President Karzai Condemns Blast in Kabul- Date of Release: - 28 September 2005

Arg, Presidential Compound, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is disturbed by the news of a bomb Blast which occurred in Pol e Charkhi, Kabul, killing at least 9 people and wounding dozens.

In his reaction to the news the President said, “I am saddened that the lives of many Afghan people, mainly soldiers serving the Afghan nation was lost. I condemn it in the strongest terms.”

“I extend my deepest sympathies to the victims of this attack.” The President has ordered the relevant authorities for an immediate investigation into the incident.

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Taliban claims responsible for Kabul's suicide explosion

KABUL, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Taliban claimed to be responsible  for the suicide attack in Afghan capital Kabul in which nine  Afghan soldiers were killed and 28 injured on Wednesday.

A suicide attacker detonated a bomb Wednesday in Kabul, killed nine and injured 28. At the same time, Taliban's spokesperson Abdul Latif Hakimi announced it is a devotee of Taliban that carry out the suicide attack.

"The attacker carried the bomb in a motorcycle and detonated when he drove to the parking area of a military training center.  Nine Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were killed, and 28 others injured, among whom about three or four are in bad  condition," spokesperson of Afghan Defense Ministry Mohammad  Zahir Azimi told Xinhua.

"The explosion happened beside four buses in a parking area  where many people were waiting to take the bus back home, and the  explosion caused many casualties," Massoud, a witness told Xinhua.

On the same day, two policemen and a civilian died and four civilians were injured in a mine explosion planted by Taliban militants in Afghan eastern province of Kunar.

A Bangladeshi engineer working for UN Project Services was badly injured by a roadside bomb on Tuesday when his car was traveling in another Afghan eastern province of Nangarhar.

Taliban, failed to derail the Afghan parliamentary election, continued their attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in which many civilians became the victims.  Enditem

Investigators examine body of suicide bomber who killed nine in Afghanistan - By AMIR SHAH    

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) Experts are trying to identify the body of a man who launched a suicide attack outside a military training center in Kabul, killing nine people and wounding 36, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

A purported Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack that broke 10 days of relative calm after landmark parliamentary elections and underscored the terrorist threat still facing Afghanistan as it moves slowly toward democracy.

Defense Minister Rahim Wardak said experts were trying to identify the dismembered body of the attacker who drove a motorbike between buses in the parking lot of the Afghan army training facility in the east of Kabul as staff were leaving for home.

Wardak blamed "enemies of peace and stability in this country" for the bombing but was skeptical of the Taliban claim. "The Taliban tell lies. Let's wait for the investigation to be completed," he told The Associated Press.

Officials said eight training center staff, including officers, and one civilian driver were killed, along with the attacker. Three civilians were among the 36 wounded, seven of whom have been discharged from hospital.

The bombing, the worst to hit Kabul in at least a year, added to fears that insurgents here could be copying tactics used in Iraq. Afghan officials have recently warned of al-Qaida operatives entering the country to launch terrorist attacks.

This year has seen an upsurge in violence in Afghanistan, but mostly in the volatile south and east where Taliban-led insurgents are strongest. More than 1,300 people, many of them rebels, have died in the past seven months.

Suicide attacks are comparatively rare in the Afghan capital, which is patrolled by thousands of NATO peacekeepers. However, a suicide blast in the southern city of Kandahar in June killed 20 people, including the Kabul police chief.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zaher Azimi said foreigners were helping investigate the bombing. He said witnesses recounted that the attacker had been wearing an army uniform with the rank of major.

He said Afghanistan was intensifying its intelligence-gathering but conceded that suicide attacks were difficult to prevent. In a call to AP nearly five hours after the attack, purported Taliban spokesman Mullah Latif Hakimi said the bomber was a 22-year-old Afghan fighter from the hard-line militia he identified as Mullah Sardar Mohammed.

Hakimi's account of the attack differed from witness accounts. He claimed the attacker, disguised in uniform and riding a motorbike, struck at army headquarters as foreigner instructors were training Afghan cadets.

He said other Taliban fighters were ready to launch suicide attacks on U.S.-led coalition and Afghan government forces. Information from Hakimi in the past has sometimes proven exaggerated or untrue. Afghan and U.S. military officials say he is believed to speak for factions of the rebel group, though his exact ties to the Taliban leadership cannot be verified.

UN curbs staff after Kabul bomb; Taliban vows more - By David Brunnstrom

KABUL, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Thursday it had restricted movements of its staff in Kabul after a suicide bombing killed at least 12 people, while the Taliban said it had 45 more suicide attackers awaiting orders to strike.

Wednesday's bombing at a military training centre set up by U.S.-led forces to train a new national army killed at least 12 Afghans, most of them army officers. It was the worst suicide attack in the capital since the Taliban's 2001 overthrow.

The Taliban claimed responsibility and vowed more. U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said U.N. staff in the city, already under night-time curfew, had been placed on restricted movement as a precaution.

"While we are assessing the situation, there is restricted movement on staff," he said. The security office serving non-governmental organisations in Afghanistan has advised against unnecessary movement and told staff to stay on high alert.

In Wednesday's attack, a suicide bomber in army uniform rammed a motorcycle into a convoy of buses carrying Afghan army officers in the eastern part of the city, opposite a base of NATO-led peacekeepers.

The bombing came 10 days after landmark parliamentary elections, which passed off relatively peacefully despite militant threats. There has been a surge in violence since then.

Afghan officials said 12 people had been killed, all Afghans. Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi claimed 20 deaths and said most of the victims were foreigners. "Most of them were foreign soldiers and officers but their Afghan slaves are covering this up," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Hakimi vowed more attacks on foreign forces and said 45 suicide bombers were ready and awaiting orders from Taliban commanders. "American and British forces are our first target and then we will launch attacks on others," he said.

The attack has again raised fears that insurgents may be importing Iraqi-style tactics into Afghanistan. Newsweek magazine this month quoted a Taliban commander as saying he had been to Iraq for training and wanted to make use of the expertise acquired there in Afghanistan.

While Kabul has seen several suicide attacks on foreign peacekeepers and civilians since the Taliban's overthrow, it has been spared the extent of Islamic militant violence seen in Iraq.

