Posts published in “Day: February 19, 2016”

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) – Afghanistan’s intelligence agency has busted a bomb making factory in central Ghazni province of Afghanistan. The agency writes in a statement released on Thursday that a Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED), motorcycle-bomb and seven keg-bombs ‘Oil kegs filled with explosives’ and eight missiles. According to the press release, terrorists planned to carry out several attacks with these materials in Ghazni but NDS personnel foiled their plans. NDS statements…

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has suspended its operation in central Ghazni province. ICRC says the decision was taken following the abduction of its local staffers by unidentified gunmen in this province. Ahmad Ramin Ayaz, ICRC spokesperson has told BBC that the five staff members were kidnapped while they were traveling between two districts. Due to security reasons, Ayaz did not give further details but said that efforts have been made for safe…

Badakhshan provincial governor Ahmad Fisal Bigzad raised concerns over insurgents’ activites on Thursday and said that Jurm and Yamgan districts of Badakhshan are completely under the control of insurgents. But he said government forces are currently engaged in heavy fighting with the militants – many of whom are foreign. “Two districts are completely under enemy control and some other districts like Ragh are under threat,” said Fisal Bigzad, the provincial governor. There are concerns that…

Kabul:  When the next major earthquake hits Afghanistan, could it leave the leadership of the Afghan military buried under five stories’ worth of rubble? John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, does not rule it out. In an audit set for release Thursday, Sopko said the new $155 million Afghan military headquarters, funded by U.S. taxpayers, may not withstand the Big One. “Although the building generally met contract requirements and appears well…

The Pentagon is set to cut salaries of ‘ghost’ soldiers in Afghanistan, U.S officials said. US officials hoped that by the end of this year the problem will be resolved and that salaries of only actual Afghan troops will be paid. “Afghanistan is important to us because it intersects with our vital national interests,” said Colonel Stephen Michael, the Deputy Director of the Pakistan/ Afghanistan Coordination Cell of the US Office of the Chairman of…

ISLAMABAD: Almost a week after former Afghan governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi went missing in Islamabad, President Ashraf Ghani has urged the authorities in Pakistan to recover him. “Wahidi was a national leader, a member of the civil society and a government official and we will try our best to recover him and reunite him with his family,” a statement quoted President Ghani as saying on Thursday after a meeting with Wahidi’s family members in Kabul.…

The writer is a former caretaker finance minister and served as vice-president at the World Bank The historian Stanley Wolpert titled his book on the last days of the British Raj in India, Shameful Flight. Had the colonial masters not made a hurried exit, they may have managed to retain the political unity of the South Asian sub-continent. Ayesha Jalal, another historian, in her book on Jinnah’s strategy to safeguard the Muslims’ minority rights in…

KARACHI: The Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) has said that Pakistan should avoid becoming part of any military coalition that could lead to a war-like situation in any Islamic country. “The military coalition of Islamic countries being organised in the name of war against terrorism is in fact a step towards that agenda of imperial forces,” said MWM secretary general Allama Raja Nasir Abbas on Thursday. He added imperial forces were sowing seeds of hatred among Islamic…

Uncertainty muddles perceptions around exactly what should be the role of Pakistan in the 34-member coalition assembled by Saudi Arabia tasked to fight terrorism and extremism. The 34 members do not include three troubling omissions — Iran, Syria and Iraq. Questions have been raised in the National Assembly of Sartaj Aziz, the prime minister’s adviser on foreign affairs, who was as vague as he ever is. That he responded in writing rather than in person…

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office has said that Pakistan will continue to adhere to its policy of respecting war-ravaged Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. “Pakistan has a principled position on the situation in Syria based on respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria,” FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at a briefing on Thursday. The reiteration of Pakistan’s policy on Syria came as Saudi Arabia and Turkey considered plans for a ground incursion into Syria on…