Pakistan Army offered Arbitration With Omar: WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON: The chief of Afghan Intelligence Amarullah Saleh told a briefing comprising foreign diplomats that Pakistani army offered US of mediation in peace talks with head of Taliban insurgents, Mullah Omar, according to latest leaked memos on WikiLeaks’ site.

The memos revealed that Afghan President Hamid Karzai feared and strongly believed that US was being helped by Iran to bring instability in Afghanistan and to oust him from presidency.

According to latest leaks, Amarullah Salem, in the mid of 2009, had told a briefing of foreign diplomats that Pakistan army offered role of arbitration in US’s talks with Taliban chief Mullah Omar but the then US envoy had rejected the offer.

In July 2009, Hamid Karzai told a US envoy that America’s Afghan policy had failed miserably, as he also feared US’s involvement in instability of Afghanistan with the help of Iran.

During the same time in 2009, Umar DaoDazai, the chief of Afghan army would think that an Afghan’s religious leader was an Iranian agent, the leaked cables revealed.

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.

Karzai denies meeting ‘top Taliban negotiator’

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday denied meeting a purported top Taliban negotiator as claimed by The New York Times.

The US newspaper said a man claiming to be Mullah Akhtar Mohammed Mansour was in fact an impostor. The Washington Post quoted Afghan officials as saying that the man was a lowly shopkeeper from the Pakistani city of Quetta.

NATO and Afghan officials told the Times they met the fake Taliban leader three times and that he was flown to Kabul on a NATO aircraft and ushered into the presidential palace to meet Karzai.

But the president denied the meeting.

“We have not met with anyone named Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour. Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour has not come to Afghanistan,” Karzai told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

He told reporters not to accept “propaganda” from the foreign media.

“Do not

Afghan Taliban "leader" in reports a fake: report

KABUL: The New York Times said on Tuesday that a man it had described as a “Taliban leader” who had taken part in “secret peace talks” with the Afghan government was in fact an impostor.

The newspaper said the man had held three meetings with NATO and Afghan officials but that U.S. officials had confirmed on Monday “they had given up hope” he was the leader identified as Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour.

“The fake Taliban leader even met with President Hamid Karzai, having been flown to Kabul on a NATO aircraft and ushered into the presidential palace,” the newspaper said, again citing unidentified officials.

On October 20, The New York Times quoted an unidentified source as saying talks to end the war involved “extensive, face-to-face discussions with Taliban commanders.”

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported two senior Afghan officials believed the

Karzai holds ‘secret talks’ with Taliban

Three Taliban figures met secretly with Afghanistan’s president two weeks ago in an effort by the Afghan government to weaken the US-led coalition’s most vicious enemy, a powerful al-Qaeda linked network that straddles the border region with Pakistan.
A former Afghan official said the meeting in Kabul included an ex-Taliban governor, Maulvi Abdul Kabir. He comes from the same Zadran tribe as the leaders of the Haqqani network, an autonomous wing of the Taliban responsible for many attacks against US and Afghan forces, the former official said over the weekend. US and Afghan officials hope that if Kabir agrees to quit the insurgency, it could split the Zadran tribe and undercut the pool of recruits from which the Haqqanis currently draw fighters. But it was unclear whether any progress toward that end was made during the talks.
Weakening the Haqqanis’ grip over the Zadran tribe could help shift the power balance in eastern provinces where the network poses a major threat. The Haqqani network, led by ailing Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin, is believed to be sheltering top al-Qaida leaders across the border in Pakistan. Kabir served as governor of Nangarhar province and deputy prime minister during the Taliban rule, which ended with the U.S.-led invasion of 2001. He is believed to run the Taliban council in the Pakistani city of Peshawar but is not considered a powerhouse in the Taliban. The two other Taliban who took part in the talks were Mullah Sadre Azam and Anwar-ul-Haq Mujahed. Mujahed is credited with helping Osama bin Laden escape the US assault on Tora Bora in 2001, the former official said. He has been in Pakistani custody since June last year when he was picked up in a raid in Peshawar, where one of several Afghan Taliban shuras, or councils, is located. The men were brought by helicopter from Peshawar and spent two nights in a luxury Kabul hotel before returning to Pakistan. The US earlier this month acknowledged facilitating some Taliban trips to Kabul but provided no specifics. The Pakistani military has not commented on such reports. The former Afghan official, who asked not to be named because of his relationship with both the government and the Taliban, described Kabir and his associates as midlevel contacts because they have little, if any influence over more powerful Taliban factions. Karzai has formed a 70-member council to try to reconcile with the Taliban and find a political solution to the insurgency. The Taliban’s top leadership has denied that any of their representatives have been involved in talks. They claim their leaders will not discuss peace with the government unless foreign troops first leave Afghanistan.

Karachi police arrest 10 suspects linked with Shershah killings

Staff Report

KARACHI: Police have arrested ten suspects in connection with last week’s brutal killings at Shershah’s scrap market, during an operation in Jahanabad area.

