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Recklessness, Lack of Oversight Blamed for Kabul Bank Crisis
VOA News November 28, 2012
An independent panel probing Afghanistan's failed Kabul Bank says a few individuals acted with "reckless disregard" in defrauding the bank, while a lack of oversight and enforcement contributed to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
A new report issued Wednesday says $861 million in illicit loans were made to 19 individuals and businesses, including $270 million to the bank's former chairman.
The committee says senior bank officials told employees to make loans based on fabricated records, and used two sets of accounting books to carry out a "sophisticated operation of fraudulent lending and embezzlement."
The 87-page report says the scheme utilized new loans to give the impression that money was being repaid, but that true repayments of principal or interest were "extremely rare."
The committee was created in 2010 to monitor and evaluate anti-corruption efforts, and includes three Afghans and three international appointees.
It says Afghan citizens will bear the cost of the bank's failure with money that could have been used for education, healthcare, infrastructure or security.
Major bank failure
Kabul Bank was once Afghanistan's largest private lender and nearly collapsed in 2010. Afghanistan's central bank stepped in and took control of the bank, which was later split into two.
Wednesday's report calls Kabul Bank one of the biggest banking failures in the world, and says it will undermine not only public trust in financial and government institutions, but also efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.
The report says bank management gave out $66 million in bank funds used to benefit businesses they controlled. The money bought properties, hundreds of cars and paid salaries to Pamir Airways employees described as "pilots for cash delivery."
Almost $6 million went to travel expenses that were explained with few details and often no supporting documents.
As of August, $128 million in cash and another $190 million in assets had been recovered.
21 indicted
Afghanistan's attorney general has indicted 21 people and named several others as persons of interest in connection with criminal activity at Kabul Bank. The report says five people are in custody, but that many of those indicted and considered persons of interest have fled the country.
The Afghan government has called for the United States to extradite the former head of the Afghan central bank, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, who fled to the U.S. last year. Fitrat said he feared for his life after trying to prosecute those who stole from Kabul Bank. Afghan officials say Fitrat played a role in the scandal and want him brought back to Afghanistan to face charges.
The new report criticizes outside political influence on the attorney general's independent ability to determine what charges should be brought. It cites a committee set up by President Hamid Karzai in 2011 to report on the crisis, which immediately announced the Afghan leader would himself decide whom to prosecute.
Karzai also issued a decree absolving those who paid back the principal of outstanding loans from having to pay interest or face criminal charges.
The panel said there is "great concern" about delays and the manner of the attorney general's own investigation. The report says "reasonable grounds" for an investigation existed as early as September 2010, but that a formal investigation did not begin until April 2011.
Political ramifications
The panel says some of the bank's money went toward financing the campaigns of at least one presidential candidate and between 30 and 40 parliamentarians. It recommended Afghanistan adopt political financing regulations that include open reports of who makes political contributions.
The panel also says the attorney general's office should document its investigations in writing, including "clear rationale" for why it decided to issue or not issue any charges.
The report also calls on a special tribunal set up by Karzai to hear the case to focus its efforts on processing the charges of those already indicted, instead of other activities including those related to recovering funds.
The panel, officially known as the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, asked the Afghan government, the country's central bank and other affected institutions to respond in 60 days with their intentions to implement the committee's recommendations.
U.S., Pakistan ties fully repaired: Pakistan foreign minister
Reuters By Katharine Houreld Wed Nov 28, 2012
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and the United States have restored full military and intelligence ties after relations hit a low point last year, and Islamabad will take further steps to support a nascent Afghan peace process, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Full cooperation between Islamabad and Washington is critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan before most NATO combat troops withdraw by 2014.
"There was a fairly difficult patch and I think we've moved away from that into a positive trajectory," Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Reuters in an interview, referring to Pakistani-U.S. relations.
"We are coming closer to developing what could be common positions. We wish to see a responsible transition in Afghanistan."
Relations between the uneasy allies were severely strained by a series of incidents in 2011. The crisis in ties began when a CIA contractor shot dead two men he suspected of trying to rob him in the city of Lahore.
Months later, U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid and kept the Pakistan military in the dark, humiliating the country's most powerful institution.
Then a NATO air raid mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border in November that year.
