Taliban oppression of Afghans backfires

[Bengal_Tiger]

Taliban oppression of Afghans backfires

Afghans in the south and east say they aren't tolerating militants any more.
By Sulaiman
2015-01-16


KABUL – Militants used to have a stronghold in the southern and eastern areas of Afghanistan but now are struggling to find a safe haven. The current uprising against the Taliban started in Nangarhar Province in November and has spread to Helmand, Kunar, Khost, Paktika and Kandahar provinces.



An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier fires during an anti-Taliban operation in Dangam District, Kunar Province, near the Pakistani border January 3. Afghan security forces and locals have defeated Taliban militants in Kunar Province, officials say. [AFP/Noorullah Shirzada]

Residents of Nurgol District, Kunar Province, are among one of the most recent groups to stand against militants.

"We are completely fed up with the Taliban, and that is why we decided to revolt against them and their cruelty," Nurullah, a Nurgol District resident, said. "The only way out of the oppression and harassment of militants is to rebel against them."

"At this very moment, people are busy fighting alongside security forces against militants in Dangam District, Kunar Province," Wajma Sapi, a Kunar Province representative in parliament, said.

Insurgents murder tribal elders, mosque preachers and government officials, Kunar Governor Shuja ul-Mulk Jalala told Central Asia Online. This movement will gain momentum as the Taliban continue to oppress civilians, he added.

A shift in Kandahar

Many observers are shocked to see an uprising in Kandahar Province, where the Taliban have long found sanctuary.

Hundreds of residents from 15 villages in Maiwand District recently started an armed revolt against militant oppression.

"They killed people, launched suicide attacks and planted roadside bombs," Maiwand resident Naqibullah said. "But the breaking point was when they prevented our children from going to school. We will not let Kandahar's youth become illiterate."

The Taliban threatening schoolchildren and parents was not the only reason.

"The majority of people in Kandahar are farmers, and they have not been able to tend to their businesses," Dr. Mahmood Khan, a Kandahar Province representative in parliament, told Central Asia Online. "They were not able to deliver their agricultural products to cities and towns, because of land mines, explosions and oppression by the insurgents. Consequently, people have encountered serious financial and economic hardships."

"Now, people have come to believe that instead of dying of starvation, it is better for them to take up arms against the militants so that their families won't endure financial problems and starvation," he said.

The uprisings are proving successful. Both police and civilians now can travel to places that were previously inaccessible, Mahmood said. Still, residents have a long way to go. Mahmood highlighted the need for more government support.

In 2012, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said it was working to provide guidance, protection and support to the popular uprisings.

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2015/01/16/feature-01

[MENTION=5723]Kushan Prince[/MENTION] [MENTION=17582]Al-Afghani[/MENTION] [MENTION=1201]Toramana[/MENTION] [MENTION=1068]gadoonwal[/MENTION] [MENTION=17579]Loy Afghanistan[/MENTION] [MENTION=4551]hamid954[/MENTION] [MENTION=8995]DSM0305[/MENTION]

[Bengal_Tiger]

Soldiers of the Afghanistan National Army (ANA) in prayer. The ANA's main role is quelling an anti-government insurgency by Pakistani-backed militants.


1. How accurate is the above information in the article?

I have read Central Asia online a few times and it is heavily anti-Taliban, as any western publication would be, but at times in a very emotional way.


2. If the information above is accurate then it shows that the Taliban are not some sort of popular resistance movement against foreign occupiers but an extremist group hated by the local population.

3. Guerilla groups thrive on local support but if the Taliban is losing this then their power is weakening heavily.

4. As I had long thought, the very continued existence and functioning of the Afghan government in itself weakens the Taliban because that way:

- Afghans increase in education.
- Afghans increase in their exposure to the outside world via the internet.

In other words Afghan HDI (Human Development Index) increases and people become less and less interested in the unappealing boring and regressive primitive rule of the Taliban and more in progressing in the real world and enjoying development.

5. The core Uzbek and Tajik areas won't really fall to the Taliban, so if the Pashtun heartland of the south and east is (that is "if") turning against the Taliban, the Taliban are in trouble.

6. If China puts the heat on with Pakistan to end their support for the Taliban that will weaken the Taliban even more.

Even if Pakistan refuses to do that the Taliban may become so weak that Afghanistan may become more like Turkey than Iraq, i.e. Turkey was a normal country but with a couple of decades of a Kurdish insurgency in their own, coincidentally, south-east.


[MENTION=17582]Al-Afghani[/MENTION]

[Bengal_Tiger]

Militants in northern Afghanistan reconcile with government

First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum expects more Taliban to surrender.

