In this bulletin:

• President Karzai Visits the Province of Takhar; Inaugurates the Taloqan-Keshm Road
• Australia to send 200 more troops to Afghanistan
• Pakistan detains many 'protesting' Afghans
• School set fire by militants in Afghanistan
• Bush may fly to Afghanistan from Pakistan
• Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran sign energy agreement
• Some See Hand of Former Governor Behind Muslim Clash in Afghanistan
• India to test TAP as alternative to Iran
• UNAMA press briefing 02.20.06 – Kabul
• Afghanistan asked to clamp down Indian consulates interference in Balochistan
• Five former Afghan Jehadi commanders to surrender arms to UN-supported unit
• Will Baluchistan fighting lead to its separation?
• Treading lightly
• Afghan cleric on a mission Praises Canadian role in Kandahar But urges troops to get to know locals
• We will bleed you, Taliban says
• 'Suicide-ready' Taliban lie in wait for troops
• You missed me - 4 times

President Karzai Visits the Province of Takhar; Inaugurates the Taloqan-Keshm Road - Date of Release: 20 February 2006

Arg, Kabul – H.E. Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, visited the province of Takhar today and inaugurated the Taloqan-Keshm road this afternoon.

During the inauguration ceremony the President said, “Three years ago, I had made a commitment to the people of Badakhshan to rebuild the Taloqan-Keshm road and today I am very pleased to be here and to inaugurate this long-awaited road. I hope the Taloqan-Keshm road will extend towards Tajikistan and Chinese borders to increase trade in the region.”

The 38-kilometer Taloqan-Keshm road with $25 million in funding from the World Bank will be completed by August 2007 and it will enable farmers to reach markets faster and increase people’s access to employment, schools and health care.

Prior to the inauguration ceremony, the President met with community representatives from the provinces of Takhar, Badakhshan, Kunduz and Baghlan which included women, tribal elders, clerics and government officials. The community representatives thanked the President for visiting the province of Takhar, and spoke about the current priorities in their provinces.

The President briefed the community representatives on the country’s latest situation and enquired about performances in reconstruction of these four provinces by Government offices in the past four years. The community representatives acknowledged the reconstruction projects in their respective provinces and asked the Government to concentrate on construction of schools and bridges and provision of electricity.

The President also praised the Provincial Reconstruction Teams under NATO/ISAF as a significant contributor to stability and reconstruction in Northern provinces of Afghanistan. 

Released by the Office of the Spokesman to the President - Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Australia to send 200 more troops to Afghanistan - Feb 20, 2006

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia will almost double its number of troops in Afghanistan by sending a 200-member reconstruction team to the country's volatile south, Prime Minister John Howard said on Tuesday.

The reconstruction team was due to deploy from late July and would work alongside Dutch soldiers as part of a NATO force preparing to expand peacekeeping and reconstruction operations.

The deployment will take to more than 500 the number of Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan detains many 'protesting' Afghans

PESHAWAR, Feb 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Police have arrested about 200 Afghans in line with violent protests arranged to denounce the blasphemous cartoons in the Frontier province.

Large number of people held a protest rally last week that later turned violent and claimed three lives and left hundreds injured in the provincial capital.

Afghan refugees stationed in various camps like Nasir Bagh, Hayat Abad, Kacha Garhi, Jalozai said that large number of Afghans had been arrested by the local officials.

They complained that police detained the Afghans from passengers' vehicle and put them behind the bars. Nisar, Sub-Headquarter Officer (SHO) in Hayat Abad, told Pajhwok Afghan News on Sunday that they had incarcerated about 40 people in line with the furore, and nine of them were Afghans.

He said the detainees would be presented before the court and would be grilled why they had inflicted damage to public properties. However, Rozi Khan, an Afghan hailing from Laghman province told this news agency he was caught unaware when he was on his way to consult a doctor.

By the same token, about 30 Afghans had been nabbed in Ormaro locality. A senior officer Arshad Khan said they had netted the refugees for taking part in violent protest. A resident of Jalozai camp said that police had apprehended about 60 Afghans from here.

Abdul Hadi, another Afghan refugee said the detainees were going to city in search of job when police tracked them down. Head of the Afghan camp Haji Dost had taken the issue with the Pakistani officials to release the detained refugees, he contended.

Regarding the wide-scale arrest of the Afghans, Dost said most of them were innocent and not involved in any enraged demonstrations. He said: "Police should not deal guilt and innocent alike, if some refugees had taken part in the protests, all should not be punished for their misdeed."

Some guests arrived here from Jalalabad, provincial capital of the eastern Nangarhar, to meet their relatives but confronted with the large scale arrest by the police.

Two of the arrested guests, detained in Peshawar jail, told this news agency that they might be freed on a Pakistani bail but they didn't know anyone in the city. Meanwhile, Senior Superintendent of Police Saeed Wazir said they had apprehended large strength of Afghan refugees in line with the furore.

School set fire by militants in Afghanistan

KABUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A school has been set on fire by some militants in Afghanistan's southern province of Helmand, a local official said Tuesday.

"Last night a boy school in Nadali district was set fire by some militants. All the books, desks and chairs have been destroyed, but no one was killed or injured in the blaze," Haji Mohammad Qasim, head of educational department of Helmand told Xinhua.

"There were about 1,200 students in the school. But after the killing of one of the teachers late last year, the school was shutdown," he added.

Late last year, suspected Taliban militants dragged a teacher from a classroom of the same school and killed him at the school gate in front of many students after he ignored their orders to stop teaching.

The provincial police chief Abdul Rahman Sabir said he and some policemen have been to the scene for further investigation. At least 15 schools have been set fire in Helmand since last year, and six other schools have been closed due to security reasons.

Taliban militants, strongly against education, have carried outa series of attacks on schools and school staffs especially in the southern area since last year. Enditem

Bush may fly to Afghanistan from Pakistan - By Khalid Hasan- Daily Times (Pak)02.21.06

WASHINGTON: President George Bush is likely to pay a quick, unannounced, land-and-take off visit to a military base in Afghanistan to meet US troops.

