A Haqqani facilitator and 10 other insurgents have been arrested Sunday in separate security forces operations in Afghanistan, Isaf said.

"An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Haqqani facilitator and one other insurgent during an operation in Gardez district, Paktiya province, today," Isaf said in a statement.

The facilitator is accused of procuring and distributing lethal aid to extremist fighters, and is believed to have history of planning attacks against Afghan and coalition forces, the statement said.

Nine other insurgents have been arrested in an operation in Panjwa'i district of southern Kandahar province, the statement said.

The operation was launched to search for a Taliban commander who is accused of constructing improvised explosive devices and coordinating their use in attacks throughout the district, Isaf said.

"He is also believed to exercise operational control over a cell of Taliban fighters and maintain a sophisticated operations center used to plan insurgent activity," it added.

Meanwhile, three other insurgents were killed Saturday in a joint operation in Nahr-e Saraj district of southern Helmand province.

Isaf said the security forces "positively identified" fighters conducting insurgent activity and engaged them, killing three militants.

As Parliament returned from its winter break, political parties demanded Saturday that it put the approval of the election law and the independent commission law at the top of its agenda.

Only 13 months out from a crucial presidential election, the political leaders said any further delay will only further weaken the political process.

The head of the National Front is concerned that the government lacks the determination to have a transparent election.

"The delay in the approval of the two laws will create challenges for the election. The parliament should pay attention in this regard and not delay them anymore," National Front leader Ahmad Zia Massoud said.

The head of the National Coalition Dr Abdullah Abdullah believes that a transparent election will go a long way in helping the country's challenges and asked Parliament to take the laws seriously.

"I hope that once the parliament appoints the administrative board it starts working on these laws. They should select the board as soon as possible and not waste much time," Abdullah said.

The current parliamentary administrative board said that parliament will look at the laws after the new board is selected.

"The negotiations [of the government and the political parties] on the election law have been completed in all the parliamentary committees. These committees will have a joint meeting and then send it to a general session," parliament deputy secretary Abdul Sattar Khawasi said.

The passing of the election law has been fraught as parliament and senate disagree on the nature of an independent election commission, namely whether or not two foreign observers can be part of the Electoral Complaints Commission.

Thousands of angry protesters on Saturday set ablaze more than 100 houses of Pakistani Christians over a blasphemy row in the eastern city of Lahore, officials said.

Over 3,000 Muslim protesters turned violent over derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed allegedly made by Sawan Masih, a 28-year-old Christian, three days earlier, police official Multan Khan said.

The exact number of houses in Joseph Colony, a Christian neighbourhood in Badami Bagh area, were not immediately known but police and rescue officials said they belonged to low to middle-class families from the minority community.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have ordered an immediate inquiry into the attacks.

"Police arrested Masih, a sanitary worker, on Friday night while the incident actually happened on Wednesday evening," Khan told AFP.

He said that the arrest was made when Masih's barber friend Shahid Imran complained that he had made blasphemous remarks about Prophet Mohammed, adding that Christians had fled the area on Friday evening, fearing a backlash.

Protesters began to assemble in the area on Saturday morning and later set on fire houses and other items including furniture, crockery, auto rickshaws, bicycles and motorbikes belonging to local Christians.

"Thick clouds of smoke engulfed the small houses, mostly consisting of one or two rooms, and many of them looked like charred shells," said an AFP reporter at the scene.

Police said protesters burnt 25 houses but Dr Ahmad Raza, in-charge of local rescue operations, and the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) put the number at more than 100.

"At least 160 houses, 18 shops and two small churches were burnt by protesters," Raza, who was busy in rescue operations in the area, told AFP.

Expressing grief and anger at the attack, HRCP chairwoman Zohra Yusuf put the number of houses burnt during the protest at over 100.

Police baton-charged the protesters to disperse them from the neighbourhood. There was no loss of life reported during the violence but 20 policemen were slightly injured during clashes, officials said.

Private Pakistani TV channels showed footage of violence from the scene as many masked members of the mob damaged or burned down households.

The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have both ordered an investigation into the violence.

"President Zardari called for a report into this unfortunate incident and said such acts of vandalism against minorities tarnish the image of the country," his spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.

Prime Minister Ashraf also ordered an "expeditious inquiry and measures to stop recurrence of such incidents in future", his office said in a statement.

Provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said in Lahore that the government would not spare those involved in the attack.

"These people committed a serious crime... there was no moral, legal or religious ground to indulge in such an act," he told private Express News TV channel.

Yusuf criticised the provincial government in a statement and said "it totally failed in providing protection to a minority community under siege".