But 2006 has seen a surge in violence in the troubled south and east where the Taliban and their allies are most active and roadside bomb attacks of the type seen in Iraq have become an almost daily occurrence.

More than 1,000 people, most of them insurgents, have died so far this year in the bloodiest period since U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban for refusing to give up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities. The dead include more than 50 U.S. troops killed in combat, the bloodiest period so far for U.S. forces in the country.

Afghan president accepts senior minister's resignation

KABUL, Sept 28 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday accepted the resignation of his respected interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, as the outgoing official denied quitting because of differences between the two.

US-backed leader Karzai had accepted Jalali's offer to be a special advisor, presidential spokesman Khaleeq Ahmad told AFP. He would also present Jalali with Afghanistan's top medal, named after the man considered the hero of Afghanistan's independence, Gazi Mohammad Akbar Khan, who led the campaign that ended British occupation in 1919.

Jalali, in his mid-60s, said on television Tuesday the main reason he wanted to quit after more than two years in the key post was because he wished to resume his academic career.

Afghan officials and media, however, have reported rows between Jalali, who is seen as a reformist, and Karzai over the appointment of former warlords to government positions and over the country's battle against the opium trade.

"These rumours are baseless," Jalali told a media briefing Wednesday. "I have known Mr. Karzai for 25 years. I know him as a person committed to the goodwill of Afghanistan. I am one of his closest colleagues." "I have been asking the president for quite a while now to let me go so that I can resume my academic activities."

A government official told AFP Tuesday that Jalali, considered one of the best ministers in the new Afghan government, "has some serious disagreements with Karzai" over his appointment of former warlords to government positions.

Karzai, who was elected last year after heading a transitional government since the hardline Taliban were toppled in late 2001, has appointed several warlords to key positions in government. Vice President Karim Khalali, for example, once headed a Hazara militia group that was deeply involved in the 1990s civil war.

Jalali has degrees in military science and has worked as a university professor. He was a journalist in the United States, where he lived for about 20 years before returning to Afghanistan in 2003 to join the government.

Outgoing Afghan interior minister: Government must be purged of drug traffickers

KABUL, Afghanistan - (AP) Afghanistan's government must be purged of officials involved in drug trafficking, which accounts for a huge chunk of the war-shattered nation's economy, the outgoing interior minister said Wednesday.

A day after announcing his resignation, Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali expressed frustration with efforts to stem the illegal opium and heroin trade, and to bring to justice provincial and central government officials suspected of involvement.

"The pace of progress is not such that you would say that it is desirable," Jalali said at a news conference. He said authorities had arrested two police officers in the past two weeks on suspicion of drug trafficking, and had arrested some government officials on corruption charges in recent months.

"This is something that we want, the interior minister wants, the president wants and the whole government wants: to clean the government, clean the administration," Jalali said. "Without that, we will not be able to bring about a healthy, committed administration that will only serve the people, will deliver to the people what it is supposed to deliver."

But he suggested little headway had been made, saying the government has a list of officials suspected of involvement in drug trafficking but lacks sufficient evidence against them.

Khaleeq Ahmed, a Karzai spokesman, said the administration is "fully committed to and has done everything possible to fight narcotics," and would continute to pursue the efforts Jalali had made.

He said Jalali had Karzai's complete support, and that any officials found to be involved in drug trafficking would be arrested. Critics say Karzai's commitment to fighting drug trafficking is limited by a lack of desire to challenge warlords and other influential figures.

"We feel that the political will to tackle powerful people involved in the drug trade has just not been shown, either by the Karzai government or its internatonal backers," said Joanna Nathan, senior Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group, a research institute. "A few high-profile arrests would go a long way."

Jalali, who said Tuesday that he was quitting after nearly three years as Afghanistan's top police official, told reporters he has submitted his resignation to President Hamid Karzai and was awaiting approval.

Karzai's office said it was not yet ready to announce a decision. Jalali sought to quash speculation about strains in his relationship with U.S.-backed Karzai, and said the only reason he was resigning was to pursue an academic career.

He said he had told Karzai months ago that he wanted to step down, but was urged to remain until after legislative elections, held Sept. 18 amid a wave of violence blamed on Taliban insurgents.

Observers have said Jalali was frustrated over the slow pace of reforms in the Interior Ministry, and over the persistent power of provincial and local leaders suspected of corruption or involvement in drug trafficking.

Afghanistan is by far the world's largest heroin producer. Many impoverished farmers grow opium for a living, and officials and security forces are believed to be involved in drug trafficking.

Jalali, 63, served as an Afghan army officer before moving to the United States after the Soviet invasion in 1979. He returned to Afghanistan after the fall of Taliban regime in late 2001 and was appointed as interior minister in January 2003.

Three killed clearing mines in Afghanistan

KABUL, Sept 28 (AFP) - Two Afghan policemen and a civilian were killed and four others were wounded Wednesday by a blast during an operation to remove landmines planted along the frontier with Pakistan, officials said.

The mines were left by US-led coalition forces in the Marawara district of restive Kunar province to prevent insurgents sneaking into Afghanistan ahead of key parliamentary polls 10 days ago, provincial governor Assadullah Wafa said. "After the election, national police were collecting and defusing the mines to avoid any possible civilian casualties in future," he told AFP.

"In the course of demining, a number of mines which had been defused and piled together exploded, killing two police and a civilian and wounding four others nearby," Wafa added.

Afghanistan went to the polls amid tight security on September 18 to elect the war-torn country's first parliament in more than 30 years. Militants loyal to the ousted Taliban regime had threatened to derail the elections but no major violence took place on polling day. However the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bomb attack at an army training cenre in Kabul on Wednesday which killed nine people and injured 28.

German parliament extends troops' Afghan mandate

BERLIN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Germany's outgoing parliament voted on Wednesday to increase the number of German peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan to 3,000 from 2,250 and extended their mandate for another year to Oct. 13, 2006.

As expected, the lower house voted overwhelmingly to extend the mandate and raise the number of German troops in the NATO- led peacekeeping mission (ISAF), with 535 out of 553 in favour.

"We must and want to stand by the Afghans and to contribute to the security of their country," Defence Minister Peter Struck told extraordinary session of parliament, its last before the newly-elected lower house takes over next month.

Germany is the biggest contributor to ISAF, which has some 10,000 troops stationed in Afghanistan, alongside a separate force of mainly U.S. combat troops.

