In this bulletin:

• Bombers hit Afghanistan ahead of major holy day
• Taliban kill eight Afghans working for US military base
• One terrorist killed, four arrested in Khost
• Captured Taliban say they were sent to fight by Pakistani mullahs
• Where Taliban footsoldiers go when they need weapons
• Two children die in Afghan attack
• New bombing kills 1 Afghan police, wounds 5 others
• Afghanistan's stability lies with Pakistan
• Militants, Musharraf circling
• Italy rejects fresh kidnap demand
• Suicide bombers won't stop us in Afghanistan: NATO chief
• NATO "not there yet" with troops for Afghanistan
• Italian abductee in Afghanistan 'worried' by ultimatum
• Italy Rejects Demands Of Journalist's Kidnappers In Afghanistan...
• ...As Journalist Groups Campaign For His Release
• A typical Afghan mess ruins Canadians' day
• Afghanistan's border base sees frequent clashes with Taliban
• Reclaiming the Other “Taleban”
• Taliban Targeting Afghanistan Leaders
• Tajik forces kill two Afghan drug smugglers
• Afghan Authorities Arrest Kabul Judge Suspected Of Corruption
• Afghan Parliamentary Commitee Working On New Media Law
• Engineers plan to double number of construction projects in Afghanistan region
• Joint Project Seeks to Revitalize Kabul's Art Community
• WB vows long-term support for Afghanistan
• ACF publishes maiden magazine

Bombers hit Afghanistan ahead of major holy day

20 Oct 2006 Source: Reuters By Terry Friel

KABUL, Oct 20 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed an Afghan soldier and wounded seven more in an eastern province bordering Pakistan on Friday, the army said.

The attack in Khost by a suicide bomber on foot came hours after an operation by U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops killed a militant and captured four in the same province.

Despite offensives by NATO since it took command of the war against the Taliban from U.S. forces over recent weeks, violence has been mounting and attacks have occurred almost daily.

There have been several major bombings and clashes in recent days as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan draws to a close ahead of the start of Eid al-Fitr on Monday, the most important celebration in the Islamic calendar.

Fighting this year is the worst it has been since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban's strict Islamist government in 2001 and more than 3,000 people, including more than 150 foreign soldiers, have been killed in the violence.

Copying tactics from Iraq, the Taliban and other insurgents are increasingly targetting the poorer trained and equipped Afghan military and police, as well as provincial and district officials and other government workers.

CIVILIAN DEATHS MOUNT In recent weeks, scores of civilians have been killed in a rising wave of suicide attacks.

NATO estimates more than 200 people have died in suicide bombings so far this year, compared with about 50-60 last year.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber killed several civilians, including two children, and a British marine in an attack on a NATO convoy in southern Helmand province, a major Taliban stronghold and the opium capital of the world's biggest producer.

Afghanistan's blossoming poppy production, estimated to jump 60 percent this year by the United Nations, helps fund the insurgency and Afghan officials say neither the drugs industry nor the rebellion can ever be crushed without tackling both.

Tajikistan border guards shot dead two Afghan drug smugglers on Friday and seized 200 kg (440 lb) of drugs, a border guards spokesman said in the capital, Dushanbe.

Drugs-related clashes on the rugged, 1,400-km (875-mile) Afghan-Tajik border are common.

NATO commanders in the field, including head of the 31,000-strong alliance force in Afghanistan British General David Richards, are calling for more troops.

The Netherlands will send a total of 330 soldiers to southern Afghanistan in the coming weeks, boosting its presence there to 1,730 troops, the government said on Friday.

But France said it was reviewing its deployment of 200 commandos.

Speaking in Washington after meeting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie declined to confirm a French newspaper report Paris planned to pull its troops out of southern Afghanistan next year but said it was time to take a fresh look at the deployment.

Canada, which has a major force in the south in the Taliban's birthplace of Kandahar province and has taken heavy casualties, is increasing pressure on its NATO allies for more troops, saying it cannot maintain its 2,300-strong mission without more help.

Several European NATO members have troops in more peaceful parts of Afghanistan, but restrict the missions the soldiers can carry out or refuse to send them to the more dangerous south.

More than 40 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. (Additional reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov in Dushanbe, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Andrew Gray in Washington))

Taliban kill eight Afghans working for US military base

October 20, 2006

ASADABAD, Afghanistan (AFP) - Taliban rebels have shot dead eight men employed at a US base in eastern Afghanistan while a suicide bomber threw himself at an Afghan army convoy and killed a soldier.

The killings were the latest in a campaign of attacks by the Islamist extremists who target Afghan and foreign soldiers, as well civilians who work for them in a spiralling insurgency that has killed thousands of people.

A group of 10 workers had left the American military base in the eastern province of Kunar in a minibus late Thursday when they were stopped by gunmen, provincial police chief Abduljalal Jalal told AFP.

"The gunmen sprayed the vehicle with bullets," he said. Two labourers managed to escape.

"Eight labourers were brutally shot and killed by armed men in Korangal area. They were working at a US base and were going home for Eid holidays," Jalal said.

Eid al-Fitr, Islam's biggest festival, takes place at the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. It is due next week, depending on sightings of the moon, but many people begin their holidays early.

Korangal valley has seen much Taliban activity.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Jalal blamed extremist Taliban guerrillas who are waging an insurgency that has intensified every year since a US-led coalition removed them from government in late 2001.

The Taliban were also likely to have been behind a suicide bombing near the eastern city of Khost Friday in which a soldier was killed and 10 other people hurt.

The attacker waited for an Afghan army convoy that had to slow down at a speed bump and then detonated explosives strapped to his body, the provincial police chief General Mohammad Ayob said.

"One soldier was martyred and other seven were wounded in the suicide attack," army general Mohammad Akram Sami told AFP. Three civilians were also seriously injured in the blast, the police chief said.

Khost has suffered several suicide blasts in the past weeks. One on Thursday killed a policeman and wounded five others.

The US-led coalition said it had killed a "terrorist" and captured four others in a raid early Friday on a compound in Khost province where improvised bombs were being made.

"During the operation, one extremist pointed a weapon at coalition forces while attempting to escape. He was shot and killed," the force said in a statement.

"During the search of the compound, multiple blasting caps, detonation cord and explosives were found."

The raid was launched after "credible information" that there was a cell working on improvised bombs operating around Khost city, it said.

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, the bloodiest since the Taliban launched its insurgency soon after being forced out of power.

The violence has claimed around 3,000 lives so far this year, with rebels accounting for most of the dead. This is about double last year's estimated toll.

A second suicide blast Thursday killed a British Royal Marine and two children in the volatile southern town of Lashkar Gah. Another Marine was injured and was in a stable condition Friday, NATO said.

In another attack reported Friday, police said a dozen Taliban attacked a district in eastern Paktika province late Thursday. One militant was killed and five others wounded, police chief Abdul Baqi Nuristani told AFP.

One terrorist killed, four arrested in Khost

KABUL, Oct 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): One terrorist was killed and four more were arrested on Friday during a joint operation of Afghan and coalition forces near Bodakhel village in Khost province.

A statement from coalition forces stated during the operation, one extremist pointed a weapon at coalition forces while attempting to escape. He was shot and killed ، added the statement.

The four suspected extremist detained from an improvised explosive device facilitator's compound. During the search of the compound, multiple blasting caps, detonation cord and explosives were found, it added.

According to the statement credible information identified the existence of an IED cell operating around Khost City that was a threat to Afghan and Coalition forces in the area.

The presence of explosives in close proximity to other Afghan residences also presented a threat to the innocent civilians living in the area, statement added.

The removal of explosive device materials eliminated one more threat to the local Afghan population and their property, the release added. According to the statement no Afghan or coalition forces were injured on the targeted compound.

Captured Taliban say they were sent to fight by Pakistani mullahs

Thu Oct 19, 2006

BARMAL, Afghanistan (AFP) - Handcuffed and weary, three confessed Taliban fighters told this week how they crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan to carry out a "jihad" against troops after mullahs said it was their duty as Muslims.

The young men -- two Pakistanis and an Afghan -- were captured after a fierce five-hour battle in Paktika province Tuesday, just a few kilometres (miles) from the border.

During the battle, 24 of their fellow fighters were killed. The bloodied and broken bodies were later shown to reporters by the Afghan army at a base in Barmal district.

The dead were mostly Afghans but included an Arab, Chechens, Pakistanis, Turks and a man from Yemen, an officer said, citing information from the captured three, identity cards and, in one case, a name on a bullet belt.

