Pakistan to free all Afghan Taliban

Pakistan is prepared to release all Afghan Taliban prisoners currently in Pakistani detention, Pakistani foreign secretary says.

Speaking at a news conference in Abu Dhabi on Friday, Jalil Jilani did not discount the release of Mullah Baradar, the group's one-time second-in-command.

"The remaining detainees, we are coordinating, and they will be released subsequently ... The aim is to release all."

Jilani's statement followed a meeting with David Pearce, US special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Jawed Ludin, Afghan deputy foreign minister.

The meeting took place at the embassy of Afghanistan in the UAE capital.

Speaking to reporters, Luddin said the meeting intended to discuss "security and political dimensions of bilateral relationships" between the three countries.

Luddin said the peace process had gained momentum in recent weeks with the release of some Taliban detainees by Pakistan, preparations by the Afghan Taliban movement to open a political office in Doha, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to the US.

Pakistan averts, for now, two new crises

After days of anti-government protests, sectarian violence and political turmoil, Pakistan managed on Thursday to retreat from the brink of the kind of chaos that has often ushered in military rule during the nation’s 65-year history.

Two cliffhanger developments provided a measure of stability in this nuclear-armed country: The Supreme Court delayed the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on corruption allegations, while the government bowed, in part, to the demands of a populist Muslim preacher whose followers had amassed in the capital by the tens of thousands in hopes of dissolving Parliament. The cleric, Tahirul Qadri, a religious moderate who heads a network of Islamic schools and charities here and worldwide, emerged mysteriously last month, returning to his native Pakistan after seven years in Canada to denounce government corruption and promote electoral reform.

On Thursday, after four days of protests that shut down the capital’s commercial core, Qadri came away with government pledges to enact measures that officials said would help weed out political candidates linked to corruption. Principally, the government agreed to dissolve Parliament before March 16, when its five-year term expires, to provide a 90-day period before elections are held.

“Allah granted us a victory and now you can go home,” Qadri told his supporters, according to the Reuters news agency.

Pakistan urges India to cool rhetoric over Kashmir

 Pakistan urged India on Thursday to tone down the "Pakistan bashing" over a spate of military clashes in Kashmir between the nuclear-armed neighbors, and again offered foreign minister-level talks to try to cool tensions.
"I think it is important not to let this cycle escalate into something which becomes even more ugly than it is today," Pakistani High Commissioner to India Salman Bashir said in an interview with Reuters. "Let's try to see if we can cool down and resume normal business."
Three Pakistani and two Indian soldiers have been killed this month in the worst outbreak of tit-for-tat violence in Kashmir since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire along a de facto border there nearly a decade ago.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since partition in 1947, two of them over the Himalayan region that both claim.
Following public and media outrage after India said one of its soldiers had been decapitated, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there could be "no business as usual" with Pakistan, and the army chief said his commanders should retaliate if provoked.
Bashir said India could have worked with Pakistan to get to the bottom of what happened instead of "stirring raw emotions and upping the rhetoric", adding that "Pakistan bashing has become fashionable" in India.
He told Reuters that the killing of the soldiers on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir was not carried out by Pakistani troops.
"Such heinous acts ... are of course condemnable irrespective of where they happen and when they happen. But to say that these were done by Pakistan, that the Pakistan army was responsible, is something that we cannot agree to," he said.

Democracy faces crucial 24 hours in Pakistan

No-one ever thought Asif Ali Zardari, the wheeler-dealer widower of Benazir Bhutto, would last this long.  Now he faces the most crucial 24 hours of his time as Pakistan's president. His prime minister faces arrest and his government is under pressure from a populist preacher, little-known until three weeks ago, who has brought 20,000 protesters almost in sight of parliament.

Rumours of a coup are circulating around Islamabad drawing rooms once again.

His prize is almost in reach. Survive until March 17 and his government will have completed a full term. If elections follow on time it will mark the first ever democratic transition from one elected government to another.

No government has ever managed it in 65 years of Pakistan - overcome every time by internal squabbling or military coup.