Although no dates for the president’s visit to India and Pakistan have so far been officially announced, word is out that he will leave Washington on February 28, the last day of the month, for New Delhi. After a state banquet and talks with Indian leaders, he will fly to Hyderabad on March 2, returning to the Indian capital possibly the same day.

He will arrive in Islamabad on March 3 and spend a day and a half there. The Afghanistan visit will take place during this day and a half, and will be extremely brief. Whenever an American president flies abroad, if there are American troops somewhere in the region, he always makes an effort to visit them to “keep the flag flying” and to lift their morale.

Meanwhile, the White House is said to have chosen one Indian and one Pakistani print and television journalist each for an exclusive interview with the president on February 22. The dozen or so Indian and Pakistani correspondents based here have been remonstrating with the White House to accord all of them the opportunity to meet the president before he sets out on his historic South Asian trip. So far, their efforts have borne no fruit. The intervening weekend and the federal holiday on Monday have not helped either.

Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Iran sign energy agreement

DUSHANBE, February 21 (Itar-Tass) - - The energy ministers of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran have signed a tripartite agreement on cooperation in the energy sphere on the results of their talks in Dushanbe on Tuesday, press secretary of the Tajik main energy department Nozir Yedgori told Itar-Tass.

According to the press secretary, one of the main directions of cooperation is the construction of the high voltage electric power line from Tajikistan to Iran through the territory of Afghanistan. Electric power for the electric power line will be generated at the Sangtudin hydro power plant GES-2 which is under construction on the Tajik River Vakhsh.

A ceremony of the beginning of the GES-2 construction with the participation of Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov, Iranian Energy Minister Parviz Fattah and Afghan Minister of Energy and Water Recourses Ismail Khan was held here on Monday.

GES-2 with the capacity of 220 megawatts is to begin generating electric power in 3-3.5 years. The Iranian side is investing in the joint project 180 million dollars, and the share of Tajikistan amounts to 40 million dollars.

As Emomali Rakhmonov said at the ceremony, part of the imported electric power will be will be directed to Afghanistan. The Tajik leader welcomed “the new in principle stage of bilateral Tajik-Iran relations.”

Some See Hand of Former Governor Behind Muslim Clash in Afghanistan

By Griff Witte Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, February 21, 2006

HERAT, Afghanista n -- It was one of Islam's holiest and most emotional days, especially for Shiite Muslims. At the Mehdi Buzerk Mosque, about 250 men stood in the courtyard, beating their chests in ritual rhythm, when a crowd was heard outside chanting: "God is great! Down with the Shiites! Down with the governor!"

Most of the worshipers fled, but some climbed onto the mosque's roof and watched in horror as a mob of Sunni Muslim rioters swarmed into the compound, torching a room where Korans were stored, overturning caldrons of food being cooked for the poor and desecrating a shrine to the region's war dead.

"If I hadn't run away," said Ataullah Najafi, 55, the mosque's caretaker, "they would have definitely killed me." The riot that consumed this normally peaceful city near the Iranian border on Feb. 9, leaving four people dead and at least 120 injured, appeared at first to be a sectarian religious conflict. But residents said there was much more to it than that.

"This is not the work of Sunnis or Shias," said Ghulam Hussain, 35, a car dealer, as he surveyed the damaged Shiite mosque. "This is the work of people who have lost power and want to get it back."

Many fingers pointed to Ismail Khan, the former provincial governor and militia commander who once ruled Herat as his private fiefdom. Local officials and international observers said the violence was probably orchestrated by Khan in a possible move to return to power -- less than 18 months after he agreed to leave office in a well-publicized deal brokered by U.S. diplomats.

Equally worrisome, observers said, is the apparent unwillingness of the U.S.-backed president, Hamid Karzai, to challenge Khan. When Khan was forced from Herat and given a second-tier cabinet post in late 2004, the move was touted as proof of the democratic government's ability to stand up to regional strongmen.

Since then, Karzai has sidelined a number of local militia leaders.

But now, Karzai seems to be ceding control back to one of Afghanistan's most formidable warlords, asking him to head a commission investigating the Feb. 9 incident. After rushing here from Kabul, Khan -- a Sunni with a majestic white beard -- spent a week in an ornate hilltop mansion, receiving delegations of notables and informants.

"Ismail Khan still has power in Herat," said Col. Dario Ranieri, who commands NATO-led reconstruction efforts in the city. "President Karzai knows that he has power."

Karim Rahimi, a spokesman for Karzai in Kabul, defended the choice of Khan to lead the riot probe. "He is an elder of Herat, and it was the president's judgment that he can be helpful to the situation," Rahimi said.

But Khan's return could be anything but helpful. Many Shiites here said they still feared for their lives, and local Sunnis have threatened further sectarian violence. The current governor, a Shiite, has offered to resign.

Khan's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Accounts by local security officials, religious leaders, international aid workers and witnesses to the recent violence suggested that it was highly coordinated and intended to precipitate a crisis that would put Khan, or one of his supporters, back in office. The ringleaders were described as some of the same loyalists who organized violent protests when Khan was removed from power.

The day of the riot began with a show of good faith between Islam's main branches. Sunnis and Shiites gathered for an Ashura holiday service in the blue-tiled, 800-year-old Friday Mosque. Ashura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the prophet Muhammad's grandson, is observed by both branches but is especially holy to Shiites, who mark the day with ritual self-flagellation.

But toward the end of the service, the goodwill evaporated. Outside the mosque, a cry went up that several Shiites had just destroyed a sacred Sunni banner. No one has verified whether this actually occurred, but reaction was swift. Seemingly out of nowhere, hundreds of young Sunni men appeared wielding sticks and carrying posters proclaiming, "Death to the Shiites."