"Mullahs in Pakistan were preaching to us that we are obliged to fight jihad in Afghanistan because there are foreign troops -- there is an Angriz (British) invasion," dishevelled Alahuddin told reporters.

"A Pakistani Taliban commander, Saifullah, introduced us to a guide who escorted us to Barmal," he said. "Then he left and we joined a group already here and came to the ambush site."

It was only Alahuddin's second day in Afghanistan and it went horribly wrong.

His group of 32 Taliban lay in wait for an army convoy, launching a clumsy attack mainly with AK-47 machine guns.

The Afghan soldiers and their International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) counterparts retaliated. Two columns of support quickly arrived and surrounded the attackers as attack helicopters were called in.

After five hours of fighting, 24 Taliban and a soldier were dead. Some of the rebels not killed by the troops blew themselves up with their own grenades, soldiers said.

One of the dead had a Pakistani ID document on his chest when he was shown to reporters, while the others had other papers on them that the Afghan army said gave their nationalities.

Alahuddin said he was misled into believing that Afghanistan was overrun by foreign "infidels", especially the British forces hated since their 19th century wars in the region.

"We were sent to Afghanistan blindly. We call on our other friends in Pakistan and say, 'There is no jihad here, everybody is Muslim,'" he told AFP.

A few hours later, the three men were on the floor of a helicopter with their eyes taped shut being taken to Kabul for interrogation.

Alahuddin was from Miranshah in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal area that is just on the other side of the border with Afghanistan's Paktika.

The Pakistan government last month signed a truce with the area's pro-Taliban tribal elders who agreed to stop militants from crossing the border to carry out attacks in support of the Taliban insurgency.

In return the Pakistan army -- which says it has 80,000 men along the border to stop infiltration -- cut back its presence.

Political analyst Samina Ahmed, from the International Crisis Group, this week called the deal "irresponsible to say the least".

For "all practical purposes, now the Taliban are running the show," she told a meeting in Brussels.

Another of the captured men, the confused and clearly uneducated Zahidullah, was also from Miranshah. He said that he too was brought into the fight by a mullah who put him in touch with the Taliban.

"We came to Afghanistan to carry out jihad against British forces -- as Muslims we are obliged to do jihad against them, this is what we were told," he said.

The captured men had no identification documents to prove that they were Pakistanis. However an AFP reporter recognised their dialect as being from the Waziristan area.

There are around 40,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, around a half of them Americans. Just over 5,000 are from the British army which also has one of its generals, David Richards, in command of the ISAF force.

The US-led coalition that works alongside ISAF and the Afghan security forces said last month it had seen a 300 percent increase in incidents in the area since a North Waziristan truce reached weeks before the September accord.

General Murad Ali, the deputy commander of southeastern military corps, was proud of the actions of his men in the counterattack, seen as a sign of the increasing professionalism of the Afghan army.

He openly accused the Pakistani military of aiding the Islamists tearing at the fragile young Afghan democracy.

"The cooperation of Pakistan with Taliban and Al-Qaeda is visible," Ali said.

"They cross into Afghanistan even in areas where Pakistani posts are installed, but they are not prevented. They carry out attacks and then return."

Such accusations anger Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who is under pressure from Afghanistan and its international allies to end extremist support for militants.

Musharraf says the root of the problem lies inside Afghanistan.

Where Taliban footsoldiers go when they need weapons

Wild West-type town in eastern Pakistan churns out cheap copies of arms for insurgents who fight NATO forces

SONYA FATAH

DARRA ADAM KHEIL, PAKISTAN -- Mohammed Tariq sits cross-legged on the raised wooden platform inside his arms store, cradling a gleaming new Kalashnikov. Rows of glistening semi-automatic firearms stand against the wall behind him.

He flips open the 2005 edition of Handguns. "See this?" he says, opening the book to a random page and pointing to an image of a handgun. "We've copied this perfectly. Have lunch with a retired brigadier or a retired colonel. You'll find out everything."

Tariq is no ordinary shopkeeper and Darra Adam Kheil, a one-strip town framed by the craggy, barren facade of the Kohat range in the lawless tribal belt of eastern Pakistan, is no ordinary place.

Studded with hashish bars, the town of 15,000 is the headquarters of the region's illegal firearms market.

Here, small, storefront operations churn out knockoff versions of weapons at cut-rate prices, providing a key source of hardware for the Taliban, who are locked in an increasingly deadly battle with North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces across the border in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, most of whom are Pashtun and native to the region, were once completely dependent on Darra for their weaponry.

And while the militant Islamist group has developed other sources of supply, the town remains the cheapest, easiest place for foot soldiers to equip themselves before joining the insurgency.

While gun running has a long tradition in the region, the arms bazaar is a legacy of the proxy Cold War showdown between the mujahedeen and the Soviet Union.

The United States poured weapons into Pakistan during the Afghan war to arm the mujahedeen and stave off the Russians. Arms dealers, buyers and sellers cropped up overnight, stockpiling weapons in large arms reservoirs across Peshawar, the nearby provincial capital.

After the Russians retreated, no effort was made to reclaim the weapons, and arms manufacturing multiplied. In 2001, thanks to the proliferation of this homegrown arms market, it was estimated that there were 1.9 million licensed weapons in the North-West Frontier Province and a much larger number of unlicensed ones.

Darra has evolved into a firearms market, supplying arms to retired military officials, major security companies and the Taliban. The town's gunsmiths have followed their grandfathers and fathers into the profession and despite several attempts to draw the most skilled into legitimate weaponry outfits elsewhere, the town continues to be a major production centre for illegal weapons.

The town is littered with small stores with names like Asia Arms Store and Haji Abdullah Jan & Sons Arms Store. In the alleyways that lead off the main street, hundreds of young gunsmiths bend over machines in an assortment of mini-factories that cater to the arms sellers.

It's from Darra that the avid local hunter gets his rifle and where local tribesmen outfit themselves with the latest in semi-automatics. All varieties of firearms are available. Since the Afghan war, the weapon of choice has been the AK-47 assault rifle, the infamous Kalashnikov.

Raees Khan's store inventory ranges from revolvers and pistols to semi-automatics. "Guns are an integral part of our culture. We don't care if there is food to eat, but every man must have his weapon," he says.

That's a sentiment that reflects the gun-friendly culture of the region, where weapons are part and parcel of everyday life. They are particularly visible in the tribal areas, where man and gun are rarely separated.

Drugs and firearms flow freely in Darra, giving the place a lawless feel. Hash bars are interspersed among the firearms stores; various grades of hash, and sometimes opium, are openly advertised and consumed.

In one bar on the town's edge, scales are used to weigh the hashish. Inside, a young seller uncorks a bottle filled with the rich, pungent drug that is rolled into a ball.

Higher quality hashish sells for the equivalent of about $1.50 a ball, while an inferior quality sold in long licorice-style sticks is about 40 cents.

An imitation repeater costs about $46, a G-3 semi-automatic runs $93, and a USP Tactical costs $75. If the licence plates on the cars parked along the street are any indication, Darra's customers journey here on gun-buying binges from across Pakistan's four provinces.

Two children die in Afghan attack

BBC News / Thursday, 19 October 2006

Two suicide attacks in Afghanistan have left two children and one policemen dead and a number of British soldiers hurt, officials say.

The children died when a bomber tried to attack a Nato vehicle in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

UK officials said "a small number" of British troops had been injured.

The policeman died in an attack in Khost province. The Taleban and their allies have been blamed for a rise in the number of suicide attacks.

'Children martyred'

The explosion in Lashkar Gah took place in the town centre, near the governor's compound.

Officials said the attacker was on foot and threw himself at the Nato convoy of British troops.

"A suicide bomber detonated targeting Nato troops," the interior ministry in the Afghan capital, Kabul, told the AFP news agency.

"The suicide bomber has died, seven civilians have been wounded, two civilian children have been martyred."

Nato officials said three British soldiers were wounded.

Helmand province has seen increased violence between insurgents and Nato-led and Afghan forces this year.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead says Lashkar Gah, in the south of Helmand, has generally been one of the safest areas in the province.

The official spokesman for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said: "Clearly, our thoughts are with the injured troops and the families of the Afghan children who were killed."

However, he insisted that, despite the attack, "we are making real progress in Afghanistan".

In eastern Khost province one policeman was killed when a suicide attacker threw himself at a convoy of police cars, officials said.

'Do not forget'

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer - secretary general of Nato - stressed the need for a presence in Afghanistan.

He said: "Do not forget where the country came from.

