PESHAWAR: Each year on Jan. 17, Shahana bakes a cake and invites friends to her home in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. They sing happy birthday for her son, even light a candle. But it’s a birthday without the birthday boy.
Her son, Asfand Khan, was 15 in December 2014 when gunmen rampaged through his military-run public school in Peshawar killing 150 people, most of them students, some as young as 5. Asfand was shot three times in the head at close range.
The attackers were Pakistani Taliban, who seven years later have once again ramped up their attacks, seemingly emboldened by the return of Afghanistan’s Taliban to power in Kabul. In the last week of December, they killed eight Pakistani army personnel in a half dozen attacks and counter attacks, all in the country’s northwest. Another two Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack on Taliban outposts late Wednesday night.
The Pakistani Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, are regrouping and reorganizing, with their leadership headquartered in neighboring Afghanistan, according to a UN report from July. That is raising fears among Pakistanis like Shahana of a return of the horrific violence the group once inflicted.
Yet the Afghan Taliban have shown no signs of expelling TTP leaders or preventing them from carrying out attacks in Pakistan, even as Pakistan leads an effort to get a reluctant world to engage with Afghanistan’s new rulers and salvage the country from economic collapse.
It is a dilemma faced by all of Afghanistan’s neighbors and major powers like China, Russia and the United States as they ponder how to deal with Kabul.
Multiple militant groups found safe haven in Afghanistan during more than four decades of war, and some of them, like the TTP, are former battlefield allies of the Afghan Taliban.
So far, the Taliban have appeared unwilling or unable to root them out. The sole exception is the Islamic State affiliate, which is the Taliban’s enemy and has waged a campaign of violence against them and for years against Afghanistan’s minority Shiite Muslims, killing hundreds in dozens of horrific attacks targeting, schools, mosques, even a maternity hospital
Washington has identified the Islamic State branch, known by the acronym IS-K, as its major militant worry emanating from Afghanistan. The Taliban’s longtime ally Al-Qaeda is not seen as a strong threat. Though US military leaders say there are signs it may be growing slightly, it is struggling near rudderless, with its current leader, Ayman Al-Zawahri, alive but unwell, according to the July UN report.
Still, there are plenty of other militants based in Afghanistan, and they are raising concerns among Afghanistan’s neighbors.
China fears insurgents from its Uighur ethnic minority who want an independent Xinjiang region. Russia and Central Asian nations worry about the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which in recent years went on a recruitment drive among Afghanistan’s ethnic Uzbeks.
For Pakistan, it is the TTP, which stands for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group perpetrated some of the worst terrorist assaults on Pakistan, including the 2014 assault on the military public school.
The TTP numbers anywhere from 4,000 to 10,000 fighters, according to the UN report. It has also succeeded in expanding its recruitment inside Pakistan beyond the former tribal regions along the border where it traditionally found fighters, says Amir Rana, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, an independent think tank in the capital Islamabad.
Analysts say the Afghan Taliban’s reluctance to clamp down on the TTP does not bode well for their readiness to crack down on the many other groups.
“The plain truth is that most of the terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan, aside from IS-K, are Taliban allies,” says Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “And the Taliban aren’t about to turn their guns on their friends, even with mounting pressure from regional players and the West.”
The militants’ presence complicates Pakistan’s efforts to encourage international dealings with the Afghan Taliban in hopes of bringing some stability to an Afghanistan sliding into economic ruin.
Analysts say Pakistan’s military has made a calculation that the losses inflicted by the TTP are preferable to undermining Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers by pressing them on the issue. A collapse would bring a flood of refugees; Pakistan might be their first stop, but Islamabad warns that Europe and North America will be their preferred destination.
Islamabad attempted to negotiate with the TTP recently, but the effort fell apart. Rana of the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies said Pakistan’s policy of simultaneously negotiating with and attacking the TTP is “confusing” and risks emboldening like-minded insurgents in both countries.
It also worries its allies, he said.
