence figures, 37 foreign spies have been arrested over the last three years in Afghanistan allegedly planning to carry out disruptive activities.

Upgrade for Kabul airport - via Afghan Press Monitor - published by the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (No 110, 14 Jul 05)

(The Kabul Times) An new air traffic control system at Kabul International Airport was inaugurated by the second vice president, Mohammad Karim Khalili on July 12. The system cost three million US dollars and was funded by the World Bank. Transport Minister Enayatullah Qasemi said that with the installation of the system, Kabul will be able to communicate with high-altitude aircraft.

(The Kabul Times is a state-run newspaper published every other day.)

Former Afghan Mujahedin Attacks Report By Human Rights Group - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty - Daily Afghan Report - July 13, 2005

Abd al-Rab al-Rasul Sayyaf, the leader of a former mujahedin party, has called a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report an attack on Afghan resistance to the Soviet invasion, Kabul-based Tolu television reported on 12 July. HRW released a report on 7 July titled "Blood-Stained Hands: Past Atrocities in Kabul and Afghanistan's Legacy of Impunity," in which the organization urges Afghan President Hamid Karzai to set up a war crimes court (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," 11 July 2005). The HRW report named several senior past and current Afghan government and political personalities,

including Sayyaf, over their alleged involvement in war crimes. An Afghan government spokesman, Mohammad Karim Rahimi, described the HRW report as "incomplete and controversial," according to Tolu television. Rahimi objected to the authors' decision to cover rights violations during one period of time while ignoring other dates.

"People who were buried alive [by the communist regimes in the 1980s] were also human," Sayyaf said. "Those who were hanged because they were Muslim were also human." Sayyaf called the HRW report anti-Afghan and anti-Islam. AT

JTF2 to hunt al-Qaeda – Globe and Mail (Canada) 7/15/05 - Canada's top soldier announces mission to root out 'murderers' in Afghanistan

OTTAWA -- Canada's elite JTF2 soldiers are heading to Afghanistan as part of a 2,000-troop deployment that will target the "detestable murderers and scumbags" behind the rise in international terrorism, General Rick Hillier said yesterday.

In a blunt briefing that signalled a new aggressiveness at the top of the Canadian Forces, the Chief of the Defence Staff said the impending operations are risky but necessary in light of last week's bombings in the British public-transit system.

"The London attack actually tells us once more: We can't let up," Gen. Hillier told reporters. He said terrorists are ready to target Canada as much as any other Western country and that Canadians have to be aware that their soldiers are in for some "risky business" as they head out to Afghanistan.

It was the first time Gen. Hillier has confirmed that members of the Joint Task Force 2 -- the country's secretive commando team -- will be involved in combat missions against the remnants of the former Taliban regime and supporters of al-Qaeda. "These are detestable murderers and scumbags, I'll tell you that right up front. They detest our freedoms, they detest our society, they detest our liberties," Gen. Hillier said.

He stressed the new face of the Canadian Forces, which he said are now focused on the first job at hand: protecting Canadian interests at home and abroad. "We're not the public service of Canada, we're not just another department. We are the Canadian Forces, and our job is to be able to kill people."

Previous Canadian missions in Afghanistan have provided security in Kabul, the capital. But the next three missions, involving 2,000 troops, will be heavily centred in the southern mountains, where soldiers will be called upon to hunt down and fight the insurgents.

Gen. Hillier said Canada is already in the crosshairs of the terrorists, and he does not believe it becomes a bigger target by participating in military operations that give hope to the Afghans.

"We're not going to let those radical murderers and killers rob from others and certainly we're not going to let them rob from Canada," he said. He pointed out that during the Second World War, Canadian soldiers did not shy away from fighting the Nazis. "Did they say, 'No we might be attacked over here if we actually stand up against those despicable murderers and bastards?' No, they did not," Gen. Hillier said.

The native of Newfoundland has been the top soldier in Canada for five months. Bolstered by a growing budget, he is promising a "radical transformation" of the forces to make them more effective in their daily operations.

With his straight-talking style, Gen. Hillier has already effected a major change at the top of the military hierarchy in comparison with his blander predecessor, General Ray Henault.

Gen. Hillier is a popular figure among the troops, and he has impressed his political bosses with his vision for the forces. His goal now is to rally Canadians behind the military and convince young talent to join the expanding forces.

He would not speak about the number of potential casualties among Canadian troops in Afghanistan, while stating there is no such thing as a safe mission. "You can't reduce the risk to zero," he said.

