Afghan presidential rivals agree to vote audit

KABUL, Afghanistan — After nearly 12 hours of often tense negotiations, Secretary of State John Kerry announced Saturday that Afghanistan would audit all eight million votes cast in a runoff presidential election last month as part of a deal to end a tense power struggle between the top two candidates.

The audit, intended to resolve allegations of widespread fraud, is to begin almost immediately, he said, and will be supervised by international monitors. Its results will be binding, and the winner will go on to head a national unity government whose shape has yet to be finalized.

“Every single ballot that was cast will be audited,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference where he was flanked by the two candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, who endorsed the agreement.

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The breakthrough came on the second day of a visit that Mr. Kerry hastily arranged to try to prevent Afghanistan’s first democratic transfer of power from collapsing. Both Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani had said the election was marred by fraud, but both had also claimed victory.

Tensions were heightened Tuesday when Mr. Abdullah threatened to form his own government following the release of preliminary results from the runoff, raising the possibility of an ethnically and regionally divided Afghanistan just as American troops prepare to complete their combat mission.

Mr. Kerry spent Friday largely listening to the proposals of the Abdullah and Ghani camps and meeting with President Hamid Karzai.

And then on Saturday, shortly before 9 a.m., he began what would turn out to be an entire day of shuttling between meeting rooms at the American Embassy, where each candidate had gathered with a handful of advisers. He also met with Mr. Karzai at the presidential palace in the afternoon.

By the time they announced the deal, Mr. Kerry looked like a man who had put in a long day’s work. Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani looked similarly worn out by the marathon negotiations, which had achieved what they alone could not in the weeks since the June 14 runoff.

“This is unquestionably a tense and difficult moment,” Mr. Kerry said, “but I am very pleased that the two candidates who stand here with me today and President Karzai have stepped up and shown a significant commitment to compromise.”

Mr. Kerry said the audit would begin within 24 hours and take several weeks, and Mr. Karzai indicated that he would agree to postpone the inauguration, though he urged that the auditors try to complete their work in time to meet the scheduled date of Aug. 2.

He did not set a new date, only saying it would take place after the audit.

Mr. Karzai seemed comfortable with the outcome, something of a turnaround, as he had previously refused to allow international “interference” in the elections.

Mr. Kerry and Mr. Karzai have been through painfully long negotiations on previous occasions, but the two men seemed at ease together on Saturday night.

If it is implemented successfully, the deal will be an accomplishment for Mr. Kerry, who has long played a troubleshooting role on Afghanistan.

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When he was a senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Kerry persuaded Mr. Karzai to accept a runoff in the contested 2009 presidential election. In March 2013, Mr. Kerry went to Kabul to rebuild relations with Mr. Karzai after he publicly accused the United States of wanting to destabilize the country.

Not all of Mr. Kerry’s efforts on Afghanistan have held up. In November 2013, Mr. Kerry announced that the United States and Afghanistan had completed the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would establish a legal basis for keeping American forces in Afghanistan after 2014. Mr. Karzai later refused to sign the agreement, though Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani have each indicated that they would do so shortly after assuming office.

The accord on the terms of an audit follows several recent setbacks for Mr. Kerry, most notably the failure of an intensive effort to secure a Middle East peace agreement. His push to encourage productive talks between Russia and Ukraine has also fallen short.

But in Kabul, Mr. Kerry had more leverage than he had in the Middle East. Afghanistan’s security forces depend on billions of dollars of assistance from the United States. In calls to each of the candidates last week, President Obama stressed his support for a review of the fraud, but warned pointedly that resorting to violence or taking extraconstitutional actions “would result in the end of U.S. assistance to Afghanistan.”

To ensure security — and to give the candidates confidence that no new vote tampering was taking place during the audit — the NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan is to fly ballot boxes that are currently in the provinces to Kabul, the capital, and work with Afghan forces to provide security for the boxes once they arrive. United Nations and other international observers will watch the entire process.

Jan Kubis, the United Nations special representative in Afghanistan, called on other nations to send extra observers to assist with the audit as soon as possible.

Discussions on Saturday concerned how to determine how many ballots should be re-examined for fraud and how to ensure that the audit was impartial. Both sides had wrangled over the technical details, in particular the threshold for selecting which ballots should be reviewed.

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RECENT COMMENTS

Cole W 12 minutes ago
I highly doubt this will solve anything once the audit is all said and done. One side will claim victory once again and the other will cry...
Yoandel 51 minutes ago
So both sides agree that ballot stuffing by the other side was incontrovertible and by the hundreds of thousands... yet an audit, which can...
Withheld 1 hour ago
I am looking forward to the follow-up article in the Times on how you audit a flawed election. What are the auditors going to be looking...
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Mr. Kerry had to seek not only agreement by the two candidates, but also acceptance by Mr. Karzai, who will step down after 13 years in power and has by all accounts remained a powerful presence behind the scenes.

In the first round of voting on April 5, Mr. Abdullah emerged the top vote-getter against 11 other candidates, with 45 percent to Mr. Ghani’s 31 percent. Because neither won more than 50 percent of the vote, a required runoff between the two was held on June 14.

Preliminary results from the runoff show Mr. Ghani leaping ahead with 56 percent of the vote, and Mr. Abdullah with 44 percent. The turnout in the runoff also increased by more than a million voters, to eight million.

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Mr. Abdullah’s campaign has accused his opponents of conducting extensive institutional fraud, and has alleged that members of the Independent Election Commission, government officials and Ghani supporters orchestrated large-scale ballot stuffing to enable Mr. Ghani to win the presidency.

Mr. Ghani’s team has said that fraud took place on both sides and insists that his better showing in the runoff was the result of an energetic campaign to mobilize his fellow ethnic Pashtuns to vote for him.