The generals remain the deciding factor this time around. So far the military has stood back as first Tahir-ul-

Qadri led his supporters into Islamabad and then the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister.

 If 111 brigade, which has played a role in securing key buildings in the capital in previous coups, stays in its Rawalpindi barracks then Mr Zardari's fragile coalition should hold together.
The country is already awash with evidence-free conspiracy theories that place the military at the centre of a plot to oust the government.
In reality, Pakistan's key players need no encouragement to rock the boat, and Tuesday's shock announcement by the chief justice as protesters rallied in Islamabad, smacks of opportunism rather than conspiracy.

A Fiery Preacher’s Arrival Shakes Pakistani Politics

Campaign season has begun in Pakistan, with elections widely expected by mid-May that, if they proceed peacefully, would represent a democratic milestone in a country plagued by intermittent military rule.
World Twitter Logo.
Connect With Us on Twitter

Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.

Twitter List: Reporters and Editors

But the starting whistle has been sounded by an unlikely figure: a tough-talking preacher who is calling for a democratic “revolution,” even if he is not eligible for election himself.

Little known in Pakistan just one month ago, the preacher, Muhammad Tahir-ul Qadri, a white-bearded Sufi scholar with a taste for hard politics, has taken the country by storm in recent weeks in a campaign that has gripped the news media and jolted the traditional political mainstream.

After returning from Canada, where he has lived for seven years, Mr. Qadri made his first mark with a large rally in Lahore on Dec. 23 in which he demanded that President Asif Ali Zardari’s government resign to make way for a caretaker administration led by technocrats.

Now he is mobilizing a “million man” march that he says will reach the capital, Islamabad, on Monday, where he promises to lead a lengthy sit-in that will kick off a “moral revolution” similar to the one in Tahrir Square in Cairo that overthrew the Egyptian ruling order. “There will be no defeat,” Mr. Qadri, 61, said in a phone interview on Saturday. “This is for a spiritual and moral revolution. We will not surrender before corruption.”

That message resonates with ordinary Pakistanis weary of poor governance, dire energy shortages and sickening violence. On Saturday, ethnic Hazara Shiites in the city of Quetta blocked a road with the coffins of victims of a sectarian attack in the city on Thursday night. The death toll from the attack — the worst ever against the Hazara — has since risen to 96, according to Reuters, and the protesters said they would remove the coffins only when the army took over security in Quetta.

But Mr. Qadri’s sudden arrival on the political scene has also brought worries that he represents the interests of forces bent on derailing Pakistan’s fragile democratic order.

Questions have been raised about Mr. Qadri’s source of money — one opposition senator estimates that he has already spent $4 million on relentless television advertising — and, inevitably in a country where conspiracy theories run rife, media reports have buzzed with allegations of outside support.

Some theories focus on Western governments, particularly the United States, but most analysts point to the convergence between Mr. Qadri’s agenda and that of the powerful military, which has done little to disguise its disdain for Mr. Zardari — and even the opposition leaders who threaten to replace him.

Richard E. Hoagland, the American deputy ambassador, told reporters in Islamabad on Jan. 5 that the United States did not support any Pakistani party and denied any link to Mr. Qadri.

The planned march on Islamabad “reflects the military’s desire for regime change” and “signals that military interest in political engineering is alive and well,” said Shamila N. Chaudhary, an analyst at the Eurasia Group who formerly served as the director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on President Obama’s National Security Council.