The recent Canadian rotations in Afghanistan have been centred at Camp Julien in Kabul. Gen. Hillier said that the coming missions will "shift the centre of gravity to Kandahar," the area of southern Afghanistan that saw the rise of the Taliban.

The goal is to bring stability and democracy to the area, he said, adding that this is "the exact opposite of what people like Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar and those others want."

Later this month, 250 Edmonton-based soldiers will head out to southern Afghanistan to form what is known as a Provincial Reconstruction Team. The soldiers will be accompanied by officials from the RCMP and the Canadian International Development Agency, the federal aid agency, to develop ties with local officials and help with the reconstruction of the war-torn area.

In addition, 700 soldiers from Petawawa, Ont., are heading to Kabul to help the Afghan authority conduct a general election, planned for September. After the vote, a large portion of the forces will move down south to join the PRT and prepare for the arrival of the biggest deployment in Kandahar.

In February of next year, about 1,100 soldiers will set up a new camp in the area, heading up a new multinational brigade that will eventually operate under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, alongside American troops already in the area.

Gen. Hillier also said the army is sending at least 100 armoured vehicles to Sudan. The Grizzlys are military surplus and several will be sent later this month, with the remainder to follow, he said.

US professor gets life for attempt to recruit for Taliban - Jul 13

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US-based Islamic studies professor was sentenced to life in prison by an Alexandria, Virginia, court for attempting to recruit for Afghanistan's extremist Taliban militia. Ali al-Timimi, a professor in his 40s from the Dar al-Arqam Islamic Center, was convicted in April, after seven days of jury deliberations.

A resident of the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, Timimi was accused of encouraging at least five men to support Afghanistan's Taliban militia immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and urging them to wage war against the United States.

Wednesday's hearing lasted for an hour, with Judge Leonie Brinkema presiding. Brinkema has also been overseeing the case of French national Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in April to having played a role in the September 11 plot.

Pakistan militants face crackdown – BBC 7/15/05

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has ordered a crackdown on militant Islamic activities in the country as part of an anti-terrorism drive. Gen Musharraf called for tough action, including the removal from markets of publications inciting hatred. Earlier, the president pledged to help the UK probe into the London bombings.

Pakistan's education minister meanwhile has said there may be some Islamic schools in the country that the government knows nothing about. He was speaking after Pakistani sources confirmed that one of the London bombers had been in Pakistan. The bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, is said to have attended an Islamic school there.

Announcing the crackdown on illegal Islamic activity, Gen Musharraf said the government "would not tolerate extremism and would continue to combat the menace of terrorism with unflinching determination and force", the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Gen Musharraf was speaking at an unprecedented meeting of the country's district police chiefs. The BBC's Aamer Ahmed Khan in Karachi says the reason Gen Musharraf called the meeting is not clear. But he says if it was a response to the links between the London bombers and Pakistan, it may result in the security forces covering fresh ground in their anti-terror efforts.

Gen Musharraf ordered security forces to take action, including stopping militant groups collecting donations or displaying arms, and the removal of "hate" material - either in literature or on CDs - from markets by December this year. Anyone caught engaging in these activities would be "strictly dealt with in accordance with the law", APP quoted Gen Musharraf as saying.

The order came hours after Gen Musharraf pledged his "fullest support and assistance" in Britain's investigation into the London bombings. Three of the bombers were Britons of Pakistani origin.

The BBC's Paul Anderson in Islamabad reports that Pakistani intelligence and investigation agencies are working flat out to accommodate British demands for leads on any of the bombers of Pakistani descent.

Shehzad Tanweer's family said that he attended a madrassa (Islamic school) for two months in the Pakistani city of Lahore. Pakistani officials say that so far they have not been able to pinpoint Tanweer's movements in the country or say who he met.

They say he entered Pakistan on two occasions legally. There is no record of the entry of the other two bombers entering the country. Our correspondent says that if they did enter Pakistan after 2002 - when a tracking system which photographed every legal visitor to the country was introduced - they did so illegally.

In an interview with the BBC, Pakistan Education Minister Javed Ashraf said madrassas in the cities were being monitored. "But those that are in the border belt and on the mountains along the foreign borders... it is very difficult because these are neither registered, nor declared," he told the World Today programme.