The dispute, which has delayed results for nearly a month since the initial vote, comes amid a rise in violence around the country. Civilians are killed and wounded more frequently now in Afghanistan than at any point since the arrival of American forces, the International Crisis Group said in a statement on Saturday.

Seven members of the Afghan security forces were killed in clashes with the Taliban east of the capital in Laghman Province on Saturday.

Two tribal elders and a family of eight were killed in three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, electricity has been knocked out in the city of Kandahar, and a bomb killed two people in Jalalabad.

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The power struggle between the candidates had threatened to once again plunge the country into ethnic violence. Some officials here warn that such an outcome could be even more dangerous for the country than the continuing Taliban insurgency.

“The legitimacy of this voting process is obviously at stake,” a senior administration official traveling with Mr. Kerry said in a briefing to journalists Friday evening. He was speaking on the condition that he not be named in accordance with State Department rules.

“There were millions of people that voted in the first round and then again in the second round of elections,” he said. “They deserve to be counted accurately and to demonstrate that democracy works.”

Correction: July 12, 2014
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the day of the initial vote. It was April 5, not June 14. (The latter date was the day the runoff vote was held.)

Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on July 13, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline:

Afghan election result delayed as fraud dispute deepens

KABUL: Afghanistan’s presidential election result has been delayed for several days, officials said Tuesday, as a dispute over alleged fraud threatens to derail the country´s first democratic transfer of power.

The preliminary result of the June 14 run-off vote had been due on Wednesday but was postponed at short notice to allow ballots in 2,000 voting centres to be checked -- throwing the handover process into turmoil.

Abdullah Abdullah, previously seen as the front-runner, has said he would reject the result due to "blatant fraud", while his poll rival Ashraf Ghani said the election was clean and claimed victory by more than one million votes.

The United Nations and donor countries have been trying for months to prevent a contested election outcome, fearing political deadlock and ethnic violence as US-led troops withdraw from the country.

But with the two candidates at loggerheads, many fear the impasse could tip Afghanistan into a risky period of street protests and uncertainty.

About 6,000 voting centres were open across Afghanistan on June 14, when voters defied the threat of Taliban attacks to choose between former foreign minister Abdullah and Ghani, an ex-World Bank economist.

Any tension between rival supporters could ignite ethnic unrest since Ghani attracts much of his support from the Pashtun tribes of the south and east, while Abdullah´s loyalists are Tajiks and other northern Afghan groups.

Ghani´s campaign team criticised the delay in results, but said it welcomed any attempt to prevent fraud in the vote count.

"We believe the election commission should work in accordance to the election timeline and announce results on time," campaign spokeswoman Azita Rafat told AFP.

"If this delay is for the sake of transparency then we accept it, though it runs against the election law."

Abdullah´s team said its boycott of the vote count was still in place.

"The (election) commission has lost its legitimacy for us, and the recount of 2,000 polling centres will not change anything for us," said campaign spokesman Jawed Faisal. (AFP)

Afghan election contender Ghani dismisses fraud claims

KABUL: Afghan presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday defended himself against electoral fraud allegations that have tipped the country into a political crisis, saying that all ballots cast for him were legitimate.

"Our votes are clean, and we will defend each vote," Ghani told supporters in his first speech since the dispute over fake votes erupted.

45,000 Afghan SIMs blocked in Pakistan

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ISLAMABAD: The roaming facility of five Afghan mobile phone companies has been blocked due to which more than 45,000 Afghan SIMs have stopped functioning in Pakistan.
A TV channel quoting sources reported that the SIMs were blocked due to their use in terror activities and cases of abduction for ransom.The respective operators have also submitted a report to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), which had issued orders for blocking these SIMs for an indefinite period.

It merits mentioning here that Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had issued directives to the PTA on June 21 to block the Afghan SIMs in Pakistan. Security agencies had also given recommendations to the premier for blocking the Afghan SIMs.

Protests in Kabul as Afghan election crisis deepens

KABUL: Supporters of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah marched through Kabul on Saturday as fears grow of unrest erupting over alleged fraud in the election one week ago.

Abdullah has boycotted the vote count, pitching Afghanistan into a political crisis as NATO combat troops withdraw from a 13-year war against Taliban insurgents.

The former foreign minister accused his poll rival Ashraf Ghani, outgoing President Hamid Karzai and election authorities of all committing fraud to deny him victory.

The protests began peacefully as hundreds of activists shouted slogans and carried banners that read "Fraudsters should be put on trial" and "We will defend our vote to the last drop of our blood".

"The election authorities are not impartial," Asar Hakimi, one protest organiser, told.

"All the achievements of the past 12 years are at stake. We will continue protesting if the government and the election commission continue their hostility."He said the "anti-fraud" rallies were not organised by Abdullah´s campaign, but the crowds appeared to be made up of Abdullah supporters.

Many Kabul roads were blocked off due to the demonstrations, and security forces were out.

An early morning suicide attack in the city targeted Masoom Stanekzai, a senior official at the government body responsible for exploring peace talks with the Taliban.

Police said Stanekzai escaped the blast uninjured, but that one civilian was killed and three wounded.

PTA discontinues roaming service on Afghan SIMs

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has discontinued roaming facilities on Afghan SIMs in Pakistan on a directives issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Geo News reported.

The Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) had informed the government that Afghan SIMs were being openly used inside tribal areas in Pakistan by terrorists and criminal elements.

That is why the LEAs had requested the Prime Minister to block such services to deter crimes inside Pakistan involving communication between cross border terrorists.

On the request of LEAs, Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has directed the PTA to discontinue roaming facilities on Afghanistan SIMs to block anti-state and criminal activities of terrorists in Pakistan.

Prime Minister has desired that this task may be completed in next couple of days This act will be helpful in impeding communications between the terrorists and will also help in reducing crimes related to kidnapping for ransom.

