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World Bank Pledges Continued Support to Afghanistan
On Sunday Peters held discussion over government's preparations for the Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Brussels in October and reviewed development progress in the country. During his stay, he met with President Ashraf Ghani, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and a number of cabinet ministers, including Eklil Hakimi, Minister of Finance, the WB said in a statement issued late Sunday. Peters was accompanied by Annette Dixon, World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region. "The World Bank Group will stay the course in supporting the people of Afghanistan in these challenging times," said Peters. "The World Bank Group commends the government of national unity for its achievements in the last two years under difficult circumstances, and for its preparation of the conference. It will be important for Afghanistan to signal before and after the conference a commitment to implement key policy reforms, building on the achievements of recent years." WB is providing robust support to the government in preparation for the Brussels Conference, especially through contributing key analytical work for discussions on development issues. In addition, the statement added that the WB's analytical work highlights the need for continued high levels of aid, with more aid provided through the government budget to maximize local economic impacts and ensure that government can finance its priority programs. The analysis shows that, with adequate international assistance, policy reforms, private sector development and investment in social services, Afghanistan has the potential to move to a sustainable higher growth trajectory, driven by agriculture and extractives. "The Bank analysis shows that there is potential for faster growth through agriculture and mining. Agriculture can be a major driver of growth, supporting incomes, creating jobs, and reducing poverty. Even with the risks involved, mining represents a vital complement to agriculture, providing the only...
Former Taliban spokesperson killed in Afghan raid
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan former spokesman Azam Tariq was among four Taliban leaders killed in an operation conducted by Afghan security forces in Paktika province early Sunday. While confirming Tariq’s death, the TTP said that his son was also among those killed in the operation. His death was also confirmed by security sources in the tribal region. The slain TTP leader, whose real name was Raees Khan, had earlier served as the spokesperson for the banned TTP. He was currently working as spokesperson of the Mehsud Taliban faction led by Khan Sayed ‘Sajna’. According to sources, most members of the Sajna group live in Paktika province. They apparently crossed into Afghanistan after fleeing military operations in the Waziristan tribal regions. In June this year, the brother and uncle of Hakimullah Mehsud surrendered to the authorities in the Kurram Agency after returning from the Afghan province. Tribal sources earlier told The Express Tribune that the Hakimullah splinter group was instrumental in the handing over of family members of the slain leader “under an arrangement” with the authorities. The Hakimullah group neither parted ways with Maulvi Fazlullah’s TTP nor did the latter disown it. A senior leader of the group, Janat Khan alias Zabal, was the main character behind the campaign to encourage Mehsuds’ return home. Zabal was killed along with his guard in Paktika in April this year. He played a key role in persuading many Mehsud militants to return to a peaceful life, a source familiar with the initiative said. A serious rift over leadership broke out within the ranks of the Taliban following the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in November 2013. Taliban sources say as many as 200 fighters had been killed in clashes between supporters of rival factions led by Sheharyar Mehsud and Khan Said ‘Sajna’, respectively. This article originally appeared in The Express Tribune, September 26, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not...
Kashmir: Where the Truth Doesn’t Matter
NPR’s Julie McCarthy was in Kashmir earlier in September and reported on how different the unrest seems now compared to previous years. “First of all, there's this unprecedented kind of force being used. There's these high-velocity pellet shotguns for crowd control. And it's left thousands of people riddled with pellet injuries. And a lot of them have damaged eyesight. And some demonstrators have thrown stones, attacked police stations and government buildings. And, unusually, this started in rural areas. And it has spread throughout the Kashmir Valley. And it's lasted over 60 days. That's also unusual.” Perhaps it’s not enough to point out that the champion of this latest uprising, a person who was slain in a fashion frequently called “extrajudicial” by others in the press, and whose killing was the primary provocation for the current uprising, was a self-declared militant who had used social media to resist the Indian occupation. He was someone who had become a symbol of the true spirit of resistance in the hearts of all Kashmiris. The protest over Burhan Wani’s killing was obviously different. Real different. Kashmiris are not a violent people. The country has throughout history been known for its peaceful communal relations among Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Muslims. Yet it expressed a state of frustration that had reached a boiling point. His killing set off a protest movement that was unusual in its scale. As many as 200,000 people attended his funeral in direct violation of a state curfew order that should have kept people immobilized in their homes. One wonders why the honoring of the dead with a funeral procession would scare the daylights out of India. Enough to shoot them with shotguns? These guns weren’t, it should be added, pointed at infiltrators sneaking across the Line Of Control (LoC). They were pointed at moms and dads, sons and daughters, of Kashmiris. Perhaps some Pakistani agent was handing everyone a Snickers candy bar to show...