In response, Pakistan expelled U.S. military trainers and CIA agents and placed limits on the numbers of visas given to U.S. diplomatic personnel.
Pakistan, which relies heavily on American aid, also closed supply routes for trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Now, Khar said, relations were fully repaired, including military and intelligence contacts.
"We are having very useful, deep conversations with the U.S.," she said, as the two countries try to find common ground on Afghanistan ahead of the scheduled 2014 pullout.
"UNRELIABLE PARTNER"
Both the United States and Afghanistan have long regarded Pakistan as an unreliable partner in the drive to bring stability to Afghanistan, accusing Pakistan's intelligence agency of backing Afghan insurgent groups.
Pakistan denies that.
Pakistan recently released mid-level Afghan Taliban prisoners to help facilitate peace talks between the militant group and the Kabul government, the clearest sign it was committed to advancing Afghan reconciliation.
Khar said Islamabad was willing to take further steps but would not say whether that would include releasing senior Afghan Taliban figures, like the former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
"I think it is important that we have intensive engagement on what needs to be done," she said.
Afghan officials think Baradar may be one of the few commanders with the stature to bring elements of the Taliban into peace talks after more than a decade of war.
During a recent visit to Pakistan by members of the Afghan High Peace Council, Pakistan agreed to release some prisoners, although not Baradar, and to provide safe passage for those wishing to enter talks, Khar said.
Pakistan would also encourage Afghan insurgents to enter into direct talks with President Hamid Karzai's government. So far, there have been only contacts.
"For us in Pakistan today, the most important capital in the world is Kabul," said Khar, because instability there could spill over into Pakistan, and fuel its own Taliban insurgency.
She said the Afghan and Pakistan governments were discussing ways to strengthen military cooperation.
Currently, relations are strained. Afghanistan still suspects elements in Pakistan of supporting the Taliban, despite denials from Islamabad. The Pakistan military, pursing Pakistani insurgents, has also shelled villages across the border in Afghanistan, prompting protests.
CLOSER TIES WITH INDIA
In addition to improving ties with Afghanistan, Khar said Pakistan also wanted to pursue closer ties with arch-rival India.
The United States has long believed that Pakistan would focus more closely on helping it pacify Afghanistan if relations with India improved.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947 and are at loggerheads over the status of the disputed territory of Kashmir.
"The Pakistani leadership has shown a great willingness to move forward, sometimes at the cost of losing some political capital, because sometimes improving ties with India might not be the most popular thing to do," said Khar.
Many Pakistani politicians blame India for Pakistan's insurgencies or spiraling crime rate, saying their wealthier, more populous neighbor wants to weaken Pakistan.
India, in turn, blames Pakistan for sending militants to infiltrate Kashmir over several decades and suspects Pakistan of shielding those behind a 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead. India executed the only surviving perpetrator in their custody, a young Pakistani man, last week.
That should be an opportunity for the two countries to put the attack behind them and move forward, said Khar. Their warming relations recently resulted in an agreement easing trade and travel restrictions.
"We are clear that we want Pakistani-India relations to move forward swiftly," she said.
(Editing by Michael Georgy and Robert Birsel)
Special US Envoy to Afghanistan, Pakistan Steps Down
VOA News November 28, 2012
The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan is stepping down.
The State Department says Marc Grossman will leave next month to return to private life, and will be replaced by his deputy, David Pearce.
Grossman came out of retirement to take the job early last year, following the sudden death of former envoy Richard Holbrooke.
His tenure has included tense relations between the United States and Pakistan over the issues of drone strikes on Pakistani soil, an American airstrike that mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and the U.S. raid in Abbottabad that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Grossman has also worked to support Afghanistan's peace process and stressed the need for Pakistan to be a part of the reconciliation.
In a statement late Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked Grossman for his efforts to lead a diplomatic campaign that she says has led to a network of regional and international support for Afghanistan after 2014.
Prior to becoming the special envoy, Grossman was a veteran senior diplomat who served in Pakistan and was U.S. ambassador to Turkey. He retired in 2005 as undersecretary of state for political affairs, which is traditionally the highest post for a career foreign service officer.
Two Arrested After Teenage Girl Beheaded In Afghanistan
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan November 28, 2012
KONDUZ, Afghanistan -- Two men have been arrested in Afghanistan's northern province of Konduz in connection with the beheading of a 14-year-old girl.