Abdullah threatens to reject Afghan election result

KABUL: Afghanistan’s election crisis deepened Thursday when presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said he would reject the result because his claims of massive fraud have failed to stop the ongoing vote count.

Abdullah´s complaints about alleged fraud in Saturday´s run-off election have thrown the country´s first democratic transfer of power into turmoil ahead of preliminary results due out on July 2.

A smooth election was seen as a key benchmark of Afghan progress by the US-led coalition that has fought against insurgents and donated billions of dollars in aid since 2001 when the Taliban regime was ousted.

But the dispute could trigger instability as NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of the year.

"From now onwards, since (the election authorities) have not responded to our legitimate demands... everything they do and the result of their activities will not be accepted by us," Abdullah told reporters.

Referring to the Independent Election Commission (IEC) and Election Complaints Commission (ECC), he said: "We will not consider these two institutions as legitimate."

Abdullah had demanded an immediate stop to the vote count and the sacking of Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhail, head of the IEC secretariat, over Amarkhail´s alleged attempt to remove unused ballots from the IEC headquarters on polling day.

But the IEC refused his demands, saying it would stick to the schedule in an election that will choose a new president after Hamid Karzai´s 13-year reign.

In a strong statement late Wednesday, the UN mission had described Abdullah´s earlier decision to suspend cooperation with the IEC as "regrettable".

The UN warned that if candidates "abandon the legal process and framework and appeal directly to supporters (it) could incite violence".

"Some people have already called for civil disobedience and some incidents have already taken place," the UN said, calling for the electoral timetable to be followed.

Abdullah took on Ashraf Ghani in the run-off vote after the two came first and second in an eight-man election on April 5, when Abdullah was well ahead with 45 percent against Ghani´s 31.6 percent. (AFP)

Abdullah, Ghani both allege fraud in Afghan election

KABUL: A roadside bomb killed 11 people including five election workers in northern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, as a prolonged vote count began after the presidential run-off election.

Election officials were sifting through fraud complaints from both candidates, and analysts said the lengthy count could be the trickiest phase in the country´s first democratic transfer of power.

More than 50 people were killed on polling day Saturday by militant attacks, including the 11 whose bus was hit by a roadside bomb in Samangan province and five members of one family who died when a Taliban rocket hit a house near a polling station.

Eleven voters in the western province of Herat had their fingers -- which were dipped in ink to register their ballot -- cut off by insurgents, Deputy Interior Minister Ayoub Salangi said.

But despite the Taliban attacks, Saturday´s election drew a high turnout of about seven million voters in a contest between former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani.

The White House praised voters´ courage and called the elections "a significant step forward on Afghanistan´s democratic path". The US, along with the UN, also urged the two candidates not to trade unproven fraud allegations, but both Abdullah and Ghani raised the issue immediately after polls closed.

"It is win or lose now," said Kate Clark, director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. "The voting is only one phase of the election, and there is still a lot that could change. Being a good loser doesn´t gain you much here. "If it is close and fraud looks to have been a lot, and either candidate wants to really make a fuss, then we could be in for months of wrangling.

"The 2009 election, when outgoing President Hamid Karzai retained power, was marred by massive fraud that shook the US-led international effort to develop Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

A credible election and smooth handover of power would be a major achievement for Afghanistan´s backers after 13 years of hugely costly military and civilian assistance. All foreign combat troops are due to withdraw by the end of this year.

"Allegations of fraud need to be addressed," US ambassador James Cunningham said after polls closed on Saturday. "But the candidates and their supporters should refrain from premature judgements and from criticism that is not supported with clear evidence."

The preliminary result is due on July 2, before the complaints period begins, and the final result is scheduled for July 22.

"We have urged the candidates to act as statesmen, future presidents, rather than people simply in a competition with each other," said Nicholas Haysom, the deputy chief of the UN mission. Reflecting international fears of a contested result, he said candidates must "exercise patience" as the count got underway.

The Electoral Complaints Commission said it had registered about 275 complaints by Sunday morning. "There were violation cases where the supporters of the presidential candidates forced voters to vote for a certain candidate," said spokesman Mohammad Nader Mohsini. "Supporters were also offering money for voters to vote for a certain candidate. "He said allegations had also been raised of interference by election officials and the security forces.

Ahead of Saturday´s ballot the Taliban threatened to kill voters and officials, saying the election was an American plot "to impose their stooges". The two candidates came top of an eight-man field in the April first-round election, triggering the run-off as neither reached the 50 percent threshold needed for outright victory. Abdullah secured 45 percent of the vote in Aprilo with Ghani on 31.6 percent.

Both candidates swiftly alleged fraud after the closure of the polls."We know there has been fraud, you have seen it, we have seen it," Abdullah said. Ghani called for a full investigation into vote-rigging, saying "unfortunately there were cases of security forces involved in fraud, we have the evidence".

Afghan President Karzai eyes active ‘retirement’

KABUL: When outgoing Afghan leader Hamid Karzai moves out of the presidential palace post-elections to take up residence next door, he will be relinquishing power but not influence, as he seeks an active public role in his "retirement" years.

Karzai is due to step down in the coming weeks after Saturday´s run-off election, paving the way for Afghanistan´s first democratic transfer of power. The elections are meant to signal a fresh start for Afghanistan after the 13-year rule of Karzai dominated by the US-led military intervention that followed the fall of the Taliban in 2001.Karzai´s relations with the US have collapsed, his regime is accused of massive corruption, and the country is still beset by the Taliban insurgency as NATO troops pull out and aid money declines.

But any prediction that the new president can turn the page decisively looks misplaced.

"The truth is that President Karzai built up such a vast patronage network that he has to stay influential to keep his people happy," said Bette Dam, a Dutch author who interviewed Karzai extensively for her forthcoming book on the president.

