Jun 12, 2005

Ancient town discovered in Afghanistan

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Archeologists have discovered an ancient town in the Nirk district of the central Wardak province.

The town, as old as 200 AD, has been unearthed in Alghata Hill at Dadil village, 50 kilometres west of here. The town is spread over about one and half kilometre area, provincial authorities informed.

Zalmai Mayar, head of the provincial Information and Culture Department, has mentioned to media that the historical site was unearthed on May 24 as a result of a joint survey launched by the UNICSO, Afghanistan Archeology Institute and French Embassy in 2003.

"Forty-five workers took part in the excavation following the discovery of the town," Mayar said, adding walls were engraved with different kinds of paintings. He reckoned it would take about six months to fully unearth the site.

He said 19 of the 40 surveys carried out in different parts of the country had proved successful thus far while chances of discovery of more archeological sites were bright

Jun 10, 2005

Italian aid worker freed after 24 days in captivity

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Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni was set free by her kidnapper late Thursday night and handed over to Italian Embassy officials in Kabul.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told a clutch of hard-nosed journalists at 10.10pm: "We are glad announcing that her release has finally been secured after long-drawn-out negotiations."

He thanked the Afghan people including religious scholars, widows and tribal elders for their support in realizing the objective. "Throughout the whole episode, we preferred peaceful means of resolving the crisis with a view to ensuring the hostage's safety."


Cantoni also spoke to her parents, friends and family members following her release, the minister said, assuring the government was determined to stone-wall such incidents in future.

"Clinging to our policy we have made no concessions at all, much less pay ransom, to criminals," Jalali asserted, reiterating all possible measures would be taken to block a repeat of such incidents.

Senior intelligence officer at Interior Ministry Jalili earlier confirmed the aid worker had been freed. "All I can tell you is that she has been released," he snapped without elaborating.

Sources disclosed former Kunar governor Malik Mohammad Zarin had played a crucial role in securing the release of the 32-year-old CARE International worker, who was snatched from her car in the heart of the Afghan capital city on May 16.

Approached for comments, Malik Zarin claimed after several rounds of parleys, kidnapper Taimoor's mother was freed around sundown ahead of Cantoni's freedom. "Taimoor had only one demand, which was met to pave the way for Cantoni being set at liberty," the then governor said, adding not even a single penny had been paid in ransom.

Sources familiar with the marathon, tenuous negotiations confided to Media the woman was in good health, "though she appeared a touch pale and enervated." They refused to be dragged into discussing the nuts and bolts of the talks, which remained shrouded in secrecy.

An Interior Ministry statement released hours before the anxiously-awaited development predicted the crisis would soon come to a peaceful end. "We are now 24 days into this crisis, and are hopeful it will end peacefully," Lutfullah Mashal observed.

He continued the government was in regular contact with the kidnapper and Cantoni's safe release remained its top priority all through the sordid saga.

She has been in Afghanistan over the last three years working for the rehabilitation of war victims including widows and children. It will be pertinent to recall that she had been abducted from Qila-i-Moosa district of Kabul.

The Italian embassy in Afghanistan and the Karzai government ran a hectic campaign, distributing posters and stickers bearing Cantoni's photographs with Afghan women and children.

Published in Pashto and Dari languages, the posters urged people to share information, if any, with the government about the Italian national. A day earlier, Kabul schoolgirls held out stickers seeking public help for Cantoni's release.

source: Pajhwak

Jun 7, 2005

Woman threatened to stay at home

Female aid workers in Pul-e-Khumri city in Baghlan province have been advised to stay at home after three women were found hanged by the neck on Monday morning in the centre of the city.
The bodies had a letter attached threatening women working for foreign aid organisations, according to local sources. One of the three was identified as being involved with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) and the second was a local civil servant .The third remains unidentified according to Baghlan deputy governor, Daulat Mohammad Rafee, said to Media.

Jun 2, 2005

Silent Atom for Human-being!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Jun 1, 2005

Massive Explosion in Kandahar Mosque

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Scores of people including the Kabul police chief were killed and wounded in a massive suicide bombing in the southern Kandahar city Wednesday morning, witnesses and security officials said.