Local police officer Nizamuddin Hakimi told RFE/RL that the girl's body was found late on November 27 in the province’s Imam Sahib District.
Hakimi said that a preliminary investigation revealed that the two suspects had asked the girl's parents if one of them could marry her.
Both the girl and her parents reportedly rejected the proposal.
Hakimi gave no further details regarding the men's possible connection to the killing.
Last month, a 20-year-old Afghan woman was beheaded in Herat Province, reportedly for refusing to work as a prostitute.
Four suspects, including the victim's husband and in-laws, were arrested for that killing.
Afghan skirmishes claim 36 lives in 2 days
KABUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Taliban-linked insurgency and conflicts have claimed the lives of 36 people including nine civilians over the past two days in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
In the latest string of violent incidents, a roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in Taliban hotbed the southern Helmand province Wednesday morning leaving all the commuters, the four non- combatants dead.
Four Afghan civilians were killed as a roadside bomb struck a car in Helmand province 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, Interior ministry said in a statement released here.
"The tragic incident happened in Alizai area of Nawzad district at 08:30 a.m. local time killing all the four travelers on the spot," the statement added.
It also blamed Taliban militants for planting the mine, saying all those killed in the blast were civilians.
In a related violent event, Taliban militants after kidnapping five civilians in Kunar province 185 km east of Afghan capital Kabul, shot them dead and handed their bodies over to the villagers on Wednesday morning, provincial police spokesman, Shir Wali Samim said.
"Taliban rebels abducted five members of local development council in Watapur district couple of days ago and after shooting them dead last night, handed their bodies over to the villagers this morning," Samim told Xinhua.
The local development council is a government-back body working with local administration on reconstruction field in rural areas.
Taliban militants, who fight the government and target any individual serving the administration and NATO-led troops, have yet to make comment.
Meantime, the Afghan Interior Ministry in a statement released here Wednesday reported killing 27 Taliban fighters over the past two days.
"Afghan National Police backed by the army and NATO-led coalition forces have killed 27 Taliban militants during series of operations conducted in Kabul, Laghman, Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan and Nangarhar provinces over the past 24 hours," the Interior Ministry statement added.
Taliban kill 5 civilians in eastern Afghan province: official
ASSADABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants after kidnapping five civilians in Kunar province, shot them dead and handed their bodies to villagers on Wednesday, provincial police spokesman, Shir Wali Samim said.
"Taliban rebels abducted five members of local development council in Watapur district couple of days ago and shot them dead last night," Samim told Xinhua. The local development council is a government-back body working with local administration on reconstruction field in rural areas.
He also said that the militants handed over the bodies including a tribal leader Malik Arsala to the villagers Wednesday morning.
Taliban militants fighting the government and target any individual serving the administration have yet to make comment.
Afghanistan Supply Network Provides Economic Opportunity
Department of Defense By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service Nov. 28, 2012
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill - The Northern Distribution Network that U.S. Transportation Command helped establish three years ago to supply U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan laid the foundations for strong U.S. partnerships in Central Asia and Russia and for the region’s long-term economic security, the Transcom commander said.
Air Force Gen. William M. Fraser III traveled through the region last month, thanking the governments for their support for the network’s multiple truck, water, rail and air routes used to transport about 40 percent of all military cargo destined for Afghanistan.
The routes have been particularly critical during the past year, Fraser noted, because the Pakistani government closed logistical routes known as the Pakistan ground lines of communication in November 2011 after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed during a border incident with U.S. troops. Pakistan announced in July that it would reopen the route, but Transcom is still working to break the logjam created by thousands of shipping containers that had been stranded for months.
Relying heavily on the Northern Distribution Network since the closure, Transcom ensured that warfighters in Afghanistan never went without the logistical support they needed, Fraser said during an interview with American Forces Press Service.
“They had the sustainment they needed because we had developed these relationships and had multiple lanes [of supply] to use,” he said.
Now, as the United States lays plans to draw down in Afghanistan, Fraser said he’s found support for strengthening those relationships and improving the processes behind the transportation network -- not just for the duration of the Afghanistan mission and redeployment, but beyond.
