Afghanistan-US security agreement executable in 2015: Mosazai

  By SAYED JAWAD - 21 Apr 2013, 9:12 pmK haama Press
Officials in Afghanistan foreign affairs ministry on Sunday announced that the security agreement between Kabul and Washington will be executable in early 2015 once the two nations agrees on the terms and conditions of the pact.

The officials further added that the two nations have not finalized talks over security agreement so far and the pact will be executable beyond 2014, once the terms and conditions have been agreed.

General director of the Afghan foreign ministry media office, Janan Mosazai on Sunday said satisfactory negotations are going on between Afghan and US officials.

Mr. Mosazai further added that the Afghan government is not in a hurry to take a decision in this regard since the security agreement will become executable after security transition is completed.

He said, “Security agreement between Kabul and Washington will be executable after security transition is completed. The security agreement will not become executable before 2014 despite the two nations agree earlier, and therefore the security pact will be adaptive at the beginning of 2015.”

In the meantime Janan Mosazai insisted that the security agreement should be finalized before 2014 which will be better for Afghanistan, since it will create a legal and bilateral framework between the two nations.

Afghan and US officials are holding talks over security agreement during the past 6 months to clarify the presence of US troops after 2014 and Washington’s long term support towards Afghan security forces.

MPs Call to Stop Releasing Taliban Prisoners

  TOLOnews By Rafi Sediqi 20 April 2013
High Peace Council has been incapable of progressing peace talks with the armed opposition, first vice speaker of Afghan parliament said Saturday while a number of MPs suggested many of the imprisoned Taliban who were released have rejoined the insurgent groups and are fighting against the government.

"The peace process is just a waste of time. What High Peace Council has done so far has had no result and has been a failure," first vice speaker Mirwais Yasini said, marking out that the parliament is to send the government a new policy over the issue.

MP Shukria Barikzai said "So far, there has been no clear policy for peace. High Peace Council is a political project and not a national one."

"This council is kept by circles that seek to remain in power," she added.

Admitting challenges against peace talks, High Peace Council, however, said it has had achievements in some of the provinces across the country.

"As High Peace Council we are ready to continue our activities considering any plan the parliament would send to the council. High Peace Council has had achievements in a number of provinces," said Shahzada Shahid, the council's spokesman.

MPs also suggested that Afghanistan war is plotted by orders from Pakistani intelligence and that the neighbouring country will never aim for a stable Afghanistan. Some of the MPs called for an end to releasing Taliban prisoners as a number of the released are yet again fighting against the government.

"The war in Afghanistan is a war plotted by Pakistan," said MP Dawood Kalakani, "Pakistani military intelligence is making efforts to establish a Pakistan-ruled government in Afghanistan."

MP Zaheer Saadat said "The process of releasing the prisoners should be stopped because those Taliban who are released have rejoined the insurgent groups and are fighting against the government."

It will be too hard to provide security in Afghanistan, MPs added, as far as interferences from neighbouing countries are not pushed back and Pakistan does not assure the Afghan government and the international community of discontinuing its interference.

Afghan girls' school feared hit by poison gas

  By Folad Hamdard | Reuters
TALUQAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - As many as 74 schoolgirls in Afghanistan's far north fell sick after smelling gas and were being examined for possible poisoning, local officials said on Sunday.

While instances of poisoning are sometimes later found to be false alarms, there have been numerous substantiated cases of mass poisonings of schoolgirls by elements of Afghanistan's ultra-conservative society that are opposed to female education.

Local officials said the girls became ill after smelling gas at their school, Bibi Maryam, in Takhar province's capital, Taluqan. The city is about 250 kilometers north of the country's capital, Kabul.

The Takhar governor's spokesman, Sulaiman Moradi, blamed "enemies of the government and the country" for the mass illness and said the aim was to stop girls from going to school.

The girls were taken to the provincial hospital and most were released after being treated, though several remained in a critical condition on Sunday evening, the head of the hospital, Dr Jamil Frotan, said.

"We have already sent samples of their blood to the Ministry of Public Health and it will soon become clear what the reason for their illness was," Frotan said.

The apparent poisoning came three days after more than a dozen students fell ill in another girls' high school in Taluqan. No-one has claimed responsibility for either incident.

Between May and June last year there were four poisoning attacks on a girls' school in Takhar, prompting local officials to order principals to stay in school until late and staff to search the grounds for suspicious objects and to test the water for contaminants.

Takhar has been a hotbed of militancy and criminal activity since 2009, with groups such as the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan active.

Since the 2001 ousting of the Taliban, which banned education for women and girls, females have returned to schools, especially in Kabul.

But periodic attacks against female students, their teachers and their school buildings, continue.

Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since 2001, but fears are growing that such gains could be traded away as Western forces prepare to leave and the Afghan government seeks peace talks with the Taliban.

(Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Stephen Powell)

Afghan interpreters could receive asylum

  LONDON, April 21 (UPI) -- Britain's prime minister is set to decide whether to relocate hundreds of interpreters who are working with U.K. forces in Afghanistan, officials said.

Prime Minister David Cameron has been given three broad options and is expected to make a decision on Tuesday that could affect up to 1,100 Afghan nationals, including 600 interpreters, The Guardian reported.

Those Afghans could be in grave danger once NATO forces leave Afghanistan in 2014, The Guardian reported.

The Taliban has declared a death sentence on all Afghans working with NATO forces in the country, The Guardian said.

The first option includes offering a relocation package similar to the one given to local interpreters after the Iraq war.

Two cheaper ideas include offering economic incentives to interpreters to stay in Afghanistan, and requiring them to apply for asylum in the normal way without any preferential treatment.

Last week, senior military officials and politicians called for the interpreters to be offered asylum in the United Kingdom.

Several Killed In Afghan Suicide Bombing

  April 21, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan officials say three civilians have been killed and seven others injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up in eastern Afghanistan.

Paktika's provincial governor's office said in a statement that the blast occurred in the Janikhel district of southeast Paktika Province, on the border with Pakistan.

The statement said that Ehsanullah Sadat, former district governor for Janikhel who quit his post two years ago, was among the dead.

Two police officers were among those injured.

The statement blamed the attack on the "enemies of Afghans," a term usually used by officials to refer to Taliban militants.

The injured were taken to the main district hospital and their condition is said to be stable.

Police Killed In 'Insider Attack'

Meanwhile, also in Afghanistan, insurgents have attacked a police checkpoint in Ghazni Province, Afghan officials say.

Six police officers were reportedly killed in the incident on April 21, which occurred while the officers were sleeping.

One was wounded and one is missing.

According to the AFP news agency, the militants were aided by one of the police officers, who led them into the post.

The slain officers were part of the Afghan Local Police, a U.S.-funded effort to recruit locals into community policing units.

More than 60 international troops and scores of Afghan security personnel have been killed in insider attacks in recent months, breeding mistrust in the run-up to the withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014.

Taliban Chop Off Limbs Of Two Men

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, officials say Taliban militants have chopped off one hand and one leg of two young Afghan men.

The incident took place on April 20 in western Herat province, said Noor Khan Nekzad, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

He said the two men worked for a private security company providing logistics for NATO convoys.

Nekzad said the men were found in Herat's Rabat-e Sangi district and were receiving treatment in hospital in Herat city.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the amputations.

A statement from the Taliban said that the men had been found guilty of several highway robberies.

During their rule from 1996-2001, the Taliban imposed harsh justice, including flogging, stoning to death, and the amputation of limbs.

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, dpa, Pajhwok, and Khaama

Afghanistan remains the second largest export market for Pakistan

  By MIRWAIS ADEEL - 21 Apr 2013, 9:48 pm Khaama Press
Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq on Sunday emphasized on Afghanistan peace as one of the top priority of Islamabad’s foreign policy.

While speaking during a seminar titled “Pak-Afghan relations in the changing world scenario” Mr. Sadiq said reconciliation among all ethnic groups and stakeholders in the war-affected country is the only solution for restoration of peace in the region.

Mohammad Sadiq quoted by Pakistan’s Dawn News said, official trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan is about $2 billion while the unofficial trade volume is about $5 billion thus making Afghanistan the second largest importer of Pakistani goods after United States.

Mr. Sadiq also added that thirty thousand Afghan students have graduated from Pakistani universities besides 2000 Afghan students were granted scholarships by the Pakistani universities.

According to Mohammad Sadiq, about 30 per cent of the human resource running the affairs in Afghanistan has graduated from Pakistani universities.

He said the government of Pakistan is considering a number of educational and infrastructural projects for Afghanistan besides the newly-built Liaquat Ali Khan Engineering University built in northern Balkh province of Afghanistan.

U.S. special envoy, Pakistan army chief discuss Afghan reconciliation

  ISLAMABAD, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Senior U.S. diplomats and defense officials met Pakistan army chief, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and discussed matters of mutual interest with particular focus on Afghanistan reconciliation process, the military said on Sunday.

The army statement said that both sides discussed "matters of mutual interest" but did not give any more details about the talks.

The U.S. delegation comprised Ambassador David Pearce, Acting Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Dagulas Lute, Special Assistant to the President on Afghanistan and Pakistan Peter Lavoy, Principal Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs and Ambassador Richard Olson.

The visit comes at a time when relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are tense over the cross-border tension.

Two top U.S. generals also visited Pakistan this month and discussed mainly about Afghanistan.

Sources said that the talks are also aimed at removing differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan and finding ways to work for the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.

The U.S. State Department said ahead of the visit that in Islamabad, Pearce will hold meetings with senior Pakistan officials to discuss ways in which the United States and Pakistan can continue to work together to advance "our bilateral goals and affirm how both our countries can contribute to a secure, stable, and prosperous future for the region."