"We are there to defend our basic values, the basic values which guide UK society, Dutch society, Belgian society. If we fail again, then Afghanistan will come to us. It will be a breeding ground for terrorists again. Do not forget 9/11.

"Do not forget other terrorist attacks. And, being in London now, I do know what it means. Britain has been a victim of this."

On Wednesday reports said that up to 21 civilians had died during two Nato operations.

New bombing kills 1 Afghan police, wounds 5 others

KABUL, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- In the latest wave of violence in Afghanistan, a suicide bomber targeted Afghan border police in eastern Khost province Thursday, killing one policeman and wounding five others, provincial police chief General Mohammad Ayub said.

"The bomber strapping explosive device on his body rammed intoa police van south of the Khost city at around noon, killing one police and wounded five others," Ayub told Xinhua.

The attacker was also killed in the explosion, he added.

It is the second suicide bombing in a single day on Thursday. Asimilar attack in the southern Helmand province left two children dead and wounded nine others, including two NATO soldiers.

Suicide bombings have claimed the lives of more than 200 people mostly civilians since the beginning of this year in Afghanistan.

More than 2,400 people mostly militants have been killed in the post-Taliban nation so far this year. Enditem

Afghanistan's stability lies with Pakistan

SPEAKING FREELY

Asia Times Online October 19, 2006 

KABUL - In 1989, the Soviet Army withdrew from Afghanistan. Simultaneously, the West disengaged from the Afghan conflict, which left the Afghans at the mercy of regional powers. The collapse of the communist bloc provoked a shift in US policy in the region. Because the US lacked a strategic interest in Afghanistan, Washington [delegated the formulation] of Afghan policy to both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which are two close allies of the US. The Saudis had no other interest in Afghanistan than the desire to create a government in Kabul that was hostile to Iran.

Although Iran shares a common language and culture with Afghanistan, it has historically had a limited influence on the country. This limited influence resulted from the religious differences between the Sunni-majority Afghanistan and the Shi'ite-majority Iran. With the blessing of the both the US and Saudi governments, Pakistan remained the major player in Afghanistan.

In 1992, the communist regime fell in Afghanistan; mujahideen groups entered Kabul, where two alternative options were presented to Pakistan. One option was to stabilize Afghanistan through mediation among major mujahideen leaders who lived in Pakistan. This option would have economically benefited Pakistan with open trade roads to Central Asian countries. The second option was to pursue the strategic goal of Pakistan, which consisted of having a puppet government in place and a fragile economy.

This option would have kept Afghanistan dependent on Pakistan both economically and politically. Ultimately, Pakistan's military elites opted for the second option, even though it went against the conventional wisdom of their own people. The military chose this option because it had always feared that a strong Afghanistan would pose a serious threat to Pakistan.

In fact, the creation of Pakistan is rooted in controversy. In 1947, Britain chose to partition India to create a new country for British India's Muslim minority. The creation of Pakistan was based on the assumption that the Muslim minority could not coexist with the majority Hindus. Currently, minority Muslims living in India appear satisfied with being engaged in the political process through a democratic mechanism.

Muslims who live in Pakistan, however, are denied basic rights by a military dictatorship. It is not surprising that Indian Muslims do not want to emigrate to Pakistan. It is evident that an individual's political and economic inspirations bypass his or her religious affinity; this notion was confirmed with the partition of Pakistan between East and West, when in 1971, the people of West Pakistan chose to become the sovereign state of Bangladesh.

The ethnic issue has indeed shattered the dreams of the founding father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who envisioned Pakistan as a modern, democratic and pluralistic state. After his death, the domination of political and military power by Punjabis caused a growing resentment among other ethnic groups such as Bengalis, Sindhi, Balochis and Pashtuns.

Very much like Bengalis, who opted for partition from Pakistan, Balochis have also struggled for independence since the creation of Pakistan. They refused to become part of Pakistan until 1948; in that year, the military forced Balochi leaders to adhere to Pakistan. For instance, the current military conflict in Balochistan is the continuation of the Balochis' struggle for independence (like those of Kurds in Iraq).

Similarly, Pashtuns who live in the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) will remain with Pakistan until they receive large enough monetary subventions from Pakistan's federal government. Pahstuns and Balochis live across the border in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan's military leaders fear Afghanistan's potential influence over Pashtuns and Balochis who live in Pakistan; this is because Pakistan lost its western territories due to the similar influence of India over Bengalis.

After losing the largest chunk of the territory to Bengalis, Pakistani leaders feared that similar dismembering could happen with the Balochi people in the east, and with Pashtuns in the NWFP. Pakistan is squeezed between two hostile countries - India and Afghanistan.

In addition, Pakistan has always viewed an economically prosperous and militarily strong Afghanistan as a threat to its existence; this is because a contentious borderline between the two countries exists. Upon the inception of Pakistan, the Afghan government resisted the membership of this new country in the UN because the question of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan remained unresolved.

The long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan has never been officially ratified by the two countries. The existing borderline issue dates back to an old agreement - known as "The Durand Line" - between Afghanistan and British India. On November 12, 1898, the Afghan ruler, Emir Abdul Rahman Khan, and the foreign secretary of British India, Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, signed the demarcation line between British India and Afghanistan. Indeed, this border question has remained at the core of Pakistan’s negative policy on Afghanistan.

Pakistan's military has always feared that a strong Afghanistan would dispute the current border between the two countries. In addition, an economically prosperous Afghanistan would become more attractive to Pashtuns and Balochis who live in Pakistan, which is the result of their cultural affinity with the Afghans. Therefore, according to Pakistan's military leaders, a powerful government in Afghanistan would pose an existential threat to Pakistan.

In 1989, the US left Afghanistan at the mercy of regional powers, giving Pakistan an opportunity to accomplish its long-term strategic goal to make Afghanistan dependent on it. In fact, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 helped Pakistan achieve its strategic goals. The Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) had specific plans to destroy Afghanistan's military, economic and social infrastructures.

There are obvious examples of the ISI's clandestine involvement in Afghanistan. For instance, in 1992, mujahideen groups took over Afghanistan and agreed to share power by creating a coalition government in Kabul. As a result, Pakistan immediately ordered its best Afghan puppet, the militant Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to disrupt normal life in Kabul with deadly rocket attacks.

As a result of the destruction, foreign embassies closed; the educated, prosperous people left the country. Similarly, the ISI instructed its agents across Afghanistan to destroy Afghanistan's military hardware, industrial machinery and all other equipment, which had been left by the Soviets.

Numerous poor and ignorant Afghans have collaborated with Pakistani agents to destroy factories military assets such as tanks and airplanes, and other sophisticated equipment. These were then sold in Pakistan for scrap. Eventually, Pakistan's puppet Taliban regime closed schools, universities and public offices in Afghanistan, in an effort to keep future generations in total ignorance and darkness.

Despite the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, which led to the liberation of Afghanistan from the ruthless Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorist network, Pakistan's policy has not changed in respect to its strategic goal in the country.

Since the arrival of coalition forces in Afghanistan, schools have been torched, economic development has been stalled, foreign experts have been beheaded, suicide bombers have flooded in from Pakistani madrassas, and Taliban and al-Qaeda allies have found a safe haven inside Pakistan.

In recent times, a consensus among North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military and intelligence officers has indicated that some in Pakistan's military turn a blind eye to the activities of the Taliban in Pakistan; further, this consensus has suggested that they collaborate with al-Qaeda.

The path to Afghanistan's stability is through Pakistan; it is the responsibility of the Afghan government and the coalition countries in Afghanistan to respond to the strategic concerns of Pakistan. Afghanistan is not in a position to get involved in the ethnic rift inside Pakistan. Also, the issue of the Durand Line between the two countries should be debated and settled with a plebiscite on both sides of the border.

Pakistan's military leaders should recognize that their fear of a democratic and economically prosperous Afghanistan is irrational. Pakistan's civilian leaders understand that they would benefit economically from a stable, democratic and friendly Afghanistan, as opposed to a Taliban-type regime that could be detrimental to Pakistan's long-term interests in Afghanistan.

Haroun Mir served for over five years as an aide to the late Ahmad Shah Masoud, Afghanistan's former defense minister and leader of the Northern Alliance. Haroun Mir is currently president of SIG & Partners Afghanistan in Kabul.

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say.

Militants, Musharraf circling

Asia Times Online October 20, 2006

KARACHI - The battle between Islamists and Taliban supporters and the pro-Western Pakistan government has intensified with the arrest of dozens of people in a massive crackdown in and around the federal capital, Islamabad.