The bomb went off with a big bang inside the Abdul Rab Akhunzada Mosque at 9:00am when a large number of people including senior government officials were performing qul for the Kandahar Ulema Council leader Mullah Abdullah Fayyaz.

Giving an eyewitness account, Mohammad Essa told Pajhwok Afghan News Kabul police chief Gen. Mohammad Akram Khakrezwal, widely respected for his commitment to boosting security in the Afghan capital city, was among the fatalities.

Khakrezwal had gone to the Taliban stronghold to participate in the soyem for the pro-government religious scholar, who was gunned down by two unidentified motorcyclists in the increasingly shambolic city on Sunday.

Although the killing of Khakrezwal is yet to be confirmed officially, a knowledgeable source in the Interior Ministry revealed the senior police officer was among the victims. "Yes, we have received reports that Khakrezwal has perished in the blast," he said on condition of anonymity.

According to participants of the religious ceremony, the explosion jolted the mosque as soon as a man clad in military fatigues entered the premises. "Pools of blood and charred human body parts could be seen all over the place, as the injured screaming out in terror ran for the exit," an eyewitness claimed.

Abdul Jabbar, a doctor at Kandahar's Mirwais Hospital, confirmed they had received 16 dead bodies and 30 injured people, some of them in critical condition. He feared the death toll could go up as many of the injured including government officials were in serious condition.

Interior Ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal put the number of fatalities at more than 30, but witnesses claimed the toll could be even higher because "we saw nearly 33 bodies." Up to 70 people were inside the worship-place to offer prayers for the renowned scholar at the time of the bombing.

Soon after Maulvi Fayyaz's slaying vehemently denounced by President Hamid Karzai as a cowardly act, Taliban spokesman Latifullah Hakimi had claimed responsibility for the killing.
Just a week earlier, the ousted student militia had threatened to kill ulema drumming support for the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for September 18.

It will be pertinent to explain Gen. Akram Khakrezwal was appointed as Kabul police chief two months back. His resolute stance against armed gangs, bandits and anti-state elements earned him a robust reputation for professional integrity.

In the Taliban era, he had served as Helmand police chief, a province out of the student militia's control at that time. Before assuming charge of office in Kabul, he headed the Balakh police force.

The son of Haji Shahjehan, Khakrezwal was born in Kandahar. After college education, he underwent top-level police training and held a number of senior positions.

news source: pajhwak


Related links:

27 killed in Afganistan Mosque blast

20 killed in bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan
china news

Up to 40 killed in Kandahar explosion
Japan today

17 Killed in blast inside Afghan Mosque
star tribune

More than 30 killed in bomb explosion in south Afghanistan: official

30 die in Kandahar mosque blast

May 30, 2005

What Alternative i have???

May 29, 2005

19 people arrested in PRT bombing...

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Police had arrested 19 people for allegedly bombing Baghlan-based Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), which left two Dutch soldiers injured on Thursday.

May 27, 2005

Doutch Soldier Wounded BADLY!

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Yesterday on 26th May, two Dutch soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb went off in the northern Baghlan province on Thursday. The bomb was planted on the Pul-i-Khumri -Kunduz Highway.

The wounded soldiers were part of the Provincial Re-construction Team (PRT) working under the NATO-led international peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan.

Still ther is now clear news from this incident but eyewitnesses said they heard a big bang and saw the soldiers' vehicle aflame.

As far as Karzai had an speach to Afghan Official for forgiving the Taliban leaders Mullah Mohammad Omar + Gulbidin Hikamtiar ( a Islamic fundamentalist leader). Talian increased thier atacks in highways and remote areas even for innocent people, they call them guilty to have help with government.

May 25, 2005

Vote for the first Afghan blogger to win the Blog Awards!

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Vote for the first Afghan Blogger!
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An Afghan blogger who blogs from inside Afghanistan is selected to International competition of Freedom Blog Awards in RSF.