Recognizing that U.S. shipments will diminish over time, leaders in nations supporting the NDN see the routes established to support the war effort in Afghanistan as a path to economic progress, Fraser noted. “I think the NDN is opening up opportunities for the future that these countries can capitalize on,” he said.
Nations are working together in unprecedented ways as a result of NDN agreements and exploring ways to streamline their import and export procedures to encourage cross-border commerce.
“We are already seeing some of that,” Fraser said. “As they look forward to the future, these countries know that the military is not going to be doing things at the same level that we have been for a long time. So they are looking for ways to capitalize on what has happened as a result of the Northern Distribution Network.”
Ambassador Dennise Mathieu, Fraser’s foreign policy advisor who accompanied him on the trip, said these efforts fit into the State Department’s vision of a “New Silk Road” that offers new potential in one of the least economically integrated areas of the world.
The goal is to reconnect economies that had been torn apart by decades of war and rivalry, helping restore commercial bonds among some of the world’s fastest-growing economies that sit at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
“The idea is that you can build on the links that have already been established in an economic way,” Mathieu said.
Those efforts are bearing fruit in infrastructure improvements to support this vision, she reported. Azerbaijan is building a new port with hopes of becoming a transportation hub. Rail connections are being built between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and a recently completed rail line runs from the Uzbek border to Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan.
“Eventually, with continued cooperation, they will be able to go all the way from China into Europe,” Mathieu said. “You will have a whole new economic network, built upon the foundation of this military logistics supply network.”
By integrating economically, regional nations will have a lasting impact that supports U.S. national interests in the region, she said.
“We believe that when you have economic prosperity, then that helps bring about stability and security,” Mathieu said. “So therefore, the region is going to be more secure. You will have less conflict. It provides opportunities for people to prosper and for their children to go to school and provides the conditions to start to build a democratic base and institutions.”
“All of that is good for the United States,” she said, opening new economic markets and strengthening partnerships across the region.
“This is something that has brought people together,” Mathieu said. “It’s something that enables them to put any differences or difficulties aside so they can work together toward something that benefits everyone.”
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
VOA News November 28, 2012
An independent panel probing Afghanistan's failed Kabul Bank says a few individuals acted with "reckless disregard" in defrauding the bank, while a lack of oversight and enforcement contributed to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars.
A new report issued Wednesday says $861 million in illicit loans were made to 19 individuals and businesses, including $270 million to the bank's former chairman.
The committee says senior bank officials told employees to make loans based on fabricated records, and used two sets of accounting books to carry out a "sophisticated operation of fraudulent lending and embezzlement."
The 87-page report says the scheme utilized new loans to give the impression that money was being repaid, but that true repayments of principal or interest were "extremely rare."
The committee was created in 2010 to monitor and evaluate anti-corruption efforts, and includes three Afghans and three international appointees.
It says Afghan citizens will bear the cost of the bank's failure with money that could have been used for education, healthcare, infrastructure or security.
Major bank failure
Kabul Bank was once Afghanistan's largest private lender and nearly collapsed in 2010. Afghanistan's central bank stepped in and took control of the bank, which was later split into two.
Wednesday's report calls Kabul Bank one of the biggest banking failures in the world, and says it will undermine not only public trust in financial and government institutions, but also efforts to rebuild Afghanistan.
The report says bank management gave out $66 million in bank funds used to benefit businesses they controlled. The money bought properties, hundreds of cars and paid salaries to Pamir Airways employees described as "pilots for cash delivery."
Almost $6 million went to travel expenses that were explained with few details and often no supporting documents.
As of August, $128 million in cash and another $190 million in assets had been recovered.
21 indicted
Afghanistan's attorney general has indicted 21 people and named several others as persons of interest in connection with criminal activity at Kabul Bank. The report says five people are in custody, but that many of those indicted and considered persons of interest have fled the country.
The Afghan government has called for the United States to extradite the former head of the Afghan central bank, Abdul Qadir Fitrat, who fled to the U.S. last year. Fitrat said he feared for his life after trying to prosecute those who stole from Kabul Bank. Afghan officials say Fitrat played a role in the scandal and want him brought back to Afghanistan to face charges.
The new report criticizes outside political influence on the attorney general's independent ability to determine what charges should be brought. It cites a committee set up by President Hamid Karzai in 2011 to report on the crisis, which immediately announced the Afghan leader would himself decide whom to prosecute.