Full Focus Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on stage at the Golden Globe Awards. REUTERS/Paul Drinkwater/NBC Our best photos from the last 24 hours. Slideshow Best photos of the year 2012 Download our Wider Image iPad app Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Recommended Video Topless protest against Vatican's anti-gay stance (0:32) Play Video Topless protest against Vatican's anti-gay stance… Politician attacked after allegedly raping a woman in India (1:06) Play Video Politician attacked after allegedly raping a woman in… Giant squid found in ocean depths (1:36) Play Video Giant squid found in ocean depths (1:36) Sanebox: A Better Gmail Experience Sanebox: A Better Gmail Experience (DailyCandy) The Gmail Add-On You Must Have The Gmail Add-On You Must Have (Inc.com) Topless protest against Vatican's anti-gay stance (0:32) Play Video Politician attacked after allegedly raping a woman in India (1:06) Play Video Giant squid found in ocean depths (1:36) Play Video Sanebox: A Better Gmail Experience The Gmail Add-On You Must Have [?] Read Analysis: Move on assault weapons creates risks for Obama 12:05am EST 1 Jodie Foster comes out as gay at Golden Globes 14 Jan 2013 2 RPT-China's space activities raising US satellite security concerns 14 Jan 2013 3 Obama digs heels in, refuses to negotiate debt ceiling | Video 14 Jan 2013 4 Justin Timberlake brings sexy back with new song 14 Jan 2013 5 Discussed 144 U.S. states flirt with major tax changes 125 Obama says refusal to lift debt ceiling would hurt economy 81 Treasury says it will not produce platinum coins to avert debt crisis Sponsored Links Image Ad 5-Star Stock Pick: CTLE 5 Reasons Why Nano Labs (OTCQB:CTLE) May Be Vital to Your Portfolio. Image Ad Nano Labs Corp (CTLE) Editors Predict CTLE May Take the Market By Storm in 2013... Image Ad Stock Watch List: CTLE By 2014 Nanotech Will Boast $2.6 Trillion in Revenues. Think Small and Earn Big! Ads by Marchex Pakistan turmoil deepens as court orders PM's arrest

Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister on Tuesday on corruption allegations, ratcheting up pressure on a government that is also facing street protests led by a cleric who has a history of ties to the army.
The combination of the arrest order and the mass protest in the capital Islamabad led by Muslim cleric Muhammad Tahirul Qadri raised fears among politicians that the military was working with the judiciary to force out a civilian leader.
"There is no doubt that Qadri's march and the Supreme Court's verdict were masterminded by the military establishment of Pakistan," Fawad Chaudhry, an aide to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, told Reuters.
"The military can intervene at this moment as the Supreme Court has opened a way for it."
However, the ruling coalition led by the Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP) has a majority in parliament and lawmakers can simply elect another prime minister if Ashraf is ousted. In June, Ashraf replaced Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court in a previous showdown between the government and the judiciary.
Also, elections are due in a few months and President Asif Ali Zardari hopes to lead the first civilian government in Pakistan's 65 years as an independent nation that will complete its full term.
But power struggles will distract the unpopular government from tackling an array of problems - a Taliban insurgency, economic stagnation and growing sectarian tensions triggered by bomb attacks and tit-for-tat shootings.

Cleric Marches Into Political Fray

 Massive Pakistan rally will call for electoral reforms. Some wonder whether the military is behind the message.

By Alex Rodriguez

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan--The "Arab Spring" seems a long way from Pakistan's winter of discontent.
Still, when religious scholar Tahirul Qadri talks about his goals for the massive rally he is planning in Islamabad on Monday, one that he hopes will lure more than a million people into the streets of the quiet capital, the image he uses is that of Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Government leaders have tried to warn the gray-bearded mullah, respected by many for his denunciations of the Taliban and his espousal of tolerance, that a gathering on the scale he is planning would give militants the opportunity to carry out a major terrorist act. Pakistanis haven't forgotten that it was at a large rally in Islamabad's twin city, Rawalpindi, that former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by a suicide bomber in 2007.
But Qadri has refused to back down.
Already, police have begun bracing the city for the event. Freight containers and barbed wire are being positioned to block avenues leading to the capital's "red zone," which embraces the parliament, President Asif Ali Zardari's residence, the Supreme Court and other major government buildings. Anyone trying to enter the capital will have to show identification. As many as 10,000 police and security personnel will be deployed to maintain order.

