இத்தனை வருடம் ஆயிற்று பாகிஸ்தானியருக்கு- தாலிபானும், இஸ்லாமியத் தீவிரவாதமும் நச்சுப் பாம்புகள், அவற்றை வளர்ப்பது தமக்குத்தான் பெருங்கேடு என்பதை அறிய. இப்போது கிராமத்து மக்கள் தம்முடைய உருப்படாத போலிஸால் இந்தத் தாலிபான்களை ஒடுக்க முடியாது என்று தெரிந்து கொண்டு, தாமே அவர்களைப் பிடித்துச் சுட்டுத் தள்ளுகிறார்கள். இந்தியப் போலிஸாரால் தாலிபான்களை மட்டும்தானா பிடிக்க முடியவில்லை? நாடெங்கும் நாக்சலைட் கொலைகாரர்கள், மொழிப் பிரிவினைக் கொலைகாரர்கள், மதவெறியர் மேலும் வெறும் கொள்ளைக்காரக் கூட்டங்கள் எத்தனை கொலைகள், குண்டு வெடிப்புகளை நடத்துகின்றன? நம் போலிசாரின் கைகளைக் கட்டிப் போட்டு வைத்திருக்கின்றன இந்த அரசியல் கட்சிகளும், போலி செகுலரிஸ்டுகளும். இந்திய மக்களுக்குக் கொலைவெறியர்களிடம் இருந்து என்று விடிவு வருமோ?
__________________________________________________________________________
The New York Times
November 2, 2008
As Taliban Overwhelm Police, Pakistanis Hit Back
By JANE PERLEZ and PIR ZUBAIR SHAH
SHALBANDI, Pakistan — On a rainy Friday evening in early August, six Taliban fighters attacked a police post in a village in Buner, a quiet farming valley just outside Pakistan’s lawless tribal region.
The militants tied up eight policemen and lay them on the floor, and according to local accounts, the youngest member of the gang, a 14-year-old, shot the captives on orders from his boss. The fighters stole uniforms and weapons and fled into the mountains.
Almost instantly, the people of Buner, armed with rifles, daggers and pistols, formed a posse, and after five days they cornered and killed their quarry. A video made on a cellphone showed the six militants lying in the dirt, blood oozing from their wounds.
The stand at Buner has entered the lore of Pakistan’s war against the militants as a dramatic example of ordinary citizens’ determination to draw a line against the militants.
But it says as much about the shortcomings of Pakistan’s increasingly overwhelmed police forces and the pell-mell nature of the efforts to stop the militants, who week by week seem to seep deeper into Pakistan from their tribal strongholds.
Since the events in Buner, the inspector general of the police in the North-West Frontier Province, Malik Naveed Khan, has encouraged citizens in other towns and villages in his realm to form posses of their own.
The hope is that determination itself will deter Taliban encroachment, building on the August victory with one phalanx after another of committed citizens.
But the strategy is also a sign of his desperation.
“We are laying down our lives,” Inspector General Khan said in an interview in October. “By the hundreds the police are being targeted and killed.”
He has had to lower recruitment standards to fill out the ranks, he said, “because this is war.” Even so, he has supplemented his force with what he said were some 15,000 “special police” — citizens whom he cannot pay, but whom he is willing to arm. “Any community which helps us, we give them weapons,” Inspector General Khan said.
The army was of no use here.
“There is no other way,” Inspector General Khan warned. “Pure military action would create a lot of devastation, to the extent that people would turn against the government.”
Indeed, after the Taliban were cornered, a new peace committee composed of elders and politicians passed a resolution declaring Buner a zone free of both the army and the Taliban.
The local police chief in the Buner district, Zubair Shah, a rising star of the Pakistani police force, acknowledged the challenges of confronting a Taliban threat that is more deeply ensconced in communities all over Pakistan than had been thought.
He is trying to tamp down the Taliban with a police force that is grossly underpaid and frequently overmatched by better armed militants. Currently, the police officers in Buner earn about one-quarter the monthly salary that the Taliban are offering, Mr. Shah said.
Moreover, given that the police have become a primary target of the militants, it is hardly surprising that morale has plummeted. “The people are more motivated than the police,” he said.
In the tribal areas to the west of the Buner district, the Pakistani Army is now encouraging tribal militias, known as lashkars, as a backup force against the Taliban. Such militias have a long tradition in tribal society.
But even there, they have met with little success in the current conflict.
By contrast, posses like the one in Buner have not been tried before in the settled parts of Pakistan outside the tribal areas, Inspector General Khan said. They have in any case become a necessary tool to help preserve the peace.
The citizens of Buner, interviewed in late October after the police arranged an escort to the area, where security is still sketchy, said they had taken matters into their own hands to keep not only the militants at bay, but the army as well.
In areas where the army has had to confront the militants frontally, fighting has ensued on the scale of a civil war, displacing tens of thousands of people. If citizens’ militias sound like civil war already, that is precisely what the people of Buner say they are hoping to avoid.
Such wrenching violence has been the fate already of the neighboring Swat Valley, and of nearby Bajaur, an area of the tribal region, where the army and militants have been locked in heavy fighting. Civilian casualties are high. The task of pushing back the Taliban is taking far longer than the army had anticipated.
In Swat, the army has been unable to stop the burning of more than 100 girls schools or the murders of politicians and their families. About one-third of the police force has deserted in Swat, and some of the deserters have joined the Taliban, even as trainers, according to senior police officials.
In Bajaur, more than 200,000 people have fled, becoming refugees in appalling conditions in makeshift camps.
The villagers in Buner say they would prefer to handle the Taliban on their own, rather than have the heavy hand of the army come and do it for them.
They did it with gusto, later lining up the bodies of their Taliban victims at a hospital like trophies so citizens could take a closer look.
“We don’t want happening here, what is happening around us,” said Mohammed Zada, a retired bank manager, and a driving force behind the peace council. “The people are very unified so the Taliban failed. We are dead set against the army, too.”
While the resolve of local residents is heartening, Mr. Shah, an expert in counterterrorism, understands better than most Pakistanis what kind of threat he is up against.
He has taught police investigative work with the United Nations in Bosnia and was selected by the United States Consulate in Peshawar for a monthlong leadership program in the United States. He recently spent a year in Australia studying transnational terrorism.
As in many areas of Pakistan — from Karachi to Islamabad, and from rural districts in the north to the cultural capital, Lahore — the Taliban have sympathizers and workers in Buner who lie low in sleeper cells that can be easily activated, Mr. Shah said.
Soon after the citizen mob killed the six Taliban, he said, undercover work led police officers to a house where they found a suicide vest packed with 20 pounds of explosives and 15 pounds of ball bearings.
That discovery led to a potentially more lethal find: a full kit of ingredients for major explosions.
In a house near his police headquarters, investigators found more than 500 pounds of explosives, a cache of 30 detonators, 10 remote-control devices, dozens of battery cells, a police uniform and a motorcycle, Mr. Shah said.
Worryingly, he said, the explosives had been methodically delivered into Buner over time in small parcels by motorbike.
One of the men arrested in the case had been friendly with the police, a shopkeeper who prayed at the same mosque as the police.
Many of the villagers in Buner had relatives working abroad — in Malaysia, in Dubai and as taxi drivers in Arlington, Va. — who sent remittances home. The relative wealth and a longstanding social cohesion had helped to fortify the community and keep the Taliban at bay.
Under these circumstances, the police chief said, people power was his best bet. “If the militants enter Buner,” he said, “all you need to do is go to the mosque loudspeakers and shout, and people will be mobilized.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
Showing posts with label தாலிபான். Show all posts
Showing posts with label தாலிபான். Show all posts
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Thursday, December 13, 2007
ஹெராயின் பிஸினஸ் செய்யும் இஸ்லாமிய போராளிகள்
அரபியாவில் தோன்றிய இந்த ஹெராயின் பிஸினஸ் இன்று உலகெங்கும் பலரை போதைக்கு ஆளாக்கி அவர்கள் வாழ்வையும் அவர்களை சுற்றியுள்ளவர்கள் வாழ்வையும் நாசம் செய்து வருகிறது.
இஸ்லாமிய போராளிகளான தாலிபான் இந்த பிஸினஸில்தான் ஆயுதங்களை பெற்று மக்கள் மீது போர் தொடுக்கிறார்கள்.
Taliban collected taxes, ran heroin labs By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 12, 1:36 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban appointed a judge and a police chief and drove through town in stolen police trucks. They oversaw dozens of heroin labs, using the profits to fund their insurgency.
That was life under the Taliban in the key southern town of Musa Qala — a rule that ended, at least for now, when Afghan and international troops moved in this week and the militants retreated.
But residents say it will be a battle to keep the Taliban from returning.
Security forces need to consolidate control over a region that has slipped in and out of their hands over the past two years, a back-and-forth emblematic of the failure of President Hamid Karzai's government to assert itself in the Taliban's southern heartland.
After overrunning Musa Qala in February, the Taliban installed their own government structure. Residents said hundreds of fighters roamed the streets, and militants killed people they accused of being spies for the Afghan government and NATO forces.
Notably, though, the militants did not impose a strict ban on radios, televisions and kite flying — the type of restrictions that made the Islamic militia unpopular when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.
But the fighters did collect "taxes" from businesses, farmers and others, money used to help fund the insurgency that raged across the northern part of Helmand province in 2007, a year of record violence in Afghanistan.
Fariq Khan, a Musa Qala resident in his early 30s who owns a telephone shop, said the Taliban would take about $8 from each family every month during a collection at the mosque. Though small, the amount is significant; teachers in Afghanistan are paid only $50 a month.
Trucks passing through paid $50 and poppy farmers had to turn over 10 percent of their profits, Khan said, speaking to The Associated Press in Kandahar.
Musa Qala was the site of 50 to 70 heroin labs used to process the opium poppies grown across northern Helmand — the world's largest poppy growing region. Khan said small labs employed 15 Afghans, while larger operations had some 60 workers.
Another Musa Qala resident, Mohammed Rauf, said the town has dozens of labs run by residents. "When the Taliban took control after this peace agreement failed, the heroin factories increased," he said in a telephone interview.
Gen. Sharif Khan, a counternarcotics official in the Interior Ministry, said the government had reports of more than 70 heroin labs in Musa Qala before this week's attack on the town. He said counternarcotics forces would soon travel to Musa Qala to investigate.
In its annual report, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime published a map showing a number of heroin labs in northern Helmand, where Musa Qala is located.
A Taliban spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.
Though the militants were pushed out of Musa Qala — an important symbolic victory for Afghan and NATO troops — Taliban fighters still control three remote districts in the north of the province, Washer, Naw Zad and Bagrhan, said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi. The Afghan-NATO force will continue operations in those areas, he said.
Afghanistan this year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin, and Helmand produced more than 50 percent of the country's opium. More than 80 percent of the province's farmers are involved in the opium trade.
A local tribal leader said the government should appoint powerful but honest government leaders and police for Musa Qala.
"If they build roads and clinics and provide jobs, then it will be easy to win the sympathies of the people," Jalal Khan said by telephone from the nearby Gereshk district.
He said Taliban fighters have moved from Musa Qala into the nearby districts of Kajaki, Sangin and Naw Zad, and that Afghan and international troops would need to take on the militants in those areas as well.
The Ministry of Defense said Wednesday that more than 50 Taliban fighters fleeing Musa Qala were killed in two days of battles in Sangin.
"If the NATO and Afghan forces carry out operations in the neighboring districts as well, then it will be easy to control Musa Qala," Jalal Khan said. "But if they only patrol Musa Qala ... then the Taliban will constantly be attacking Musa Qala and checkpoints and planting roadside bombs, and they won't have control around Musa Qala for a long time."
Rauf, who stayed home during the fighting in Musa Qala, said some residents were starting to return. But he said it wasn't clear if the Taliban's ouster will be a good thing for residents.
"We don't know anything right now. The government hasn't even announced that it's safe to return to Musa Qala," Rauf said. "We will wait and see if this is good for us. We can't talk about these things in the future."
இஸ்லாமிய போராளிகளான தாலிபான் இந்த பிஸினஸில்தான் ஆயுதங்களை பெற்று மக்கள் மீது போர் தொடுக்கிறார்கள்.
Taliban collected taxes, ran heroin labs By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Dec 12, 1:36 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban appointed a judge and a police chief and drove through town in stolen police trucks. They oversaw dozens of heroin labs, using the profits to fund their insurgency.
That was life under the Taliban in the key southern town of Musa Qala — a rule that ended, at least for now, when Afghan and international troops moved in this week and the militants retreated.
But residents say it will be a battle to keep the Taliban from returning.
Security forces need to consolidate control over a region that has slipped in and out of their hands over the past two years, a back-and-forth emblematic of the failure of President Hamid Karzai's government to assert itself in the Taliban's southern heartland.
After overrunning Musa Qala in February, the Taliban installed their own government structure. Residents said hundreds of fighters roamed the streets, and militants killed people they accused of being spies for the Afghan government and NATO forces.
Notably, though, the militants did not impose a strict ban on radios, televisions and kite flying — the type of restrictions that made the Islamic militia unpopular when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.
But the fighters did collect "taxes" from businesses, farmers and others, money used to help fund the insurgency that raged across the northern part of Helmand province in 2007, a year of record violence in Afghanistan.
Fariq Khan, a Musa Qala resident in his early 30s who owns a telephone shop, said the Taliban would take about $8 from each family every month during a collection at the mosque. Though small, the amount is significant; teachers in Afghanistan are paid only $50 a month.
Trucks passing through paid $50 and poppy farmers had to turn over 10 percent of their profits, Khan said, speaking to The Associated Press in Kandahar.
Musa Qala was the site of 50 to 70 heroin labs used to process the opium poppies grown across northern Helmand — the world's largest poppy growing region. Khan said small labs employed 15 Afghans, while larger operations had some 60 workers.