In the past, residents said, there had been little violence between Sunnis, who make up a majority of the population, and Shiites, who have strong ties with nearby Iran. Tensions increased six months ago when Karzai appointed a Shiite governor. The city was already on edge after a march by more than 10,000 residents protesting the publication in Europe of cartoons depicting Muhammad.

Other Sunni groups materialized and made their way toward Shiite camps. At some sites, Shiites were ready with grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles. Shiite soldiers and police lent their weapons to Shiite civilians, witnesses said.

Sunni authorities did the same for Sunni civilians. Vicious street fights erupted across the city. As ambulances roared through the streets picking up victims, groups of men chased them to the city hospital, where the men beat arriving patients. The hospital's dingy corridors echoed with shouts and cries, and the staff was overwhelmed trying to treat more than 100 injured.

"A surgeon's hands are not supposed to shake," said Raoufa Niazi, the hospital director. "But mine were shaking." Three patients died at the hospital that day; a fourth later succumbed to massive head injuries.

Several days later, a dozen patients were still hospitalized. Yar Mohammed, 22, a laborer, said he joined an attack on a Shiite camp when a friend told him about the desecration of the holy Sunni banner.

"If this happens 100 times more in the future, I will participate," he said, his stomach bandaged where shrapnel from a grenade had pierced his intestines.

But authorities said Mohammed was probably a pawn in a game that had far more to do with politics than religion.

"Ismail Khan just wants to show to the government that if he's not here, the situation will be like this," said Molwi Khudaidad Saleh, a Sunni cleric who leads Herat's religious council. "He is thirsty for the job of governor. But if the government appoints him, the people will not accept him in Herat. He's a very cruel guy. He's a killer."

Khan, who is in his late fifties, still has many supporters, and it is easy to see why. Herat is Afghanistan's most affluent city and a renowned cultural center. Its buildings gleam with new glass, parks dot the landscape and beggars are scarce.

Most of that is the result of Khan's three-year rule following the fall of the Taliban, when he used customs duty revenue from the border trade with Iran to rebuild the city of about a quarter-million people. He is also revered as the anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander who twice helped liberate Herat from repressive rule.

"He saved Herat. He saved the honor of the Herati people," said Abdullah Satari, 40, who sells cement. Others see in Khan a ruler no less repressive than the Soviets or the Taliban. Human rights groups have frequently criticized him for abusive practices, and women's rights leaders say his reign was marked by restrictive religious edicts.

The current governor, Seyyed Hussein Anwari, was so disturbed by Karzai's appointment of Khan that he offered to resign. Meanwhile, Khan and the six other commissioners have been sifting through the facts and hearing from witnesses, though many Shiites said they were afraid to testify.

"He says he doesn't have any desire to be governor again," said Nader Ali Mehdavi, a Shiite cleric who is also on the commission. "But in the back of his mind, only God knows."

India to test TAP as alternative to Iran - UPI 02/21/2006

NEW DELHI - India is ready to test the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline as an alternative to energy supply from Iran. The Times of India newspaper said Monday India is prepared to test the viability of a $3.5 billion TAP gas pipeline as an alternative to the $4 billion energy lifeline from Iran, currently subject to the political storm over Tehran's nuclear program.

The news report said junior Indian Oil Minister Dinsha Patel would lead a delegation to the ninth meeting of the TAP steering committee this week in Turkmenistan's capital, Ashgabat.

Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have long sought India's participation in the gas pipeline. New Delhi agreed to consider the offer last June. India is participating in the meeting to weigh the project's geopolitical, financial and technical aspects. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said India's participation in the TAP is vital for its viability.

India agreed to participate after Karzai made a formal request to then-Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar. India expressed concerns about the security of the gas pipeline, as it would pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan and be at risk from militant attacks. To allay these fears, New Delhi has asked the participants in the project to come up with two alternative plans to ensure the safety of the pipeline.

UNAMA press briefing 02.20.06 – Kabul

Talking Points - New SRSG Tom Koenigs to meet the media

As you will know, Tom Koenigs, the new Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, took up his posting here in Kabul last Thursday. Over the past few days he has met President Karzai; the Speaker of the Upper House of Parliament, Sebghatullah Mujadidi; members of the diplomatic community, including the ambassadors of Japan, Italy, India, Canada, the UK, and US; and heads of UN agencies and UN staff.

Mr. Koenigs has placed meeting the media among his priorities for this – his first full week in Afghanistan. Press representatives are therefore invited to a media roundtable with Mr. Koenigs, scheduled for this coming Thursday (February 23).

Afghanistan Compact gets Security Council’s endorsement

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously endorsed the Afghanistan Compact launched at the recent London Conference. The council, during a meeting on February 15, also welcomed pledges of USD $10.5 billion made at the international meeting for the interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy.

The Afghanistan Compact sets out a comprehensive five-year agenda for sustained international engagement with Afghanistan to help consolidate democratic institutions, curb insecurity, control the illegal drug trade, stimulate the economy, build law enforcement and rule of law, provide basic services to the Afghan people and protect their human rights.

In its unanimously adopted resolution, the Security Council also welcomed the interim-Afghan National Development Strategy and the updated national Drug Control Strategy presented at the London conference and encouraged additional support for it.

The Council also welcomed the adoption by NATO of a revised Operational Plan that will allow for continued expansion of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, across Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s female parliamentarians in landmark meeting

The United Nations is organizing a landmark meeting later today of female members of both houses of parliament. Dozens of participants are expected to discuss their unique experience since the National Assembly was inaugurated almost exactly two months ago on December 19, 2005. The parliamentarians will also look at the historical role woman have played as scholars of Islam.

Fauzia Kofi, second deputy speaker of the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house, is scheduled to make an address at the meeting, which is being co-organized by the United Nations Development Fund for Women and the United Nations Development Programme.

