Pakistani Taliban refuse to extend ceasefire, will continue talks

Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP)
April 16, 2014

The Pakistani Taliban Wednesday said they would not extend a ceasefire called to help peace negotiations with the government, but insisted they were still committed to the talks process.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) announced a one-month ceasefire at the start of March as the government sought a negotiated end to their bloody seven-year insurgency.

The TTP extended the ceasefire to April 10, but complained there had been "complete silence" from the government since then and hinted that the military was trying to thwart talks.

"TTP's central shura (council) has unanimously agreed not to extend the ceasefire," the group said in a statement.

"However, the talks process will continue with complete sincerity and seriousness, and whenever a clear development comes from the government side, the TTP will not hesitate to respond with a serious move."

The announcement comes three days after Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the process was about to enter a "comprehensive" phase.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government began negotiations with the TTP through intermediaries in February to try to end the Islamists' insurgency.

Since the TTP's fight began in 2007, more than 6,800 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks around Pakistan, according to an AFP tally, destabilizing the nuclear-armed state.

The umbrella militant group has demanded the release of what they call "non-combatant" prisoners and the establishment of a "peace zone" where security forces would not be present.

The government freed 19 tribesmen based in South Waziristan district last week and on Sunday Khan said 13 more of what he called "non-combatant Taliban" prisoners would be released to help the peace process.

South Waziristan is one of seven restive semi-autonomous areas along the Afghan border that are havens for the militants.

The TTP statement said there had been "no development" from the government on the militants' demands.

The government has also taken up the issue of the release of a senior academic -- Professor Mohammad Ajmal -- as well the sons of slain former Punjab governor Salman Taseer and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in return for its concessions to the TTP's demands.

- Skepticism -

Talks were a key campaign pledge for Sharif before he was elected to office for a third time last year.

But some analysts have voiced skepticism about their chances for success, given the Taliban's demands for nationwide sharia law and a withdrawal of troops from the lawless tribal zones.

Regional deals struck in the past between the military and the Taliban have failed and some have accused the militants of using them as a means to regroup and rearm.

Not all militant factions are signed up to the peace process -- a group calling itself Ahrar-ul-Hind claimed a major attack on an Islamabad courthouse just days after the ceasefire was originally announced.

Further evidence of discord within the militant ranks came last week with fierce clashes between rival TTP factions which left more than 60 people dead.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Pakistani_Taliban_refuse_to_extend_ceasefire_will_continue_talks_999.html.

Taliban attack rocks upscale Kabul district

November 28, 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters staged an attack Thursday evening in an upscale district in the Afghan capital Kabul. Witnesses described multiple explosions and bursts of gunfire in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, which contains numerous foreign embassies and compounds housing international agencies and companies — as well as the homes of some senior Afghan government officials.

The attack came hours after a suicide car-bomber struck a British embassy vehicle, killing five people including a British citizen. Kabul Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Zahir said there were three explosions followed by extended gunfire. A Taliban spokesman said the intended target was a guesthouse in the district occupied by foreigners. The spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, refused to give further details, adding only that the target of the attack was, "enemies."

Afghan police flooded into the area and locked down the surrounding streets. Footage from area security cameras showed heavily armed security forces and armored vehicles deploying in large numbers. The attack took place near the compound of the development agency International Relief and Development. The agency's head of security, Tony Haslem, told The Associated Press the attack lasted about 45 minutes and he heard rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons being fired.

Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Ayoub Salangi confirmed that the target of the attack was a guesthouse in the diplomatic area. He said no foreigners had been killed. "One Nepalese guard was wounded, but all the foreigners are fine," Salangi said. Three attackers had been killed, two by Nepalese guards at the guesthouse, he said.

"One of the attackers blew himself up," he added. Kabul has come under regular attack in recent weeks. Earlier Thursday, a suicide bomber targeted a British embassy vehicle, killing at least five people, including a British security guard, officials said.

An Afghan national who was driving the vehicle was also killed, and a second British security guard was wounded, Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry spokesman Seddiq Sediqqi confirmed that four Afghans were killed in the attack and said another 33 civilians were wounded.

Earlier the British Embassy said no diplomats were riding in the car at the time it was hit. Hammond, speaking at a press conference in Rome, called the attack "senseless and cowardly" and paid tribute to those killed.

