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‘Hekmatyar won’t enter Kabul until sanctions lifted’
A senior Hizb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) member on Wednesday said HIA leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar would not enter Kabul unless all sanctions against his group were removed. Jumma Khan Hamdard, a senior HIA member and former Paktia governor, was addressing a gathering in Gardez, the provincial capital, held in support of the peace process. Besides other HIA members, Habib Rahman Hekmatyar, son of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, also participated in the meeting. Hamdard said only the first phase of the peace agreement between the Afghan government and the HIA had been implemented and the remaining phases should also be implemented. However, he did not explain the phases, but said the government should follow the agreement and give it a practical shape. The negotiations between the government and the HIA succeeded because they were intra-Afghan, and because no foreigner had participated in the talks, he said. Some steps still needed to be taken for a nationwide stability and talking to Taliban was one of the most important issues the government should pay attention to, he said. Fortunately, he said, the Taliban had recently showed wilingness for negotiations. Differences in the leadership of the government, poor management, private militias and natural resources smuggling were main obstacles to the peace process, Hamdard said. Habib Rahman Hekmatyar said independence of the Afghan government and non-interference of foreigners in Afghanistan had been their only goal during the past 15 years. He said foreigners continued to choose Afghan authorities and the administrative corruption was mostly created by foreigners. The HIA since its foundation wanted an elections-based government system, he said. He believed foreigners sponsored the election processes and elected individuals of their choice. Paktia high peace council head, Mulavi Khaliqdad, called the peace agreement between the Afghan government and the HIA as important and said the agreement would help stabilize...
OIC Fms Condemn Indian Atrocities in IHK
Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC adopts strongly worded resolution on the situation in IoK, condemns India in strongest possible terms for their atrocities on Kashmiris in IoK. OIC Foreign Ministers met in Tashkent on 18-19 October for the43rd Session and adopted a very strong resolution on the grave human rights situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir. While upholding Kashmiris' right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, they reaffirmed OIC countries' unwavering support to the just cause of Kashmiri people, expressed deep concern and condemned in strongest possible terms the unabated killing of defenceless Kashmiris in IoK. The Foreign Ministers noted demonstrations by unarmed Kashmiris, despite curfew, in the wake of Burhan Wani's extrajudicial killing as referendum against India. The Foreign Ministers condemned India for illegal detention of Kashmiris, incarceration of Hurriyat Leaders in torturous conditions, and brutal killings of Kashmiris including children. They also condemned the Handwara episode of forced detention of a minor girl and sexual assault on her by Indian police. The Foreign Ministers once again rejected Indian attempts to equate the indigenous freedom movement of Kashmiris in IoK with terrorism. They paid rich tribute to the Kashmiris for the heroic struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination. They also expressed deep concern at Indian attempts to bring demographic changes in IoK by establishing colonies, forced conversions, and permanent settlement of non-Kashmiris in IoK. They rejected the sham elections under duress as substitute of exercise of the right of self-determination of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. The OIC Foreign Ministers denounced India's refusal to allow OIC Fact-finding Mission to IoK and called for a free and impartial inquiry into the 6,000 unmarked mass graves in IoK discovered in 2009, and bring the perpetrators of the genocide to justice.-PR...
Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques Receives Executive President Of Afghanistan
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz received the Executive President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Abdullah Abdullah and his accompanying delegation, at al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh. King Salman and President Abdullah reviewed means to enhance bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries. They also discussed the latest developments at regional and international arenas. At the outset of the reception, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques welcomed the Executive President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the accompanying delegation in the Kingdom, while President Abdullah expressed his happiness to visit the Kingdom and meet with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The audience and talks were attended by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz, Governor of Riyadh region; Prince Mansour bin Miteb bin Abdulaziz, Minister of State, Cabinet’s Member and Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques; Prince Miteb bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Minister of National Guard; Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior; Minister of State and Cabinet’s Member Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban; Minister of Finance Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf; Minister of State, Cabinet’s Member and Acting Minister of Culture and Information Essam bin Saad bin Said; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nizar Madani and Saudi Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Misfer bin Abdurrahman Al-Ghasib. From the Afghan side, the talks were attended by a number of Ministers and officials accompanying the Executive President. Saudi Arabia has called on the Taliban to show their intentions for peace in Afghanistan and to stop terrorist activities. Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud King of Saudi Arabia, during the meeting with Abdullah Abdullah the National Unity Government's Chief Executive, stated that Saudi Arabia will support and back Afghanistan to maintain peace. Jawed Faisal the CEO's deputy...
