(Aljazeera) Kabul in grief after Ashoura shrine blast

Kabul, Afghanistan - "In the name of the martyrs of Karbala," repeats an elderly woman with each step she takes, moving from one fresh grave to the next. Under her black shawl of grief, she crouches, cups her hands in prayer, and looks to the sky. Then she touches the gravestone and moves on to the next. More than a dozen victims of Tuesday's blast in the Abul ul-Fazl shrine have been buried in the Kart-e-Sakhi cemetery, overlooking the west of Kabul. Red and green flags wave over their graves...Continue Reading....

The Afghans bury their dead

Posted December 08, 2011 13:58:00

Hundreds of people have joined funeral processions for some of the more than 50 people killed in this week's suicide bomb blast at a Shia Muslim shrine in Kabul. The sectarian attack was the deadliest in the Afghan capital for three years, and shocked many across the country. The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, has accused members of the Pakistan-based Sunni terrorist group, Lashkar e JHangvi, of carrying out the bombing....Listen Radio Report...

(BBC) Is Pakistan intelligence implicated in Afghanistan bombings?

One of the main theories being investigated by western forces in Afghanistan is that Tuesday's bombing aimed at Shia targets, which killed 58 people, was carried out by the Haqqani network.

If this is true, it would point the finger at Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence agency, which has nurtured a long relationship with this Afghan group, and has been publicly accused by the US of using it to orchestrate terrorist attacks in Kabul....Continue Reading.....

Afghan Women Remind World Leaders: Don't Forget Us

Dec 6, 2011 4:45 AM EST
Afghanistan’s president has asked for international aid until 2030—well past the 2014 date on which American troops are scheduled to exit. What does it mean for women?
A decade ago, the Bonn conference in Germany heralded the international community’s entrance into Afghanistan at a time of optimism that much could be done to better the war-scarred country’s fortunes. On Monday, nearly 1,000 delegates from more than 80 nations returned to Bonn to chart a much quieter exit, with U.S. and international troops scheduled to leave in 2014....Continue Reading...

Pakistan's sectarian murderers in Afghan spotlight

AFP
Thursday, Dec 08, 2011
ISLAMABAD - Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, the Pakistani terror group blamed for deadly attacks on Shiites in Afghanistan this week, has forged ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in a murderous campaign to wage sectarian warfare.

Since its inception in 1996 by a religious fanatic from the Deobandi school of thought, which considers Shiite Muslims apostates, the faction has claimed to have killed thousands of Shiites in bombings and shootings across Pakistan.

It takes its name from Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi, the founder of terror group Sipah-e-Sahaba from which leader Riaz Basra broke, and preaches indiscriminate violence to make Pakistan a purely Sunni Muslim state.

A suicide attack tore through a crowd of worshippers in Kabul on Tuesday as they marked the holy day of Ashura, killing 55 people, as a second blast in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif left four more dead.

There has been no confirmation of a purported claim from Lashkar-i-Jhangvi splinter al-Alami, but Kabul blamed the group for Tuesday's massacre, unprecedented in targeting such an important religious holiday in Afghanistan.

Lashkar-i-Jhangvi is not thought to have struck in Afghanistan before.

"We will pursue this issue with Pakistan and its government very seriously," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai, threatening to ratchet up tensions with Islamabad which are already frayed over accusations of sponsoring violence.

Afghan officials say the motive was to inflame a 10-year Taliban insurgency and drastically increase violence by importing Pakistan and Iraq-style sectarian conflict as NATO combat troops prepare to leave by the end of 2014.

A substantial rise in sectarian unrest could also draw arch US foe Iran deeper into Afghanistan, threatening to whip up proxy wars.

The Taliban denied involvement, but in a cauldron of violence where Islamist terror groups are interlinked and have overlapping allegiances, experts say it would have been impossible for Pakistani killers to have acted alone.

As with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Islamist groups the world over, Lashkar-i-Jhangvi was born from the ashes of the 1980s Afghan war against the Soviet Union, which was sponsored by the CIA, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The group's leaders were veterans of that conflict and its ranks populated by graduates of Pakistani madrassas packed off to terror training camps in the mountains on the Afghan-Pakistani border or in Pakistan's southern Punjab.