By Sayer Zaland
2015-01-27

JAWZJAN, Afghanistan – Afghans saw signs that peace was near December 29 when as many as 210 Taliban militants renounced insurgency and joined the peace process.




Afghan First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum points while standing among former militants in Jawzjan Province the same week they laid down arms. A group of roughly 200 Taliban surrendered to him December 29.


Roughly 200 Taliban surrendered to First Vice President Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum in Darzab District, Jawzjan Province. Another 10 from two groups did the same in Qads and Abkamri districts, Badghis Province.

More Taliban have surrendered since December 29. About 300 militants in Jawzjan so far have given up arms, Khaama Press reported January 2.

Dostum is confident that more Taliban will surrender, an official at the presidential palace said.

The surrendering militants have turned in more than 100 types of weapons, including AK-47's, heavy machine guns, rockets and pistols, a tribal elder from Darzab District told Central Asia Online.

Among the group was Mufti Niamatullah, a former Taliban governor of Jawzjan.

The group he led made the province insecure. His men carried out destructive activities against government officials and organisations, Jawzjan police chief Gen. Faqir Mohammad Jawzjani said.

"His joining with the government is a positive step towards to a sustainable peace in the province," he added.

The security situation in Jawzjan and other northern provinces has been an issue of great concern as militant groups have endangered construction projects and created chaos in residents' lives.

Dostum's success against the Taliban

Dostum has a history of success against the Taliban.

About 8,000 militants surrendered to Dostum in the battle of Dasht-i-Leili in Jawzjan Province in 2001. His prior success is what caused so many to give up, analysts say.

Dostum was scheduled to launch a military operation in the north but reached out to the Taliban and encouraged them not to fight, a source close to him said of Dostum's success in de-fanging the militants last December.

"I suggested the government's armed opponents join the peace process and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the government," Dostum said, adding that if they rejected his appeal, they would face a crackdown by a special military unit established under Ghani's direction.

Dostum has plans to secure other areas of the country. He promised to clear insurgents from Kunduz and Kunar provinces and to secure the Herat-Faryab highway.

http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/pakistan/main/2015/01/27/feature-01

[Bengal_Tiger]

Afghan Security forces pictured above with a helicopter. Some say air power is key to defeating anti-government insurgents, backed by Pakistan, from destabilizing the country.

[Khostai]

Taliban power is weakend, it now depends on Pakistan, if they just stop giving money, taliban will be gone, otherwise this plague can survive and terrorise Afghan people.

Time will learn, by the way I hear also from Afghan tv and my family in Afghanistan that taliban power is very weak and that people are tired of them. So we just have to see, but I do hope that the goverment quickly fill the power vacum, becuse IS is also on the rise...

[Bengal_Tiger]

[Bengal_Tiger]

Taliban power is weakend, it now depends on Pakistan, if they just stop giving money, taliban will be gone, otherwise this plague can survive and terrorise Afghan people.

Time will learn, by the way I hear also from Afghan tv and my family in Afghanistan that taliban power is very weak and that people are tired of them. So we just have to see, but I do hope that the goverment quickly fill the power vacum, becuse IS is also on the rise...

I think in the long run the Taliban will only get weaker.

In the 1990s when Mullah Omar and his men took power there was no internet.

It was a different age and time.

Now Afghans have the internet and they have family leaving abroad and they want to enjoy the benefits of modernity just like their family in the west and the rest of the world. They like Islam but they don't want a repressive and ridiculous fundamentalism (which is not true Islam either) where women are caged at home, men must wear 4 finger length beards, no fun etc.

They want Islam i.e. jumah, Eid, Qurbani, Ramadan, spirituality, good character, respect for family, but also education and good standards of living and not the Taliban.

Even some of the most diehard Taliban supporters on this forum (most of them whom have left) preferred life in the west rather than going back to Afghanistan and joining the Taliban.

The stronger the national government becomes and the education system and awareness of the outside world the weaker the Taliban will become. I personally knew a Mahmudzai who use to be with Hezb i Islami when he was much younger but that was because that was what he knew, but now no way would he want a backwards "Islamist" state.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Afghan Customs seizes 47 weapons allegedly imported from Peshawar




Reported by: `Customs Today Report February 4, 2015

KABUL: The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said that the Afghan Customs intelligence operatives seized 47 weapons allegedly imported from Peshawar to Kabul through Nangarhar province along with their ammunition during an operation in Kabul city.