Another Musa Qala resident, Mohammed Rauf, said the town has dozens of labs run by residents. "When the Taliban took control after this peace agreement failed, the heroin factories increased," he said in a telephone interview.
Gen. Sharif Khan, a counternarcotics official in the Interior Ministry, said the government had reports of more than 70 heroin labs in Musa Qala before this week's attack on the town. He said counternarcotics forces would soon travel to Musa Qala to investigate.
In its annual report, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime published a map showing a number of heroin labs in northern Helmand, where Musa Qala is located.
A Taliban spokesman couldn't be reached for comment.
Though the militants were pushed out of Musa Qala — an important symbolic victory for Afghan and NATO troops — Taliban fighters still control three remote districts in the north of the province, Washer, Naw Zad and Bagrhan, said Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi. The Afghan-NATO force will continue operations in those areas, he said.
Afghanistan this year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin, and Helmand produced more than 50 percent of the country's opium. More than 80 percent of the province's farmers are involved in the opium trade.
A local tribal leader said the government should appoint powerful but honest government leaders and police for Musa Qala.
"If they build roads and clinics and provide jobs, then it will be easy to win the sympathies of the people," Jalal Khan said by telephone from the nearby Gereshk district.
He said Taliban fighters have moved from Musa Qala into the nearby districts of Kajaki, Sangin and Naw Zad, and that Afghan and international troops would need to take on the militants in those areas as well.
The Ministry of Defense said Wednesday that more than 50 Taliban fighters fleeing Musa Qala were killed in two days of battles in Sangin.
"If the NATO and Afghan forces carry out operations in the neighboring districts as well, then it will be easy to control Musa Qala," Jalal Khan said. "But if they only patrol Musa Qala ... then the Taliban will constantly be attacking Musa Qala and checkpoints and planting roadside bombs, and they won't have control around Musa Qala for a long time."
Rauf, who stayed home during the fighting in Musa Qala, said some residents were starting to return. But he said it wasn't clear if the Taliban's ouster will be a good thing for residents.
"We don't know anything right now. The government hasn't even announced that it's safe to return to Musa Qala," Rauf said. "We will wait and see if this is good for us. We can't talk about these things in the future."
Thursday, November 15, 2007
ஆங்கிலம் சொல்லிக்கொடுத்ததற்காக சிறுவனை தாலிபான் கொலை
இஸ்லாமிய அடிப்படைவாதிகளான தாலிபான் கும்பல், ஒரு 16 வயது சிறுவன் ஆங்கிலம் சொல்லிக்கொடுத்ததற்காக அவனை கொலை செய்துள்ளார்கள்.
இஸ்லாமில் ஆங்கிலம் படிக்கக்கூடாது என்று ஏதேனும் சட்டம் இருக்கிறதா என்று தெரியவில்லை.
Police say Taliban kill Afghan boy for teaching English
15/11/2007 12:57
By Elyas Wahdat
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants shot dead a teenage boy in south-eastern Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, police said on Thursday.
Taliban militants have killed a number of teachers and students in recent years for attending government-run schools, taking part in classes for girls or what the hard-line Islamist militants consider un-Islamic subjects.
Armed men arrived at the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province and grabbed a 16-year-old student and dragged him outside.
"Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," said General Esmatullah Alizai, the police chief of Paktia province.
Police arrived on the scene and in the ensuing gun battle, two policemen and two militants were killed, he said.
A Taliban spokesman denied the group was involved in the killing. The militants often deny carrying out unpopular actions. The Taliban are divided into a number of factions with no unified command and individual units act with a high degree of autonomy.
Afghanistan has suffered from two years of steadily rising violence as the Taliban have reignited their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign troops.
Taliban insurgents suffer heavy casualties whenever they engage with foreign troops, but there are few signs they are suffering from a shortage of recruits. Both the number of clashes and their geographical range has gone up this year.
HELMAND FIGHTING
U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants in clashes in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Thursday, and an explosion killed a British soldier in the troubled region.
The latest clashes came in the Garmser district of Helmand province, where mostly British and U.S. troops are battling to extend Afghan government authority to a string of towns along the fertile Helmand River that cuts through the barren desert.
"During a search of compounds in the district, coalition forces encountered armed militants in multiple buildings on the compounds," a U.S. military statement said.
"Coalition forces responded with a combination of small-arms fire; accurate, conventional munitions and precision-guided munitions killing several militants during the engagement," the statement added.
Precision munitions normally refer to weapons launched in air strikes, but can be ground-launched weaponry.
"Precision munitions were also used to kill several other militants who were attempting to use a tree line outside one of the compounds as cover to engage Coalition forces," it said.
There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.
In a separate incident, a British soldier was killed in an explosion in the Sangin district, further north in Helmand province on Wednesday, the British Defence Ministry said.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in that period, the bloodiest since Afghan and U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban for refusing to give up al Qaeda leaders in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
(Writing by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Bill Tarrant)
இஸ்லாமில் ஆங்கிலம் படிக்கக்கூடாது என்று ஏதேனும் சட்டம் இருக்கிறதா என்று தெரியவில்லை.
Police say Taliban kill Afghan boy for teaching English
15/11/2007 12:57
By Elyas Wahdat
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban militants shot dead a teenage boy in south-eastern Afghanistan for teaching English to his classmates, police said on Thursday.
Taliban militants have killed a number of teachers and students in recent years for attending government-run schools, taking part in classes for girls or what the hard-line Islamist militants consider un-Islamic subjects.
Armed men arrived at the school in the Sayed Karam district of Paktia province and grabbed a 16-year-old student and dragged him outside.
"Taliban militants took the boy out and killed him outside the school just because he was teaching English to his classmates," said General Esmatullah Alizai, the police chief of Paktia province.
Police arrived on the scene and in the ensuing gun battle, two policemen and two militants were killed, he said.
A Taliban spokesman denied the group was involved in the killing. The militants often deny carrying out unpopular actions. The Taliban are divided into a number of factions with no unified command and individual units act with a high degree of autonomy.
Afghanistan has suffered from two years of steadily rising violence as the Taliban have reignited their campaign to overthrow the pro-Western Afghan government and eject foreign troops.
Taliban insurgents suffer heavy casualties whenever they engage with foreign troops, but there are few signs they are suffering from a shortage of recruits. Both the number of clashes and their geographical range has gone up this year.
HELMAND FIGHTING
U.S.-led coalition forces killed several militants in clashes in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Thursday, and an explosion killed a British soldier in the troubled region.
The latest clashes came in the Garmser district of Helmand province, where mostly British and U.S. troops are battling to extend Afghan government authority to a string of towns along the fertile Helmand River that cuts through the barren desert.
"During a search of compounds in the district, coalition forces encountered armed militants in multiple buildings on the compounds," a U.S. military statement said.
"Coalition forces responded with a combination of small-arms fire; accurate, conventional munitions and precision-guided munitions killing several militants during the engagement," the statement added.
Precision munitions normally refer to weapons launched in air strikes, but can be ground-launched weaponry.
"Precision munitions were also used to kill several other militants who were attempting to use a tree line outside one of the compounds as cover to engage Coalition forces," it said.
There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.
In a separate incident, a British soldier was killed in an explosion in the Sangin district, further north in Helmand province on Wednesday, the British Defence Ministry said.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in that period, the bloodiest since Afghan and U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban for refusing to give up al Qaeda leaders in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
(Writing by Hamid Shalizi, Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
வட மேற்கு பாகிஸ்தானில் தாலிபானிடம் பாகிஸ்தான் படை பெரும் தோல்வி
வட மேற்கு பாகிஸ்தானின் பெரும் நிலப்பரப்புகளை தாலிபான் கைப்பற்றியுள்ளது. ஏராளமான போலீஸ்காரர்களும், பாகிஸ்தான் போர்வீரர்களும் தாலிபானிடம் சரணடைந்து வருகிறார்கள்.
கலம், மாதியான், பாஹ்ரேன் ஆகிய நகரங்கள் தாலிபான் கட்டுப்பாட்டின்கீழ் வந்துள்ளன. முழு ஸ்வாத் பள்ளத்தாக்கும் தாலிபான் கட்டுப்பாட்டின் கீழ் வரும் என்று எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது.
Islamic Militants Seize More Territory in Pakistan's Swat Valley
By VOA News
07 November 2007
Fighters loyal to a radical Islamic cleric have seized more territory in Pakistan's Swat Valley, taking over police stations and checkpoints in several towns.
Paramilitary troops and police have surrendered their weapons to militants in the key tourist towns of Kalam, Madian and Bahrain.
Militants earlier seized the town of Matta and Khawazkhela, hoisting flags over captured police and military posts.
Witnesses report militants are patrolling towns under their control. Residents are staying indoors and schools and colleges remain shuttered.
Pervez Musharraf addresses the nation on state-run Pakistan Television on Saturday, 03 Nov 07
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule last week in part he said, to quell growing militancy by pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.
The government sent 2,500 troops to the Swat Valley to counter the cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, who has opened an FM radio station calling for holy war against Islamabad.
Scenic Swat Valley is a top tourist destination -- known as Pakistan's "Switzerland."
The advance of militants into Swat marks a branching out from their traditional strongholds in tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
கலம், மாதியான், பாஹ்ரேன் ஆகிய நகரங்கள் தாலிபான் கட்டுப்பாட்டின்கீழ் வந்துள்ளன. முழு ஸ்வாத் பள்ளத்தாக்கும் தாலிபான் கட்டுப்பாட்டின் கீழ் வரும் என்று எதிர்பார்க்கப்படுகிறது.
Islamic Militants Seize More Territory in Pakistan's Swat Valley
By VOA News
07 November 2007
Fighters loyal to a radical Islamic cleric have seized more territory in Pakistan's Swat Valley, taking over police stations and checkpoints in several towns.
Paramilitary troops and police have surrendered their weapons to militants in the key tourist towns of Kalam, Madian and Bahrain.
Militants earlier seized the town of Matta and Khawazkhela, hoisting flags over captured police and military posts.
Witnesses report militants are patrolling towns under their control. Residents are staying indoors and schools and colleges remain shuttered.
Pervez Musharraf addresses the nation on state-run Pakistan Television on Saturday, 03 Nov 07
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule last week in part he said, to quell growing militancy by pro-Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.
The government sent 2,500 troops to the Swat Valley to counter the cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, who has opened an FM radio station calling for holy war against Islamabad.
Scenic Swat Valley is a top tourist destination -- known as Pakistan's "Switzerland."
The advance of militants into Swat marks a branching out from their traditional strongholds in tribal areas near the border with Afghanistan.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
Monday, November 05, 2007
இன்னொரு புத்தர் சிலை உடைப்பு- பாகிஸ்தானில்
பாகிஸ்தானிய அகழ்வாராய்வாளர்கள் பலமுறை கேட்டுக்கொண்டும், பாகிஸ்தானில் உள்ள தாலிபான் இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகள் புத்தர்சிலைகளை உடைத்துள்ளனர்.
VIEW: Another Buddha destroyed —Vishakha N Desai
Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight
The world watched in horror when Taliban forces destroyed the monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. Political and cultural leaders from around the globe condemned the attacks. Offers of help poured in. Everyone asked: will the world be ready next time? Alas, the answer is a resounding “no.”
In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked one of the oldest and most important sculptures of Buddhist art. Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, and carved into a 130-foot-high rock, the seated image of the Buddha was second in importance in South Asia only to the Bamiyan Buddhas.
This, moreover, was the second attack in less than a month. Murtaza Razvi has pointed out that the image that was attacked was not in a remote area. In fact, it was next to the central road that runs through the valley.
Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work — drilling holes in the rock, filling them with explosives, and detonating them — in broad daylight.
They did this not once, but twice. The first time, the image escaped heavy damage because of the militants’ incompetence. The second time, they were more successful, destroying not only the sculpture’s face, but also its shoulders and feet. As if that were not enough, there are now reports of a third attack.
In 1995, I travelled through the Swat valley to study the area’s Buddhist treasures. Carved in the cliff side or protected in small beautiful museums, these remarkable objects were the pride and joy of local Muslims, followers of the faith for more than a millennium. As a non-Muslim, Indian woman, I was able to travel through the region without any fear and received warm support from local residents. People of all stripes welcomed me, and were often willing to take me to important Buddhist sites.
Today, little over a decade later, the atmosphere is so poisoned that neither local community leaders nor the local police came forward to protect these monuments or claim them as their own. Even sadder is that while Pakistani newspapers widely condemned these attacks and criticised local officials’ indifference, there has been almost no coverage in the international press.
Can it be that after the Iraq war, and the dismaying images of looting at the National Museum in Baghdad, we have lost our capacity to be outraged? Or is it that we have become so inured to bad news surrounding the war on terror that we have no desire to know more?
There is a vast number of important Buddhist sites in Swat and other areas of northwest Pakistan. At this point, all of them are under threat of destruction, thanks to the influential voice of the Islamist leader Mullah Fazlullah, whose father-in-law, Sufi Mohammad, founded one of the extremist orders.
This order was responsible for bringing more than 10,000 jihadi fighters to Afghanistan to fight alongside Taliban soldiers against the United States in 2001. While Mohammad is believed to be languishing in a regional jail, Mullah Fazlullah operates with impunity, using the radio to spread a message of hatred and intolerance.
It is time that the world community not only registers its outrage against such destruction of cultural treasures, but also joins those Pakistanis who are desperately trying to pressure their government to preserve — for their sake and ours — their pre-Islamic cultural heritage. If the world does not act this time, we risk losing one of the most precious legacies of early Buddhist history.
Vishakha N Desai is President of the Asia Society.