“Pakistan And Turkey Are Key Actors For A True Solution In Afghanistan” – Analysis

nternational Strategic Research Organization (USAK) hosted at the USAK Workshop Hall Pakistan’s Ambassador to Ankara, H.E. Muhammad Haroon Shaukat, on January 10th, 2013. Within the framework of the conference series entitled “Asia-Pacific in the 21st Century and Diplomacy”, our keynote speaker Mr. Shaukat was ready at the fifth event of the abovementioned conference series to introduce for one and a half hour the foreign affairs of Pakistan and Turkey-Pakistan relations to a distinguished audience.

Mr. Shaukat also elaborated deeply on his country’s prospects for international peace and stability, economic development and further democratization. He explained his country’s attitude and recent practices with respect to its foreign relations with India, Russia, Central Asia, Iran, China and the Middle East. Nevertheless, the main focus of his to-the-point speech and relevant discussions revolved around Pakistani foreign policy perspective, with special emphasis on security and economy, towards Turkey, Afghanistan and the U.S.


Afghanistan
An esteemed delegation consisting of high-level diplomats from the Embassy of Pakistan accompanied Mr. Ambassador during the conference. Among the high-level participants of the conference were top diplomats, scholars, media members and experts from related government agencies. The conference was formally organized by Assoc. Prof. Selçuk Çolakoğlu, Director of USAK Center for Asia-Pacific Studies.

Below is a brief summary of the points raised by Mr. Ambassador in accordance with the official political stance of his country throughout the conference regarding the backbone subjects assertively pronounced.

An Overview: Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
Pakistan’s policy priority is to create a democratic Pakistan that is stable, peaceful, progressive, moderate, forward looking and prosperous. Foreign policy is considered by Pakistani authorities rightfully as an instrument to achieve these aspirations and as a natural prolongation of domestic endeavors aimed at growth and development.

Pakistan’s foremost foreign policy perspective compasses its own region and neighbors. In that vein; Afghanistan, India, China, Iran, Central Asian countries and Russia constitute the priority domain of contemporary Pakistani foreign affairs.

Pakistan is placed in the center of a geo-political energy crescent consisted of the Middle East, Iran, Caspian Basin and Central Asia. The country is also rich with strategic mineral resources. It is surrounded by three emerging economies; namely India, China and Russia.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s foreign policy elbow-room is narrowed by various disadvantages, such as religious extremism and terrorism spreading throughout its territory and neighborhood. The country is located within a complex regional security environment which was subjected to militarism and conflict over three decades. Hence, the historical experiences of the country have unfortunately caused it to become familiar with militancy and an extremist mind-set.

The Rain Of Pain

 Last month Pakistani police in the capital (Islamabad) sought to halt the practice of firing guns into the air for celebrations. In this case the police were seeking to avoid the hundreds of casualties (and dozens of deaths) from the use of fireworks and firing guns into the air to celebrate the New Year. While over 90 percent of the casualties are from the fireworks, a growing number of deaths and injuries are caused by bullets falling back to earth. While fireworks have been around for centuries, guns and firing them into the air in celebration is more recent. Even more recent is this practice causing many casualties. That’s because in the last century guns got cheaper, people had more money to buy them, and more people were concentrated into urban areas (where a lot of them were out and about during these celebrations providing more targets for the falling bullets). Bullets fired into the air can fall back to earth with enough velocity to injure or even kill. This is a widespread problem that does not get much attention.

But it is a problem. For example, six years ago, three civilians were killed and fifty wounded in Baghdad, Iraq by gunfire associated with the Iraqi team winning a game during the Asian Games. Parents in Iraq know to get the kids inside when this kind of shooting starts. This was all about the widespread Arab custom of firing weapons into the air on happy occasions (they are called "joy bullets" in Arabic), often with deadly consequences. For a long time, when someone was killed or injured by the bullets that inevitably came back to earth the injury was shrugged off, or blamed on a handy enemy. Palestinians blame Israelis, some Iraqis blame any armed foreigners in the vicinity or nearby Iraqis they don't get along with. Otherwise it's just "God's Will." In many parts of the world it took decades for people to accept that these mystery bullets were the unfortunate aftereffects of celebratory firing into the air.