"He is looking for ways to continue (wielding) influence, and help his network of people to hold power. Many governors and government officials are in contact with him about how to achieve this."

Karzai, then aged only 44, became a global star when he was selected to lead Afghanistan after the ousting of the repressive 1996-2001 Taliban regime.

Charismatic, fluent in English, and dressed in a colourful cape and lambskin hat, Karzai wowed world leaders and convinced the United States that he was the perfect partner to tackle Islamist militancy after the 9/11 attacks.

’Tribal leader’
But such sentiments evaporated as the insurgency raged on for a decade, casualties mounted, billions of aid dollars were spent to limited effect, and Karzai launched increasingly bitter criticism of the US intervention.

Now, after serving the maximum two terms, he seems ready to take on a role somewhere between chief powerbroker and father of the nation.

"The US and others always thought Karzai was ´one of us´, and it is true that rather than a warlord, he is an English-speaking diplomat and a politician who can easily connect with the West," said Dam, an expert on the Pashtun tribal structures behind Karzai´s influence.

"But the way I got to know Karzai, he is more like a tribal leader with a lot of power deals to keep well maintained. He understands Westerners, but I wonder whether the West understands him and his tribal politics."

Karzai largely kept his vow to stay out of the ongoing election -- in public at least -- and it may be some time before his "retirement" plans become clear.

Much will depend on his successor -- either former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah or ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani, both of whom have worked under him but now have prickly relations with their former boss.

"We think he might want to be a ´emeritus professor´ type of figure," one senior US military figure who declined to be named told.

"We accept he is going to still be around, but we already moved on some time ago to looking at the new president."

Frankly, it will be a relief he is no longer in the palace.

After a series of bitter verbal spats with Washington, Karzai refused to sign an agreed text allowing a small force of US soldiers to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 to help with military training and counter-terrorism.

Over 50 dead in Afghan flooding

KABUL: Flooding in a remote part of northern Afghanistan has claimed more than 50 lives and forced thousands to flee their homes, a provincial official said Saturday.

Lt. Fazel Rahman, the police chief in the Guzirga i-Nur district of Baghlan province, said 54 bodies have been recovered, including the remains of women and children, but many others are still missing.

He said the death toll could climb to 100 and called for emergency assistance from the federal government. "So far no one has come to help us. People are trying to find their missing family members," Rahman said, adding that the district´s police force was overstretched by the scale of the disaster.

Guzirga i-Nur district is located more than 140 kilometers (85 miles) north of the provincial capital Puli Khumri. Jawed Basharat, the spokesman for the Baghlan provincial police, said they were aware of the flooding, but that it would take eight to nine hours for them to reach the remote and mountainous area.

Afghan election front-runner Abdullah escapes assassination attempt

KABUL: Afghan presidential election front-runner Abdullah Abdullah said he had escaped an assassination attempt Friday when an explosion hit his campaign motorcade in Kabul, just days ahead of a hotly-contested run-off election. "A few minutes ago, when we left a campaign rally our convoy was hit by a mine," he told another election rally in quotes broadcast on Afghan television. He added that some of his guards were mildly wounded, while he was unhurt.

The attempt came ahead of the second-round presidential election on June 14, with Taliban insurgents threatening to disrupt the polls.

No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Abdullah fell short of the 50 percent threshold needed for an outright victory in the April first round and will face former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani in the run-off.

"We condemn the attack on respected presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah," Ghani said on Twitter.

"This is the act of the enemies of Afghanistan to disrupt the democratic process in the country."

 

Blast kills four Afghan policemen: officials

GHAZNI: An explosion killed four Afghan police including a district chief on Thursday as they attempted to defuse a roadside bomb in the restive south, officials said.

Afghanistan has seen a flare-up in violence ahead of the second-round presidential election on June 14, with Taliban insurgents threatening to disrupt the polls.

Thursday´s blast occurred as Mohammad Qasim and his team attempted to defuse one of two roadside bombs found in Waghiz district of Ghazni province.

"They defused the first bomb and while they were trying to defuse the second one nearby, it detonated and killed them," provincial spokesman Shafiq Nang told AFP.

One policeman was wounded in the attack and taken to a nearby hospital, deputy police chief of Ghazni, Assadullah Safi, said while confirming the incident.

The incident comes after 16 policemen were killed in a series of attacks in the space of 24 hours last month, as security forces gear up to guard the election.

Providing security for the vote is a key test for Afghan police and soldiers, with the bulk of 51,000 NATO combat troops due to pull out of the country by December after more than a decade fighting the Taliban.

No one has claimed responsibility for Thursday´s attack, but roadside bombs are the Taliban´s weapon of choice in their war against the foreign and Afghan forces. (AFP)

Afghan Taliban free US soldier after five years

PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban on Saturday confirmed to have freed US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, they had abducted in June 2009 from Afghanistan, in exchange of their top Taliban commanders.

“Yes our talks finally proved successful for prisoners’ swap. We returned our valued guest to his countrymen and they released our people, including the top five commanders held in Guantanamo Bay since 2002,” a senior Taliban commander told The News on phone from somewhere in Afghanistan.

Pleading anonymity, he said talks for prisoners’ swap had been going on for the past several weeks. He didn’t mention the name of the country but said a brotherly Muslim country, having sympathies with the Taliban, played an important role in bringing together the Taliban and US officials to help exchange each others’ prisoners.

The Taliban commander said Bowe Bergdahl had mostly been held in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan after what he termed his ‘dramatic’ kidnapping from Afghanistan’s Paktika province in June 2009.

“After the deal was finalised, Bowe was taken to Ali Sher town of Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province by the third party and delivered to Americans. We don’t know further what happened to him,” the Taliban commander said.

According to the Taliban, they had informed Bergdahl a few days ago about his likely release but he didn’t believe as before this he was once handed over to members of the Quetta Shura or council, the decision-making body of the militants, for his scheduled release in exchange for the five commanders two years ago when they started peace talks with US in Qatar.