ISAF troops have been stationed in the capital Kabul and the northern regions of Afghanistan, where the situation is generally stable. However, German soldiers are expected to set up a forward support base in Mazar-i-Sharif to allow British troops to concentrate more on the less-stable south.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's outgoing government was the first to deploy German troops in combat situations abroad since World War Two. Struck has said the threat of terrorism meant defence of Germany started in the Hindukush mountains in Afghanistan.

Afghan man admits to kidnapping aid worker

KABUL, Sept 28 (AFP) - An Afghan man admitted on television Wednesday that he had kidnapped an Italian aid worker this year, saying he released her when his relatives were freed from jail.

Police arrested Timur Shah, the alleged leader of a criminal gan, in Kabul late Tuesday for the May abduction of Clementina Cantoni, who was held for 24 days and then released unharmed.

"Yes, we kidnapped Ms Cantoni, she was in our captivity for 24 days," Shah said on private Tolo television. "My uncle, cousin and other relatives were arrested for some crimes -- though they had no evidence. After they were released, and we released Ms Cantoni," he said.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told a press conference earlier Wednesday that Shah was also accused of killing a businessman and of extortion. "Several days before he had threatened to extort a bank chairman," he said.

Jalali said Shah had narrowly escaped arrest several times before he was eventually captured in a raid on a house where he had been watching television with three other people, who were also seized. "This operation was a result of several months of joint efforts by police and intelligence," he said.

The 32-year-old Cantoni, who had been in the war-torn country for three years working on a women's aid project, was snatched from her car at gunpoint in the centre of the Afghan capital. 

Afghan officials denied claims that a ransom was paid for her release.  Shah was arrested in August in the northern province of Parwan but later freed, allegedly by a general in the army. 

A Taliban voice is home again, and less harsh - By Carlotta Gall The New York Times WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2005

KABUL- It has been a long journey for Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban envoy who became one of the most visible faces of Afghanistan's Islamic government after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in his daily news conferences at which he defended the Taliban's determination to fight rather than give up Osama bin Laden. Four years later, much of it spent in American detention, he has returned to Afghanistan, a more subdued man who no longer uses his title of mullah but wears the thick black silk turban and long beard that are the hallmarks of the Taliban.

Zaeef, 37, was living in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, when he was arrested in January 2002. Since then, he said, he has been through detention in Pakistan, a week in a cell on an American warship, months at American air bases in Afghanistan and, finally, more than three years at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba. He was released early this month.

In an interview in a government safe house in Kabul, he said his American guards at Guantánamo had told him that he was no longer considered a danger. "They said, 'You are not guilty, and to be in prison for so long is not right,"' he said. "They said that to me a lot."

The chief spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Colonel James Yonts, confirmed that Zaeef was released in early September.

Stephen Hadley, the U.S. national security adviser, said Zaeef had been taken into custody because he was on the administration's terrorist list. At a news briefing in Kabul on Monday, Hadley said the release of Zaeef and others was being decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on their role in the Taliban, the extent to which they have cooperated in ending terrorism, and the effect their return will have on bringing others into the reconciliation process.

Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, chief of the Afghan government's Peace and Reconciliation Commission, said Zaeef had not been charged during his time at Guantánamo. "In my opinion, he had no sin," Mojadeddi said of Zaeef. "And if he was guilty, he spent enough time there." Mojadeddi said the American military was gradually releasing the remaining 102 Afghan detainees at Guantánamo.

Zaeef is now living at the Afghan government's expense in the capital, where he was reunited with his family - two wives and eight children - and is protected by government guards. "He can stay as long as he wants, but he is free," Mojadeddi said.

A minister of transportation before his two years as the Taliban envoy to Pakistan, Zaeef is one of the most prominent Taliban officials to return under the government reconciliation program. Two others were released recently by the Americans and ran for Parliament.

Zaeef is hesitant about what he will do next. "I am tired; I just want to be with my family and see my children," he said. He has no plans to return to his home province, Kandahar, he said, or to help the government persuade other Taliban members to cease fighting, although he supports the effort.

In his role as ambassador, Zaeef was seen as the main conduit to the Taliban leadership after Sept. 11, but he was also regarded as a moderate figure, despite his daily diatribes on his embassy verandah accusing American forces of genocide in Afghanistan.

Zaeef said that during that period he was in touch with Pakistani and American officials and talked to Hamid Karzai, now the Afghan president, once by telephone. He also organized several delegations of senior clerics to consult with the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, to try to avert war, he said.

"My advice was that Afghanistan did not have the power to bear this heavy load, and that if we did not find a solution, then the government of Afghanistan would fall," he said, recalling his conversation with the Taliban leader.

His mission failed, he said, because it was too difficult for a poor and powerless country like Afghanistan to reach an understanding with a superpower that he described as "very emotional" about using force.

"Afghans are not the natural enemies of America," he said. "We had this extremist problem, but war is not the solution to that."

Zaeef said American and Pakistani officials even offered him money at the time to break with Omar and set up his own moderate political party. It could have saved him from nearly four years of imprisonment, but he said he never considered it.

Details of his role during the war could not be independently verified, although his position as some sort of go-between is well documented. Even now Zaeef demurs from pronouncing bin Laden the perpetrator of the World Trade Center attacks. "I don't know who did those attacks, but when they happened I condemned them," he said. "I believe in security and peace."

Under pressure from the United States, Pakistan eventually forced Zaeef to cease his news conferences, and then, after the fall of the Taliban, to close the embassy. He said he had been told by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry that he could stay in the country for "a reasonable time," but on Jan. 2, 2002, he was taken into custody.

After his arrest, Zaeef was questioned about the whereabouts of Omar and bin Laden. He said he had never been in touch with bin Laden but had talked to Omar about 8 to 10 days before the fall of Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual capital and their last urban stronghold. But he found the leadership in disarray.

Zaeef is critical of his American captors for holding him without charge for nearly four years, for the sole reason, he said, of trying to get information from him. "I am 100 percent sure they knew I was not involved in those attacks," he said, referring to Sept. 11. "They only wanted information from me."