China, which is spending billions in Pakistan, was not happy with Islamabad’s attempts at talks with the TTP because of its close affiliation with Uighur separatists, said Rana. The TTP took responsibility for a July bombing in northwest Pakistan that killed Chinese engineers as well as an April bombing at a hotel where the Chinese ambassador was staying.
Pressure is mounting on Pakistan to demand the Afghan Taliban hand over the TTP leadership.
But Islamabad’s relationship with the Taliban is complicated.
Pakistan’s powerful military, which shepherds the country’s Afghan policy, has ties to the Taliban leadership going back more than 40 years to an earlier invasion. Then, together with the US, they fought and defeated the invading former Soviet Union.
After the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan was accused by Washington and its Afghan allies of aiding the Taliban. Pakistan denied the accusations, even as Taliban leaders and their families lived in Pakistan while waging their insurgency against Kabul.
But the Taliban also have interests divergent from Pakistan’s, particularly the issue of the two countries’ 2,500-kilometer border. Afghanistan has never recognized the border, known as the Durand Line, which was drawn by British colonial administrators in the 19th Century.
Last week, Afghan Taliban anger over Pakistan’s construction of a border fence threatened to turn violent. Videos shared on social media showed Taliban destroying rolls of barbed wire meant for the fence and threatening to open fire on Pakistani troops.
The Taliban’s Defense Ministry issued a statement saying Pakistan had no right to erect a border fence. On Wednesday Pakistan’s military spokesman Gen. Babar Iftikar said the fence was 94 percent done and would be completed.
“The fence on the Pak-Afghan border is needed to regulate security, border crossing and trade,” he said. “The purpose of this is not to divide the people, but to protect them.”
Even if Pakistan were to ask the Taliban to hand over TTP leaders, it shouldn’t expect any results, says Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal which tracks global militancy.
“The Afghan Taliban will not expel the TTP for the same reasons it won’t expel Al-Qaeda,” he said. “Both groups played a key role in the Afghan Taliban’s victory. They fought alongside the Afghan Taliban and sacrificed greatly over the past 20 years.”
Afghan Taliban turn blind eye to Pakistani militants
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Afghan Taliban turn blind eye to Pakistani militants
- Pakistani Taliban are regrouping and reorganizing, with their leadership headquartered in neighboring Afghanistan
Seven out of 10 French high speed trains to run Saturday after sabotage
PARIS: Seven out of 10 French high speed trains will run Saturday on three key routes, a day after saboteurs paralyzed much of the train network as the Olympic Games started in Paris.
No immediate claim of responsibility was made for the coordinated overnight arson attacks on cabling boxes at junctions strategically picked out north, southwest and east of the French capital where the Olympics opening ceremony was staged on Friday night.
Rail workers thwarted an attempt to destroy safety equipment on a fourth line in what the SNCF rail company called a “massive attack.”
“On the North, Brittany and South-West high-speed lines, seven out of 10 trains on average will run with delays of one to two hours,” SNCF said in a statement.
It said SNCF “agents worked all night under difficult conditions in the rain to allow to improve traffic on high-speed lines affected by the acts of sabotage.
“At this stage, traffic will remain disrupted on Sunday on the North axis and should improve on the Atlantic axis for weekend returns,” it said.
“Customers will be contacted by text message and email to confirm the running of their trains.”
SNCF estimated that about 250,000 passengers were affected on Friday. Junior transport minister Patrice Vergriete said 800,000 could face the fallout over the three days.
The coordinated attacks were staged at 4:00 am (0200 GMT) early Friday.
ASEAN urges Myanmar to start peace process, alarmed over Gaza casualties
- Top diplomats from Southeast Asia are gathered in the Laotian capital with partners that include the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India and Australia
VIENTIANE: Foreign ministers of the Southeast Asian regional bloc ASEAN on Saturday condemned violence against civilians in military-ruled Myanmar and urged all parties to end hostilities and follow an agreed peace plan.
In a joint communique issued two days after their closed-doors retreat in Laos, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations also welcomed unspecified practical measures to reduce tension in the South China Sea and prevent accidents and miscalculations.
It described North Korea's missile tests as worrisome developments and urged peaceful resolutions to the conflicts in Ukraine, as well as Gaza, expressing concern over the dire humanitarian situation and "alarming casualties" there.