Such use of joy bullets is actually widespread. While such behavior is generally banned (and the ban enforced) in Europe, in the rest of the world many injuries still result from falling bullets. Even some cities in America have a problem with this, quite illegal, practice. In some parts of Latin America there are even more guns and fewer police available to try and halt the joy bullets. Because there are relatively few injuries from joy bullets (compared to fireworks) the dangers from falling bullets tends to be given little publicity. That is changing but slowly.

What probably made more people aware of this problem was the heavy losses from these falling objects during World War II. This was because for the first time lots of anti-aircraft guns were used around densely populated urban areas in Europe and Asia. The result was thousands of casualties from what were, at first, mysterious metal objects falling silently from the sky. The British later estimated that some 25 percent of civilian casualties from German World War II bombing attacks on their cities were from this sort of friendly fire. That is, British anti-aircraft shells eventually fell to earth and caused property damage and casualties.

Most of the civilian casualties from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were from American anti-aircraft shells and bullets falling back to earth. A lot of the anti-aircraft guns used to defend Pearl Harbor were .50 caliber (12.7mm) machine-guns, and these bullets will kill you if they drop on your head and injure you if they hit any other body part. A .50 caliber bullet weighs about 50 grams (nearly two ounces). This is much heavier than rifle bullets, which will also kill or injure you if one drops on your head and hits the right spot. Kids are more vulnerable to this sort of thing. Shell fragments often weigh a kilogram (several pounds) and have sharp edges as well.

In Iraq, during the 1990s, there were instances of anti-aircraft missiles falling back to earth intact inside cities or towns. Since these things weigh several tons, they hit like a bomb. Normally the missiles are supposed to self-destruct (explode) if they don't find a target, and even if they do that is still thousands of fragments that fall back to earth. Some of these missile pieces weigh five kilograms (11 pounds) or more. Get hit by one of these and you are dead. Large objects coming down will damage buildings and vehicles. Most explosions, be they roadside bombs, smart bombs, artillery shells, or missiles, toss heavy objects into the air. This stuff comes down somewhere and if someone is in the way they become a casualty. Whose casualty is largely a matter of who gets the more convincing press release into circulation.

In some parts of the world a massive use of fireworks in a short period of time can cause another problem: black powder smog. These huge clouds of unhealthy explosives residue suspended in the air can be so bad that local airport operations have to be suspended for a while. In some areas, the manufacture of fireworks is unregulated (not by design) and some of the amateur rockets and such contain a kilogram (2.2 pounds) or more of black powder. Fortunately, black powder is a slow burning and not-very-powerful explosive, so terrorists generally avoid it. Industrial and military explosives are much more effective at killing people. But, in a pinch, some of that fireworks grade black powder will do.

What goes up must come down, often with calamitous effect.

