Afghan President Hamid Karzai.—AP Photo

BERLIN: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told a German newspaper that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar could run for president in elections next year.

Karzai’s government has agreed the Taliban can open an office in Qatar if the group breaks all ties with al Qaeda and renounces terrorism. Karzai was in Qatar Sunday to discuss the issue.

Karzai said in an interview published Tuesday by the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that authorities have “sporadic contacts” with the Taliban. He said that the Afghan constitution is valid for all Afghans and “the Taliban also should benefit from it.”

Asked whether Mullah Omar should seek the presidency, Karzai was quoted as saying: “He can become a candidate for the presidency and give Afghans the opportunity to vote for or against him.”

—File Photo

ABU DHABI: Pakistan plans to release all Afghan Taliban prisoners still in its detention, including the group’s former second-in-command, an official said on Friday, the clearest signal yet that it backs reconciliation efforts in neighbouring Afghanistan.

“The remaining detainees, we are coordinating, and they will be released subsequently,” Jalil Jilani, Pakistan’s foreign secretary, said at a news conference in Abu Dhabi.

Asked if the former Taliban number-2 Mullah Baradar would be among those to be released, he said: “The aim is to release all,” without elaborating further.

Jilani was speaking after meeting the acting US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, David Pearce, and Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Luddin at the Afghan embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Luddin told reporters the purpose of the meeting was to discuss “security and political dimensions of bilateral relationships” between the three countries.

Luddin said the peace process had gained momentum in recent weeks with the release of some Taliban detainees by Pakistan, preparations by the Afghan Taliban movement to open a political office in Doha, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s visit to Washington.

“Steps have been taken forward in an environment of cooperation and shared concerns … 2013 is a very crucial year and we agreed we need to maintain the momentum,” he said.

“2013 will see concrete outcomes in the peace process.”

At their meeting a week ago, Karzai and US President Barack Obama agreed to speed up the handover of combat operations in Afghanistan to Afghan forces, raising the prospect of an accelerated US withdrawal.

Karzai also appeared to give ground on US demands for immunity from prosecution for any American troops who stay in Afghanistan beyond 2014, a concession that could allow Obama to keep at least a small residual force there.

In this Thursday, May 17, 2007 file photo, Afghanistan’s former Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid and the country’s current intelligence chief speaks to media at the hospital after he had survived a suicide attack in the city of Kandahar, south of Kabul. Afghanistan’s intelligence chief was wounded Thursday in an assassination attempt in the capital, Kabul. — Photo by AP

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday a suicide bombing that wounded his intelligence chief was planned in the Pakistani city of Quetta and that he would raise the issue with Islamabad.

Karzai stopped short of blaming the Pakistani government directly. But he told a news conference he would raise the issue with Pakistan.

On Thursday, a suicide bomber posing as a peace messenger wounded Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, Asadullah Khalid, in another sign that the government is struggling to improve security ahead of the withdrawal of Nato combat troops by the end of 2014.

The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, although it often makes exaggerated claims about attacks on foreign troops or government targets.

Karzai said the militant group was not behind the attack in the heart of Kabul.

“Apparently the Taliban claimed responsibility like many other attacks but such a complicated attack and a bomb hidden inside his body, this is not Taliban work,” Karzai said.

“It’s a completely professional (job)…Taliban cannot do that and there are bigger and professional hands involved in it.”

Karzai said he would discuss the issue with Pakistani officials during a meeting in Turkey.

“This is a very important issue for us and we hope that the Pakistan government in this regard gives us accurate information and cooperates seriously, so the doubts we have end,” he said.

Ties between Kabul and Islamabad have been strained by cross-border raids by militants groups and accusations that Pakistan on some level backs Afghan insurgent groups.

Pakistan denies the accusations and says it is committed to helping bring peace to Afghanistan.

The leadership of the Afghan Taliban fled to Quetta after their government was toppled in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

A United Nations flag flies on a mast at their European headquarters in Geneva June 22, 2012. – File Photo by Reuters.