Surgical Strikes and The Doval Doctrine
Internally, the Indian security forces seem to be set on a kill-maim-blind-disable campaign in Kashmir. Externally, New Delhi has embarked on a smear-isolate-discredit-Pakistan mission—very much in synch with the Ajit Doval doctrine—accompanied by an offensive anchored in politico-diplomatic isolation of the country. The barbs that diplomats and leaders of both countries exchange, particularly the Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s characterization of Pakistan as a “terrorist country” represent the other plank of the campaign to bracket Pakistan with all sorts of negatives, including, of course, terrorism. And incidents such as Pathankot or Uri perfectly fit into this gameplan. Public calls for reprisal in the shape of surgical strikes are then the natural reaction to such deadly incidents. Uri revived emories of Mumbai and the public outrage that it triggered. But the idea of surgical strikes dates to the post-Mumbai scenario, when India’s top military, political and intelligence leadership had in a secret meeting on December 2, 2008, mulled over this option. This meeting had apparently taken place shortly before a delegation of US senators led by John McCain and Lindsey Graham visited New Delhi to sniff out the mood. From there they travelled to Lahore, where they discussed the surgical strike option. “Senator McCain wanted to know from me… what the reaction of the Pakistan army and the public at large would be if there was a limited air-raid on Muridke,” writes Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in his book Neither a Hawk nor a Dove. I was “horrified at the mere suggestion.” There have been moderate voices too, such as that of Manoj Kumar Joshi, who have been far more restrained and calculated in their condemnation of Pakistan than the majority. We need to manage our relations, rather than push for “crushing Pakistan, cutting Pakistan to size,” Joshi said in a Rajiya Sabha TV debate The senators, also accompanied by Richard Holbrooke, the then special Pak-Afghan...
Afghanistan Signs Draft Peace Deal With Prominent Warlord
Afghanistan's government signed a draft peace deal on Thursday with a designated "global terrorist" after lengthy negotiations that could pave the way for a similar accord with the Taliban, who have been waging war on Kabul for 15 years. The deal with warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is the country's first peace agreement since the Taliban launched their insurgency in 2001, after being driven from power in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. It grants full political rights to his Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin party and obliges the Afghan authorities to work to have it removed from the United Nations' list of foreign terrorist organizations. Hekmatyar himself was designated by the U.S. as a "global terrorist" in 2003. He was blacklisted at Washington's request by the U.N. the same year, and has similar status with the British government. The agreement ends years of talks between Kabul and Hekmatyar, who is in his late 60s. It should enable him to return to Afghanistan after 20 years in exile — he is believed to live in Pakistan — as it includes provisions for his security at government expense. The signing ceremony was broadcast live on television. The agreement was signed by the head of Kabul's High Peace Council, Ahmad Gilani, national security adviser Mohammad Hanif Atmar, and Hekmatyar's representative Amin Karim. Hekmatyar's son Habiburahman sat with an audience of officials. To be formalized, the agreement must be signed by President Ashraf Ghani and Hekamtyar; Atmar said it would happen "as soon as possible." The deal marks a victory of sorts for Ghani, who has been unable to bring peace to Afghanistan despite election promises and early efforts to forge a close diplomatic relationship with neighboring Pakistan. The failure of those efforts has seen Ghani reverse course in recent months — he now openly accuses Pakistan of supporting the Taliban. Pakistan denies the accusations, though the Taliban's leadership councils are based in Quetta and other...