“The talks at that time failed and he was again handed over to his captors and that’s why he didn’t trust when was told about his likely release,” he recalled.

He claimed Bergdahl has made several friends among the Taliban but his suffering began when his close friend and senior Taliban commander, Maulvi Sangeen Zadran was killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan tribal region last year.

“He was actually kidnapped by the militants of Maulvi Sangeen and that’s why the late commander would love him and take care of him,” the Taliban commander said.

Before his release, the Taliban claimed he was given a traditional Afghan turban as a gift.

“It is war in which they kill us and we kill them but we did whatever we could to make him happy and return with good memories,” the Taliban commander said.

The Taliban commander claimed they finally got back their five prisoners including Mulla Fazal Akhund, Noorullah Noori, Abdul Haq Waseeq, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammad Nabi in exchange for the US soldier.

“We initially demanded the release of these people. They arrived in Qatar and joined their families,” he said.

According to Taliban sources, Mulla Fazal Akhund, who belongs to the Kakar tribe and is from Derawad in the central Urozgan province, was the Taliban army chief at the time of his capture.

Mulla Fazal was reportedly leading his fighters in northern Afghanistan where he surrendered to Uzbek warlord General Abdur Rasheed Dostum on condition that he won’t be handed over to the US.

Gen Dostum later handed over him and several hundred other Taliban prisoners to the US reportedly after taking money from the Americans. Noorullah Noori, who hails from Ghazni province, was the governor of Balkh province, while Khairullah Khairkhwa served as Afghanistan’s interior minister during the Taliban rule and also remained the governor of Herat province.

He belongs to Spin Boldak village in Kandahar province sited near the Pakistani border town of Chaman. Abdul Haq Waseeq was the deputy Taliban intelligence chief when he was captured. He belongs to Paktia province. Similarly, Mohammad Nabi was an important military commander when the Taliban were in power. He belongs to the Haqqani network.

60 militants dead after major attack on Afghan army post

 

KABUL: Afghan forces repulsed an assault by hundreds of militants, many from across the border, officials said on Wednesday, in the biggest clashes since the presidential election almost four weeks ago.
NATO air support was called in to help beat back the attack that left 60 militants and at least five Afghan soldiers dead at an army base near the porous border on Monday night. “A group of terrorists and foreign fighters numbering about 500... launched a big operation targeting army posts in Zirok district of Paktika province,” the Afghan defence ministry said in a statement.

It said the militants were trying to score a high-profile victory after failing to mount a significant attack on polling day despite threatening to target voters, election officials and security forces.

The Afghan National Directorate of Security, the country’s intelligence agency, said 300 fighters from the Haqqani network, which is allied to the Taliban, and other insurgents were involved.

“Haqqani and foreign fighters along with suicide attackers carried out an assault on the night of April 28 to capture a military base in Zirok district,” it said. “As a result of a counter-attack by government forces backed by coalition air force, 60 members of the Haqqani group and other foreign fighters were killed and a large number injured.”

The Haqqani network is blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, including bombings of the US and Indian embassies in Kabul. A Haqqani source in Pakistan confirmed Monday’s incident to AFP. “Allied forces and the Afghan army retaliated to the assault and killed 60 fighters,” he said.

“The fighters left and took with them 40 bodies of their colleagues and 12 Afghan soldiers who were alive.” The Haqqani source said the bodies of 20 militants were with the Afghans and a message had been sent offering to exchange the captured soldiers for them. Afghan officials said only one soldier had been taken hostage

Afghan election run-off between Abdullah and Ghani: results

KABUL: Afghanistan´s presidential election is set for a second-round vote, preliminary results showed Saturday, as opposition leader Abdullah Abdullah and former academic Ashraf Ghani both failed to secure a decisive victory.

"Based on our results, it appears that the election goes to the second round," Ahmad Yusuf Nuristani, head of the Independent Election Commission, told a press conference in Kabul.

Abdullah, a former foreign minister, secured 44.9 percent of the vote, with his main rival Ghani on 31.5 percent, according to the preliminary results.

The final official result is set to be announced on May 14 after a period for adjudication of hundreds of complaints over alleged fraud.

As no candidate gained more than 50 percent, a run-off between the two leading names is required under the Afghan constitution.

Nuristani, who announced that the second round would be held on June 7, said nearly seven million people voted in the April 5 election out of an estimated electorate of 13.5 million -- well above the 2009 turnout.Of those who voted, 36 percent were female -- a figure likely to be seen an impressive sign of women´s improving status in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country.

The eventual winner will have to oversee the fight against a resilient Taliban insurgency as 51,000 US-led NATO combat troops leave Afghanistan this year, as well as strengthen an economy that relies on declining aid money.

- Disputes over fraud claims? -
Another expensive and potentially violent election could be avoided by negotiations between the candidates in the coming weeks, but Abdullah has dismissed talks of a possible power-sharing deal.

Ghani, a former World Bank economist, has also vowed to fight on in a run-off.Serious fraud allegations are being investigated in the vote to choose a successor to President Hamid Karzai, who has ruled Afghanistan since the Islamist Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

The 2009 election, when Karzai retained power, was marred by fraud in a chaotic process that shook confidence in the multinational effort to develop Afghanistan and also marked a sharp decline in relations with the United States.

Votes involved in alleged ballot-box stuffing and other cheating have not been counted, and Saturday’s announcement is expected to be followed by fierce debate over disputed voting papers.

Preliminary results were delayed by two days due to fraud investigations, with officials vowing to sift out all suspect votes before they were counted.

Five NATO soldiers died on Saturday in a helicopter crash in the south of the country, officials said, adding that the cause of the incident was being investigated.

Karzai, who is constitutionally barred from serving a third term, has pledged to stay neutral in the election.

