Some 15 former members of the Taliban are willing to surrender and are holding indirect talks with Afghan authorities. Khalid Pashtun, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar, Gul Agha, would not identify any of them. When asked whether the group included former Cabinet ministers, he replied: "It is possible." He would not elaborate. He said the surrender "might take a week or two or three or four." Pashtun said the Taliban members were in Afghanistan and were holding indirect talks with representatives of the governor.
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02/12/2002 ||
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The Afghan interim administration has appointed a local commander, Qari Baba, as the governor of eastern Ghazni province. Radio Kabul said Baba was chosen by Hamid Karzai. Describing Baba as the strongest military figure in the area, AIP said he had fought against the Soviet occupation of 1979 to 1989 under the command of Abdul Rab Rasool Sayyaf. There has been no reaction so far from Ghazni's shura on his appointment. Sayyaf, despite his association with the Northern Alliance, is a pretty shady character. Beelzebub Hekmatyar has spoken kindly of him, his representatives refused to sign the Bonn agreement that created Karzai's transitional government, and there are suspicions he was involved in Masood's assassination.
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02/12/2002 ||
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Pakistan on Monday made it clear that former Afghan Premier and chief of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbadin Hekmatyar will not be welcomed as guest. Taking him in would be a fairly direct slap at the face of the new government in Afghanistan.
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Gulbadin Hekmatyar is still in Iran, and if asked to leave by the Iranian government, Iraq or Libya would be his next shelter, The Frontier Post says. One of Hekmatyarâs close friends disclosed that the Iran government is thinking to kick him out. Iran's Interior Minister said that Iran was discussing the matter with Karazi's interim government. Beelzebub Hekmatyar might not even get shelter in Libya. Qaddafi's been somewhat muted in his rhetoric lately. Better he should go to Iraq and get a job in a Baby Milk Factory.
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02/12/2002 ||
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Israeli forces killed a Palestinian policeman in a gunfight while scouring the West Bank for militants after mobs broke open Palestinian jails, while Washington gave Israel a rare rebuke for its air raids on Gaza City that sparked the riots. Tarek Hindawi, 22, was killed in a firefight which erupted when Israeli troops entered the Palestinian self-rule town of Halhul near Hebron in what Israeli public radio said was an operation to arrest Palestinian activists. The Israeli troops also seized at least one militant wanted by Israel and linked to Fatah. Israeli troops also destroyed three small buildings. One of the buildings razed had housed a factory producing home-made rocket launchers.
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Omar Sheikh was arrested in Lahore and was handed over to police in Karachi. Omar told police that Daniel Pearl was alive during initial interrogation after his arrest earlier in Lahore. I am so surprised. I thought he'd be out of the country long since. The slap-dash, forehead-whacking nature of this episode has been a continual surprise since Pearl first disappeared.
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Pakistani police said they had arrested two more militants in connection with the kidnapping of US journalist Daniel Pearl. Police said they rounded up two members of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad during overnight raids in Karachi, where Pearl was last seen on January 23. A series of raids was also conducted in Rawalpindi overnight but police said they failed to catch another man who they believe has valuable information on the kidnapping.
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Three men accused by police of sending e-mails that announced the abduction of Daniel Pearl appeared before a special anti-terrorism court that formally charged them with kidnapping and remanded them into custody for an additional 14 days. The suspects were brought to Sindh province's High Court in an armored personnel carrier surrounded by 20 machine-gun toting policemen in helmets and bullet proof vests. The men were chained to each other at the waist, their heads and faces covered in shawls and bath towels. They were led into a second storey courtroom but presiding Judge Shabir Ahmed decided to hear their case in his chambers.
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02/12/2002 ||
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India demanded Pakistan hand over Omar Sheikh, one of the leaders of of Jaish-e-Mohammad and main suspect in the kidnapping of American journalist Daniel Pearl, saying he is wanted some cases in India. India will probably have to wait her turn. The US wants to talk to him, too. And not only about Pearl.
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02/12/2002 ||
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Christian and Muslim leaders from Indonesia's Maluku islands signed an agreement to end three years of sectarian bloodshed which began with a minor neighbourhood quarrel and ended up claiming some 5,000 lives. Representatives of both camps vowed "to halt all form of conflicts and disputes" under the 11-point agreement. It was signed on neutral ground at Malino in South Sulawesi at the end of two days of peace talks.
The agreement says the team should also investigate the Front for the Sovereignty of Maluku and the South Maluku Republic movement, Laskar Jihad and the Christians' Laskar Kristus. All armed groups should surrender their weapons or be disarmed. "For those outside parties that are sowing unrest in Maluku, they are obligated to leave Maluku," the agreement says.
Laskar Jihad spokesman Ayip Syarifuddin said his group was not invited by the Maluku governor to join the Malino talks, even though it was involved in preliminary talks in Ambon.
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Military warplanes pounded a Muslim extremist group's stronghold in the southern Philippines in retaliation for Abu Sayyaf attacks that killed several soldiers. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the air strikes by two jet fighters and two helicopters and subsequent mortar fire on rebel mountain camps in Patikul on Jolo island. The military this week escalated its months-long offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after a series of clashes and rebel attacks killed scores of rebels and at least 11 soldiers.
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02/12/2002 ||
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The fight against terrorism would be one of the major issues during the talks that President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan would have with Indian leaders during his five-day visit to India. Talking to reporters, the Kazakh leader said both countries have similar views on terrorism. He favoured the setting up of an international forum for Central Asia for taking steps to further strengthen relations between nations of the region.
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02/12/2002 ||
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President Pervez Musharraf is due to arrive in Washington on Tuesday from Boston after spending three days in that university town on a private visit with his family. The general will fly into Andrews Air Force Base in a chartered plane and will go straight to Blair House, the state guest house where he will be staying. He will meet President George Bush at the White House on Wednesday morning, and the two leaders will briefly address the press before going in for lunch to continue their discussions.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
