Afghanistan: Drastic Changes for the Taliban

Dec 15, 2012 10:04 PM EST

Afghanistan’s insurgents are thinking of joining the political process—and seeking common cause against Kabul with their old enemies. Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai report.

The Taliban seem never to tire of talking about not talking. They have vowed over and over that they won’t negotiate peace until all foreign forces leave Afghanistan—and that they’ll never under any circumstances sit down with President Hamid Karzai’s “puppet regime.” But now the group’s leadership appears to be reconsidering.

According to Zabihullah, a senior Taliban leader who is privy to deliberations inside the insurgency’s Quetta Shura, the ruling council’s political committee is rethinking its positions on a whole range of issues. The possibility of peace talks is only one of the items under review by the committee—which, as far as that goes, may have no more than limited control over the Taliban’s battlefield commanders, says Zabihullah, who uses only the single name and has proved in the past to be a reliable informant. The leadership is also debating the insurgents’ longstanding hostilities against the former Northern Alliance; the Taliban’s rejectionist stance toward the Afghan Constitution; and even the idea of participation in Afghanistan’s next presidential and National Assembly elections.

The deliberations are no doubt encouraged by the fact that Karzai will be constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2014. And even though the discussions so far have been preliminary and internal, the fact that they are taking place at all could signal big changes ahead.

Afghan children search for plastic and metal items amongst the garbage on the outskirts of Herat on Dec. 13, 2012. (Aref Karimi/AFP/Getty)

The most startling shift so far has been in the Taliban’s attitude toward the Northern Alliance. The Taliban, almost entirely ethnic Pashtun, spent seven years waging war without mercy against the ethnic militias of the NA—predominantly Sunni Muslim Tajiks and Uzbeks and Shiite Hazaras.... Continue Reading... 

3 Hazaras, PIA officer, doctor killed in Balochistan attacks

By: Bari Baloch | December 14, 2012

QUETTA – As many as five people – three Shia community members, a Hindu doctor and a PIA official – were killed in sectarian and targeted attacks in Balochistan’s Quetta, Mastung and Panjgour districts on Thursday, security officials said. In Sirki Kala area of Quetta, unidentified gunmen opened fire at a tailor’s shop, killing a man, namely Shabir Ahmed. The victim was stated to be a resident of the Punjab and a member of the Shia community. According to the officials, the gunmen managed to escape from the crime spot. In another assault, unidentified armed attackers shot dead a government employee near Saleem Complex on Jinnah Road, and fled. Identified as Gul Shireen, the victim was a member of the Shia community. Another Shia died at the Combined Military Hospital shortly after receiving critical gunshot wounds in a targeted attack near Shahrah-e-Iqbal. Identified as Khan Ali, the victim was heading somewhere along with Taj Muhammad, when unidentified attackers sprayed him with bullets. Taj Muhammad was also hit by bullets and was stated to be in serious condition. Both the men belonged to the Hazara community, the officials said. The banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed the responsibility for the killings of the three Shias. The Tahafuz-e-Azadari Council meanwhile strongly condemned the killings, and called a countrywide protest demonstration on Friday. In Mastung district, a bike-borne armed duo mowed down a doctor, namely Dr Lakshmi Chand, and fled the crime scene. According to a senior police officer, Dr Chand was heading towards his clinic from his residence when attacked. An attempt to kidnap him was made a few months back,” added the Mastung DSP.PML-N leader Santosh Kumar condemned the killing of the doctor, and criticised the government for its inability to provide security to the Hindu community. He said that several Hindus had been kidnapped but no accused was brought to justice so far. A PIA official was shot and killed by unidentified attackers in Chatkan area of Panjgour district, bordering Iran. Yasir Arafat, Panjgour airport manager, was passing through Chatkan Bazaar, when the armed men raked his car with bullets. Arafat died instantly. A police party rushed and moved the body to the district headquarters hospital for medico-legal formalities. The victim was stated to be a resident of the Punjab. The motive behind the killing could not be ascertained until the filing of this report. The security officials said separate murder cases had been registered and investigation was in progress.