Meetings on Saturday in Vientiane are bringing together in the same room allies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — including the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India and Australia — to bolster their relationships and discuss key security issues and other regional affairs.
In a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday, Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the bloc’s good partnership with Washington should also contribute to global peace. She said they should be respecting international laws “in a consistent manner,” whether about Ukraine, the South China Sea or the crisis in Gaza.
Blinken said he hopes to work closely with the ASEAN nations on those matters, as well as violence in Myanmar and provocations by North Korea.
The Secretary of State is expected to meet on the sidelines with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, as both countries are looking to expand their influence in the region.
Participants in these meetings represent either critical US allies and partners, or Washington’s two largest rivals, Moscow and Beijing, which have grown closer over the past two years, prompting deep concerns about their combined global influence. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was also in Vientiane, and already held direct talks with Wang on Thursday.
Indonesia said it emphasized in their opening meetings Thursday that it’s important the bloc doesn’t get drawn into any rivalry between China and the US
ASEAN members Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei all have conflicts with China over its claim of sovereignty over virtually all of the South China Sea, one of the world’s most crucial waterways for shipping. Many worry that direct confrontations there could lead to broader conflict. Indonesia has also expressed concern about what it sees as Beijing’s encroachment on its exclusive economic zone.
There are divisions within ASEAN on how to deal with China’s maritime claims. The Philippines has been critical over a perceived lack of support from the bloc, but in a rare deal, China and the Philippines said they had reached an agreement that they hope will end their confrontations, aiming to establish a mutually acceptable arrangement for the disputed area without conceding each other’s territorial claims.
Philippines Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Manalo said after the gala dinner on Friday that he had a bilateral meeting with China’s Wang, where they agreed that they would “honor the provisional agreement in a clear and sincere effort to defuse tensions and try and prevent any incidents of course from leading to further tension in our relationship.”
On Saturday, the Philippines said it was able make a supply trip to the disputed area without having to confront Beijing’s forces, the first such trip since the deal was reached a week ago. Blinken applauded it as a success in his opening remarks at the meeting with ASEAN foreign ministers, while calling China’s past actions against the Philippines — a US treaty partner — “escalatory and unlawful.”
Prior to the deal, tensions between the Philippines and China escalated for months, with China’s coast guard and other forces using powerful water cannons and dangerous blocking maneuvers to prevent food and other supplies from reaching Filipino navy personnel.
The United States and its allies have regularly conducted military exercises and patrols in the area to assert their “free and open Indo-Pacific” policy — including the right to navigate in international waters — which has drawn criticism from China.
Wang said in his meeting with Manalo that the deployment of a US intermediate-range missile system in the Philippines would create regional tension and trigger an arms race, according to a statement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The increasingly violent civil war in ASEAN member state Myanmar is one of the other issues dominating talks. Thailand has said the group gave their support for it to take a broader role as one of Myanmar’s immediate neighbors.
Nikorndej Balankura, spokesperson of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters Friday that more dialogue mechanisms have been proposed to include more stakeholders, especially countries that share borders with Myanmar. He however noted that those proposals have just been submitted to Laos, which currently chairs ASEAN and is in charge of recommending them directly to Myanmar to seek its approval.
The army in Myanmar ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule, leading to increasing violence and a humanitarian crisis.
ASEAN has been pushing a “five-point consensus” for peace, but the military leadership in Myanmar has so far ignored the plan, raising questions about the bloc’s efficiency and credibility. The peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.
Blinken hits out at China’s ‘unlawful actions’ in South China Sea
- Blinken is in capital Vientiane for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting
- He has prioritized promoting a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region
VIENTIANE: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hit out at China’s “escalatory and unlawful actions” in the South China Sea on Saturday, hours before he was due to hold talks with Beijing’s top diplomat at a regional meeting in Laos.
Blinken is in capital Vientiane for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers meeting, part of an Asian tour aimed at reinforcing regional ties in the face of an increasingly assertive Beijing.
