Report about the Massacre of Al-khalidiya in Homs on the 4th February 2012
Syrian Network for Human Rights Reports on January 4: Since just before midnight until early hours of the morning, Syrian army and security forces launched an attack considered the most violent, brutal, and bloody on different districts in the city of Homs. The storming was mainly focused on the district of Al-Khalidiya where the army and security forces bombarded this district with more than 225 mortar shells. As it is known, the mortar shell is explosive and random as it does not hit a specific target but rather aims randomly at leaving human an material loses. The place from which those shells were shot was the building of Air Intelligence Forces which led to the destruction of about 12 houses and hundreds of victims were fallen in a primary number reaching 285 martyrs between them many children, women and lots of corpses under the rubble. More than 950 injuries were also fallen, and the number of martyrs is possibly increasing as there are very dangerous cases. The army and security forces kidnapped tens of corpses and injuries.
All medical and relief supplies are run out and the district is considered a disastrous area. We received tens of distress calls to donate blood, and heard children and women crying over the phone.
We call upon Syrian Authorities to allow Syrian Network for Human Rights and all human rights partner organisations to head to the district of Al-Khalidiya, and also allow all Arab and International organisations and media to get into the district and open an international investigation as to hold the criminals to account and refer them to the International Criminal Court.

Iran’s Khamenei warns over military strike, oil embargo threat
TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday the Islamic Republic would not yield to international pressure to abandon its nuclear course, threatening retaliation for sanctions aimed at Iran’s oil exports.
“Threatening Iran and attacking Iran will harm America … Sanctions will not have any impact on our determination to continue our nuclear course … In response to threats of oil embargo and war, we have our own threats to impose at the right time,” Khamenei told worshippers in a speech broadcast live on state television.
“I have no fear of saying that we will back and help any nation or group that wants to confront and fight against the Zionist regime (Israel).”

Optimistic to say Pakistan will target Haqqani Network: Petraeus
WASHINGTON: It is optimistic to think that Pakistan might go after the Haqqani Network, Central Intelligence Agency Director General (retd) David Petraeus has said.
In a hearing on Thursday of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on worldwide threats in 2012, Petraeus said that the US needs to be cautious with Pakistan’s ability and willingness to “go after” the Haqqani Network and those Taliban leaders present in Balochistan, known as the Quetta Shura.
Responding to a question from the committee, the CIA director said that there were elements in Pakistan that enjoyed sanctuary, which in turn has caused problems for coalition and Afghan forces.
Acknowledging that cooperation with Pakistan continues in various forms, Petraeus said that Pakistan, as a partner, had “confronted a number of extremist organisations”, including the al Qaeda. He added that Pakistan had recently detained an IED expert in Pakistan, which he dubbed as a “significant step.” The US spy chief said that Pakistan has sustained heavy losses in acting against the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and has tried to squeeze them.
At the hearing, Director for National Intelligence James Clapper said that Taliban leaders continue to enjoy a safe haven in Pakistan.
Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the committee, asked the CIA director to describe the Haqqani Network. Petraeus said that the Haqqani Network was a lethal organisation based in North Waziristan that was not likely to re-conciliate and had been implicated and involved in a number of important attacks on US forces in Afghanistan. He added that the Haqqani Network remains focused on regaining influence in provinces they had previously controlled during the Taliban reign, but there were indications that the group would like to be a bit more “transnational”. Petraeus added that Waziristan has a syndicate of criminal elements present, which includes the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban and elements of the al Qaeda.
Shadowing US Muslims
Meanwhile, Congressman Peter King has faulted the Associated Press news agency and The New York Times for its reportage on alleged links between the New York Police Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.
AP had published a series of stories since August, claiming that the NYPD dispatched undercover officers into Muslim neighbourhoods as part of a human mapping programme. Including in to New Jersey, supposedly outside NYPD jurisdictions. They were also alleged to have set up a student monitoring ring at Rutgers University.
King said the reports were disgraceful, irresponsible and based on lies.
US intelligence chiefs had previously testified before the Senate Intelligence committee on the same subject on Tuesday.
In response to another question, Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller said that the FBI has conducted a review of instruction materials for its agents that had been used in the past decade, and less than one per cent had material that was anti-Muslim.
Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Security concerns: US warns citizens travelling to Pakistan
WASHINGTON: Spokesperson for United States (US) Department of State Victoria Nuland on Thursday indicated security concerns for US citizens travelling in Pakistan and said that the after effects of the November 26 Nato attack still prevail.
Speaking at a press briefing, Nuland said the attack on Salala check post has raised tensions between the countries.
The US Department of State issued a Travel Warning to Pakistan which highlighted incidents that that have happened in Pakistan or with American citizens in the last six months.
According to the Travel Warning released by the US Department of State, the attacks included one on May 20, 2011, when a US Consulate General vehicle in Peshawar was attacked, killing one person and injuring a dozen, including two US employees of the mission.
Another attack on April 5, 2010 on the US Consulate General in Peshawar killed several security and military personnel. And on February 3, 2010, 10 persons, including three US military personnel, were killed and 70 injured in a suicide bombing at a new girls’ school in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The warning also alerted the US citizens who are currently in Pakistan and advised them to avoid going to demonstrations and protests “condemning drone strikes and Pakistan’s ongoing energy crisis”.
Nuland also commented on Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Sherry Rehman’s statement regarding Pakistan being the ”first casualty” after withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, saying that it underscores the fact that the region is interconnected and that everyone should work together in order to drive out terrorism from the region.
Nuland also said that the Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Nato-Isaf family was required to concert efforts and go after terrorists wherever they are.

Palestinians urge international community to join Global March to Jerusalem
by Sarah Marusek and Amith Gupta
International Solidarity Movement
The recent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa have proven that the Arab people are no longer willing to tolerate oppression and tyranny. They send a strong message to Western hegemonic powers and their oppressive regional allies that a new wave of nonviolent civil resistance will ultimately prevail over injustice and occupation. In addition, the Arab uprisings also send an important message to all people of the world that armed resistance is no longer the only option for pursuing change.
One must acknowledge that the recent successes of the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions are a reminder that this inspirational movement for nonviolent civil resistance was actually born in Palestine. As American University of Beirut Professor Rami Zurayk notes, “The Arab uprisings have of course taken their inspiration from the Palestinian Intifada.” But as he further clarifies, the reverse is also true: there is “a constant feeding in from the Arab uprisings to Palestine and from Palestine to the Arab uprisings.”
Professor Zurayk is one of the Lebanese delegates for the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ), a groundbreaking nonviolent civil resistance initiative scheduled for March 30, 2012 in Palestine and the four neighboring countries: Egypt, Lebanon Jordan and Syria. The GMJ is comprised of a diverse coalition of Palestinian, Arab and international activists who are united in the struggle to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem from illegal Zionist occupation. While the GMJ is made up of grassroots movements in each participating country, the march is also internationalized through a central coordinating committee with elected delegates from each region. More than thirty of these delegates met in Amman last December and in Beirut in January to discuss plans for hundreds of thousands of people to peacefully march to the holy city of Jerusalem, or to the nearest point possible according to the circumstances of each neighboring country, for not only Palestinian rights, but the rights of all humans.
In many ways the GMJ has the potential to be a movement of epic proportions, and thus coordinating the march will not be easy. Up until now, most political solidarity movements at both the global and grassroots level have failed to include the majority of Palestinians living in Palestine as well as those countries that border Occupied Palestine. And yet now Palestinians themselves are taking a leading role in the GMJ. Considering the scope of the initiative, internal disagreements are bound to happen. However Ali Ayoub, a Palestinian activist with the Right to Return Committee in Lebanon, stresses that while “there are differences in politics between the many Palestinian parties, what unites them is Jerusalem and Palestine.” Furthermore, he says that the movement also takes strength from the fact that “all the free people of this world are suffering” from what is happening in Jerusalem and in Palestine.
It is very important that a strong contingent of American activists participate in the GMJ. In the United States, American tax dollars are endlessly being funneled into war, military occupation, and dictatorship throughout the Middle East. In addition to financing and arming oppressive regimes that have already been challenged by the Arab uprisings, U.S. tax dollars also continue to finance Israeli settlement expansion in Jerusalem and other such crimes against the Palestinian people. This is why it is essential for Americans to remain active in the push for a free Palestine through non-violent means, and they increasingly are. College campuses across the United States are organizing students to oppose Israeli oppression through non-violent campaigns such as the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement. Hundreds of Palestine solidarity activists from around the U.S. converged last October for a student conference at Columbia University to organize a national campaign. Palestine continues to be a priority for those in the U.S. who seek justice in the Middle East. So while the U.S. government continues to harass American solidarity activists, they must remain steadfast in their support for their Palestinian counterparts through initiatives such as GMJ-NA, the North American division of the Global March to Jerusalem.