VIEW: Another Buddha destroyed —Vishakha N Desai
Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight
The world watched in horror when Taliban forces destroyed the monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. Political and cultural leaders from around the globe condemned the attacks. Offers of help poured in. Everyone asked: will the world be ready next time? Alas, the answer is a resounding “no.”
In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked one of the oldest and most important sculptures of Buddhist art. Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, and carved into a 130-foot-high rock, the seated image of the Buddha was second in importance in South Asia only to the Bamiyan Buddhas.
This, moreover, was the second attack in less than a month. Murtaza Razvi has pointed out that the image that was attacked was not in a remote area. In fact, it was next to the central road that runs through the valley.
Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work — drilling holes in the rock, filling them with explosives, and detonating them — in broad daylight.
They did this not once, but twice. The first time, the image escaped heavy damage because of the militants’ incompetence. The second time, they were more successful, destroying not only the sculpture’s face, but also its shoulders and feet. As if that were not enough, there are now reports of a third attack.
In 1995, I travelled through the Swat valley to study the area’s Buddhist treasures. Carved in the cliff side or protected in small beautiful museums, these remarkable objects were the pride and joy of local Muslims, followers of the faith for more than a millennium. As a non-Muslim, Indian woman, I was able to travel through the region without any fear and received warm support from local residents. People of all stripes welcomed me, and were often willing to take me to important Buddhist sites.
Today, little over a decade later, the atmosphere is so poisoned that neither local community leaders nor the local police came forward to protect these monuments or claim them as their own. Even sadder is that while Pakistani newspapers widely condemned these attacks and criticised local officials’ indifference, there has been almost no coverage in the international press.
Can it be that after the Iraq war, and the dismaying images of looting at the National Museum in Baghdad, we have lost our capacity to be outraged? Or is it that we have become so inured to bad news surrounding the war on terror that we have no desire to know more?
There is a vast number of important Buddhist sites in Swat and other areas of northwest Pakistan. At this point, all of them are under threat of destruction, thanks to the influential voice of the Islamist leader Mullah Fazlullah, whose father-in-law, Sufi Mohammad, founded one of the extremist orders.
This order was responsible for bringing more than 10,000 jihadi fighters to Afghanistan to fight alongside Taliban soldiers against the United States in 2001. While Mohammad is believed to be languishing in a regional jail, Mullah Fazlullah operates with impunity, using the radio to spread a message of hatred and intolerance.
It is time that the world community not only registers its outrage against such destruction of cultural treasures, but also joins those Pakistanis who are desperately trying to pressure their government to preserve — for their sake and ours — their pre-Islamic cultural heritage. If the world does not act this time, we risk losing one of the most precious legacies of early Buddhist history.
Vishakha N Desai is President of the Asia Society.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
சுவனத்துக்கு போகவிரும்பிய தற்கொலை குண்டுதாரி குடும்பத்தோடு சுவனம் சென்றார்
சுவனத்துக்கு போகவிரும்பிய தாலிபான் தற்கொலை குண்டுதாரியின் பெற்றோரும் குடும்பத்தினரும் அவரை தடுக்க அவரது வெடிகுண்டு ஜாக்கெடை பிடித்து இழுத்ததில அது வெடித்து குடும்பத்தோடு சுவனம் சென்றார்.
Would-be Afghan suicide bomber kills himself and family
Mon Oct 15, 3:54 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A would-be suicide bomber killed himself and five members of his family as his mother tried to stop him from carrying out a Taliban-inspired attack in Afghanistan, police said Monday.
The 22-year-old man's bomb-filled vest blew up as his mother made desperate attempts to stop him carrying out his deadly mission in the southern province of Uruzgan on Sunday.
"His mother grabbed his vest and said, 'Take this off, we don't want you to do this,'" Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Himat told AFP, citing the bomber's father who was wounded in the blast.
"This was when the explosives went off. Two of his brothers, two of his sisters, his mother and the Abdul Samad (the bomber) -- they all died."
Another child and Samad's father were wounded in the explosion and were being treated in hospital in the Uruzgan capital, Tirin Kot, the police chief said.
The interior ministry said in a statement earlier that the explosion killed the bomber, his mother, a sister and an 11-year-old brother in their home.
The ministry said the militant had been trained in a Pakistani Islamic school and was tasked to carry out a suicide attack on security forces in Afghanistan.
The police chief said the young man had arrived from Pakistan and given his family 250,000 afghani (5,000 dollars), telling them, "This is money for my funeral after my martyrdom."
"He said, 'I am going to carry out jihad against the foreigners and go to paradise,'" Himat said.
His horrified mother tried to take the suicide vest off him, saying "We don't need your money, we don't want you to go to Paradise this way," Himat said.
Afghanistan has suffered more than 120 suicide attacks this year, most of them claimed by extremist Taliban insurgents, killing scores of people, mostly civilians.
Nearly 50 people have died in three such attacks in Kabul in the past month, all claimed by the Taliban, which was in government between 1996 and 2001.
The latest was on October 6 when an attacker rammed his bomb-laden car into a US-led military convoy, killing a US soldier and five Afghan bystanders in Kabul.
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said in a report in September that many of the men carrying out suicide attacks here have passed through religious schools in Pakistan.
Many believe an act of jihad, or war in the name of religion, will earn them a place in Paradise.
The police chief said three other men who had come to Uruzgan from Pakistan allegedly to wage jihad had been arrested.
Would-be Afghan suicide bomber kills himself and family
Mon Oct 15, 3:54 PM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A would-be suicide bomber killed himself and five members of his family as his mother tried to stop him from carrying out a Taliban-inspired attack in Afghanistan, police said Monday.
The 22-year-old man's bomb-filled vest blew up as his mother made desperate attempts to stop him carrying out his deadly mission in the southern province of Uruzgan on Sunday.
"His mother grabbed his vest and said, 'Take this off, we don't want you to do this,'" Uruzgan police chief Juma Gul Himat told AFP, citing the bomber's father who was wounded in the blast.
"This was when the explosives went off. Two of his brothers, two of his sisters, his mother and the Abdul Samad (the bomber) -- they all died."
Another child and Samad's father were wounded in the explosion and were being treated in hospital in the Uruzgan capital, Tirin Kot, the police chief said.
The interior ministry said in a statement earlier that the explosion killed the bomber, his mother, a sister and an 11-year-old brother in their home.
The ministry said the militant had been trained in a Pakistani Islamic school and was tasked to carry out a suicide attack on security forces in Afghanistan.
The police chief said the young man had arrived from Pakistan and given his family 250,000 afghani (5,000 dollars), telling them, "This is money for my funeral after my martyrdom."
"He said, 'I am going to carry out jihad against the foreigners and go to paradise,'" Himat said.
His horrified mother tried to take the suicide vest off him, saying "We don't need your money, we don't want you to go to Paradise this way," Himat said.
Afghanistan has suffered more than 120 suicide attacks this year, most of them claimed by extremist Taliban insurgents, killing scores of people, mostly civilians.
Nearly 50 people have died in three such attacks in Kabul in the past month, all claimed by the Taliban, which was in government between 1996 and 2001.
The latest was on October 6 when an attacker rammed his bomb-laden car into a US-led military convoy, killing a US soldier and five Afghan bystanders in Kabul.
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said in a report in September that many of the men carrying out suicide attacks here have passed through religious schools in Pakistan.
Many believe an act of jihad, or war in the name of religion, will earn them a place in Paradise.
The police chief said three other men who had come to Uruzgan from Pakistan allegedly to wage jihad had been arrested.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
ஆப்கானிஸ்தான்: 170 தாலிபான்கள் 1 அமெரிக்க ஆதரவு போர்வீரர் பலி
ஒரு அமெரிக்க ஆதரவு போர்வீரருக்கு மாற்றாக 170 தாலிபான்கள் ஆப்கானிஸ்தானத்தில் நடந்த சண்டையில் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளார்கள்.
ஆகவே, தாலிபான்கள், தையல்கடைகளுக்கும், சிடி கடைகளுக்கும், பெண்களுக்கும் குண்டு வைக்க கிளம்புவார்கள் என்று எதிர்பார்க்கலாம்.
செல்லா இடத்து சினம் தீது.
170 rebels, foreign soldier killed in Afghan clashes
7 hours ago
KABUL (AFP) — NATO and US-led troops backed up by warplanes said Wednesday they had killed nearly 170 Taliban in two major battles in southern Afghanistan, while a US-led coalition soldier also died.
The heaviest of the fighting with the Islamic insurgents erupted on Tuesday in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, and continued into Wednesday, the coalition said.
"The initial estimate by the ground force commander assessed that more than 104 insurgents were killed thus far in the engagement," it said in a statement. The figures could not be verified independently.
A soldier with the 15,000-strong US-dominated coalition was also killed and four wounded, it said. The nationalities of the foreign soldiers were not announced.
The fighting erupted during an Afghan and coalition patrol aimed at clearing an "extensive trench system" near the Taliban-controlled district centre of Musa Qala in Helmand, Afghanistan's main opium-growing province.
More than 65 rebels were killed late Tuesday in a similar battle in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan, another hotbed for the Taliban insurgents, said a separate NATO-led force which has around 40,000 troops.
NATO warplanes and artillery supported the Afghan and NATO forces on the ground, it said.
"Precision-guided munitions were employed on positively identified Taliban positions, killing more than 65 insurgents," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said.
There have been several major clashes in southern Afghanistan in the past few weeks during which scores of rebels have been killed.
The latest death of a coalition soldier took to 173 the number of international troops to have died in Afghanistan this year, most in combat operations, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
About 4,000 rebels have also been killed and hundreds of civilians.
An American, Canadian, French and two Spanish soldiers have been killed in action since Friday, while an Italian intelligence officer was severely wounded in an operation Monday that freed him and a colleague from Taliban kidnappers.
The Musa Qala district centre has become one of the Taliban's most significant strongholds since the rebels overran the small town in February.
"The end is near for the Taliban that believe Musa Qala is safe from Islamic Republic of Afghanistan forces," coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher said in a statement about the latest fighting.
"This combined operation is just one more step to securing the Musa Qala area of the Helmand province," he said.
The NATO force reported meanwhile that one of its helicopters overturned in the western province of Badghis late Tuesday while trying to land during a mission to rescue Afghan police wounded in a bombing.
No ISAF staff were hurt during the incident, which did not involve hostile activity, it said in a statement. The Taliban reportedly claimed the chopper was shot down.
The bomb blast killed three Afghan police and wounded four more, ISAF said. A local police official also confirmed the incident.
A second helicopter was able recover the crew of the damaged helicopter and two critically wounded Afghan police.
The Taliban were driven from government six years ago and are waging an insurgency that has intensified this year with almost daily attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
In other incidents reported Wednesday, two rebels were killed when a bomb they were planting on a road in southern Ghazni province went off on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.
And more than 36 Taliban insurgents, 16 of them badly wounded, were captured by Afghan forces after two separate battles in the eastern province of Paktia and central Wardak on Tuesday, officials said.
ஆகவே, தாலிபான்கள், தையல்கடைகளுக்கும், சிடி கடைகளுக்கும், பெண்களுக்கும் குண்டு வைக்க கிளம்புவார்கள் என்று எதிர்பார்க்கலாம்.
செல்லா இடத்து சினம் தீது.
170 rebels, foreign soldier killed in Afghan clashes
7 hours ago
KABUL (AFP) — NATO and US-led troops backed up by warplanes said Wednesday they had killed nearly 170 Taliban in two major battles in southern Afghanistan, while a US-led coalition soldier also died.
The heaviest of the fighting with the Islamic insurgents erupted on Tuesday in the volatile southern province of Helmand, a Taliban stronghold, and continued into Wednesday, the coalition said.
"The initial estimate by the ground force commander assessed that more than 104 insurgents were killed thus far in the engagement," it said in a statement. The figures could not be verified independently.
A soldier with the 15,000-strong US-dominated coalition was also killed and four wounded, it said. The nationalities of the foreign soldiers were not announced.
The fighting erupted during an Afghan and coalition patrol aimed at clearing an "extensive trench system" near the Taliban-controlled district centre of Musa Qala in Helmand, Afghanistan's main opium-growing province.
More than 65 rebels were killed late Tuesday in a similar battle in the neighbouring province of Uruzgan, another hotbed for the Taliban insurgents, said a separate NATO-led force which has around 40,000 troops.
NATO warplanes and artillery supported the Afghan and NATO forces on the ground, it said.
"Precision-guided munitions were employed on positively identified Taliban positions, killing more than 65 insurgents," the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said.
There have been several major clashes in southern Afghanistan in the past few weeks during which scores of rebels have been killed.
The latest death of a coalition soldier took to 173 the number of international troops to have died in Afghanistan this year, most in combat operations, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
About 4,000 rebels have also been killed and hundreds of civilians.
An American, Canadian, French and two Spanish soldiers have been killed in action since Friday, while an Italian intelligence officer was severely wounded in an operation Monday that freed him and a colleague from Taliban kidnappers.
The Musa Qala district centre has become one of the Taliban's most significant strongholds since the rebels overran the small town in February.
"The end is near for the Taliban that believe Musa Qala is safe from Islamic Republic of Afghanistan forces," coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher said in a statement about the latest fighting.
"This combined operation is just one more step to securing the Musa Qala area of the Helmand province," he said.
The NATO force reported meanwhile that one of its helicopters overturned in the western province of Badghis late Tuesday while trying to land during a mission to rescue Afghan police wounded in a bombing.
No ISAF staff were hurt during the incident, which did not involve hostile activity, it said in a statement. The Taliban reportedly claimed the chopper was shot down.
The bomb blast killed three Afghan police and wounded four more, ISAF said. A local police official also confirmed the incident.
A second helicopter was able recover the crew of the damaged helicopter and two critically wounded Afghan police.