Shamaun Alfred Gill, a spokesman for the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, also condemned the incident and demanded that the government provide security to Christians.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the population are Muslims, and allegations of insulting Islam or the Prophet Mohammed can prompt violent outbursts of public anger, even when unproven.

The laws came under the international spotlight in August last year when 14-year-old Christian girl Rimsha Masih was held for three weeks in a high security prison for allegedly burning pages from the Koran.

President Hamid Karzai Sunday said that the senior Taliban leaders and the US are holding talks in Qatar and Europe without the Afghan government.

Read more...

The transfer of responsibility for Bagram Prison from the US military to the Afghan government was again delayed Saturday after alleged disagreements over a number of the articles in the Kabul-Washington pact.

To watch the programme, click here:

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Read more...

Thousands of angry protesters on Saturday set ablaze more than 100 houses of Pakistani Christians over a blasphemy row in the eastern city of Lahore, officials said.

Over 3,000 Muslim protesters turned violent over derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed allegedly made by Sawan Masih, a 28-year-old Christian, three days earlier, police official Multan Khan said.

The exact number of houses in Joseph Colony, a Christian neighbourhood in Badami Bagh area, were not immediately known but police and rescue officials said they belonged to low to middle-class families from the minority community.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have ordered an immediate inquiry into the attacks.

"Police arrested Masih, a sanitary worker, on Friday night while the incident actually happened on Wednesday evening," Khan told AFP.

He said that the arrest was made when Masih's barber friend Shahid Imran complained that he had made blasphemous remarks about Prophet Mohammed, adding that Christians had fled the area on Friday evening, fearing a backlash.

Protesters began to assemble in the area on Saturday morning and later set on fire houses and other items including furniture, crockery, auto rickshaws, bicycles and motorbikes belonging to local Christians.

"Thick clouds of smoke engulfed the small houses, mostly consisting of one or two rooms, and many of them looked like charred shells," said an AFP reporter at the scene.

Police said protesters burnt 25 houses but Dr Ahmad Raza, in-charge of local rescue operations, and the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) put the number at more than 100.

"At least 160 houses, 18 shops and two small churches were burnt by protesters," Raza, who was busy in rescue operations in the area, told AFP.

Expressing grief and anger at the attack, HRCP chairwoman Zohra Yusuf put the number of houses burnt during the protest at over 100.

Police baton-charged the protesters to disperse them from the neighbourhood. There was no loss of life reported during the violence but 20 policemen were slightly injured during clashes, officials said.

Private Pakistani TV channels showed footage of violence from the scene as many masked members of the mob damaged or burned down households.

The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf have both ordered an investigation into the violence.

"President Zardari called for a report into this unfortunate incident and said such acts of vandalism against minorities tarnish the image of the country," his spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.

Prime Minister Ashraf also ordered an "expeditious inquiry and measures to stop recurrence of such incidents in future", his office said in a statement.

Provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah said in Lahore that the government would not spare those involved in the attack.

"These people committed a serious crime... there was no moral, legal or religious ground to indulge in such an act," he told private Express News TV channel.

Yusuf criticised the provincial government in a statement and said "it totally failed in providing protection to a minority community under siege".

Shamaun Alfred Gill, a spokesman for the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, also condemned the incident and demanded that the government provide security to Christians.

Blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue in Pakistan, where 97 percent of the population are Muslims, and allegations of insulting Islam or the Prophet Mohammed can prompt violent outbursts of public anger, even when unproven.

The laws came under the international spotlight in August last year when 14-year-old Christian girl Rimsha Masih was held for three weeks in a high security prison for allegedly burning pages from the Koran.

President Hamid Karzai Sunday said that the senior Taliban leaders and the US are holding talks in Qatar and Europe without the Afghan government.

Read more...

The transfer of responsibility for Bagram Prison from the US military to the Afghan government was again delayed Saturday after alleged disagreements over a number of the articles in the Kabul-Washington pact.

To watch the programme, click here:

{youtube}gA5HsR9POQw{/youtube}

Read more...

The Council of Ministers has approved a government plan to expand the apartment blocks of Macroryan 4 neighbourhood up to the area of Kabul International Airport, the Ministry of Urban Development Affairs said Sunday.

The new blocks, said to include 15-storey buildings, will cost around half the current Macroryan apartment prices, and sold with an included option for purchase with long-term installments, officials said.

"We will try to construct these blocks above nine stories. All will have included heating and cooling systems," said engineer Ahmad Nawaz Bakhtiar, head of Housing Construction Enterprise at the Urban Development Ministry.