"And it is quite possible that there may be some madrassas which are still around about which we do not really have much knowledge," he said. He urged the British authorities to reveal the name and location of the school attended by the London suspect so that it could be investigated. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday that he was worried about some of Pakistan's madrassas.

Pakistan province backs moral law – BBC 7/14/05

Pakistan's North-West Frontier province has passed a controversial bill to introduce Taleban-style moral policing in public places. The legislature called "Hisba" (accountability), was passed with 68 votes in favour and 34 against.

Under the new law, an Islamic watchdog will monitor the observance of Islamic values in public places. The plan is reminiscent of the infamous Department of Vice and Virtue, set up by the Taleban regime in Afghanistan.

The passage of the bill followed a heated debate between the ruling conservative six-party religious alliance Mutahida Majlis Amal (MMA) and the opposition. The BBC's Haroon Rashid says protesters rallied outside the assembly ahead of the vote, chanting slogans against the bill and burning tyres.

Under the new law, the principal duty of the cleric, called "mohtasib" - one who holds other accountable - will be to ensure people respect the call to prayers, pray on time and do not engage in commerce at the time of Friday prayers.

He will also stop unrelated men and women from appearing in public places together, and discourage singing and dancing. One of his tasks will be to monitor the media to ensure "publications are useful for the promotion of Islamic values".

Ruling party president Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has said the law is "unconstitutional". He warned that it would lead to confrontation between Islamabad and the provincial governments. The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party called it an "obscurantist pipedream" and an attempt to "Talebanise" Pakistan.

But the MMA says it was mandated by the people in the 2002 elections to bring in such laws. The Department of Vice and Virtue set up by Afghanistan's former ruling Taleban became the focus of criticism from human rights organisations.

Pakistani general threatens offensive on militants

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 14 (Reuters) - A Pakistani general warned tribes in North Waziristan on Thursday of an imminent offensive to flush out foreign militants, including al Qaeda fighters, hiding in the region close to the Afghan border.

The threat came as the government once again prepared for international media to put Pakistan's war on terrorism under the spotlight following revelations that British-born Pakistanis carried out last week's suicide bomb attacks in London that killed at least 52 people.

At a meeting with tribal elders, Major-General Akram Sahi, commander of Pakistani troops in North Waziristan, gave the tribesmen 24 hours to hand over suspected militants.

Tension has been building for months in North Waziristan since the army completed a series of offensives to dislodge al Qaeda bases in neighbouring South Waziristan.

"I want you to hand over these foreigners or send them out yourselves or we will launch an operation against them after the deadline," Sahi told a tribal council in Miranshah, the main town of the semi-autonomous region. "No one should then complain to us after the operation is launched."

In April, Pakistan bridled over comments made by Lieutenant General David Barno, head of U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, that it was planning a big offensive in North Waziristan.

Pakistan risked the wrath of the volatile Pashtun tribes when it first sent the army into their homelands in late 2003 to hunt suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Sahi assured the council, or jirga, that foreigners living peacefully would not be harmed but resistance would be met firmly. "This time we will not show a soft hand. There will be no delay in the operation if the foreigners are not flushed out," he said. A Pakistani soldier was killed during a search operation in Miranshah two weeks ago, and Sahi demanded that the killer be handed over.

British FM 'concerned' by Islamic schools in Pakistan

Rome (AFP 07/15/05) - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw expressed concern over what goes on in some madrassas, or Islamic schools, in Pakistan, after it emerged that one of the London bombers had attended one.

Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who carried out the bombing of an Underground subway train at Aldgate, east London, was said by his uncle to have gone to a madrassa in December last year, wanting to learn to recite the Koran by heart.

"We are concerned about what goes on in some, though not all, of the madrassas in Pakistan," Straw told reporters in London on Thursday, adding that the concern was shared by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Straw said there was a major reform programme underway in Pakistan to provide secular education alongside the religious schools, as well as "intensive and increasingly substantial co-operation" between the UK and Pakistan on counter-terrorism. He refused to reveal details of any contacts with Pakistan officials over the London bombings investigation.

Fifty-three people have been confirmed dead, and some 700 injured, after last Thursday's suicide bombings that targeted three Underground subway trains and a double-decker bus in the British capital.

Straw was the first to claim that the bombings -- the deadliest on British soil since World War II -- bore the "hallmarks" of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Berlusconi meets Pakistan leader, praises anti-terror struggle

Rome (AFP 7/15/05) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi congratulated Pakistan on its struggle against the Taliban movement that formerly ruled its neighbour Afghanistan, and against international terrorism in general.