The Taliban were driven from government six years ago and are waging an insurgency that has intensified this year with almost daily attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
In other incidents reported Wednesday, two rebels were killed when a bomb they were planting on a road in southern Ghazni province went off on Tuesday, the defence ministry said.
And more than 36 Taliban insurgents, 16 of them badly wounded, were captured by Afghan forces after two separate battles in the eastern province of Paktia and central Wardak on Tuesday, officials said.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
இஸ்லாமுக்கு மாறாததால்தான் கொரிய பிணைக்கைதி தாலிபானால் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளார்
கொரிய பிணைகைதிகளை இஸ்லாமுக்கு மாற வற்புறுத்தியிருக்கின்றன்ர் தாலிபான்கள்
ஒரு கொரியர் வன்மையாக மறுத்ததால் அவரை முதலில் கொன்றுள்ளனர்.
கொரிய பிணைக்கைதியாக இருந்த பெண்கள் பலாத்காரம் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளனர் என்று பிணைக்கைதிகள் தெரிவித்துள்ளதாக செய்திகள் கூறுகின்றன
Pastor: Korean Hostage was Killed for Refusing to Convert to Islam
The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.
by Eric Young, Christian Today Correspondent
Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2007, 8:43
The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.
Enlarge this picture
Two relatives of the South Korean victims killed by Taliban hold their portraits as one of the released South Korean hostages weeps during a news conference at Incheon Airport in Incheon, west of...
(AP / Lee Jin-man) “Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten,” reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church, Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital Seoul.
“I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death,” he added, according to Christian Today Korea. “Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert.”
A hospital chief also said on Monday that some of the five South Korean men freed from captivity last week reported being beaten by their Taliban abductors for refusing to convert to Islam and for protecting their female colleagues.
“We found through medical checks that some male hostages were beaten,” Cha Seung-gyun told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse.
“They said they were beaten at first for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert.”
Meanwhile, medical examinations showed no signs that the last 12 women were raped and none reported being sexually harassed despite reports from the first two released hostages – both women – who said they were repeatedly raped by their captors, according to an ABC News report on Saturday.
Mirajuddin Pathan, the governor of Ghazni province, had also said he received reports that “various Taliban commanders were fighting over the women hostages” and that “[t]hey were abused over and over", according to ABC News.
Although Park had heard that some of the female hostages were in danger of being raped, he said they were able to “overcome the crisis” through strong resistance.
Furthermore, at least two male hostages were beaten or threatened with death when they refused to leave behind female hostages, according to hospital chief Cha.
While all the men were said to have fully recovered and now show no external signs of their beating, Cha reported that six or seven female hostages show symptoms of insomnia and depression and continue to worry about their lives even after returning to Korea. Moreover, some of the patients are still suffering from shock after hearing about the deaths of two of their male colleagues.
The hospital chief predicts that the former hostages will need about two weeks of treatment.
More reports on the freed hostages’ six-week ordeal have been emerging since the release of the final 19 aid workers – 14 women and five men – last week and their safe return to their homeland on Sunday.
The original group of 23 Korean Christian volunteers were kidnapped by Taliban militants on July 19 while on their way to provide free medical aid to poor Afghans. Over the course of their 40-day captivity, the rebels killed two men and freed two women before releasing the last groups of hostages last Wednesday and Thursday.
To free the remaining hostages, South Korea promised to ban Korean missionaries from Afghanistan and pledged to pull out its 210 troops by the end of the year – a move it was already planning to make prior to the hostage crisis.
Ally countries such as Canada, Germany and Afghanistan have publicly criticised Seoul for negotiating with the Taliban – which they consider a terrorist group – and seemingly giving into them.
Christian Today reporter Michelle Vu and Christian Today Korea correspondent Lee Dae-won in Seoul contributed to this report.
ஒரு கொரியர் வன்மையாக மறுத்ததால் அவரை முதலில் கொன்றுள்ளனர்.
கொரிய பிணைக்கைதியாக இருந்த பெண்கள் பலாத்காரம் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளனர் என்று பிணைக்கைதிகள் தெரிவித்துள்ளதாக செய்திகள் கூறுகின்றன
Pastor: Korean Hostage was Killed for Refusing to Convert to Islam
The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.
by Eric Young, Christian Today Correspondent
Posted: Wednesday, September 5, 2007, 8:43
The youth pastor who was leading the group of 23 South Korean aid volunteers in Afghanistan was killed for refusing to convert to Islam, the head pastor of the church revealed after the final 19 former hostages arrived home.
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Two relatives of the South Korean victims killed by Taliban hold their portraits as one of the released South Korean hostages weeps during a news conference at Incheon Airport in Incheon, west of...
(AP / Lee Jin-man) “Among the 19 hostages who returned on the second (of September), some were asked by the Taliban to convert and when they rejected, they were assaulted and severely beaten,” reported Park Eun-jo, pastor of the hostages’ home church, Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Bundang, just south of the South Korean capital Seoul.
“I heard from the hostages that they were threatened with death,” he added, according to Christian Today Korea. “Especially it is known that the reason Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu was murdered was because he refused the Taliban’s demand to convert.”
A hospital chief also said on Monday that some of the five South Korean men freed from captivity last week reported being beaten by their Taliban abductors for refusing to convert to Islam and for protecting their female colleagues.
“We found through medical checks that some male hostages were beaten,” Cha Seung-gyun told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse.
“They said they were beaten at first for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert.”
Meanwhile, medical examinations showed no signs that the last 12 women were raped and none reported being sexually harassed despite reports from the first two released hostages – both women – who said they were repeatedly raped by their captors, according to an ABC News report on Saturday.
Mirajuddin Pathan, the governor of Ghazni province, had also said he received reports that “various Taliban commanders were fighting over the women hostages” and that “[t]hey were abused over and over", according to ABC News.
Although Park had heard that some of the female hostages were in danger of being raped, he said they were able to “overcome the crisis” through strong resistance.
Furthermore, at least two male hostages were beaten or threatened with death when they refused to leave behind female hostages, according to hospital chief Cha.
While all the men were said to have fully recovered and now show no external signs of their beating, Cha reported that six or seven female hostages show symptoms of insomnia and depression and continue to worry about their lives even after returning to Korea. Moreover, some of the patients are still suffering from shock after hearing about the deaths of two of their male colleagues.
The hospital chief predicts that the former hostages will need about two weeks of treatment.
More reports on the freed hostages’ six-week ordeal have been emerging since the release of the final 19 aid workers – 14 women and five men – last week and their safe return to their homeland on Sunday.
The original group of 23 Korean Christian volunteers were kidnapped by Taliban militants on July 19 while on their way to provide free medical aid to poor Afghans. Over the course of their 40-day captivity, the rebels killed two men and freed two women before releasing the last groups of hostages last Wednesday and Thursday.
To free the remaining hostages, South Korea promised to ban Korean missionaries from Afghanistan and pledged to pull out its 210 troops by the end of the year – a move it was already planning to make prior to the hostage crisis.
Ally countries such as Canada, Germany and Afghanistan have publicly criticised Seoul for negotiating with the Taliban – which they consider a terrorist group – and seemingly giving into them.
Christian Today reporter Michelle Vu and Christian Today Korea correspondent Lee Dae-won in Seoul contributed to this report.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
தாலிபான் தற்கொலைப்படை நடத்த கொரியா 20 மில்லியன் டாலர் உதவி
கொரிய பிணைக்கைதிகளை விடுவிக்க கொடுத்த 20 மில்லியன் அமெரிக்க டாலர்களை தற்கொலைப்படை நடத்தவும், இன்னும் அதிகமான ஆயுதங்கள் வாங்கி பொதுமக்கள் மீது பிரயோகிக்கவும் இருப்பதாக தாலிபான் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
Taliban vows to kidnap, kill more foreigners
By Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul
September 03, 2007 08:43pm
AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban plan to abduct and kill more nationals from foreign countries whose troops serve under NATO and the US military in the country, a spokesman for the Islamic movement warned today.
The vow comes just days after the Taliban released 19 South Korean hostages after their Government struck a deal that critics said sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings and make life even more dangerous for foreigners.
"We consider it (kidnapping) as an arm that can help us in imparting a blow to the enemy," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"Kidnapping ... and killing of (nationals) of those countries who have come for the annihilation of the nation of Afghanistan, are works which suppress the enemy," he added.
Yousuf, one of two Taliban spokesmen, said the group would not target nationals from foreign countries who have no troops in Afghanistan.
Under the deal agreed last week, South Korea said it would pull its civilian nationals from Afghanistan by the end of August and withdraw its 200 troops working as doctors and engineers by the end of the year.
The troop pull-out was already planned.
The Taliban, for its part, dropped its central demand for the release of jailed insurgents.
A senior Taliban commander said on condition of anonymity at the weekend that the deal also included a ransom payment of more than $US20 million ($24.32 million), which would be used to buy weapons and fund suicide attacks.
The commander's comments followed widespread rumours of a ransom in Afghanistan and South Korea.
Afghan officials had said the deal was reached in a series of face-to-face negotiations after the group had already killed two men among the 23-member group of mostly female missionaries.
A foreign diplomat said the Taliban side started the negotiations with a demand for $US20 million.
Both the South Korean Government and Taliban spokesman Yousuf deny a ransom was paid but when asked about the idea earlier in the week, a spokesman for South Korea's President did not answer directly, saying only that the Government had done what was necessary.
Since their ouster in 2001, the Taliban have kidnapped a host of foreigners and Afghans as part of their campaign against the Afghan Government and the nearly 50,000 troops led by NATO and the U.S. military.
The group has killed some, but freed others. It is still holding one German aid worker kidnapped last month along with another German and five of their colleagues.
One German was found dead with gunshot wounds and the Taliban demand Berlin withdraw its troops serving to secure the release of the other. Germany has ruled out the Taliban demand.
The kidnapping of the Koreans has been the largest mass-abduction in the Taliban campaign so far.
The Taliban are largely active in southern and eastern areas of Afghanistan and are locked in near daily clashes with Afghan and foreign troops, in which around 7000 people have died in the past 19 months
Taliban vows to kidnap, kill more foreigners
By Sayed Salahuddin in Kabul
September 03, 2007 08:43pm
AFGHANISTAN'S Taliban plan to abduct and kill more nationals from foreign countries whose troops serve under NATO and the US military in the country, a spokesman for the Islamic movement warned today.
The vow comes just days after the Taliban released 19 South Korean hostages after their Government struck a deal that critics said sets a dangerous precedent that could spur more kidnappings and make life even more dangerous for foreigners.
"We consider it (kidnapping) as an arm that can help us in imparting a blow to the enemy," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"Kidnapping ... and killing of (nationals) of those countries who have come for the annihilation of the nation of Afghanistan, are works which suppress the enemy," he added.
Yousuf, one of two Taliban spokesmen, said the group would not target nationals from foreign countries who have no troops in Afghanistan.
Under the deal agreed last week, South Korea said it would pull its civilian nationals from Afghanistan by the end of August and withdraw its 200 troops working as doctors and engineers by the end of the year.
The troop pull-out was already planned.
The Taliban, for its part, dropped its central demand for the release of jailed insurgents.
A senior Taliban commander said on condition of anonymity at the weekend that the deal also included a ransom payment of more than $US20 million ($24.32 million), which would be used to buy weapons and fund suicide attacks.
The commander's comments followed widespread rumours of a ransom in Afghanistan and South Korea.
Afghan officials had said the deal was reached in a series of face-to-face negotiations after the group had already killed two men among the 23-member group of mostly female missionaries.
A foreign diplomat said the Taliban side started the negotiations with a demand for $US20 million.
Both the South Korean Government and Taliban spokesman Yousuf deny a ransom was paid but when asked about the idea earlier in the week, a spokesman for South Korea's President did not answer directly, saying only that the Government had done what was necessary.
Since their ouster in 2001, the Taliban have kidnapped a host of foreigners and Afghans as part of their campaign against the Afghan Government and the nearly 50,000 troops led by NATO and the U.S. military.
The group has killed some, but freed others. It is still holding one German aid worker kidnapped last month along with another German and five of their colleagues.
One German was found dead with gunshot wounds and the Taliban demand Berlin withdraw its troops serving to secure the release of the other. Germany has ruled out the Taliban demand.
The kidnapping of the Koreans has been the largest mass-abduction in the Taliban campaign so far.
The Taliban are largely active in southern and eastern areas of Afghanistan and are locked in near daily clashes with Afghan and foreign troops, in which around 7000 people have died in the past 19 months
Monday, September 03, 2007
கொரிய பிணைக்கைதிகளை அடித்து கட்டாயமாக இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாற்ற தாலிபான் முயற்சி
கொரிய பிணைக்கைதிகளை அடித்து கட்டாயமாக இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாற்ற தாலிபான் இஸ்லாமிய பயங்கரவாதிகள் முயற்சி செய்திருக்கின்றனர்.
Ex-hostages say Taliban beat them for refusing to convert
10 hours ago
SEOUL (AFP) — Some of the South Korean Christian aid workers held hostage by Afghanistan's Taliban said they were beaten for refusing to convert to Islam and protecting female captives, a hospital chief said Monday.
"We found through medical checks that some male hostages were beaten," Cha Seung-Gyun told reporters after the 19 freed aid workers -- 14 women and five men -- underwent examinations at a hospital outside Seoul.
They had returned home Sunday after six weeks in captivity.
"They said they were beaten at first for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert," Cha said.
The disclosure was likely to increase public sympathy for the ex-hostages, mostly in their 20s and 30s, following increasing criticism of what was seen as a reckless trip to a war-torn devoutly Islamic nation.
President Roh Moo-Hyun on Monday ordered that the former captives repay some of the costs of their rescue, which followed a deal between South Korean government negotiators in Afghanistan and the hardline Islamic insurgents.