According to details, police received a tip that the main accused of the Shershah incident, Mullah Rajoo, is present in Jahanabad.

The police prepared heavy contingents immediately and launched a search operation, headed by SSP Khwaja Naveed, in the area.

During the operation, an exchange of fire took place between the armed miscreants and police.

After a successful operation, police arrested ten armed suspects and shifted them to an unknown place after recovering lethal weapons. SAMAA

Afghan detainee possibly killed by coalition troops: Karzai

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered an investigation into the death of an Afghan in detention, saying the man may have been “killed by coalition troops”, his office said Tuesday.

The announcement came one day after NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said that a man had been “found dead in his holding cell” in the southern province of Kandahar.

ISAF said the detainee was captured during an operation on Saturday and died on Sunday, but refused to give further details when contacted by AFP.

“Based on reports received from Arghandab district, coalition troops entered the Arghandab district prison at 9.30 pm Sunday… and killed a detainee named Mullah Mohibullah,” Karzai’s office quoted him as saying.

Arghandab is one of the most unstable areas of Kandahar, where the nine-year Taliban-led insurgency is concentrated, and is

Taliban Talks Part of US Strategy on Afghanistan

WASHINGTON: The United States said Thursday it cannot see Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar meeting criteria for peace talks with the Afghan government and playing a constructive role in Afghanistan’s future.

US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Taliban foot-soldiers and leaders could participate in Afghanistan’s future if they renounce violence, cut ties with Al-Qaeda and support the Afghan constitution.

But he doubted the opportunity would be seized by Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s one-eyed leader who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan and who, the Washington Post said last week, backs secret high-level peace talks with Kabul.

“From our view, Mullah Omar has been attached at the hip to bin Laden for some time. So, based on everything that we know about him today, in fact he will not meet the criteria that we have laid out,” Crowley told reporters.

“He had many opportunities during the ’90s and even after 9/11 to disassociate himself from Osama bin Laden. He chose not to,” Crowley said.

“So you know, there’s nothing that we see that indicates that Mullah Omar will, in fact, change his stripes. As a result, we don’t see that he qualifies to play a constructive role in Afghanistan’s future.”

Last week The Washington Post cited unnamed Afghan and Arab sources as saying the high-level peace talks were believed to involve delegates authorized by Mullah Omar and his Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan.

Mullah Omar and other top Taliban figures have insisted for years that US-led foreign forces must first leave Afghanistan before peace talks can begin.

But a source close to the talks told the Post that the leadership knows “that they are going to be sidelined,” and was negotiating with the government of President Hamid Karzai to ensure their positions are protected.

A senior State Department official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, suggested Quetta Shura members would be taking part in the talks, just not those close to Mullah Omar.

“I don’t think we’re ruling out participation by members of the Quetta Shura. I happen to believe personally that certain members of the Quetta Shura will not qualify,” the official said.

“The Quetta Shura includes Mullah Omar but we’ll see who’s willing to actually disassociate himself from Al-Qaeda and who won’t.”

Rehman urges world to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Reiterating his government’s resolve to cooperate in the war against terrorism, Interior Minister Rehman Malik urged the international community to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty.

Speaking at a ceremony here on Saturday, he said that the government would audit funds of religious ceremonies and facilitate registration of foreign students under an agreement with the Wafaq-ul-Madaris.

Malik said that families of many terrorists are still residing in Pakistan.

“We gave respect to the family of Taliban leader Mullah Omar. But terrorists set the worst examples of brutalities,” he said. SAMAA

US and Afghanistan in contact with Haqqani Group: report

Both the Afghan and US governments have recently made contact with the most fearsome insurgent group in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, British newspaper Guardian reported.
Hamid Karzai’s government held direct talks with senior members of the Haqqani clan over the summer, according to well-placed Pakistani and Arab sources. The US contacts have been indirect, through a western intermediary, but have continued for more than a year. The Afghan and US talks were described as extremely tentative. The Haqqani network has a reputation for ruthlessness, even by the standards of the Afghan insurgency, and has the closest ties with Al-Qaida. But Kabul and Washington have come to the conclusion that they cannot be excluded if an enduring peace settlement is to be reached. A senior Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said you would not be wrong when asked whether talks involving Haqqani, Karzai and the US were taking place. But he refused to comment further, citing the sensitivity of the matter. Calls and emails soliciting comment from the US state department were unreturned by late last night. A senior western official said the US now considers the Haqqani network to be more powerful than the Quetta Shura, the 15-man leadership council headed by the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Omar. The Quetta Shura is still important but not as much as people thought two years ago. Its prestige and impact have waned, and they are increasingly less important on the battlefield. Now the military threat comes from the Haqqanis, the official said. The twin poles of the insurgency are located at least 250 miles apart along the Durand Line, the lawless Pakistani border. The Haqqanis, who come from Khost in Afghanistan, are anchored in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan.

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