In this bulletin:

• Lawmaker shot dead in Afghanistan
• Parliament approves structure of new cabinet
• "Security clouds Afghanistan's economic recovery"
• NATO hopes to expand Afghan mission
• Suicide attack on Afghan, coalition convoy
• Afghan Forces Kill Six Taliban Fighters
• U.S. officials: Iraqi insurgents educating Afghan, Pakistani militants
• Fighting intensifies in Afghanistan
• Pakistan welcomes arrest of Afghan commander for killing 17 Pakistanis
• Qazi flays Islamabad’s Afghan policy
• Afghans in Pakistan cite shelter and jobs as deciding factors in return
• South Waziristan run by Taliban’
• Fallen Cdn. soldier arrives at CFB Trenton
• Cadets to Raise Money for Afghanistan Children
• Hopes and fears of Afghan Christians
• Afghanistan: The Long Road Ahead
• EDITORIAL: Taliban, Pakistan and modernity (Pakistan media)
  SECOND EDITORIAL: Who destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas? (Pakistan media)
• Foreign connection in Balochistan
• Inside the First Amendment
• Four Lessons from Afghanistan’s Apostasy Trial

Lawmaker shot dead in Afghanistan – BBC

A key provincial lawmaker has been shot dead in north-east Afghanistan. Sayed Sadiq was killed by unidentified gunmen at his home in Takhar province. He became speaker of the provincial assembly after elections in October.

Mr Sadiq, a supporter of President Hamid Karzai and a strong critic of the drugs trade, is the first lawmaker killed since parliament's inauguration. Takhar has seen little Taleban activity but there has been rivalry between a number of former mujahideen commanders.

Mr Karzai said after hearing the news: "His unfortunate death is an irreparable loss to the people of Afghanistan. "He was a dynamic person and he devoted his entire life to bringing peace and prosperity to the people of Takhar."

Ghulam Hazrat, provincial director of security, told the BBC Mr Sadiq was shot in Khoja Ghar district, 60km (37 miles) north of provincial capital Taloqan.

Mr Sadiq was an influential local figure, a former commander of the militia run by renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and twice a district governor. Mr Sadiq was also an outspoken opponent of the drugs trade.

During a visit by President Karzai, Mr Sadiq said the federal government was aware of which vehicles were being used to smuggle drugs and accused local officials of involvement in the trade.

Parliament approves structure of new cabinet

KABUL, Apr 1 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Taking a step forward after days of wrangling, the parliament Saturday approved structure of the 25-member cabinet paving way for the next crucial step - the vote of confidence for each minister.

The parliamentarians unanimously approved the formation of new cabinet during the Saturday's session; however, approval of portfolios of the ministers is awaiting a nod from the MPs.

Discussing the strength of the newly-reshuffled cabinet, the parliamentarians agreed at the existing number of ministers arguing that reducing the number of ministries would render hundreds of people jobless.

Dilating on procedure for the vote of confidence, the MPs said it would be conducted through secret ballot and each minister would pass through the process separately. The concerned minister would be allowed 15 minutes time to chalk out his ministry's future plan. He would reply 18 questions from the parliamentarians after which, the MPs would cast their vote in favour of or against him.

The parliament was told that all the MPs would go through the detailed information provided to them about the ministers till they cast vote on Monday.

In today's session, the parliament unanimously condemned the killing of chief of the Takhar provincial council this morning. In a speech, speaker of the lower house Yunus Qanuni reminded the government that attacks against legislators were continued across the country. He urged the need for appropriate steps to ensure security of elected representatives and common citizens.

"Security clouds Afghanistan's economic recovery" - Reuters 04/01/2006 By Phil Smith

KABUL - Natural resources, agri-business and power generation are the bricks with which to rebuild Afghanistan's broken economy but security risks in the country are a major obstacle to investment outside of aid plans, Central Bank Governor Noorullah Delawari said on Saturday.

Speaking in his Kabul office, the urbane ex-California commercial banker outlined his vision for a self-sufficient Afghanistan where bureaucracy did not stand in the way of building production capacity and import-substitution became the norm.

"My problem is with lack of capacity ... President Karzai is struggling with government agencies, some of the ministries are not doing the kind of work, the practical things, to remove obstacles and provide opportunities," he said.

Delawari returned to Afghanistan in 2002 after 35 years abroad which included over 25 years experience in commercial banking with 16 at Lloyds Bank California.

He has seen good times for his country, and bad, when the world was not interested, but says he is determined to use the aid now coming in to good effect.

"Take advantage of the good times while you are in the spotlight," he said. "I believe we can do it. We could take advantage of this window of opportunity in the next three to five years. "We have the resources to become at least 75-80 percent self-supporting, self-reliant."

After 25 years of war, poverty is still a major problem in the Afghanistan with only 13 percent of the population having access to safe water and 12 percent to adequate sanitation, according to the World Bank. Foreign aid has amounted to $11.9 billion since 2002 and the government has drawn up a five-year-plan targeting annual growth of 10 percent.

"The fact is we are a recipient of a very large amount of foreign aid, it brings a lot of foreign exchange, that's our current account, that's our revenue," Delawari said noting that Afghanistan's exports stand at about $500 million while imports are officially close to $3 billion. He thinks the figure probably exceeds $4 billion.

"In the short-term we need to improve our exports ... agri-business and hand-made products will create a lot of jobs and fairly good income for the country," he said. "Second, I believe Afghanistan could be a major player in exploring and exploiting our natural resources."

"We have potential to develop 25,000 MW of electricity ... We may use 10,000 MW, the rest could be exported to energy-hungry countries like Pakistan and India."

While Afghanistan's infrastructure needs significant attention, Delawari does not see it as a mission in itself. "Infrastructure is a subjective matter. Building roads, bridges and telecommunications and so on, those are fine ... but I want to spend more serious time on practical aspects of our growth, to remove obstacles, improve efficiency, to produce, to create jobs, move towards a more self-sustained economy."

"You have to create production opportunities. That's equally important to building roads and bridges." Gross domestic product (GDP) in Afghanistan has averaged 17 percent over the past four years, Delawari said. The IMF is forecasting 11.7 percent growth this year.

"I'm convinced we could be a big player in the region. We have quite a bit of natural gas ... We have iron ore and copper," he said, adding that transport links were being developed from ports in Iran and Pakistan to Central Asia.

But the impact of the Taliban insurgency in the south and east was having a severe economic impact, he said. "If we didn't have this security concern I could see really good investment opportunities, and investment coming."

He is also fighting with the Afghanistan's administrative ghosts as the government lays to rest old bureaucracies. "We have had layers of very diverse types of government ... each one of these governments have left their residue in the system. To deal with it, to remove it, takes a little time."

"This is an opportunity to me that I couldn't buy with any amount in America," he said of his job. "To do what you really want to do ... you're helping humanity, helping a country which was so beaten down."

NATO hopes to expand Afghan mission

CASTEAU, Belgium (AP) - NATO's chief operational commander said Friday he hopes the alliance's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan will be able to complete its expansion to cover the whole of the country by the end of August, several months before previous expectations.

U.S. Gen. James Jones said the force could then total as many as 25,000, up from the current 8,400. Many of the additional troops will be Americans who are already serving in restive eastern Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led counterterrorism mission but will switch to a NATO command under a British general.

"It's better to do it sooner than later," Jones told reporters at NATO's military headquarters in southern Belgium.

NATO's mission has been limited to the capital, Kabul, and the relatively peaceful northern and western regions. The alliance is due to expand into the more dangerous southern sector by the end of July with 9,000 extra troops mostly from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands. Canada has 2,300 troops in the country, most stationed in the volatile Kandahar province.