This follows hard on the heels of the uncovering of a coup plot against President General Pervez Musharraf last week which resulted in over 40 people being arrested. Among these were al-Qaeda-linked personnel from the Air Weapon Complex (AWC) of Pakistan, a leading organization in the field of air-delivered weapons and systems. Two prominent names were Muneer Malik and Ali Ahmed Gondal.

Subsequently, two other staff members at AWC, Shakeel Rabbani and Saqib Zafar, were detained, in addition to more air force officers. These arrests have not been made public, but have been confirmed by Asia Times Online contacts who say that more arrests can be expected within the rank and file of the armed forces.

At the same time, a series of massive crackdowns on militants is ongoing throughout Punjab province.

It is the latest showdown in and around Islamabad, though, that is of significance as the guns have suddenly been turned against the premier Islamic party of the country, the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and its ideological cousin, the Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest indigenous Kashmiri separatist militant outfit.

Prominent figures among the two organizations were rounded up, including Khizar Hayat and Waqar Ahmed Janjua from Hizbul's Wah cantonment and Rawalpindi, respectively. Many other less prominent activists and members of the groups were also held. Some were released after initial interrogations.

The crackdown came without warning. It prompted the deputy chief of the JI and member of parliament, Liaquat Baloch, to urgently meet with top Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) officials at the ISI's headquarters in Islamabad. This resulted in the crackdown being temporarily suspended, with some conditions being placed on the JI.

Although the salient features of these conditions are not known, the normal rhetoric of JI chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed was visibly toned down after the meeting and he categorically mentioned that JI would not welcome any coup against the government.

The JI has always been at the forefront of political initiatives to unseat Musharraf and has been involved most recently in laying the groundwork for a joint opposition alliance including all major liberal and Islamic parties to oust Musharraf after the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan toward the end of this month.

Nevertheless, political campaigns these days in Pakistan and Afghanistan are not only a center of interest for political parties and their supporters - they attract other vested interests, especially militant groups and disgruntled elements within the armed forces.

At present, the militant groups have only one obsession, to keep Musharraf's anti-Taliban convictions at bay and prevent him from taking any stringent steps that would undo all the Taliban's gains in the campaign in Afghanistan since the spring offensive began. This has kept the militant groups active, and their activities are complemented by their supporters within the establishment.

Most important for the militants is that Musharraf not unleash any operation in the North Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan or in Pashin and Zhob (in southwestern Balochistan province). These areas are vital to the Taliban's winter strategy, in which it lays low, regroups and plans for the next spring offensive.

Only a few days remain before the end of Ramadan and heavy snows rule out any significant military action in the mountainous region that straddles Pakistan and Afghanistan.

That means, just a few days for either side to make a decisive move.

Italy rejects fresh kidnap demand

BBC News / Thursday, 19 October 2006

Italy will not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan as demanded by the kidnappers of an Italian journalist, Italy's defence minister has said.

The kidnappers of Gabriele Torsello have threatened to kill him unless all Italian troops leave Afghanistan by Sunday - the end of Ramadan.

Mr Torsello was seized last Thursday in the dangerous south of Afghanistan.

His kidnappers initially wanted to trade him for an Afghan convert to Christianity who took refuge in Italy.

Fierce fighting

Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Italian Defence Minister Arturo Parisi categorically ruled out withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.

"We are in Afghanistan and we will stay there," Mr Parisi said. "It is the Afghans who ask us to.

"If we pulled out every time someone kidnapped an Italian, we wouldn't be able to send our troops on any mission."

Italy has around 1,800 troops in Kabul and the west of Afghanistan as part of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.

Mr Torsello, a photojournalist, was seized last week while travelling on a bus near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

The area has seen fierce fighting in recent months between Taleban militants and Nato-led foreign troops.

'Afghan apostate'

The kidnappers initially offered to free him in exchange for a Christian convert, Abdul Rahman, who was granted asylum in Italy earlier this year.

Mr Rahman had escaped a possible death sentence for becoming a Christian.

Mr Torsello is a convert to Islam.

His kidnappers placed their initial demand in a phone call to a hospital in southern Afghanistan run by Italian aid agency Emergency, said the Italian-based PeaceReporter website which is linked to the agency.

The website also said the kidnappers made the fresh demand for the withdrawal of Italian troops from Afghanistan in a phone call to Emergency's security adviser in Lashkar-Gah.

"If it's not possible to obtain the Afghan apostate", PeaceReporter quotes the kidnappers as saying, "then we want all the Italian troops out of Afghanistan".

The "Afghan apostate" refers to Mr Rahman.

The BBC's Mark Duff in Milan says the Italian secret services are believed to be working behind the scenes to negotiate Mr Torsello's freedom by going through contacts trusted by the kidnappers.

It is possible they may offer a financial reward, our correspondent says.

But the men holding Mr Torsello have made it clear they are not interested in money, and the threatened deadline of the end of Ramadan is drawing close.

Suicide bombers won't stop us in Afghanistan: NATO chief

Thu Oct 19, 5:33 AM ET

LONDON (AFP) - NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said that suicide bombers would not defeat the military alliance's efforts to ensure democracy prevails in Afghanistan.

Such tactics proved that Taliban rebels could not defeat multinational forces through conventional warfare, he added Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, a suicide car bomb exploded in the southern Afghan town of Lashkar Gah, wounding a "small number" of British troops and at least four Afghans, according to the Ministry of Defence.

De Hoop Scheffer told BBC radio: "The Taliban and the other spoilers of the process of nation-building and democracy in Afghanistan are having to go with these kinds of horrible tactics -- improvised explosive devices, suicide bombers and so on -- because they know they can't beat NATO in other ways.

"I can assure you they will not beat NATO -- neither the UK nor other forces - by employing these tactics," said the Dutchman, who was in London to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair and attend conference on challenges for future leaders.

NATO has appealed for member states to provide additional soldiers to bolster the 31,000 troops stationed in the country.

The alliance has faced a spike in violence linked to the hardline Taliban movement which the US-led coalition toppled from government in late 2001.

De Hoop Scheffer welcomed recent pledges of troops from Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Denmark and Canada, but acknowledged there was "competition for forces" due to multinational deployments in Iraq, Congo and Lebanon.

"I am not completely satisfied, because we always can do better if we have more forces, but since the call went out... we have seen a lot of nations stepping up to the plate. We are not entirely there yet," the secretary general said.

"If we fail, then Afghanistan will come to us. It will be a breeding ground for terrorists again."

Britain's Lieutenant General David Richards, the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, has said that the coming months could see a "tipping point" with locals switching their allegiance to the Taliban.

But De Hoop Scheffer said: "We should be a bit careful to impose deadlines on ourselves.

"But I agree with General Richards that it is of great importance to win the battle for hearts and minds.

"He is right when he says that a number of people in Afghanistan are sitting on the fence and looking how things will further develop."

NATO "not there yet" with troops for Afghanistan

Thursday, October 19, 2006

LONDON (Reuters) - Some countries have responded to a NATO plea for more troops for its mission in Afghanistan, but the alliance is "not entirely there yet" in raising the force it needs, its secretary-general said on Thursday.

The alliance is now involved in the biggest and deadliest ground war in its history in Afghanistan, having taken command of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan last month and Canadian, British and Dutch troops in the south three months ago.

Commanders say fighting against Taliban guerrillas has been more intense than they expected, and the fiercest in Afghanistan since the Taliban were driven from Kabul four years ago.

The British general who commands the force has urgently called for more troops, helicopters and planes to face heavy fighting with Taliban guerrillas, but Washington and London, both tied down in Iraq, have little spare capacity.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told Britain's BBC radio that Poland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Romania and Canada have all since offered additional troops, but the alliance still needs other members to do more.

"We have seen a lot of nations stepping up to the plate. But indeed we are not entirely there yet," he said.

"We are doing well. If you ask me: 'secretary-general, are you completely satisfied?', my answer is: No, I am not completely satisfied. Because we always can do better when we have more forces."

Since taking command of the south in the past few months, NATO's Afghan mission has been transformed from a small peacekeeping force of about 7,000 patrolling the comparatively quiet north into an 30,000-strong army engaged in close combat.

Italian abductee in Afghanistan 'worried' by ultimatum

Thu Oct 19, 5:35 PM ET

ROME (AFP) - An Italian photographer abducted in Afghanistan contacted a local hospital, saying he was "worried" at a weekend deadline set by his kidnappers for Italy to pull troops from the country.