The Nation 

Dambura takes centre stage at fundraiser

DateDecember 13, 2012 - 7:43PM

Annabel Ross



Murtaza Jafari with Tiger and Me. Photo: Simon Schluter

Murtaza Jafari plays the dambura. It's a curious, long-necked, light wooden instrument, somewhere between a banjo and a guitar, and is popular among the Hazaras of central Afghanistan, where Jafari is from.

On Friday night, the dambura will take centre stage when Jafari performs with Melbourne six-piece band the Tiger and Me at Hamer Hall. Jafari and the band are two of the artists involved in the Key of Sea, a fundraiser in which local musicians are paired up with asylum seekers to create songs, which are recorded on an album and performed at a concert.

The Tiger and Me first caught wind of the project when the inaugural Key of Sea was being developed by Hugh Crosthwaite in 2010.

"I asked Hugh about it when the Key of Sea 1 was being made and he said, 'I don't think you're quite there yet,' but then when the second one rolled around we'd had a really good year, so he gave us a call and invited us to be on it," says Ade Vincent, one of the band's lead vocalists.
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Tomorrow night, The Tiger and Me and Jafari will perform alongside fellow Key of Sea artists including Chet Faker and The Royal Swazi Spa and Brous and Awaz.

Jafari, who has played the dambura in front of big crowds in Melbourne and back in Afghanistan, was noticed by Crosthwaite after contributing his music to a documentary that chronicled his journey to Australia from Indonesia by boat ten years ago.

Crosthwaite paired Jafari up with the band, they met up for a cup of tea and a chat, and the next day, devised and recorded a song for the album in the space of 13 hours. Together they created an updated version of an Afghan love song, based on an ancient Afghan poem.

"The song's called Az Eshq Tho, which means 'because of your love', says Jane Hendry, fellow vocalist in the band. "We got a loose translation from Murtaza on what the song was about, and then chose English lyrics to try and convey that and mirror the Afghan lyrics."

"I think it sounds like the Tiger and Me and it sounds like Murtaza," says Vincent. "That's why we're all really proud of it, because it sounds like both acts."

The Key of Sea is at Hamer Hall this Friday the 14th of December at 8pm.

SMH

Two gunned down in Quetta

December 13, 2012, 6:27 pm



At least two persons were gunned down while one sustained severe injuries in separate target killing incidents on Thursday.

In the area of Jinnah road some unknown armed persons opened unprovoked firing on shopkeeper Shabir Hussain resultantly he died on the spot.

In second incident some unknown armed personals opened indiscriminate firing on shops as a result the shopkeeper namely Gul Shereen died on the spot.

In another incident, some unknown armed personals opened firing on Taj Muhammad khan resultantly he sustained severe injuries in the area of Quandari Bazar and the criminals fled away from the scene successfully.

On getting information police reached on the spot and shifted the dead bodies to hospital for autopsy.

After completing legal formalities the dead bodies were handed over to his heirs.

Police claimed that the incident is the result of discrimination target killings.

Police registered the case and started thorough investigation of the case.

The Nation 

Doctor shot dead in Mastung; two others gunned down in Quetta

DawnNews



In the most recent incident, unidentified gunmen shot dead renowned local doctor Lakhmi Chand in Balochistan’s Mastung district, about 25 kilometres south of Quetta.—File Photo

QUETTA: At least three people were killed and three others injured in a series of shooting incidents on Thursday in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province.

Three separate shooting incidents in the span of an hour claimed two lives and injured three other people in Quetta, the provincial capital.

According to police, the first incident took place at the city’s busy market Qandahari Bazar when unknown gunmen riding motorcycles opened fire, severely injuring three people. At least two of the three injured were identified as locals belonging to the minority Hazara community.

In a similar incident, another man, said to be a public servant and also belonging to the Hazara community, was gunned down by unidentified armed assailants.

Meanwhile, another man lost his life when gunmen opened fire at a tailor shop at Sarki Road.

In the most recent incident, unidentified gunmen shot dead renowned local doctor Lakhmi Chand in Balochistan’s Mastung district, about 25 kilometres south of Quetta.