"They will be provided to people with prices up to US$500 per square meters, which is half of the market price," he added.

The new Macroryan blocks will be constructed in several phases, the housing construction officials said, adding that one of the key issues they are currently dealing with is acquiring people's properties who already have homes across the area.

"This project is in its preliminary stage. We will endeavor first to complete the acquisition of people's properties, following which we will do the design and construction," Bakhtiar said.

According to the housing construction enterprise, acquisitions will get underway in the next six months.

The new apartments will also include special blocks for diplomats as well, ministry officials added.

The project of expanding Macrorayan 4 began during the Soviet era but stopped after the collapse of President Najibullah's regime in 1992.

President Hamid Karzai said the full transfer of Bagram prison from US to Afghan authority will be completed this week after the two countries failed again to meet the latest deadline set for March 9.

Karzai's office released a statement Sunday morning after the president met with the top US commander in Afghanistan Gen Joseph Dunford Saturday evening, saying that the handover will definitely happen this week.

"President Hamid Karzai and Nato/Isaf Commander Gen. Dunford agreed that the full transfer of Bagram prison, initially set for Saturday, March 9 will now take place during this week, allowing time for some of the remaining technical details concerning the handover to be resolved," the statement said.

It is understood that the latest stumbling block to the handover was Karzai objecting to the US still controlling aspects of prisoner releases.

Some political leaders have welcomed the US reluctance to give full authority to Afghan government in light of Karzai's partiality to releasing Taliban.

"One of Karzai's goals is to have no Taliban in prisons and have them released," Fazlurrahman Oria, National Coalition party member, told TOLOnews.

Hamidullah Farouqi, member of the Right and Justice party, said there are fears that such prisoner release plans would be swayed by personal interests.

"We should have doubts that these reactions [of releasing prisoners] are based on personal tastes and seeking political interests. Unfortunately, such reactions would be very dangerous," he said.

Gen Dunford has agreed to work with the Afghan government on the final details including the legal aspects required for the complete handover to take place this current week, Karzai's office said.

These details are believed to include the matter of prisoner release and detainment of foreign prisoners captured in Afghan-coalition operations.

The initial Bagram transfer agreement was signed one year ago and had a September 2012 deadline.

Karzai has repeatedly decried the US reluctance as an affront to Afghanistan's sovereignty. He stressed this point again in Sunday's statement, saying that all efforts must be made to make sure the handover happens this week so that Afghanistan's sovereignty can come into full exercise.

The agreement has come to the fore during the visit of newly-appointed US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel who arrived in Afghanistan on Friday.

Karzai had announced in a speech to Parliament last Wednesday that the full handover would happen Saturday, but on Saturday it was delayed over the disagreements.

Sources close to the matter told TOLOnews that President Hamid Karzai disagreed with five points in the memorandum of understanding, likely to be those related to foreign inmates and the US controlling the release of prisoners.

""We continue to work out the details on the transfer of the Detention Facility in Parwan to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan."

"We respect Afghan sovereignty. We intend to proceed with the transfer once we have reached full agreement," US Forces spokesperson Col. Thomas Collins told TOLOnews Saturday.

Lawyers representing political detainees in Afghanistan on Sunday warned that many of the country's prisons lack properly trained investigators who regularly question detainees using torture methods and some detainees are kept in prison without any judicial process – in itself, a form of torture.

Read more...

An Iranian citizen has been sentenced to death in the preliminary court of north-western Badghis province after being charged with spying for Iranian military, officials said Sunday.

According to the head of Badghis preliminary court, the accused entered Afghanistan illegally in February through Herat province and later went to Badghis, allegedly at the behest of the Iranian Consulate in Herat to provide them with confidential information on the Afghan and international military based in Badghis.

The man, nicknamed Mohammad Mohammadi, is a member of the intelligence of Iran's Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, according to the Badghis attorney general.

The court heard from the prosecution that Mohammadi was sent to Badghis to work as a laborer. However, six days after arriving in Badghis, he was detained near the province's joint army post of Afghan National Army and Spanish forces in the Moqor district.

"This man confessed his crime while being investigated. we have enough proof," head of Badghis preliminary court Ferdaws Ahmad Fayez said. "We found on him two SIM cards, one is from Afghanistan and one from Iran. He has called Iran a several times."

Fayez said there is a sufficient amount of documents and proof that indicate Mohammadi has been sending military information from the area to Iranian officials.

"In accordance with articles of law, we sentenced this man to the highest punishment of execution," Fayez said.