The abducted man, Gabriele Torsello, "spoke directly" with Rahmatullah Hanefi, an official at the hospital in Lashkar Gah, capital of the volatile southern province of Helmand, a report on the news website PeaceReporter said.

"He said that he was well, but that he was 'worried', confirming the ultimatum fixed for Sunday evening" by his kidnappers, the site said.

The abductors have already threatened to kill the 36-year-old unless certain other demands are met.

Torsello contacted the hospital -- run by the Italian non-governmental organization Emergency -- at 1630 GMT, according to the site, which has links to the group running the hospital.

The Italian government has said it will not meet the kidnappers' demands. Earlier on Thursday, Defense Minister Arturo Parisi was quoted as categorically ruling out a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"Pull out? We're not even talking about it," Parisi told the daily La Stampa. "We are in Afghanistan and we will stay there.

It is the Afghans who ask us to," said Parisi, currently on a visit to Egypt.

The kidnappers on Wednesday called for the withdrawal of "all Italian soldiers" from Afghanistan in their latest demand that appeared on PeaceReporter.

On Tuesday they had threatened to kill the photojournalist unless another man, an Afghan convert to Christianity who has taken refuge in Italy, was returned to Kabul.

Italy granted political asylum earlier this year to Abdul Rahman, 41, who had faced a possible death penalty under Islamic Sharia law in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity.

PeaceReporter said the deadline of the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan -- Sunday evening -- holds for the new demand.

Italy has some 1,800 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which entered the central Asian country after the ousting in late 2001 of the extremist Islamic Taliban regime.

The Italian foreign ministry said Thursday it was "aware" of contact made on Wednesday evening between the kidnappers and a security official at the hospital.

"We have of course activated all our contacts," an official at the ministry's press service told AFP. "We are trying to understand the situation."

The director of PeaceReporter, Maso Notarianni, said he saw a "positive" sign in Wednesday's demand. "We told them 'no' to the first demand, and they make a second one. It's the beginning of a dialogue," he told AFP.

The Italian photojournalist, a convert to Islam who and married with one child, is based in London but has spent the last three years in Afghanistan.

The last Italian national abducted in Afghanistan, aid worker Clementina Cantoni, was held for 24 days in May 2005.

An Afghan court in December sentenced to death for murder the leader of a gang who was also convicted of kidnapping and holding Cantoni.

Timur Shah told the court he had abducted Cantoni in a bid to win the release from police custody of his mother and other relatives.

The state prosecutor cited a confidential document that said the kidnapper had received 200,000 dollars from the Italian embassy, though Afghan officials denied claims that a ransom was paid for Cantoni's release.

Italy Rejects Demands Of Journalist's Kidnappers In Afghanistan...

Daily Afghan ReportOctober 19, 2006 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Italian Foreign Undersecretary Gianni Vernetti has rejected a demand by Italian photojournalist Gabriele Torsello's captors to hand over an Afghan national who emigrated to Italy amid calls for his execution over his conversion to Christianity, Rai Radio reported on October 18. Torsello's unidentified kidnappers have threatened to kill their hostage by October 21 if Italy does not hand over Abdul Rahman (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," April 3, 2006). "There is international law, on top of ethics," Vernetti told Rai Radio. "Obviously, for us this demand is unacceptable." Torsello was kidnapped while traveling between the Helmand and Kandahar provinces in southern Afghanistan on October 15 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 18, 2006); Abdul Rahman was granted political asylum in March, after the Afghan Supreme Court concluded he was mentally unfit for trial. AT

...As Journalist Groups Campaign For His Release

Reporters Without Borders and the U.K.-based National Union of Journalists on October 18 appealed for an "active campaign, especially by Italian journalists," to win Torsello's release, a press statement by the two organizations stated. "A journalist is neither a spy nor a bargaining chip," the statement said, calling on Afghan and Italian authorities "to do everything to help bring about his release." The neo-Taliban have said that they are not holding Torsello, but another group referring to itself as "the Taliban" issued the demand for an exchange for Christian convert Rahman (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 16, 2006). Many groups that are engaged in criminality or local political rivalries have used the term "Taliban" to identify themselves or blame their illegal acts on the Taliban. AT

A typical Afghan mess ruins Canadians' day

Globe and Mail (Canada) October 19, 2006

BAZAR-E-PANJWAI, AFGHANISTAN — The gunfight was in full swing when Canada's reconstruction team pulled into the village.

A turbaned man with streaks of blood on his tunic wandered across the parking lot. Two U.S. Marines were screaming expletive-filled orders at a pair of detainees, and Afghan army troops were massing at the gate of the compound, which is normally a school.

It wasn't how Warrant Officer Dean Henley's week was supposed to start.

As part of Canada's civil military co-operation unit, WO Henley is known as a peace broker in this war-torn area of southern Afghanistan. Some even call him the “Prince of Panjwai.”

For the past six weeks, the 36-year-old reservist and his colleagues on the reconstruction team have set about getting to know, on a first-name basis, every family in this town of about 5,000.

It's the “hearts-and-minds” dimension to Canada's mission in Afghanistan. Its adherents say the war against the Taliban won't be won on the battlefields, but rather in the towns and villages, by persuading Afghans to buy into the nation-building efforts begun by their fledgling democratic government.

But Monday afternoon, WO Henley and his team came face to face with the reason that Afghan citizens often turn to the Taliban to provide security and restore order.

As the three-vehicle Canadian convoy swung into the schoolyard, a gun battle was raging between Afghan police and the Afghan National Army.

An Afghan police office had shot and killed a shopkeeper and seriously injured his brother in a dispute over propane. The situation took a quintessentially Afghan twist when the shooter sought refuge at the home of his cousin, the district leader. Pashtun traditions dictate that families don't turn relatives over to authorities.

After the shooting, a U.S. Marine unit, which is in Bazar-e-Panjwai training an Afghan army unit, tracked down the fugitive and the leader who was hiding him, and brought them to the makeshift military compound at the school.

WO Henley was visibly upset. He had a meeting planned this week with this district leader, Haji Nayez Mohammed. Now, the grey-haired man was seated on the grass in plastic handcuffs, blood dripping from his hands.

WO Henley saw six weeks of painstaking mediation work dissipating before his eyes. Not only was the district leader in custody, but villagers were furious at the police for shooting at civilians. They were “out for blood,” the reservist said.

He decided to step out of the dispute and allow the Afghan National Army to investigate.

But the next day, tempers in town were still hot. By 9 a.m., hundreds of angry villagers were advancing on police headquarters, demanding revenge.

The army eventually dispersed the crowd peacefully. But the reconstruction team would now spend the rest of the week trying to mend fences between villagers and the police.

Bazar-e-Panjwai should be an ideal candidate for the softer side of the Canadian mission. Situated just south of the Arghandab River and cut off from gun battles that still rage daily in the Pashmul region to the north, the town is now a relatively peaceful haven in the volatile province of Kandahar.

Since arriving in Afghanistan late last summer, WO Henley has dined with town elders, met with mullahs, purchased new carpets for the mosques, held dozens of hours-long meetings with residents and arranged jobs for people whose livelihoods were destroyed by war.

“If we can persuade people to trust us, to see that we're trying to build up their society, then maybe that will create confidence in the government,” said WO Henley, a reservist who works as a schoolteacher in Toronto.

An unabashed optimist with endless faith in the Afghan people, WO Henley said he's measuring his progress in millimetres. “People ask what my goal is,” he said. “Well, there's a house down the street where I had dinner once. My goal is to come here some day on a vacation and stay in that house.”

But even the loftiest goals and the best mediators can't rehabilitate this country's deeply corroded institutions, chief among them Afghanistan's notoriously corrupt and ill-trained police force.

Sergeant Ted Howard, who co-ordinates two reconstruction teams — WO Henley's and another one further north — was blunt in his assessment of Afghan police.

“The ANP,” he said shaking his head in disgust. “A security guard at McDonald's is more qualified. At least the security guard has some measure of direction and knows what his job is.

“Without a policing system, this country isn't going to make it.”

That sentiment is voiced across the country by international aid organizations and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces attempting to rehabilitate Afghanistan's broken institutions.

While great strides have been made training and recruiting qualified members for the Afghan National Army, the police force is filled with poorly paid, ill-trained recruits, many of whom are illiterate. Many are onetime mujahedeen, trained in fighting but ignorant of peacekeeping.

Sgt. Howard doesn't blame individual officers — some earn less than $10 a month, inviting corruption. Some initial training efforts have been made by NATO countries deployed here, including Canada. But the will to improve Afghan's police force must come from Kabul, he said.