"Let me take this opportunity to offer my condolences to those who lost their lives this morning, the families and friends of those who lost their lives and were injured in this appalling attack," Hammond said. "It reminds us once again of the risks that our personnel take every day in trying to help the Afghans to build a better future for their country and by helping them to do so to protect our own security and our own interests. "

Police said that a car packed with explosives rammed the heavily armored British embassy vehicle, exploding on impact and sending a huge plume of dust and smoke into the air. The midmorning attack happened on the traffic-choked road between Kabul and Jalalabad city. Witnesses said at least a dozen civilian cars were damaged by the blast, and the road was strewn with smoldering debris from the British vehicle.

Video footage showed the roof of the embassy jeep had been blown off and flung about 15 meters (50 feet) along the road, an indication that it was a powerful blast, as the vehicles are built to withstand substantial impact.

Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for the attack in a brief statement. In recent weeks, suicide bombers have launched attacks on military convoys and on compounds housing foreign service companies and their international employees.

Thursday's suicide bomb attack is the first on a diplomatic target in Kabul for some time, as most embassies are secured behind high concrete blast walls with razor wire and guards with automatic weapons. The U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Herat was attacked last year and the Indian consulate in the same city was attacked in May this year.

In September 2011, insurgents launched a complex attack involving suicide bombers and gunmen on the diplomatic area of Kabul -- close to the U.S. Embassy and NATO's headquarters -- that lasted around 20 hours and left seven people dead, none of them U.S. citizens.

Kabul has come under almost daily attack as insurgents intensify their war on local security forces and U.S. and NATO troops, who are set to officially conclude their combat role in the country at the end of next month.

Taliban attack intel office in eastern Afghanistan

August 30, 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber in a truck blew himself up at an intelligence headquarters in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing at least two people and setting off an intense firefight with security forces, officials said.

After the bombing outside the headquarters of the National Directorate of Security in Jalalabad, militants battled with security forces for an hour before authorities were able to put down the attack, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the Nangarhar governor.

He would not say how many attackers were involved or whether they were all killed or some escaped. He said authorities were searching the grounds. Abdulzai put the death toll at two and said they were both from the NDS, but Najibullah Kamawal, the top provincial health official, said six bodies had been brought to the hospital.

Conflicting death tolls are common in the immediate aftermath of such bombings. Kamawal said 45 people were wounded. The powerful explosion shook the entire neighborhood, breaking nearby windows and startling residents.

"It was early morning and we were sleeping at home. A strong explosion happened followed by firing. When I came out of my room I was covered with dust, and my kids and I got injured from broken windows," said Ahmad Shah.

A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to The Associated Press. Jalalabad is one of Afghanistan's biggest cities, sitting on a major trade route into neighboring Pakistan. But the city is also located in one of the country's most troubled regions.

Taliban militants are easily able to hide in the forbidding, mountainous terrain, and often cross back and forth into neighboring Pakistan. Afghan security officials have repeatedly accused Pakistan of giving sanctuary to militants that attack Afghanistan, something Pakistan denies.

In May, militants attacked the provincial justice building in Jalalabad, killing at least five civilians before authorities were able to retake the building. Militants in March attacked a police station in Jalalabad, sparking a four-hour battle with police that ended with eleven people dead.

This is the first year that Afghan security forces have operated largely on their own, without U.S. or international forces. The NATO-led security force is scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of the year, although a small number of U.S. and international troops may stay behind to advise and assist the Afghan forces. But that is contingent on Afghanistan signing a security arrangement with the U.S., something President Hamid Karzai has so far refused to do.

Both of the men vying to replace him in the country's presidential election have said they will sign the agreement, but that has been stalled as the winner from the disputed vote has still not been named.

__ Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

Afghanistan to release 65 'dangerous' Taliban prisoners

Kabul (AFP)
Feb 11, 2014

Afghanistan on Tuesday said it would press ahead with the release of scores of alleged Taliban fighters from jail despite US objections that the men were a threat to NATO and Afghan forces.

Kabul announced on January 9 that a total of 72 detainees held at Bagram jail near the capital would be freed due to lack of evidence, sparking strong condemnation from the United States.

Afghan authorities "concluded that the there is no evidence against 72 out of 88 prisoners. We reviewed their cases again after objections by the US forces, and for now we will release 65 prisoners," Abdul Shukur Dadras from the Afghan government body reviewing detainees at Bagram said on Tuesday.

"These 65 inmates... will be released as soon as early next week," he told AFP.

The issue threatens to further strain US-Afghan relations amid pressure for the two countries to sign a long-delayed security deal allowing some American soldiers to stay in the country after 2014.

In a statement, US forces in Afghanistan said the prisoners were a "legitimate force protection concern" for both Afghan and international forces fighting a bloody Taliban-led insurgency since late 2001.

"The release of these detainees is a major step backward for the rule of law in Afghanistan," the statement said.

