The Guardian, 8 October 2013 A good reminder by Emma Graham-Harrison that there are other things then an election campaign going on in Afghanistan, too: The story of "the impoverished relatives of a murdered 16-year-old girl are fighting the wealthy family of an MP [from Bamian province] in Afghan courts in a case that is testing the […]
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Reuters, 4 October 2013 General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan's army chief to step down next month, is likely to become "head of a revamped and more powerful Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC)", the news agency reports. "One senior [Pakistani] intelligence official said [Prime Minister Nawaz] Sharif planned to overhaul the JCSC, a largely ceremonial office, […]
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IWPR, 2 October 2013 People in the Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan say the security situation is deteriorating rapidly, with a spate of kidnappings on the road to the Khyber Pass into Pakistan. In one incident, armed men stopped a car only 100 metres away from a security checkpoint. An eyewitness commented that “the government people stay in […]
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BBC, 25 September 2013 Ahmed Rashid now less enthusiastic about Nawaz Sharif's ability to reign in the military/ISI, including on Afghanistan.
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Spiegel online, 25 September 2013 Interview by Christian Neef with Ismail Khan in Herat who provided a number of interesting quotes: that the Afghan army trained by the West will never be capable of ensuring the country's long-term security; that "the arrogant Americans drove the most important Taliban out of Kabul, bombed the rest from the air and then […]
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AP/The New Republic, 25 September 2013 Interesting background piece by Kathy Gannon about the militant, sectarian group Jundullah that bombed a Christian church in Peshawar on 22 September. She quotes Pakistani terrorism watchers saying that it maybe one of eleven TTP sub-groups specialised on particular targets.
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BBC, 20 September 2013 Fifty years ago this week, writes Monica Whitlock, Duke Ellington and his band played in a concert in Kabul he later called one of the most memorable of his life. The organiser, Faiz Khairzada, remembers how 5,000 came to the Olympic Stadium; tickets were free, and how King Zahir and the royal family […]
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New York Times, 17 September 2013 "The top United Nations human rights official emerged from a meeting Tuesday with the Afghan president without hoped-for assurances that he would reverse his decision to pack the country’s human rights commission with political appointees. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, was also generally critical that […]
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IWPR, 16 September 2013 Residents of Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan complain that large swathes of their farmland have been appropriated to build military bases, and the owners have received little or no compensation. Around ten international military bases have existed there since 2001. Initially used by NATO troops, the bases have now either been abandoned […]
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Jinnah Institute (Pakistan), 12 September 2013 Renowned Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussain reviews the first 100 days of the new Pakistani government and comes to devastating conclusions: "[T]he first 100 days of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government have been decidedly short on deliverables. … This 100-day phase has clearly lacked the direction and clarity of vision needed […]
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Global Research, 10 September 2013 While reporting about drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan usually is focussed on the US, the British government now has published figures about it use of drones in Afghanistan for the first time. It says that British forces have carried out 299 drone strikes in Afghanistan, between 2008 to the end of […]
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Dawn (Pakistan), 9 September 2013 Excellent editorial on the release of seven Afghan Taleban prisoners: "More than likely, the release … is a small confidence-building measure on the part of Pakistan to try and rehabilitate ties with outgoing President Karzai without significantly impacting the intra-Afghan dialogue process. … [a]t this late stage, with 2014 just […]
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