The Taliban's new face - The Rediff Special/ Hamid MirSeptember 27, 2005

Mullah Muhammad Anas is the unofficial ruler of Afghanistan's Andore district. The small but tough Taliban commander -- one of the 30 most wanted fugitives in Afghanistan -- has made it impossible for US and NATO forces to move freely in the district, the biggest in Ghazni province. I managed to get his mobile number from a Taliban sympathiser who stood in front of Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi's tomb in the heart of Ghazni city.

Anas only understood my Assalam-o-Alliekum, because the Taliban commander couldn't speak Urdu. I tried communicating in English, but failed. Then, I used my broken Persian, and the deadlock was broken.

He was surprised that a Pakistani journalist was looking for the Taliban in Ghazni. When I expressed my desire to meet him, he said I was late because he was deep in the mountains of Andore and it would be difficult for him to come to the city by evening.

So I decided to risk visiting him instead. He was happy, but made just two small conditions: One, I would not travel in my Prado jeep with a driver from Kabul. Two, I would have to take a taxi from Ghazni with any local Pashtun driver. Needless to say, I accepted both.

I asked my driver to stay in the city and went to a taxi stand. Most drivers were reluctant to go to Andore, saying it was late and it would be difficult to return before sunset. One asked for double charges, and I agreed. We settled on 1,000 Afghanis -- approximately $20.

We started travelling on the muddy Kabul-Kandahar road to Andore. After a few kilometres, we were stopped by three armed Taliban near a village. When they learnt I was a guest of their commander, they called Mullah Anas to reconfirm, then welcomed us to the 'land of Taliban.' One of them joined us as a guide.

An hour and a half later, I was sitting with Mullah Anas -- not in a cave, but in a large muddy compound of a village teeming with armed fighters. The first thing I asked him was : How could he trust an unknown Pashtun taxi driver?

He smiled and looked towards the driver sitting next to me. "Local Pashtuns don't betray us," he said. "We will note down his name and taxi number. If he creates any problem for us, we will take care of him. But I am sure he is a real Pashtun and will not commit treason."

I commented on the Taliban movement becoming more nationalist than Islamic, considering it was now limited only to the Pashtun dominated areas of Afghanistan. I mentioned Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, who belonged to the Andore district but had not visited his home for a year since Anas had taken over. Jalali had repeatedly accused Pakistan of secretly providing training facilities to the Taliban. ( Jalali resigned on Tuesday due to the increasing violence).

Anas responded to the allegation by saying, simply, "You are sitting with me in an Afghan village, not a Pakistani one. Ask Jalali to come here if he can. Yes, we have the support of some Pakistani brothers, but Pakistani rulers are our enemies. Musharraf is not different from Karzai. Both are fighting on behalf of the Americans against us. How can a Pakistani Karzai support us? This allegation is an insult."

One angry Taliban fighter shouted at me in broken English: "Frontier Province ( the North West Frontier Province) is not Pakistan. It is a Pashtun area that was occupied by Farangis ( England) one hundred years ago. If we go to the Pashtun areas of Peshawar, it is not Pakistan, it is Afghanistan."

His comments were like a bombshell for me. Because just four years ago, it was the Taliban that confronted nationalist Pashtuns who opposed the Durand line that divided Afghanistan from united India more than a century ago. This was a new face of the Taliban, but Anas tried to hide it. "Don't say these things in the presence of a Pakistani guest," he told his colleague.

Anas tried to explain his colleague's anger, saying "We were betrayed by Pakistani rulers after 9/11, which is why a lot of Taliban have developed bad feelings against the Punjabis of Pakistan."

I tried correcting him by saying that Musharraf is not a Punjabi, but Anas said, "( Lieutenant General) Safdar Hussein is a Punjabi responsible for fighting against our Mahsud and Wazir brothers in South and North Wazirastan, on the orders of Musharraf."

After serving us Afghani tea, Anas then invited us to film his attack on a US military convoy after two hours. We declined politely. I was aware that US convoys didn't move in that area without air cover. The Taliban would kill three or four US soldiers, but would lose more of their own men to the air bombing that would ensue. The commander then made me another offer. He said, "You can choose a CD of our previous attacks on Americans then." I accepted.

Within minutes, he loaded a CD to a small laptop, showing me how they destroyed a US Humvee with a roadside bomb a few days ago. He pointed his finger towards a young boy standing behind him saying, "Brother Qadir filmed that ambush with his Sony movie camera."

The Taliban banned cameras when they were in power. Now, they appear to have amended their ideology. In Islamic Shariah, this amendment is called Ijtahad. Today, the Taliban are waging their Jihad with Ijtahad. They banned photography and television sets in Afghanistan after taking over Kabul in 1996. Now, they want to use cameras and television as a new weapon in a propaganda war against their enemy.

When I asked why the Taliban were fighting against Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on one hand and talking to him on the other, Anas grinned. "Talk to Mufti Hakimi sahib about it. I am not entitled to speak on such a big issue."

He gave me Hakimi's satellite phone number. He picked it up after 12 rings. Hakimi was shocked to hear I was sitting with Mullah Anas. He asked me to leave immediately because he was aware of the planned attack on the Americans. "They will make this area hell in a few hours," he screamed. "Go away, go away."

We fled in panic. An hour later, Hakimi called to check if I was back in Ghazni. I told him I would reach in half an hour. Warning me against visiting 'independent' areas without informing him in advance, he said: "The Americans can kill you and throw the responsibility on our shoulders."

After a few minutes, we were stopped by a big group of Afghan National Army soldiers near the city. The Pashtun taxi driver explained that he had some Pakistani journalists who were visiting some election candidates in nearby villages. The soldiers checked our IDs and let us go. But not before warning that "this area is not safe. You shouldn't come here again without a police escort."

I thanked the driver, who replied, "I lie to both Taliban and the security forces every day just in the interest of a safe drive." In broken Urdu, he explained that he liked neither the Taliban, nor Karzai or the Americans. But he couldn't fight them as both parties were very strong. It was only the common Afghans who were suffering, he said.

I returned to Kabul late that night and had dinner at Delhi Darbar, a restaurant owned by an Indian. There, I met a local Newsweek reporter called Sami Yousafzai, who had also met a Taliban commander in Zabul earlier that day. He suggested I visit Kunar, where Al Qaeda had recently downed a US helicopter. Apparently, CDs of the operation were available at shops in Asadabad city.