According to a statement by NDS at least three suspected militants who were involved in the smuggling of weapons and ammunition were arrested by the intelligence operatives.

The statement further added that the weapons which included 7 AK-47 assault rifles and 40 pistols were hidden in a Toyota Pickup vehicle.
NDS said the smugglers were looking to sell the weapons to militant groups who are looking to stage coordinated attacks across Kabul city.
The detained individuals have confessed that the weapons and ammunition were purchased from a weapon manufacturing company located in Ring Road area of Peshawar city, NDS said.
The statement by NDS also added that numerous attack plots were foiled with the confiscation of weapons and ammunition by the intelligence operatives.

http://customstoday.com.pk/afghan-customs-seizes-47-weapons-allegedly-imported-from-peshawar-2/

[Bengal_Tiger]

Afghan intelligence thwarts terrorist attack plot in Kabul city

By KHAAMA PRESS - Wed Feb 04 2015, 12:34 pm




The Afghan intelligence operatives thwarted a terrorist attack plot in Kabul city by arresting two suspects who were planning to organize and coordinate the attack.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said the two suspects were identified as Saif-ul-Islam who is originally a resident of Shamshato camp in Peshawar city of Pakistan.
A statement by NDS said the other suspect was identified as Hijratullah and both of them were arrested during an operation in 17th police district of Kabul city.
The statement further added that the two suspects have confessed they were trained on the other side of Durand Line on how to create Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and suicide bombing vests.
The two suspects have also added that they were appointed by Taliban group leader Mawlavi Rohullah to plan and organize an attack in Pul-e-Charkhi area of Kabul city, NDS added.
According to NDS a motorcycle packed with explosives was also confiscated by the Afghan intelligence operatives along with some other explosives.
The anti-government armed militant groups have not commented regarding the report so far.

http://www.khaama.com/afghan-intelligence-thwarts-terrorist-attack-plot-in-kabul-city-9303

[Bengal_Tiger]

Countering terrorism: 200 militants killed in Kunar operation: Afghan envoy

By Rabia AliPublished: January 25, 2015



In this photograph taken on March 19, 2014, Afghan soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 201 Army Corps of the Afghan National Army (ANA) take positions behind an adobe wall after being fired upon by insurgents during an operation in Khogyani District.

Some 200 local and foreign militants have been killed in a military operation in the northeastern Afghan province of Kunar where Pakistani officials believe fugitive commander of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Mullah Fazlullah and his loyalists maintain sanctuaries, Afghanistan’s top diplomat in Pakistan said on Saturday.

“This is a proof that we believe terrorists are terrorists. There is no difference between good terrorists or bad terrorists,” Janan Mosazai, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Pakistan, told journalists at the Afghan Consulate in Karachi on Saturday.

Mullah Fazlullah claimed responsibility for the methodical killing of over 150 people, mostly students, at the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar on December 16. Pakistani military officials shared credible evidence with their Afghan counterparts that the handlers of the APS attackers were hiding in Afghanistan.

The Kunar operation followed visits to Kabul by senior Pakistani military officials, including army chief General Raheel Sharif, soon after the APS attack.
The frosty relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan began to thaw since the installation of a new unity government in Kabul, led by President Ashraf Ghani. The new Afghan leader visited Islamabad in November and said his administration believed in improving relations with Pakistan.
Ambassador Mosazai said his country was focusing on deepening state-to-state relations with Pakistan, and the two countries were also sharing intelligence to curb terrorism. He added that terrorism was the common enemy of both countries. “Terrorists have no nationality or religion. They are non-state actors,” he said, calling Pakistan and Afghanistan the biggest sufferers of the ‘war on terror’.
Following the APS massacre, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government announced plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees living illegally in the province. Ambassador Mosazai, however, clarified that Islamabad has assured that the repatriation of registered Afghan refugees would be “voluntary, dignified and gradual”.

“We are looking into reports of forced evictions but we have been assured by the Pakistani authorities that it would not happen,” he said. Sharing UNHCR figures, he said there were 1.6 million registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, of which Sindh was hosting 65,000.
Ambassador Mosazai ruled out the involvement of Afghan refugees in major crimes. “There has been not a single major incident of crime or terrorism in Pakistan where Afghan refugees were involved or implicated,” he added. “For the past 35 years, Afghan refugees have lived in dignity and harmony in Pakistan, and there have been intermarriages and relationships.”
During his first visit to Karachi, Ambassador Mosazai met the Sindh chief minister, as well as MQM leaders at Nine Zero. He also visited the Baqai Medical University where Afghan students are studying on scholarships provided by the Pakistani government.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/827243/countering-terrorism-200-militants-killed-in-kunar-operation-afghan-envoy/

[Bengal_Tiger]

Suicide attack on Laghman intelligence chief thwarted

By KHAAMA PRESS - Mon Feb 02 2015, 1:54 pm



The Afghan intelligence operatives thwarted a plot to assassinate the provincial intelligence chief for eastern Laghman province.