But he was widely thought to have backed former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, who took just 11 percent of the vote.

Rassoul could still play a key role in power-brokering before the next president is chosen, as could former Islamist warlord Abdul Rab Rasoul Sayyaf, who collected a seven percent.

All leading candidates have pledged to explore peace talks with the Taliban and sign a deal with the US that could allow 10,000 US troops to stay on after this year on a training and counter-terrorism mission.

Karzai´s surprise decision to refuse to sign the bilateral security agreement last year after agreeing to the draft text plunged relations between Afghanistan and its biggest donor to a new low.

The outgoing president has had several public disagreements with Washington in recent years, underlining efforts to establish his reputation as an independent, nationalist leader despite relying on US aid and military power during his reign.

Afghan helicopter crash kills 5 NATO troops: NATO

KABUL: Five members of the US-led NATO force in Afghanistan died in a helicopter crash in the south of the country on Saturday, NATO officials said, adding the cause of the incident was being investigated.

In line with NATO policy, the coalition deferred casualty identification to national authorities. "Five International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) service members died as a result of a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan," the force said.

"ISAF is still in the process of reviewing the circumstances to determine more facts. "The statement made no reference to whether any Taliban insurgents were active in the area when the helicopter came down.

Six US troops were killed when a Blackhawk chopper went down in the southern province of Zabul in December. In the hours after the crash, US officers suggested the helicopter crashed due to a mechanical failure but that the crew may have come under fire once the chopper was on the ground.

Officials later backed away from that account, saying in January that Taliban insurgents brought down the aircraft. There was no immediate claim of responsibility from the insurgents after Saturday´s crash.

Pakistan warns Afghan Taliban and Haqqani Network

 

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani establishment has made it clear to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network that the time has come for them to choose between the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and the state of Pakistan, if they want to stay friends with Islamabad.
The unprecedented warning from the Pakistani establishment has come at a crucial time when the Pakistani Taliban are holding peace talks with the government in Islamabad, amidst demands to release over 800 Taliban prisoners and to set up a free peace zone in Waziristan.

According to well-informed sources, the warning from the establishment was prompted by the growing cooperation among the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network and the Pakistani Taliban, which has reinforced the martial power of TTP in its current conflict with the security forces of Pakistan.

The TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, already admitted on October 6, 2013 in an interview that the Afghan Taliban were financially supporting the Pakistani Taliban besides providing them sanctuary in Afghanistan.

The fugitive TTP Ameer, Mullah Fazlullah, who had claimed responsibility last year for killing GOC Swat Major General Sanaullah Niazi is also being sheltered by the Afghan Taliban in the Kunar Province. However, what seemed to have angered the Pakistani establishment the most were the allegations coming from the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban, blaming the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for the November 11, 2013 mystery murder [in Islamabad] of Dr Nasiruddin Haqqani, the top fundraiser and organiser of Haqqani Network as well as its liaison man with the Pakistani security establishment.

Dr Nasiruddin, the real brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, was killed by unknown gunmen in the federal capital 10 days after the November 1, 2013 killing of the TTPAmeer in a US drone attack in North Waziristan. Both were laid to rest in the Dandey Darapa Khel area of North Waziristan which also headquarters the Haqqani Network as well as the TTP.

The decades-old cozy ties between the Pakistani establishment and the Haqqanis were shattered with the mystery murder of Dr Nasiruddin when a spokesman of Haqqani network (Najeebullah) immediately blamed the Pakistani intelligence agencies. He said: “Dr Nasiruddin had been mediating between a powerful intelligence agency and the Pakistani Taliban for peace talks. But he had refused to mediate further following Hakimullah’s death and the subsequent announcement of TTP not to hold peace talks with the government. Nasiruddin’s reluctance to mediate anymore after Hakimullah’s killing must have annoyed the agency which decided to eliminate him physically,” the Haqqanis’ spokesman was quoted by the media as saying.

On his part, the TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, also blamed a Pakistani intelligence agency for the murder, vowing to take revenge. “Nasiruddin Haqqani has been martyred by none other than the ISI. He was killed because he had bravely backed our Ameer Hakimullah Mehsud,” Shahidullah told AFP when asked about possible killers.

However, on their part, the ISI circles had refuted the allegations of involvement in the murder, saying Dr Nasiruddin Haqqani was either killed by the TTP or by the Afghan National Directorate of Security.

The allegations leveled by the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network were followed by Pakistani intelligence reports that both the groups were supporting and financing the TTP in its terror spree against the khakis and the civilians alike.

Indeed, the Pakistani and the Afghan Taliban are closely allied and both aim to impose a strict version of Islamic laws or Shariah on their societies. However, their leadership and targets differ with each other. While the Pakistani Taliban mostly focus their terrorist attacks in Pakistan against the security forces which they think are an American ally, the Afghan Taliban target the Afghan and the Allied forces. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif recently told Reuters in an interview that the Pakistan government was worried about the possibility of increasing convergence between the Pakistani and the Afghan Taliban. “Then the Pakistani Taliban will have a powerhouse behind them,” Khawaja Asif had said. Analysts believe that these concerns might have prompted the Pakistani security establishment to warn the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban against backing the TTP.

However, the close nature of ties between the Afghan and the Pakistani Taliban can be gauged from the fact that the central Shura of TTP has already referred their internal differences to the Afghan Taliban while asking Mullah Omar to intervene and send a delegation to resolve the tiff between two major factions of Mehsud militants from South Waziristan.

A senior TTP commander has been quoted in the media as saying that the Shura thought that the intra-TTP tussle was too serious and critical for them and, therefore, they decided to approach the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, a term usually referred to the Afghan Taliban.

There are already reports that the Ameer of the Afghan Taliban is persuading the Pakistani Taliban to end their infighting in South Waziristan as he wants to secure their support against the foreign troops in Afghanistan to launch the annual spring offensive.