Jones said the next stage, taking the NATO's International Security Assistance Force into the east along the mountainous Pakistani border regions, could be completed within a month, since it does not involve mustering additional troops by simply a "re-badging" of U.S. troops already there.

The United States has about 16,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. The vast majority operate outside NATO's peacekeeping mission in a separate, U.S.-led operation focused on the hunt for remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and their al-Qaida allies. NATO officials said 6,000-10,000 of the U.S. troops will likely switch to the alliance's mission, while the rest will continue the counterterrorism operation.

Suicide attack on Afghan, coalition convoy

Kandahar (AFP) - A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled car near an Afghan and coalition military convoy, killing himself and prompting troops to shoot dead his accomplice, the military said.

US-led coalition troops also came under attack in eastern Kunar province, near the border with Pakistan, governor Asadullah Wafa said. He had no immediate details.

The suicide attacker exploded his vehicle near the military convoy in Maiwand district in the troubled southern province of Kandahar, army corps commander General Rahmatullah Raufi said on Saturday.

Troops opened fire on the bomber's accomplice as he attempted to flee on a motorbike, Raufi said. He said there were American troops in the convoy, but the US-led coalition could not immediately confirm the attack.

It was the third suicide attack in Kandahar in three days. On Friday an attacker killed himself and injured two Afghan soldiers in Arghandab district adjacent to Kandahar, Raufi said.

On Thursday a car bomb near Romanian and Canadian troops injured one Canadian soldier and seven Afghans. Similar blasts have been blamed on the Islamist Taliban movement that was removed from government in a US-led operation in 2001 after they failed to surrender Osama bin Laden for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar warned this month that insurgents would step up their campaign of suicide attacks, turning the country into a "flaming oven".

Afghan Forces Kill Six Taliban Fighters

Kandahar (AP) - Afghan security forces killed six Taliban fighters in an intense gunbattle in southern Afghanistan on Friday, an official said. Two Romanian peacekeepers were injured in a separate incident when a roadside bomb hit their armored vehicle, Romania's defense ministry said.

Also, NATO's chief operational commander said he hopes the alliance will be able to expand throughout the country by the end of August, several months earlier than previously expected.

U.S. Gen. James L. Jones said the force could total as many as 25,000 troops, up from the current 8,400. NATO's mission has been limited to the capital, Kabul, and the relatively peaceful northern and western regions.

The killings of Taliban fighters Friday came hours after a suicide car bomber died trying to attack an Afghan army convoy in the southern region, destroying one military vehicle. In the north, a militant was killed when a bomb he was carrying in a cart exploded, apparently accidentally, military officials said. No Afghan soldiers were wounded.

The two members of Romania's "White Sharks" battalion were on a mission with a Romanian-Canadian convoy about 20 miles southeast of the city Friday when the roadside bomb exploded. They were hospitalized with back and foot injuries that were not life-threatening, the Romanian defense ministry said in a statement. Romania has about 700 peacekeeping troops in Afghanistan.

No Afghan soldiers were hurt or killed Friday in fighting that killed six insurgents around three villages near the Sangin district of Helmand province, where government troops "quickly got back control" from Taliban fighters, who fled to nearby areas, said Mullah Amir Akhandzada, a deputy governor.

Suspected Taliban fighters also attacked a police patrol in Zurmat district of eastern Paktia province. One militant was killed and a policeman injured in the 15-minute gunfight that followed, said Mohammed Hashim Amiri, spokesman for the provincial police chief.

Taliban fighters, whose government was toppled as a result of U.S.-led attacks in late 2001, have warned that they would be stepping up attacks against Afghan and coalition forces this spring.

Jones said NATO's ongoing move into southern Afghanistan would boost security in a region that has been bedeviled with violence blamed on warlords and drugs barons, as well as Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

Many of the additional NATO troops will be Americans already serving in restive eastern Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led counterterrorism mission. They will switch to a NATO command under a British general.

The United States currently has about 16,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. On a March 6 visit to Washington, Jones suggested the NATO expansion could be completed by November, but said that if allies agreed, it should be done earlier.

"It's better to do it sooner than later," Jones told a small group of reporters over breakfast Friday at NATO's military headquarters in Belgium. The alliance is due to expand into the more dangerous southern sector of Afghanistan by the end of July with 9,000 extra troops, mostly from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands, Jones said.

The next stage — moving NATO's International Security Assistance Force into the east along the mountainous Pakistani border regions — could be completed by Aug. 31, he said. That would involve "re-badging" between 6,000 and 10,000 U.S. troops already in Afghanistan to place them under NATO command.

Those "re-badged" troops will not be replaced by new U.S. forces, meaning the U.S.-led force in Afghanistan would be reduced to approximately 6,000-10,000 mostly Special Forces troops performing counter-terrorism duties.

U.S. officials: Iraqi insurgents educating Afghan, Pakistani militants
BY JONATHAN S. LANDAY AND JOHN WALCOTT - Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Islamic militants in Iraq are providing military training and other assistance to Taliban and al Qaida fighters from eastern and southern Afghanistan and Pakistan's tribal areas, U.S. intelligence officials told Knight Ridder.

A small number of Pakistani and Afghan militants are receiving military training in Iraq; Iraqi fighters have met with Afghan and Pakistani extremists in Pakistan; and militants in Afghanistan increasingly are using homemade bombs, suicide attacks and other tactics honed in Iraq, said U.S. intelligence officials and others who track the issue.

Several Afghan and Pakistani "exchange students" volunteered to join the fight against American and Iraqi forces in Iraq, but were told to return to Afghanistan and Pakistan to train other militants there, two U.S. intelligence officials said. They and other officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because the intelligence is highly classified.

The intelligence suggests that if the trend continues, American forces, already contending with escalating violence in Iraq, could face the same thing in Afghanistan in the coming months, further complicating the Bush administration's plans to withdraw some troops.

"The worst case would be if the terrorists in both places are becoming more connected, and that they either want to take some of the heat off the jihadists in Iraq or that they figure we're stretched too thin in both places, so they're going to try to turn up the heat in both," one U.S. intelligence official said.

Al-Qaida's role in the contacts among militants from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan isn't entirely clear, said Seth Jones, a specialist on Afghanistan at the RAND Corp., a consulting firm that advises U.S. government agencies.

But he added that "there is substantial speculation that it is al-Qaida or affiliated groups" that are arranging the exchanges.

"I think there is absolutely no question that the partial evidence strongly suggests that there have been increasing contacts between Afghan insurgents and Iraqi insurgents either in Iraq itself or in Pakistan, the trails going in both directions," Jones said.

Militants traveling to or from Iraq mostly are making their way on routes used by drug traffickers and smugglers through Pakistan's province of Baluchistan, where government forces are facing a tribal insurgency, and southern Iran, the two American intelligence officials said.

They said there was no solid evidence that Iran's Islamic regime was arranging, financing or aiding what one of the U.S. intelligence officials called "terrorist Route 66."

But it's possible that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, other paramilitary groups or some local officials may be turning a blind eye to the traffic, perhaps in exchange for bribes, the officials said.

While religious and ethnic violence is swelling in Iraq, Afghanistan has witnessed a surge in attacks by the Taliban, many of them apparently aimed at testing NATO troops from Britain, Canada and the Netherlands as they begin taking over security duties in the south from American forces.

The U.S. intelligence officials said the relatively small number of Afghan and Pakistani militants going to Iraq were receiving a professional military education from foreign terrorists and Iraqis tied to al-Qaida, then returning home to train other fighters.