KABUL: The UN urged Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership Saturday to enforce their ban on improvised explosive devices, a day after 19 wedding guests were killed by a roadside bomb in the north of the country.

“Although the Taliban… leader Mullah Omar banned the use of anti-personnel landmines in 1998, denouncing such weapons as un-Islamic and anti-human, anti-government elements continue to use” them, a UN statement said.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan “calls on the Taliban leadership to publicly reiterate a ban on these weapons and to stop their use”, it said, adding that IEDs caused “devastating harm to civilians”.

The call comes a day after a roadside explosion killed 19 civilians, most of them women and children who were on their way to a wedding party in Dawlat Abad district of the northern Balkh province.

A Taliban spokesman on Saturday denied their involvement in the incident, saying their fighters were not present in the area, a claim that was contested by the UN.

“Taliban operatives active in Dawlat Abad… are suspected of planting the landmine-like pressure plate IED, which is consistent with documented patterns and tactics of choice by the Taliban”, the statement said.

According to an earlier UN statement, 1,145 civilians were killed in the war in the first six months of this year, with 80 per cent of the deaths blamed on insurgents. More than half were caused by roadside bombs.

Last year as a whole, a record 3,021 civilians died in the war, the UN has said.

It blames insurgents for 80 per cent of the civilian casualties in 2012, saying pro-government forces, which include US-led Nato, were responsible for 10 per cent.

Women and children accounted for about 30 per cent of this year’s casualties, again mostly victims of roadside bombs.

IEDs are also responsible for a large percentage of the deaths among the Nato force helping fight the Taliban.

The foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of 2014 and there are fears that the Taliban will extend their activities across wider swathes of the country against ill-prepared Afghan forces.

The militia, which is leading a decade-long war against Nato troops and the Afghan government, claimed that such moves against its members in the past had no impact on operations and said “this latest announcement will also be ineffective”. — File Photo

KABUL: The Taliban denounced on Saturday moves by the United States to blacklist the Haqqani network, saying that it would have no impact on operations and was indicative of US defeat in Afghanistan.

In a statement released through Twitter, they said there was “no separate entity… in Afghanistan by the name of Haqqani,” adding that the network’s founder and its fighters were totally loyal to Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar.

The militia, which is leading a decade-long war against Nato troops and the Afghan government, claimed that such moves against its members in the past had no impact on operations and said “this latest announcement will also be ineffective”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that she would press ahead with the Haqqani blacklisting, which would make it a crime in the United States to provide the network with any material support, and freeze any of their property or interests in the US.

“The Islamic Emirate does not have any trade agreements with any American companies or individuals and neither does it have monetary funds there which could be frozen”, the Taliban said.—AFP

Pakistan is accused of playing host to a number of Taliban leaders, including the group’s Chief Mullah Omar. Hence its cooperation for providing a safe passage to Taliban is considered crucial.       -File Photo

ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US started talks on Wednesday on modalities of providing safe passage to the Taliban willing to join reconciliation talks.

At the inaugural session the three sides reiterated their commitment to peace and vowed to remain engaged on the issue of safe passage.

“Delegations from Kabul, Washington and Islamabad participated in today’s meeting and agreed to continue further discussions aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan,” a Foreign Office statement said after the meeting without giving details of any progress made at the meeting.

A western source said the talks on Wednesday focused on determining which of the Taliban might need safe passage and how could their travel through Pakistan be facilitated.

A Pakistani participant described the talks as cordial and positive.

The decision to set up a group on safe passage for the Taliban for peace talks was one of the two initiatives on which Pakistan, Afghanistan and the US had agreed at the their trilateral meeting in Islamabad in April.

The other was to set up another group in New York to work on delisting reconcilable Taliban from the UN sanctions list.

Officials from Pakistan and US had welcomed the agreement on the setting up of a sub-group on safe passage as an important achievement of the trilateral process.

The safe passage offer was meant to guarantee safe travel to Taliban leaders and officials in reaching out to the Afghan government or to travel abroad for talks.