Over the next eight days, I visited at least a dozen provinces in East and South Afghanistan. I realized that Hamid Karzai ruled only the big cities. The rest of the rural and mountainous areas were controlled by Taliban, Al Qaeda and, in some places, by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami. Karzai has tried to engage the Taliban through many people, but they are not interested in talks. They are exploiting the wave of anti-Americanism that mushroomed after reports of the desecration of a Quran by American troops.

There are just 18,000 US troops deployed in Afghanistan, compared to more than 150,000 in Iraq. It is just not enough for establishing Karzai's writ in the 2,000-kilometre long Pashtun belt, bordering Pakistan. 

Anti-Taliban forces like the Northern Alliance are also against the presence of US troops in Afghanistan. Fearing that the presence of US troops will come under fire in Afghanistan's new parliament, Karzai has urged foreign troops to avoid house-to-house search operations without his permission.

The most disturbing thing for Karzai is the beginning of suicide attacks by the Taliban against the security forces. According to Interior Ministry official Lutafullah Mashal, some Arabs from Iraq are providing training to Taliban fighters in Kunar and Nuristan for bomb making. The Taliban have killed more than 325 Afghan police officers in the last six months.

The number of foreign troop causalities is limited because they don't go after the Taliban in remote areas. Mashal said the Taliban dumped a lot of weapons when they were in power, and were now buying weapons from local warlords and also across the border from Pakistani tribes. He also claimed that the Taliban were in possession of SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin, which they are getting from Iraqi Kurdistan at $2,500 each. Mashal recently arrested some smugglers in Nimroz who smuggled weapons from Iraqi Kurdistan through Iran.

Where is the money coming from? Mashal smiled intriguingly. "They have some sympathisers in Pakistan," he said, "but it is mainly Al Qaeda using them against us because they want to make Afghanistan another Iraq."

I asked him how Taliban spokesman Mufti Hakimi was speaking to the Associated Press daily and yet avoided capture by the Americans. Mashal responded saying that Hakimi was clever. He was using at least eight different numbers, ten local mobile numbers and some Pakistani mobile numbers. He used one number for 10 to 15 minutes before switching to another, foiling all attempts to track him. "We will get him very soon though," he claimed.

Most diplomats in Kabul believe the Taliban are getting stronger by the day, and returning with a vengeance. More than 1,300 people have died in insurgent violence already, making 2005 by far the bloodiest year since the overthrow of the Taliban government in November 2001. Afghanistan is a new Iraq in the making.

Taliban experts like Ahmad Rashid say Karzai has failed to control corruption and the warlords, and these two problems have forced common Afghanis to think that at least the Taliban gave them peace, which has now becoming a dream.

Ahmad Rashid is a close friend of Karzai, and this was the first time I heard him criticise the Afghan president. "Karzai is missing a great chance to stabilise Afghanistan," he said. "He is not informing the outside world that the West is not hunting Al Qaeda here in Afghanistan. There has been no Osama hunting for a long time either. They are only increasing their influence in border areas close to Iran."

Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai noted that the former Communists and Taliban were the poor people, while the rest of the politicians are former Mujahideen who minted money during the war against the Soviet Union. These Mujahideen are said to be Karzai's biggest allies. In reality, however, they are warlords. They were not debarred from the elections despite running large armed militias.

The new ruling elite of Afghanistan are rich. The people are poor, and have no love for the elite. In some areas like Khost, the Taliban didn't created problems for ex-Communist candidates, but threatened ex-Mujahideen from the richer class. It is another dimension to the new Taliban. They are now class conscious.

AFGHANISTAN: Was Women's Vote a Roar, or a Whisper ? Inter Press Service; 27 September 2005 UNITED NATIONS, Sep 27 (IPS) - While the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush describes the recent elections in Afghanistan as a major step forward for the war-torn nation, human rights groups here wonder if women will have an effective voice in the new parliament. A few weeks before the Sep.

18 legislative elections, about 140 women were forced to withdraw their candidacies because of security concerns, says Human Rights Watch (HRW), a New York-based advocacy group, in a report documenting a number of cases where women were unable to campaign in rural areas because of threats from warlords. Titled "Campaigning Against Fear:

Women's Participation in Afghanistan's 2005 Elections", the report pointed out that there were many "threats and obstacles" not only for the women candidates but also their supporters, as activists, journalists, and teachers. "We are encouraged by the high numbers of women who registered to vote, but have yet to see the actual turnout of women voters," Nisha Varia of Human Rights Watch told IPS after the elections.

"We expect that while turnout may be high in some areas, women's participation as voters and as candidates was much more restricted in areas still ruled by the gun, rather than by law." Final results for the elections are not due until Oct. 22, although women are supposed to be guaranteed a quarter of the parliamentary seats. However, Varia said that Afghan warlords who are obsessed with male dominant customs and values created a variety of obstacles for women willing to contest and participate in polls.

"Imagine a woman candidate who posts her photograph on a campaign flyer. She is challenging social norms, given that most women still wear a head-to-toe burqa in public," said Varia. "In some places, women candidates did most of their campaigning through male relatives. We know of one female election worker who was shot, and one female candidate who was shot. A few others reported attacks on their homes and vehicles, but the majority of women faced obstacles in the form of threats delivered by telephone or letters from the warlords.

" One female parliamentary candidate in the eastern city of Jalalabad told HWR staffers in an interview, "I feel frightened. I am not afraid of al-Qaeda, I am afraid of commanders who are candidates." Even though warlords are the main security threat in Afghanistan, many of them ran for parliamentary and provincial council seats.

"I do not share the enthusiasm of (Afghan President Hamid) Karzai and Bush because they have often used women's participation as an excuse to justify their policies," Sonali Kolhatkar, co-director of Afghan Women's Mission, a U.S.-based non-governmental organisation, told IPS. "The most dire threats to women's rights are coming from fundamentalist warlords, whom both the U.S. and Karzai have propped up and supported for years," she added.

Kolhatkar said only a very few steps were taken to get rid of candidates with dubious rights records, noting that only about 50 out of 200 blacklisted politicians were excluded from the election. Selay (no last name), the spokeswoman for the Pakistan-based Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), shares Kolhatkar's observations on the inclusion of candidates who are known for widespread violations of human rights, particularly women's rights. "They include both the anti-U.S. Taliban and the pro-U.S. Northern Alliance," she told IPS in an email interview.