Earlier on Thursday, a local court sentenced to life imprisonment three suspects for the murder of Baloch leader Habib Jalib Baloch. The sentence was handed down by sessions judge Rashid Mehmood.

Habib Jalib Baloch, a former senator and secretary-general of the Balochistan National Party-M, wasassassinated on Quetta’s Sariab Road in July 2010.

DAWN 

Australia’s Deadly Game

The face of an assassinated asylum seeker: Ali Shah tried to escape Pakistan’s sectarian violence and come to Australia, but he was murdered en route.

By Aubrey BelfordDecember 12, 2012

The Global Mail investigates how Australian authorities are co-operating with corrupt local authorities who bend the law to keep would-be refugees trapped in a country that they desperately want to escape.

Ali Shah was not meant to die in Pakistan. He should have already been out of the country, somewhere on the long smugglers’ route to safety in Australia.

But a bullet got to him first.

Shah was a 28-year-old from Quetta, a restive city near the Afghan border, haunted by Sunni Muslim death squads that are allied to the Taliban and which kill with near total impunity. As a Shia and a policeman, Shah was automatically in danger. As a Hazara — a Shia minority with east-Asian features distinct from surrounding ethnic groups — his face betrayed him.

Early this year, Shah paid $6,000 to smugglers, who would fly him legally to Thailand and then smuggle him over land and sea to Indonesia; once there he would search for another smuggler with a boat to Australia.

“Definitely they do have a profiling... There’s no strictly legal regime for this.”
− AZAD KHAN, PAKISTAN’S FEDERAL INVESTIGATION AGENCY

He travelled first to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and waited with five other Hazara men for a flight to Bangkok. But this plan was foiled when the smuggler returned to the men who were waiting in Islamabad, and told them the way would be blocked: airport officers would not let the men board unless they paid a hefty extra bribe to pass through. The smuggler suggested the men travel by train to Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, where a cheaper pay-off at the airport could be arranged.

At about 1.30am on April 4, the Hazara group arrived by rail in Karachi, and began to wander the streets in search of a hotel. Suddenly two men, their faces covered, pulled up on a motorbike and opened fire. Shah dropped to the ground, mortally wounded. Another man, Ismat Ullah, was shot through the leg.

Ullah watched as the men rifled through Shah’s clothes, stealing money and a phone. As they sped off, Ullah recalls, the attackers gave a clue to their motivations, yelling out “Shia are infidels!”

Months later Ullah, 25, is back in Quetta and still injured. But he says he wants to try the trip to Australia again.... Continue Reading... 

For Some, Quetta Is A Deadly Prison

BANARAS KHAN/AFP/GETTY
Billboard warning asylum seekers against taking “illegal routes to Australia” looms over the scene of a 2010 suicide bombing in Quetta.

By Aubrey Belford

Once a haven for refugees from Afghanistan, the Pakistani city of Quetta has turned into a deathtrap. Many see escape to Australia as their only hope.

For years, the Pakistani city of Quetta has been studded with billboards put up by Australia.

When a suicide bomber detonated himself in a Shia Muslim rally on September 3, 2010, killing more than 70 people, photographs of the carnage showed one of these signs in the background. Behind the welter of torn bodies, black smoke and sheared metal, the message was clearly visible: “All illegal routes to Australia are closed to Afghans.”

This city near Afghanistan has long been a transit point for would-be asylum seekers from across the border, many of them Shia Muslim ethnic Hazaras. The Afghans would enter, make contact with smugglers and arrange documents, and head on to Australia. Many of those in transit would stay with relatives among the half-million-strong local community of Hazaras who have settled in the city over more than a century — seeking refuge from waves of massacres and oppression in Afghanistan.

But Quetta is no longer a haven. Recent years have seen a dramatic rise in the killing of Hazaras and other Shias by the extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is allied to the Taliban. The killers, who often strike in the daytime and brazenly leave their faces exposed, carry out their work with little hindrance from the authorities. Some allege they have state support.

Quetta has now become a place that Hazaras are desperate to leave.... Continue Reading....