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India-Pakistan

Pakistan releases seven Afghan Taliban prisoners

2013-09-08

[Dawn] Pakistain freed a group of Afghan Taliban on Saturday in an attempt to improve its troubled ties with its South Asian neighbour, but risked angering Afghanistan further by not handing them over directly to the Kabul authorities. The announcement followed last month's trip by Afghanistan's Caped President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... to Pakistain, where he sought the handover of some Afghan bully boyz as part of the stalled grinding of the peace processor. Karzai as well as the United States want Pakistain to hand the bully boyz directly to the Afghan authorities, but on Saturday, a group of seven Taliban was simply allowed to walk out of their cells into Pakistain. "In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, Pakistain is releasing seven Taliban detainees," the foreign ministry said in a statement. A foreign ministry front man separately said all seven, including a senior commander called Mansoor Dadullah, were freed on Saturday. The other prisoners are Said Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, Sher Afzal, Gul Muhammad and Muhammad Zai. Asked if they had been handed over to the Afghan authorities or were just released in Pakistain, the front man said: "Just released." Pakistain is said to have backed the Taliban's rise to power in Afghanistan in the mid-1990s and is seen as a crucial gatekeeper in attempts by the US and Afghan governments to contact myrmidon leaders who fled to Pakistain after the group's 2001 removal. But Afghanistan has long accused Pakistain of playing a double game in its 12-year-old war against Taliban fighters. It says Pakistain, facing a Taliban insurgency of its own, makes pronouncements about peace, but allows elements of its military to play a spoiling role. Release of a senior commander Dadullah, who is among the seven released prisoners, is a senior Death Eater commander who was captured by Pak security forces in February 2008 in the southwestern Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... province with at least five other Death Eaters. Dadullah had been in charge of operations against NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... and US-led troops in the southern Afghan province of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Dadullah had succeeded his elder brother -- the Taliban's overall military commander Mullah Dadullah -- who was killed in a joint Afghan-NATO operation in southern Afghanistan in May 2007. The Taliban said in late December that they had sacked Mansoor Dadullah because he disobeyed orders. But a front man for the commander denied that he was fired, leading to speculation about infighting among the Death Eaters. Dadullah was one of five Taliban who were freed in May 2007 in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

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India-Pakistan

Taliban leaders' arrest could lead to missing Afghan, Iranian diplomats

2009-01-11

The arrest of two key Taliban commanders has raised hopes among the authorities for recovering the Afghan and Iranian diplomats missing since last year, officials said on Saturday. "If the two commanders' release can help recover the two missing diplomats, the federal government may allow authorities to go ahead with the plan," the officials told Daily Times. Security forces arrested senior Taliban commander Ustad Yasir on January 3, and Mustafa Kamal Kamran 'Hijrat,' wanted by the government for attacks on NATO truck terminals in Peshawar, on December 9. Both are Afghan nationals. Both the arrests were made from the Hayatabad residential area, according to senior security officials. Afghan ambassador-designate to Pakistan Abdul Khaliq Farahi was kidnapped in Hayatabad district on September 22 and commercial consular at the Iranian Consulate, Hashmatollah Atterzedeh, in Peshawar on November 13 last year. "There is pressure on Pakistan to secure the release of the two missing diplomats from Iran and Afghanistan. A single day does not pass when the Iranian and Afghan diplomats do not visit the governor, the chief minister or the head of intelligence networks to seek progress," the officials said. It was proposed to use the two arrested Taliban commanders as a 'bargain chip' to win freedom for the missing diplomats, the officials added. NWFP Police chief Malik Naveed suspected Mustafa Kamal's 'involvement' in Farahi's abduction. Wanted: A security official said the two arrested Taliban commanders were not wanted by the United States, adding, "The best use of the two men can be their exchange with the missing diplomats' who appear to have been abducted by the Taliban than simple kidnappers." The government has not formally acknowledged reports saying the two senior Taliban commanders were taken into custody but it has not denied the reports either. If the authorities free Ustad Yasir in return for the recovery of either the missing Afghan or Iranian diplomat or both, it will be the second time that the Taliban commander would get a new lease on life. He was first arrested in the NWFP in 2005 and handed over to Kabul. The Afghan government released him from Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi prison in exchange for the abducted Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo in early 2007.