Tactics that have proved effective in Iraq, especially homemade bombs, suicide and car bombs, and secondary ambushes - in which troops, police and emergency workers are hit as they respond to an initial attack - increasingly are being used in Afghanistan, they said.

"Everybody accepts that there has been a qualitative shift in the sophistication of these attacks," said Marvin Weinbaum, a former State Department intelligence expert who's now at the Middle East Institute, a nonpartisan research center.

American officials suspect that the training and transfer of tactics have been discussed among Iraqi insurgents and Afghan and Pakistani militants in at least two recent meetings in Pakistan, said an expert who asked not to be further identified.

The Bush administration has been pressing Pakistan's leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, to develop a comprehensive plan to halt the infiltration of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan, several experts said.

In response, they said, Pakistan quietly has sought American assistance to seal parts of the 1,500-mile border of massive mountains and plunging valleys with a fence and minefields, an idea that one U.S. official called "absolutely idiotic."

Fighting intensifies in Afghanistan - By MURRAY BREWSTER

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) - After days of hunkering down in the face of rocket attacks and suicide bombers, Canadian troops aimed to regain the initiative in Afghanistan on Saturday, resuming a major operation deep into Taliban territory.

During the last few days, two companies of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, backed by armoured vehicles, artillery and coalition air power, have assembled in the hills around this desert city.

Over the next couple of weeks, hundreds of heavily armed soldiers will push into rugged terrain and craggy mountain passes that have been traditional transiting areas for Taliban fighters moving from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

"We are disrupting the Taliban," Col. Ian Hope, commander of the Canadian battle group Task Force Orion, said before the start of the operation. "We are also winning the confidence of the Afghan people slowly."

One village being targeted by Canadians, which cannot be identified for operational security, has for years witnessed dozens of armed insurgents moving through the area in broad daylight. In doing so, the Taliban often took provisions from villagers and conscripted young men for their fight against the internationally backed Afghan government.

Lately, that influx has slowed to four or five unarmed fighters who mostly travel at night, Hope said. In early March, the Canadians launched Operation Sola Qowel - the Pashtun word for Peacemaker - in the mountains north of Kandahar, establishing a forward base in Gumbad.

The aim of the latest mission - essentially Phase 2 of Operation Peacemaker - is to further extend Afghan National Army and coalition influence into districts such as Maywand, and to solidify their hold on Shah Wali Kot, where Hope said he wants to build "a sustained presence."

Earlier on, the Taliban had largely avoided combat, prompting some soldiers to christen this the "ghost war."

Over the last few days, however, Canadian troops and other coalition soldiers have faced a vicious series of assaults. They included two rocket attacks on the principle coalition base at Kandahar Airfield, a suicide car bombing, roadside explosives and a Taliban attempt to overrun a remote outpost in nearby Helmand province.

The brazen assault early Wednesday with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns on the newly established military outpost in Sangin district resulted in the death of Pte. Robert Costall. Coalition commanders conceded the attack was bigger and more intense than expected.

Despite the uncomfortable surprise, Hope said he does not expect any major combat with insurgents - only a continuation of the deadly hit-run raids that have characterized the guerrilla war to date.

"We did not anticipate any big battles with the Taliban, rather fleeting engagements," Hope said about preparations for the current mission. "Having said that, we are maintaining a combat posture. We are ready to fight at any time and will win. But our focus will continue to centre on our humanitarian and reconstruction work."

As the operation got under way, the violence throughout southern Afghanistan appeared to escalate. In addition to a rocket attack on Kandahar Airfield early Friday - the second in a week - a suicide car bomber attacked an Afghan security force patrol and a Romanian army convoy ran into what's believed to be a mine. Both attacks happened northwest of Kandahar.

Two police officers were injured in the suicide bombing and two Romanians were hurt in the mine attack. "Our thoughts are with the soldiers and Afghan security personnel," said Maj. Scott Lundy, a spokesman for the Canadian brigade commander.

"It's fair to say it's been a rough few days here at Kandahar Airfield and in southern Afghanistan. What I can also say is that we're determined to deal with the multiple threats that are out there. Our motivation and morale remain high."

Pakistan welcomes arrest of Afghan commander for killing 17 Pakistanis

ISLAMABAD, March 31 (KUNA) -- Pakistan Friday welcomed the arrest of an Afghan border police commander, involved in killing of 17 Pakistanis as suspected of being Taliban militants.

"We welcome the arrest and would wait for the outcome of the investigations, " Foreign Office spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam told the state-run Associate Press of Pakistan (APP).

"We have demanded the Afghan government to hold an inquiry into the killing and punish the culprits," he said.

Police commander Abdul Razzak of the Spin boldak border district was put in house-arrest on Friday as the Afghan authorities had already launched investigations at two levels.

The Afghan government will investigate the issue through its Interior Ministry while Governor of Kandahar where the killing took place will hold separate inquiry.

Qazi flays Islamabad’s Afghan policy

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad has taken strong exception to Islamabad’s failed foreign policy which has exposed our Western borders to the US attacks since Kabul initiated media an organized media drive branding Pakistan their number one enemy.

He was delivering Jumma sermon at Jamia Mansoorah on Friday. Qazi Hussain Ahmad said the military rule in Pakistan could not last long as the people were fed up with the anti-people policies.

Blasting government’s failure to protect life and property of countrymen, Qazi said, masses are taxed by the government but in return the government is an absolute failure in term of protecting the life of common man.

He said recent days have witnessed increase in the incidents of suicide. Qazi dispelled an impression that rise in suicide cases were result of poverty saying: "the moral turpitude, materialistic thinking and way wardness promoted through crime-rated movies, produced by created by the Zionists is the real cause behind such incidents."

Qazi Hussain Ahmad said country’s soft image could not be promoted by advancing mixed marathons. The inflated figures of unemployment, lawlessness are sufficient to expose the government’s claim about development in social sector and improvement of the standard of life of common man.

He regretted that General Musharraf’s policies against his won people unleashed in the form of military operations in tribal belt have made the Pakistan armed forces a sandwich between the resisting tribal people and US-led attacks from Afghanistan.

The JI ameer condemned rulers for their harsh attitude to crush the movement for protection of honour and pride of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and termed the 9/11 and latest series of sacrilegious caricatures a well-orchestrated plan to provoke the Muslims and brand their protests as extremism.

He said US and its allied are busying in unleashing more brutal terrorism in the form of their direct actions and tacit support to Israel and India to suppress the Palestinians, Kashmiris, Iraqis and Chechens.

He said global wave against injustice is gaining momentum and anti-war rallies are true manifestation of people’s anger against the neo colonialism. Sooner, he said, people of Pakistan will drive the military dictator out from the corridors of power after peaceful and organized show of peoples’ power as witnessed in Georgia.

Meanwhile, giving Jumma sermon at Jamia mosque Syed Maududi institute JI naib ameer Hafiz Mohammad Idrees condemned General Pervez Musharraf for furthering the cause of enemies of Islam. Muslim rulers, he said, are suppressing their people while they bow their head in front of foreign masters. He urged the orators to voice against the cruel policies of military regime which has made the life of common man worst.

Afghans in Pakistan cite shelter and jobs as deciding factors in return By Vivian Tan, In Peshawar, Quetta and Tarnol, Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Mar 31 (UNHCR) – Nearly 9,000 Afghans have gone home in the first month of UNHCR-assisted repatriation from Pakistan this year, citing jobs and shelter as key factors influencing their decision.

The UN refugee agency resumed its voluntary return operation to Afghanistan for the fifth year on March 1, after a break over winter. Since then, 5,218 Afghans have returned from North West Frontier Province (NWFP), 1,840 from Balochistan, 1,422 from Sindh and 362 from Punjab and Islamabad.