CPEC Snags On Solar
One of the more exciting of the CPEC power projects to be undertaken on priority in Pakistan was the giant solar park to be built in Bahawalpur. It was part of the Quaid-i-Azam Solar Park and was part of what they call the ‘early harvest’ projects, meaning the first to come online. The first MoU for the project was signed in August 2013 between the governments of China and Punjab. The provincial government owned the project, and in the first solar power plant that was inaugurated under it, the provincial government was also a joint venture partner with a Chinese contractor. Later in July 2014, another MoU was signed between the government of Punjab and private Chinese developer that expressed an interest in setting up a 900MW solar plant in the same park. This MoU was signed in the presence of the prime minister in Beijing. And then the problems began. Their first application for a generation licence was rejected by Nepra. Things moved fast initially, due to interest in the project at the top. The Project Commitment Agreement was signed a week later, again witnessed by the prime minister and both sides agreed to a tariff of Rs14 per unit outside of taxes, along with the timeline. In August it was placed on the early harvest list and prequalification documents were submitted, and a letter of interest from the Punjab Power Development Board was issued in September. On Jan 22, 2015, the power regulator and tariff setting body Nepra announced a revised upfront tariff for solar projects at Rs14 per unit for the first 10 years of operation, and this tariff was notified in the official gazette on July 1, 2015, with the stipulation that this offer would be valid for a period of six months, until December 2015. The project sponsors applied for a generation licence under this tariff regime. Meanwhile, land allotment had already been done in April, for the first batch of 300MW worth of solar power, and in May, the second batch of 600MW also received its allotment. In...
Afghan Troops Causing More Civilian Casualties, U.N. Says
Afghan civilians are paying the price for increased fighting in populated areas around the country, the United Nations reported on Wednesday, with government troops responsible for a growing share of civilian casualties. At least 2,562 civilians died and another 5,835 were wounded in the conflict in Afghanistan in the first nine months of this year, U.N. officials said. A similar number of civilian casualties occurred in the same period in 2015, indicating rates may be levelling off at near-record levels after steadily increasing since the U.N. began monitoring them in 2009. Ground fighting between pro-government forces and Islamic militants caused nearly 40 percent of all the casualties. Children have been particularly hard hit by the fighting, with 639 young people killed and 1,822 wounded, for an increase of 15 percent over last year. The Taliban and a handful of smaller groups have been fighting to topple the Western-backed government, 15 years after the Taliban lost power in a U.S.-led military operation. "Increased fighting in densely populated areas makes it imperative for parties to take immediate steps to ensure all feasible precautions are being taken to spare civilians from harm," Tadamichi Yamamoto, the U.N.'s Special Representative for Afghanistan, said in a statement. Casualties caused by pro-government forces rose 42 percent compared to last year, with 623 deaths and 1,274 injured, U.N. investigators reported. That includes a spike of 72 percent in casualties from air strikes by the Afghan air force and its international allies. At least 133 people were killed and 159 were injured in air strikes, with two-thirds of those casualties attributed to the Afghan air force, the U.N. said. The Taliban and other militant groups still accounted for more than 60 percent of the overall casualties, with 1,569 civilian deaths and 3,574 injured, the report showed. The U.N. condemned anti-government attacks that have directly targeted civilians, including a...