Pakistan is accused of playing host to a number of Taliban leaders, including the group’s Chief Mullah Omar. Hence its cooperation for providing a safe passage to Taliban is considered crucial. Arrest in Pakistan of some Taliban leaders who were believed to have been preparing to join peace talks was said to have caused a major setback to the process.

Taliban had in April spurned trilateral group’s safe passage offer to so-called reconcilable leaders and dismissed the move as an American attempt to divide their ranks.

Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. — Photo by AP

In the cloistered circles of the Taliban high command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar had no equal.

As military chief of the hardline Islamic movement that once ruled Afghanistan and was ousted by a US-led alliance, he oversaw the campaign of ambushes and roadside bombings that proved his fighters could threaten the most advanced armies.

When the talismanic leader was caught in Karachi in 2010, some Afghan officials hoped the magnetism he forged in war would persuade his former comrades to start talking peace. Indeed, news that Islamabad had allowed Afghan officials to visit Baradar two months ago sparked speculation in both countries of the prospects for a settlement.

Instead, Pakistan’s refusal to hand him over to Afghanistan symbolises one of the biggest obstacles to negotiations: a legacy of bone-deep suspicion dividing the neighbors.

Afghanistan fears that Pakistan is only pretending to support dialogue while its intelligence agencies harbour Taliban leaders to project influence across their shared frontier.

Any move to repatriate Baradar would raise Afghan hopes that Pakistan is willing to play a genuinely constructive role and open the door to other prominent insurgents.

“Releasing Mullah Baradar would encourage other Taliban leaders to embrace reconciliation,” Ismail Qasemyar, an adviser to Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, told Reuters. “It would be a huge symbolic step.”

Members of the council, who are charged with reaching out to insurgents, aim to visit Islamabad in the next few weeks to make a fresh plea for Pakistan to allow Baradar to return to Kabul as a guest of the Afghan government.

With the United States and its allies due to withdraw the bulk of their combat forces by the end of 2014, pressure is mounting on President Hamid Karzai to start meaningful negotiations with the Taliban and prevent violence spiraling.

But there is no guarantee Pakistan will agree to release Baradar, or that he retains enough influence to play a decisive role.

“We are fully cooperating with Afghanistan in whatever they are asking for the peace process,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in a recent interview.

“For developing peace in Afghanistan, we are giving every kind of help. We have given access.”

He did not comment further on the subject.

The Afghan government believes Baradar is more amenable to dialogue than many of his comrades.

In the months before his arrest, Baradar authorised contacts with United Nations representatives to explore the possibility of dialogue, according to former UN and Taliban officials.

Afghan officials believe Pakistan detained him as part of a broader strategy to retain a veto over any eventual settlement in Afghanistan.

More cautious voices argue that negotiations will only work if Karzai broadens his strategy of lobbying prominent insurgents to defect into a wider process to address the roots of Afghanistan’s conflict.

Hard work

Taliban folklore has it that Baradar was present on the day in 1994 when Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s leader, launched his campaign to cleanse Afghanistan of rapacious warlords by hanging one particularly loathsome militia chief from the barrel of a tank.

Their friendship bolstered Baradar’s stature during the Taliban’s march on Kabul and its 1996-2001 reign. The Taliban government collapsed after the United States and its allies attacked Afghanistan for harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the architect of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

Baradar would later emerge as Mullah Omar’s second-in-command, translating spiritual guidance into orders as the Taliban insurgency gathered strength.

Mullah Omar bestowed him with the nom de guerre “Baradar,” which means “brother”. Although a ruthless fighter, Baradar had a knack for forging compromise, another trait that appeals to mediators.

Baradar was captured in early 2010 in Karachi in a joint operation between Pakistani intelligence officers and the CIA.

Some argue that more than two years in detention have eroded his sway over an evolving insurgency.

The Haqqani network, which is alleged to have used havens in Pakistan to launch attacks on Kabul, is showing signs of growing independence from the Taliban hierarchy.