The National Directorate of Security (NDS) said Monday a suicide bomber was arrested in connection to the attack plot by the intelligence opeatives from Mehtarlam city.
A statement by NDS said the suicide bomber identified as Abdul Basir was appointed by Taliban group for the attack on intelligence chief but was recognized by the intelligence operatives before he manage to carry out the attack.
The detained bomber has confessed that he was appointed by a Pakistan Taliban leader Mawlavi Wasiqullah for the attack, the statement by NDS added.
According to NDS the detained bomber has also confessed that he was involved in attack which led to assassination of a commander of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) forces last week.

He had also plotted and coordinated an attack on the funeral of the deceased ALP commander, NDS said, adding that the Afghan intelligence operatives foiled another deadly attack by arresting the suspected bomber.

http://www.khaama.com/suicide-attack-on-laghman-intelligence-chief-thwarted-9301

[Bengal_Tiger]

Taliban shadow district chief killed in Paktika province

By KHAAMA PRESS - Wed Feb 04 2015, 4:25 pm
A senior Taliban group leader was killed following a special military operation conducted by the Afghan police forces in eastern Paktika province.
According to local government officials the Taliban leader who was killed in the operation was identified as Masoom who was also famous as Abas.
The officials further added that Masoom was appointed as shadow district governor for Sar-e-Rawza district.
The Afghan police forces also confiscated a motorcycle, an AK-47 assault rifle, a binocular, 5 magazines of AK-47 rifle ammunition and various other types of documents, the officials added.
The Taliban militants group has not commented regarding the report so far.
Paktika is among the relatively volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan where anti-government armed militant groups are actively operating.
Insurgents belonging to Haqqani terrorist network are also actively operating in eastern provinces of the country specifically in Paktika province.

http://www.khaama.com/taliban-shadow-district-chief-killed-in-paktika-province-9305

*Eastern Afghanistan i.e near Pakistan.

The Afghan national government has control of all major cities of Afghanistan whereas Taliban do not and are thus essentially a rural insurgency a major irritant but not something which cannot be contained or ultimately eradicated.

With China becoming unhappy with radicalism in its north-west, they may put more pressure on the Pakistani military to reduce or end their sponsorship of terrorism to destabilize Afghanistan.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Afghan air force ascent slow, imperiling battle with Taliban

BY KAY JOHNSON
KABUL Sun Jan 25, 2015 8:34pm EST



Members of the Afghan Air Force crew stand next to a helicopter at the military airport in Kabul December 18, 2014. REUTERS-Mohammad Ismail
1 OF 4. Members of the Afghan Air Force crew stand next to a helicopter at the military airport in Kabul December 18, 2014.

Afghanistan's airforce struggles take off


»
(Reuters) - Afghanistan's armed forces are so short of combat-ready aircraft that, late last year, they began fitting machine guns and rockets to Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters, dubbed "flying tractors", to bolster their air power.



Afghan Air Force helicopters land at the military airport in Kabul December 18, 2014.

With new planes capable of engaging Taliban insurgents delayed by over two years, and NATO air missions backing up troops on the ground now at a minimum, the fledgling Afghan Air Force is scrambling to provide even basic support.



A member of the Afghan Air Force crew prepares his machine gun on a helicopter before flight at the military airport in Kabul December 18, 2014.

That is a worry for 350,000 police, soldiers and other security personnel fighting militants across the country and dying at a rate of around 100 every week in the heaviest fighting of a 13-year conflict.

Without air support they say they will struggle to defeat the enemy, especially now that tens of thousands of foreign troops supporting them have ended their mission.

NATO is training and advising some 390 Afghan pilots, most with no tactical combat experience, and a limited number of planes and helicopters have been promised to bolster an air force of around 140 aircraft, mostly transport helicopters.

As a stopgap measure, the Afghans began fitting forward-firing 23mm machine guns and 57mm rockets to some of the 86 Mi-17 transport helicopters to supplement five larger Mi-35 attack helicopters that were the only combat aircraft.

"That's not enough to support all the missions," Col. Abdul Shafi Noori, the air force's maintenance group commander, said of the expanded combat fleet, which should number about 30.