He has prioritized promoting a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region — a thinly veiled criticism of China’s regional economic, strategic and territorial ambitions.
The United States and ASEAN had to work together to “address challenges,” Blinken told ministers from the 10-member bloc, including China’s “escalatory and unlawful actions taken against the Philippines in the South China Sea over the last few months.”
Manila is locked in a longstanding territorial row with Beijing over parts of the strategic waterway through which trillions of dollars worth of trade passes annually.
On Saturday Manila said it had successfully resupplied troops on the Second Thomas Shoal — the focus of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippines vessels in recent months.
The mission was carried out under a deal agreed with Beijing last week.
“We are pleased to take note of the successful resupply today,” Blinken said.
“We applaud that and hope and expect to see that it continues going forward.”
Blinken is due to meet China’s Wang Yi later Saturday.
The two will “exchange views on issues of common concern,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.
Washington-Beijing competition
This is Blinken’s 18th visit to Asia since taking office more than three years ago, reflecting the fierce competition between Washington and Beijing in the region.
He notably arrives two days after the foreign ministers of China and Russia met with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc — and each other on the sidelines of the summit.
Wang and Sergei Lavrov had discussed “building a new security architecture for Eurasia,” according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.
The pair also agreed to jointly “counter any attempts by extra-regional forces to interfere in Southeast Asian affairs,” it said.
China has a strong political and economic partnership with Russia, with NATO members labelling Beijing as a “key facilitator” of Moscow’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.
Ongoing tensions
The temperature between Manila and Beijing remains high, despite the deal last week on resupplying Filipino troops stationed on a disputed reef.
“We hope China implements the agreement,” Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo told reporters in Vientiane late on Friday.
“I think that would be an important step forward in diffusing tensions and hopefully lead to other areas of cooperation on the South China Sea.”
Beijing claims the waterway — through which trillions of dollars of trade passes annually — almost in its entirety despite an international court ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
A Filipino sailor lost a thumb in the latest June 17 confrontation when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply its troops.
China lashed out earlier this year after Blinken said that Washington was ready to defend the Philippines if its forces, ships or aircraft came under attack in the South China Sea.
Beijing has insisted that the United States has “no right” to interfere in the South China Sea.
The two countries also remain at loggerheads over trade, human rights and the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims sovereignty over.
Blinken is scheduled to travel to Hanoi later Saturday to extend US condolences to Vietnamese officials after the passing of communist leader Nguyen Phu Trong.
ASEAN ministers are expected to issue a joint communique at the end of their three-day meeting.
One diplomatic source said the statement is being held up by lack of consensus over the wording of paragraphs on the Myanmar conflict and disputes in the South China Sea.
Myanmar’s junta has been banned from high-level ASEAN summits over its 2021 coup and crackdown on dissent but has sent two bureaucrats to represent it at the Laos talks.
Bangladesh says student leaders held for their own safety
DHAKA: Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.
Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.
The street rallies organized by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to an AFP tally of hospital and police data.
Islam earlier this week told AFP he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries sustained during an earlier round of police detention.
Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.
“They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them,” he said.
“That’s why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action.”
Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.
Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide Internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.
PROTESTS AND ARRESTS
The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organized by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.
Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.
He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.
His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, told AFP earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week’s unrest.
Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.
“We’ve carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker told AFP.
“We’re not arresting general students, only those who vandalized government properties and set them on fire.”
California’s largest wildfire explodes in size as fires rage across US West
- More than 130 structures have been destroyed by this fire so far, and thousands more are threatened as evacuations were ordered in four countie
California’s largest active fire exploded in size on Friday evening, growing rapidly amid bone-dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to meet the danger.
The Park Fire’s intensity and dramatic spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the monstrous Camp Fire, which burned out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.
More than 130 structures have been destroyed by this fire so far, and thousands more are threatened as evacuations were ordered in four counties: Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta. It stood at 480 square miles (1,243 square kilometers) on Friday night and was moving quickly north and east after igniting Wednesday when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then calmly blended in with others fleeing the scene.