Reporters Without Borders is calling on Internet-users to vote online for award-winners from among 60 blogs defending freedom of expression. There are six categories: Africa and the Middle East, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Iran and International: http://www.globenet.org/rsf/voteblog.php?cat=&lang=en

Blogs have become significant sources of news for millions of Internet-users. blogs can relay comments, articles and opinions that are not necessarily broadcasted by the major media. Although, weblogs are not a major medium of communication in Afghanistan but this demonstrates Afghans endeavor for freedom. Sohrab Kabuli (Pen name) http://kabuli.org has paid heavily for free expression.

Please take a moment and register your vote here:
To Vote: http://www.globenet.org/rsf/voteblog.php?cat=lang&id=4〈=en
To Vote: http://www.globenet.org/rsf/voteblog.php?cat=1〈=en

Select the "shared Pain"(http://www.kabuli.org); enter your E-mail address – it’s compulsory.

Each Internet-user may vote for only one blog in each category. Please note: your vote will only be counted if you click on the acknowledgement of receipt which will be sent by email. Voting closes on 1st June 2005 and the prize-winners will be announced two weeks later.

Related materials:
Afghan Journalists Awarded for their hard work towards free speech
Free Kambakhsh!
Eventi a cui ha partecipato Nasim Fekrat - Audio
Nasim in Val di Susa
Una mattina a Siena per la libertà in Afghanistan- Video+picture
Tactic: Afghan blogger wins free speech award

Why I am the Freedom of Expression Award Winner?

Afghan Lord awarded the freedom of expression blog awards in Reporters Without Borders.

May 21, 2005

Seven Afghan Killed in Highway

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Six Afghan aid workers were shot dead by suspected Taliban militants Thursday on the Kabul- Kandahar highway in the southern province of Zabul, when they were transporting a body of a man who was killed in neighbouring Helmand a day before.

Zabul governer said to media that this atack was from Taliban.
Officials have not as yet released the identity of the people killed in either incidents or the aid group they were working for.

The attack comes a day after three engineers, working for a US funded anti-drugs project in Nad Ali district of Helmand province, their driver and a policeman were ambushed and killed by suspected Taliban militia.

Officials added that the workers were involved in providing agricultural incentives to poppy farmer’s in the highest poppy yielding region in Afghanistan.
The bodies of the five people were transferred to hospital in Kalat city.