With An Active Cell in Kabul, ISKP Tries To Bring Sectarianism To The Afghan War
With its publically claimed attack on Afghan Shia mourners in Kabul on the eve of Ashura, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) was clearly attempting to add a toxic sectarianism to the Afghan conflict. The attack, which killed 19 people, followed two other ISKP attacks, on a political demonstration by (largely Shia) Hazaras in July in which 80 people were killed and on a security convoy of the Canadian embassy that killed 14 Nepalese guards, in June. In the wake of these attacks, AAN’s Borhan Osman assesses both ISKP’s strength and operational capacity in Kabul and its desire to ferment sectarianism. On the evening of 11 October 2016, at least two attackers wearing police uniforms and equipped with grenades and machine guns opened fire on Ashura mourners in Kabul’s Kart-e Sakhi shrine, the most popular gathering place in Kabul for mourners marking Muharram, the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. The second attacker, who apparently fled the shrine after joining the first attacker in shooting, fought the security forces in a nearby (Sunni) mosque in Kart-e Chahar. There were no casualties to civilians here as the mosque was not being used, at the time. Witnesses said the attackers in Karta-e Sakhi “indiscriminately shot everyone they faced. They wouldn’t even spare women and children.” The interior ministry said the second attacker was killed in the firefight early in the morning of 12 October 2016. Initial reports had suggested there were several attackers who entered the crowd in Karta-e Sakhi, and that they were holding hostage some of the mourners, but those accounts were never confirmed with any solid detail. The ministry put the number of the dead at 16 and the wounded at 54. They included children and women. UNAMA, condemning the attack, said 19 people had been killed and dozens wounded. Also on 12 October, the actual day of Ashura, an explosion, again targeting Shia mourners in the usually relatively safe province of Balkh, killed 14 people and wounded...
Brics Summit: India Must Bide Time to Deal With China As Relationship With Pakistan Hit A New Low
The Brics Summit this weekend in Goa comes at a time when India-Pakistan relationship has hit a new low. Between Pakistan's renewed intransigence in leveraging anti-India proxies to prosecute its Kashmir agenda, and India's signal that will meet the same using limited military options, the discussions in Goa will invariably be coloured by the recent events in South Asia. Of special interest would be the stance China takes on terrorism during the Summit and whether it will look beyond its all-weather friendship with Pakistan to accommodate India's concerns when it comes to cross-border – and increasingly Islamist – terrorism. China's calculations will be driven by the relative weights its puts on its geopolitical imperatives behind supporting Pakistan, its professed desire to upgrade its relationship with an increasingly assertive India, and its own vulnerabilities when it comes to Islamist terrorism in the restive region of Xinjiang. At the face of it, China and Pakistan make for a strange couple – an avowedly secular one-party government on a relentless march towards domestic prosperity and international influence, and a revanchist power driven by the mosque and the military and in the news almost always for the wrong reasons. But there is a certain logic to this marriage of convenience between China and Pakistan. That China sees Pakistan as a geopolitical instrument to balance India's nearly-hegemonic presence in South Asia is obvious. China sees no reason why it can't also be an ersatz South Asian power by cultivating a client in the region. It also sees Pakistan as a key link to the Islamic world – especially at a time when it expands its footprint to the west of Asia. Finally, it views the proposed port of Gwadar in Balochistan as a key to mitigating its Malacca dilemma. That Pakistan can also emerge as a convenient location to dump its industrial surpluses and as low-cost labour base (especially as China moves towards higher-end manufacturing and the...