Women leaders note that many candidates had ties with illegal armed gangs and fundamentalist groups. For example, warlords like Abdul Rasoul Sayyaf, a former guerrilla leader whose abuses have been documented by HRW, ran in the elections, along with Mohammed Qalamuddin, former minister of the department of vice and virtue, which was called "the most misogynist.department in the whole world" by the U.N. in 1999. According to preliminary results released Tuesday, Sayyaf was running fourth in Kabul province, which includes the Afghan capital.

With 9.2 percent of ballots counted from the province, the most votes were going to the runners-up in the 2004 presidential election, Mohammed Mohaqeq and Yunus Qanooni. Noting that only 12 percent of the 2,707 candidates for the Wolesi Jirga (Parliament) and less than 10 percent of the 3,025 candidates for the provincial council were women, Selay said: "These figures are not desirable at all." According to press accounts, women were effectively denied the vote in several provinces, including Zabul, Nangarhar and Khost, where officials refused to set up separate polling places for women.

U.N. officials who closely watched the election scene in Afghanistan see the democratic exercise as promising, but agree that women's access to power is still far from being ideal. "Women in rural areas continue to face very real difficulties, including mistreatment and violence against them by men," said Adrian Edwards, spokesperson for the U.N. mission in Kabul.

"The problem of child and forced marriage continues, with girls as young as seven being promised to men much older than them. There continue to be reports of honour killings, trafficking of women, and sexual and domestic violence." Edwards said access to justice for women remains "very poor, and women who do report crimes risk being ignored, accused of sexual offences, unjustly tried or worse". "This is a very difficult process in a country where law and order and judicial institutions are still very weak," Filippo Grandi, a U.N. official, regarding screening and disqualifying doubtful candidates at a press briefing three days before the election.

"The justice system needs to be overhauled," said Kolhatkar. "Progressive judges need to be hired. Currently there are some very fundamentalist judges who pass very harsh sentences on women according to their extreme interpretation of Sharia law." She said many of the warlords who contested the elections as candidates hold conservative views on women's rights -- ideologically similar to the Taliban -- and will not be able to lead the country to protect women's right to education.

However, activists acknowledge that there has been some progress since the end of the Taliban regime, such as the quotas in the parliament which ensure that there is participation by women. "But for the most part, things are still very bad. Maternal mortality is still among the highest in the world, and women have little access to education, health care, employment and decent housing," said Kolhatkar.

Given that the composition of the new parliament is in favour of fundamentalist groups and warlords, Selay is not so optimistic about an improvement in the human rights situation for Afghan women. "We think it will be distrusting and a nightmare for the Afghan people," she said of the parliament. "This is the result of the wrong policies of the Karzai government and their U.S. masters to promote, support and give a free hand to the pro-U.S. warlords in Afghanistan." (END/2005)

OPINION: Afghan Elections Deserve Our Attention - Cinnamon Stillwell, San Francisco Chronicle, September 28, 2005

Something remarkable happened in Afghanistan this month. The war-torn country held its first parliamentary election in 35 years and 12.5 million people, men and women, were registered to vote.

Terrorists mounted a desperate attempt over the preceding months to stop the election, but to no avail. Despite killing 1,000 people, including seven candidates and six poll workers, several of them women, the harbingers of destruction failed to intimidate the Afghan people. And thanks to U.S., NATO and Afghan forces, violence was at a minimum the day of the election. As Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal put it, "After all their boasting, it's a big failure for the Taliban."

The U.N.-Afghan election commission accomplished a momentous task in pulling off the election. In what's being called "one of the most difficult logistical operations ever undertaken by international electoral workers," 6,000 polling sites were set up all over the country. In some cases, donkeys, camels and airplanes were needed to transport voting materials. Some 5,800 candidates sought seats in the 249-seat national assembly, 68 of which were reserved for women. Candidates such as the 25-year-old Sabrina Sagheb stirred things up in a country long wracked not just by gender inequality but by virtual apartheid.

As in last year's presidential election, the Afghan people showed themselves well up to the task of democracy. At just over 50 percent, the turnout was lower than last time, but the numbers were still pretty impressive, considering the circumstances.

Defying threats of violence and their own rugged landscape, Afghans made their way through deserts and mountains so they could take part in the democratic process. A third of them were women, who, perhaps more than anyone else, understand what's at stake. Even in conservative outlying areas, Afghan women participated in fairly large numbers. One of them, 18-year-old Khatereh Mushafiq, explained, "We are also now taking part in the government and in society. People must take part, people must have a say."

Despite the magnitude of these events, one could be forgiven for not having heard a lot about them in the mainstream media. Although the election was reported, it certainly wasn't front-page news. Instead, it was relegated to the back pages, along with any positive developments occurring in Iraq. The nonchalance with which much of the media treats democratic elections if they happen to occur in Afghanistan betrays either outright bias, a lack of interest or pronounced cynicism. Either that or the hurricane season got the better of them.

Considering such omissions, it's little wonder that Americans are still confused as to what the war on terror is all about. And the Bush administration hasn't done enough to correct this communications gap. But the U.S. military certainly has. Curious readers will find ample information at the Department of Defense (DOD) and Central Command (Centcom) Web sites, not to mention the Afghan blogs and Web sites that fill in the gaps.

Those who remember the brutality and horror of Afghanistan under the Taliban do not take elections lightly. We don't want to see any more men and women shot in the head in soccer stadiums in front of cheering audiences or buried up to their necks and stoned to death. Or women confined to their homes and beaten on the streets if unaccompanied.

The outlawing of music, kite flying and art featuring human forms was a testament to the utter darkness and despair that enveloped Afghanistan under the Taliban. The notorious destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas was the ultimate act of despotism over creation itself. If anyone needs a refresher course of what life was like under the Taliban, the bleak film Osama is a good place to start.

All of this is a far cry from today's Afghanistan. Although the country has a long way to go, change is clearly in the air. In a testament to the return of romance and cultural life to a country long lacking in both, the Shakespeare's plays, including "Romeo and Juliet," were performed in Kabul last month.