The hospital chief said two male hostages, Je Chang-Hee and Song Byung-Woo, were beaten or threatened with death whey they refused to move out of a dugout shelter and leave some of their female colleagues behind.
But Cha said medical checks on the women showed no signs of rape, and they did not report having been sexually assaulted.
The aid workers repeatedly apologised after arriving home early Sunday. They were taken to Sam Anyang General Hospital south of the capital for check-ups.
Cha said the men had fully recovered and no longer showed external signs of their beatings. He did not say how many of the hostages had been assaulted.
A pastor from the Saem-Mul Presbyterian church which organised the ill-fated mission said Sunday that some male hostages had been "severely beaten" for refusing to embrace Islam.
The pastor, Park Eun-Jo, also said some of the women had been "at risk of being sexually assaulted."
Cha said six or seven female hostages showed symptoms of insomnia and depression, and expressed worries about their lives after being released from hospital.
"Some patients require a close look and intensive care and treatment," he said, adding they are still suffering from shock after learning upon their release that two male hostages were murdered in July.
The ex-hostages need about two weeks of treatment, he said.
The church group undertook the trip in defiance of foreign ministry warnings. Before departure it was pictured posing with an airport notice warning against travel to the Central Asian nation.
"By ignoring the government's warning and rashly carrying out a mission in a politically unstable Muslim country, the captives have laid a great burden on their country," JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said.
"By violating international principles and directly negotiating with a terrorist group, our country has invited censure from other countries. Korean churches cannot escape the scathing criticism that their aggressive missionary work put the lives of several innocent young people in dire jeopardy."
The group was abducted on July 19. The Taliban murdered two men last month to press their demands that some Taliban prisoners be freed in exchange for the Koreans, a condition rejected by Kabul.
After starting talks with Seoul officials, the Taliban on August 13 released two women. They freed the remainder of the hostages last Wednesday and Thursday.
Seoul agreed in return to withdraw its 210 non-combat troops by year-end, as previously scheduled, and to stop trips by its missionaries to Afghanistan.
It has denied foreign media reports that a ransom was paid to the Taliban.
Ex-hostages say Taliban beat them for refusing to convert
10 hours ago
SEOUL (AFP) — Some of the South Korean Christian aid workers held hostage by Afghanistan's Taliban said they were beaten for refusing to convert to Islam and protecting female captives, a hospital chief said Monday.
"We found through medical checks that some male hostages were beaten," Cha Seung-Gyun told reporters after the 19 freed aid workers -- 14 women and five men -- underwent examinations at a hospital outside Seoul.
They had returned home Sunday after six weeks in captivity.
"They said they were beaten at first for refusing to take part in Islamic prayers or for rejecting a demand to convert," Cha said.
The disclosure was likely to increase public sympathy for the ex-hostages, mostly in their 20s and 30s, following increasing criticism of what was seen as a reckless trip to a war-torn devoutly Islamic nation.
President Roh Moo-Hyun on Monday ordered that the former captives repay some of the costs of their rescue, which followed a deal between South Korean government negotiators in Afghanistan and the hardline Islamic insurgents.
The hospital chief said two male hostages, Je Chang-Hee and Song Byung-Woo, were beaten or threatened with death whey they refused to move out of a dugout shelter and leave some of their female colleagues behind.
But Cha said medical checks on the women showed no signs of rape, and they did not report having been sexually assaulted.
The aid workers repeatedly apologised after arriving home early Sunday. They were taken to Sam Anyang General Hospital south of the capital for check-ups.
Cha said the men had fully recovered and no longer showed external signs of their beatings. He did not say how many of the hostages had been assaulted.
A pastor from the Saem-Mul Presbyterian church which organised the ill-fated mission said Sunday that some male hostages had been "severely beaten" for refusing to embrace Islam.
The pastor, Park Eun-Jo, also said some of the women had been "at risk of being sexually assaulted."
Cha said six or seven female hostages showed symptoms of insomnia and depression, and expressed worries about their lives after being released from hospital.
"Some patients require a close look and intensive care and treatment," he said, adding they are still suffering from shock after learning upon their release that two male hostages were murdered in July.
The ex-hostages need about two weeks of treatment, he said.
The church group undertook the trip in defiance of foreign ministry warnings. Before departure it was pictured posing with an airport notice warning against travel to the Central Asian nation.
"By ignoring the government's warning and rashly carrying out a mission in a politically unstable Muslim country, the captives have laid a great burden on their country," JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said.
"By violating international principles and directly negotiating with a terrorist group, our country has invited censure from other countries. Korean churches cannot escape the scathing criticism that their aggressive missionary work put the lives of several innocent young people in dire jeopardy."
The group was abducted on July 19. The Taliban murdered two men last month to press their demands that some Taliban prisoners be freed in exchange for the Koreans, a condition rejected by Kabul.
After starting talks with Seoul officials, the Taliban on August 13 released two women. They freed the remainder of the hostages last Wednesday and Thursday.
Seoul agreed in return to withdraw its 210 non-combat troops by year-end, as previously scheduled, and to stop trips by its missionaries to Afghanistan.
It has denied foreign media reports that a ransom was paid to the Taliban.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
கொரிய வெற்றியால், மேலும் நிறைய வெளிநாட்டினரை கடத்த தாலிபான் திட்டம்
கொரியர்களை கடத்தி கொரிய அரசாங்கத்தை பணிய வைத்து கொரிய ராணுவத்தை ஆப்கானிஸ்தானிலிருந்து வெளியேற்றுவதால், இதே முறையை பின்பற்றி மற்ற நாடுகளின் பொதுமக்களையும் கடத்தி கொல்ல திட்டமிட்டுள்ளது தாலிபான்.
மேலும் நிறைய வெளிநாட்டினரை கடத்துவோம் என்று அறிவித்துள்ளார்கள்.
பயங்கரவாதிகளுடன் பேச்சுவார்த்தை என்றுமே பலனளிக்காது!
நன்றி கலீஜ் டைம்ஸ்
Taleban vows to abduct more foreigners
(AP)
31 August 2007
JANDA, Afghanistan - Taleban militants vowed to abduct more foreigners after ending a six-week hostage drama by releasing the last seven of a group of kidnapped South Koreans under a deal with the Seoul government.
We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,’ Taleban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told the Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location.
The seven hostages were handed over Thursday to the International Committee of the Red Cross in two separate exchanges close to the central Afghan city of Ghazni, Red Cross officials and an Associated Press reporter said. The freed hostages did not speak to reporters.
The final three released _ two women and a man _ were handed over by armed men on a main road in Janda district after apparently walking through the desert for some distance. Covered in dust, they were quickly bundled into a Red Cross vehicle and driven away.
The seven were part of a group of 23 church volunteers who were abducted on July 19 as they traveled by bus along a dangerous road in southern Afghanistan. The militants killed two men soon after taking them, and released two women earlier this month in what they termed a goodwill’ gesture. On Wednesday, the Taleban released the 12 other hostages.
The hostages had no health problems and were resting Friday at an undisclosed location, said a South Korean embassy official in Kabul. He spoke on condition of anoymity because he was not auhtorized to speak to the media.
He said the group would either fly home later Friday or Saturday. He gave no more details.
The United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the release but deplored the continuing abduction and senseless murder of innocent civilians.
Despite the tragic death of two hostages in July, he is happy that those released are now on their way to being safely reunited with their loved ones,’ UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Thursday.
The men accompanying the last hostages freed gave an unsigned note to journalists accusing the South Koreans of coming to Afghanistan on a mission to convert the staunchly Islamic country to Christianity.
They came to our nation to change our faith,’ the handwritten note read. The Afghan people have given their lives for their faith. This is the reason we arrested them.’
The South Korean government and relatives of the hostages _ all of whom belonged to a Presbyterian church close to Seoul _ have insisted they were not engaged in missionary activities, but were doing aid work such as helping in hospitals.
The identity of the armed men was not clear. The Taleban said earlier they had handed the three hostages to tribal elders who would transfer them to the Red Cross and in Afghanistan, many villagers carry weapons.
The crisis ended under a deal struck Tuesday between Taleban commanders and representatives of the South Korean government, which has been under intense domestic pressure to bring the hostages home safely.
Under the terms of the agreement, Seoul repeated a pledge it had made long before the kidnappings to withdraw its 200 troops in Afghanistan before year’s end and vowed to prevent missionaries traveling to the country.
The Taleban apparently backed down from an earlier demand for a prisoner exchange.
In Washington, the State Department welcomed the hostages’ release. When asked if South Korea’s negotiations with the Taleban set a dangerous precedent, spokesman Tom Casey refrained from directly criticizing the Seoul government.
I’d simply reiterate that the long-standing US policy is ... not to make concessions to terrorists,’ he said.
While there was no sign that the militants extracted any other concessions, analysts say the militants emerged from the crisis with renewed political legitimacy because for the first time since their 2001 ouster, they negotiated with a foreign government.
Taleban now have diplomacy, they have got spokesmen, they value cameras, they have a political dimension for their movement, and their aim is to be recognized as legitimate,’ said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.
South Korea has denied doing anything wrong, saying it was not unusual to negotiate with hostage-takers.
The freed hostages were expected to fly back to South Korea by Sunday after health checks.
Afghanistan has seen a spate of hostage-takings this years. The Taleban are still holding a German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped a day before the South Koreans.
Associated Press reporters Chris Brummitt, Fisnik Abrashi and Raim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
மேலும் நிறைய வெளிநாட்டினரை கடத்துவோம் என்று அறிவித்துள்ளார்கள்.
பயங்கரவாதிகளுடன் பேச்சுவார்த்தை என்றுமே பலனளிக்காது!
நன்றி கலீஜ் டைம்ஸ்
Taleban vows to abduct more foreigners
(AP)
31 August 2007
JANDA, Afghanistan - Taleban militants vowed to abduct more foreigners after ending a six-week hostage drama by releasing the last seven of a group of kidnapped South Koreans under a deal with the Seoul government.
We will do the same thing with the other allies in Afghanistan, because we found this way to be successful,’ Taleban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi told the Associated Press via cell phone from an undisclosed location.
The seven hostages were handed over Thursday to the International Committee of the Red Cross in two separate exchanges close to the central Afghan city of Ghazni, Red Cross officials and an Associated Press reporter said. The freed hostages did not speak to reporters.
The final three released _ two women and a man _ were handed over by armed men on a main road in Janda district after apparently walking through the desert for some distance. Covered in dust, they were quickly bundled into a Red Cross vehicle and driven away.
The seven were part of a group of 23 church volunteers who were abducted on July 19 as they traveled by bus along a dangerous road in southern Afghanistan. The militants killed two men soon after taking them, and released two women earlier this month in what they termed a goodwill’ gesture. On Wednesday, the Taleban released the 12 other hostages.
The hostages had no health problems and were resting Friday at an undisclosed location, said a South Korean embassy official in Kabul. He spoke on condition of anoymity because he was not auhtorized to speak to the media.
He said the group would either fly home later Friday or Saturday. He gave no more details.
The United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the release but deplored the continuing abduction and senseless murder of innocent civilians.
Despite the tragic death of two hostages in July, he is happy that those released are now on their way to being safely reunited with their loved ones,’ UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Thursday.
The men accompanying the last hostages freed gave an unsigned note to journalists accusing the South Koreans of coming to Afghanistan on a mission to convert the staunchly Islamic country to Christianity.
They came to our nation to change our faith,’ the handwritten note read. The Afghan people have given their lives for their faith. This is the reason we arrested them.’
The South Korean government and relatives of the hostages _ all of whom belonged to a Presbyterian church close to Seoul _ have insisted they were not engaged in missionary activities, but were doing aid work such as helping in hospitals.
The identity of the armed men was not clear. The Taleban said earlier they had handed the three hostages to tribal elders who would transfer them to the Red Cross and in Afghanistan, many villagers carry weapons.
The crisis ended under a deal struck Tuesday between Taleban commanders and representatives of the South Korean government, which has been under intense domestic pressure to bring the hostages home safely.
Under the terms of the agreement, Seoul repeated a pledge it had made long before the kidnappings to withdraw its 200 troops in Afghanistan before year’s end and vowed to prevent missionaries traveling to the country.
The Taleban apparently backed down from an earlier demand for a prisoner exchange.
In Washington, the State Department welcomed the hostages’ release. When asked if South Korea’s negotiations with the Taleban set a dangerous precedent, spokesman Tom Casey refrained from directly criticizing the Seoul government.
I’d simply reiterate that the long-standing US policy is ... not to make concessions to terrorists,’ he said.
While there was no sign that the militants extracted any other concessions, analysts say the militants emerged from the crisis with renewed political legitimacy because for the first time since their 2001 ouster, they negotiated with a foreign government.
Taleban now have diplomacy, they have got spokesmen, they value cameras, they have a political dimension for their movement, and their aim is to be recognized as legitimate,’ said Mustafa Alani, director of security and terrorism studies at the Dubai-based Gulf Research Center.
South Korea has denied doing anything wrong, saying it was not unusual to negotiate with hostage-takers.
The freed hostages were expected to fly back to South Korea by Sunday after health checks.
Afghanistan has seen a spate of hostage-takings this years. The Taleban are still holding a German engineer and four Afghans kidnapped a day before the South Koreans.
Associated Press reporters Chris Brummitt, Fisnik Abrashi and Raim Faiez contributed to this report from Kabul.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
தாலிபான் முகாம்களை பற்றி பாகிஸ்தானிடம் சொன்னால்....
அமெரிக்க உளவுத்துறை துல்லியமாக ஆராய்ந்து 29 தாலிபான் தளங்களை அடையாளம் கண்டு, ரகசியமாக பாகிஸ்தான் அரசிடம் கொடுத்திருக்கிறது.