A statement issued after a meeting in Rome with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Thursday the two leaders had "examined the fight against terrorism after the recent attacks in London."

Berlusconi "expressed his apprecation in the light of the commitment shown by Pakistan in the struggle against international terrorism and in particular against the activities of the Taliban in the frontier region bordering Afghanistan," it said.

Aziz "repeated the firm determination of his government to pursue this activity in a context of positive cooperation with the international community." The two leaders also expressed satisfaction at the results achieved in Afghanistan by the government of President Hamid Karzai.

Reform of the United Nations Security Council was also discussed with the prime ministers "repeating their common opposition to a hasty solution that did not have the backing of the largest consensus of member states," the statement said.

Neither Italy nor Pakistan want their large neighbours, Germany and India respectively, to be given permanent seats on the council, saying that any enlargement should only affect non-permanent members.

Pakistan wakes up to the hatred within - (Filed: 14/07/2005)

Ahmed Rashid reports on the link between Lahore and Leeds that has flourished over two generations but may now have been hijacked by militant Islamic fundamentalists

For the past few days at dinner parties, bazaars and newspaper offices in Lahore there has only been one topic of conversation, the fear and expectancy that the London bombers would turn out to be Pakistani.

Terraced houses near the Hyde Park Mosque, Leeds Most were convinced that that would be the case and when the truth came out they were immediately on their mobiles, spreading the news repeating: "What did I tell you, I told you so, this will really be the last straw."

Many were depressed at the thought of being dubbed a nation that could export a handful of terrorists along with T-shirts, Sufi music and mangoes. Until Tuesday the fear of a Right-wing backlash against Pakistanis living in Britain had also dominated the headlines. That is because Pakistanis are deeply sensitive about their own, even though after 58 years they still cannot agree on the nature of their nation - Islamic fundamentalist or democratic.

Those who have lived in Bradford and Leeds for two generations still come home to marry, party, holiday and celebrate religious festivals such as Eid, or Ramadan, the month of fasting.

Flights to and from London are packed in the summer. Youngsters in sneakers, the latest jeans and speaking English in broad Yorkshire accents can be heard in Lahore's shopping malls during any holiday period.

However more conservative parents in Yorkshire take leave of absence for their teenage sons from their British schools and send them home to study for a couple of terms. They either join madrassas - Islamic schools - or secular schools, learning Urdu, the Koran and making friends.

Those boys who join madrassa boarding schools are often indoctrinated with fundamentalist views and return home to Yorkshire changed people - urging their sisters to cover their heads and their friends to pray regularly.

In the winter of 2002 Maulana Akram Awan, a fundamentalist religious leader and politician from Chakwal in central Punjab, set up camp outside Islamabad with thousands of followers. He threatened to march on the capital to force the military regime to enforce Islamic law.

Among those camping out in the fields with him were dozens of madrassa students from Yorkshire. The elite's fear of a backlash against British Pakistanis is heightened by the fact that London is their second home, the favourite holiday destination to escape the summer heat, shop till they drop and still the best place to send their children to university. Now, during the summer sales, a visiting Pakistani can hardly walk down a street in Knightsbridge or Kensington without bumping into a Pakistani he knows from home.

On Tuesday night the first thought for many of them was how suspiciously they would be viewed when they showed their passports at Heathrow. But when they sit down to reflect as more emerges about the London bombers, they are likely to become even more depressed. It is already clear that one or two of the bombers visited Pakistan recently, possibly to train with an extremist group.

For the past two decades a small number of militants have killed and maimed their fellow citizens in the name of Islam, various Islamic sects or self-created concepts of male honour. These killing fields in the name of Islam, abhorred by the majority of their fellow citizens, were then exported abroad where Pakistani militant groups supported fellow extremists in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Chechnya and the former Yugoslavia.

Pakistani extremists have been closely linked to the army which saw in them a cheap and non-attributable opportunity to keep India at bay, maintain the country's Islamic influence abroad and undermine any chance of civilian democracy at home.

This "military-mullah" alliance is widely assumed to have been born in 1977 after the army coup that bought General Zia Ul Haq to power. However in a new book called Pakistan - between Mosque and Military, scholar-diplomat Hussain Haqqani shows how the alliance goes back as far as 1951.

Many Pakistanis hoped that September 11 2001 would give the army a chance to change its disastrous policies and end its alliance with the mullahs. General Pervez Musharraf's military regime could make peace with Afghanistan and India, crack down hard on militant groups and turn its back on extremism.