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India-Pakistan

Taliban leader arrested

2009-01-04

A senior Taliban leader was arrested from Peshawar on Saturday. A senior policeman confirmed Ustad Yasir was arrested, but declined to give details. The arrest was made by an intelligence agency at around 9am, the sources said. Formerly a leader of Abdurrab Rasool Sayyaf's Ittehad-e-Islami group in Afghanistan, Yasir joined the Taliban in 2001 after Sayyaf announced support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He was arrested from the NWFP in 2005 and released from Kabul's Pul-e-Charkhi prison in exchange for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

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India-Pakistan

US intelligence agents 'uncover Bin Laden letters'

2008-02-01

(AKI) - US secret service agents operating in the remote border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan claim to have found five letters signed by al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Saudi daily Al-Watan said on Thursday. Citing unnamed local security sources, the newspaper said that the letters are allegedly handwritten in Arabic and bear Bin Laden's apparent signature and seal. They appear to have been sent last December to some of Bin Laden's followers in the region. One of the letters is addressed to the Taliban leader in Afghanistan's volatile southern province of Helmand, Mansoor Dadallah. In the letter, Bin Laden reportedly offers condolences to Dadallah, the brother of Mullah Dadallah, late Taliban leader in Helmand, who was killed last year in a US air strike. After his brother's death, Mansoor Dadullah claimed he had received a letter from Bin Laden in an interview with satellite Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera. Mansoor spent several years in jail and was freed in March 2007 as part of a deal that secured the release of kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who had been held by Taliban militants for two weeks. The letter addressed to Dadullah also urges the Taliban to step up its attacks on NATO troops deployed in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Al-Watan reported. Western intelligence agents are currently analysing the letters for evidence of any contact with 14 alleged members of an Islamic fundamentalist group arrested in anti-terror raids in the north-east Spanish city of Barcelona on January 19. Twelve Pakistani and two Indians allegedly belonging to Jamaat Al-Tabligh wal-Dawa (Society for Propagation and Preaching) were arrested in a series of police raids. Police said they had found bomb-related material during the raids and that the operation was aimed at breaking up an Islamist terror network.

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Afghanistan

Three Taliban swapped for Italian journalist killed with Deadullah

2007-05-17

Three Taliban who had been released from prison in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist were killed alongside the insurgency’s top field commander over the weekend, the Afghan intelligence service said on Wednesday. Mullah Dadullah, a militant who orchestrated a rash of Taliban suicide attacks and beheadings, died of gunshot wounds in a US-led operation over the weekend in the southern province of Helmand. An official with Afghanistan’s intelligence service identified the three others as Mullah Shah Mansoor, Dadullah’s brother, Mullah Hamdullah and Commander Ghafar. They had been freed in March in a prisoner swap for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. US-led coalition forces, with assistance from NATO and Afghan forces, were able to track them to the village of Sarwan using “modern technology,” said the official, reading an intelligence service statement. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the agency’s policy. A NATO spokeswoman said the coalition would not have been able to kill the Taliban’s top field commander without the help of Afghan civilians and security forces, whose intelligence helped track him down, but gave no details. The Taliban has lost most of its top commanders over the last year and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force anticipates the Taliban’s operational coherence and morale will suffer as a result, spokeswoman Lt Col Maria Carl said. Afghan national security forces “made this operation possible, and their efforts are largely responsible for the death of (Mullah Dadullah) - this is their success,” Carl told a news conference. Carl said NATO forces tracked Dadullah to southern Afghanistan. “Not long after Mullah Dadullah showed up in the southern part of Afghanistan, he was found and killed in an assault by mainly coalition forces, with ISAF and (Afghan) assets in support,” Carl said. “This will likely be a serious disruption to the extremists’ efforts to terrorize the Afghan people. But we also know that it does not mean the end of the insurgency by any means,” Carl said. Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen Zahir Azimi said the Afghan people had a “great role in cooperating with the government” in the operation to kill Dadullah, but he declined to give any further details. He said the government was “keeping their intelligence information secret”. Separately, a soldier with the US-led coalition died from his injuries after being attacked while returning from a medical assistance mission in southern Afghanistan, the force said on Wednesday.

