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Afghanistan warns Pakistan over cross-border shelling
 [Dawn] Afghanistan has called on Pakistain to halt cross-border shelling, warning the UN Security Council that the attacks could jeopardise already tense relations between the two countries.A UN envoy meanwhile said that there were a growing number of "uprisings" against the Taliban in areas of Afghanistan under the group's control. Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said Thursday that attacks from Pakistain into his country were "a matter of deep and serious concern" and had caused "unprecedented anger and frustration among Afghans." Afghanistan has accused Pakistain of staging repeated shelling barrages across the poorly policed border into Kunar province ... which is right down the road from Chitral. Kunar is Haqqani country..... "We reiterate our call for an immediate and complete end to these acts, which have taken the lives of dozen of Afghans, mainly civilians, while leaving many maimed," Rassoul told the 15-nation council during a meeting. He said the Afghan government was in contact with Pakistain to end the attacks "holistically and resolutely." Rassoul said that Afghanistan wants "close and fruitful relations" with its neighbour, which has frequently been accused of backing Talibs seeking to overthrow President Hamid Maybe I'll join the TalibanKarzai's ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtunface on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... government. Pakistain in turn says groups of Pak Taliban sheltering in Afghanistan have infiltrated the border to resume attacks on its security forces. The UN special representative in Afghanistan Jan Kubis meanwhile told the meeting that "reports of uprisings against the Taliban in various parts of the country are a new development requiring greater analysis". He added, however, that the causes of the new violence are "complex". "Desire for local communities to have security and justice led them to taking the situation into their own hands. There is a risk of even greater fragmentation of the security environment," Kubis said. "Many of these localised conflicts would appear to be resistance to the Taliban, but not necessarily in support of a greater government presence." Kubis told news hounds that most of the "uprisings" were in the south of Afghanistan and could be a protest against Taliban policies against, for example, schools. "This is an invitation to the government to increase support for the communities, to increase the delivery of law and order, to increase delivery of government services," he added. A US-led international force of some 110,000 troops are in Afghanistan helping the Karzai government fight Taliban turbans. The force is due to leave by the end of 2014. Posted by: Fred 2012-09-22 |
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