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said American troops would be ready to kill or capture the freed detainees if they posed a danger.

"It is the US position that these are threats to US forces and should they take up arms against us, we would take immediate action," Colonel Steven Warren told reporters.

Asked to elaborate, Warren said that "of course, we would try to kill and capture them as the battlefield situation presents."

Bagram was the main detention center housing Taliban and other insurgents captured by the Western military forces until it was transferred to Afghan control last year.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Afghanistan_to_release_65_dangerous_Taliban_prisoners_999.html.

Pakistan Taliban prison raid frees hundreds

30 Jul 2013

About 250 inmates escape in attack that also left 12 dead and eight injured in northwest city of Dera Ismail Khan.

Taliban fighters armed with mortars and grenades have attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan, escaping with about 250 prisoners after a gunfight with security forces, officials have said.

At least 12 people, including six police. were killed and eight others wounded in the assault, staged by fighters disguised in police uniforms, officials said.

The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began late on Monday with a huge explosion, intelligence officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The fighters then detonated a series of smaller bombs to destroy the prison's boundary wall.

Security forces engaged the attackers, who were chanting "God is great" and "Long live the Taliban".

"Police and other law enforcing agencies are busy in clearing the jail," a senior government official Mushtaq Jadoon said, adding authorities have imposed a curfew in the city and asked residents to stay at home.

Pakistan's military confirmed that it had deployed forces to respond to the raid.

Al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, said: "I would describe it [the attack] as extremely calculated."

Some of the Taliban fighters were using loudspeakers and calling the individual names of inmates to come out of the badly damaged prison, he said.

Officials have said that 40 to 45 so-called high-profile or high-value prisoners were freed, our correspondent added.

Taliban claim responsibility

Provincial prisons chief Khalid Abbas said the attackers escaped after a three-hour long gunfight with security forces.

"Security forces have entered the prison and cleared the building after which we have started counting prisoners with flashlights as there is no power in the prison and it is making our job difficult," Abbas told AFP news agency.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a spokesperson. The group said that "over 100 fighters" had attacked the prison.

The Taliban have been waging a deadly uprising against the government for years that has killed thousands of security personnel and civilians.

Dera Ismail Khan, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is located on the edge of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.

The jail, which housed about 5,000 prisoners, is near the bordering town of Tank and adjacent to volatile South Waziristan Agency, the main area of influence of the outlawed TTP.

In April 2012, Taliban fighters armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades battled their way into a prison in the city of Bannu in northwest Pakistan, freeing close to 400 prisoners, including at least 20 described by police as "very dangerous" fighters.

Source: al-Jazeera.
Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/07/2013729201057462974.html.

Pakistani Taliban, army exchange prisoners

September 11, 2013

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — The Pakistani Taliban and the army exchanged prisoners Wednesday as a confidence building measure ahead of possible peace talks, intelligence officials and a militant commander said.

The exchange included six militants and two paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers, officials and the commander said. It occurred in the Shawal area of the South Waziristan tribal region. The militants were subsequently taken to neighboring North Waziristan, the country's main Taliban sanctuary.

Militants fired in the air with joy when their colleagues were freed, the intelligence officials said. The officials and the Taliban commander spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists

The release occurred only days after Pakistan's main political parties endorsed peace negotiations with the Taliban and their allies Monday as the best way to end a decade-long insurgency that has killed thousands of people.

The exchange was meant to build confidence between the government and the militants before formal peace talks, the Taliban commander said. Senior Taliban leaders are currently discussing whether to take the government up on its offer to hold negotiations, said the commander and one of his colleagues.

The Taliban said they were open to talks at the end of last year but withdrew that offer in May after the group's deputy leader was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif campaigned on a platform of holding peace talks and has maintained that line since he took office in June. He scored a victory when his stance was endorsed by other parties on Monday — a decision that was generally welcomed by the Taliban.

But there are plenty of skeptics who doubt negotiations actually will bring lasting peace. The government has struck various peace deals with the Taliban in the past, but all have fallen apart. Critics say the agreements simply gave the militants time to regroup and continue their fight against the state.

"Not only is the path well worn, it is also a path that has on every previous occasion been attempted and led to failure, mutual recrimination and renewed bloodshed," an editorial published Wednesday in The Express Tribune newspaper said.

The editorial also pointed out that it's unclear with whom exactly the government would negotiate. Analysts say there are more than 100 militant groups operating in Pakistan's tribal region along the Afghan border with varying levels of allegiance.