“There’s a tremendous amount of fuel out there and it’s going to continue with this rapid pace,” Cal Fire incident commander Billy See said at a briefing. He said the fire was advancing up to 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) an hour on Friday afternoon.
Officials at Lassen Volcanic National Park evacuated staff from Mineral, a community of about 120 people where the park headquarters are located, as the fire moved north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park.
Communities elsewhere in the US West and Canada were under siege Friday, from a fast-moving blaze sparked by lightning sent people fleeing on fire-ringed roads in rural Idaho to a new blaze that was causing evacuations in eastern Washington.
In eastern Oregon, a pilot was found dead in a small air tanker plane that crashed while fighting one of the many wildfires spreading across several Western states.
More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the US on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-dry conditions.
A fire in eastern Washington destroyed three homes and five outbuildings near the community of Tyler, which was evacuated Friday afternoon, said Ryan Rodruck, spokesperson with the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Firefighters were able to contain the Columbia Basin fire in Spokane County to about half a square mile (1.3 square km), he said.
In Chico, California, Carli Parker is one of hundreds who fled their homes as the Park Fire pushed close. Parker decided to leave her Forest Ranch residence with her family when the fire began burning across the street. She has previously been forced out of two homes by fire, and she said she had little hope that her residence would remain unscathed.
“I think I felt like I was in danger because the police had come to our house because we had signed up for early evacuation warnings, and they were running to their vehicle after telling us that we need to self-evacuate and they wouldn’t come back,” said Parker, a mother of five.
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday in connection with the blaze and held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, officials said. There was no reply to an email to the district attorney asking whether the suspect had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf.
Fire crews were making progress on another complex of fires burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, said Forest Service spokesperson Adrienne Freeman. Most of the 1,000 residents evacuated by the lightning-sparked Gold Complex fires were returning home Friday. Some crews were peeling off to help battle the Park Fire.
“As evidenced by the (Park) fire to the West, some of these fires are just absolutely exploding and burning at rates of spread that it is just hard to even imagine,” Tim Hike, Forest Service incident commander of the Gold Complex fire about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Reno, said Friday. “The fire does not look that bad right up until it does. And then that just might be too late.”
Forest Ranch evacuee Sherry Alpers, fled with her 12 small dogs and made the decision to stay in her car outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning that animals would not be allowed inside. She ruled out traveling to another shelter after learning the dogs would be kept in cages, since her dogs have always roamed free at her home.
Alpers said she doesn’t know whether the fire spared her home or not, but she said that as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn’t care about the material things.
“I’m kind of worried, but not that much,” she said. “If it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Brian Bowles was also staying in his car outside the shelter with his dog Diamon. He said he doesn’t know if his mobile home is still standing.
Bowles said he only has a $100 gift card he received from United Way, which handed them out to evacuees.
“Now the question is, do I get a motel room and comfortable for one night? Or do I put gas in the car and sleep in here?” he said. “Tough choice.”
In Oregon, a Grant County Search and Rescue team on Friday morning located a small single-engine air tanker that had disappeared while fighting the 219-square-mile (567 square kilometers) Falls Fire burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. The pilot died, said Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark. No one else was aboard the bureau-contracted aircraft when it went down in steep, forested terrain.
The most damage so far has been to the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and devastated the park’s namesake town, a World Heritage site.
In Idaho, lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires and the evacuation of multiple communities. The fires were burning on about 80 square kilometers Friday afternoon.
Videos posted to social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 43 kilometers southeast of the University of Idaho’s campus in Moscow. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of roaring fires, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex, which breeds salmon.
There’s no estimate yet on the number of buildings burned in Idaho, nor is there information about damage to urban communities, officials said Friday morning.
Oregon still has the biggest active blaze in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which combined with the Cow Fire to burn nearly 1,630 square kilometers. It remains unpredictable and was only 20 percent contained Friday, according to the government website InciWeb.
The National Interagency Fire Center said more than 27,000 fires have burned more than 15,000 square kilometers in the US this year, and in Canada, more than 22,800 square kilometers have burned in more than 3,700 fires so far, according to its National Wildland Fire Situation Report issued Wednesday.