The decision will need to be passed through the supreme court before an execution is carried out.

Lawmakers failed for a second day in a row to elect a first vice speaker of the lower house after no single candidate received enough votes to be appointed.

In the second day of polling for parliament's new administrative board, the vote for first vice speaker was between Abdul Hafiz Mansour and Obaidullah Klimzai. The process started about 9:00am and continued until 1:00pm, but neither candidate received sufficient votes.

Mansour received 87 votes and Klimzai 62 votes.

"Unfortunately we cannot select the candidates for the posts, so we will go to a new round," speaker of the house Abdulraouf Ibrahimi said Sunday.

MPs approved Urfanullah Urfan as the new deputy secretary of the house with 110 votes in favour.

On Saturday, the lawmakers first sitting session after the winter break, the vote for first vice speaker was between Mirwais Yasini and Abdulzahir Qadeer.

Qadeer received 90 votes and Yasini 99 votes - both insufficient numbers to be elected.

On Monday, in the next vote, two other MPs will be nominated for the position of first and second vice speakers.

The administrative board also includes a second vice speaker, a secretary and a deputy secretary.

Top news in this Bulletin:

President Hamid Karzai Sunday said that the senior Taliban leaders and the US are holding talks in Qatar and Europe without the Afghan government.

{youtube}07Gcv2hLoks{/youtube}

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Indian refiners may be forced to halt imports of Iranian crude oil after insurance firms said refineries processing oil from Iran will no longer be covered, a report has said.

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Two Taliban leaders have been captured in joint Afghan and Nato troops operations in southern Afghanistan Monday, Isaf said.

"An Afghan and coalition security force arrested a Taliban leader and detained one other insurgent during an operation in Nawah-ye Barakzai district, Helmand province, today," Isaf said in a statement Monday.

The leader is accused of coordinating ambushes against security forces and is believed to have a history of directing subordinate fighters to engage in attacks using improvised explosive devices (IED), rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons, it added.

The forces also seized a stockpile of IED-making materials as a result of the operation.

A second Taliban leader and an insurgent were captured in a joint operation in Arghandab district of Kandahar province, Isaf said, suspecting the leader as an IED specialist with a cell of fighters under his command.

"He also has a significant history of procuring IED-making components, constructing IEDs, and distributing them to his subordinates for emplacement and use against Afghan and coalition forces," Isaf added.

The security force also seized 20 pounds of heroin as a result of the operation.

One other insurgent was also captured in a separate operation in central Logar province, today, Isaf said.

An Afghan police officer has opened fire on US and Afghan special forces in central Maidan Wardak province, killing at least two US and three Afghan commandos, several sources told TOLOnews Monday.

It was initially reported that around eight police officers had fired on the joint commando task force at a military training centre in the Jalryz district who were present for a morning meeting.

The number of shooters has now been reduced to one police officer ,who was killed in return fire.

As many as 12 more US and Afghan troops and police were injured in the shooting. Earlier reports had said the number might be as high as 23 injured, but this is yet to be confirmed.

Isaf confirmed an "insider attack" happened at a base in Wardak's Jalryz district in a released statement.

"Two US Forces-Afghanistan service members died in eastern Afghanistan today when an individual wearing an Afghan National Security Forces uniform turned a weapon on US and Afghan forces," Isaf said.

"A policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the US Department of Defense, who will release the names once next of kin have been notified," it added.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior Sediq Sediqi also confirmed in the attack, but did not provide details about the exact number of the casualties.

"Unfortunately an incident has taken place in which one was involved in the attack and wearing the Afghan police uniform. A delegation has been send to Wardak for the investigations for the further details," Sediqi told TOLOnews.

"We cannot share more details now until the investigations are complete," he added.

The attack happened on the same day that was the deadline for US special forces to leave the Wardak province as decreed by President Hamid Karzai two weeks ago.

Karzai's deadline was given after reports of Afghan forces subordinate to the US army were abusing civilians in the province.

US leaders have dismissed President Hamid Karzai's inflammatory comments about the US and the Taliban engaging in "daily" talks without involving the Afghan leadership.

The US envoy to Afghanistan told TOLOnews Monday that any suggestion Americans were working with the Taliban to remain in Afghanistan after 2014 was "inconceivable".

"The thought that we would collude with the Taliban flies in the face of everything we have done here and is absolutely without foundation. It is inconceivable that we would spend the lives of America's sons, daughters, and our treasure, in helping Afghans to secure and rebuild their country, and at the same time be engaged in endangering Afghanistan or its citizens," Ambassador James Cunningham said.