And a blistering campaign of US night raids on Taliban commanders has weakened Mullah Omar’s chain of command.

What does seem certain is that Baradar’s return would give Karzai’s outreach more credibility among Pashtuns, the community that dominates southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the insurgency is strongest.

The captive’s mystique is burnished by his status as the highest-ranking Taliban commander to hail from the Popalzai, the same Pashtun sub-group as Karzai.

“If Mullah Baradar joins the government, 80 per cent of the problem with the Taliban will be solved,” said Haji Obaidullah Barakzai, a lawmaker from Uruzgan, the southern province where Baradar was born.

Leap of faith

Pakistan allowed Afghan officials to meet Baradar in detention. However, repatriating Baradar would require a much bigger leap of faith.

“The question is what the Afghan groups who are currently enjoying the patronage of Nato will do after the withdrawal,” said a Pakistani official with experience in Afghanistan. “Are the current crop of Afghan leaders simply going to melt away?”

Strategy under fire

While Afghan officials portray Pakistan as a recalcitrant partner, Karzai’s lack of a coherent strategy may be an even bigger problem.

The Afghan government has focused on luring individual Taliban leaders to abandon the insurgency, rather than laying the groundwork for a more comprehensive peace process that might satisfy the country’s many constituencies.

“It’s not enough just to bring former Taliban commanders to Kabul,” said Haji Mangal Hussain, a former adviser to Karzai. “The most important factor for bringing peace is to improve the quality of the Afghan government.”

With Karzai due to step down at elections due by 2014, and his administration steeped in allegations of nepotism, warlordism and corruption, many fear he lacks the legitimacy to serve as guarantor for a viable power-sharing deal.

The Taliban’s traditional enemies from northern Afghanistan, who wield considerable power in Kabul, fear Karzai may betray them at the negotiating table.

The Taliban is also divided. Mullah Omar, in a message for Eidul Fitr, assured Afghans on Thursday that he was committed to building an all-inclusive government after foreign forces leave.

Doves in the movement, who doubt their fighters can overrun Kabul, want to start talks now to spare Afghanistan the risk of a new civil war. They risk being drowned out by hardened militants who argue that the withdrawal of US-led forces will clear the path to victory.

Against this kaleidoscope of competing factions, Karzai’s focus on Baradar has a seductive simplicity. Whether he one day serves as a conduit for talks — or merely as a trophy — will depend largely on the maneuverings of generals, politicians and fighters beyond either man’s control.

Afghan locals inspect the site of an bomb explosion in Herat on August 15, 2012.   —Photo by  AFP

KABUL: Nearly two dozen Afghan civilians were wounded on Wednesday when two grenades exploded inside a mosque compound and a bicycle bomb blew up in a city market, officials said.  

The violence came a day after bomb blasts around Afghanistan killed at least 50 people in the deadliest day for civilians this year, as Taliban insurgents and other militants ramp up violence across the country.

The Taliban summer offensive coincides with Afghan police and soldiers taking on more responsibility for security while international forces start to withdraw.

Separately, Nato reported that one of its service members was killed Wednesday in an insurgent attack in the east. Nato did not disclose the nationality of the soldier or provide any more details.

The US military reported that one of its soldiers died in a roadside bombing Wednesday, also in eastern Afghanistan.

So far this year, 286 international troops have been killed in Afghanistan.

At least nine worshippers were wounded when the grenades exploded during morning prayers at a mosque in Baghi Sara area, Khost police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai said.

One exploded inside the mosque and the other went off in a courtyard outside. The third failed to detonate.

Zazai blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack.

“This was the work of the enemy,” he said. “It cannot be a private dispute. Why would anyone be so angry to throw grenades in a mosque while people are praying?”

He said many of the worshippers were Afghans who work at the nearby US post, Forward Operating Base Salerno.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid issued a statement that did not acknowledge the mosque attack but claimed an insurgent suicide bomber had attacked a US base in Khost, causing several American casualties.