Officials Speak of Daesh Presence in Zabul, Nangarhar
Officials in Zabul and Nangarhar said on Wednesday that Daesh insurgents are still active in parts of the two provinces and that the insurgent group is trying to extend its presence to other areas but has so far failed. Khak Afghan district in Zabul was reportedly Daesh's first base in the province but local officials said the group has extended its territory to other parts of the province. "Arghandab, Daichopan, Mizan and Nawbahar districts are witnessing a huge presence of foreign Taliban. Two years ago they raised the Daesh flag but have now pledged their allegiance to al-Qaeda, but they are the same people," said Attaullah Haq Bayan, head of Zabul provincial council. Meanwhile, officials from Nangarhar said that Daesh safe havens have been hit by air strikes and that soon ground operations will be launched to eliminate their hideouts. "Daesh will be suppressed in areas where they are active. They cannot move forward. Our air strikes are ongoing to hit their hideouts," said Nangarhar governor Attaullah Khogtani. The Ministry of Defense meanwhile said they believe that Daesh is no longer a serious threat to Afghanistan's security. "Daesh is now active in Achin and Kot districts, but their presence is not at the level that was expected," said Habiburrahman Afzal, deputy spokesman for the defense ministry. This article originally appeared on www.tolonews.com, September 21, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
Afghanistan in Talks With UAE Companies For $6b Infrastructure Projects
Negotiations are underway between the Afghan government and some companies in United Arab Emirates to attract an investment of $6 billion in infrastructure projects, it has been reported. The officials in the Ministry of Energy and Water of Afghanistan have said Afghanistan requires a total of $9 billion investment in the energy sector. Water and Energy Minister Ali Ahmad Osmani told reporters in UAE that the donor partners of Afghanistan including the United States Agency for International Development have made a commitment of $2 billion. “The fund gap is about $5-6 billion in all infrastructure projects,” Osmani told reporters after the conclusion of a summit in Dubai. Osmani further added that Afghanistan is also in discussions with a few UAE companies for some of its gas, solar and hydro projects. According to the officials, the power generated from Afghanistan could be even exported to neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan, home to a 1 billion-plus population. The latest attempts by Afghan government with the support of its international allies to attract foreign investments in energy sector of the country came as efforts are underway to boost the domestic income of the country, specifically through investments on natural resources of Afghanistan. The Afghan government signed over 80 mining contracts with the private sector earlier last month in a bid to boost the extraction of mines and prevent illegal extraction of the mining. This article originally appeared on www.khaama.com, September 20, 2016. Original link. Disclaimer: Views expressed in the article are not necessarily supported by CRSS.
India’s 007, Former Super Spy, Is Shaping Modi’s Foreign Policy
He spent seven years undercover in Pakistan, recruited rebels as informants in disputed Kashmir, and once disguised himself as a rickshaw driver to infiltrate a militant group inside India’s holiest Sikh temple. Now some consider Ajit Doval the most powerful person in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi picked Doval as his National Security Advisor, a position that holds more sway than the ministers of defense and foreign affairs. It puts Doval in charge of talks with arch-rival Pakistan. He visits arms manufacturers to discuss strategic capabilities, and orchestrates the response to militant attacks, liaising daily with Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, the nation’s top diplomat. Since Doval took the job, he has supported a nationalist agenda while adopting a tougher line against hostile neighbors. That has growing economic ramifications as China funds a $45 billion trade corridor through Pakistan that bypasses India and as both China and India eye resource-rich neighbors in central Asia like Afghanistan. “Every strategic issue in this region involves security in a way that it doesn’t in other regions,” says R. K. Sawhney, a former director general of military intelligence who’s known Doval for nearly two decades. “As the profile of the country grows, the profile of the national security advisor grows.” Short, trim and bespectacled, Doval shuns the limelight and rarely appears in public. His office said he wasn’t available for an interview. Six people who have known him personally for years—some of whom requested not to be identified because he dislikes publicity—said Doval is overseeing India’s most delicate diplomatic issues. Shortly after taking office, Modi sent Doval as his special envoy to Afghanistan and brought him on his first foreign trip to Bhutan. He’s also special representative in charge of talks with China over a disputed border, a task made more difficult as China plans to invest millions into transportation links through Kashmir, an...