Amir Bibi, 30, travelled for more than seven hours on a truck from Lahore in Punjab province to reach UNHCR's Voluntary Repatriation Centre at Tarnol, just outside Islamabad. Speaking through the net of her blue burkha, she said she was returning to Nangarhar in eastern Afghanistan with her five children, brother and some cousins.

"My husband used to sell popcorn in Lahore. Three months ago, he went back to Jalalabad and became a security guard in a school," she said. "Everyone prefers her own country. We waited so long to go because we had no land or shelter back home. But now my husband has found a job, so we're off."

The sentiment was echoed by Akhter Mohammad, 45, in Karachi. "I have been to Afghanistan two times in the last 20 years to see if I can take my family to my homeland, where I would love to be buried," he told UNHCR staff before leaving for the border. "I didn't see any conditions in which I could keep my family safe, but a few days ago my parents in Paktika [eastern Afghanistan] asked me to return. They found me a job as a madrassah teacher."

Often, the refugees are joining family members who returned earlier. "My father is already building our house back home," said Attaullah, a street hawker in Quetta heading to Karg Bagh in eastern Afghanistan's Ghazni province. "It's not easy to be a refugee here. Now we have the chance to go back. I just hope my children will have schools to go to when we return."

Nur Ahmad is a daily-wage worker whose family has lived in Quetta for 20 years. "We are comfortable to go back. After all, Pakistan is not our home," he said. "Why now? We're missing our home, and we know this is the last year of the Tripartite Agreement."

The current Tripartite Agreement between Afghanistan, Pakistan and UNHCR that governs voluntary repatriation was scheduled to expire this March but was extended to December 2006. Under the current arrangement, each returning Afghan family receives between US$4-37 in travel grant (depending on the distance home) and each individual receives $12 in reintegration assistance.

Endorsed by the Tripartite Commission, the Pakistani authorities have decided to close Girdi Jungle and Jungle Pir Alizai camps in Balochistan, as well as Katchagari and Jalozai camps in NWFP by April 30 for security and development reasons. Afghans living in these camps can opt to return home with UNHCR assistance or to relocate to existing camps selected by the Pakistan government – Mohammad Kheil in Balochistan and 10 camps in NWFP.

Some 600 refugees have repatriated from the four camps in the last month; the rest of the 250,000 affected Afghans are still undecided.

"Of course I'll miss the camp," said Hazrat Ali, a 20-year-old tailor at Katchagari. "I was born here, grew up here and got married here. I don't really want to leave, but I have to go back to my country eventually." Sewing 100 to150 outfits a month, he plans to continue his business when he returns to his ancestral homeland in Jalalabad.

Some say they need more time. At Katchagari, Nangarhar native Saima Khan explained, "We will go back, but not yet. We don't have a home there. My brother's in the last year of university and we can't disrupt his studies. We need one more year."

At Jalozai camp, the reactions are equally mixed. While 20 families have already repatriated, others cite obstacles to their return. "Everyone loves his country but there is no peace and land is occupied by other people," said Abdul Manan, 37, from Jawzjan province in northern Afghanistan. "When I first came to Pakistan 30 years ago, I had one family. But now it has multiplied to 25 families."

Although business at his shoe shop in Jalozai is only "so-so, I make 800-1,000 rupees in sales every day, but the profit margin is very small," Abdul Manan has no immediate plans to leave: "We're here because there are no opportunities in Afghanistan. If there were, we would have gone long ago."

More than 2.7 million Afghans have returned home since UNHCR started assisting returns to Afghanistan in 2002. About 2.6 million Afghans are still living in Pakistan.

South Waziristan run by Taliban’

* Retired army colonel says Abdullah Mehsud honours his word, unlike the govt
By Iqbal Khattak

PESHAWAR: South Waziristan is under the “full control” of militants loyal to Baitullah Mehsud and Abdullah Mehsud, enforcing “Taliban-style” governance, said Col (r) Yakub Mahsud during a conference at Peshawar University on Thursday.

“Abdullah and Baitullah are controlling South Waziristan in the absence of a political agent,” he said in a talk on Pakistan-Afghanistan relations and the situation in the tribal areas. Militants are implementing a Taliban-style government and also influencing Tank district, he added. The retired colonel’s revelation comes after NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman denied the presence of Taliban in South Waziristan. Mahsud led the government’s side in negotiations with the Mehsuds in October 2004 for the release of kidnapped Chinese engineers.

“Abdullah and Baitullah are convinced the West understands only force - and their point is understandable. They have no faith in Muslim states, which are doing little to save Muslims from degradation,” he said. Military operations in the tribal areas are not in Pakistan’s interest, he added, blaming Islamabad for not negotiating a peaceful resolution to the Waziristan issue.

“Abdullah is willing to negotiate a peaceful solution and honours his word – unlike the government,” said Mahsud. However, he did not expand upon when the government “broke” its promises.

Fallen Cdn. soldier arrives at CFB Trenton - Apr. 1 2006 - var byString = ""; var sourceString = "CTV.ca News Staff"; if ((sourceString != "") && (byString != "")) { document.write(byString + ", "); } else { document.write(byString); } CTV.ca News

The body of a Canadian soldier who was killed in Afghanistan Wednesday has arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. Private Robert Costall, 22, died in a firefight with Taliban insurgents at an isolated desert outpost 110 kilometres northwest of Kandahar.

An honour guard of Canadian soldiers met the Airbus and stood at attention while eight soldiers carried the Canadian-flag draped coffin across the tarmac to a hearse. Members of Costall's family, including his wife Chrissy and his parents Greg and Bonnie Costell, were visibly upset at the scene.

Costall's wife wept over his coffin after it had been placed in the vehicle.

Costall leaves behind his wife and their one-year-old son Colin. They live in the Edmonton bedroom community of Namao.

Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier also paid their respects to the soldier at the Trenton, Ont. base.

The hearse was to carry his body to Toronto for autopsy, according to CTV's Roger Smith, who was at the scene.

Costall was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, but grew up in Sechelt and Gibson's, B.C., and served in Afghanistan as a member of the Edmonton-based 1st Battalion, Princess Patricia's Light Infantry. Costall joined the military two years ago and had been in Afghanistan for two months when he was killed.

One U.S. soldier was also killed and three other Canadian soldiers were wounded as they attempted to fend off a ferocious Taliban attack in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

The soldiers were stationed at what is known as a forward operating base when they were attacked. The battle lasted for hours.

Eight Afghan National Army soldiers were killed in an earlier Taliban attack in the area, and more than 30 Taliban insurgents are estimated to have been killed.

Since 2002, 12 Canadians have died in Afghanistan from road accidents, bombs and friendly fire from a U.S. fighter jet. Costall's relatives reportedly take some consolation from the fact he lost his life while doing a job he loved.

"There was never a doubt in his mind that what he was going over there to do was the right thing to do," Colleen McBain, his aunt in Thunder Bay told CTV recently.

Costall is the first Canadian soldier to die in actual combat in Afghanistan.

Recently, military commanders have acknowledged the fact they are in Afghanistan to hunt down and kill the Taliban, as well as help rebuild the nation.

In recent days, the main base at Kandahar Airfield has come under mortar fire, and insurgents have staged unsuccessful suicide bombing attempts.

Cadets to Raise Money for Afghanistan Children - SooNews Staff -- SooNews.ca -- Friday, March 31, 2006

The four Sault Ste Marie Cadet Corps, Royal Sovereign Sea Cadet Corps, Newman Navy League Cadet Corps, 2310 Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps and 155 Air Cadet Squadron, are planning to show their support for the Canadian Troops deployed in Afghanistan.