Pakistan Sees Major Rise In CIA Drone Strikes Since Year's Start

Washington Post
January 11, 2013
Pg. 5
By Greg Miller
The CIA has opened the year with a flurry of drone strikes in Pakistan, pounding Taliban targets along the country's tribal belt at a time when the Obama administration is preparing to disclose its plans for pulling most U.S. forces out of neighboring Afghanistan.
A strike Thursday in North Waziristan was the seventh in 10 days, marking a major escalation in the pace of attacks. Drone attacks had slipped in frequency to fewer than one per week last year.
Current and former U.S. intelligence officials attributed the increased tempo to a sense of urgency surrounding expectations that President Obama will soon order a drawdown that could leave Afghanistan with fewer than 6,000 U.S. troops after 2014. The strikes are seen as a way to weaken adversaries of the Afghan government before the withdrawal and serve notice that the United States will still be able to launch attacks.
The rapid series of CIA strikes “may be a signal to groups that include not just al-Qaeda that the U.S. will still present a threat” after most American forces have gone, said Seth Jones, a counterterrorism expert at the Rand Corp. “With the drawdown in U.S. forces, the drone may be, over time, the most important weapon against militant groups.”
U.S. officials also tied the increase to recent intelligence gains on groups blamed for lethal attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Among those killed in the drone strikes, according to U.S. officials, was Maulvi Nazir, a Taliban commander accused of planning cross-border raids and providing protection for al-Qaeda fighters.
The CIA may see a diminishing window for using drones with such devastating effectiveness as the military begins sharp reductions in the 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, current and former officials said.
A former U.S. intelligence official with extensive experience in Afghanistan said the CIA has begun discussing plans to pare back its network of bases across the country to five from 15 or more because of the difficulty of providing security for its outposts after most U.S. forces have left.
The CIA declined to comment.
“As the military pulls back, the agency has to pull back,” the former U.S. intelligence official said on the condition of anonymity, particularly from high-risk outposts along the country’s eastern border that have served as bases for running informant networks and gathering intelligence on al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in Pakistan.
Such a retrenchment could slow the process of identifying fresh targets for drone strikes, although the agency is expected to continue operating the remotely piloted planes from fortified bases, such as a landing strip in Jalalabad.
“Essentially we will become Fort Apache in Kabul and the major cities,” the former U.S. intelligence official said, describing a pared back CIA presence. Even if the drones continue to take off and land, the diminished presence in Khost and other locations could hamper “our ability to gather intelligence on where Zawahiri is and what al-Qaeda is doing in the North-West Frontier Province” of Pakistan, he said, referring to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and the region now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The CIA’s base plans are among a wide range of issues that the U.S. government has been negotiating with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is visiting top officials in Washington this week. A CIA spokesman declined to say whether agency officials had met with Karzai.
The Pakistani government has not publicly protested the stepped-up drone strikes, but reports suggest that they have caused higher-than-usual civilian casualties. Bill Roggio, who tracks drone activity in Pakistan for the Long War Journal Web site, said preliminary information indicates that as many as 11 civilians, along with 30 militants, have been killed so far this year. If true, that civilian count would exceed the total for all of 2012, Roggio said.
U.S. officials disputed that count but declined to provide an alternative figure. U.S. officials have frequently touted the accuracy of the program and claimed that reports exaggerate civilian casualties.
Assessing the civilian toll has been notoriously difficult, partly because the strikes take place in areas almost inaccessible to journalists and independent monitors. The New America Foundation has estimated that the civilian casualty rate was 10 percent in 2012, down from 60 percent in 2006.
The surge in drone activity comes as key leadership positions at the CIA and in Obama’s national security cabinet are in flux.
Former CIA director David H. Petraeus, who had previously commanded coalition forces in Afghanistan, had sought to place tighter restrictions on the agency’s drone campaign in Pakistan, leading to clashes with the head of the CIA’s counterterrorism center, former officials said.
Petraeus resigned in November after admitting to an extramarital affair, leaving his deputy, acting CIA Director Michael J. Morell, with approval authority on drone strikes in Pakistan.
This week, Obama nominated his counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan, as the next CIA director. The direction the drone program might take under Brennan, a 25-year CIA veteran, is unclear. He has expressed misgivings about the CIA’s paramilitary mission and expanded the role of other agencies in targeting decisions. But the number of strikes in Pakistan and Yemen soared during Brennan’s tenure at the White House before tapering off in Pakistan over the past two years.
The strikes so far this year have been scattered across North and South Waziristan, semiautonomous regions targeted in the vast majority of the more than 300 strikes carried out by the CIA in Pakistan since 2004.
Among those killed in the latest strikes was Wali Mohammed, a commander described by Roggio as a director of suicide operations for the Taliban.
Pakistanis in the tribal region said they were baffled by the surge in activity.
“This is beyond our understanding why the drone attacks are increased,” a tribal elder from Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said during a telephone interview. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing concern for his safety.
The latest strikes coincided with a broader outbreak of violence in Pakistan. As many as 115 people were killed Thursday in a series of bombings including two in the southern city of Quetta.
Julie Tate in Washington and Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.