The GMJ is focusing on the particular issue of Jerusalem because the holy city has come to embody the violence of an enduring occupation. As Professor Zurayk explains, “What is going on in Jerusalem today symbolizes everything that the Zionist movement has been doing for the past 65 years,” where the state of Israel has “been trying to take the land of Palestine by force as well as through more insidious strategies and tactics.” In this way “Jerusalem symbolizes the struggles of the Palestinian people in opposing the Zionist control and hegemony over their land.”
While the international community has been concentrating on the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the United Nations, and solidarity activists have been engaged in the struggle to end the siege of Gaza, the situation for Palestinians living in the holy city of Jerusalem has been deteriorating at an incredible rate. Over the last few years, Zionist efforts to “ Judaize ” the city have quickened pace, erasing Jerusalem’s physical, cultural and spiritual characteristics. According to a report released by the Middle East Monitor, this process of Judaization has involved the unrestricted expansion and funding of illegal Israeli settlements, the continued dispossession and demolition of Palestinian property, and the construction of a Separation Wall surrounding the city, all of which have changed the demographics of the holy city from a Palestinian to Jewish majority.
In response, Palestinians have now called upon the international community to join them in this peaceful march on March 30, Palestine Land Day, so that they can preserve the status of Jerusalem as a holy city for all humans. Ayoub says that Jerusalem “means a lot to me as I am Palestinian,” but he also adds that it means something to “all of the humans and free people of this world.”
Indeed , the GMJ principles of unity assert the importance of Jerusalem politically, culturally and religiously to the Palestinian people and to humanity as a whole. These principles of unity also require a commitment to nonviolent civil resistance in this struggle to liberate Jerusalem from Zionist occupation.
The international participants of the GMJ represent a diverse coalition of voices from various Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and other religious and non-religious communities. The GMJ now has endorsements from individuals including Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, Palestinian-American author Susan Abulhawa, Palestinian democracy activist Mustafa Barghouti, who speaks about the GMJ and its urgency:Also joining these international participants is former US ambassador and counter-terrorism deputy chief Edward Peck, anti-war activist Medea Benjamin, international law professor Richard Falk, and public intellectual Tariq Ali.
As Indian solidarity activist and GMJ architect Feroze Mithiborwala says, “This year in Jerusalem.” We hope to see all of you there in spring.
Marusek and Gupta are both actively involved with GMJ-NA, an independent and autonomous coalition of North American groups planning to join this non-violent march. Details of this effort can be found at: www.gmj-na.org

Egypt football violence kills 74, fans turn on army
PORT SAID, Egypt: Seventy-four people were killed when supporters clashed at an Egyptian football match, prompting fans and politicians on Thursday to turn on the ruling army for failing to prevent the deadliest incident since Hosni Mubarak was ousted.
At least 1,000 people were injured in the violence on Wednesday when football fans invaded the pitch in the Mediterranean city of Port Said, after local team al-Masry beat visitors from Cairo, Al Ahli, Egypt’s most successful club.
Angry politicians denounced the lack of security at the match and accused military leaders of allowing, or even causing, the fighting. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that dominates parliament, saw an “invisible” hand at work.
The city’s streets were quiet at dawn, with few police or army officers in sight.
“The military council wants to prove that the country is heading towards chaos and destruction. They are Mubarak’s men. They are applying his strategy when he said ‘choose me or choose chaos’,” said Mahmoud el-Naggar, 30, a laboratory technician and member of the Coalition of the Revolutionary Youth in Port Said.
“Down with military rule,” thousands of Egyptians chanted at the main Cairo train station where they met injured fans returning from what one minister said was the scene of Egypt’s worst football disaster.
Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the state television building and marches across the capital were planned.
Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, 76, who heads the ruling military council, took an unusual step of speaking by telephone to a television channel, the sport broadcaster owned by Al Ahli, vowing to track down the culprits. The army announced three days of national mourning.
“I deeply regret what happened at the football match in Port Said. I offer my condolences to the victims’ families,” Tantawi said in comments broadcast on state television.
It did little to assuage the anger of fans, who, like many Egyptians, are furious that Egypt is still plagued by lawlessness and frequent bouts of deadly violence almost a year after Mubarak was driven out and replaced by an army council.
As with past flare-ups, it quickly turned political. Parliament will hold an emergency session later on Thursday to discuss the violence.
“The people want the execution of the field marshal,” fans chanted at the station. “We will secure their rights, or die like them,” they said as covered bodies were unloaded from the trains.
ENRAGED
The post-match pitch invasion provoked panic among the crowd as rival fans fought.
Most of the deaths were among people who were trampled in the crush of the panicking crowd or who fell or were thrown from terraces, witnesses and health workers said.
Television footage showed some security officers in the stadium showing no sign of trying to stop the pitch invasion. One officer was filmed as people poured onto the field, talking on a mobile phone.
“The rush caused a stampede, people were pushing each other against the metal door and stepping on each other,” said one witness who attended the match, 23-year-old Ossama El-Zayat.
“We saw riot police firing shots in the air, and then everyone got scared and kept pushing against the locked door. We didn’t know whether police were firing live rounds or not. People were crying and dying,” he said.
Several enraged politicians and ordinary Egyptians accused officials who are still in their jobs after the fall of Mubarak of complicity in the tragedy, or at least of allowing a security vacuum that has let violence flourish in the past 12 months.
“The security forces did this or allowed it to happen. The men of Mubarak are still ruling. The head of the regime has fallen but all his men are still in their positions,” Albadry Farghali, a member of parliament for Port Said, screamed in a telephone call to live television.
Some saw the violence as orchestrated to target the “Ultras,” Al Ahli’s dedicated fans whose experience confronting police at football matches was turned with devastating effect against Mubarak’s heavy-handed security forces in the uprising.
They played a significant role in defending Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the heart of the uprising against Mubarak, when men on camels and horses charged protesters last year. Thursday is the anniversary of the notorious February 2 camel charge.
“All that happened is not for the sake of a game. It’s political. It was orchestrated by the military council to target the Ultras,” said Abdullah el-Said, a 43-year-old driver in Port Said.
“The military council wanted to crush the ultras because they sided with protesters ever since the revolution began.”
Yet many Egyptians still see the army as the only guarantor of security. When one activist in group outside a hospital accused the army of sowing chaos, a man chimed in blaming the youths: “Security has to return to the streets. Enough with all those protests that caused this security vacuum,” he yelled.
The Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party won the biggest bloc in parliament, blamed an “invisible” hand for causing the violence and said the authorities were negligent.
“We fear that some officers are punishing the people for their revolution and for depriving them of their ability to act as tyrants and restricting their privileges,” it said.
‘THUGS’
Others blamed “thugs,” the hired hands or plain clothes police officers in Mubarak’s era who would often emerge from police lines to crush dissent to his rule.
“Unknown groups came between the fans and they were the ones that started the chaos. I was at the match and I saw that the group that did this is not from Port Said,” said Farouk Ibrahim.
“They were thugs, like the thugs the National Democratic Party used in elections,” he said, referring to Mubarak’s former party and the polls that were routinely rigged in its favor.
The two football teams, al-Masry and Al Ahli, have a history of fierce rivalry. Witnesses said fighting began after Ahli fans unfurled banners insulting Port Said and one descended to the pitch carrying an iron bar at the end of the match.
Al-Masry fans poured onto the pitch and attacked Al Ahli players before turning to attack rival supporters.
“I saw people holding machetes and knives. Some were hit with these weapons, other victims were flung from their seats, while the invasion happened,” Usama El Tafahni, a journalist in Port Said who attended the match, told Reuters.
Many fans died in a subsequent stampede, while some were flung off their seats onto the pitch and were killed by the fall. At the height of the disturbances, rioting fans fired flares straight into the stands.
Television footage showed fans running onto the field and chasing Al Ahli players. A small group of riot police formed a corridor to protect the players, but they appeared overwhelmed and fans were still able to kick and punch players as they fled.