The gathering is the first of its kind to be held in Afghanistan and the UN hopes it will be repeated on a regular basis. The closed meeting will be held at the Hotel Heetal between 4pm and 6:30pm. Invitations have been extended to all 68 female members of the lower house, and the 17 women in the upper house.

UNOPS to hold two-day Afghan-only Contractors Conference

With millions of dollars in road construction work to be delivered The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) will be holding a two-day conference for 40 Afghan construction companies who have worked with them in the past.

The conference will cover UNOPS’ new contract structure and technical specifications, as well as private sector development opportunities.

The conference, which will be entirely in Dari and with English translation, is expected to set the standard for how the UN operates in host countries and will also be an opportunity to hear about the projects UNOPS have for the coming months. Company directors and their senior engineers will be present.

Paktya commanders to hand over major weapons cache

Five commanders in Paktya province are scheduled on Tuesday to ceremonially hand over a major arms haul as part of the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups process. A substantial 15 tons of ammunition and more than 30 weapons will be surrendered to the authorities at a ceremony in Gardez.

The ceremony will be presided over by Paktya Governor Hakim Tanaiwal and attended by tribal leaders, former mujahedeen commanders, provincial shura members and mullahs, as well as representatives of the Afghanistan New Beginnings Programme, UNAMA and the local Provincial Reconstruction Team.

The arms and ammunition will be transferred to Pul-i-Charki central weapons collection point. They will be used by the security forces of Afghanistan if serviceable and destroyed if in poor condition.

By voluntarily surrendering their weapons, the five commanders are both complying with laws governing the possession of weapons in Afghanistan and actively supporting the DIAG process, which is aimed at consolidating peace, the rule of law and prosperity in Afghanistan.

Fair Trial Workshop under way in Kabul

A Fair Trial Workshop by the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law is currently under way at Kabul University’s Faculty of Law.

This is the third time such a workshop has been held for the practice of fair trials in Afghanistan. In the two previous workshops a manual on fair trial standards was used with widespread success. It has recently been updated with new cases.

The workshop, which is being held exclusively in Dari, comprises role-playing and case studies among the 120 participants. Judges and state attorneys from Kabul are also lending support.

Afghanistan asked to clamp down Indian consulates interference in Balochistan - Tuesday February 21,

ISLAMABAD – apk Tribune: Pakistan has formally handed over evidences of Indian Secret agency RAWs involvement into affairs of Balochistan and tribal areas to the Afghan president Hamid Karzai during his visit to Pakistan and demanded that that RAWs anti Pakistan activities through the Indian consulates in Afghanistan be contained.

Reliable sources told Online that that during the talks between the two presidents , the issues of security , terrorism , violation of border and activities of AL-Qaeda and Taliban were discussed meticulously.

Pakistan gave in detail presentation to Karzai at Aiwan-e-Sadr on the activities of Indian intelligence agency RAW against Pakistan through their consulates which are established in four Afghan cities Mazar-e- Sharif , Jalalabad , Kandahar and Herat .

Pakistan presented some evidences to the afghan president which clearly showed that RAW was helping those Baloch Sardars that were fighting against the government and have created law and order problems in Balochistan specially in Dera Bugti , Sui and Kohlu.

It was told that training camps established by Mari and Bugti had been getting large cache of weapons which include Kalashnikovs , PRG-7s , land mines and hand grenades through RAW agents based in Afghanistan.

The cache were loaded on mules and transported to Naushki and later shifted to training camps in double cabin. Afghan president was also informed that an uneasy peace had returned to Waziristan before a handful of Baloch sardars chose to jack up their activities to bomb the gas pipelines and attacking various government and commercial installations.

In this situation , when the law enforcement agencies retaliated , the Indian government issued a statement expressing concern over situation in Balochistan.

In the presence of president Gen Pervez Musharraf , high officials of national security agencies told afghan president that the calm was also disrupted in Waziristan , which started witnessing an alarming upsurge in the militant activity .

The secular Baloch sardars had started joining hands with the religious Taliban and al-Qaeda and Indian RAW agent operating from consulates in Afghanistan.

Sources told that afghan president , after listening this briefing assured Gen Musharraf that he was not aware of this situation but he shall in no way allow any body to harm the Pak-Afghan relations and all steps would be taken to stop the interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan. He also assured that he would raise this issue with the Indian government also.

Five former Afghan Jehadi commanders to surrender arms to UN-supported unit – UN News Center

20 February 2006 – Five former Jehadi commanders in Afghanistan are expected to surrender 15 tons of ammunition as well as over 30 light and heavy weapons to the Government weapons programme supported by the United Nations, that programme announced today.

The weapons, from the southwestern Paktya province, are being surrendered under the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups (DIAG) programme in association with the provincial Governor.

According to the DIAG announcement, they will be transferred to a central weapons collection point where they will be under the surveillance of the Afghan National Army (ANA). They will be either used by the security forces or destroyed if not serviceable.

The DIAG process, launched in June 2005 as the second phase in the demobilization and disarmament process, has so far collected 17,655 weapons as well as 25,760 pieces of boxed and 72,253 pieces of unboxed ammunition.

Of those weapons, 4,857 have been handed over by 124 candidates to the parliamentary and provincial council elections, the programme said.

Will Baluchistan fighting lead to its separation? - M V Kamath | Sunday, 19 February , 2006 - Sify, India

Baluchistan is again in the news, but for the wrong reasons. Truth to tell, it has not been as much in the news as it should have been. And it is somewhat intriguing that a civil war now being fought in Pakistan’s largest, and most alienated province, is not being covered fully, either by the Western news agencies or by the media, both in Pakistan and in India. The silence of the Western news agencies is particularly stunning and suggests a deal between them and President Pervez Musharraf’s government in Pakistan. The current war, now being fought, is the fifth of its kind.

