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Posts published in “Day: February 6, 2016

Small chance of peace: by Najma Minhas in The Nation, Feb 6, 2016

The writer is a Director at Governance & Policy Advisors. The Quadilateral Coordination Group (QCG) was set up during the Heart of Asia summit held in Islamabad, Pakistan in December 2015 to kick-start talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. The talks collapsed in July 2015 after it was discovered that Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban, had actually died two years earlier and this fact had been concealed. The goal of the QCG…

US troops cut in Afghanistan to be detrimental: Gen Campbell

WASHINGTON: The planned withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan will hurt efforts to train the Afghan forces, the top Nato military commander in the war-torn country said. US Army General John Campbell, who is near the end of his tour in Afghanistan and is expected to retire, said that plans to draw the US presence of 9,800 troops down to 5,500 would leave very limited capacity to support the local forces. “To continue to build…

Afghan govt rocked by Kandahar fistfight: Reuters report

KANDAHAR – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is struggling to placate furious tribal elders in Kandahar, who include some of the most powerful figures in the strategic southern province, after one of his top aides punched a senior local leader in the face. Ghani visited Kandahar, the provincial capital and Afghanistan’s second biggest city, on Thursday on a trip intended to bolster support for his national unity government in one of the most volatile regions of…

Roadmap for Afghan peace talks likely today BAQIR SAJJAD SYED in Dawn, February 6th, 2016

ISLAMABAD: The Quad­ri­lateral Coordination Group (QCG) on Afghan peace and reconciliation is expected to adopt a roadmap for peace talks when it meets today (Saturday). However, the formal start of dialogue between the Afghan government and Taliban still looks like it is months away. This would be the third meeting of the group comprising officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, US and China. The four countries agreed to work together last December on the sidelines of the…

ISI-NDS meeting : edit in Daily Times, February 06, 2016

A high level interaction between top intelligence officials of Afghanistan and Pakistan is a welcome move towards bridging the trust deficit between the two neighbouring countries. Masoud Andrabi, the head of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), met his counterpart Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt-General Rizwan Akhtar in Islamabad for the first time in a bid to build trust and boost intelligence sharing to combat cross-border terrorism amid efforts to revive the stalled peace process…

ISI-NDS meeting: EDITORIAL in Dawn, February 6th, 2016

GIVEN the outsized influence that the two organisations have on their state’s policies towards each other, the ISI and the NDS coming together at the director level for a meeting is a significant moment.  Clearly, DG ISI Gen Rizwan Akhtar and acting NDS chief Masoud Andrabi have a great deal of ground to cover — and a poisonous mutual history to overcome.  After all, Mr Andrabi is only at the helm of the premier Afghan…

In China, books that make money and enemies: The NY Times, Feb 5, 2016

By MICHAEL FORSYTHE and ANDREW JACOBS HONG KONG — In a dimly lit industrial building in Hong Kong, hundreds of books wrapped in brown paper were stacked four feet high on shipping pallets. The books contained tales of sex, corruption and murder that would make even the most jaded reader of bawdy romance novels blush. But these works, which mix rumor, speculation and outright fiction, spin stories about China’s elite. One book, “The General Secretary’s…

12 Daesh militants killed in clash with security forces in Nangarhar HAAMA PRESS, Feb 06 2016, 10:33 am

12 militants from the terrorist group of the Islamic State (IS) or Daesh have been killed in a clash with security forces in eastern Nangarhar province. Nangarhar governor’s spokesperson said the clash erupted in Sayed Ahmadkhil area of Kot District in the wee hours of Saturday. Ataullah Khogyani added that the clash left 12 militants killed and 10 others wounded. According to Khogyani, security forces did not suffer casualties but two civilians sustained injuries by…

The Islamic State in ‘Khorasan’: a nuanced view: Commentary, Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Feb 5, 2016

By Dr. Antonio Giustozzi, Associate Fellow, RUSI Daesh has established a foothold in Afghanistan, but its rivalry with the Taliban means its success is far from assured. The appearance of Daesh (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIS or IS) in what it calls ‘Khorasan’ (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia and Iran) was first reported in the late summer of 2014. Initially dismissed as propaganda by most observers and official sources –…