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Afghanistan

3 Hostage Swap-ees Killed along with Dadullah

2007-05-16

Implanted microphone/transmitter/homing devices pay off? Here's hoping the other two swap-ees are visiting Mullah Omar. 3 Taliban released for Italian journalist killed with top commander KABUL, Afghanistan: Three Taliban who had been released from prison in exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist were killed alongside the insurgency's top field commander over the weekend, the Afghan intelligence service said Wednesday. Mullah Dadullah, a one-legged militant who orchestrated a rash of Taliban suicide attacks and beheadings, died of gunshot wounds in a U.S.-led operation over the weekend in the southern province of Helmand. An official with Afghanistan's intelligence service identified the three others as Mullah Shah Mansoor — Dadullah's brother — Mullah Hamdullah and Commander Ghafar. They had been freed in March in a prisoner swap for the release of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo. The prisoner swap was widely criticized in Afghanistan in part because two Afghans kidnapped with Mastrogiacomo were not freed as part of that deal and were executed by the Taliban. U.S.-led coalition forces, with assistance from NATO and Afghan forces, were able to track Dadullah to the village of Sarwan using "modern technology," said the official, reading an intelligence service statement. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the agency's policy. In Islamabad, Ronald Neumann, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, predicted the Taliban leadership would "regenerate" after Dadullah's death, but said the recent demise of several top figures in the insurgency could dissuade others from joining the fight. Neumann, who stepped down as ambassador last month, mentioned the killing of Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani — in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan in December — and the arrest of former Taliban defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah Akhund. Neumann's was the first official confirmation of reports from Pakistani intelligence that Akhund was nabbed in the Pakistani city of Quetta in February. He gave no further details, including who was holding Akhund, the highest-ranking Taliban militant to be captured alive since the fall of the Islamist regime in 2001. "For those Taliban leaders who have been out of the fight and are looking to get back into the fight, the fact that Osmani has been killed, Dadullah has been killed and Obaidullah has been arrested might say something to them about their life insurance policies," said Neumann, visiting Pakistan for talks on Afghanistan. In Kabul, Lt. Col. Maria Carl, spokeswoman for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said Dadullah's killing would not have been possible without the help of Afghan civilians and security forces, whose intelligence helped track him down, but gave no details on the nature of the intelligence. NATO has said that Dadullah was killed after he moved into Afghanistan from his "sanctuary" — a reference to Pakistan, where many Taliban are thought to hide. Another ISAF spokesman, Maj. John Thomas, declined to say if Pakistan provided any intelligence that helped in the operation. Security officials in Pakistan have hinted that a bombing Tuesday that killed 25 people in a restaurant in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar may have been revenge for Dadullah's killing. They said a relative of Dadullah was arrested in the restaurant a few days earlier.

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Afghanistan

Freed Taliban Commander Killed

2007-05-06

Important Taliban commanders were among more than 130 people killed in a recent counter-insurgency operation in the western Herat province, insiders confided to Pajhwok Afghan News on Thursday. A key commander released recently along with four others in exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo died in the Zerkoh raid, which also left over 50 civilians dead, touched off furious protests and prompted President Hamid Karzai to warn foreign troops against collateral damage. The much-criticised prisoner swap resulted in the release of Ustad Yasir, Mufti Latifullah Hakimi, Mansoor Ahmad, Hamdullah and Mullah Ghaffar. Tribal elders and Taliban said three militant commanders, including one freed as a result of the prisoner exchange were killed in the Herat operations, jointly conducted by Afghan and Coalition forces. Haji Abdul Hakim, a Taliban commander in Greshk district of the southern Helmand province, revealed Mullah Ghaffar, Mullah Jan and Mullah Janan perished in the Herat clashes. Mullah Ahmadullah, a Taliban commander in Marja district, said Mullah Ghaffar was laid to rest in Nawzad and Mullah Lal Jan in Khan Nishin district of Helmand on Wednesday. Haji Muhammad Wazir, a tribal elder from Marja, confirmed six dead bodies including those of the commanders had been brought to Helmand from Shindand in Herat. Brig Gen Nabi Jan Mullahkhel also said the dead bodies had been brought to Helmand, but stopped short of giving more details