Both men hoped Monday's gunfight will provide that catalyst for change.

“This may be an opportunity for ISAF [the International Stabilization and Assistance Force] to see what kind of problems we have down here, and we'll get some help down here,” Sgt. Howard told a national security official Wednesday, when the town meetings resumed.

Many villagers are less optimistic. By Wednesday morning, the residents of Bazar-e-Panjwai were again arriving at the school gate, asking for the Canadians' assistance on everything from jobs to compensation for being displaced by battle groups.

WO Henley was back, compiling lists of residents' grievances.

“We don't want the ANP here,” said Guma Khan, 42. “There is no Taliban here, we don't need them. They're just here so they can make their black money.”

Mr. Khan said the police officer who shot the shopkeeper was trying to get propane from the businessman without paying.

“So he just shot the man,” he said. “We don't need this. We don't want this.”

Afghanistan's border base sees frequent clashes with Taliban

BERMEL, Afghanistan, Oct. 18 (Xinhua)-- The Bermel military base is located in the east of Afghanistan's eastern province Paktika and it is only 10 kilometers from Pakistan.

About 400 to 500 Afghan soldiers are deployed in the base, which lies on a desert-like plain and is surrounded by high walls and thorny wire netting. Civilian houses are scattering one or two kilometers away.

"Our base is often attacked by rockets launched by Taliban militants on the mountains," said Abdul Karim, an Afghan solider who is in his twenties and serving in the base.

"I and my comrades fought with some Taliban insurgents yesterday on the mountains to the west and the fight lasted from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.," said Karim on Wednesday.

Some U.S. soldiers are also stationed there, but an Afghan interpreter for the military being asked declined to tell the number of them, saying "It is a military secret."

A U.S. officer told Xinhua that about 20 Taliban militants were killed in the conflict on Tuesday, which Karim fought in, and three others were arrested.

Seventeen bodies of the militants were lying on the ground in a compound in the base, bullet holes clearly seen on some bodies. The U.S. officer said several bodies were still left on the mountains.

Paktika and other eastern provinces have suffered from rising Taliban-linked violence this year as numerous attacks and clashes occurred.

In recent cases, six Afghan soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb planted by the Taliban in the neighboring Paktia province on Oct. 14, while governor of the province Abdul Hakim Taniwal was killed by a suicide bomber on Sept. 10.

Thousands of Afghan and U.S. troops are carrying out Operation Mountain Fury mainly in the eastern provinces to wipe out Taliban militants there.

Due to Taliban-related insurgence, Afghanistan has plunged into the worst spate of bloodshed this year after the Taliban regime was toppled down nearly five years ago.

Over 2,400 people, mostly Taliban rebels, have been killed in this volatile country in the past 10 months.

The military base in Bermel is just one of the Afghan outposts which fight and are attacked by Taliban militants on a daily base.

Sentries in the base keep watch vigilantly on high bunkers around the clock, and cannons, U.S. Humvee vehicles as well as soldiers are being ready at any time.

Suddenly, huge cannon sound rocked the base. Some U.S. artillerymen in the base were bombarding the mountains to the east and the north, where some Taliban militants were said to have been detected. Enditem

Reclaiming the Other “Taleban”

A new government programme seeks to keep religious students at home, rather than let them go off to be radicalised abroad.

Institute for War & Peace Reporting
By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 232, 19-Oct-06)

The dilapidated building near the mosque in the center of Mazar-e-Sharif does not seem like one of the finest religious institutions in Balkh province. The Sheikh Marghiani madrassa provides an Islamic education to approximately 100 students, but the classrooms look more like mountain caves than seats of learning.

The poor state of the school is witness to the Afghan government’s lack of attention to religious study, say those who attend the institution.

Enayatullah lives with eight other students – “taleban” in the original sense of the word – in a room approximately three metres square. The floor is covered in a ragged mat, and the electric fan turning in the middle of the room does little to dispel the heat. Sweat is pouring down the faces of the students, most of whom are from the south of Afghanistan and sport long beards and traditional attire along with the trademark white turban of the “taleb”, as they listen to Enayatullah read from a religious text.

“We have more contact with the people than with the government, since we depend on them for our daily bread,” said Enayatullah.

The 35-year-old student intends to go to Pakistan soon to continue his religious education, because, he says, there are no adequate facilities in Afghanistan.

“Many of my friends went to Pakistan last year,” he said. “They learned a lot and the facilities are better than here.”

Although precise figures are not available, thousands of religious students go abroad every year, mostly to Pakistan, to complete their religious education. And it is in Pakistani madrassas that these students get radicalised, say government officials. If religious fundamentalism is to be combated, then the government must find a way of keeping the taleban at home.

Qari Habibullah, now studying at the Sheikh Marghiani school, spent four years at a madrassa in Pakistan.

“Most of my friends joined the Taleban or al-Qaeda after graduation,” he said. “Many religious students join the Taleban because they are not sure they can get jobs in Afghanistan.”

The Taleban began as a protest movement by religious students against the abuses of the Afghan warlords who dominated the country in the early Nineties. The word taleb refers to any religious student, and taleban is simply the plural.

In Afghanistan, the struggle is now on to keep the taleban from turning into Taleban.

According to Habibullah, there are a number of groups in Pakistan which encourage religious students to join the Taleban and fight against the foreign presence in Afghanistan.

“I too was asked to join the Taleban,” he said. “But I asked my family and they wouldn’t give me permission, so I came back to Afghanistan.”

Habibullah blames the Afghan government for the radicalisation of religious students. Gesturing angrily at the room’s poor furnishings, he said, “Religious students live like beggars in Afghanistan. The government is to blame if they ally themselves with the Taleban or al-Qaeda.”

Religious schools do not currently come under any government ministry, and are commonly supported by public donations.

But now the ministry of education has a programme to upgrade religious studies by building new schools throughout the country.

At a recent groundbreaking ceremony for the Imam Hanifa religious school in Kabul, Minister of Education Hanif Atmar outlined the government’s plans. The project will proceed in two phases, first by building upper-level religious schools in all 34 provinces, at a total cost of 30 million US dollars, and later by building a network of ordinary madrassas across Afghanistan. Each school will have facilities for the live-in students to eat and sleep as well as study.

Unlike in the past, the religious schools will come under the umbrella of the education ministry, and the idea is that they will serve as a breeding ground for a new kind of Muslim scholar.

“We are considering having modern education and foreign languages in addition to religion,” said Deputy Education Minister Mohammad Sediq Patman. “We want our scholars to be better Afghans as well as better Muslims. But our students will have freedom in their studies; the government will not put pressure on them.”

The government has invited international scholars from Muslim countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia to enhance the quality of instruction in the madrassas.

“The certificates given to scholars after graduation will be accepted by foreign countries, not just in Afghanistan,” said Patman.

This is an important point, since many religious scholars graduating from Afghan madrassas do not receive a diploma that is valid abroad.

“We study for 15 to 20 years in Afghan religious schools, but after that we are given a diploma that is not even accepted in other parts of Afghanistan,” said Mohammad Jawaid, a taleb in Mazar-e-Sharif. “We are only accepted as maulawis [religious scholars] among peers who have known us since we started our education.”

Things will now change, insists Patman.

“Our graduates will not only work in mosques, they will also have opportunities in to get jobs in government organisations once they getting their certificate from local religious schools,” he said. “We are trying to keep our religious students from leaving for neighbouring countries, where they are exposed to different political ideas. This is essential for Afghanistan’s security.”

The new government programme has attracted the attention, and the approval of religious scholars throughout the country.

Maulawi Abdul Qaher teaches Islamic studies in a Mazar-e-Sharif madrassa, and has 30 taleban. “We are very pleased, because this is the first time in the history of Afghanistan that religious schools are to come under the umbrella of government,” he said. “Religious schools have received none of the aid money that has come to Afghanistan, and scholars have been marginalised. So both scholars and students have lost faith in the government.”

Mullah Maqsood, a resident of Sar-e-Pul province who has just returned home from his madrassa in Quetta for the Eid holidays, was also pleased.

“I really don’t know when our provincial school will be built, but I am very glad that religious schools are being built in Afghanistan. I wouldn’t have gone to Pakistan if I knew there was to be a school in our district. But I can’t leave my current madrassa until things are clearer.”

Abdul Qadeer Salehi, who heads an Islamic association in Afghanistan’s north, was sceptical of the new programme, saying that it was more an exercise in international politics than a genuine attempt to improve conditions for students.