Hospitals in the Suez Canal zone were put on alert and dozens of ambulances were sent from the cities of Ismailia and Suez, said an official in the zone’s local ambulance service.
Tantawi said a fact-finding committee would be set up and pledged that the army’s plan to hand over power to civilians would not be derailed. The army has promised to go back to barracks by the end of June after a presidential election.
“Egypt will be stable. We have a roadmap to transfer power to elected civilians. If anyone is plotting instability in Egypt they will not succeed,” he told Al Ahli’s channel.
Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said 47 people were arrested. Egypt’s football federation said it was indefinitely delaying matches for the Egyptian premier league. Al Ahli club said in a statement it was suspending all sports activities and holding three days of mourning.

US needs "credible" threat against Iran: Experts
WASHINGTON: The United States should deploy more warships to the Gulf, arm Israel and issue tough warnings to convince Iran it is serious about possible military action to stop Tehran’s nuclear program, former US lawmakers and experts said Wednesday.
The bipartisan group criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for downplaying the likelihood of US military action in public statements, saying it undercut efforts to pile pressure on Iran’s leadership.
Diplomacy and sanctions designed to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions would only have a chance to succeed if backed up by more “visible, credible preparations for a military option,” the bipartisan group said in a report.
“The United States needs to make clear that Iran faces a choice: it can either abandon its nuclear program through a negotiated arrangement or have its program destroyed militarily, by the United States or Israel,” said the report by a panel led by former senator Chuck Robb, a Democrat, and Charles Wald, a retired US general.
“The risks of inaction are too high. We must stop Iran’s nuclear clock,” it said.
The authors found fault with the Obama administration’s declarations on Iran, saying “administration officials seem to be conditioning the American public not to expect a military strike.”
The group recommended sharper public rhetoric that would leave no doubt about Washington’s readiness to use force and then to flex US military muscle in the region to drive home the point.
The US military should preposition supplies, carry out exercises with Gulf allies and deploy additional ships — including minesweepers and an additional aircraft carrier battle group — to the Gulf and off Oman’s coast, it said.
The US Navy already has a substantial presence in the Gulf, with two aircraft carriers often deployed.
The task force called for expanding arms sales to Gulf allies, including more “offensive” weapons, while seeking a “strategic partnership” with Azerbaijan on Iran’s border.
Although the report did not advocate Israel taking pre-emptive military action, it said the United States should do more to make Israel’s threat credible.
The group urged providing Israel with more advanced bunker buster bombs, which are designed to penetrate underground sites, as well as to supply two to three mid-air refueling tanker aircraft to extend the range of Israeli aircraft in any air raid.
The authors acknowledged a myriad of grave risks in the case of US or Israeli military action, including casualties, rallying Iranians around the regime, retaliation against US and allied targets, a possible temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a spike in oil prices.
But the report argues the United States had to be prepared to use force because the long-term dangers posed by a nuclear-armed Iran outweighed the short-term fallout come from military strikes.

Indian court scraps telecom licences in graft scandal
NEW DEHLI: India’s Supreme Court Thursday scrapped 122 telecom licences awarded in a 2008 sale at the centre of a corruption scandal, further embarrassing the government and causing upheaval for the flagship sector.
“Licences after January 2008 are quashed,” Justice GS Singhvi told the court in New Delhi. “The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will make fresh allocations by auction.”
Mis-selling of the second-generation (2G) mobile licences was estimated by the country’s public auditor to have cost the treasury up to $40 billion in lost revenue.
The minister in charge of the sale, A Raja, is currently on trial accused of fraud and cheating, one of several corruption cases to have buffeted the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
While the cancellation order re-opens a damaging episode for the government, there was a reprieve for Home Minister P Chidambaram who activists had wanted investigated by a special court trying suspects in the case.
The Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue, saying it was up to a special court to decide if there was evidence against Chidambaram, who was finance minister at the time of the 2008 sales.
Raja, a member of the DMK, a regional party in the Congress party-led national coalition, is suspected of rigging rules over the sale of the licences to favour some firms in return for kickbacks.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who brought the case to the Supreme Court, welcomed the cancellations and also the fines announced by judges for companies who were awarded the licences.