இந்த முகாம்களின் மீது பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவம் தாக்குதல்களை மேற்கொள்ளும் என்று அமெரிக்கா எதிர்பார்த்தது.
பதிலாக இந்த முகாம்கள் காலி செய்யப்பட்டு காணாமல் போய்விட்டன (வேறென்ன, பாகிஸ்தான் அரசாங்கம் அமெரிக்கா கண்டுபிடித்துவிட்டதை சொல்லி இடத்தை காலி பண்ணி வேறொரு இடத்துக்கு போகச்சொல்லியிருக்கும்)
பாகிஸ்தான் அரசாங்கம் ராணுவ முகாம் என்று ஓரிரு இடங்களை தாக்கியும் இருக்கிறது. இதோ நானும் தாலிபான் தீவிரவாதிகளை கொல்கிறேன் என்று பாவலா..
அமெரிக்காவுக்கு தலையும் தாலிபானுக்கு வாலும் காட்டும் வித்தையில் பாகிஸ்தான் நன்றாகவே முன்னேறி இருக்கிறது.
அமெரிக்கா ஏமாளி போல முழித்துக்கொண்டிருக்கிறது.
Oh where, oh where have Taliban gone?
28 of 29 militant bases ID'd by U.S. intelligence 'dismantled' after information given to Pakistan
Posted: August 11, 2007
7:00 p.m. Eastern
Information regarding the location of 29 Taliban bases, ID'd by U.S. intelligence and shared with Pakistan, has lost its targeting value for Islamabad's promised offensive against the militant group with the apparent evacuation of 28 of the training camps along the country's northern border with Afghanistan.
The U.S. presented Pakistan with a dossier meticulously detailing the bases' locations in the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, but, according to a report by Asia Times, the camps 'have simply fallen off the radar.' Neither the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led coalition in Afghanistan nor Pakistan intelligence have detected any movement in the camps since early this month.
On-the-ground intelligence from both sides of the national border indicate all camps but one, operated by a hardline Islamist mullah, have been dismantled and all Taliban commanders, as well as leaders of Arab insurgent groups in the country, have disappeared.
The development comes as tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan are meeting in Kabul for a four-day "jirga," or peace conference and for discussions on how to best fight the Taliban. Tribal leaders from North Waziristan and South Waziristan refused to attend the summit because the Taliban was excluded from the talks.
The evacuation of the camps also coincides with the release of a videotape earlier this week featuring Adam Gadahn, the "American al-Qaida," threatening new attacks on U.S. cities. New York City authorities responded to the unspecified threat earlier today with checkpoints and radiation monitoring of vehicles entering Manhattan.
Pervez Musharraf
According to Asia Times, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has been invited to address the closing session of this weekend's peace summit, was expected to begin military strikes against the Taliban bases in his country after the jirga ends. Indeed, Pakistani helicopter gunships launched assaults today on al-Qaida and Taliban hideouts in North Waziristan. Three militants were reported killed, however, with the high-value targets now evacuated, the effectiveness of any military initiative is in question, particularly since summer is passing and winter's heavy snows makes military operations difficult or impossible.
According to Asia Times, the Taliban has redefined its command structure following the death in May of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah in Afghanistan during a coalition raid. Dadullah enjoyed almost cult-like status and his death was a demoralizing blow to the group.
Much of the Taliban leadership left the field in June and was headquartered in Quetta, Pakistan, Asia Times reports. As WND reported, the Pakistan enclave has long served as a safe haven for the Taliban seeking respite from fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, despite Musharraf's promises to crack down on them.
Musharraf, whose five-year term in office ends this fall, threatened earlier this week to declare emergency rule, but has since told Washington he will not. Many of his top commanders are sympathetic to the Taliban, a fact that the evacuation of the training camps following the transfer of U.S. intelligence may indicate.
இந்த முகாம்களின் மீது பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவம் தாக்குதல்களை மேற்கொள்ளும் என்று அமெரிக்கா எதிர்பார்த்தது.
பதிலாக இந்த முகாம்கள் காலி செய்யப்பட்டு காணாமல் போய்விட்டன (வேறென்ன, பாகிஸ்தான் அரசாங்கம் அமெரிக்கா கண்டுபிடித்துவிட்டதை சொல்லி இடத்தை காலி பண்ணி வேறொரு இடத்துக்கு போகச்சொல்லியிருக்கும்)
பாகிஸ்தான் அரசாங்கம் ராணுவ முகாம் என்று ஓரிரு இடங்களை தாக்கியும் இருக்கிறது. இதோ நானும் தாலிபான் தீவிரவாதிகளை கொல்கிறேன் என்று பாவலா..
அமெரிக்காவுக்கு தலையும் தாலிபானுக்கு வாலும் காட்டும் வித்தையில் பாகிஸ்தான் நன்றாகவே முன்னேறி இருக்கிறது.
அமெரிக்கா ஏமாளி போல முழித்துக்கொண்டிருக்கிறது.
Oh where, oh where have Taliban gone?
28 of 29 militant bases ID'd by U.S. intelligence 'dismantled' after information given to Pakistan
Posted: August 11, 2007
7:00 p.m. Eastern
Information regarding the location of 29 Taliban bases, ID'd by U.S. intelligence and shared with Pakistan, has lost its targeting value for Islamabad's promised offensive against the militant group with the apparent evacuation of 28 of the training camps along the country's northern border with Afghanistan.
The U.S. presented Pakistan with a dossier meticulously detailing the bases' locations in the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, but, according to a report by Asia Times, the camps 'have simply fallen off the radar.' Neither the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led coalition in Afghanistan nor Pakistan intelligence have detected any movement in the camps since early this month.
On-the-ground intelligence from both sides of the national border indicate all camps but one, operated by a hardline Islamist mullah, have been dismantled and all Taliban commanders, as well as leaders of Arab insurgent groups in the country, have disappeared.
The development comes as tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan are meeting in Kabul for a four-day "jirga," or peace conference and for discussions on how to best fight the Taliban. Tribal leaders from North Waziristan and South Waziristan refused to attend the summit because the Taliban was excluded from the talks.
The evacuation of the camps also coincides with the release of a videotape earlier this week featuring Adam Gadahn, the "American al-Qaida," threatening new attacks on U.S. cities. New York City authorities responded to the unspecified threat earlier today with checkpoints and radiation monitoring of vehicles entering Manhattan.
Pervez Musharraf
According to Asia Times, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who has been invited to address the closing session of this weekend's peace summit, was expected to begin military strikes against the Taliban bases in his country after the jirga ends. Indeed, Pakistani helicopter gunships launched assaults today on al-Qaida and Taliban hideouts in North Waziristan. Three militants were reported killed, however, with the high-value targets now evacuated, the effectiveness of any military initiative is in question, particularly since summer is passing and winter's heavy snows makes military operations difficult or impossible.
According to Asia Times, the Taliban has redefined its command structure following the death in May of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah in Afghanistan during a coalition raid. Dadullah enjoyed almost cult-like status and his death was a demoralizing blow to the group.
Much of the Taliban leadership left the field in June and was headquartered in Quetta, Pakistan, Asia Times reports. As WND reported, the Pakistan enclave has long served as a safe haven for the Taliban seeking respite from fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan, despite Musharraf's promises to crack down on them.
Musharraf, whose five-year term in office ends this fall, threatened earlier this week to declare emergency rule, but has since told Washington he will not. Many of his top commanders are sympathetic to the Taliban, a fact that the evacuation of the training camps following the transfer of U.S. intelligence may indicate.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
நான்கு ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் நீதிபதிகள் தாலிபானால் கடத்தி கொலை
நான்கு ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் நீதிபதிகள் தாலிபானால் கடத்தி கொலை செய்யப்பட்டார்கள்.
Four kidnapped Afghan judges found dead
August 1, 2007 - 3:41PM
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for murdering four Afghan judges whose bodies were found today in the province where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans.
"We killed them because they worked for the government,'' Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP.
The four were kidnapped two weeks ago in Ghazni, the same province where 23 South Koreans were captured on July 19 and where two have been found dead in murders also claimed by the militants.
An AFP photographer saw the bodies of the four men - one shot in the head, the others in the body - that police said had been dumped in a village about 35 kilometres east of Ghazni city.
The feet of all the bodies were bound and two also had their hands tied, the photographer said.
The men were judges from the neighbouring province of Paktika, deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman told reporters.
"They were killed and their bodies were found in Deh-yak district last night,'' he said.
Earlier media reports had described the men as court officials.
The latest murders of Taliban hostages come as officials are desperately trying to save the South Koreans after warnings from the hardliners that more will be killed unless the government agrees by noon today to demands the release of some of its men from Afghan jails.
The hardliners have also threatened to kill a German national kidnapped in Wardak province, near Kabul, a day before the South Koreans. They also want prisoners to be released in exchange for the engineer, who is being held with four Afghans.
The Islamic militia killed the second South Korean late on Monday after they accused the government of ignoring previous deadlines.
Ahmadi also said another Afghan, whom he accused of "spying for American forces,'' was killed in Ghazni. This could not be independently confirmed.
There have been a string of kidnappings by the Taliban, who have killed several of their hostages, most of them Afghans, as part of a widening insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul Government.
The Taliban, toppled from power in late 2001 by US-led forces for sheltering September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, are said to be copying the tactics of Islamic extremists in Iraq.
The violence, which includes suicide and roadside bombings as well as clashes with security forces, has escalated over the past two years. Thousands of people, most of them Taliban fighters, have been killed.
AFP
Four kidnapped Afghan judges found dead
August 1, 2007 - 3:41PM
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for murdering four Afghan judges whose bodies were found today in the province where Taliban militants are holding 21 South Koreans.
"We killed them because they worked for the government,'' Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP.
The four were kidnapped two weeks ago in Ghazni, the same province where 23 South Koreans were captured on July 19 and where two have been found dead in murders also claimed by the militants.
An AFP photographer saw the bodies of the four men - one shot in the head, the others in the body - that police said had been dumped in a village about 35 kilometres east of Ghazni city.
The feet of all the bodies were bound and two also had their hands tied, the photographer said.
The men were judges from the neighbouring province of Paktika, deputy police chief Mohammad Zaman told reporters.
"They were killed and their bodies were found in Deh-yak district last night,'' he said.
Earlier media reports had described the men as court officials.
The latest murders of Taliban hostages come as officials are desperately trying to save the South Koreans after warnings from the hardliners that more will be killed unless the government agrees by noon today to demands the release of some of its men from Afghan jails.
The hardliners have also threatened to kill a German national kidnapped in Wardak province, near Kabul, a day before the South Koreans. They also want prisoners to be released in exchange for the engineer, who is being held with four Afghans.
The Islamic militia killed the second South Korean late on Monday after they accused the government of ignoring previous deadlines.
Ahmadi also said another Afghan, whom he accused of "spying for American forces,'' was killed in Ghazni. This could not be independently confirmed.
There have been a string of kidnappings by the Taliban, who have killed several of their hostages, most of them Afghans, as part of a widening insurgency against the Western-backed Kabul Government.
The Taliban, toppled from power in late 2001 by US-led forces for sheltering September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, are said to be copying the tactics of Islamic extremists in Iraq.
The violence, which includes suicide and roadside bombings as well as clashes with security forces, has escalated over the past two years. Thousands of people, most of them Taliban fighters, have been killed.
AFP
Monday, July 30, 2007
இன்னொரு பிணைக்கைதி கிறிஸ்துவ போதகர் தாலிபானால் கொலை
இன்னொரு கிறிஸ்துவ போதகர் தாலிபானால் கொல்லப்பட்டார் என்று தாலிபான் தெரிவித்துள்ளது.
Taliban say kill hostage after demands are ignored
By Sayed Salahuddin
1 hour, 11 minutes ago
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban kidnappers shot dead a male South Korean hostage on Monday, a spokesman said, accusing the Afghan government of not listening to rebel demands for the release of Taliban prisoners.
"We shot dead a male captive because the government did not listen to our demands," spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone.
"We killed one of the male hostages at 6.30 this evening (1400 GMT) because the Kabul administration did not listen to our repeated demands," he told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.
He said the Taliban would kill more hostages if Kabul ignored their demand to release rebel prisoners, but gave no new deadline. He said the body had been dumped by the side of a road.
The shooting was a bloody rejection of the authorities' request for more time for talks on freeing the South Korean hostages after the expiry of a rebel deadline earlier in the day.
The Taliban seized 23 Korean Christians, 18 of them women, 11 days ago from a bus in Ghazni on the main highway south from Kabul and killed the leader of the group on Wednesday after an earlier deadline passed.
The hostage crisis has focused attention on growing lawlessness in Afghanistan with Taliban influence, suicide bombs and attacks spreading to many areas previously considered safe and making road travel between major cities a risky affair.
A spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, southwest of the capital Kabul, where the hostages were seized, said earlier that Afghan authorities had asked for two more days in which to settle the hostage crisis peacefully.
The Taliban had earlier extended its 'final' deadline but insisted the release of Taliban prisoners was the only way to settle the crisis.
On Sunday, the Taliban ruled out further talks after they said government negotiators demanded the unconditional release of the hostages and a senior Afghan official said that force might be used to rescue them if talks failed.
DEMANDS LED TO DEADLOCK
The government had wanted the Taliban to first release the 18 women hostages, but the insurgents demanded the government release its prisoners first, leading to deadlock, said a Kabul-based Western security analyst who declined to be named.
President Hamid Karzai has remained silent throughout the hostage ordeal, except for condemning the abduction, the largest by the Taliban since U.S.-led forces overthrew the movement's radical Islamic government in 2001.
He came under harsh criticism for freeing a group of Taliban in March in exchange for the release of an Italian journalist.
The body of the South Korean Christian pastor shot dead by the Taliban last week arrived in South Korea on Monday.