Baluchistan’s third civil war began in 1962 and ended in 1968 and was fought between Baluch tribals—Muslims all—and Pakistan’s para-military forces. It ended, expectedly, with the Baluchs taking huge losses in livestock through shelling and air attacks. This, as Stephen Philip Cohen once noted, was merely a prelude to a far bloodier war at the peak of Baluchi separatism during the insurrection of 1973-75.

This, the forth war, had been sparked by then Premier Zulfiqar Ali Butto’s dismissal of two local administrators, namely the powerful and respected Mir Ghaus Baksh Bizengo and Sardar Ataullah Khan Mengal, on grounds that they were arming their followers.

The Baluchs could only field some 1,000 guerrillas armed with ancient rifles. But the Baluch casualties were three times that number, while 7,000 Baluch families were forced to take refuge in Afghanistan. The current war, the fifth of its kind, began, innocuously in January 2003 when four Pakistani soldiers were alleged to have raped a doctor employed by Pakistan Petroleum at the gas field believed to be among the largest of its kind in the world. When the authorities failed to file a case, Bugti tribesmen attacked the gas field, but the fighting tapered off.

About that time, Musharraf issued a warning that if the insurgents continued fighting, he will hit them so hard “they won’t know what hit them”. That comment did not help matters. The latest eruption of warfare started when the Baluchis made a rocket attack on a rally held by Musharraf in the town of Kohlu, last month. A day later, according to reports, insurgents opened fire on a helicopter carrying the Inspector General of the Frontier Corps Baluchistan, Major General Shujaat Zamir Dar and his deputy.

What followed was routine. Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, backed by helicopter gunships launched a full-scale attack on the insurgents and one can be assured that when the fighting ceases—if it ceases—there will be heavy Baluchi casualties. India, which usually maintains a discreet silence, last month, expressed concern over what is going on in Baluchistan only to be told by Pakistan to mind its own business.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Aftab Ahemed Sherpao charged India with “supporting the miscreants” and Pakistan’s former army chief Aslam Beg and a former chief of ISI, Gen Hamid Gel (retd) went further to charge both India and the US with fomenting trouble in Baluchistan.

“The terrorists who are fighting in Baluchistan are friends of India and foes of Pakistan. That is the only reason the Indian Government has expressed concern against military operations in the province,” Gul said.

In the first place, may it be said that India’s official comment has been the minimal. In the second place, there is no reason why India should not make any comment considering that Pakistan has been actively interfering with India’s internal affairs in Jammu and Kashmir since 1946. Indeed, though India has not been helping the Baluchi rebels with arms and equipment, it would be entirely within its rights considering what jihad forces have been doing in Jammu & Kashmir.

It is about time India made that clear to Islamabad. But it pays for Pakistan to make wild and vile charges against Delhi. Thus Musharraf himself told the TV Channel CNN-IBN that India was providing the Baluchi nationalist forces, which he said were “anti-government and anti-me”, with “financial support and support in kind”. Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, who is now leading the Baluchi insurgents, has ridiculed this.

He told The Hindu in a telephonic interview: “What is the need for us to take anything from anyone? The weapons we are now using flowed into this region when the United States financed the jihad in Afghanistan. It was the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) which distributed them to Afghanistan, Iran, Jammu and Kashmir, and to us in Baluchistan.”

Apparently the ISI-distributed weapons are easy to get, besides being cheap in the bargain. The point, however, to be noted is that Baluchi tribal leaders are fighting on their own and don’t need Indian support. They have been fighting consistently in the past because they have a distinct culture and tradition and an autonomous history that does not permit Pakistan, in essence Punjabi, military dominance.

As in the case of former East Bengal, Baluchistan has no cultural affiliation with Pakistani Punjab; indeed Baluchis, resent the Punjabis’ domination and Islam is not and never has been a binding factor. Baluchistan, incidentally, constitutes 42 per cent of Pakistan’s landmass and if Baluchistan succeeds in winning independence, as did East Bengal, then it won’t be long before Sindhis, too, claim independence status.

And that would reduce Pakistan to a joke. Musharraf is acutely aware of it. But will the Baluchs succeed? If Stephen Cohen is to be believed “Baluchistan is an unlikely candidate for a successful separatist movement, even if there are grievances, real and imagined, against a Punjab-dominated state of Pakistan” because “it lacks a middle class, a modern leadership and the Baluchs are a tiny fraction (about 5 per cent) of Pakistan’s population, and even in their own province are faced with a growing Pashtun population”. Also, according to Cohen, “neither Iran nor Afghanistan shows any sign of encouraging Baluch separatism because such a movement might encompass their own Baluch population”.

Even worse, Baluchs have little domestic resources. In the circumstances it would make no sense for India to encourage Baluchi separation unless the idea is just to keep the Pakistan Army engaged. That by itself is not a bad idea. Indeed it should be prescribed tactic to tell Islamabad that interfering in the internal affairs of one’s neighbour is a game at which two can play. If Pakistan claims that Jammu and Kashmir has a right to autonomy if not independence, why should not Delhi insist that the same right cam also be claimed by Baluchistan and with greater justification? Meanwhile, what is clearly evident is that Jinnah’s Two Nation Theory stands entirely exposed. Think this over, General Musharraf.

Treading lightly - EDITORIAL Los Angeles Times 2.21.06

AFGHAN PRESIDENT HAMID Karzai visited Pakistan last week to address a relatively new and potentially dangerous problem: militants trained and funded in Pakistan to become suicide bombers in Afghanistan. Although the trip highlights growing tensions between the countries, it shows that Karzai is prepared to take a stronger and more realistic approach to the problems facing his beleaguered nation.

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan deepened after 9/11, when the Taliban sought refuge in Pakistan, and have increased in recent months as Karzai and other prominent Afghan leaders have vocalized their concerns about cross-border activity.

Since November, there have been 15 suicide bombings in Afghanistan, with Pakistan-based Taliban members taking credit for most. The Afghan army — one of the successes of the reconstruction — hasn't been able to quell the violence, and last year was the deadliest for American and coalition soldiers.