“This is a historic judgement for the reason that now these companies which were the beneficiaries of these illegal licences… will have to effectively refund the benefit,” he told reporters.
“The public exchequer will be able to recover the losses, he added, saying it would send a “strong signal” to dissuade corrupt corporations and public officials from conspiring together.
Among the companies affected are Uninor, a joint venture between Norway’s Telenor and India’s Unitech, Tata Telecom and Swan Telecom.
Graft has become a hot political issue in India due to high-level scandals such as the so-called “2G scam” and contracts awarded for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, as well as a street-level campaign by activist Anna Hazare.
Hazare galvanised millions of people in August last year when he held a 12-day hunger strike in New Delhi that triggered huge rallies of supporters across the country.
Many Indians complain that corruption is part of daily life for every transaction ranging from getting a driving licence to property sales. Graft is also seen as a major deterrent to international investment in India.
“This decision has multiple ramifications for the telecom sector, India’s image as a destination for foreign investment and a political impact for the ruling Congress,” said Jigar Shah, analyst with Kim Eng Securities.
Singh, who previously enjoyed a blemish-free reputation, has vowed to tackle the problem but his efforts to pass an anti-corruption law failed in December due to political wrangling.
The failure of the bill in the upper house was a further blow to Singh, whose administration also had to withdraw major reforms late last year to allow foreign supermarkets to operate in India.
The latest set-back for the government comes amid a flurry of local elections, including one starting next week in political heavyweight Uttar Pradesh, India’s biggest state where Singh’s party was hoping to make gains.
India’s top federal police force, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), has raided several politicians’ houses as well as the nation’s biggest telecom firms, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, during its probe.

Pakistan will do whatever kabul wants for peace: Khar
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is willing to do whatever the Afghans want to help facilitate an end to 10 years of war with the Taliban, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar told reporters on Thursday.
Speaking a day after talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul billed as a fence-mending visit designed to ease frosty ties, Khar sought to refute perceptions that Islamabad was an obstacle to peace.
“We’re willing to do whatever the Afghans want or expect,” Khar told reporters when asked whether Pakistan was ready to push the Haqqani network towards peace negotiations, but stopped short of naming the group or commenting further.
She said an effective peace process was still “miles away” but that the process should be “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned, Afghan-driven”.
“Once the Afghan people decide the way forward, whatever assistance Pakistan can give, it will give,” she said.
Khar arrived in Kabul on a one-day visit on Wednesday to hold talks with her Afghan counterpart, which aimed at thawing frosty ties between the two neighbours.
Pakistan signals imminent end to NATO blockade
Pakistan signaled that it could shortly end a more than two-month blockade on Nato supplies entering Afghanistan for foreign forces.
Khar told reporters that parliament, tasked with adopting the review, would “hopefully” meet next week.
“I cannot pre-empt what the parliament is going to decide but I would assume that should not be so much of a problem,” she said when asked if the recommendations would include re-opening the border.
Responding as to when parliament would pass the review, she said: “I’m going to hopefully ensure and push it very hard that it is no later than within a week… first half of February is probable.”
Islamabad rejects any blame for the November strikes, which brought its relationship with the United States and Nato to an all-time low.
When the route eventually re-opens, it is widely expected to tax Nato convoys carrying supplies shipped to its port in Karachi and trucked through its territory to landlocked Afghanistan.
The United States has made increasing use of alternative routes into Afghanistan through the north in order to mitigate against losses in Pakistan.
The Nato supply routes were shut in the aftermath of air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on November 26, in what Nato and the US military later blamed on a series of mistakes by both sides.
Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Leaked NATO report claims to expose direct links between ISI, Taliban
LONDON: A secret NATO report claims to “fully expose” direct links between Pakistan’s Inter Sevices Intelligence (ISI) and the Taliban, the BBC reported early on Wednesday.
The leaked report has been derived from thousands of interrogations of captured Taliban, al Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.
According to the BBC, the leaked report notes “Pakistan manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly.”
It goes on to add “as this report is derived directly from insurgents, it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical.”
The BBC report cited its correspondent in Kabul, Quentin Sommerville, who called the report “painful reading” for international forces fighting in Afghanistan, and the Afghan government.
Pakistan has denied it has any links with the Taliban, but maintains that solution to the region is an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.