The cadets will be offering for sale, to the general public, yellow and camouflage “Support Our Troops” vehicle magnets with the Canadian Flag printed on them. The cost of these vehicle magnets is $3.50 and the proceeds from this sale will be used to purchase school supplies for children in Afghanistan.

The magnetic ribbons will be available at the Closing Ceremonies of the Memorial Gardens on April 09, 2006. The campaign will conclude on May 28, 2006.

The aim of the Canadian Cadet Movement is to stimulate interest of youth in the sea, land and air activities of the Canadian Forces. The cadets, who range in age from 9 to 18, urge the citizens of Sault Ste. Marie to purchase these magnets and display them on their vehicles.

The cadets are proud to help support the humanitarian efforts that our troops are providing in Afghanistan and look forward to helping the children who do not have the advantages that these cadets take for granted here in Canada.

Hopes and fears of Afghan Christians – BBC By Tom Coghlan – Kabul

For Afghanistan's tiny Christian community, a community certainly in the hundreds and probably the thousands, the Abdul Rahman case has brought both fear and hope.

Mr Rahman is starting a new life in Italy after his trial in Afghanistan for converting from Islam collapsed. He faced the death penalty if he had been found guilty.

In a house in Kabul, one of the city's Christian community described the ambivalent position they now find themselves in. The world now knows more of their existence. International pressure for increased religious tolerance, might, they hope, reduce their current vulnerability.

But the Rahman case has also pushed the question of Islamic apostasy to the fore in Afghanistan and focused the attention of the country's conservative religious parties.

"This case has shown that there are Christians in Afghanistan and that they have civil rights that should be respected," said the man. "In Afghanistan we Christians have nothing to do with politics. We love and respect everyone. We love and respect even our enemies, however they punish us."

He was accompanied by other Afghan Christians and spoke on their behalf. The man will not be photographed and asked that details that might help identify him be kept to a minimum.

The Christian community live with the threat of official harassment and attack by extremists. There have been gun and grenade attacks against churches in neighbouring Pakistan. "There is a very large threat against me," he said. "We hope that God will care for us."

But despite the reported hardline rhetoric of Afghan clerics during the Rahman case the Christian claims that many Muslim friends regard his conversion as a private matter. "Most of my friends know that I am a Christian," he said. "I have many friends who are mullahs and maulvis.

"Some of them say they like me more these days. Before I was a liar, I was cheating people and many other things. I don't do that now." The reasons for conversion in such a potentially hostile environment are of course varied and personal.

I also met one British Christian with longstanding links to the Afghan Christian underground, although not linked to the Afghan Christian interviewed for this article.

The British man argues that the actions of political groups during Afghanistan's civil war years and the harsh doctrine of the Taleban were factors in the conversion of some Afghans. "There is much disillusionment," he says. "People used to look to communism, now they look increasingly to Christianity."

The British man added that the compassionate actions of Christian-based aid agencies during the civil war and Taleban era in Afghanistan had impressed many Afghans. He denied that any aid agencies were involved in proselytization.

The Afghan Christian interviewed by the BBC was quick to point out that his own conversion took place before Afghanistan's civil war began. And he was also keen to stress his respect for Islam and Islamic beliefs.

But he said: "Some political groups use Islam as a vehicle for their advantage; to get power and to keep power. They are still using it. "These groups are discredited in Afghan society. They have used Abdul Rahman to promote their power. Afghans feel at ease with Christians. It is only a few political groups who don't."

He declines to detail the reasons for his own conversion but stresses the shared heritage of Islam and Christianity. "When I read the second section of the Koran, the one which deals with the birth of Jesus Christ to Mary, it affected me in a very profound way," he said. "My purpose is only to worship God. I find from this religion.”

Like the Christian community in neighbouring Pakistan, where the minority numbers some millions, Afghanistan's Christians say that a Christian community has always survived in their country.

"One of Christ's disciples came to Afghanistan," said the man. "When Islam came the churches were destroyed but some Christians still practised. There are Christians whose families have been Christian for many generations, but most converted recently," he said.

In Pakistan, Christians have pointed to the 1935 discovery of the so-called Taxila Cross, an apparent Christian symbol from the 2nd Century, as evidence to support accounts that St Thomas established a Christian community in South Asia.

This would counter the idea that Christianity in the region is only a recent product of British colonial influence. Proof of a long-established Christian community in Afghanistan might confer a measure of legitimacy to Afghan Christians similar to that enjoyed by the country's small Sikh and Hindu communities.

"I am very happy with my life and I see other Christians here very happy too," claimed the Christian convert. "In the future, what God wants will happen. But Christians are always with God and if we are killed we go to God."

Afghanistan: The Long Road Ahead - By Richard Holbrooke, April 2, 2006; B07

KABUL, Afghanistan -- In a region of Pakistan almost unknown to most Americans, a sort of failed ministate offering sanctuary to our greatest enemies has arisen. It is a smaller version of what Afghanistan was before Sept. 11, 2001, and it poses a direct threat to vital American national security interests.

Waziristan and North-West Frontier Province, where Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar are hiding, have become a major sanctuary in which the Taliban and al-Qaeda train, recruit, rest and prepare for the next attacks on U.S., NATO and Afghan forces inside Afghanistan. The most recent, on March 29, resulted in the deaths of one American and one Canadian soldier.

For the United States, the dilemma is huge. There is no chance that the training of the Afghan army and police will produce a force able to defend itself as long as the Taliban has sanctuary in Pakistan. Other than "hot pursuit," which is already permitted, the United States cannot invade Waziristan; such an operation would have little chance of success and would create an enormous crisis in U.S. relations with Pakistan. Leave Afghanistan, and the Taliban will return, along with bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The only viable choice is to stay, in order to deny most of the country to the enemy. That means an indefinite U.S. and NATO military presence in Afghanistan. No U.S.official will say it publicly, but the conclusion is clear: We will be in Afghanistan for a very long time, much longer than we will remain in Iraq.

The Afghans have a simple solution to the sanctuary problem: Washington should tell Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, that he must clean out the border areas -- or else. The Pakistanis have an equally simple response: They are doing the best they can in a historically lawless tribal area and, in cooperation with the Americans, have already arrested or killed hundreds of terrorists. The Afghans, who deeply distrust Musharraf, do not believe this; while grateful to the United States for freeing them from the hated Taliban, they think Washington is too easy on Pakistan, in part to make up for Pakistan's anger at the recent nuclear deal with India.

The biggest program of Washington and the European Union is the drug eradication effort. Almost 90 percent of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan. Official U.S. and U.N. reports claim that last year's programs reduced poppy production by 4 percent -- at a cost of close to $1 billion. That means the United States spent more than the entire national budget of Afghanistan to accomplish essentially nothing! Yet the failed drug policy is continuing without significant change.

If the drug program is the biggest failure, American-inspired efforts to give the women of Afghanistan a chance for a better life have the greatest potential. First lady Laura Bush deserves credit for making this a signature issue. Insisting that more than 25 percent of the seats in the National Assembly be reserved for women was risky but inspired. I met with 10 female legislators; they were more animated and more excited about their country than any of the men. If they form a women's caucus, a process that has started with encouragement from the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, they will become a powerful force for progress.

But let no one confuse progress for women at the higher levels (there is even one female provincial governor) with a significant change for the average girl or woman. Each time Afghanistan tried to advance the status of women, the men reacted with a strong backlash. They will do so again. Progress is distant and virtually meaningless to rural women. That striking symbol of Afghanistan, the head-to-toe covering of women that is known as the burqa, remains widely used everywhere. One vivacious legislator on the provincial council in Herat told me that while she did not like the burqa, she dared not let her "beautiful" 15-year-old daughter out without it. "The burqa," she said, "is my weapon." And self-immolation, forced on women by their families if they violate strict codes of conduct, is actually on the rise.

