Pak sacrifices saved US

In an interview with an American TV channel, Abdullah Haroon said the American allegation that Pakistan was supporting terrorists was baseless and shameful. He said Pakistan was a strong US ally on war on terror and the US should not make Pakistan a scapegoat for her failure in Afghanistan.

Haqqani network is created by the CIA. The American administration has admitted that the US with the help of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and former president Burhanuddeen Rabani were holding talks with the Taliban. The US also had asked the UN to lift ban on Taliban, Abdullah Haroon said and added the murder of Rabani was the failure of US security in Afghanistan.

India deal not to affect Pakistan ties: Karzai

NEW DELHI: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai sought on Wednesday to ease concern in Pakistan about a key agreement with India, saying it will not affect relations with Islamabad.

Pakistan, its ties with powerful ally the United States heavily strained, is looking increasingly isolated after rival India signed a wide-ranging agreement with neighboring Afghanistan.

“Pakistan is our twin brother, India is a great friend. The agreement we signed with our friend will not affect our brother,” Karzai said in a speech in New Delhi.

“This strategic partnership … is not directed against any country … this strategic partnership is to support Afghanistan.”

On a two-day visit to New Delhi, Karzai and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sealed an agreement on Tuesday that spanned closer political ties to fighting terrorism.

It signals a formal tightening of links that may spark Pakistani concerns India is increasingly competing for leverage in Afghanistan.

The agreement with India is one of several being negotiated by Kabul, including one with the United States, that are part of an Afghan bid for greater security as NATO troops head home. AGENCIES

Brahmdagh Bugti seeking political asylum in Switzerland

Chief of Baloch Republican Party (BRP) Nawabzada Brahmdagh Bugti has sought political asylum in Switzerland.

Brahmdagh has submitted an application to the Swiss authorities seeking political asylum, Mir Sher Muhammad Bugti, his spokesperson maintained. He will continue to take up the issue of human rights violations in Balochistan at the UN and other international forums, the spokesperson added. Brahmdagh had gone into hiding following the death of Baloch chieftains Nawab Akbar Bugti and Balach Marri. He avoided contacting people for security reasons. Brahmdagh also advised his supporters to continue their struggle for the rights of the Baloch people. The government has made repeated claims about Brahmdagh Bugtis presence in the Afghan capital of Kabul from where he has been leading the Baloch insurgents. He had founded the outlawed Baloch Republican Army (BRA) which is engaged in attacks on government installations and security forces in volatile parts of Balochistan. Pakistan authorities had taken up Brahmdaghs matter with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, when he visited Islamabad last time. And the Afghan leader had promised to look into the matter. Brahmdagh has been denying reports that he was hiding in Afghanistan and instead claimed that he was leading a struggle for the rights of the Baloch people from somewhere in Balochistan.Recently, Nawabzada Hyrbyar Marri was also given political asylum in Britain on a British courts orders. Earlier, Britains Home Office had rejected his application for political asylum.

PM Gilani Leaves for Official Visit to Afghanistan

News Trends: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has left for a two-day official visit ot Afghanistan.

The prime minister would meet with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, Vice-President Muhammad Karim Khalili, Speaker Younas Qanoni, Chairman High Council for Peace Burhan-ul-Din Rabbani and Afghan traders during his visit. The prime minister would also inaugurate Pakistan Embassy Complex in Kabul. The purpose of the visit of the prime minister is to ameliorate the existing bilateral relations between the two countries. The prime minister would take Hamid Karzai in to confidence on matters of common interest.

Karzai admits to sheltering Baloch nationalists: Wiki Leaks

Wiki Leaks has said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had admitted to sheltering Baloch nationalists

In his meeting with Ex US official Richard Boucher, Afghan President Hamid Karzai had said that the Bugtis were not terrorists and represented nobility in Afghanistan, so it would be hard to turn them over to Pakistan. US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher clarified that it was Brahmdagh that the Pakistanis were after for instigating an uprising. Karzai responded that fomenting uprising does not make one a terrorist. The real terrorists were Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Boucher asked Karzai which side should move first and queried whether Afghanistan could take Brahmdagh into custody or strike some political deal. Karzai explained that the Bugtis would blame the US if Afghanistan turned them in.