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Afghanistan

Afghanistan: Italian Charity Closes Three Hospitals Over Employee's Arrest

2007-04-27

(AKI) - Italian charity Emergency has closed its three hospitals in Afghanistan, the organization said Thursday. The decision was taken over a month after an Emergency official, Rahmatullah Hanefi, who mediated for the release of reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo in March, was arrested by Afghan authorities and accused of being an accessory to the murder of the journalist's interpreter at the hands of Taliban rebels who had abducted the two. The organization also said its personnel left the country Thursday after police visited its Kabul hospital and demanded that foreign employees hand over their passports. The request was rejected but Emergency decided it wasn't safe for them to remain in the country and the personnel left Afghanistan with the aid of the Italian embassy in Kabul. "This last serious episode confirms how the Afghan government has been trying by all means available to expel Emergency from Afghanistan," said the statement, recalling that the head of Afghan security services Amrullah Saleh had called the charity "an organization which supports terrorists and even members of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan." "The impossibility for the international personnel to remain makes the hospitals unable to offer services of sufficient quality to satisfy the needs of patients," Emergency also said in the statement. "We cannot take the responsibility of deceiving the wounded and sick with illusions that would damage them." Hanefi, who risks the death penalty, was arrested by Afghan intelligence officials on 20 March and accused of cooperating with the Taliban. An Afghan citizen, he worked for Emergency's hospital in Lashkar Gah in the southern volatile Helmand province. Hanefi had directly mediated with the Taliban for the release of Mastrogiacomo but Afghan authorities claim he left the interpreter Adjmal Nashkbandi in the hands of the Taliban though he was supposed to be released with the Italian reporter.

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Afghanistan

Kabul rules out French hostage deal

2007-04-16

KABUL - Kabul again ruled out any hostage swap to free two French aid workers held by the rebels, who have threatened to behead them and send their heads to Paris. On Saturday, the insurgents released a brief black-and-white video of the two French aid workers -- a woman who calls herself only Celine and a man who calls himself Eric -- pleading for help from the French government. In the tearful video, filmed on Friday, they said in English they would be beheaded and their heads sent home to France if Paris ignored the Taleban’s demands. But the Taleban have issued no public ransom demand for their release. However, Italian Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was kidnapped in Helmand last month, was freed after two weeks when Kabul released five senior Taleban prisoners. His Afghan driver and translator were beheaded. Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta on Sunday repeated President Hamid Karzai’s pledge there would be no more hostage swaps. ‘We will avoid the exchange of hostages with the criminals,’ Spanta told reporters. ‘If we do it once or twice, it will become a procedure. It won’t have an end.’ There's someone with some sense. The Mastrogiacomo deal drew bitter criticism in Italy and Afghanistan for encouraging the Taleban to take more hostages. They already hold five Afghan health workers and have threatened to kill one unless the government starts peace talks. Karzai’s palace said on Saturday French President Jacques Chirac had phoned the Afghan leader to ask for help. ‘President Hamid Karzai assured President Chirac that the relevant Afghan institutions will spare no effort in securing the release of the kidnapped French nationals and their Afghan colleagues,’ the palace said in a statement.

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Afghanistan

Taliban beheading footage aired

2007-04-11

AN Italian television channel today aired footage of the beheading of a driver of an Italian journalist, who was held for about two weeks by Afghanistan's Taliban militants until Kabul negotiated his release. The RAI-1 channel beamed images of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his driver Sayed Agha and his interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi, kneeling blindfolded before gun-wielding militants. It then showed Agha being beheaded following which a shaken Mastrogiacomo made an impassioned appeal to Italian authorities to "do something," while underlining that the situation was "very difficult". The Afghans pay tribute to Mr. Naqshbandi at a anti-Taliban protest. The Taliban have also beheaded Mastrogiacomo's interpreter, who was also a journalist. The Italian journalist was freed on March 19 after Afghani President Hamid Karzai ordered the release of five Taliban prisoners under a controversial deal. Kidnapping has increasingly become a tactic of the Taliban, who have been waging a guerrilla style insurgency since they were ousted from power in late 2001 by US-led forces.