Herat, the only major city in the west, highlights the complexities of Afghanistan. Less than 100 miles from the Iranian border, it is enjoying an economic boom and almost no Taliban threat. But the economy is fueled in large part by Iran, which is visibly gaining economic and political influence in the region. So here is the ultimate irony of a situation filled with irony: Our "strategic ally" (in President Bush's phrase) in Pakistan is giving sanctuary to the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the east, while an "axis of evil" country is playing a stabilizing role in the west. In fact, of course, Iran is pursuing the same long-term strategic goal there as it does everywhere: to create a Shiite region stretching from Lebanon as far east as possible. Iran's growing strength in Herat can only heighten Tehran's sense that events are going its way these days.

With so much at stake, it is surprising that the administration asked for a pittance (about $40 million) for Afghan reconstruction in its recent supplemental, after the State Department and the U.S. Embassy requested about 10 times as much. Still worse, Congress compounded the lowered funding request by cutting the appropriation to $4 million.

Let us hope that these cuts were simply an aberration caused by Hurricane Katrina and bureaucratic confusion. Afghanistan will be difficult, and we must do a much better job on the ground. There is always a risk that our presence will, over time, create an Iraq-like anti-American xenophobia (in a country with a famously xenophobic history). But Afghanistan is not Iraq. Denying the country to our enemies is not a long-term strategy, but it is essential in the current phase of history, especially as Iraq stumbles toward an increasingly bleak future.

Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, writes a monthly column for The Post.

EDITORIAL: Taliban, Pakistan and modernity (Pakistan media)

President Pervez Musharraf has stated that Islam is compatible with modernity as modernisation means access to good education, civic government, development, justice and democracy, and not mere Westernisation of society. Just as his words were being digested by the nation, the “local Taliban” in South Waziristan executed a 25-year-old man under their idea of “Islamic” law or sharia. The “Taliban” had announced their government under the sharia earlier this month although the government has been in denial. The execution distinctly says that a part of Pakistan has turned its face away from modern times in imitation of the Taliban rule that brought grief to Afghanistan in 2001.

Other more ironic things happened the same day President Musharraf delivered himself of the wisdom about Islam and modernity. A Muslim convert to Christianity in Afghanistan was saved by subterfuge (it was said he was mentally sick and therefore couldn’t be held accountable under any law for converting to Christianity) by the Kabul government from being done to death, triggering protests from the Islamists who wanted him killed. The clerical view in Pakistan that appeared in the press, too, wanted the man killed. Then Pakistan’s top cleric, Mufti Munib ur Rehman, who chairs the moon-sighting committee on Eid days, came on TV and announced that “if a state is truly Islamic” it would have to kill the apostate.

Pakistan has all sorts of laws it cannot implement because they are completely out of tune with our times, but one idea that it has thankfully not made into a law is death for converting away from Islam. The cardinal principle behind this resistance to give death for conversion is the Quranic dictum La Ikrah Fi Din (no coercion in faith), but Mufti Munib ur Rehman misapplied the dictum without fear of reprimand simply because these days it is fashionable to fly in the face of the times and insist on endless recidivism of thought. He said the dictum applied to those non-Muslims who wished to convert to Islam. It was not permitted to force anyone to convert to Islam, but if any Muslim converted out of Islam he had to be asked to do tauba (expiation) or die. (In the case of women, they simply had to be confined till death.)

It was tacitly accepted by the TV channel that let Mufti Munib shoot off his mouth that Pakistan was not “truly Islamic”. One supposes that in his mind and those of his like-minded fellow-clerics only Mullah Umar’s Afghanistan was “truly Islamic” for five years without bringing about the utopia the Muslims were promised. Schools for girls were closed down, women were beaten up on the roads if they went out to find work, and men were thrashed if they didn’t keep beards or wore shorts. After so many executions no improvement in the character of the people was in evidence. They simply suffered and accepted that it was dog-eat-dog in a Hobbesian state.

Pakistan is signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which has an article allowing freedom of religion including conversion. The clergy has been demanding that death be awarded to those who convert out of Islam. So far only insane and otherwise disabled persons have announced their conversion; and their fate has been quite scary. Because of bias and sheer ignorance, such individuals are thrown in jail where they die mysteriously. The result is that no one in his right mind would announce any internal change of belief. On the other hand, Mufti Munib’s fatwa that no one should be forcibly converted to Islam is belied by cases where non-Muslims have converted simply to avoid discrimination and a second-class status. The latest case that came out in the press was that of our Christian singer A Nayyar who was beaten up by goons asking him to convert. No cleric came to his defence and a week later he was still receiving death threats.

The Islam that Allama Iqbal envisioned was in line with modern times. (He was opposed to the enforcement of hudood and abolition of riba.) These days the clergy — dominant by reason of its high public profile — is clear that democracy is not permissible under Islam. The MMA may be seeking pure democracy by ousting Pervez Musharraf but the dominant parties inside it favour a sharia of the Taliban. Some of the laws in force in Pakistan — for instance, the Blasphemy Law and the law of cutting hands and stoning to death — already fly in the face of modernity. We have to do much yet to enter the 21st century because we missed the bus in the 20th. *

SECOND EDITORIAL: Who destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas? (Pakistan media)

At Washington’s National Art Gallery, a film about the great Buddhas of Bamiyan was shown recently with the director of the gallery telling the audience that the Taliban had got Saudi and Pakistani engineers to destroy the two colossi. According to him, Osama bin Laden had persuaded Mullah Umar to pull down the “idols” even though the local Afghan population was opposed to destroying Afghanistan’s most famous world-heritage relics. The director said that the local Afghans had told him about the engineers, something he could not otherwise confirm.

Well, there is information and the Washington National Gallery should have known it. It came from the international archaeological community in touch with the situation in Afghanistan. It was finally printed in an Indian publication. In 2000, the Taliban destroyed two 5th century AD statues of Buddha in Bamiyan. One was 114 feet tall, the other 163 feet tall. It took 21 days for the job to finish. Egged on by Al Qaeda, Mullah Umar commissioned Arab, Sudanese and Bangladeshi demolition experts, as well as Chechen sappers, to do the job. Pakistan’s role was there but it was that of an approver. The Karachi-based Al Rasheed Trust, linked to the Banuri Town seminary, published a memorial calendar celebrating the deed. Alas, the opinion in Islamabad’s religious ministry also favoured the vandals. *

Foreign connection in Balochistan - T.K. SHEIKH (Pakistan media)

Pakistan's strategic position in the region is a dagger in the heart of its adversary that tries to capitalize on even the smallest opportunity available to defame and destabilize Pakistan.

Indian agencies remain on continuous hunt to cause maximum damage to the solidarity of the country. They provide safe haven to those, who in pursuit of their nefarious designs, fall prey to their trap. The recent subversive activities in Balochistan are on record proved to have a definite foreign connection, as our traditional adversary cannot afford to see its small neighbour turning in to an economic giant. 

There is no denying the fact that, over a period of time the people of Balochistan developed certain reservation about the role of federal government in granting funds for the development of the province. These reservations are true to some extent. The province is far behind as compared to other areas of Pakistan in socio-economic and political spheres. 

The federal government for the first time in the history is making concerted efforts to tackle the issues of deprivation and under development. Mega projects worth billions of dollars have been started to bring socio economic development in the province. 