Analysts believe the Pakistani security establishment’s warning was meant to dissuade the Haqqanis and the Afghan Taliban from siding with the Pakistani Taliban in their conflict with the state of Pakistan at a time when the Allied forces are set to withdraw from Afghanistan and both the Afghan militia groups would require the crucial support of Islamabad to stage a comeback in Kabul. In fact, the ultimate agenda of the Pakistani Taliban is the establishment of their own state — the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan [on the pattern of Mullah Omar’s Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] in Fata where they can impose the Islamic Shariah. On the other hand, the ultimate agenda of the Afghan Taliban is the revival of the lost Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

Therefore, following the Pakistani establishment’s warning, Mullah Omar will have to decide whether to befriend the Pakistani Taliban or the state of Pakistan. Commander Sirajuddin Haqqani of the Haqqani Network is bound to follow suit being a disciple of Mullah Omar just like the Pakistani and the Afghan Taliban. Well informed sources in the establishment say logically speaking Mullah Omar would like to remain a friend of Pakistan instead of inviting its wrath by befriending the TTP.

However, there are those in the Taliban circles who believe that if the Afghan Taliban succeed in regaining power in Kabul after the withdrawal of the Allied troops, there would be greater chances of their joining hands with the Pakistani Taliban whose aims and objectives and those of the Ameerul Momineen are the same. However, the establishment circles say, in such an eventuality, the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network must know that “strategic depth” would no longer be a consideration of the establishment if the Pakistan government finally orders a military action in North Waziristan after the failure of the talks with the TTP.

Afghan presidential election partial results expected today

KABUL: A frontrunner to succeed Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said his one time rival should continue to serve a role in politics and that he wouldn´t pursue "vengeance" against the man he claims stole the last election.

A former ophthalmologist and resistance fighter against invading Soviet forces in the 1980s, Abdullah Abdullah served as Karzai´s foreign minister from late 2001 to 2005.

Following the 2009 poll, which was widely discredited as massively fraudulent by the international community, Abdullah accused Karzai of "stealing" the vote. Abdullah along with former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani are seen as the two leading candidates in the race to succeed Karzai, with more than seven million people defying bad weather and Taliban threats to vote last week.

Observers have long suspected Karzai of coveting a key role in the country´s politics after leaving the presidency. These suspicions have been fuelled, in part, by the construction of a lavish new house for him near the presidential palace and the nomination of his brother Qayyum as a candidate.

Though Qayyum dropped out of the race, and his next anointed successor, Zalmai Rasoul, is believed to have fallen into third place behind the two leaders, Karzai is still seen as important to Abdullah´s effort to secure the president´s southern Pashtun base, the largest ethnic group.
Abdullah, who was born to an ethnic Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, is more associated with the northern Tajiks.

Speaking to AFP in his Kabul home, Abdullah hinted Karzai would remain at the heart of the country´s affairs. "The president of Afghanistan will have a role in the future. I´m not talking about an administrative role, I´m talking about a role in the politics of the country, a role at the national level, and he has served the country for the past 13 years. "So that is something that is natural. What shape that role will take will depend on his decision", he said.

Asked whether he would be inclined to seek prosecution of Karzai or his brothers, who have been dogged by major corruption allegations for years, he added: "I would not go through that line that will be politics of vengeance and revenge and retribution. Our priority of the future government will be to deal with the priorities of the nation."

The first partial results are expected later Sunday, with both camps expressing optimism of winning outright without the need for a second round, triggered if no candidate gains more 50 percent of the estimated seven million votes cast. A potential solution to accommodate Abdullah´s "Pashtun problem" could be found in a switchover to a parliamentary-democracy he says he wants to create by changing the country´s constitution. "It will give the chance for better accountability, it will be good for the people´s participation -- so that has been part of our agenda including bigger room, better room for the political parties," he said. Such a setup would expand the powers of Afghanistan´s parliament, creating new roles to accommodate potential allies.

Dressed in a smart grey suit Abdullah appeared confident that the prize that eluded him in 2009 was within his grasp on this occasion, adding that he isn´t overly concerned so far about reports of fraud. "We´re watching it, we´re monitoring it. There is a system and hopefully everybody tries to make the system work," he said.

Many critics have questioned whether Abdullah, who fought the Taliban when they were in power from 1996-2001, can accomplish his stated ambition of negotiating a settlement with the militants. Responding to the doubts, he said: "I would say that the election has taken place already, that in itself was a rejection of the Talibanisation of the country and a rejection of violence. "I hope that everyone has drawn the right lesson from the elections and they hopefully boost the legitimacy of the Afghan administration, and then the Afghan administration will be taken seriously by friends and foes alike."

And he remained insistent that, unlike Karzai, who has been accused of backsliding on human rights issues, he would make no such concessions to hardliners, particularly with regard to women´s rights. "Compromising fundamental values is out of the question. These are values for which are people have made sacrifices for and these are achievements of the people of Afghanistan. "Making sacrifices is one thing but to sacrifice the rights of the people under any illusion of achieving peace will not achieve any peace.

Abdullah leading in Afghan polls

 

KABUL: Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is leading his closest rival Ashraf Ghani in early results from the Afghan presidential election, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Sunday, but figures indicate a likely run-off vote.
“Today we announce the partial results of 26 provinces with 10 percent of votes counted, these include (provinces) in the north, south, east, west and Kabul,” said Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, the IEC chief.

“With 500,000 votes from 26 provinces Dr Abdullah is leading with 41.9 percent; Dr Ashraf Ghani has 37.6 percent and is in second place; and Zalmai Rassoul has 9.8 percent in third position.”

Nuristani stressed the figurewas only partial and could change drastically in the coming days, when more partial results would be announced. A run-off election between the two leading candidates will be triggered if no single candidate gains more than 50 percent of the vote when the final results are announced in late May.