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Afghanistan

Afghan paper urges execution of Taliban prisoners

2007-04-10

The Afghan government should execute Taliban prisoners, an Afghan daily said on Monday, the day after the rebels killed the translator of an Italian journalist. A spokesman for the Taliban commander holding translator Ajmal Naqshbandi said he was beheaded on Sunday after the government refused to free several insurgent prisoners. Government officials later confirmed the man was killed. “Martyring Ajmal Naqshbandi and their other crimes happen as the government shows extreme leniency towards the Taliban prisoners,” Arman-e-Millie daily said in an editorial. “There has been no implementation of punishment for any criminal and killer Taliban who has been sentenced to heavy punishment by the judicial authorities,” it said. “From now on, criminal Taliban should be executed.” Newly married Naqshbandi, along with La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his local driver, were kidnapped early last month. The Taliban freed the Italian after about two weeks when Kabul released five of its senior members. The swap happened after the group beheaded Mastrogiacomo’s driver, but the rebels had held on to his translator in a bid to secure the release of more of their men. Another daily, Cheragh, criticised the government for failing to free Naqshbandi but going ahead with a deal to secure Mastrogiacomo’s freedom and save Italy’s fragile government from embarrassment. “Mr Karzai, no doubt, you managed to save the Italian government from falling. But with regret, you could not save the life of an Afghan and someone who had voted for you,” it said. A group representing Afghan journalists said the execution had sparked fear among local reporters of covering areas where the Taliban were active. Some Afghan journalists vowed to leave out Taliban comments or statements from publications. Meanwhile, Taliban militants threatened to kill a second Afghan hostage unless the government enters negotiations over his release. The threat to kill one of a five-member team of Afghan medics snatched in southern Kandahar province on March 27 comes less than 24 hours after the Taliban beheaded an Afghan journalist in neighbouring Helmand province. “We’ll kill one of the doctors if the government fails to enter negotiations before April 15,” Shohaabuddin Atal, a spokesman for top Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah, said. He refused to give details of the rebels’ demands. He alleged that the doctor he identified as Khalilullah was a cousin of the governor of Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan. The Taliban will decide the fate of the other four medics later, he said. Atal said on Sunday that Taliban leaders would decide the fate of the French pair and their Afghan assistants. Also on Monday, fears mounted for the safety of two French aid workers kidnapped by the Taliban militia in southern Afghanistan after the insurgents beheaded Naqshbandi. A senior government official speaking on condition of anonymity said he believed the Taliban killed Naqshbandi to pressure President Hamid Karzai into making another similar deal to free the French nationals. “If you remember when the Taliban killed Mastrogiacomo’s driver the government freed Taliban prisoners to save the Italian. I believe they killed Naqshbandi to scare us into accepting their demands again,” he said. “But I don’t think the government is in a position to comply with more such demands. It just can’t do it,” he said. Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Sultan Ahmad Baheen said the government would not make further deals with the Taliban, although it was “worried for the French nationals”. “The government is determined to not make any further deals with the terrorists. No more deals, with no one, for no one,” Baheen said. Another Afghan official said the government was in a tight corner over the French hostages, following widespread domestic criticism of its failure to save a fellow Afghan while helping free the Italian journalist.

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Afghanistan

Italy 'paid Taleban £1 million to free photographer' : NGO

2007-04-10

Italy's government paid a ransom of £1 million to the Taleban to free an Italian photographer taken hostage in Afghanistan, an aid group has claimed. Gino Strada, the founder of Emergency, a non-governmental organisation, said Romano Prodi's government paid £1 million to secure the release of Gabriele Torsello, a freelance photographer who was abducted on 12 October last year and freed on 3 November. Emergency has been involved in negotiating the release of a number of Italian hostages in Afghanistan. The Taleban said on Sunday that it had beheaded an Afghan journalist and interpreter working with another Italian journalist who was freed after a much-criticised prisoner swap with the Taleban last month. The interpreter, Ajmal Naqshbandi, was kidnapped along with Daniele Mastrogiacomo of the Rome daily La Repubblica and a driver on 5 March. The driver was beheaded and Mastrogiacomo was released on 19 March after five Taleban militants were released. Mr Strada is pressing for the release of Rahmatullah Hanefi, who worked in Emergency's hospital in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan's Helmand province. He was believed to have been taken into Afghan custody after Mastrogiacomo's release. The hospital played a key role in negotiating the photographer's freedom. On Sunday, Sayed Ansari, a spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service, accused Mr Hanefi of helping the Taleban kidnap the three. Mr Strada said that Mr Prodi's government knew Mr Hanefi was trustworthy because he had been entrusted with £1 million to deliver to the Taleban in exchange for Torsello's freedom. Several members of Italy's parliament are now pressing the Prodi government to brief them on the claims. They may wish to take a look at Emergency's finances as well...

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