Taleban reject Karzai peace plan
November 18, 2008
The president wants to reach out to moderate Taleban elements
Taleban militants in Afghanistan have rejected an offer of peace talks from Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
They have said that there can be no negotiations until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.
Unusual rush of voters in Kashmir
November 17, 2008
Many voters began queuing early
In Indian-administered Kashmir, there has been unusually strong turnout in the first phase of elections for a new state government.
Queues of hundreds of voters formed from early morning in the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley, defying a boycott called by separatist groups.
UK soldier killed in Afghanistan
November 16, 2008
The death takes the number of British troops killed in Afghanistan to 125
A British soldier has been killed in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence has said.
The soldier, from 2nd Battalion the Royal Ghurkha Rifles, was killed when his patrol was hit with an improvised explosive device on Saturday.
Sri Lanka army ‘takes Tiger base’
November 15, 2008
The Tamil Tigers are said to be putting up stiff resistance to the offensive
Sri Lankan soldiers have entered the strategically important Tamil Tiger stronghold of Pooneryn, according to the ministry of defence.
The move follows months of fighting and officials say pitched battles are still taking place in the area.
Afghan suicide attack kills many
November 13, 2008
Afghan suicide attack kills many
At least 20 civilians and an American soldier have been killed in a suicide car bomb attack against a US convoy in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The attack happened at a market near Jalalabad, the capital of the eastern Nangarhar province.
US aid worker killed in Pakistan
November 12, 2008
American aid workers have a strong presence in Pakistan
Gunmen in Pakistan have shot dead an American aid worker and his driver in the north-western city of Peshawar.
The men were killed just outside their office in the University Town area. It is not clear who the attackers were.
Pakistan hijacked trucks released
November 11, 2008
The militants posed for cameras after hijacking the trucks
Militants in north-west Pakistan have abandoned 12 trucks they hijacked a day earlier, local officials said.
The trucks were emptied of their contents and left in a valley. There is no word yet on the fate of the drivers.
The trucks were carrying supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan. They were stopped on Monday as they travelled through the Khyber Pass.
The road is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling against the Taleban in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Hauliers say that over 350 trucks daily carry an average of 7,000 tonnes of goods over the Khyber Pass to Kabul.
The trucks were seized at four places along a 20-mile (35km) stretch of the road, officials said.
They said about 60 masked gunmen took away the trucks with their drivers.
“The containers have been released. They were abandoned in a valley. They are empty,” a local official in the Khyber Agency tribal area said.
It was not clear what goods were the trucks transporting. The fate of the drivers is yet to be known.
Pakistani officials have blamed the hijacking on militants loyal to the Taleban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
‘Inadequate security’
Security along the road leading to the border has deteriorated this year, correspondents say, with soldiers recently carrying out an offensive in the Khyber region to drive militants away from the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the north-west.
Traders in the main town before the pass, Landikotal, complained that the government was not providing adequate security on the road.
About 24 trucks and oil-tankers have been attacked in the past month, transport operators said.
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  Baitullah Mehsud profile
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Last year, Sawab Khan, a member of the truckers’ association, told the BBC that goods transported include supplies for Western forces fighting the Taleban, as well as supplies for non-governmental organisations, the government and Afghan traders.
Mr Khan said that in addition to the threat caused by militants, every truck pays about 400,000 Pakistani rupees (about $5,000) annually in taxes and bribes.
Truckers who refuse to pay bribes are often made to park along the road and wait, sometimes for more than 24 hours, before they are allowed to move on, he said.
Some truckers also complain of extortion on the Afghan side of the border.
Supplies to the southern Afghan provinces of Kandahar and Herat pass through Quetta and across the Chaman border in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.
The truckers operating on this route say they confront fewer problems.
Source: bbc.co.uk/
Indian Muslims condemn terrorism
November 10, 2008
A third of India
A conference attended by thousands of Muslim clerics, scholars and community leaders in India has endorsed a religious ruling against terrorism.
The ruling or fatwa was issued earlier this year by an Islamic seminary.
It said that Islam rejected all kinds of bloodshed and the killing of innocents for selfish and politically motivated gains.
This is the first time the Islamic scholars have come together to give their backing to the measure.
The fatwa was issued in May this year by the religious school, Darul Uloom Deoband.
Coming from one of the most respected Islamic theological schools in the region, the fatwa is significant, correspondents say.
Abdul Hameed Nomani, one of the organisers of the conference, which was attended by more than 6,000 Islamic scholars, said: “Some people are involved in terrorist activities in the name of Islam and some are defaming Islam by involvement in terrorist activities.
“We condemn both. The country is facing a challenge. We must fight it together without calling it as a Hindu-Muslim problem.”
Misguided
Many Muslim leaders feel that the actions of a few misguided individuals were being linked to Islam, tarnishing the image of the community as a whole.
Today, at more than 138 million, Muslims constitute more than 13% of India ’s billion-strong population, and in sheer numbers are exceeded only by Indonesia’s and Pakistan’s Muslim communities.
Several Indian cities have recently been targeted by serial bombings which were blamed on Islamic militant groups.
The bombings also triggered tensions between Hindus and Muslims in some areas.
There have been a number of blasts in India blamed on Islamic militants
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The Indian Muslim leaders have now taken a series of initiatives to spell out clearly that the community is opposed to terrorism and it should not be unfairly viewed with suspicion.
The meeting also drew the government’s attention to a range of problems facing the community, including unemployment.
A recent government report confirmed that a majority of India’s Muslim population lagged behind members of other communities, according to various social and economic indicators.
At just under 60%, the community’s literacy rate is lower than the national average of 65%. Only half of Muslim women can read and write.
As many as a quarter of Muslim children in the age group 6-14 have either never attended school or dropped out.
They are also poor - 31% of Muslims are below the country’s poverty line, just slightly above the lowest castes and tribes.
Source: bbc.co.uk/
CBC reporter freed in Afghanistan
November 9, 2008
A Canadian CBC TV journalist has been freed in Afghanistan four weeks after being kidnapped in the capital, Kabul.
Armed men seized Mellissa Fung on 12 October as she reported from a refugee camp on the outskirts of the city and took her to mountains to the west.
Ms Fung was freed after tribal elders negotiated for her release, a spokesman for Wardak’s provincial governor said.
Ms Fung said in a videotaped message that she had been kept blindfolded in a cave where it was difficult to stand.
“I’m fine, really, I’m fine. I’m just happy to be here,” she said.
Speaking to Canada’s ambassador, she admitted: “I’m not smelling great”.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said no ransom had been paid by his government, CBC or anyone else.
But he revealed that hundreds of Canadian and Afghan officials had been involved over the past month in efforts to free her, and that he had called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to thank him.
“She sounded in remarkably good spirits under the circumstances. She said that she feels OK,” Mr Harper told a news conference.
John Cruickshank, the publisher of CBC News, called Ms Fung’s release “great news” and also paid tribute to the Afghan government.
Reporters for Western news outlets in Afghanistan had been aware of Ms Fung’s abduction, but CBC requested that her case not be publicised while officials tried to negotiate her release.
Source: bbc.co.uk/
‘US strike’ on Pakistan militants
November 8, 2008
A suspected US missile strike in north-west Pakistan has killed at least 11 people, Pakistani officials say.
The attack by a US drone targeted Taleban militants in the tribal region of North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border, they said.
Local people say the house of fighters loyal to a Taleban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, was hit.
The US has not confirmed the attack. It has carried out many attacks along Pakistan’s border areas recently.