But Nuristani cautioned against reading too much into the early results. “These results are changeable. Today one candidate might be leading but when we announce more results another candidate might be leading,” he said.

Of the eight provinces for which results have not been announced, two are in the north (Badakhshan and Baghlan) and two in the east (Nuristan and Paktika). The others are Daykundi in the centre, southern Ghazni and Wardak and the western province of Ghor.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan welcomed the announcement as a “first snapshot that will regularly be updated by the IEC”. “I urge presidential candidates and their supporters to display patience while vote tallying is completed,” said Jan Kubis, UN Special Representative to Afghanistan, in a statement.

Abdullah, who was born to an ethnic Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, is more associated with the northern Tajiks. More than seven million people defied bad weather and Taliban threats of violence to vote in the April 5 first round of the election, earning praise from world leaders.

Ahead of the vote there were fears that a repeat of the massive fraud which, blighted Karzai’s re-election in 2009, would undermine the winner’s legitimacy at a testing time for the war-torn country.

But the Election Complaints Commission announced on Sunday there had been “less fraud” in the current poll. “We have received 1,892 complaints with evidence, (including) 1,382 through phone,” said spokesman Nader Mohseni, adding that 870 of the complaints fell into the most serious category.

“We will review all the complaints. Based on the reviews and numbers provided by the observers there has been less fraud in this election compared to the previous one,” he said.Ghani’s camp was set to hold a press conference later on Sunday to discuss the partial results.

Abdullah, an ophthalmologist by training, came second in the 2009 election to current President Hamid Karzai, in a vote that was internationally denounced as fraudulent. He was a resistance fighter against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and was a close friend and adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud, a revered Tajik leader who fought the Taliban during their 1996-2001 rule and was assassinated two days before the September 11, 2011 attacks on the United States.

Ghani is a former World Bank economist and globally renowned intellectual, who has shed some of his wonk image during his current campaign and is more favoured by the country’s majority Pashtuns. Former physician Zalmai Rassoul, another Pashtun, was seen as Karzai’s favourite — a charge that he denied.

All three pre-election favourites have pledged to protect women’s rights, reach out for a peace deal with the Taliban and sign a bilateral security pact with the United States that would allow at least 10,000 troops to stay for the next ten years.

Afghan presidential election partial results expected today

KABUL: A frontrunner to succeed Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said his one time rival should continue to serve a role in politics and that he wouldn´t pursue "vengeance" against the man he claims stole the last election.

A former ophthalmologist and resistance fighter against invading Soviet forces in the 1980s, Abdullah Abdullah served as Karzai´s foreign minister from late 2001 to 2005.

Following the 2009 poll, which was widely discredited as massively fraudulent by the international community, Abdullah accused Karzai of "stealing" the vote. Abdullah along with former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani are seen as the two leading candidates in the race to succeed Karzai, with more than seven million people defying bad weather and Taliban threats to vote last week.

Observers have long suspected Karzai of coveting a key role in the country´s politics after leaving the presidency. These suspicions have been fuelled, in part, by the construction of a lavish new house for him near the presidential palace and the nomination of his brother Qayyum as a candidate.

Though Qayyum dropped out of the race, and his next anointed successor, Zalmai Rasoul, is believed to have fallen into third place behind the two leaders, Karzai is still seen as important to Abdullah´s effort to secure the president´s southern Pashtun base, the largest ethnic group.
Abdullah, who was born to an ethnic Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, is more associated with the northern Tajiks.

Speaking to AFP in his Kabul home, Abdullah hinted Karzai would remain at the heart of the country´s affairs. "The president of Afghanistan will have a role in the future. I´m not talking about an administrative role, I´m talking about a role in the politics of the country, a role at the national level, and he has served the country for the past 13 years. "So that is something that is natural. What shape that role will take will depend on his decision", he said.

Asked whether he would be inclined to seek prosecution of Karzai or his brothers, who have been dogged by major corruption allegations for years, he added: "I would not go through that line that will be politics of vengeance and revenge and retribution. Our priority of the future government will be to deal with the priorities of the nation."

The first partial results are expected later Sunday, with both camps expressing optimism of winning outright without the need for a second round, triggered if no candidate gains more 50 percent of the estimated seven million votes cast. A potential solution to accommodate Abdullah´s "Pashtun problem" could be found in a switchover to a parliamentary-democracy he says he wants to create by changing the country´s constitution. "It will give the chance for better accountability, it will be good for the people´s participation -- so that has been part of our agenda including bigger room, better room for the political parties," he said. Such a setup would expand the powers of Afghanistan´s parliament, creating new roles to accommodate potential allies.

Dressed in a smart grey suit Abdullah appeared confident that the prize that eluded him in 2009 was within his grasp on this occasion, adding that he isn´t overly concerned so far about reports of fraud. "We´re watching it, we´re monitoring it. There is a system and hopefully everybody tries to make the system work," he said.

Many critics have questioned whether Abdullah, who fought the Taliban when they were in power from 1996-2001, can accomplish his stated ambition of negotiating a settlement with the militants. Responding to the doubts, he said: "I would say that the election has taken place already, that in itself was a rejection of the Talibanisation of the country and a rejection of violence. "I hope that everyone has drawn the right lesson from the elections and they hopefully boost the legitimacy of the Afghan administration, and then the Afghan administration will be taken seriously by friends and foes alike."

And he remained insistent that, unlike Karzai, who has been accused of backsliding on human rights issues, he would make no such concessions to hardliners, particularly with regard to women´s rights. "Compromising fundamental values is out of the question. These are values for which are people have made sacrifices for and these are achievements of the people of Afghanistan. "Making sacrifices is one thing but to sacrifice the rights of the people under any illusion of achieving peace will not achieve any peace.