Gen Musharraf promised a policy of enlightened moderation but little has been done. Thousands of religious schools still spew out hate against non-Muslims and leaders of militant groups still wander the country giving sermons.

Gen Musharraf has squandered the lavish aid and support given to him by the US and Britain after September 11. Extremism continues to flourish and democracy is further away than ever.

This month the widely circulated magazine Herald reports that a dozen training camps for militants, which closed down after September 11, were revived in May with official blessing.

Last month several Pakistani-Americans arrested on terrorism charges in California, admitted to training in such camps. The London bombers were probably in touch with a local Pakistani group rather than al-Qa'eda.

Pakistanis are fed up with being in the eye of the storm and just want to lead a normal life. They want to see an end to violence at home and a bad image abroad. When that will happen is anybody's guess.

Religious extremism in Pakistan - By Bernard Gabony / South Asia editor, BBC News website / Wednesday, 13 July, 2005

Suspicions that at least one of the alleged London suicide bombers may have been radicalised while in Pakistan raises questions once again about religious extremism there.

Most analysts agree that the London bombers - three of whom police say were Britons of Pakistani descent - were probably trained by "minders" far more experienced in the use of explosives. UK investigators will be keen to know if the London bombers had been trained at any time in Pakistan or neighbouring Afghanistan.

The family of one of the suspected bombers has confirmed that he studied religion in Pakistan, although it is not clear that he went to one of the Islamic schools which have been accused of fostering extremism.

The path to Pakistan is one that has been taken by many high-profile extremists. British-born Omar Sheikh is currently languishing in a Pakistani jail after being found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

Before that Omar Sheikh had fought in Bosnia and Indian-administered Kashmir. Recent evidence indicates he was also the mastermind behind assassination attempts against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

UK national Richard Reid was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2003 after being found guilty of trying to blow up an airliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.

Investigators believed he received training in Pakistan and Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Then there is Saajid Badat, raised in Gloucester in the west of England. He was found guilty by a UK court this year of conspiring with Reid to blow up the airliner.

"I have a sincere desire to sell my soul to Allah in return for paradise," he said in a letter to his family, believed to have been sent from Afghanistan.

The spawning of a network of Islamic militant training camps in Afghanistan during the fight against Soviet control there and, later, during the rule of the hardline Islamic Taleban has been well documented.

So too the role the CIA played, hand-in-hand with Pakistani intelligence services, in training and arming anti-Soviet fighters. The unwanted spin-off for Pakistan was that areas of the country became awash with guns and saw a proliferation of different militant groups.

The unwanted spin-off for the West was that Pakistan became a country where it was easy for militants to take refuge and get backing. What is less clear is how much all this has changed since President Musharraf threw in his lot with the United States after the 11 September attacks and declared war on extremists within.

There is little evidence that his attempt to rein in extremists in Islamic schools (madrassas) has worked. "I want to go back and fight the Americans, I can't wait anymore," was the typical comment of a madrassa graduate to the BBC well after Gen Musharraf's stated clampdown on them.

Banned militant groups have tended to reappear under different names. On the other hand substantial numbers of suspected militants have been captured or killed by the security forces, particularly in the wake of the assassination attempts on Gen Musharraf towards the end of 2003.

President Musharraf's government maintains that it is unrelenting in the fight against Islamic extremism. But others are not convinced. In recent weeks the head of the CIA and the US ambassador to Kabul have come as close as they can to saying that Osama Bin Laden is sheltering in Pakistan, without actually saying the words.

The ambassador was furious when a Pakistani TV station interviewed the man believed to be running the Taleban's resurgent fight against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

The interview took place inside Pakistan, but the TV station has been tight-lipped about the exact location. Most analysts believe it was carried out in the southern city of Karachi.

So critics will argue that the networks supporting extremists are still alive and strong in Pakistan. Wednesday's revelation by Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao that his country supplied information to the UK government which helped prevent an attack in the UK before May's general election will do little to dampen that view.

Analysis: how Pakistan became a hotbed for terrorists - The Times (UK) / July 13, 2005

Zahid Hussain, The Times's correspondent in Pakistan, explains how religious zeal is used by extremists to lure credulous teenagers visiting from Britain. "A lot of Pakistani families living in Britain still have roots in Pakistan, particularly in the Punjab region, and visiting relatives are seen as an important part of maintaining those family links.