Now the protests against cartoons of Muhammad have spread into the country, with protesters threatening to join Al Qaeda if Karzai fails to shut down the French, Danish and American embassies.

Pakistan has its own complaints. Rockets and artillery fire from Afghanistan have killed Pakistani civilians, and the U.S. killed at least 13 in an attempted hit on Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman Zawahiri. President Pervez Musharraf is also concerned with the U.S. and Afghanistan strengthening ties with India, a nuclear rival of Pakistan's that has about 400 soldiers on the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Karzai treaded lightly with Pakistan, calling Pakistanis "our brothers" in a news conference Saturday in Kabul. Both countries pledged to cooperate more closely against terrorism, with Karzai giving detailed information to Pakistan on wanted Taliban members.

The weekend before his trip, Karzai said: "We will not be refugees again. We own this country." He has spoken out against Afghanistan's narcotics production, despite his economy's (and some of his fellow politicians' personal) reliance on it.

The Afghan president, who has been critical of the U.S. military's lack of sensitivity in his country, is walking a fine line, eager to work with neighboring states while projecting a sense of firmness. The backdrop to everything he does is persistent domestic sniping that he is a puppet of the U.S., criticism that helped elect former Taliban members and warlords who were sworn in to parliament in December.

Karzai is smart to seek improved ties with Pakistan, even if there may be limits to how far that nation will go to help in the crackdown on Al Qaeda.

Afghan cleric on a mission Praises Canadian role in Kandahar But urges troops to get to know locals Feb. 20, 2006 MITCH POTTER Toronto Star

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan—He is a friendly neighbourhood mullah who wants nothing more than to shake hands with a Canadian soldier. And Haji Kari Saeed Ahmed says most Afghans feel the same.

But even Ahmed, an Islamic scholar from Kandahar's Ghus-e-Saqlin Mosque, recognizes the handshake may not come anytime soon. Not until newly arriving Canadian troops get their heads around the rejectionist bombs blocking the way.

"There are two types of scholars in Kandahar. There are the ones like me, who understand the foreigners have come here to help us, to support us, to give us peace," Ahmed, 30, said yesterday. "The other type of scholar tries to poison the ears of people around them, calling the foreigners infidels and telling people to fight them."

The soft-spoken cleric said he expects the newcomers to be jumpy, given the hostility that awaits Canada's security presence in Kandahar province, part of a wider NATO deployment across volatile southern Afghanistan.

"The Americans, when they first came, were afraid. They didn't know anything about Kandahar," said Ahmed. "The same thing is happening with the Canadians. Right now they look afraid. The Afghans of Kandahar are also afraid. Everyone has a family. Many of us are threatened. We all worry.

"But understand, not everyone is Taliban or Al Qaeda. Most people just want to meet the Canadians to shake their hands." Ahmed, 30, has endured wars of one kind or another almost continuously since childhood. He sees this month's deployment of nearly 2,200 Canadians as reaffirmation that his native Kandahar may yet emerge as a peaceful city with something to offer its young.

Ahmed was blunt in assessing the size and shape of the growing insurgency and the complex circumstances feeding it. Though "enemies from the neighbouring countries" are actively backing a campaign of attacks on coalition forces and fledgling institutions, Ahmed said the violence would not be possible without substantial support and sympathy within.

The embittered remnants of the ousted Taliban who made Kandahar their capital have used mosques to sow holy war in the minds of locals, Ahmed said, exploiting the Pashtun pride of the largely uneducated and deeply tribal populace. Moderates such as Ahmed risk intimidation and violence when they speak out, urging Afghans to see their situation rationally.

Ahmed believes the struggle for Afghanistan ultimately will tilt against the insurgents because the memory of the regressive Taliban era is simply too fresh for a revival to take hold.

"Our young generation doesn't want the Taliban because they already spent six years in power and nothing happened," he said. "The education system, the economy, the way they made up their own laws — there was nothing. Now we have something. The Afghan people want to go forward, not backward."

What price Canadian and other NATO troops will pay in advancing the cause is now a subject of some debate in Afghan security circles. At least one senior government official suggested on the weekend that the recent surge in suicide attacks — at least 22 bombings since last September — could be aimed specifically at countries such as Canada, which may be seen as weak links in the efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

"I think the rise of attacks in Afghanistan nowadays is aimed at the weak forces, such as Canada and others, and that is because these countries can easily be threatened," Akbar Ansari, a senior prosecutor in Afghanistan's anti-terrorism courts," told the Los Angeles Times.

"The terrorists want the Americans to be alone in Afghanistan, so that they can deal with them later. Al Qaeda doesn't want to leave its nest in Afghanistan," Ansari said.

Canadian troops traded their first fire in the field yesterday in a minor skirmish at a forward camp 60 kilometres northeast of Kandahar. There were no casualties, but the rocket-propelled grenade attack served as a stark reminder that Project Afghanistan is no longer a theory.

In a final piece of advice, Mullah Ahmed suggested that when the Canadians adjust to the initial shock of deployment, they would do well to take the time to say hello. And perhaps help him explain the NATO presence to other Afghans.

"The Canadians should sit down with the scholars and elders in every village" to explain why they are here, he said. "Some people will still reject it. But the Canadians are a gift to Afghanistan. At least if you explain it, people will realize why you are here."

We will bleed you, Taliban says - The Toronto Star Feb. 19, 2006 MITCH POTTER MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

A little more electricity, a little more water, a few more roads and a lot more fear. That's how Kandahar has changed in the four years since foreign soldiers took up residence following the fall of the Taliban.

Afghans still need help with health care, education, power, irrigation and virtually every plank upon which to build a civil society. But if the incoming Canadian troops can offer anything to this deeply conservative city and the volatile province beyond, let it be security.

So say Afghans beyond the gates of coalition headquarters at Kandahar Airfield, where the excruciatingly slow march toward a better life is now threatened daily by a resurgent Taliban.

