PKKH Direct | India/US Turnaround on Afghanistan and US/Pakistani Relations
Dan Qayyum
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Ambassador Is A Sore For US-Pakistani
Relationship ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—US Ambassador to Pakistan Ms. Anne W. Patterson is becoming quite controversial. She has overseen the worst spell in the relationship between Washington and Islamabad in sixty years and many say she is responsible for at least some of it. Ties weren’t this bad even when the United States unfairly sanctioned Pakistan in 1990 over its nuclear program. Mr. Thomas Houlahan, a Washington DC-based expert on Pakistani military issues, accused her in 2008 of conducting ‘bunker diplomacy’—that is, conducting United States diplomacy with Pakistan from the barricaded and isolated confines of her office inside a heavily fortified embassy building which in turn is located inside the isolated Diplomatic Enclave in an outer tip of Pakistan’s federal capital. [More] Kayani
Talks Of His Vision Of Afghanistan
DURING his candid talks with foreign journalists on Monday, COAS General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani crystallized Pakistan’s traditional stand on Afghanistan and warmth towards people of that country. Speaking in the backdrop of his trip to Brussels, where he put across
Pakistan’s point of view on Afghan conflict, the COAS reflected sentiments
of the nation by summarizing the country’s interest in the well-being of
the people of Afghanistan by saying “We cannot wish for Afghanistan
anything that we don’t wish for Pakistan”.
[READ] The Expanding US War In Pakistan Jeremy Scahill Three US special forces soldiers were killed in northwest Pakistan this week, confirming that the US military is more deeply engaged on the ground in Pakistan than previously acknowledged by the White House and Pentagon (see ” The Secret US War in Pakistan,” November 23, 2009). The soldiers died Wednesday in Lower Dir when their convoy was hit by a car bomber in what appeared to be a targeted strike against the Americans. According to CENTCOM, the US soldiers were in the country on a mission to train the Pakistani Frontier Corps, a federal paramilitary force run by Pakistan’s Interior Ministry that patrols the country’s volatile border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani journalist who witnessed the attack said that some of the US soldiers were dressed in civilian clothes and had been identified by their Pakistani handlers as journalists. The New York Times estimates that there are sixty to a hundred such US special forces “trainers” in Pakistan. Capt. Jack Hanzlik, a spokesman for the United States Central Command said there are about 200 US military personnel in Pakistan. [READ] Why India Came Back To The Negotiating Table ISLAMABAD: Renewed international pressure and growing realisation in New Delhi that the rapidly changing situation in Afghanistan could deprive it of its strategic leverage in the region has forced the sudden change of heart in India regarding ties with Pakistan, according to diplomats and analysts. “It was being increasingly felt by strategists in New Delhi that after recent conferences on Afghanistan that endorsed President Hamid Karzai’s plan for reintegrating Taliban, India was being left out and Pakistan might take the centre stage,” a diplomat told Dawn when asked about the Indian proposal for resumption of bilateral talks. [READ] Hafiz Saeed To Chidambaram: ‘Meet Me First Before Heading To Islamabad’ LAHORE: Banned Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed says that India has always betrayed Pakistan in the name of talks. Addressing a Kashmir Solidarity Rally here on Friday, he has asked Indian Home Minister Chidambaram to meet him first in Lahore before heading to Islamabad. Earlier, he led a rally from Chobrgi to Punjab Assembly to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day. The participants of the rally were holding placards inscribed with Kashmir slogans. “There is only one solution to all the problems – liberate Indian-held Kashmir. Otherwise the option of JIHAD is open for us,” Saeed said. [READ] Afghan Taliban To Execute US Soldier If Aafia Not Released PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban on Thursday demanded the release of Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who has been convicted by the US court on charges of her alleged attempt to murder US soldiers in Afghanistan, and threatened to execute an American soldier they were holding currently. They claimed Aafia Siddiqui’s family had approached the Taliban network through a Jirga of notables, seeking their assistance to put pressure on the US to provide her justice. [MORE] Indian
Home-Grown Militants Eye Common Wealth Games For
Attacks ISLAMABAD – The athletes face a risk of terrorist attacks during the October 3 to 14 Common Wealth Games in India. There are reports of possible attacks at the venues of different events at the game. The hotels where the players would be accommodated are said to at a greater risk. The reports reaching here from India and Nepal suggest that hardline Hindu organisations are joining hands with former LTTE members to sabotage the games. There is already resentment in South India about defeat of LTTE in Sri Lanka and weak stance of Congress government in condemning the military action by Sri Lankans. [READ] India Begs US Not To Leave Afghanistan Bharat Verma Islamabad aims to create a caliphate with the help of the Islamic regimes running from Central Asia to West Asia and Southeast Asia. India stands in the way. Beijing desires to unravel India into multiple parts based on the pre-British model as it cannot digest the challenge to its supremacy offered in Asia by a liberal union of multi-religious and multi-ethnic States. While China and Pakistan have joined hands against India and bide their time for the American forces to leave, New Delhi has appealed to Washington not to exit from Afghanistan. [MORE] Kayani Spells Out Threat Posed By India Cyril Almeida RAWALPINDI: While the Pakistan Army is alert to and fighting the threat posed by militancy, it remains an “India-centric” institution and that reality will not change in any significant way until the Kashmir issue and water disputes are resolved, according to army chief Gen Kayani. [MORE] Afghan Mujahideen: NOT FOR SALE My NEWSWEEK colleague Sami Yousafzai laughs at the notion that the Taliban can be bought or bribed. Few journalists, officials, or analysts know the Taliban the way he does. If the leadership, commanders, and subcommanders wanted comfortable lives, he says, they would have made their deals long ago. Instead they stayed committed to their cause even when they were on the run, with barely a hope of survival. Now they’re back in action across much of the south, east, and west, the provinces surrounding Kabul, and chunks of the north. They used to hope they might reach this point in 15 or 20 years. They’ve done it in eight. Many of them see this as proof that God is indeed on their side. The mujahedin warlords who regained power in the 2001 U.S. invasion have grown fabulously wealthy since then. The senior Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani could have done the same. [MORE] $500m for ‘Safe Exit’ from Afghanistan’s Unforgiving History Taliban today control 33 out of 34 provinces of Afghanistan and are under no pressure to negotiate with the ‘Governor of Kabul’ – as he’s mockingly called in Afghanistan due to his rule being limited to parts of the Afghan capital. The momentum is with the Taliban and they are in a position to dictate terms. Therefore the plan to rope in ‘moderate’ elements of the Taliban by promises of cash and power is a non-starter. [READ] |
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