Karzai on Sunday said at a public gathering that "the senior leaders of the Taliban and the Americans are engaged in talks in Europe and the Gulf state every day" and suggested that the US was supporting an environment of fear around the post-2014 years in order to remain in Afghanistan.

The US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel downplayed Karzai's statement after meeting with the president himself. 

"It wouldn't make a lot of sense, it seems to me, but, again, I spoke clearly and directly, as the president did, on this issue. And I think he understands where we are and where we've been and hopefully where we're going together," Hagel told reporters in Kabul.

Hagel met with Karzai in private after the joint press conference scheduled for Sunday was cancelled by the US over security concerns.

"We did discuss those comments. I told the president it was not true that the United States was unilaterally working with the Taliban and trying to negotiate anything. The fact is, any prospect for peace or political settlements - that has to be led by the Afghans," he said of the meeting.

"He [Karzai] has his ways," Hagel added. "There will be new challenges, there will be new issues. It shouldn't come as a surprise... but I don't think any of these are challenges that we can't work (our) way through."

Top US and Isaf commander in Afghanistan Gen Joseph Dunford also rejected Karzai's comments over the Taliban-US relationship as "categorically false".

"We have no reason to be colluding with the Taliban, we have no reason to be supporting instability in Afghanistan," Dunford told reporters Sunday.

"We've fought too hard over the 12 years, we have shed too much blood over the past 12 years, we have done too much to help the Afghan security forces grow over the last 12 years to ever think that violence and instability would be to our advantage."

Hagel also met with his Afghan counterpart Minister Bismillah Khan at the headquarters of International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Kabul.

It was Hagel's first visit abroad in his new role as Pentagon chief. He landed Friday and has conducted meetings with US and Nato troops at Bagram, Jalalabad and Kabul to make his own assessment of America's longest war as it enters its final stretch.

The Taliban has denied that any negotiations with the US have happened since last year's suspension, and said no progress had been made.

The Taliban officially ended talks with the US a year ago amid disagreement about the release of Taliban prisoners from US military prison based in Cuba's Guantanamo Bay.

Afghan lawmakers have elected the second vice speaker of the lower house, but failed for a third day in a row to elect a first vice speaker.

In Monday's polling for parliament's new administrative board, the vote for first vice speaker was between Abdul Hafiz Mansour and Obaidullah Klimzai. The process started about 9:00am and continued until 1:00pm, but neither candidate received sufficient votes.

Lawmaker Mansour received 69 confidence votes and Klimzai 105. Klimzai needed two more votes to win the first vice speaker position.

In Sunday's vote, the scales were tipped in the opposite direction: Mansour received 87 votes and Klimzai 62 votes.

However, the MPs approved Saleh Mohammad Saljoqi as the second vice speaker with 108 votes.

On Tuesday, the lawmakers will start again voting for the first vice speaker and also for the second deputy secretary.

Some of the MPs have accused the other lawmakers of not voting for a first vice speaker as a kind of delay tactic.

"There are some groups that they are thinking about their own benefit and don't want to elect the first vice speaker," MP Asadullah Sahadati told TOLOnews.

"The MPs should elect a person that can do a good job as the first vice speaker of the house and they shouldn't worry about it. Everyone can be nominated for the post," MP Abdul Jabar Qahraman said.

The lawmakers first vote was on Saturday after they reconvened following the winter break.

Concerned civil action groups on Monday highlighted the plight of civilians in the Afghan war, stating that more must be done to address the persistent rate of civilian casualties.

At a meeting held at the Nai media watch office in Kabul, the Transitional Justice Coordination Group said civilian casualties may even jeopardise the stability of Afghan government.

The group said that the lack of punishment and weak justice system has led to more civilian deaths across the country.

Civilian casualties are also high because of insurgent attacks, one of the groups said, stressing that more care needed to be taken by all those involved in the conflict.

"The opposition groups should not use civilians and their villages as strongholds and shields, and they should stop suicide attack which mostly kill civilians," head of Human Rights in Armanshahr Foundation Jawad Darwazyan said.

The groups also condemned negligence on the part of the US-led foreign forces and Afghan military which has led to the death of civilians during military operations .

"Assuring security is the main job of the government. Whenever they cannot assure security and justice for residents, the government is rendered meaningless," Nai legal adviser Mohammad Qasim Rahmani said.

The meeting follows the seventh report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan citing the civilian casualty figures published last month.

The report said that 2,754 civilians were killed in the past year by anti-government forces and another 4,805 civilians were injured.

The Transitional Justice Coordination Group also publicly criticised the peace process calling it defective.