Pakistan's time tested friend China is playing a partner's role in this uphill task. China has produced an economic miracle during the last decade. To maintain the momentum of its growth, China was also in dire need of (a) Transit trade route for its western region (b) Energy corridor to import oil from the Gulf region(c) Naval facilities or foothold on the Arabian Sea coast to protect its energy supply line from the Middle East. 

At present Pakistan government with the help of China is developing Gwadar into a deep Sea Port City. The first phase of the project has been completed and the second will be completed by June this year. Construction of Mirani dam project is in full swing, both the countries have revived dumped Saindak project.

Pakistan Frontier Works Organization has completed the long desired Coastal

High way project of 725 km in record time reducing the distance from Karachi to Gwadar from two days to just Eight hours drive.

Federal government has started with Vocational Training Programme of handling Port Operations for the people of Gwadar and surrounding areas. Construction of Cantonment is under way to bring in development in three remotest areas of Balochistan, Sui- Kohlu and Gwadar. 

To develop harmony between armed forces and people of Balochistan, vacancies in Frontier Corps and Pakistan Coast Guards have been increased for local population. Special teams are being dispatched as a routine in the remote areas of Balochistan to convince and motivate Balochi youth for induction in the Army and other Law Enforcement Agencies on exclusive reduced merit. 

In National Finance Commission Award (NFC) Balochistan share has been increased as for the other provinces. Action is in hand to construct Oil Refinery at Gwadar; agreement for the construction of Turkmanistan-Afghaniatan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project is in the offing. Last but not the least, there is also an agreement concluded between Pakistan, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan for development of Rail- Road to link Central Asia and Xin Jiang province of China with the Arabian Sea Coast. These projects will usher in an era of unprecedented opportunities and development for the people of Balochistan. 

All these mega projects worth billions of US dollars carry national and international dimensions. The completion of these projects will not only usher in an era of prosperity in Balochistan, but will also change the outlook of the region. 

The changing scenario of the province poses a serious threat to the vested interest of few Sardars, Who consider themselves godfather of the province, any one not toeing their line in their tribe is considered as traitor and is subjected to torture, expulsion or even death. 

The recent killing of 30 innocent women and children of Massori tribe, a sub tribe of Bugti clan is a vivid proof of policies towards their tribesmen. They in fact, want to cease the fortune of Balochi youth as of their forefathers.

They do not want their tribesmen to prosper in socio-economic and political spheres. They know for certain, that socio-economic development in their areas would be deathblow to their reign of terror. 

While remaining in power corridors for more than 50 years, not a single worthwhile development project for the local population has been launched by these Sardars. They want respect, privileges, and power for them, but not for the downtrodden people of their areas. 

Sensing the wind of change in Balochistan and their inability to further be-fool the people of their areas, they started crying for the rights of the Baloch, which indeed, they themselves denied to their own people. 

These Sardars launched an organized propaganda campaign to discredit the federal government but failed to bring people on the streets. They even resorted to subversive activities in collaboration with foreign agencies to create panic and impede the ongoing process of development in Balochistan. 

Regional and international powers, US, China and Russia on the one hand and India, Afghanistan and Iran on the other, have high stakes in Balochistan. But the question remains who will gain the maximum from a destabilized Balochistan, than the few Sardars? 

Pakistan borders those countries in the region, which have great strategic importance for the US. Though US will not be very pleased with the increased China's influence in the region and especially in the Balochistan, however under prevalent geopolitical scenario. 

When US - NATO prestige is at stake in Afghanistan fighting war against terrorism with far reaching implication, and US- European Union imminent head on collision with Iran (so called axis of evil) in the offing. Chances of US involvement in stirring up trouble in Balochistan are not plausible. Moreover Pakistan role in fighting against terrorism is very crucial for the US, which they understand well. 

China is the biggest stakeholder in terms of economic -political field; with worth billions of US dollars investment, wants a peaceful Balochistan. Iran would not want to stir up trouble in its own Balochi belt by covertly supporting the Nationalist Sardars. Pakistan support to Iran in Security Council on nuclear crisis is imperative. Pakistan-Iran-India gas pipeline, a seven billion dollars project, would be a dream coming true for Iran. 

Northern Alliance in Afghanistan has traditionally been opposed to Pakistan and close to India. Afghanistan government at present mostly consists of members of Northern Alliance, who were nourished and nurtured by Indian agencies during their awful times. Indian agencies have developed inroads in Afghan ministerial set ups. They for very obvious reasons will leave no stone unturned to create unrest in Pakistan. Development in Balochistan is a serious threat to Indian interest in the region. 

India does not buy the idea of a deep-sea port in the region in shape of Gwadar. Establishment of Jinnah Naval Base in Ormara Balochistan has already put Indian maritime potentials in jeopardy. India would not like to lose Central Asian markets after development of road-rail link from Gwadar to Central Asia. Construction of Turkemanistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline would be another severe blow to the Indian designs. India would make an utmost endeavour to commit Pakistani armed forces in internal rifts with a view to damage Pakistan commitment in fighting terrorism, and discredit Pakistan in front of International community. 

Consequent to the above it can be concluded, that a troubled Balochistan benefits India the most. Indian government statement on Balochistan, which was severely condemned by the Government of Pakistan, was indeed, an effort on the part of Indian government to show its support to the miscreants. 

We have to be extremely watchful in dealing with this "Dangerous Game" as rightly called by President Musharraf; government must make more deliberate efforts in unearthing the conspiracy theory against the people of Balochistan. The legitimate problems and grievances of people must be dealt with on fast track basis. A green prosper Balochistan is the future of Pakistan. 

Inside the First Amendment

In Afghanistan or American, Theocracy And Freedom Cannot Co-Exist - By Charles C. Haynes - First Amendment Center – North Coutry Gazette NY

A sigh of relief went up in Washington this week that could be heard around the world. Abdul Rahman, the Christian convert in Afghanistan who faced execution for renouncing Islam, has been released and spirited off to Italy (to avoid being killed by mobs).

A State Department spokesman pronounced the United States “pleased” by this development, diplomat-speak for “thank God this nightmare is over.” After the deaths of hundreds of Americans and the expense of billions of dollars, the specter of Rahman’s execution by the new democracy we helped create to replace the Taliban was an embarrassment the U.S. government could ill afford.

But Rahman’s release will not solve the larger problem – this incident is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg. According to Compass Direct, a Christian news agency, two other Christian converts have been arrested in recent days and several other Afghan Christians report police raids on their homes and places of work over the past month. This is nothing new. The small numbers of Christians who haven’t fled Afghanistan live in constant fear of harassment or worse.

It’s not just Christians. Freedom House, a non-government human rights organization, reports that Afghan journalists and others who dared to criticize Islamic law have been charged with heresy or blasphemy. As in the Rahman case, in the wake of international outrage the Afghan government found ways to spare these people and, in some cases, get them out of the country.

Rahman’s close call brings to the surface the fundamental flaw that threatens to destroy Afghanistan’s fledging democracy: On one hand, the new constitution guarantees freedom of religion and expression, committing the nation to upholding the Universal Declaration of Rights. On the other hand, the constitution states that “no law shall contravene the tenets and provisions of the holy religion of Islam.” The arrest of Abdul Rahman for apostasy is a stark reminder that Afghans must choose between religious freedom and theocracy. They can’t have it both ways.

I’m not suggesting that Islamic law or sharia is inherently incompatible with religious freedom. Moderate Muslims frequently quote a Quranic verse, “Let there be no compulsion in religion.” But sharia, like biblical law, is open to a wide range of interpretations. In the hands of fundamentalists, like Afghan Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazl Hadi Shinwari, sharia heresy and blasphemy laws are used to deny religious freedom. That’s why protection for universal human rights under a secular constitution is the only way to ensure freedom of conscience for people of all faiths and none in Afghanistan or anywhere else.

