As insurgents ramp up offensive on key Afghan towns, President Ashraf Ghani met with prominent jihadi figures and political leaders on Thursday in an attempt to forge a wider consensus on some key challenges currently Afghanistan is grappling with – including the war on terror, fighting the endemic corruption, security issues, electoral reform and the peace process with the Taliban. But, participants of the meeting have cautiously welcomed the initiative with many saying the leaders…
Posts published in “Day: October 15, 2016”
Delegates from Afghanistan, other Asian countries, Europe and the United States on Friday attended the 5th Herat Security Dialogue conference where they discussed security in Afghanistan and the region among other issues. Addressing the conference, former national security advisor Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates are deliberately backing terrorism. He added the U.S military intervention in Iraq led to the creation of Daesh militant group. Participants of the gathering raised…
The First Vice President General Abdul Rashid Dostum vowed revenge for every drop of blood of the Afghan forces and the innocent civilians spilled during the Kunduz clashes. Speaking to internally displaced people in northern Balkh province, Gen. Dostum said the stooges of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence will pay for the atrocities they committed inthe attack on Kunduz city. He promised the internally displaced people that they will return to their homes before the start…
50 rockets, 10 mortar rounds seized as militants planned attacks in Nimroz Khaama Press, Oct 14 2016
The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) confiscated at least 50 rockets and 10 mortar rounds as the militants were looking to use them for a series of attacks in western Nimroz province. The Ministry of Interior (MoI) said the rockets were seized during an operation in Chahar Borjak district of Nimroz on Thursday. No further details were given regarding the arrest of any suspect during the operation. The anti-government armed militant groups including…
Local officials in Helmand on Friday said Lashkargah city, the provincial capital, is faced with serious security threats and that they need more reinforcements to secure the southern city. “It is difficult to defeat the insurgents if more troops are not deployed to the city, because right now the war has intensified in most parts of the city,” said Karim Atal, head of Helmand Provincial Council. A security source told TOLOnews that due to a…
By Debasish Roy Chowdhary The last time Xi Jinping visited India, two years ago, Narendra Modi made an unprecedented gesture of receiving the Chinese leader in his home state of Gujarat rather than the capital, Delhi. They signed billion-dollar deals, sat on a swing at a riverside park, smiled at each other, and the shutterbugs went nuts. There was hope in the air. Modi, freshly elected as India’s prime minister, was being widely hailed in…
The writer is a lawyer based in Islamabad. If one needed an illustration on how to make a mockery of a country, its laws and its practice of statecraft, the government provided it to us by placing Cyril Almeida on the ECL and defending the indefensible. The press is unanimous in its condemnation of how the state chose to harass Cyril and scapegoat Dawn. The reason is simple. Cyril was doing his job. He broke…
The writer is a journalist based in Karachi. The Pakistani state has so many skeletons in its closet it’s more of an auditorium. The job of journalists is to give the rest of the country a glimpse into this enclosed space, an idea of what is being done in their name. The state is entrusted by us to safeguard the country’s national security but does not give us any say in deciding how to define…
The writer is a former editor of Dawn. THE corps commanders have spoken. They have expressed concern over the “feeding of a false and fabricated story” that appeared in Dawn on Oct 6 as a breach of national security. At the same time, the government “as a gesture of goodwill” has removed the travel ban on the reporter who wrote the story. Since the journalist seems to have his freedom to travel abroad restored one…
The writer is an Islamabad-based TV journalist The story of our policy foibles was summed up decades ago in a skit by a famous sketch comedy show. A man driving a car is pulled over for the security check. The security staff turns the car inside out and asks frivolous questions about children’s toys. Finally, the car is allowed to move forward. Camera zooms out and as the car resumes its journey we see that…
Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan made his usual harangue while defending government’s senseless and shameful act of putting the name of renowned Dawn writer and journalist, Cyril Almeida, on the exit control list (ECL). The frontline security czar came down hard on the journalist, and announced formation of a committee to investigate the report on a high-level security meeting. While addressing the media on Thursday, he termed the news item incorrect. He said…