The report claims that Pakistan and its ISI intelligence agency are aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.
“ISI officers tout the need for continued jihad and expulsion of foreign invaders from Afghanistan.”
The Times newspaper, which also saw the report, quoted it as saying the Taliban’s “strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact”, despite setbacks in 2011.
“Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban,” it said.
“Once (Nato force) ISAF is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable.”
Kabul, which accuses Islamabad of supporting the 10-year Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, put relations on ice after the September murder of its peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani, which one Afghan minister blamed on Pakistani spies.
The US Department of Defense said it could not comment on the report but set out its fears about Pakistan and its influence in Afghanistan.
“We have not seen the report, and therefore cannot offer comment on it specifically,” Pentagon spokesman George Little told AFP.
“We have long been concerned about ties between elements of the ISI and some extremist networks.”
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “has also been clear that he believes that the safe havens in Pakistan remain a serious problem and need to be addressed by Pakistani authorities.”
In its conclusion, the report said there had been unprecedented interest in joining the Taliban cause in 2011 – even from members of the Afghan government.
“Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption,” it was reported as saying.
The Times, in an editorial, said Pakistan was “actively hindering reconciliation” between the Taliban and Kabul.
“Islamabad appears to be engaged in a systematic effort to destabilise the Kabul government of (President) Hamid Karzai prior to the withdrawal of Western forces, and to assist those attacking and killing those forces.
“The ISI emerges from this document looking considerably more villainous, even, than the Taliban itself.
“The picture that is painted is very much one of a force that both expects, and is widely expected, to have a big stake in controlling the Afghanistan of the future.”

NATO allies debate France's early Afghan exit
BRUSSELS: Nato defence ministers begin talks Thursday facing dilemmas after France abruptly decided to end its Afghan combat mission early and a leaked report accused Pakistan of secretly aiding the Taliban.
The French move is set to dominate two days of talks meant to review progress in the Afghan military transition, discuss ways to keep strong military capabilities in times of austerity and prepare a May summit in Chicago.
But allies will now also be confronted with a Nato report, leaked to British media and based on interrogations of detainees, claiming that Islamabad, via its ISI intelligence agency, is “intimately involved” with the insurgency.
President Nicolas Sarkozy announced last week that France would end its combat role in Afghanistan in 2013, a year early, after four French toops were killed by a renegade Afghan soldier.
He also encouraged all allies to do the same, but officials indicated that Nato would maintain a carefully crafted plan to hand Afghan forces full control of the battlefield by the end of 2014.
“We stick to the roadmap that was outlined at the Nato summit in Lisbon in November 2010,” Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday.
British Prime Minister David Cameron cautioned against abrupt withdrawals.
“I don’t want to see some sort of cliff edge in 2014 when all of the remaining troops come out at once,” Cameron told reporters after talks Saturday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
With 130,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, one senior Nato military official said changing the calendar would be a logistical headache, noting that there is $30 billion (22.8 billion euros) worth of military materiel in the mountainous, landlocked nation.
“Removing all the equipment and forces we have there will take a long while,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The French decision revived fears that other allies, influenced by war-weary voters, would return home earlier.
“We are concerned there might be a rush to the exit with one important ally opting out of the (transition) timeframe,” said an alliance diplomat. “The end of 2014 is realistic. This is the goal we should all aim for.”
The report of Pakistani collusion with the Taliban will also cast a shadow over the meeting amid already tense relations with Islamabad.
Nato ties with Pakistan plunged to a new low after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the porous Afghan border on November 26. Islamabad has since closed its border to Nato supply trucks.
“Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly,” the report, based interrogations of more than 4,000 captured Taliban and al Qaeda operatives, was quoted as saying by the BBC.
The debate on Afghanistan will likely continue at the Munich Security Conference from Friday to Sunday, an annual gathering of top officials and military experts from around the world in the German city.
In Munich, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta will be joined Saturday by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe for discussions on transatlantic relations and ties with Russia.
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger will then lead a debate on US, Europe and Asia with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and US SeNator John McCain.
“We don’t want to make it a Chinese-American debate. We also want to see how Europe is viewed in Asia,” said veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, the event’s chairman.