Flawed polls weaken Afghan leader’s grip

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai, his credibility shattered after two deeply flawed elections in a year and the West’s patience worn thin, could unwittingly guarantee the end of his decaying government by insisting foreign troops leave.

Karzai’s government faces a crisis of legitimacy after a presidential vote in August 2009, in which a third of his votes were thrown out as fake, and a parliamentary election in September again hit by “considerable fraud”.

Final results were declared last week in 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces but a new parliament is unlikely this year and prosecutors are investigating dozens of fraud cases.

Analysts paint a grim picture of a floundering government, at once reliant on the West and eager for foreign troops to leave, and of allies increasingly frustrated by corruption and shoddy work building democratic

Karzai pardons criminals: WikiLeaks

LONDON: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of numerous dangerous criminals and drug traffickers detained by US-led coalition forces, leaked American diplomatic cables revealed Tuesday.

American officials said they had repeatedly rebuked the president and Afghan attorney general Muhammad Ishaq Alko for authorising the release of detainees over a three-year period.

“Both authorize the release of detainees pre-trial and allow dangerous individuals to go free or re-enter the battlefield without ever facing an Afghan court,” said a cable dated August 2009 and classified as “secret” by then-US deputy ambassador to Afghanistan Francis Ricciardone.

“Despite our complaints and expressions of concern to the GIRoA (Afghan government), pre-trial releases continue,” it said.

Internet whistleblower WikiLeaks has begun releasing a quarter of a

Afghan withdrawal timeline "irrational": Taliban

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban described NATO’s plan to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014 as “irrational”, reiterating on Sunday its demand for all foreign troops to leave immediately or risk more bloodshed.

In a five-point statement released in response to a NATO summit that wrapped up in Lisbon on Saturday, the Taliban said delaying the withdrawal of foreign troops would only lead to more “tragic events and battles”.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who is due to review his Afghanistan war strategy next month, has already committed to a gradual drawdown of U.S. troops from July 2011, his counterpart Hamid Karzai saying he wants Afghans in control by 2014.

That target was agreed by NATO leaders in Lisbon on Saturday, although some U.S. and NATO officials have said a spike in violence and problems in building up a capable Afghan army and police force to take

NATO leaders endorse 2014 Afghan exit plan

NATO heads of the states have endorsed the repatriation plan of the coalition forces from Afghanistan till 2014. The Secretary General of NATO Andre Rasmussen has said that there are no more safe hide-outs of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan but even then the coalition forces would remain in Afghanistan after 2014. Addressing a press conference alongwith UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and the Afghan president Hamid Karzai in Lisbon after the meeting, Rasmussen said that the process of giving the control of Afghanistan to the Afghan security forces has been initiated. He also said that the Afghan forces would start leading the security operations by next year and would take complete control of their country by 2014. Rasmussen told the media that Taliban should not dream of regaining power in Afghanistan as the coalition forces would remain inside Afghanistan even after 2014.
More or less 130,000 ISAF personnel are present in Afghanistan right now and of them most belong to the USA.

Karzai wants US to cut back Afghan military operations

WASHINGTON: Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants the U.S. military to scale back the visibility and intensity of its operations in Afghanistan and end night raids that he said incited people to join the Taliban insurgency, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.

“The time has come to reduce military operations,” Karzai told the Post in an interview. “The time has come to reduce the presence of, you know, boots in Afghanistan to reduce the intrusiveness into the daily Afghan life.”

The Post said his comments put him at odds with U.S. General David Petraeus, who has made “capture-and-kill” missions a central part of counterinsurgency strategy.

In the past three months, such night raids of Afghan homes by U.S. Special Operations forces had killed or captured 368 insurgency leaders, the Post said.

Karzai was quoted as saying his comments were not meant

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