Karzai also issued a decree absolving those who paid back the principal of outstanding loans from having to pay interest or face criminal charges.
The panel said there is "great concern" about delays and the manner of the attorney general's own investigation. The report says "reasonable grounds" for an investigation existed as early as September 2010, but that a formal investigation did not begin until April 2011.
Political ramifications
The panel says some of the bank's money went toward financing the campaigns of at least one presidential candidate and between 30 and 40 parliamentarians. It recommended Afghanistan adopt political financing regulations that include open reports of who makes political contributions.
The panel also says the attorney general's office should document its investigations in writing, including "clear rationale" for why it decided to issue or not issue any charges.
The report also calls on a special tribunal set up by Karzai to hear the case to focus its efforts on processing the charges of those already indicted, instead of other activities including those related to recovering funds.
The panel, officially known as the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, asked the Afghan government, the country's central bank and other affected institutions to respond in 60 days with their intentions to implement the committee's recommendations.
U.S., Pakistan ties fully repaired: Pakistan foreign minister
Reuters By Katharine Houreld Wed Nov 28, 2012
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and the United States have restored full military and intelligence ties after relations hit a low point last year, and Islamabad will take further steps to support a nascent Afghan peace process, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Full cooperation between Islamabad and Washington is critical to U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan before most NATO combat troops withdraw by 2014.
"There was a fairly difficult patch and I think we've moved away from that into a positive trajectory," Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told Reuters in an interview, referring to Pakistani-U.S. relations.
"We are coming closer to developing what could be common positions. We wish to see a responsible transition in Afghanistan."
Relations between the uneasy allies were severely strained by a series of incidents in 2011. The crisis in ties began when a CIA contractor shot dead two men he suspected of trying to rob him in the city of Lahore.
Months later, U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid and kept the Pakistan military in the dark, humiliating the country's most powerful institution.
Then a NATO air raid mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border in November that year.
In response, Pakistan expelled U.S. military trainers and CIA agents and placed limits on the numbers of visas given to U.S. diplomatic personnel.
Pakistan, which relies heavily on American aid, also closed supply routes for trucks carrying supplies to U.S.-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Now, Khar said, relations were fully repaired, including military and intelligence contacts.
"We are having very useful, deep conversations with the U.S.," she said, as the two countries try to find common ground on Afghanistan ahead of the scheduled 2014 pullout.
"UNRELIABLE PARTNER"
Both the United States and Afghanistan have long regarded Pakistan as an unreliable partner in the drive to bring stability to Afghanistan, accusing Pakistan's intelligence agency of backing Afghan insurgent groups.
Pakistan denies that.
Pakistan recently released mid-level Afghan Taliban prisoners to help facilitate peace talks between the militant group and the Kabul government, the clearest sign it was committed to advancing Afghan reconciliation.
Khar said Islamabad was willing to take further steps but would not say whether that would include releasing senior Afghan Taliban figures, like the former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
"I think it is important that we have intensive engagement on what needs to be done," she said.
Afghan officials think Baradar may be one of the few commanders with the stature to bring elements of the Taliban into peace talks after more than a decade of war.
During a recent visit to Pakistan by members of the Afghan High Peace Council, Pakistan agreed to release some prisoners, although not Baradar, and to provide safe passage for those wishing to enter talks, Khar said.
Pakistan would also encourage Afghan insurgents to enter into direct talks with President Hamid Karzai's government. So far, there have been only contacts.
"For us in Pakistan today, the most important capital in the world is Kabul," said Khar, because instability there could spill over into Pakistan, and fuel its own Taliban insurgency.
She said the Afghan and Pakistan governments were discussing ways to strengthen military cooperation.
Currently, relations are strained. Afghanistan still suspects elements in Pakistan of supporting the Taliban, despite denials from Islamabad. The Pakistan military, pursing Pakistani insurgents, has also shelled villages across the border in Afghanistan, prompting protests.
CLOSER TIES WITH INDIA
In addition to improving ties with Afghanistan, Khar said Pakistan also wanted to pursue closer ties with arch-rival India.
The United States has long believed that Pakistan would focus more closely on helping it pacify Afghanistan if relations with India improved.