“The government’s real objective is to use the madrassas as part of an anti-Pakistan policy,” he said. “If the government sincerely wants to reconstruct religious schools and not to misuse them, then our religious students will not leave the country. But it seems unlikely to me that the government is acting honestly.”

Qayoum Babak, a political analyst in Mazar-e-Sharif, agrees.

“There is fighting in the south, and they say the roots of the violence lie in Pakistan, so the government is compelled to implement a decisive policy,” he told IWPR.

“The government wants to tell those who now go to Pakistan that opportunities will be provided in their own country. But the situation will become even more dangerous if the government cannot live up to its promises. Religious students will despair of getting any help in Afghanistan and will flock to Pakistan and other Muslim countries.”

Taliban Targeting Afghanistan Leaders

Associated Press October 19, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- First a Taliban suicide bomber killed a provincial governor. Then a gunman murdered a Women's Ministry director. A police chief, intelligence director and top administrator from the same eastern district were killed.

Bombs targeted but missed two more governors elsewhere. And the latest target -- a provincial councilman -- was slain in Kandahar this week.

Hewing closely to a strategy used by Iraqi insurgents, Taliban militants are increasingly targeting top government officials in Afghanistan, which has seen a spike in assassinations and attempted killings the last six weeks.

The attacks are forcing officials to travel with more bodyguards and to set up more checkpoints. Some government employees have stopped going to work, fearing for their lives.

"The Taliban can't fight in a big group, so now they've moved on to these targeted assassinations," said Naimatullah Khan, deputy chief of the council in southern Kandahar province, whose colleague was killed last weekend.

Violence has spiked alarmingly in Afghanistan this year, and insurgents have adopted tactics used in Iraq, such as roadside bombings and suicide attacks.

Hitting top officials, including associates and appointees of President Hamid Karzai, appears to be part of a wider strategy of undermining his government, which took over after the fall of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 but still has only a feeble reach. The Taliban also have killed or abducted aid workers to stymie development, and burned down hundreds of schools.

In Iraq, assassinations have forced government officials to live behind heavy protection and think long and hard before volunteering for public service. The same could happen in Afghanistan.

"The campaign has just started now (in Afghanistan). If it escalates to the level of Iraq, you will see that all the governors lose their freedom," said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center. "The strategy is to isolate those people from ordinary man, to make them live under psychological and physical siege."

Afghan officials say targeted killings are nothing new in Afghanistan. Mujahedeen who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s used the tactic against pro-communist government officials. In September 2002, months after taking power, Karzai himself was nearly gunned down in Kandahar by a former Taliban soldier but escaped injury.

Rarely, however, has the tactic been pursued with such intensity.

Abdul Hakim Taniwal, governor of Paktia province and a close ally of Karzai's, was slain by a suicide bomber Sept. 10. Another suicide bomber the next day killed six people at Taniwal's funeral; four senior Cabinet ministers escaped injury.

Then two other attacks against governors failed: A suicide bomber killed 18 people outside the governor's compound in Helmand province late last month, while the governor of Laghman escaped unhurt when a bomb exploded near his compound as his convoy drove by.

But the police chief, administrator and intelligence director of Khogyani district in the eastern Nangarhar province were killed Oct. 9 by a roadside bomb while on their way to investigate the burning of a school.

In Kandahar, the former seat of the Taliban regime, officials also have been repeatedly targeted. Khan and other government officials there, including the volatile province's governor, maintain it won't scare them into abandoning their posts.

"My life was always in danger," said Gov. Asadullah Khalid, who also survived an assassination attempt last month. "I'm not afraid of this."

Despite the defiance, Khan said the Kandahar provincial council this week doubled the number of body guards assigned to the council members -- he now travels with six, up from three. "We're trying to protect ourselves against these types of attacks," he said.

The assassinations have had other effects, too. After a gunman last month killed Safia Ama Jan, the director of the Ministry of Women's Affairs for Kandahar province, the four remaining female employees at the office quit, said Mohammad Haider, an administrator for the ministry.

"The women told us that two men were chasing them on a motorbike," he said. "They quit soon after that."

There were no women at all at the ministry's office when a reporter stopped by this week, and Haider said the number of women seeking help at the office dropped drastically after Jan's slaying.

Assassinations "prevent people from cooperating with the government or being part of it," said the analyst, Alani. "It is a very effective instrument. It's a strategy, not just a technique."

The only woman employee left in the Women's Ministry office, the newly appointed replacement for Jan, was in Kabul this week. But Haider said even she accepted the position reluctantly and fears she could be next on the Taliban's hit list. She couldn't be reached for comment.

"Even when I'm sitting in the office with her, I can tell she's afraid," Haider said. "She told the security guard two times, 'Don't let anybody inside the office. Don't open the door.'"

Tajik forces kill two Afghan drug smugglers

DUSHANBE, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Tajikistan border guards shot dead two Afghan drug smugglers on Friday and seized 200 kg (440 lbs) of drugs, a border guards spokesman said.

Tajikistan, an impoverished former Soviet state, lies on a busy drug trafficking route out of neighbouring Afghanistan, the world's top producer of opium and its refined form, heroin.

Tajik border guards said 13 of the smugglers had managed to escape back into Afghanistan after the shootout.

Drugs-related clashes on the rugged, 1,400-km (875-mile) Afghan-Tajik border are frequent. Last year Tajikistan took over control of the area from Russia's border guards who had been in charge of patrolling it, raising fears of a surge in smuggling.

Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov has accused the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan of failing to alleviate the poverty that allows illegal drug production to flourish.

Afghan Authorities Arrest Kabul Judge Suspected Of Corruption

Based on President Karzai's approval of a proposal by the Afghan Supreme Court, a judge in Kabul's Ninth District has been suspended over suspected corruption, the official Radio Afghanistan reported on October 18. The judge -- identified as Mohammad Daud, son of Mohammad Faruq -- has been charged with accepting bribes. AT

Afghan Parliamentary Commitee Working On New Media Law

The committee in charge of religious, cultural, and educational affairs in the Afghan National Assembly's Wolesi Jirga (People's Council) plans to draft a new media law, Kabul-based Tolu Television reported on October 18.

Committee Chairman Mohammad Mohaqeq said the committee is currently working on a new law would that would "prevent the occurrence of an ideological crisis" in Afghan society and "bind the private and state-run media to respect [Afghan] customs, culture, and religion." The current law on mass media was decreed by President Hamid Karzai in December 2005 -- just days before the inauguration of the National Assembly (see "RFE/RL Afghanistan Report," May 7, 2006).

Media freedom has been among the most visible achievements in post-Taliban Afghanistan, but conservative circles have tried on numerous occasions to curtail such freedoms, often in the name of religion. AT

Engineers plan to double number of construction projects in Afghanistan region

Stars and Stripes Mideast edition, Thursday, October 19, 2006

ARLINGTON, Va. — U.S. engineers plan to hit the gas on reconstruction in Afghanistan, with double the number of projects in the region planned for this fiscal year, said Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, head of the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Afghan Engineer District has plans for about 600 reconstruction projects, officials said.

The engineering district conducts construction and engineering projects in Central Asia including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan, officials said.

Projects will focus on transportation, water and power infrastructure, Strock said, calling reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan a “race against time.”

The acceleration of reconstruction projects will continue until 2008, by which time the Corps should have built enough infrastructure to allow engineers to move into remote provincial areas and villages, he said.

“Right now, you simply can’t get in some of the places that need the most help,” Strock said.

Strock’s comments came a day after NATO’s top commander in Afghanistan said reconstruction efforts so far have not been aggressive enough and that the coalition will have a problem next year if Afghans feel that the coalition is failing to deliver on its promises of giving them a better life.

“Increasing numbers [of Afghans] will say, ‘Listen, we want you to succeed, but we can’t wait forever. I’ve got children here who need security, who need to be fed, who we don’t want to have the risk of being caught up in fighting, and we’re happy to have fighting as long as we see progress. But if there’s fighting and no progress, then at some stage, we’d rather have the rotten future offered by the Taliban than the hopeful future that we all wish you to deliver, but I’m sorry, you’re taking a bit long in the delivery,’” British Gen. David Richards told reporters on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Strock said the coalition initially did not have the means for an aggressive reconstruction program but now reconstruction efforts are showing steady if not dramatic progress.

Strock noted that the Taliban intentionally destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure before U.S. troops arrived in Afghanistan.

“This is not a reconstruction mission, it is a construction mission,” he said.

Strock also said the Afghans believed that things would change “overnight, dramatically” as soon as U.S. troops entered the country.