A spokesman for the Nato military coalition said Wednesday that there was no attack on the Salerno base, which is close to the mosque in Baghi Sara.

Lt Col. Hagen Messer said the American personnel at the base reported hearing gunfire from the mosque but that Afghan police were investigating.

At least 14 people, including four women and a policeman, were injured when explosives set up on a bicycle exploded at a market in the city of Herat while people were shopping for an upcoming Muslim holiday, said Noor Khan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police.

The latest violence follows a particularly bloody day for Afghanistan.

Suicide bombers launched multiple attacks in remote Nimroz province in southwestern Afghanistan near the Iranian border on Tuesday, killing dozens of people, including shoppers buying sweets for a Muslim holiday.

The bombings left charred and smoldering bits of cookies and dried fruit among the bodies on the ground.

A separate market bombing later Tuesday, this one in Kunduz in the north, killed 10 people, including five children.

And in the eastern province of Paktika, a car hit a roadside bomb.

Four children died in the blast, provincial spokesman Mokhlis Afghan said, bringing Tuesday’s death toll to 50,  11 police and 39 civilians.

At least 110 people were wounded in all the attacks.

The attacks came as the Taliban and their allies step up their assaults in a display of force that often results in civilian carnage.

Militants are especially trying to weaken the still-developing Afghan security forces, who are to assume control across their homeland in 28 months, when most foreign combat troops will have left.

The Taliban “want to expand their influence, show that they are everywhere,” said Afghan political analyst Jawid Kohistani.

“They want to show that the Afghan police are not strong enough, so they are targeting the security forces and the government.”

Gen John Allen, the top commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said Tuesday’s attacks were “acts of intentional mass murder.”

“By targeting innocent civilians in populated areas, the insurgents have again shown they will kill non-combatants without hesitation to advance their backward-looking plans for Afghanistan,” Allen said in a statement. “Once again, I call on (Afghan Taliban leader) Mullah Omar to rein in his murderers. His intentions not to target civilians are hollow.”

In past statements, Omar has asked his fighters to avoid civilian casualties.

In one message in 2010, for instance, he said: “Pay attention to the life and property of the civilians so that … your jihad activities will not become a cause for destruction of property and loss of life of people.”

The UN reported last week that civilian deaths were lower in the first six months of 2012 than in the first half of 2011, but that an onslaught of summer attacks from insurgents were threatening to reverse that trend.

In all, 1,145 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between January and June of this year, according to the UN report.

Salahuddin Rabbani, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. Rabbani was due in Islamabad earlier this week to most likely discuss the release of Taliban leaders like Mullah Baradar. However, the fvisit was later called off.–Reuters Photo

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Afghanistan are in talks on the release of Afghan prisoners, a Pakistani foreign ministry official confirmed Friday. A key member of the Taliban, whose 2010 arrest in Pakistan was blamed for sabotaging peace initiatives, is presumed to be one of the prisoners.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a powerful Taliban military chief who has been described as the militia’s second in command, was arrested in the port city of Karachi.

The Afghan government and the former UN envoy to Afghanistan said his detention had adversely affected efforts to talk to the insurgents.

“The issue of prisoners is under discussion between the two countries,” foreign ministry spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan told reporters when asked to comment on Afghan demands for access to Baradar and for his release.

The spokesman did not name any prisoner or give further details, but when asked, confirmed that Baradar was still in Pakistani custody.

Baradar is the most important Taliban leader to be captured since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Afghan militia from power in Kabul.

He was known as a trusted aide to the Taliban’s elusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Shortly after Baradar’s arrest, the Pentagon said two other Taliban officials were arrested, also understood to have been captured in Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s top peace negotiator Salahuddin Rabbani was due in Islamabad earlier this week to discuss Pakistan’s possible role in the reconciliation efforts. Rabbani was most likely to demand Pakistan’s help in bringing the Taliban leadership to the negotiating table as well as the release of Taliban leaders like Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who Afghans believe could be very helpful for the reconciliation process.