Americans, especially evangelical Christians, were first in line to condemn the theocratic oppression on display in the Rahman case. After all, most of us take as “self-evident” that religious freedom is the birthright of every person. We rely on the First Amendment to keep government from imposing religious law on the nation. Fortunately, the “holy commonwealth” of Massachusetts Bay Colony is a distant memory.

Or is it? Are Americans quick to see the evils of theocracy abroad, but slow to recognize creeping theocracy at home?

That’s my question after reading American Theocracy, a new book by former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips. In foreign affairs, environmental and science policies, and economic decisions, Phillips argues, the growing influence of what he calls “radical religion” on government threatens the future of American democracy.

At times Phillips indulges in hyperbole and overuses the “theocrat” label. The dangers he cites are nonetheless real. When leading politicians and some televangelists rail against the principle of church-state separation, claiming that it isn’t in the Constitution, they undermine public support for a secular nation that guarantees religious freedom for everyone.

The irony is inescapable. Some of the same American evangelicals who demand separation of mosque and state in Afghanistan and Iraq have repeatedly condemned the “myth” of “separation of church and state” at home. And some political leaders, like former Alabama judge and current gubernatorial candidate Roy Moore, call for a “Christian America” where the U.S. Constitution is interpreted in light of biblical law (their interpretation, of course).

To be fair, there are secularists who fuel this hostility to “separation” by misusing the term to push for keeping religion out of the public square. That’s not what the framers intended. Under the First Amendment, Americans have the right to bring their religion into politics or public life – but government is barred from imposing religion on the people.

The words “separation of church and state” may not be in the Constitution, but the principle is not only in the First Amendment (that’s what “no establishment” means), it is also the bedrock of religious freedom in America. That’s why in the United States, unlike Afghanistan, religious law cannot trump our constitutional commitment to universal human rights.

Kabul is a long way from Washington, D.C. But the dangers of radical religion shaping government policy may be close at hand. As James Madison warned during the battle to separate church from state in Virginia, “It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties.” Religious freedom and theocracy – whether Muslim or Christian – can never co-exist. 3-30-031

Four Lessons from Afghanistan’s Apostasy Trial - The Century Foundation, 4/1/2006

These unwelcome headlines last week covered dispatches not from Taliban-ruled territory but from U.S.-liberated Afghanistan, a country that President Bush last month called a “key partner” and “an inspiration” that will lead other nations “to demand their freedom.”

Abdul Rahman last week faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity and was only released for reasons of “mental health” (he has since taken asylum in Italy.) His escape from Islamic “justice” triggered outrage among conservative Afghans.

The case broadcast to the world that while Afghanistan may have held two elections, it remains a long way from joining the ranks of liberal democracies. It suggests four trends in Afghanistan’s reconstruction:

First, the case highlights a central tension in Afghan society: that between Islamic law, or sharia, and Western law. This conflict dominated negotiations over the 2004 constitution, a “compromised document” that in one article guarantees religious freedom while in another states that no law may supersede Islam.

According to UCLA legal scholar Khaled Abou El Fadl , because Western advisers feared “opening up the Pandora's box of Islamic arguments,” the Afghan constitution intentionally sidesteps conflicts between sharia and human rights law. “What was needed in the writing of the constitution was a fuller discussion of what sharia means, not just paying lip service to Islam,” argues Abou El Fadl. “All that was done was to postpone the issues.” Postponement has placed the verdict in the hands of the courts, which remain a stronghold for Islamic hardliners.

Second, the case is further evidence of the centrality of legal reform in post-conflict societies. In Afghanistan, efforts to establish rule of law have received far too little external support and funding. One result is that Afghanistan has no independent judiciary: judges are selected based on their connections to power holders rather than on their legal qualifications.

Failure to establish rule of law—from slow police training to a lack of prisons—has impeded reconstruction and reconciliation, as detailed by a May 2004 United States Institute of Peace special report. This is especially true in legal reform. Of the pillars of responsibility divided among countries under the “lead donor” model, the “justice sector” is perhaps the most contentious because it cuts to the heart of what Afghans think their society should be. Building an effective and independent judiciary cannot be achieved quickly or on the cheap, especially when legal reform depends on progress in political and security sector reform. The failure of the much maligned Italians is as much symptom as cause.

Third, the case reveals a growing antipathy to foreign occupation . The mass protests against Abdul Rahman’s release remind us that among Afghans there exists an influential minority that view Western influence as the problem, not the solution. Moreover, because many Afghans feel besieged by foreign influence—and by Christianity in particular—Rahman’s case has particular resonance: he was, after all, a Muslim lured from his faith by an aid agency.

Most Afghans have an ambivalent relationship with international aid workers and military forces. They recognize that these outsiders have provided security and critical services but have also brought with them brothels and alcohol. Last summer, coalition forces sparked nationwide outrage when they taunted the Taliban by burning their corpses in a violation of Islamic custom. Reports of United States abuses in Guantanamo and Bagram have not helped. While polls show that most Afghans still support the presence of foreign troops on their soil, these forces may soon overstay their welcome.

Finally, the failure to implement reform of the Supreme Court shows the weakness of President Karzai’s hand . His reform agenda has failed to deliver discernable results, especially in the regions where hardliners draw their support. This is in large part the result of a donor aid strategy that circumvents the Afghan government by delivering assistance through contractors and NGOs.

Karzai’s weak political position has made it necessary for him to enter tactical alliances with power brokers hostile to his (and his foreign backers’) goals. One is conservative cleric Fazl Hadi Shinwari, whom Karzai appointed to head the Supreme Court. Shinwari heads the Council of Islamic Scholars and is the nation’s leading religious figure but lacks a secular legal education (a constitutional requirement).

Shinwari is an ally of fundamentalist warlord Abdul Rasoul Sayyaf and, like Sayyaf, favors rolling back the advances of secularism and modernity. In 2003, he declared that Sima Samar, Karzai’s nominee to head the women’s affairs ministry, was ineligible to hold office because she had made statements opposing sharia law; the charges were eventually dropped but she declined the nomination in fear of retribution. Shinwari has made rulings against cable television and co-education, and stated in a recent interview that all women “should cover their whole body apart from their faces and hands." Predictably, Shinwari has promoted his allies to positions of power.

Karzai’s Western backers have long demanded that he replace the conservative clerics. But they may be asking for something he cannot deliver. Afghanistan still has one of the world’s weakest governments, a brittle, over-centralized state with little legitimacy in the eyes of its citizens.

Karzai finds himself on a tightrope between Afghanistan’s influential Ulema, or Islamic scholars, who have yet to render judgment on the Islamic legitimacy of the new regime, and his international supporters. “The international community is saying you must stop this,” notes Barnett R. Rubin, an Afghanistan expert at NYU’s Center for International Cooperation. “The Ulema is saying, ‘Are you an Islamic ruler?’”

In the past Karzai has defused conflicts with the judiciary through backroom compromises, or by declining to implement their rulings. This week he’s taken a more proactive stance, by presenting to the Parliament a new slate of ministers and Supreme Court justices. The president has indicated his desire to reform the Supreme Court—but will he have the clout to get Parliament’s approval?

This week’s “insanity” clause took Karzai—and Washington—off the hook. But their respite will be brief: Abdul Rahman will not be the last case of this sort. Depending on how the courts rule on future trials, Afghanistan could join Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan as one of a few states in which apostasy from Islam a capital crime. If that happens, donors will start wondering whether Afghanistan is still worth the blood and treasure they have committed.

Carl Robichaud is a program officer at The Century Foundation.

[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.]