“So there certainly is a high expectation. I’ve heard quite often that ‘You can put a man on a moon but you can’t put electricity into my kitchen,’” he said.

Joint Project Seeks to Revitalize Kabul's Art Community

Voice of America Kabul 19 October 2006

The neighborhood of Murad Khane in Kabul's Old City was once a wealthy area of merchants and members of the royal family. But after 25 years of war, most of the homes have been abandoned and left to ruin. A new project begun by President Hamid Karzai and Britain's Prince Charles seeks to renovate the area and make it a cornerstone for Afghanistan's revitalized arts community.

Deep in the market of Murad Khane a radio crackles through the streets while silver workers sell their wares, fortunetellers leaf through astrological books and pilgrims line up outside a Muslim shrine. Murad Khane is rich in culture and full of elaborate houses, but it has seen better days.

A few hundred yards away, laborers are busy digging up 25 years of dirt and garbage that has piled in the streets. This is the first stage of a renovation project to breathe life back into Murad Khane, which has been devastated by almost continuous war since 1979. So far the workers have removed 350 trucks full of rubble, dropping the level of the street by almost two meters.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Britain's Prince Charles dreamed up the project last year, when Mr. Karzai visited Britain.

The work is being done by the Turquoise Mountain Foundation - an Afghan organization dedicated to preserving the country's unique architecture and arts, with funds from the prince's School of Traditional Arts in London, and from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and from a Jordanian group.

Former British diplomat Rory Stewart heads the project, and he has gathered together Afghanistan's best artists to train craftsmen who could renovate the damaged structures.

Walking through Murad Khane, Stewart describes its vitality and importance.

"Murad Khane is first historic settlement on the north bank of the Kabul River. It was founded in the mid-18th century, it is a classic miniature Islamic city. We have here two mosques a public bathhouse, two shrines, and a lot of trades and shops," said Stewart. "This is a classic Central Asian combination of religious institutions, civic institutions and commercial institutions working together."

The Turquoise Mountain Foundation pays half the rebuilding costs for a house and the homeowner the rest. By the end of the project, as many as 55 homes could be renovated, with some buildings used as artists' workshops and art galleries.

But renovating these old structures is no easy task in a country so recently consumed by war. Engineer Rahmattullah Oryakhel says much effort was taken in finding artists who remember the old designs.

"Restoration of old buildings is difficult and time-consuming," said Oryakhel. "The biggest challenge is how to keep the original condition of the building. This requires skilled craftsmen, knowledge of materials and good supervision."

The restoration of the Old City is just one part of a plan to revitalize the arts in Afghanistan. Besides woodworkers and engineers, the Turquoise Mountain Foundation also employs calligraphers and pottery experts. Eventually their works will be sold at art exhibitions and in galleries. The organizers see the plan as a way to generate income for the artists and boost Afghan culture.

At the workshop where the craftsmen are putting together shutters and window frames for the homes in Murad Khane, Turquoise Mountain administrator Ben Gauss talks about the project.

"This is a really good project because it gives skills and jobs to people that previously didn't have them while at the same time rebuilding the city, in a way that can help Afghans connect with their past and make them proud of it," said Gauss. "It would be a shame if their culture was lost."

In the craft market in Murad Khane, residents say that rebuilding the neighborhood will be good for their heritage and tourism.

"These buildings were constructed long ago, even before there were maps of the city," said one resident. "They are rebuilding them to help local people and promote tourism. During the Taleban time most were destroyed. But when they come back the tourists will also return. I think this will help us."

Three decades ago Murad Khane was scheduled for demolition by the Soviets. Age and war left it a crumbling ruin, likely to be torn down and replaced with Western-style villas. But with some help from President Karzai and Prince Charles, the embattled neighborhood stands a chance of surviving another century.

WB vows long-term support for Afghanistan

KABUL, October 19 (Pajhwok Afghan News): World Bank Managing Director Graeme Wheeler in his visit to Afghanistan this week met President Hamid Karzai and discussed reconstruction and development programms with him.

During his stay, Wheeler visited several World Bank-financed projects, and reiterated the World Bank's long term commitment to the country. Development, especially in an environment as complex and uniquely challenging as is found in Afghanistan, is a short-medium- and long-term challenge. It is critical for the international donor community to acknowledge that this process will require their engagement for a significant time to come. A press statement issue here said we have all learned that we have all learned that in conflict and post-conflict countries, where capacity and institutions are fragile, building or re-building both infrastructure and institutions are key ingredients to success, but to be done correctly takes time., said Wheeler. "I am very pleased to see that much progress has been made by the government, in partnership with communities, NGOs, donors and the private sector, in reactivating important public services and rehabilitating key infrastructure.

Enormous challenges remain, however, to improve service delivery and accountability. Continued progress will require strong development actions on the ground, as well as significantly improved government capacity, a deepening of public administrative reforms and firmly addressing governance and corruption," he added. "While considerable progress has been made there is clearly a lot more that needs to be done to meet people's basic needs, including access to health, education, and rural services," said Wheeler. He said the World Bank remains fully committed to supporting Afghanistan's development goals, as stated in the Interim National Development Strategy. He also met with Speaker of Wolesi Jirga (lower house), Mohammad Yunoos Qanooni and Deputy Speaker of Meshrano Jirga (upper house), Sayed Hamid Gailani and Miss Fawzia Koofi, Deputy Speaker of Wolesi Jirga. Wheeler assured the national assembly leadership of World Bank support to the newly established legislative body. "To help keep parliamentarians informed about economic and social development trends relevant to Afghanistan, we are pleased to open a Development Information Space at the parliament main library," he said. Wheeler added, 'We hope the Space will also be a place where parliamentarians can discuss and connect with global knowledge on development."

 The Managing Director visited several World Bank-financed programs, including communities involved in the National Solidarity and National Rural Access Programs. He was very impressed with the progress made by Afghan communities with the support of the NSP in working together to define their priority needs and to then implement priority projects. "This program is important not just for the infrastructure it builds, but is critically important for encouraging communities to take responsibility and be accountable for their own development. This type of community engagement will provide very important economic and social advantages to the future development of Afghanistan, particularly given the huge pressures this country has faced over the past two decades." Said Wheeler.

Wheeler visited a basic health clinic in Ghulam Ali village north of Kabul, which is being funded under a World Bank financed project with the government. "Afghanistan's health indicators are among the lowest in the world. I have been hugely impressed, however, with the innovative approaches used by government to address this challenge. These approaches have resulted in considerable improvements in health indicators in the country, including a rise in health coverage from 18 percent to 82 percent in just the past three years. The World Bank financed health project will continue to support this progress and has helped the government to provide services through more than 200 health facilities in 14 of Afghanistan?s 34 provinces, using NGOs as contractors," he said. Wheeler also visited parts of the rehabilitated Kabul's Doshi Highway (175KM), which connects the capital to eight provinces in Afghanistan, and to both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan via Salang tunnel. The national highways are also part of a regional network that deepens trading possibilities among countries of the wider Central Asia and South Asia regions.

The challenge for the government is to undertake frequent maintenance work to keep the highway in good condition. Since resumption of operations in Afghanistan in April 2002, the World Bank has financed 22 projects, committing around US$1.13 billion of which US$696.8 million is grant and US$436.4 credit (interest-free loan). Two budget support operations and emergency infrastructure and public works projects have so far been completed. The World Bank commitment of US$267 million for its fiscal year 2007 (July 2006-June 2007) to Afghanistan will entirely be in grants. The World Bank funded projects mostly support rural livelihoods by providing employment opportunities, rebuilding infrastructure, education and basic health services.

ACF publishes maiden magazine

KABUL, Oct 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Afghanistan Cricket Federation (ACF) published its first magazine in English language about national cricket players.

Comprising 16 pages and decorated with beautiful pictures, the magazine will bolster morale of the national player. Editor of the magazine Taj Malik Alam told Pajhwok Afghan News Britain bank (Standard Chartered Bank) had funded $2,000 for the magazine.

Thanking the bank, he said the bank was making strenuous efforts to promote cricket in Afghanistan. He said even the bank also sponsored trip of the national team to England. The magazine is beautified with large number of pictures of different competitions. Details about players have been given in the magazine.

Head of the ACF Shahzada Masud told Pajhwok Afghan News this was the first time that magazine was published about national cricket players. He said cricket was new sport in Afghanistan and most of the foreigners and countrymen believed that Afghans had no prominent success in field of cricket. Masud said they had won 18 of the 20 matches, they played in Pakistan, India, England, Malaysia and Kuwait.

[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.]