"When children complete their formal education in Britain there is also an inclination among Pakistani families to send them to complete their schooling at a religious institution.

"They send them to the mosques, often in Britain but also sometimes away from home, and as well as receiving religious instruction they will inevitably come into contact with more hardline elements.

"For quite some time, there has been a network of contacts between British extremists and the Jihadi organisations based in Pakistan. Once contact has been made with these young people, they become influenced by them and are encouraged to visit the training camps.

"For the last two decades, sections of Pakistan have been under the influence of guerillas who were involved in the war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan - with, it's important to say, American support.

"They had offices in all of the neighbourhoods and were recruiting people to fight in that war. A culture of jihad developed which has continued to this day. Many are still involved in the fighting in Kashmir and through this they have become battle-hardened fighters while others have gone over to Iraq.

"Since September 11, the Government has attempted to curtail these militias, but they have close links with the Taleban and have now become tremendously powerful. The militia organisations have become a state within a state.

"There has been an attempt to restrict their activities but more often than not the Government is turning a blind eye. They have created a monster, and it has come back to haunt them."

Getting personal with ordinary Afghans - USA TODAY 07/14/2005 - Paul Wiseman

SHEKHABAD, Afghanistan — The man didn't realize who he was talking to. Or maybe he didn't care. Asked about the government here in Wardak province, Mohammed Daud, 42, was blunt. "The governor seems like a good guy," the owner of a small trucking firm declared. "But the police are always trying to take money from us."

Daud's questioners: the provincial governor and provincial police chief themselves — plus Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, commander of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan.

Police Chief Basir Salangi shifted uncomfortably on his feet. But the moment passed. Salangi, Eikenberry and Wardak Gov. Abdul Jabbar Naeemi moved on to ask more ordinary Afghans about their lives near this village about 35 miles west of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

It was another episode in Eikenberry's relentless campaign to find out what's really going on in Afghanistan, a quest that occasionally creates awkward moments for local officials such as Salangi.

Eikenberry knows he can learn only so much barricaded in his office in Kabul. So every weekend he heads into the Afghan hinterlands for a firsthand look at attempts to build a functioning democratic government in a country known for anarchy, war, corruption and religious extremism.

The effort is under siege. Headlines emerging from Afghanistan have been grim. Last month, Afghan insurgents decimated a four-member Navy SEAL team (three dead, one found alive) in eastern Kunar province and shot down a helicopter sent to rescue them, killing 16 U.S. troops on board. On Sunday, 10 Afghan police officers were found dead — six of them beheaded — after an ambush by Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, the Associated Press quoted provincial Gov. Sher Mohammed Aghunzada as saying.

Despite the recent drumbeat of bad news, Eikenberry says the field trips invariably boost his spirits. He figures that he has asked 1,000 ordinary Afghans whether they plan to vote in September's parliamentary elections, seen as a crucial test of the country's fledgling democracy. The answer is always yes. "Sometimes you sit at a desk in Kabul and you think this job is too hard," he says. But among ordinary Afghans, he says, "there's a tremendous amount of hope."

USA TODAY accompanied Eikenberry Friday on a day trip to Wardak province, an area that is far from the fighting in Afghanistan's eastern and southern provinces.

Getting out the vote - "Let's find out what's going on," Eikenberry said before climbing into a bulletproof Chevrolet Suburban. A convoy of three Suburbans, followed by a Humvee, headed onto the crowded streets of Kabul. Eikenberry is a security guard's nightmare. The convoy hadn't left the city when he ordered his truck to stop so he could jump out to buy fresh loaves of Afghan flat bread for a breakfast on the run.

He stopped again at a market town called Naqash. Eikenberry climbed out of his Suburban and strode like a vote-seeking politician into a pungent, dung-splattered field packed with goats, local farmers and livestock dealers. A crowd formed around the 6-foot-2 former Army Ranger, a West Point graduate with a master's degree in East Asian studies from Harvard. He's fluent in Chinese.

"All our miseries are caused by Pakistan," local elder Hamad Zai, 65, said, voicing the common view that Pakistan is destabilizing Afghanistan by backing its old ally, the Taliban. The general sidestepped the sensitive issue of Afghan-Pakistani relations. He was happier to hear that everyone he asked intends to vote in September.

The stop also produced a bit of intelligence: Gunmen have been setting up illegal roadblocks in the area, extorting cash from anyone trying to drive between Kabul and Wardak.