"READY THE ROCKETS"

Nevertheless, it is a start, and, at the air force training base just outside the capital Kabul, Afghan pilots have been putting adapted Mi-17s through their paces.

Flying fast and low over barren hills, a helicopter crew zooms its sights on the target: a group of trucks parked on a ridge, representing vehicles full of Taliban insurgents.

"You see the threat?" the American trainer asks the pilot. "Target at 4 o'clock. Ready the rockets."

The crew fires off machine guns and a 57mm rocket that shudders the helicopter as it's released, before obliterating one of the trucks.

This month, a newly modified Mi-17 came to the rescue in real combat, helping an Afghan patrol pinned down by insurgents firing from a ridge in Badakhshan province in the northeast.

The air force plans to have about a dozen weaponized Mi-17s by the spring fighting season that typically begins in April.

"Wherever they are going to be able to get into the fight, it's going to make a big difference," said U.S. Brigadier General Michael Rothstein, commander of the NATO air force training mission.

By June, the air force will also have a dozen more MD-530 helicopters - smaller, swifter machines modified with armor and .50 caliber machine guns, with the first six arriving next month.

Rothstein acknowledged that it was "hard to predict" exactly how effective the air force would be in the coming year, "...but I think they are going to be able to make an impact."

TROUBLED LIFT-OFF

The air force, all but wiped out by civil war and the U.S.-led campaign to topple the Taliban, has only a fraction of NATO's former air power.

At the height of NATO's engagement in Afghanistan in 2011, the coalition flew nearly 133,000 flight missions that year, about 34,000 of those for close air support.

Last year, the Afghan Air Force flew an estimated 7,000 missions, a small fraction in direct support of troops on the ground.

The seven-year-old project to build up the air force has been fraught with setbacks and delays.

An Afghan Air Force pilot gunned down nine Americans at Kabul airport in 2011. The next year, the United States opened an investigation into allegations that some pilots were transporting narcotics on undocumented flights.

Last year, most of the 20 Italian-made G222 transport planes the U.S. bought for $486 million were sold for scrap metal after being grounded because Afghans could not maintain them, said the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

And Afghans are still waiting for 20 A-29 Super Tucano aircraft capable of dropping 500-pound bombs.

Originally scheduled to arrive in mid-2012, delivery has been held up by a legal dispute and is now expected around December, too late for this year's peak fighting season.

Even when Air Force capabilities are expanded, the NATO training mission must teach pilots not only how to fly new aircraft, but also use them tactically.

Largely untested younger pilots will have to learn quickly how to coordinate with ground troops, fly in formation, discern enemy fighters from Afghan forces and avoid killing civilians.

"It takes a long time for them to learn the Western style of fighting and being organized," said Glenn Sands, editor of Air Forces Monthly.

Beyond engaging the enemy, the air force's job is also to save lives. Many of about 5,000 Afghan security personnel killed last year died because they did not reach medical care fast enough.

For Afghan pilot Azizulla Mohammadi, 26, a first lieutenant who ferries supplies and helps evacuate wounded in a C-130 transport plane, the job involves both pride and frustration.

"We can't support all of Afghanistan with this few aircraft," he said. "I feel bad we can't help more."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/26/us-afghanistan-airforce-idUSKBN0KY10Z20150126

- 5,000 Afghan soldiers were killed last year.

- 100 are being killed a week at the moment.

- Afghans are in urgent need of aircraft to take on the Taliban and also transport wounded soldiers.


India, China or maybe even Russia should be approached for some sort of interim help.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Bangladesh as a brother Muslim country should be willing to help train Afghan pilots for free in Bangladesh.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2015 10:45am

20 militants lay down arms in E. Afghanistan


20 militants lay down arms in E. Afghanistan

JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- A total of 20 armed militants laid down arms and gave up fighting in the eastern Nangarhar province with Jalalabad as its capital, 120 km east of Kabul on Sunday.

"With joining these people to the peace process, the security situation will be further improved in Shinwar and adjoining districts," deputy to provincial governor, Hanif Gardiwal said in a ceremony to welcome the former anti-government fighters.

The former militants who also handed over their weapons to police on Sunday were active in the mountainous Shinwar district over the past couple of years, the official added.

Taliban militants fighting the government have yet to make comment.

According to Afghan officials, more than 4,000 anti-government militants have laid down arms and joined the government-backed peace process over the past one year, a claim spurned by Taliban militants as groundless.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/150208/20-militants-lay-down-arms-e-afghanistan

4,000 fighters quit the Taliban?


Is this true?