The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since their independence from British rule in 1947 and are at loggerheads over the status of the disputed territory of Kashmir.
"The Pakistani leadership has shown a great willingness to move forward, sometimes at the cost of losing some political capital, because sometimes improving ties with India might not be the most popular thing to do," said Khar.
Many Pakistani politicians blame India for Pakistan's insurgencies or spiraling crime rate, saying their wealthier, more populous neighbor wants to weaken Pakistan.
India, in turn, blames Pakistan for sending militants to infiltrate Kashmir over several decades and suspects Pakistan of shielding those behind a 2008 attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead. India executed the only surviving perpetrator in their custody, a young Pakistani man, last week.
That should be an opportunity for the two countries to put the attack behind them and move forward, said Khar. Their warming relations recently resulted in an agreement easing trade and travel restrictions.
"We are clear that we want Pakistani-India relations to move forward swiftly," she said.
(Editing by Michael Georgy and Robert Birsel)
Special US Envoy to Afghanistan, Pakistan Steps Down
VOA News November 28, 2012
The U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan is stepping down.
The State Department says Marc Grossman will leave next month to return to private life, and will be replaced by his deputy, David Pearce.
Grossman came out of retirement to take the job early last year, following the sudden death of former envoy Richard Holbrooke.
His tenure has included tense relations between the United States and Pakistan over the issues of drone strikes on Pakistani soil, an American airstrike that mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and the U.S. raid in Abbottabad that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Grossman has also worked to support Afghanistan's peace process and stressed the need for Pakistan to be a part of the reconciliation.
In a statement late Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanked Grossman for his efforts to lead a diplomatic campaign that she says has led to a network of regional and international support for Afghanistan after 2014.
Prior to becoming the special envoy, Grossman was a veteran senior diplomat who served in Pakistan and was U.S. ambassador to Turkey. He retired in 2005 as undersecretary of state for political affairs, which is traditionally the highest post for a career foreign service officer.
Two Arrested After Teenage Girl Beheaded In Afghanistan
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan November 28, 2012
KONDUZ, Afghanistan -- Two men have been arrested in Afghanistan's northern province of Konduz in connection with the beheading of a 14-year-old girl.
Local police officer Nizamuddin Hakimi told RFE/RL that the girl's body was found late on November 27 in the province’s Imam Sahib District.
Hakimi said that a preliminary investigation revealed that the two suspects had asked the girl's parents if one of them could marry her.
Both the girl and her parents reportedly rejected the proposal.
Hakimi gave no further details regarding the men's possible connection to the killing.
Last month, a 20-year-old Afghan woman was beheaded in Herat Province, reportedly for refusing to work as a prostitute.
Four suspects, including the victim's husband and in-laws, were arrested for that killing.
Afghan skirmishes claim 36 lives in 2 days
KABUL, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Taliban-linked insurgency and conflicts have claimed the lives of 36 people including nine civilians over the past two days in the conflict-ridden Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.
In the latest string of violent incidents, a roadside bomb struck a civilian vehicle in Taliban hotbed the southern Helmand province Wednesday morning leaving all the commuters, the four non- combatants dead.
Four Afghan civilians were killed as a roadside bomb struck a car in Helmand province 555 km south of Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday, Interior ministry said in a statement released here.
"The tragic incident happened in Alizai area of Nawzad district at 08:30 a.m. local time killing all the four travelers on the spot," the statement added.
It also blamed Taliban militants for planting the mine, saying all those killed in the blast were civilians.
In a related violent event, Taliban militants after kidnapping five civilians in Kunar province 185 km east of Afghan capital Kabul, shot them dead and handed their bodies over to the villagers on Wednesday morning, provincial police spokesman, Shir Wali Samim said.
"Taliban rebels abducted five members of local development council in Watapur district couple of days ago and after shooting them dead last night, handed their bodies over to the villagers this morning," Samim told Xinhua.
The local development council is a government-back body working with local administration on reconstruction field in rural areas.
Taliban militants, who fight the government and target any individual serving the administration and NATO-led troops, have yet to make comment.
Meantime, the Afghan Interior Ministry in a statement released here Wednesday reported killing 27 Taliban fighters over the past two days.