Less than an hour later, the convoy stopped at the tiny community of Maidan Shah, administrative center of Wardak province. Gov. Naeemi has built a modest government headquarters there. In a waiting room, Eikenberry discussed a variety of topics with Naeemi and his aides:

• The biggest problems facing local farmers: lack of chilled storage facilities for their apples.

• Where to find the sweetest mulberries in Afghanistan: the Salang Valley up north.

• The TV-watching habits of Wardak residents: They go to Kabul to watch television with their relatives, return to their villages and talk about what they've seen for weeks afterward. Red tape in Kabul has blocked funding needed for Wardak to set up radio and television stations, something Eikenberry believes is crucial for keeping Afghans informed about the upcoming election and what their government is doing.

Healthy debate - At one point, Eikenberry found himself in the middle of an argument between Naeemi and Malia Sahag, deputy minister of women's affairs with the national government in Kabul, over what Wardak needs more — a girls' school (Naeemi's view) or a women's hospital (Sahag's). Eikenberry enjoyed what he saw as a healthy debate between provincial and national officials over how to help the people.

Eikenberry was surprised when Naeemi balked at introducing him to local parliamentary candidates. To do so, Naeemi reasoned, might signal that the summoned candidates were favored by provincial government and the U.S. military. The governor wanted to be neutral. Eikenberry was impressed by his commitment to a fair election.

The general didn't just listen. He gave the Afghans an upbeat assessment of the fight against the Taliban. "We're staying on the offensive together with your army to keep the enemy off balance," he said. "The enemy knows that if this parliament is elected ... for them it would be a strategic defeat."

After a luncheon feast of rice, grilled lamb and chicken, Eikenberry's convoy headed into the countryside, past Shekhabad to a field where locals and day-trippers from Kabul congregate on Fridays, the Afghan day off, to picnic and wash their cars in a narrow creek.

Eikenberry found the opinionated Mohammed Daud, who is happy U.S. forces are in Afghanistan. "We're tired of fighting," Daud said. "Now you guys fight for us. For 20 years, we fought against the Russians. We're tired."

Shortly afterward, Eikenberry headed back to Kabul and new problems he was sure were awaiting his attention.In the run-up to the election, he knows, "the enemy's going to be coming at us."

Let a Thousand Licensed Poppies Bloom - The New York Times 07/14/2005
By Maia Szalavitz

EVEN as Afghanistan's immense opium harvest feeds lawlessness and instability, finances terrorism and fuels heroin addiction, the developing world is experiencing a severe shortage of opium-derived pain medications, according to the World Health Organization. Developing countries are home to 80 percent of the world's population, but they consume just 6 percent of the medical opioids. In those countries, most people with cancer, AIDS and other painful conditions live and die in agony.

The United States wants Afghanistan to destroy its potentially merciful crop, which has increased sevenfold since 2002 and now constitutes 60 percent of the country's gross domestic product. But why not bolster the country's stability and end both the pain and the trafficking problems by licensing Afghanistan with the International Narcotics Control Board to sell its opium legally?

The Senlis Council, a European drug-policy research institution, has proposed this truly winning solution. Adopting it would improve the Afghan economy, deprive terrorists of income and keep heroin away from dealers and addicts, all while offering pain relief to the third world.

The United Nations estimated that Afghanistan produced more than 4,200 tons of opium last year; cultivation jumped to 323,701 acres from 197,680 acres in 2003. Ten percent of the Afghan population is believed to be involved in the trade, which supplies nearly 90 percent of the world's illegal heroin. Clearly, this drug war is not being won.

The global pain crisis is just as daunting. The World Health Organization has said that opioids are "absolutely necessary" for treating severe pain. But half the world's countries use them only rarely if at all even for the dying, and even though research shows that addiction is exceedingly uncommon among pain patients without a history of it.

Here in the United States, only half of all dying patients receive adequate relief, and those suffering from chronic non-cancer pain are even more likely to be undermedicated. Senlis estimates that meeting the global need for pain medications would require 10,000 tons of opium a year - more than twice Afghanistan's current production.

This shortfall is in part attributable to misguided regulation. Restrictions aimed at preventing diversion to the illegal market are so severe that in some countries, medical use of opioids is practically prohibited. Often, the rich retain access to expensive synthetic opioids like OxyContin, while those who cannot afford brand-name drugs receive no treatment at all. Generic morphine and codeine, made from Afghan opium, could help.