The bullet-ridden body of Bae Hyung-kyu was found last Wednesday, the day he would have turned 42. His brother, Bae Shin-kyu, told reporters the family would not hold a funeral until the other hostages returned to South Korea.
"My heart is trembling," said a mother of one of the hostages, who asked not to be named. "They have to return our children. Please help our children return safely."
Another hostage's mother said "I am most worried about their health. All I can say is that I want the 22 hostages to be returned safely as soon as possible in the state of health they are in now."
A South Korean shipment of emergency medical supplies and daily necessities has been delivered to the Taliban, but Seoul has not been able to confirm if the goods have reached the Koreans, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a presidential spokesman as saying.
The Koreans were abducted a day after two German aid workers and their five Afghan colleagues were seized by Taliban in neighboring Wardak province.
The body of one of the Germans has been found with gunshots and the Taliban still hold the other along with four Afghans.
Taliban say kill hostage after demands are ignored
By Sayed Salahuddin
1 hour, 11 minutes ago
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban kidnappers shot dead a male South Korean hostage on Monday, a spokesman said, accusing the Afghan government of not listening to rebel demands for the release of Taliban prisoners.
"We shot dead a male captive because the government did not listen to our demands," spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone.
"We killed one of the male hostages at 6.30 this evening (1400 GMT) because the Kabul administration did not listen to our repeated demands," he told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.
He said the Taliban would kill more hostages if Kabul ignored their demand to release rebel prisoners, but gave no new deadline. He said the body had been dumped by the side of a road.
The shooting was a bloody rejection of the authorities' request for more time for talks on freeing the South Korean hostages after the expiry of a rebel deadline earlier in the day.
The Taliban seized 23 Korean Christians, 18 of them women, 11 days ago from a bus in Ghazni on the main highway south from Kabul and killed the leader of the group on Wednesday after an earlier deadline passed.
The hostage crisis has focused attention on growing lawlessness in Afghanistan with Taliban influence, suicide bombs and attacks spreading to many areas previously considered safe and making road travel between major cities a risky affair.
A spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, southwest of the capital Kabul, where the hostages were seized, said earlier that Afghan authorities had asked for two more days in which to settle the hostage crisis peacefully.
The Taliban had earlier extended its 'final' deadline but insisted the release of Taliban prisoners was the only way to settle the crisis.
On Sunday, the Taliban ruled out further talks after they said government negotiators demanded the unconditional release of the hostages and a senior Afghan official said that force might be used to rescue them if talks failed.
DEMANDS LED TO DEADLOCK
The government had wanted the Taliban to first release the 18 women hostages, but the insurgents demanded the government release its prisoners first, leading to deadlock, said a Kabul-based Western security analyst who declined to be named.
President Hamid Karzai has remained silent throughout the hostage ordeal, except for condemning the abduction, the largest by the Taliban since U.S.-led forces overthrew the movement's radical Islamic government in 2001.
He came under harsh criticism for freeing a group of Taliban in March in exchange for the release of an Italian journalist.
The body of the South Korean Christian pastor shot dead by the Taliban last week arrived in South Korea on Monday.
The bullet-ridden body of Bae Hyung-kyu was found last Wednesday, the day he would have turned 42. His brother, Bae Shin-kyu, told reporters the family would not hold a funeral until the other hostages returned to South Korea.
"My heart is trembling," said a mother of one of the hostages, who asked not to be named. "They have to return our children. Please help our children return safely."
Another hostage's mother said "I am most worried about their health. All I can say is that I want the 22 hostages to be returned safely as soon as possible in the state of health they are in now."
A South Korean shipment of emergency medical supplies and daily necessities has been delivered to the Taliban, but Seoul has not been able to confirm if the goods have reached the Koreans, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a presidential spokesman as saying.
The Koreans were abducted a day after two German aid workers and their five Afghan colleagues were seized by Taliban in neighboring Wardak province.
The body of one of the Germans has been found with gunshots and the Taliban still hold the other along with four Afghans.
Friday, July 27, 2007
ஆப்கானிஸ்தான்: தாலிபான் - ஆப்கன் துருப்புகள் மோதலில் 50 தாலிபான்கள் பலி.
அமெரிக்க துருப்புகள் தலைமையில் ஆப்கானிய துருப்புகள் தாலிபனுடன் போரிட்டதில் 50 தாலிபான்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டனர்.
அமெரிக்க துருப்புகளில் ஒருவருக்கு கை உடைந்தது.
U.S.: More than 50 Taliban killed in battle
Coalition says insurgents using area as base to launch operations
Updated: 4:09 a.m. ET July 26, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops battled militants in southern Afghanistan, leaving more than 50 suspected Taliban dead, the coalition said Thursday.
The 12-hour-long battle that ended early Thursday targeted 16 compounds from which militants had been attacking troops in Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement.
“Coalition air support dropped two bombs on the compounds with the greatest concentration of insurgents,” the statement said. “Both compounds produced significant secondary explosions immediately suggesting a large quantity of explosive material was present in each.”
More than 50 Taliban were killed and a number of others were wounded, the coalition said.
‘Base of support’
The clash happened near the village of Musa Qala, where a peace deal struck last year with local elders effectively ceded control of the area to Taliban fighters. Militants use the village and surrounding areas as a staging ground for raids against Afghan and foreign troops.
“They are using Musa Qala as a base of support and it is believed that they will stay and defend the area rather than use their normal hit-and-run tactics,” the coalition said.
Click for related content
Afghan official says 22 hostages still alive
A coalition soldier broke his hand during the engagement, it said.
Violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan in the last two months. More than 3,500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
அமெரிக்க துருப்புகளில் ஒருவருக்கு கை உடைந்தது.
U.S.: More than 50 Taliban killed in battle
Coalition says insurgents using area as base to launch operations
Updated: 4:09 a.m. ET July 26, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan troops battled militants in southern Afghanistan, leaving more than 50 suspected Taliban dead, the coalition said Thursday.
The 12-hour-long battle that ended early Thursday targeted 16 compounds from which militants had been attacking troops in Helmand province, the coalition said in a statement.
“Coalition air support dropped two bombs on the compounds with the greatest concentration of insurgents,” the statement said. “Both compounds produced significant secondary explosions immediately suggesting a large quantity of explosive material was present in each.”
More than 50 Taliban were killed and a number of others were wounded, the coalition said.
‘Base of support’
The clash happened near the village of Musa Qala, where a peace deal struck last year with local elders effectively ceded control of the area to Taliban fighters. Militants use the village and surrounding areas as a staging ground for raids against Afghan and foreign troops.
“They are using Musa Qala as a base of support and it is believed that they will stay and defend the area rather than use their normal hit-and-run tactics,” the coalition said.
Click for related content
Afghan official says 22 hostages still alive
A coalition soldier broke his hand during the engagement, it said.
Violence has risen sharply in Afghanistan in the last two months. More than 3,500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press tally of casualty figures provided by Western and Afghan officials.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
தாலிபான் ஒரு கிறிஸ்துவ மருத்துவரை கொன்றனர். மீதம் 22 பேர் திகிலில்
தங்களுக்கு பொறுமை போகிறது என்பதை காட்டும் விதமாக கடத்தப்பட்டு வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த 23 கொரிய மருத்துவர்களில் ஒருவரை தாலிபான் முஸ்லீம் தீவிரவாதிகள் கொன்றனர்.
ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் சிறையில் வைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் தாலிபான் தீவிரவாதிகளை விடுவிக்காவிட்டால் மற்றவர்களும் கொல்லப்படுவார்கள் என்று தாலிபான்கள் அறிவித்துள்ளனர்.
Taliban say kill Korean hostage, set new deadline
Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:45AM EDT
Taliban say patience is running out
Eight South Korean hostages to be released: report
By Ahmad Masood
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban kidnappers killed one of its 23 South Koreans hostages and will kill the rest if their demands are not met by 2030 GMT (4.30 pm ET) on Wednesday, a Taliban spokesman said.
The Taliban had complained the Afghan government had failed to release any Taliban prisoners as the kidnappers had demanded and as, according to the rebel spokesman, Korean negotiators had assured them Kabul would do.
"Since Kabul's administration did not listen to our demand and did not free our prisoners, the Taliban shot dead a male Korean hostage," Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.
"If the administration of Kabul is not ready to release our hostages, then by 1:00 am (local time) the rest of the hostages will be killed," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.
"That time is the last deadline."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged not to swap prisoners for hostages after being heavily criticized both at home and abroad for releasing five Taliban from jail in March in exchange for an Italian reporter.
The kidnappings have made travel outside major cities risky for the thousands of foreign aid workers and United Nations staff in Afghanistan and may weaken support for military involvement among the more than 30 nations with troops in the country.
The 23 Korean church volunteers -- 18 women and five men -- were seized in Ghazni province on the main road south from Kabul last week.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a German journalist and his Afghan translator kidnapped in the east of the country overnight were freed on Wednesday. Continued...
ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் சிறையில் வைக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் தாலிபான் தீவிரவாதிகளை விடுவிக்காவிட்டால் மற்றவர்களும் கொல்லப்படுவார்கள் என்று தாலிபான்கள் அறிவித்துள்ளனர்.
Taliban say kill Korean hostage, set new deadline
Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:45AM EDT
Taliban say patience is running out
Eight South Korean hostages to be released: report
By Ahmad Masood
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Taliban kidnappers killed one of its 23 South Koreans hostages and will kill the rest if their demands are not met by 2030 GMT (4.30 pm ET) on Wednesday, a Taliban spokesman said.
The Taliban had complained the Afghan government had failed to release any Taliban prisoners as the kidnappers had demanded and as, according to the rebel spokesman, Korean negotiators had assured them Kabul would do.
"Since Kabul's administration did not listen to our demand and did not free our prisoners, the Taliban shot dead a male Korean hostage," Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.
"If the administration of Kabul is not ready to release our hostages, then by 1:00 am (local time) the rest of the hostages will be killed," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location.
"That time is the last deadline."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged not to swap prisoners for hostages after being heavily criticized both at home and abroad for releasing five Taliban from jail in March in exchange for an Italian reporter.
The kidnappings have made travel outside major cities risky for the thousands of foreign aid workers and United Nations staff in Afghanistan and may weaken support for military involvement among the more than 30 nations with troops in the country.
The 23 Korean church volunteers -- 18 women and five men -- were seized in Ghazni province on the main road south from Kabul last week.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a German journalist and his Afghan translator kidnapped in the east of the country overnight were freed on Wednesday. Continued...
Monday, July 23, 2007
தாலிபன் முஸ்லீம் பயங்கரவாதிகள் 23 கொரிய டாக்டர்களை பிணைக்கைதியாக கடத்தல்
ஆப்கானிஸ்தான் சிறையில் இருக்கும் தாலிபான்களை விடுவிக்காவிட்டால், தாங்கள் பிணைக்கைதிகளாக கடத்தி சிறை வைத்திருக்கும் கொரிய மருத்துவர்களை ஒவ்வொன்றாக கொல்லப்போகிறோம் என்று தாலிபான் மிரட்டியிருக்கிறார்கள்.
இந்த கொரியர்கள் கிறிஸ்துவ மிஷனரிகள் என்று தாலிபான் கூறுகிறது. இவர்கள் கிறிஸ்துவர்களே தவிர மிஷனரி வேலையில் ஈடுபடவில்லை என்று கொரியா கூறுகிறது.
Taliban Threatens to Kill 23 Koreans
By NOOR KHAN 07.23.07, 9:09 AM ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - The Taliban threatened to begin killing 23 South Korean hostages Monday evening if the government doesn't free insurgents held in prison. The demands came as the U.S.-led coalition reported killing some 50 militants in southern Afghanistan's poppy-growing heartland.
Khail Mohammad Husseini, a lawmaker from Ghazni province, where the Koreans are being held, said provincial leaders tried to meet with the kidnappers Monday but that they didn't show. He said the Taliban increased their demands by telephone, saying all militant prisoners in Ghazni now had to be released.
Qari Yousef Ahmadi, who claims to speak for the militia, disputed that report, saying the Taliban were still demanding the release of 23 prisoners.
"If the government won't accept these conditions, then it's difficult for the Taliban to provide security for these hostages, to provide health facilities and food," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by satellite phone. "The Taliban won't have any option but to kill the hostages."
Ahmadi said Sunday that the militants were giving the Afghan and South Korean governments until 7 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT) Monday to respond to their demands.
Deputy Interior Minister Abdul Khaliq said Afghanistan was not prepared to make a deal "against our national interest and our constitution," although he did not explicitly rule out freeing any prisoners.
President Hamid Karzai in March authorized the release of five Taliban prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Italian reporter, but called the trade a one-time deal. Karzai was heavily criticized for the move by the United States and European nations, who felt it would encourage more kidnappings.
In the two-day battle in the Sangin district in Helmand province, the insurgents tried to shoot down a coalition aircraft and attack soldiers with a suicide car bomb, the coalition said. Coalition aircraft dropped four bombs and Afghan forces counted "more than four dozen" insurgents killed, it said.
The Sangin district chief, Eizatullah Khan, said a large group of Taliban had attacked a convoy Sunday, and the resulting battle left more than 30 militants dead and many wounded.
Coalition and Afghan forces "only engaged legitimate military and enemy targets to minimize the potential of Afghan casualties," said U.S. Maj. Chris Belcher, a coalition spokesman. "We did this even as the insurgents tried to create some propaganda value by placing innocent civilians in harms way."
Civilian casualties have been a major problem for U.S. and NATO forces this year. Taliban militants often fight in populated areas or seek cover in civilian homes, leading to the deaths of ordinary Afghans. There were no immediate reports of civilian casualties during the battle, but those reports sometimes take a day or two to surface.