Afghanistan's version of MTV, Tolo-TV, is hugely popular among the youth, and a new show, "Afghan Star," is offering them yet another form of democracy, à la "American Idol." Sadly, the station's lone female host, Shaima Rezayee, was murdered in what looks to have been an honor killing, demonstrating that the backward pull is still alive and well. All the more reason to continue supporting the progressive elements in Afghan society.

Critics of the war in Iraq maintain that they supported the liberation of Afghanistan, but there were several large anti-war rallies that took place in San Francisco, Washington and other cities during the Afghan action. A few Democratic politicians went on record opposing the action as well. There are some, it seems, who are against employing the U.S. military for any reason other than humanitarian missions. But should the humanitarian element happen to coincide with America's interests, as it does in the Muslim world, they suddenly lose interest.

If one is interested in humanity, the fact that al-Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan, which we now know from their own lips were processing thousands of terrorists, are gone is reason enough to rejoice. The Afghan people are certainly happy to be free of al-Qaeda's grip, as exemplified by the strong condemnations of terrorism that marked the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Ironically, these acts of barbarism were what turned Afghanistan and the United States into allies.

Those who wear the mantle of feminism should have cause to celebrate the downfall of the Taliban as well. Although the ubiquitous burqa can still be seen shrouding far too many women's bodies, it is no longer legally required. The emergence of at least some female faces speaks to this reality. Following other parts of the country, the first Women's Center just opened up in Paktika province. Most importantly, women are back at work, in school, and visible in everyday life.

Anti-war activists like to counter that by being in Iraq the United States has somehow "forgotten about Afghanistan." But when positive developments like the election occur in Afghanistan the silence from such critics is deafening. Concentrating solely on terrorist attacks, opium farming and warlordism, they see only the negative. Afghanistan is indeed a tribal culture mired in ancient customs, and outside of Kabul much work still needs to be done. But simply giving up isn't an option.

Other detractors of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan insist that because America backed the jihadists against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the '80s, it should forever after relinquish all responsibility for the place. But alliances shift over the course of history, and it's easy to pass judgment in hindsight. Just because a country stumbles along the way doesn't mean that it can't do right later on.

Whether or not one buys the political reasons behind the decision to go to war in Afghanistan, the people are no longer under the boot of the Taliban's seventh century barbarism, and this is a worthy outcome in and of itself. In the words of 36-year-old Mohammed Twahir, "Before there was no democracy, now we have democracy. Democracy means freedom."

While Afghanistan certainly has struggles ahead, this by no means precludes acknowledging progress when it has occurred. And last week's election was progress.

If one truly cares about human rights, then they should be celebrated in all cases, even when one's political foes helped bring them about. This is the definition of true humanitarianism. Cinnamon Stillwell is a Bay Area writer.

Police arrest 4 Afghan terrorists – Daily Times (Pakistan)

LAHORE: Gulberg Police has arrested four Afghan commandos who came to Pakistan only to commit robberies and murders, said Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Aamir Zulfiqar Khan during a press conference at Police Lines on Tuesday.

Khan said the men were probably trained in militant camps in Afghanistan and also took part in the war against American forces there. He said the detainees had admitted to over 100 crimes, which included robberies and murders, during interrogation.

Giving details, the SSP said that two unidentified armed men entered Brig (r) Muhammad Saeed’s house in Cavalry Grounds on September 25. The men held Brig (r) Saeed and his wife up at gunpoint and asked about cash and jewellery. However, Brig (r) Saeed resisted the men, upon which they shot and mortally injured him. Mrs Saeed informed the police about the culprits’ appearance and identification marks. On the same night, unidentified men matching the description of Brig (r) Saaed’s murderers robbed Col Aftab’s house (33-BI Gulberg).

Khan immediately ordered a special operation at Afghan colonies, including Khan Colony and Makka Colony, and others situated around Gulberg, Garden Town and Cavalry.

Apparently, the same men snatched a car (LZ-3522) from Gulshan-e-Ravi police precinct and used it in an attempt to rob a house (34-BEI) near ‘Shapes’. However, the security guard foiled their attempt and the men fled, badly injuring the security guard in the process. But, they used the same car to rob a house in the Naseerabad police precinct and fled leaving behind the car. On the same night, the culprits snatched another car.

However, the SSP ordered all of the city’s exits sealed and cordoned off upon which Model Town Superintendent of Police Hussain Habib Imtiaz Gill issued special instructions. On Tuesday morning 8:15am, Gulberg police station’s assistant superintendent of police and station house officer were manning a police picket at Centre Point when they saw the snatched car. They signalled the car to stop but its occupants fired upon them and escaped. The Gulberg ASP start chasing them and ordered the SHO to corner the car from the opposite side. The police were able to capture the men after a shootout.

Khan identified the men as Bashar alias Bashri and Naseebullah Khan residents of Jalalabad in Afghanistan, Peshawar resident Namet Khan and Khan Colony resident Gull Khan. Police also confiscated Rs 150,000, gold jewellery, two stolen cars, Afghan and Japanese currency, three pistols, two Kalshnikovs, a shotgun and a large number of bullets from them.

The SSP said the men had escaped from a Naseerabad police team after an encounter a few years ago. He said that Bashar was wanted for 72 heinous crimes, adding that the men had also admitted to murdering Brig (r) Saeed.

India `for sale' during Cold War - Book describes KGB infiltration Smuggled notes detail payoffs - Toronto Star GAVIN RABINOWITZ ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW DELHI—The documents paint a sordid picture of India's Cold War alliance with the Soviet Union: newspapers bankrolled by the KGB to plant thousands of articles and agents making midnight deliveries of suitcases full of cash to the prime minister's house.

It was a time, a KGB official said, when "the entire country was for sale."

The revelations, in a newly published book based on KGB archives, have embarrassed India's ruling Congress party — in power then and now — and provided a field day for the press.

"Indira's India was KGB playground," read the headline in India's Sunday Times, referring to then-prime minister Indira Gandhi. But analysts said the accounts, from a recently published book based on notes that KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin smuggled out of Moscow when he fled to Britain in 1992, are unlikely to have a major impact on current politics — with India now a firm U.S. ally.

Mitrokhin, who died last year at 82, took handwritten notes from thousands of top-secret documents while he was supervising the 10-year-long move of the KGB's foreign intelligence archives to a new site, according to his co-author, Christopher Andrew, a Cambridge University history professor.