India's 007, Former Super Spy, Is Shaping Modi's Foreign Policy
He spent seven years undercover in Pakistan, recruited rebels as informants in disputed Kashmir, and once disguised himself as a rickshaw driver to infiltrate a militant group inside India’s holiest Sikh temple. Now some consider Ajit Doval the most powerful person in India after Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi picked Doval as his National Security Advisor, a position that holds more sway than the ministers of defense and foreign affairs. It puts Doval in charge of talks with arch-rival Pakistan. He visits arms manufacturers to discuss strategic capabilities, and orchestrates the response to militant attacks, liaising daily with Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, the nation’s top diplomat. Since Doval took the job, he has supported a nationalist agenda while adopting a tougher line against hostile neighbors. That has growing economic ramifications as China funds a $45 billion trade corridor through Pakistan that bypasses India and as both China and India eye resource-rich neighbors in central Asia like Afghanistan. “Every strategic issue in this region involves security in a way that it doesn’t in other regions,” says R. K. Sawhney, a former director general of military intelligence who’s known Doval for nearly two decades. “As the profile of the country grows, the profile of the national security advisor grows.” Short, trim and bespectacled, Doval shuns the limelight and rarely appears in public. His office said he wasn’t available for an interview. Six people who have known him personally for years—some of whom requested not to be identified because he dislikes publicity—said Doval is overseeing India’s most delicate diplomatic issues. Shortly after taking office, Modi sent Doval as his special envoy to Afghanistan and brought him on his first foreign trip to Bhutan. He’s also special representative in charge of talks with China over a disputed border, a task made more difficult as China plans to invest millions into transportation links through Kashmir, an...
Indian Factor in Afghanistan
For the past 10 years or so, India has been fishing in the troubled waters of Afghanistan for a central role and to marginalize Pakistan in the final settlement of the Afghan issue. Despite its historical relations, bolstered by a decade-long Hamid Karzai’s pro-India policies and its surging ability to extend economic assistance, India did not really succeed in its mission. Even the signing of Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2011 did not ensure Indian primacy to the extent that Pakistan should feel squeezed and its interests crashed beyond repair. Now that President Ashraf Ghani in his visit to New Delhi has completely reversed his two-year-old policies of depending on Pakistan rather than on India, Pakistan is deniably nervous. Civilian and military establish are denouncing the move as a grave security threat for Pakistan. The US government and Afghanistan jointly agreed that India could play a bigger role in Afghanistan under a trilateral framework. India was already providing weapons, raising the fighting capacity of the Afghan Army and the National Police against Taliban groups and ISIS. To this effect, a conclusive statement came at the India-US Strategic Commercial dialogue in Delhi on August 29, 2016 from Secretary of State John Kerry. He announced that in September the United States, India and Afghanistan would finally hold a trilateral dialogue in New York this month. For those who have been watching Indian maneuverings during the decades-long government of President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan’s continued failure to assuage Afghan’s concerns regarding Islamabad efforts to persuade Taliban groups to remain engaged in national reconciliation process aimed at reduction of violence and establishing lasting peace in Afghanistan, the tripartite agreement is not a big surprise. With Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) of Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States and China dead, and no possibility of all Taliban groups minus Hekmat Gulbadeen Yar group...
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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.