It developed close ties to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, which ruled in Kabul from 1996 until the 2001 US-led invasion.

Although there are reported ties with Pakistani intelligence, the state formally banned the group in 2001 and there have been numerous crackdowns with arrests and killings of known Jhangvi operatives over the last 20 years.

Islamabad has asked Afghanistan to provide proof that Jhangvi militants were responsible for Tuesday's attack, but it is understood that Afghan officials do not have any hard evidence.

One official said the bomber was a Pakistani from Kurram, part of Pakistan's militant-infested lawless border region with Afghanistan, and a specific flashpoint for sectarian unrest.

But as long as doubts persist over the al-Alami claim, it remains unclear how exactly the group could have carried out the attack.

"The question is, how credible is the claim? Some Taliban groups can do the same as they share school of thought with LiJ," said Pakistani-based security analyst Hasan Askari.

Militancy expert Rahimullah Yusufzai also doubted the claim, saying that the splinter group's capacity is very limited even in Pakistan, which has seen a recent decline in attacks linked to its own bloody Taliban insurgency.

"There is one possibility that this group may have support of Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or some of the rogue elements inside Afghanistan," Yusufzai.

Jhangvi's founder Basra has been dead for a number of years. Reports differ on whether he was killed in an explosion or a shootout with security forces.

A senior Pakistani security official said Lashkar-i-Jhangvi and other extremist groups are "hand in glove with the Taliban".

"But they cannot carry out such an attack on their own. This would have surely been a Taliban-connected operation," he told AFP.

"Al-Alami are basically the Punjabi Taliban, who were involved in the attack on (army) GHQ (general headquarters) two years ago," he added.

Asia One News

Sectarian massacre: Kabul says up to Pakistan to investigate LeJ involvement

By AFP / APP
Published: December 8, 2011

Afghans run from an explosion during a religious ceremony in Kabul city center on December 6, 2011. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
KABUL / ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan on Thursday hit back at Pakistan after a shrine bombing killed at least 55 people in Kabul, saying it was up to Islamabad to act after the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) purportedly took responsibility.
Pakistan on Wednesday urged Afghanistan to provide hard evidence to support claims that the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was behind the devastating attack on Shia Muslims after President Hamid Karzai demanded justice.
But in a developing war of words between the neighbours, whose relations are frequently tense, Kabul said Thursday that it was up to Pakistan to investigate without waiting any longer.
“It was the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which claimed responsibility,” Aimal Faizi, Karzai’s spokesman, told AFP.
“It’s up to Pakistan to take action and find out where and how the contact was made by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi from inside Pakistan. They shouldn’t wait for us to provide them with evidence.”
Faizi said an Afghan investigation was under way but it is thought officials do not currently have evidence of the group’s involvement.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, an outlawed militant group which has links to al Qaeda and the Taliban, has been blamed for killing thousands of Shia Muslims and whipping up sectarian hatred in Pakistan.
But there has been no confirmation of a purported claim of responsibility for the Kabul attacks from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi splinter group al-Alami.
Pakistan condemns Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul bombings
Pakistan has strongly condemned the terrorist incidents in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif.
The Foreign Office spokesman in a statement issued on Thursday said, “We strongly condemn the reprehensible terrorist actions in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif resulting in the loss of over 60 innocent lives.”
The foreign office spokesman said the government and the people of Pakistan were grieved and stood by the brotherly people of Afghanistan.

The Express Tribune

No support to Kabul if blame game continues: FM Hina

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will contribute towards the Afghan peace process but only on the basis of mutual respect and trust and in an environment free from 'recrimination' and 'blame-games.'

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said this while speaking to the Ambassador of the Federal Republic Germany, Dr. Michael Koch, who called on her at the Foreign Office to brief her about the recently held Bonn Conference on Afghanistan and about its conclusions, the spokesman at the Foreign Office said in a statement....Continue Reading....