Seven killed as militants attack CRPF camp in Srinagar

Two militants and five Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed in a suicide attack on a CRPF camp close to Police Public School in Bemina area of Srinagar in Kashmir valley on Wednesday.

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Two fidayeen (suicide squads) and five CRPF men were killed in the terror attack, official sources confirmed The Hindu and said that at least six more persons were believed to have sustained injuries.

This is the first suicide attack in Kashmir in three years. In January 2010, three militants and five others were killed in a 48-hour operation at the Srinagar's major business nerve centre of Lalchowk.

Afghan Taliban may replace top negotiator;

ISLAMABAD: The current top Taliban peace negotiator may be too inexperienced to get the job done and could be replaced.

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Syed Tayyeb Agha and his team are not expected to achieve the desired results in the negotiations, a former Taliban minister told The Express Tribune. “Tayyeb Agha and all other Taliban negotiators are not seniors and lack the ability to smoothly take the dialogue process forward and deal with all sides and important players in the Afghan conflict,” he said.

Growing international pressure to come to the table has also played a part in this development as the perception is that Agha is ‘too junior’ to effectively interact with national and international stakeholders.

On the surface, though, Agha is not entirely without experience. He has served as a spokesperson to Taliban chief Mullah Omar. Last year, he acted as negotiator during the inconclusive Afghan Taliban talks with the US in Qatar. He was also involved in negotiations with the Germans and his Pakistani experience came from serving as first secretary in the Afghan embassy in Islamabad during the Taliban regime.

Insider Attack Kills Several in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan ¯ An Afghan police officer fired on American Special Operations troops and Afghan forces Monday morning, killing two coalition soldiers in the second insider attack in three days, Afghan officials said.

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The shooting, at a joint military base in Wardak Province, happened shortly after a security meeting between the police and American and Afghan forces, the officials said. The gunman, who fired from a truck-mounted machine gun, was killed, said Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Defense Ministry spokesman.

Afghan officials also said that three Afghan police officers died in the firefight, and that the district police chief was seriously wounded. The death toll for other Afghan security forces, including the commandos who shared the base with the Special Operations soldiers, was unclear. It was also not clear whether the attacker was a Taliban infiltrator.

The violence in Wardak Province, a Taliban stronghold southwest of Kabul that is often used as a staging ground for attacks on the capital, comes at a sensitive time for both the Americans and the Afghans.

Angry over detentions, Afghan villagers threaten uprising if US special forces don’t leave

MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan ¯ An Afghan policeman gunned down two U.S. special forces on Monday in Wardak province, less than 24 hours after President Hamid Karzai’s deadline expired for them to leave the area where residents have grown increasingly hostile toward the Americans.

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Despite Karzai’s orders, the American special operations forces remain in the province where dozens of villagers accuse them and their Afghan partners of intimidation through unprovoked beatings, mass arrests and forced detentions. The shootout, which also killed two Afghan policemen, only deepens the distrust.

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says it has found no evidence to support the claims of abuse. But infuriated by the villagers’ allegations, Karzai two weeks ago ordered U.S. special operations forces to withdraw by midnight Sunday from Wardak province, 45 kilometers (27 miles) south of the capital, Kabul.

Most international forces are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. Wardak, like the rest of the country, is slated to be eventually handed over to Afghan forces, but U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, indicated on Sunday that the troops were not leaving Wardak province just yet.

Fazl declares anti-terrorism war a failure

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday said the so-called war against terrorism launched by the US 10 years ago had failed to deliver the goods.

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He said this while addressing a meeting of tribal elders here.

Mr Rehman alleged that instead of winding up the soc-called war against terrorism after its failure, the US had paced up drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas killing innocent people, including women and children.

He said the US had entered Afghanistan in the name of fighting terrorism 10 years ago but wanted to pull out of the country after suffering a humiliating defeat.

The JUI-F chief urged tribesmen to get united under the banner of his party to help its leadership resolve the current security crisis.

SC rejects Punjab Police report on Badami Bagh attack

ISLAMABAD: While rejecting the Punjab Police report on the Badami Bagh attack, the Supreme Court has declared it complete failure of the police, saying it could not find out the root cause of the incident.

The court has directed the Punjab government through its advocate general to file comments in the case on Wednesday (tomorrow) so that it could pass an appropriate order against all the police officers, including Punjab acting inspector general, because they are equally responsible for the incident. It also asked the provincial government why Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman’s report on the Gojra incident was not made public and why had the government not implemented the recommendations in it.

The court asked why had the government constituted commissions on different matters if it was not interested in making their findings public. It also questioned why was the Christian colony evacuated by the police before the incident and why were measures not taken to protect the Christian community if there were fears of an attack. The court observed that prima facie it appears that this was a land dispute because of which houses in the locality were evacuated.

Valley schools counsel boys not to take part in protests

Morning assemblies, which were held today at private and government schools of the Valley after 100 days of winter vacations, imparted moral lessons to boys for not indulging in stone-throwing incidents.

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As the Kashmir valley is limping back to normalcy amid fears of the return of the street violence, school teachers arranged for some counselling sessions with students.

Teachers say imparting moral “gyaan” to students is part of their job, although there aren’t any strict orders from the higher authorities for organising such sessions.

“We think it is necessary to conduct morning assemblies and give some moral lessons to students apart from academics so that no untoward incidents happen in the vicinity of schools,” said Bashir Ahmad Darzi, Principal, Sri Pratap School, Srinagar, where 3,000 boys are enrolled in the +2 level.

Omar govt grants amnesty to 1,811 stone-throwers

The state government has granted amnesty to 1,811 persons involved in stone-throwing cases in the Valley during 2010 summer unrest “to facilitate youth to pursue their higher education and get job opportunities”.


It, however, said the amnesty would not be extended to all those who were involved in arson and damage to public property during the unrest.

“In the aftermath of announcement of amnesty scheme on April 12 last, the government has granted amnesty to 1,811 persons involved in 230 cases of stone-throwing incidents of 2010 and 2011,” Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said in a written reply in the Assembly here today.

The amnesty policy was announced in the run-up to the Eid festival during the holy month of Ramadan. “The scheme envisages amnesty to all those involved in stone-throwing incidents during the summer unrest in the Kashmir valley from March 2010,” Omar said.