Kandahar school principal Ehsan Ullah crystallized the point yesterday in an interview with the Star, reaching into his pocket to produce the death threat he discovered earlier in the day on the steps of the Sherzai Education Centre.

"We will bleed you," said the single page of red ink written in Pashto. It was a classic "night letter," an intimidation tactic Taliban loyalists began adopting in 2004.

The threat was aimed at Ullah because among his 1,900 students are some 380 girls, a gender unworthy of education under the austere tenets of Taliban ideology.

"I am under threat, the students are under threat," said Ullah. "There have been attacks, schools have been burned. "But we cannot give up. If we close the school, it is like shutting off a light. We have to keep going. My worry is for the girls. They are so vulnerable. We need security. We need the Canadians and the other foreign troops."

A few of Ullah's female students have drifted away in recent months, too afraid to continue their studies in English and computer sciences. But the bravest, the ones who still attend classes, yesterday described their worries that the freedom they have only just tasted is beginning to slip away.

"We want to be doctors, lawyers, engineers," said Soriya, 17. "We want to go to university. But right now there is not enough freedom." This is not the first time for Canadian troops in Kandahar. But the battle group converging on this ancient Afghan capital will nearly treble to 2,200 the size of that initial deployment of 800 troops in February 2002.

Just as the city has changed, so too has the mission. Canadians will be in command of precarious Kandahar province, and together with NATO partners in the neighbouring provinces, the assignment calls for action against the Taliban-inspired insurgents who have destabilized southern Afghanistan with suicide bombs and roadside blasts in recent months.

What the new arrivals will find is a far more claustrophobic Kandahar than the one Canadians saw four years ago, when Western journalists and aid workers could walk the streets insulated from danger by traditional Pashtun hospitality.

Today's Kandahar, which has ballooned past the half-million population mark with the arrival of returning refugees, is now a patchwork of no-go zones where the smattering of Westerners who are rarely seen in public. Gazes previous visitors remember as warm today seem indifferent, at best.

There are a few startling signs of economic progress, most notably half a dozen steel and glass office buildings which, at as much as six-storeys high, rank as veritable skyscrapers by Kandahar standards.

Their green-tinted glass facades offer a jarring splash of colour in a city overwhelmingly made up of single-stall shops built of dun-coloured mud brick and countless metal shipping containers.

But one block deeper into the warren of market stalls, bare-dirt alleys reveal Kandahar's impoverished legion of hand-workers, turning out simple tin boxes, scrap-wood tables and water urns from used tires.

They don't have the electricity, the machinery or the training to do anything else. In Kandahar's main square stands the city's first Western style coffee shop, called, well, The Coffee Shop.

It is the brainchild of Afghan-American entrepreneur Mohammed Naseem, who was raised in Kandahar before moving with his family to the coffee-mad city of Seattle.

"When I came back in 2002, people were in shock," he says. "I was clean-shaven, driving around the city on my motorcycle wearing blue jeans. Nobody could believe what they were seeing."

Two Internet cafés have sprung up since then. And Naseem is building a third atop his coffee shop with a special area for women, who until now have found no available public Web access.

For the past three days, many of the Kandaharis interviewed by the Star dismissed outright the suggestion that Taliban support exists in the city.

The stock answer is to export all attribution for recent attacks to Pakistan, which, in the words of auto mechanic Abdullah Rodi, 25, "wants to control us, just like before."

However much truth can be found in that answer, at least some Afghans here describe a kind of Pashtun paradox setting in as the Taliban insurgency deepens.

On one side, they say, revelations of sometimes-blatant corruption among Afghanistan's post-Taliban leaders have dimmed enthusiasm for the new regime and its U.S.-led coalition backers.

On the other side, pro-Taliban agitators are working to incite a population famed for its historic abhorrence of foreign occupation. Just ask the British. Or the Russians.

"The Taliban has some support, I cannot deny it," says Naseem. "But I live in what is basically a ghetto, one of the very poorest areas of the city, and I would say that even there well more than half of the people of Kandahar want the Canadians to be here.

"But I also would urge the Canadians to watch their aid dollars much more closely than the Americans did. When the foreign aid goes into corrupt Afghan hands, it reflects on the donor as well. Watch it closely. Please."

Kandahar once had a movie theatre, but it was burned down by CIA-backed mujahideen fighters during the 1980s guerrilla war against Soviet occupation and today a mosque stands in its place.

Today, some Kandaharis have quietly opened their homes to formerly banned entertainments in the post-Taliban era. Music, videos and bootleg DVDs abound in the markets.

One video merchant, who identifies himself only as Mahmoud, 28, sells such titles as Die Harder and Girls Who Wrestle. Mahmoud says he is happier today than when, under the Taliban, he enjoyed a government job as a clerk in the former regime's motor vehicle branch.

He's indifferent to the arrival of Canadian troops, saying they're really just the same as Americans. "There is no difference between their armies, I think. But we will like the ones who respect us, and help us build our own army to the point where it can keep Afghanistan safe and strong."

Abdul Nabi, 28, is a third-generation gold seller who began work in his father's shop at age 6. In the time of the Taliban, he says, women were not allowed into his shop and were required to make their selections from the street.

"Business is a bit better, but I don't want this for my children," says Nabi, the father of two sons and an 8-year-old daughter. "I never had the chance to go to school. Now, all my children are studying. It's not important to carry on the family business. I want them to be doctors, engineers."

Closer to the Canada-led Provincial Reconstruction Team compound known as Camp Nathan Smith on the outskirts of Kandahar, a better sense of the Canadians is taking hold.

By far the smaller of Canada's two deployments in the region, the PRT has won over some of the children who play in the sandlot next door with the donation of a basketball.

These Afghan children laugh heartily when asked whether they are bothered by the sight of guns in the hands of their new neighbours. "We are Afghans," one says. "How could we be afraid of guns?"