BRICS Goa Declaration Reflects Many Political Issues Important for Russia
Moscow is satisfied with the 8th BRICS summit outcome, Deputy Foreign Minister and Russia's BRICS Sherpa Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik on Monday. GOA (Sputnik) – Moscow is satisfied with the 8th BRICS summit outcome, as the final declaration reflects many political issues important for Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister and Russia's BRICS Sherpa Sergey Ryabkov told Sputnik on Monday. Goa documents [Goa declaration and action plan on its implementation] reflect many political topics important for us, including the peaceful usage of space," Ryabkov said. In Goa declaration, leaders welcomed the recent decision by the UN Committee’s on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space working group to set guidelines for long-term sustainability of outer space by 2018. "Moreover, for the first time the declaration clearly set forth the support for the Russian initiative to work out an international convention to prohibit chemical and biological terrorism. It has never been mentioned before," Ryabkov said. He added that Russia was also satisfied with the mentioning of unacceptability of unilateral sanctions. These wordings are new. We used to have more standardized texts [declarations] before. Now they are much more focused on specifics and what we want to implement," Ryabkov said. The eighth annual BRICS event took place in India’s Goa on October 15 – 16, and was attended by leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, who discussed a plan for cooperation in the near future as well as a wide range of political, economic and security issues. This article originally appeared on www.sputniknews.com, October 17, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Brics A Damp Squib: Narendra Modi Govt Should Check Its Obsession With Pakistan
The Brics summit and the overlapping Bimstec outreach meet of regional powers in Goa over the weekend were hyped up beyond expectation to deliver unrealistic results. "It was a damp squib," said former Cabinet Secretary Naresh Chandra. While terrorism was part of the Goa Declaration, Pakistan was not named. This had to do with China, and Russia did not try to overrule President Xi Jinping either. In its obsession with Pakistan, India overlooked the obvious: China would play its hand. Beijing had done so on the issue of Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and over Masood Azhar in the UN Security Council. Why did India believe that China would change its views? That is a question both Indian diplomats and the government must answer. Goa was to play a pivotal part in India's diplomatic efforts to isolate Pakistan. Terror emanating from Pakistan was to be the main focus at both these meets. Ever since the Uri attack, Indian diplomacy has got stuck on a one point agenda: get the world to side with you and condemn Pakistan. This is all very well, but at a time when Indian ambitions of being a global player under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is soaring, the constant focus on Pakistan is bringing the country down to the India-Pakistan sub continental matrix. This is something successive governments had fought against for decades. Delhi would be piqued, if visiting dignitaries, especially from the US and other western nations, would also visit Pakistan. India wanted to break away from this with its connotations of the South Asian context. After Uri, India's entire foreign policy seems to be entirely focused on Pakistan. "The Goa meet is a textbook lesson on how not to conduct India's diplomacy," said the former bureaucrat who has a good hold on foreign affairs. He was also India's ambassador to the US when India conducted its nuclear tests in 1998. Considering that the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa grouping of the emerging economies is more a trade body, it was...
Indian, Afghan Intelligence Agencies Supporting Terrorism in Pakistan: IB Chief
Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director General Aftab Sultan, while speaking in the Senate standing committee meeting on Tuesday, said a large number of terrorists arrested during the last three years had connections with and were working for the Indian and Afghan intelligence agencies. “Out of the 865 terrorists arrested during the last three years, a significant number had connections with India’s RAW and the Afghan NDS,” said the chief of intelligence agency. The IB chief also said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is endangered by foreign intelligence agencies and anti-state elements. Replying to a question regarding missing persons during the Senate sub-committee’s meeting, Sultan stated that the IB was conducting 478 inquiries for missing persons, out of which 427 inquiries have been completed. Jadhav's arrest Earlier in March, law enforcement agencies announced the arrest of Kulbushan Jadhav, saying he had been picked up during an intelligence-based raid in Balochistan's Chaman area. The Indian Foreign Ministry earlier had confirmed the arrested man was a former Indian Navy officer, but the Pakistani government claimed to have recovered travel documents and multiple fake identities of Jadhav, establishing him as an Indian spy who entered into Balochistan through Iran — holding a valid Iranian visa. Jadhav was shifted to Islamabad for interrogation, during which an unnamed official said the spy revealed that he had purchased boats at the Iranian port in Chabahar in order to target Karachi and Gwadar ports in a terrorist plot. The official had said the 'RAW agent' is believed to be expert at Naval fighting techniques. Jadhav's confessions In a confessional video aired by the Inter-Services Public Relations and Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed at a joint press conference, Jadhav said: "I am still a serving officer in the Indian Navy and will be due for retirement in 2022." "By 2002, I commenced intelligence operations. In 2003, I established a...
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I am also a member of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting. Recently, we held a meeting with the Director General of Radio Pakistan and we told them to initiate such local programs (like Constituency Hour) in regional languages to educate and inform people. Even Indian Radio can be heard in FATA which is being used for propaganda purposes and must be closed. Therefore, we should launch some standard and quality programs like CRSS that will change the taste of the listeners.