The two chapters on India in The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World detail deep penetration of Gandhi's Congress-led government by the Soviet espionage agency.

Mitrokhin's notes describe how a senior New Delhi-based KGB operative, identified as Leonid Shebarshin, personally delivered millions of rupees to Gandhi's principal fundraiser in late-night meetings.

However, the book makes it clear Gandhi herself was not on the KGB payroll and probably had no idea of the source of her party's funds. The spy agency also infiltrated the media. By 1972, the KGB had 10 Indian newspapers on its payroll and had planted 3,789 articles, many alluding to U.S. attempts at regional subversion, the book said.

China shows interest in joining Saarc

ISLAMABAD – The News International: China has shown keen interest in joining the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, sources told The News on Tuesday.

Earlier Japan had expressed its interest in joining the block. It put together a comprehensive aid programme for the region. The sources said the charter and rules of business of the Saarc do not provide expansion mechanism. Any change in the charter or rules of business can be brought about through consensus.

Afghanistan has not formally approached the Saarc for joining it but Kabul has dropped the hint some time back to have association with the Saarc organization. Another intellectual exercise has also been underway for quite some time that Iran and some central Asian states may be given an opportunity to join the Saarc. In that case the organisation's shape would be changed. If one country from outside once is provided the chance to board the association, then it would become an unending game, the observers viewed.

Diplomatic observers have indicated that India had been previously opposing the proposal of inclusion of Afghanistan in the Saarc when it saw that the government in Kabul is behaving independently but the moment it found that the Afghan administration has leaning towards New Delhi, Indian government abruptly launched campaign for brining Afghanistan in the Saarc.

India's attitude is evident from its behaviour with Bangladesh where India had been out of the way providing assistance to the rulers when the Awami League government is in place in Dhaka and as soon non-Awami League government comes in power in the country that was created by India, New Delhi starts subverting any promotional move of Bangladesh.

India recently subverted two attempts of Bangladesh to hold Saarc summit in Dacca under flimsy pretext because Bangladesh is under the government which is opposed to the Awami League, the observers added.

The sources in the foreign office to a question about Indian secretary for external affairs assertion that Afghanistan's membership question would be raised in the Saarc summit to be held in November next in Dacca, said that Pakistan would be supportive of the proposal that would require consensus vote.

Afghanistan's only escalator leads to shopping heaven - NewKerala.com, India, September 28, 2005

By Can Merey, Kabul: It looks like a spaceship that has landed on the wrong planet. It is Afghanistan's very first shopping mall, gleaming with shops while on the dusty road outside people pump water and grim soldiers drive by in armoured vehicles.

The mall, which opened here this month, offers a lesson in contrast. It also boasts another first for Afghanistan, an escalator, which customers can use to reach upper floors - if they dare.

"People are afraid of the escalator. They are amazed to see something moving by itself," says Anwar Hussein, manager of the hotel that shares a nine-storey building with the shopping centre. Customers afraid to use the escalator can take the lift in the safe knowledge there will be no power blackout because the building maintains its own generators.

The mall owners also claim their building is the only fully air-conditioned one in the capital and are advertising it as a cool haven for families during the national capital's searing summer months -- and as a warm, comfortable place to while away freezing winter days.

Mall director and co-owner Habib Safi is confident that visitors will not only use the centre to escape the city's harsh climate but will also spend money in its 90 shops. "You have to take risks," the businessman said.

Shop proprietors who have leased space in the mall also believe in the newly emerging shopping frenzy. "It is nice to shop here. The markets outside are dusty," said shop owner Abdul Kasim. The dresses displayed in his shop windows are imported from Turkey, their designs being rather daring for Afghanistan.

Kasim is hoping for a good turnover regardless of the fact that many women in Kabul still wear the traditional, all-disguising burka. Women can still wear these clothes at home, Kasim reckons.

But there are few customers strolling in the aisles between the gold, textile, furniture and electrical appliance shops and the caf? on the ground floor that offers "coffee to go". The ample lighting, meticulously clean aisles and Afghan pop music blaring from invisible loudspeakers baffle potential customers.

The music only stops when the muezzin calls for prayers. It is only then that the casual visitor can recognise that they are still in Afghanistan. Despite such peculiarities the first customers are excited.

"That is real development. I wish Afghanistan were full of shopping malls," said customer Abdul Fatah, who had just purchased a silver wristwatch. The mall owners, who are already planning on expanding their retail empire beyond the city, could not agree more with Fatah.

Habib Safi plans to erect two skyscrapers with an incorporated shopping mall in the western Afghan town of Herat. In his office hang blueprints for the structures, which are to be called the Twin Towers.

Christening the Herat towers after their New York counterparts, whose destruction was plotted by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, is not at all tasteless, argues one of Safi's employees. "The difference is that our towers won't collapse," he smirks.

Warlord artwork finally hits Tate - BBC News, 27 September 2005

Artwork which was withdrawn from the Turner Prize exhibition last year over fears it could prejudice the trial of an Afghan warlord, is to go on display. Zardad's Dog, by Langlands and Bell, was removed from the Tate Britain display when lawyers realised it could be in contempt of court.

The work will now go on display at the gallery from 3 October 2005. In July, Faryadi Sarwar Zardad, 42, of London, was found guilty of torture and hostage taking in Afghanistan.

Zardad was given two 20-year terms to run concurrently for the crimes he committed in his home country between 1992 and 1996. The trial of Zardad at the Old Bailey had begun just days before the opening of the Turner Prize show in October 2004.

The landmark court case heard that Zardad and his men kept a "human dog" to savage their victims. Zardad's Dog, by Ben Langlands and Nikki Bell, consists of a 12-minute film from the 2002 trial of Abdullah Shah, who served under Zardad.

He was nicknamed Zardad's Dog because of the way he savaged people with his teeth before they were killed. It was the first capital trial to be held in the Supreme Court in Kabul of since the fall of the Taliban.

Langlands and Bell had been commissioned by the Imperial War Museum to spend time in Afghanistan as official war artists. They also recorded visits to the site of the giant statues of Buddha at Bamiyan, which were destroyed by the Taliban, and digitally recreated the former home of Osama bin Laden.

[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.]