They fall silent when asked how long they would like to see the Canadians remain. The eldest boy, 11-year-old Popal, finally delivers the verdict — exactly six years. "I will be old enough to join the Afghan National Army," Popal says. "Then, I can take over the job of protecting our people."

'Suicide-ready' Taliban lie in wait for troops - By Massoud Ansari in Kila Saifullah, Pakistan, The Telegraph, February 19, 2006

Stroking his long beard and flashing a smile, Mohammed Khwaja, a Taliban organiser in the lawless borderlands of Pakistan's tribal areas, contemplated the imminent arrival of British troops in Helmand province.

"We thought that it would be between us and the US, but it looks like souls of the British buried in the Helmand after they were killed by the Afghan warriors in the 19th century may be feeling bored. "Now they are calling their grandchildren to be reunited with them in hell," he said.

By the early summer, 3,300 troops will be based in Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, close to where 962 British troops were slaughtered at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880.

If Khwaja has his way, it will be Afghan suicide bombers, rather than their forebears who used gunfire and artillery against the occupying foe, who will inflict casualties against the 21st century British force.

A committed jihadist who fought against American forces after they invaded following the September 11 attacks, he now dispatches young Afghan refugees (mohajir) from Pakistan's tribal areas to carry out attacks inside their homeland.

Khwaja, 32, also a mohajir, boasted that he had already "supplied" several dozen "suicide-ready Talibs" to camps inside Afghanistan in preparation for a spring offensive designed to hit the first British troops to begin patrolling in Helmand.

"Everyone here is convinced about jihad and to sacrifice his life," he said. "Once they sign in, they do not need any special kind of indoctrination. They simply are to be clad with a jacket laden with dynamite sticks and to blow themselves up next to the target.

"The Americans had either confined themselves to their bunkers or they were uselessly patrolling in the air. Once they are joined by several thousand British, you will be witnessing Talibs blowing themselves up left, right, and centre."

In recent months, Khwaja's job description has undergone a subtle change. He used to spirit fighters across the border and then facilitate the return of their bodies if they were shot.

Now, he arranges one way trips because a switch of tactics from hit-and-run operations to suicide missions means there are no bodies to return. Born in an Afghan village close to Kila Saifullah, beside the Pakistan border, Khwaja was raised in a devout Muslim household.

In 2001, he fought against the Americans in Kunduz, in south-western Afghanistan, before moving north to the capital Kabul. After Kabul fell, he was part of the retreat to Kandahar, where he was a member of a crowd addressed by Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader.

According to Khwaja, Mulla Omar addressed the gathering through a loudspeaker from inside his bunker and uttered only few sentences, in which he told his followers to return to their respective places and to wait for the next call.

After two years of lying low in Pakistan and with Mullah Omar still at large, Khwaja was one of the Taliban who decided to regroup and mount renewed attacks against American forces and their Afghan allies.

Now, he said, he and other senior Taliban operatives had concluded that suicide bombings are the way to weaken the resolve of the British. "We realised that we were losing too many men in traditional guerrilla warfare. But when it comes to a suicide mission, we can be one against many."

Khwaja said the adoption of the suicide tactic had come after close study of events in Iraq. Far from being borne "out of desperation", as President Hamid Karzai has said, it was a calculated move to give the Taliban campaign fresh impetus.

A Pakistani official said the Taliban's al-Qaeda allies, who also have a presence in the borderlands and Helmand, had schooled the Afghans in suicide attacks.

The resurgence of the Taliban has been felt most strongly in the southern provinces of Helmand, Zabul, Kandahar and Uruzgan, where 1,600 were killed last year. Since November, there have been 15 suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan, killing 70, including a Canadian diplomat and American and Afghan soldiers.

Syed Abdul Sattar Shah, of Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam, a Pakistani pro-Taliban movement, in Quetta, said that the Taliban now had the public support needed to defeat the British.

After the Taliban regime fell at the end of 2001, poor Afghans had expected a "sea of dollars" from American incomers but had instead got "peanuts" from the occupation.

Sardar Haji Lashkari, a tribal chief in Baluchistan, said Afghans now saw the Taliban as becoming the dominant force in the south. "Many of them have started joining the Taliban bandwagon as an investment for the future."

In Kila Saifullah, there was no doubting the popularity of the Taliban. "They never had a dearth of volunteers, but they needed funds as well as logistics," said Mullah Abdul Wahid, a local cleric. "Now, within a few months they have proved that they are still a force to be reckoned with."

Khwaja said he was relishing the arrival of British soldiers. "We intend to trap them and kill them all. There will be no opportunity for escape."

You missed me - 4 times - BILL HUTCHINSON NY DAILY NEWS February 21st, 2006

Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man is boasting that he has dodged being captured or killed four times, and confirms one of his close calls came in a 2004 firefight with the Pakistani Army.

It had been speculated that Ayman Al-Zawahiri was in the mud hut on the Afganistan-Pakistan border targeted in March 2004. The raid even prompted Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to stoke expectations of Al-Zawahiri's demise.

But when the dust settled, the Al Qaeda chief was nowhere to be found and U.S. and Pakistani officials said he was probably never there.

In a new videotape that has surfaced, Al-Zawahiri swears he was in the mud hut, and that he slipped out the back when the shooting started. He also tries to turn the tables on Musharraf, saying the Pakistani leader's days are numbered.

"Your American masters are fleeing from Iraq and Afghanistan," Al-Zawahiri warns Musharraf. "So, await a day of accounting for the Muslim blood you have spilt." Al-Zawhiri details three other times he was almost nailed by U.S. and Pakistani forces:

· He said a U.S. cruise missile attack ordered by President Clinton in August 1998 nearly got him at an Afghanistan training camp.

· Missiles fired in retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in December 2001 missed him in his Tora Bora mountain hideout in Afghanistan.

· His latest near-miss came Jan. 18 from an American missile attack in Pakistan that killed Al-Zawhiri's son-in-law.

[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.]