In Zabul province, Afghan police forces reported killing 14 "enemies" during a 12-hour battle Sunday, including a Taliban commander identified as Mohammad Hassan.
Afghan elders leading the hostage negotiations met with the kidnappers Sunday and reported that the Koreans were healthy, said Khwaja Mohammad Sidiqi, a local police chief in Ghazni district. The Koreans were kidnapped there Thursday while riding on a bus from Kabul to Kandahar on Afghanistan's major highway.
The Afghan military has the region surrounded in case the government decides the military should move in.
South Korea, meanwhile, banned its citizens from traveling to Afghanistan in the wake of the kidnappings, said Han Hye-jin, a Foreign Ministry official. A delegation of Korean officials met with Karzai on Sunday to discuss the crisis.
The South Korean hostages' church said it will suspend some of its volunteer work in Afghanistan. It also stressed that the kidnapped Koreans, which include 18 women, were not involved in any Christian missionary work, but only provided medical and other volunteer aid.
South Korea has about 200 troops serving with the 8,000-member coalition in Afghanistan, largely working on humanitarian projects. They are scheduled to leave Afghanistan at the end of 2007.
Associated Press writers Jason Straziuso in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Kwang-Tae Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Saturday, July 14, 2007
பாகிஸ்தானில் பெரும் கிளர்ச்சி
ஆயிரக்கணக்கான பாகிஸ்தான் போர்வீரர்கள் ஆப்கானிய எல்லையில் குவிக்கப்படுகிறார்கள். இங்கிருந்துதான் லால் மசூதியில் பாகிஸ்தானுடன் போர்புரிந்த போராளிகள் வந்திருந்தார்கள். அவர்களுக்கு ஆதரவான பெரும் போராட்டங்கள் பெஷாவர் மற்றும் ஆப்கானிய எல்லைப்புறங்களில் நடந்துவருகின்றன. இங்கு பின் லாடன் ஆகிய அல்குவேதா தலைவர்கள் வாழ்வதாகவும் கூறப்படுகிறது.
அந்த தீவிரவாதிகளை கொல்ல பாகிஸ்தான் படை எல்லைக்கு நகர்கிறது.
எல்லா பெரு நகரங்களிலும் பாகிஸ்தான் ஜனாதிபதி பர்வேஸ் முஷாரப்புக்கூ எதிரான பெரும் போராட்டங்கள் ஊர்வலங்கள் நடைபெற்று வருகின்றன.
பல இடங்களில் பாகிஸ்தான் போலீஸ் மீதும் பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவத்தினர் மீதும் தாக்குதல்களும், தற்கொலை தாக்குதல்களும் நடந்துவருகின்றன.
பலுச்ச்சிஸ்தான் குவெட்டாவில் ஊரடங்கு உத்தரவு
பஜாவூர் பகுதியில் மியூசிக் கடைகளில் புகுந்து டேப்புகளை எடுத்து அழிக்கும் இஸ்லாமிய தீவிரவாதிகள்
பர்வேஸ் முஷாரப்பின் உருவப்பொம்மையை எரிக்கும் இஸ்லாமிய தீவிரவாதிகள்
கொல்லப்பட்ட அப்துல் ரஷீத் காஜிக்கு ஈமச்சடங்கு
கராச்சியில் பர்வேஸ் முஷாரப்புக்கு எதிராக ஊர்வலம்
லாகூரில் பாகிஸ்தான் ஜனாதிபதிக்கு எதிரான போராட்ட ஊர்வலம்
Pakistani Troops Move Against Militants
By STEPHEN GRAHAM 07.13.07, 2:30 PM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Thousands of soldiers rolled across northwestern Pakistan on Friday, a day after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vowed to follow the storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque by eliminating extremism from "every corner" of the country.
Anti-Musharraf protesters took to the streets of every major city to blame the U.S.-backed leader for the violence at the mosque, some chanting slogans in favor of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
But the rallies were smaller than expected, and there was a lull in the violent backlash from militant groups that had staged suicide bombings and attacks on foreign aid groups in reaction to the mosque siege.
Officials said thousands of soldiers were deploying to various parts of North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan and where militant groups are increasingly active.
An army brigade was heading up the Swat Valley, 75 miles northeast of Peshawar, where a suicide car bomber killed three policeman at a checkpoint Thursday, said Mohammed Javed, the valley's top administrator.
That attack raised to 35 the number of people killed in bombings and shootings in the northwest since the Red Mosque crisis began July 3.
Television footage showed army trucks, some pulling heavy artillery, lined up on a road in the area.
The Swat Valley is a stronghold of a radical cleric who has pressed for the imposition of Taliban-style rule, much like the leaders of the Red Mosque.
Maulana Fazlullah, who has close links to a militant group outlawed for sending followers to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2001, reportedly told supporters to prepare for holy war in response to the battle in the capital.
Asif Iqbal Daudzai, spokesman for the provincial government, said Fazlullah had broken an agreement to stop using FM radio broadcasts for anti-government agitation. If he does so again, security forces "will react," Daudzai told Dawn News television.
Troops were also sent to Dera Ismail Khan, a town near the tribally governed Waziristan border region, a Taliban stronghold where Washington says al-Qaida is regrouping.
Police said they raided a house in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday, arresting three suspected suicide bombers and seizing five explosives vests.
The military said it also deployed soldiers near Battagram, a northern town badly affected by a 2005 earthquake. According to aid workers and media reports, mobs broke off from a Thursday protest against the Red Mosque raid to loot and set fire to the offices of several international aid groups.
"Extremism and terrorism will be defeated in every corner of the country," Musharraf said. Madrassas, or religious schools, like the Red Mosque that inculcate violence among students will not be tolerated, he said.
More than 1,200 people chanted slogans denouncing Musharraf after they emerged from mosques following afternoon prayers in Karachi, the country's largest city.
In Quetta, about 200 protesters chanted "Long live Osama!" and "Long live Taliban!" as well as anti-Musharraf slogans. "It is an insult to dogs to call Musharraf a dog," one man shouted out.
Small rallies were also held in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad.
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad in Islamabad and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
அந்த தீவிரவாதிகளை கொல்ல பாகிஸ்தான் படை எல்லைக்கு நகர்கிறது.
எல்லா பெரு நகரங்களிலும் பாகிஸ்தான் ஜனாதிபதி பர்வேஸ் முஷாரப்புக்கூ எதிரான பெரும் போராட்டங்கள் ஊர்வலங்கள் நடைபெற்று வருகின்றன.
பல இடங்களில் பாகிஸ்தான் போலீஸ் மீதும் பாகிஸ்தான் ராணுவத்தினர் மீதும் தாக்குதல்களும், தற்கொலை தாக்குதல்களும் நடந்துவருகின்றன.
பலுச்ச்சிஸ்தான் குவெட்டாவில் ஊரடங்கு உத்தரவு
பஜாவூர் பகுதியில் மியூசிக் கடைகளில் புகுந்து டேப்புகளை எடுத்து அழிக்கும் இஸ்லாமிய தீவிரவாதிகள்
பர்வேஸ் முஷாரப்பின் உருவப்பொம்மையை எரிக்கும் இஸ்லாமிய தீவிரவாதிகள்
கொல்லப்பட்ட அப்துல் ரஷீத் காஜிக்கு ஈமச்சடங்கு
கராச்சியில் பர்வேஸ் முஷாரப்புக்கு எதிராக ஊர்வலம்
லாகூரில் பாகிஸ்தான் ஜனாதிபதிக்கு எதிரான போராட்ட ஊர்வலம்
Pakistani Troops Move Against Militants
By STEPHEN GRAHAM 07.13.07, 2:30 PM ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Thousands of soldiers rolled across northwestern Pakistan on Friday, a day after President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vowed to follow the storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque by eliminating extremism from "every corner" of the country.
Anti-Musharraf protesters took to the streets of every major city to blame the U.S.-backed leader for the violence at the mosque, some chanting slogans in favor of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
But the rallies were smaller than expected, and there was a lull in the violent backlash from militant groups that had staged suicide bombings and attacks on foreign aid groups in reaction to the mosque siege.
Officials said thousands of soldiers were deploying to various parts of North West Frontier Province, which borders Afghanistan and where militant groups are increasingly active.
An army brigade was heading up the Swat Valley, 75 miles northeast of Peshawar, where a suicide car bomber killed three policeman at a checkpoint Thursday, said Mohammed Javed, the valley's top administrator.
That attack raised to 35 the number of people killed in bombings and shootings in the northwest since the Red Mosque crisis began July 3.
Television footage showed army trucks, some pulling heavy artillery, lined up on a road in the area.
The Swat Valley is a stronghold of a radical cleric who has pressed for the imposition of Taliban-style rule, much like the leaders of the Red Mosque.
Maulana Fazlullah, who has close links to a militant group outlawed for sending followers to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2001, reportedly told supporters to prepare for holy war in response to the battle in the capital.
Asif Iqbal Daudzai, spokesman for the provincial government, said Fazlullah had broken an agreement to stop using FM radio broadcasts for anti-government agitation. If he does so again, security forces "will react," Daudzai told Dawn News television.
Troops were also sent to Dera Ismail Khan, a town near the tribally governed Waziristan border region, a Taliban stronghold where Washington says al-Qaida is regrouping.
Police said they raided a house in Dera Ismail Khan on Friday, arresting three suspected suicide bombers and seizing five explosives vests.
The military said it also deployed soldiers near Battagram, a northern town badly affected by a 2005 earthquake. According to aid workers and media reports, mobs broke off from a Thursday protest against the Red Mosque raid to loot and set fire to the offices of several international aid groups.
"Extremism and terrorism will be defeated in every corner of the country," Musharraf said. Madrassas, or religious schools, like the Red Mosque that inculcate violence among students will not be tolerated, he said.
More than 1,200 people chanted slogans denouncing Musharraf after they emerged from mosques following afternoon prayers in Karachi, the country's largest city.
In Quetta, about 200 protesters chanted "Long live Osama!" and "Long live Taliban!" as well as anti-Musharraf slogans. "It is an insult to dogs to call Musharraf a dog," one man shouted out.
Small rallies were also held in Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad.
Associated Press writers Munir Ahmad in Islamabad and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
ஆப்கானிஸ்தான்: தாலிபான் தற்கொலை தாக்குதலில் 12 பள்ளி மாணவர்கள் பலி
பள்ளிக்குச் செல்லும் சிறுவர்கள் 12 பேர் தாலிபான் நடத்திய தற்கொலை தாக்குதலில் பலியானார்கள்.
12 School Children Killed In Suicide Bomb Attack In Afghanistan []
7/10/2007 1:45:02 PM In another major attack by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, seventeen people, including 12 schoolchildren, have been killed and 30 people were injured when a bomber blew himself up on Tuesday. The tragedy took place in a market place in Dehrawood of Uruzgan province, a Taliban stronghold in south Afghanistan.
The children were caught in the explosion as they were returning home from classes near a crowded bazaar in Dehrawood.
The suicide bombing near a NATO-led convoy left seven of its soldiers injured, said the NATO-led international force. According to a BBC correspondent in Kabul, this is the third deadliest bomb attack in Afghanistan this year.
12 School Children Killed In Suicide Bomb Attack In Afghanistan []
7/10/2007 1:45:02 PM In another major attack by the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, seventeen people, including 12 schoolchildren, have been killed and 30 people were injured when a bomber blew himself up on Tuesday. The tragedy took place in a market place in Dehrawood of Uruzgan province, a Taliban stronghold in south Afghanistan.
The children were caught in the explosion as they were returning home from classes near a crowded bazaar in Dehrawood.
The suicide bombing near a NATO-led convoy left seven of its soldiers injured, said the NATO-led international force. According to a BBC correspondent in Kabul, this is the third deadliest bomb attack in Afghanistan this year.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
ஆப்கானிய போலீஸ் அதிகாரியின் மகனின் தலையை தாலிபான்கள் துண்டித்தனர்
ஆப்கானிய போலீஸ் அதிகாரியின் 18 வயது மகனின் தலையை தாலிபான்கள் துண்டித்தனர். தாலிபான்களிடம் இந்த போலீஸ் அதிகாரி கெஞ்சியிருக்கிறார். உங்களது எதிரி நான் தானே தவிர என் மகன் அல்ல. என்று
தாலிபான்கள் கேட்காமல் இவரது தலையை துண்டித்துள்ளனர்.
Taliban beheading
Last Updated : Monday 25 Jun, 2007
A district-level Afghan police chief has said that Taliban militants had beheaded his 18-year-old son. The teenager was captured while travelling through the southern province of Helmand after visiting his father, Sangin district police chief Ghulam Wali said.
"He was captured by Taliban and beheaded," Wali told AFP. Wali said he had been telephoned by the group who captured his son, Mohammad Ikhlas. He had pleaded for the teenager's life saying: "He's an innocent young boy and your enmity is with me not to him."
The police chief said the rebels told him they had taken the boy to the town of Musa Qala, which has been in the hands of the rebels for months. They called again and told him where to pick up the body, he said.
தாலிபான்கள் கேட்காமல் இவரது தலையை துண்டித்துள்ளனர்.
Taliban beheading
Last Updated : Monday 25 Jun, 2007
A district-level Afghan police chief has said that Taliban militants had beheaded his 18-year-old son. The teenager was captured while travelling through the southern province of Helmand after visiting his father, Sangin district police chief Ghulam Wali said.
"He was captured by Taliban and beheaded," Wali told AFP. Wali said he had been telephoned by the group who captured his son, Mohammad Ikhlas. He had pleaded for the teenager's life saying: "He's an innocent young boy and your enmity is with me not to him."
The police chief said the rebels told him they had taken the boy to the town of Musa Qala, which has been in the hands of the rebels for months. They called again and told him where to pick up the body, he said.
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