However, Rabbani – who took over from his father Burhanuddin Rabbani as chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, delayed his visit due to Pak-Afghan tensions over cross-border shelling.

In March 2010, Kai Eide, the then just retired UN envoy to Afghanistan, said the arrest of key Taliban in Pakistan had stopped a secret channel of communication between the insurgents and the United Nations.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly invited the Taliban to open direct talks with his government and on Pakistan to facilitate an end to the 10-year war.

O! Children of Swat, Kalam, Kanju town and Mam Dheri! Repent! The time hath cometh that thou shall renounce the lives of jahilia. Tune thy frequency to my sermons if thou seeketh salvation from thine sins. Heareth your shepherd and stay in line as good flock. Thou art stiff necked people, lest I consume thee with the fire of C4, come in droves to the path of the al Qaeda.

And it shall come to pass that I would impose ‘Mullah Omar’s Law’ in the land of the pure and make it an Islamic Welfare State coveted by the scantily-covered-navel countries. Blessed art thou who sendeth thy children to our flock of Jedi’s, and art dressed in robes of honour (khilat-e-fakhira) adorned with precious stones of C4 and cursed art thou who sendth thy children to schools.

Here are my commandments! Pay heed to them, let them relieve thee from thy sins lest my Kalashinov relieve thee from thy life. Follow my commandments and you will be chair lifted from Malamjabba to Paradise.

O, children of Kalamite, Swatihites, and Kanju town! 20th July will be celebrated for the great invention of Guglielmo Marconi, exalted member of Mussolini’s grand fascist council.

1- Don’t listen to the voice of satanic singers on TVs, CDs, computers. Shun these instruments of satan that stireth an appetite of lust unto thy hearts. Burn all CDs (all Dutch CDs must be handed over to your Jedi brothers). Only the radio frequency of thy favourite DJ is not forbidden unto you.

2- Keep the hair on thy face uncut. Anyone who puts a blade on a beard art friends of satan. Shun the barbers like lepers! And the beard shall come to pass through the lantern glass, if thou want thy bearded head unto thy shoulders. But put a blade on all other hair that are hidden.

3- Don’t flyeth kites in the skies like the idolaters of the days of ignorance. Cut these strings of satan that sways paper into the sky like satan swayeth you. Also, thine kites obstruct the radio frequency.

4-O! Creatures from the rib! You must not painteth your nails and put on makeup to lead astray thy Jedi brothers. Cover thyself like Egyptian mummies.

5- You must not visit male doctors for ultrasound tests. Only the sound of yours truly is the remedy for thy wretchedness.

6- Thou shall not venture out from thy abodes without thy bloody relatives or my Jedi brothers. If you do venture forth in emergency, don’t wear fancy footwear as that lights the fire of passion amongst thy Jedi brothers, lest your foot wear destoryeth my foot soldiers and sets them ablaze like the Ojri Camp.

7-You must not enter the bathroom with your right foot. Or thy Jedi brothers will drag you by the same foot to the road and giveth a burnt offering like the pious children of Bahawalpur.

8- You must not play football in the field wearing short trousers, instead train thine children of the Swatinites with lances, boxing and the art of horse riding.

9- O children of Kalamites, Swatintes, Kanju Town and Mam dheri! Tie your baggy trousers over thy navel, and tuck in thy trousers so thy ankles art naked … but creatures from the rib, though shalt cover your ankles and shall not wear anklets that produce sounds of satan.

10- Cover your heads with cloth turned clockwise as thou tieth your wounded fingers. If you are found without covered heads, offer 500 silver pieces to thy jedi brothers as atonement of your sin in the tradition of the Tuesday Garden.

Verily the day of the massacre of infidels is near. Doth you seeth the CDs of al Qaeda. Verily these art the signs that the seekers of peace seeth.

The author left architecture for painting but ended up as a cartoonist and now writes Hijjo. He is the jack of all trades.

The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.