"Afghan National Police backed by the army and NATO-led coalition forces have killed 27 Taliban militants during series of operations conducted in Kabul, Laghman, Kunduz, Sar-e-Pul, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan and Nangarhar provinces over the past 24 hours," the Interior Ministry statement added.
Taliban kill 5 civilians in eastern Afghan province: official
ASSADABAD, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants after kidnapping five civilians in Kunar province, shot them dead and handed their bodies to villagers on Wednesday, provincial police spokesman, Shir Wali Samim said.
"Taliban rebels abducted five members of local development council in Watapur district couple of days ago and shot them dead last night," Samim told Xinhua. The local development council is a government-back body working with local administration on reconstruction field in rural areas.
He also said that the militants handed over the bodies including a tribal leader Malik Arsala to the villagers Wednesday morning.
Taliban militants fighting the government and target any individual serving the administration have yet to make comment.
Afghanistan Supply Network Provides Economic Opportunity
Department of Defense By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service Nov. 28, 2012
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill - The Northern Distribution Network that U.S. Transportation Command helped establish three years ago to supply U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan laid the foundations for strong U.S. partnerships in Central Asia and Russia and for the region’s long-term economic security, the Transcom commander said.
Air Force Gen. William M. Fraser III traveled through the region last month, thanking the governments for their support for the network’s multiple truck, water, rail and air routes used to transport about 40 percent of all military cargo destined for Afghanistan.
The routes have been particularly critical during the past year, Fraser noted, because the Pakistani government closed logistical routes known as the Pakistan ground lines of communication in November 2011 after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed during a border incident with U.S. troops. Pakistan announced in July that it would reopen the route, but Transcom is still working to break the logjam created by thousands of shipping containers that had been stranded for months.
Relying heavily on the Northern Distribution Network since the closure, Transcom ensured that warfighters in Afghanistan never went without the logistical support they needed, Fraser said during an interview with American Forces Press Service.
“They had the sustainment they needed because we had developed these relationships and had multiple lanes [of supply] to use,” he said.
Now, as the United States lays plans to draw down in Afghanistan, Fraser said he’s found support for strengthening those relationships and improving the processes behind the transportation network -- not just for the duration of the Afghanistan mission and redeployment, but beyond.
Recognizing that U.S. shipments will diminish over time, leaders in nations supporting the NDN see the routes established to support the war effort in Afghanistan as a path to economic progress, Fraser noted. “I think the NDN is opening up opportunities for the future that these countries can capitalize on,” he said.
Nations are working together in unprecedented ways as a result of NDN agreements and exploring ways to streamline their import and export procedures to encourage cross-border commerce.
“We are already seeing some of that,” Fraser said. “As they look forward to the future, these countries know that the military is not going to be doing things at the same level that we have been for a long time. So they are looking for ways to capitalize on what has happened as a result of the Northern Distribution Network.”
Ambassador Dennise Mathieu, Fraser’s foreign policy advisor who accompanied him on the trip, said these efforts fit into the State Department’s vision of a “New Silk Road” that offers new potential in one of the least economically integrated areas of the world.
The goal is to reconnect economies that had been torn apart by decades of war and rivalry, helping restore commercial bonds among some of the world’s fastest-growing economies that sit at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
“The idea is that you can build on the links that have already been established in an economic way,” Mathieu said.
Those efforts are bearing fruit in infrastructure improvements to support this vision, she reported. Azerbaijan is building a new port with hopes of becoming a transportation hub. Rail connections are being built between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and a recently completed rail line runs from the Uzbek border to Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan.
“Eventually, with continued cooperation, they will be able to go all the way from China into Europe,” Mathieu said. “You will have a whole new economic network, built upon the foundation of this military logistics supply network.”
By integrating economically, regional nations will have a lasting impact that supports U.S. national interests in the region, she said.
“We believe that when you have economic prosperity, then that helps bring about stability and security,” Mathieu said. “So therefore, the region is going to be more secure. You will have less conflict. It provides opportunities for people to prosper and for their children to go to school and provides the conditions to start to build a democratic base and institutions.”
“All of that is good for the United States,” she said, opening new economic markets and strengthening partnerships across the region.
“This is something that has brought people together,” Mathieu said. “It’s something that enables them to put any differences or difficulties aside so they can work together toward something that benefits everyone.”
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