President Barack Obama is shifting US military attention to Asia and the Pentagon announced last week that it would withdraw two of its four army brigades from Europe in 2014.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will join the talks in Munich amid tension between Moscow and Nato over Russian concerns that an anti-missile system could be aimed at Russia.
Courtesy: The Express Tribune

Pakistan: 11 soldiers killed in Balochistan: Officials
QUETTA: Baloch rebels attacked security forces overnight, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding another 12 in clashes that raged for five hours, officials said Wednesday.
About two dozen gunmen attacked two posts in Margut, about 60 kilometres east of Quetta, capital of the insurgency-torn southwestern province of Balochistan. The soldiers were responsible for guarding coal mines, they said.
“About two dozen gunmen armed with light and heavy weapons attacked the Frontier Corps (paramilitary) posts and killed 11 soldiers,” a senior military official said.
He said another 12 soldiers were wounded in the assault.
Other security officials confirmed the casualties.
The assailants belonged to a Baloch militant group led by Harbiar Marri who is living in self exile in London, the official said.
Baloch rebels have been fighting since 2004 for political autonomy and a greater share of profits from Balochistan’s wealth of natural oil, gas and mineral resources.

India fails to check human rights violations: Human Rights Watch
NEW DELHI: Custodial killings, police abuse including torture, and failure to implement policies aimed at protecting vulnerable communities marred India's record in 2011, according to the Human Rights Watch World Report. The global report released on Monday pointed out that immunity for abuses committed by security forces also continued, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast, and areas facing Maoist insurgency.
However, the report found that killings by the Border Security Force (BSF) along the Indo-Bangladesh border decreased dramatically.
"India, the world's most populous democracy, continues to have a vibrant media, an active civil society, a respected judiciary, and significant human rights problems," the report said.
The report highlights that India is yet to repeal laws or change policies that allow de jure and de facto impunity for human rights violations, and has failed to prosecute even known perpetrators of serious abuses.
"The Indian defence establishment resisted attempts to repeal or revise the Armed Forces Special Powers Act ( AFSPA), a law that provides soldiers in disturbed areas widespread police powers," it said.
The report says that thousands of Kashmiris have allegedly disappeared - victims of "enforced disappearance" - during two decades of conflict in the region, their whereabouts unknown.
A police investigation in 2011 by the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) found 2,730 bodies dumped into unmarked graves at 38 sites in north Kashmir. At least 574 were identified as the bodies of local Kashmiris.
The government had previously said that the graves held unidentified militants, most of them Pakistanis whose bodies had been handed over to village authorities for burial. Many Kashmiris believe that some graves contain the bodies of victims of enforced disappearances."
Mentioning the anti-corruption movement of social activist Anna Hazare, the report says it brought the government to a standstill, with widespread street protests and sit-ins demanding legal reform and prosecutions.
"Activists working with two prominent efforts to address poverty and accountability -- India's rural employment guarantee scheme and right to information law -- came under increasing attack, facing threats, beatings, and even death," it said.
Maoist forces continue to engage in killings and extortion, and target government schools and hospitals for attacks and bombings. At this writing the Maoists had killed nearly 250 civilians as well as over 100 members of the security forces in 2011.
The report says that deaths from terror attacks in 2011 had decreased significantly from earlier years with two major blast incidents in Mumbai and Delhi. Despite repeated claims of progress by the government, there was no significant improvement in access to health care and education.
"The 2011 census data revealed a further decline in India's female/male sex ratio, pointing to the failure of laws aimed at reducing sex-selective abortions. A series of honour killings and rapes rocked the country in 2011 but there has been no effective action to prevent and effectively prosecute such violence," it said.
According to Human Rights Watch, India's policy in the subcontinent continues to be heavily influenced by strategic and economic concerns about China's growing influence in countries like Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. "As a member of the United Nations Security Council and the Human Rights Council (HRC), India in 2011 had an opportunity to align its foreign policy with the ideals it claims to stand for, but officials remained reluctant to voice concerns over even egregious human rights violations in countries such as Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Syria, and Sudan," it said.
"Despite concerns over the safety of its nationals in Libya, India did support UN Security Council resolution 1970 on Libya calling for protection of the Libyan people. India later abstained on resolution 1973, which authorized military force to protect civilians," it added.