"Then there is the question of just what is on the table, what is up for negotiation," the editorial said. "No iteration of the Taliban either historically or in recent years has wanted anything other than the dismantling of the democratic process, the dissolution of legislatures at the federal and provincial levels, and the imposition of their own narrow interpretation of religion."

It's also unclear what kind of negotiated peace Pakistan's army, considered the country's most powerful institution, would accept after losing hundreds of its soldiers in combat with the Taliban. A peace deal could worry the United States if it gives more breathing room to Afghan militants in Pakistan who carry out cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are allies but have aimed their guns at different targets. The Afghan Taliban have fought coalition forces in Afghanistan, while the Pakistani Taliban have taken on the government at home.

Pakistan to free former Taliban second in command

Reuters
Tuesday, Sep 10, 2013

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will release former Afghan Taliban second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, as soon as this month to help advance peace efforts in neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistan's foreign policy chief said on Tuesday.

Pakistan is under growing pressure to free senior Taliban figures, particularly Baradar, to boost reconciliation efforts, as most NATO combat troops prepare to pull out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and anxiety grows over the country's security.

"In principle, we have agreed to release him. The timing is being discussed. It should be very soon ... I think within this month," Sartaj Aziz, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's adviser on foreign affairs, told Reuters.

Baradar's fate is at the heart of Afghanistan's efforts to kick start the stalled peace process and push Pakistan to hand over important Taliban captives who could provide leverage in the negotiations.

Aziz said, however, that Baradar would not be handed over to Afghanistan directly as some in Kabul had hoped, and would instead be released straight into Pakistan.

The Afghan government believes Baradar is more open to dialogue than many of his comrades, but it is not clear whether he would promote peace or war against President Hamid Karzai's Western-backed government after his release.

One of the most ruthless Taliban figures, he was given his nom de guerre of "Baradar", or "brother", by Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Aziz said it was important to make sure the released Taliban prisoners had a chance to establish contact with their leadership on the ground to persuade them to be part of peace talks - an idea he said Karzai has agreed to.

"Obviously Karzai wanted him to go to Afghanistan, but we feel that if they are to play a positive role in the reconciliation process then they must do it according to what their own Shura (Council), their own leadership, wants them to do," he said.

"That they can't do unless they are released. ... I think he (Karzai) accepted this point that they should play a constructive role in the peace process."

Aziz's remarks followed last month's trip by Karzai to Pakistan, where he sought the handover of some Afghan insurgents as part of the stalled peace process.

On Saturday, Pakistan freed a group of Taliban in an attempt to improve its troubled relations with Afghanistan, but once again risked angering Kabul by not handing them over directly.

Afghanistan fears that Pakistan is only pretending to support dialogue while its intelligence agencies harbor Taliban leaders to project influence across their shared frontier.

It is also concerned the released Taliban would simply go back to the tribal areas and rejoin the insurgency.

REVIVING PEACE TALKS

Aziz said that was not going to happen, adding that allowing them to establish contacts with their leaders would give more credibility to attempts to revive peace talks.

"We monitor their movements and watch where they go," he said. "We have to allow these released detainees to establish contact with their Shura and then decide where to go."

Pakistan is key to the fate of US and Afghan efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, a challenge gaining urgency as the end of the US combat mission in 2014 draws closer.

But its long-running refusal to hand over Baradar to Afghanistan has been one of the biggest obstacles to peace talks, as mutual suspicions continue to hamper efforts to tackle militancy in one of the world's most explosive regions.

Source: AsiaOne.
Link: http://news.asiaone.com/news/asia/pakistan-free-former-taliban-second-command.

Pakistan releases seven Afghan Taliban detainees

Islamabad, Sep 7 2013: Pakistan has freed seven more Afghan Taliban detainees "to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process", the country's foreign ministry said Saturday.

A total of 32 Taliban rebels have been freed, reports Xinhua.

Pakistan had started the process to release Afghan Taliban prisoners on the request of the Afghan government in November last year.

"In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, Pakistan is releasing seven Taliban detainees," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

These releases are in addition to 26 Taliban detainees released last year, it said.

The freed Taliban figures include commander Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of Mulla Dadullah Akhud, the Taliban senior commander who was killed by American and British troops in southern Afghanistan in May 2007.

Mansoor Dadullah was arrested by Pakistani security forces in Balochistan in February 2008.

The foreign ministry's list of those released excluded Taliban second-in-command Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested in Karachi in 2010.

Though the Afghan government has been demanding Baradar's release since his arrest, Islamabad is unwilling to free him.

--IANS (Posted on 07-09-2013)

Source: New Kerala.
Link: http://www.newkerala.com/news/story/64046/.html.