May 17, 2005

Italian Woman Kidnapped In Kabul

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Still no sign of Italian relief worker kidnapped in Afghan capital
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Four armed men dragged an Italian woman working for CARE International from her car in the center of Afghanistan's capital on Monday in a bold kidnapping that reinforced fears that militants or criminals are copying tactics used in Iraq.
The kidnapping followed warnings from security agencies that foreigners might be targeted in response to the arrest of a suspect in the kidnappings of three U.N. election workers last year.
A group of "thieves" claimed responsibility for the abduction of aid worker Clementina Cantoni, 32, said Gen. Jamil Jumbesh, head of the Interior Ministry's anti-terror division. He declined to say whether the group had made demands or give other details.
"Four men carrying Kalashnikovs bashed in the window of her car and took her away. They told the driver not to move or he would be shot," said CARE's director, Paul Barker.
The driver had just dropped a Canadian former CARE employee at a house in Kabul's downtown Shahr-e-Naw district when the kidnappers driving a sedan cut off the vehicle and abducted the Italian at about 8:30 p.m., Barker said. The kidnappers then drove toward a nearby Christian cemetery, he said.
Afghan authorities, including President Hamid Karzai, were quickly alerted to the kidnapping after the Canadian woman made a panicked call to Barker, the director said. She made it safely into the house but heard the attackers banging on the car, he said.
Marco Formigoni, a family friend, spoke to reporters outside the Cantoni family home in an upscale Milan neighborhood, relaying the family's hope "that this affair ends quickly and well."
Security forces manning checkpoints through the night found no trace of Cantoni, Gen. Mahboubullah Amiri, a police commander in the Afghan Interior Ministry, said Tuesday.
"They are searching cars and asking the drivers for their documents, but there are no positive signs so far," Amiri said.
It was the second kidnapping of a CARE worker by suspected militants in recent months. Margaret Hassan, the British director of CARE International in Iraq, was kidnapped in Baghdad in October and believed killed, although no body was recovered.
In Kabul, security forces immediately sealed off all main roads leading out of Kabul, said Jamil Khan, head of the criminal investigation department for the city's police. Officers stopped and searched cars in the city center, checking trunks and under seats.
"Police are trying very hard to produce some good news," Khan said.
Cantoni has lived in Afghanistan since 2002, said CARE, one of the largest and most established international aid groups in the country. The organization issued a brief statement calling for her release.
In Rome, the Italian foreign ministry said a crisis unit that has handled past abductions of Italians abroad was working on the case, and that Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini was following the situation.
Relations between the United States and Italy have been strained over the March 4 shooting death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari — who had just helped free an Italian hostage — by U.S. soldiers at a checkpoint in Baghdad.
The abduction follows a string of warnings to the roughly 3,000 foreigners living in Kabul that they could be targeted in attacks, including kidnappings.
On May 7, a suicide bomber blew himself up in an Internet cafe in the same area as Monday's abduction, killing a U.N. worker from Myanmar. Last month, an American civilian was briefly abducted in Kabul but escaped by throwing himself from a moving car.
Kabul had been largely free of the fear of the kind of kidnappings rife in Iraq until October, when three U.N. election workers — one each from the Philippines, Northern Ireland and Kosovo — were seized at gunpoint in the city. They were released unharmed a month later.
A Taliban splinter group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, though officials and diplomats have suggested criminals — possibly working for factions that oppose the growing authority of the U.S.-backed government — were responsible.
The kidnapping of Cantoni follows a series of violent anti-American protests in Afghanistan sparked by a report in Newsweek magazine alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had placed copies of the Quran in washrooms and had flushed one copy down the toilet to get detainees to talk.
The magazine said Monday it was retracting its report. Newsweek acknowledged Sunday there were errors in the story and said a government source told the magazine he could not now be sure that he saw an account of the toilet reference in a military report.
The report prompted demonstrations in dozens of Afghan cities, and about 15 people were killed in clashes with security forces. Protesters also attacked offices of the government, the United Nations and a string of foreign relief organizations.

May 16, 2005

By the Kabul River

May 14, 2005

Removing the Nave bar

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Hello! Finally i overcame to XML codes. I was trying to find out how to remove the Nave bar.

I really did not like to observe the Nave bar although i respect for Blogger service and did not remove the Blogger sign in the right side of my blog. If anyone need help for teachniclly to remove this things i hope to help him. (:

May 10, 2005

American Marines Killed

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Twenty-three combatants and two American Marines were killed in a fierce gun-battle in the eastern province of Laghman, the US military said on Monday.

The fatalities took place Sunday evening when the Marines - backed by warplanes - clashed with a group of 25 militants in a Laghman area, 50 kilometer northwest of Jalalabad, the military said in a press release issued here earlier.

US spokesman Col. James Yonts, without revealing as to how many suffered injuries in the intense fighting, put the death toll for the fighters at a dozen and said two Marines were also shot dead in the five-hour fight.

But a revised statement released to the media later in the day explained the Marines, after receiving intelligence, rushed to the area to flush out the rebels hiding there. As the soldiers maneuvered toward the insurgents, they came under attack with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

During the course of the fighting lasting five hours, the statement claimed, the fighters split into two groups - one fleeing to a nearby village and the other burrowing into a cave on a ridgeline.

In recent weeks, Taliban and their allies have stepped up attacks on Afghan army troops and US-led coalition forces in different parts of Afghanistan. Scores of combatants and 10 government soldiers were killed last week in fierce clashes in southern provinces, including a clash in Zabul.

Despite coalition forces' assertions that insurgents had been considerably weakened in the wake of crippling military operations, recent weeks have witnessed a palpable surge in violence.

Belying coalition claims, the fighters killed a US soldier in the central Uruzgan province on April 26 in a daring ambush, followed by two days of a high-casualty clash in Zabul.

May 3, 2005

Not having access to the Internet

Hello to all. I am sorry for not updating this page. I was not in Kabul and did not have access to the Internet. I went to remote area to visit a few friends who are working for a local radio station. I just opened this page now and realized, through page meter which counts numbers of visitors, that I have to regularly post things here, will do it regularly from now on.