Because farmers aren't the ones who make the big bucks in the illegal drug trade, purchasing their poppies at competitive rates should be possible. But even if we paid exactly what the drug lords do, the entire crop would cost only about $600 million - less than the $780 million the United States planned to spend on eradication in Afghanistan this year.

Besides, eradication efforts have never eliminated a drug crop. Cocaine continues to be widely available, despite the roughly $3 billion that the United States has spent on coca eradication in Colombia over the last five years. And that is only the most recent example.

India's thriving generic drug industry suggests that there is plenty of money to be made in the marketing of generic pain relievers. But even if returns are modest, generating any profit at all is better than stamping out the major driver of an unstable country's economy. Legal products are also safer and easier to regulate than illegal drugs.

Of course, the Senlis plan does present serious logistical problems. Warlords would not relinquish profits without a fight, and their attempts to undermine the proposal could be formidable.

But think of it this way: what's an easier sell with farmers, hard cash now or pesticide spraying and potentially empty promises of economic assistance? Few Afghans begrudge farmers' efforts to feed their families - but many would turn against greedy planters who continued supplying drug lords despite adequate alternatives.

The real barriers here are political, not practical. The Afghan government initially appeared open to the proposal: its counternarcotics minister spoke at a Senlis meeting in Vienna in March. But another minister later dismissed the idea in front of foreign reporters and Hamid Karzai ducked the question in a March meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The Bush administration has criticized Mr. Karzai's "leadership" on opium (despite his call for "jihad on drugs") but refuses to support measures beyond eradication. Responding to the Senlis proposal, one former State Department official who had been working on narcotics and law enforcement told The Christian Science Monitor: "Anything that went about legalizing an opiate in that market would send exactly the wrong message. It would suggest that there is something legitimate to growing."

But there is: countries like India are licensed by the International Narcotics Control Board to grow opium because modern medicine cannot find anything better than opioids to relieve pain. And think of the goodwill such a gesture could produce, a message that we literally want to assuage the world's suffering - not to mention that of the 30 million to 50 million Americans who endure chronic pain.

The Senlis Council is holding a conference in Kabul this September to secure support from drug policy expertsfor a feasibility study of its proposal. As Afghanistan seems to grow increasingly unstable by the day, let's hope that proposal receives the backing it deserves. Maia Szalavitz is a senior fellow at Stats, a media watchdog group.

AFGHANISTAN: Child marriage still widespread [This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KABUL, 13 Jul 2005 (IRIN) - The United Nations, government officials and rights bodies in the Afghan capital, Kabul, have expressed grave concern about the widespread practice of girls marrying early, as the country marked World Population Day on Tuesday.

Nearly 60 percent of marriages in Afghanistan involve girls below the legal age of 16, according to reports from the Ministry of Women's Affairs and NGOs. Some girls are married as young as nine.

Rights and health activists say that such marriages increase the maternal mortality rate and deny young women an education or any kind of independent life. Often, after a child marriage, husbands and/or parents-in-law refuse to allow the child-wife to go to school under threat of violence.

“Badakhshan [northeastern province] has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country and one of the main reason is under-age marriages - even as young as seven in some cases. This needs to be addressed,” Paul Greening a project officer of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Wednesday in Kabul.

Afghan minister of women’s affairs Masouda Jalal, called early marriage “a violation of equality” and condemned the traditional practice as harmful to girl’s health, their education, political participation and economic opportunities.

“Child marriage and early childbearing mean an incomplete education, limited opportunities and serious health risks,” Jalal said. Child brides are not physically mature and can sustain injury during sexual intercourse.

“It is a shame to say that even in the capital Kabul we treat pregnant mothers as young as 12 years of age,” said a midwife at Malalai hospital, the leading maternity and gynaecology unit in the capital.

Afghanistan's new constitution sets the minimum age of marriage for females at 16 and for males 18 but in rural and even some urban areas, the tradition of marrying off daughters while even younger in order to receive money remains common among the poor.

A recent study by Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) has found 500 girls who had been given away or traded as part of local conflict resolution practices. Of these, 90 percent were under 14 years old. Most become the 'property' of the family or individual who receives them.

[Disclaimer: The content of this news bulletin does not necessarily reflect the view or policy of the Afghan Government, unless specifically stated as such. The collection of articles and commentaries from Afghan and international news sources is provided for informational purposes, and accuracy of the news is the responsibility of the original source.]