Pakistan cleans up 'pro-Taliban' spy agency (click here)
October 1, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has replaced the head of its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in an apparent effort to clean up the military spy agency amid western claims that it secretly backs the Taliban.
The move came as the United Nations said fighting between the Pakistani military and pro-Taliban insurgents forced 20,000 people to flee from Pakistan to war-torn Afghanistan, and as the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, turned to the king of Saudi Arabia to help broker peace talks with the Taliban.
Pakistan's military released a statement yesterday saying Lieutenant General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha had been appointed director-general of the ISI, replacing Nadeem Taj, a loyalist of the former president Pervez Musharraf, who took up the post last October.
General Pasha is now director of military operations and is considered a key aide to the army chief, Ashfaq Kayani.
Pakistan's intelligence agency has been at the centre of concerns among Western allies that it is either turning a blind eye to militants in Pakistan's troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, or even actively sponsoring the rebels....
UN: 20,000 flee from Pakistan into Afghanistan (click here)
1 day ago
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The United Nations says 20,000 Pakistani refugees have fled to Afghanistan to avoid fighting between militants and Pakistan's military.
The U.N.'s refugee agency says nearly 4,000 Pakistani families have fled Pakistan's Bajur tribal agency into Afghanistan's Kunar province.
Pakistan's military launched an offensive in Bajur, the most northerly of Pakistan's wild tribal regions, several of which have fallen largely under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled into other parts of Pakistan as a result of the 2-month-old offensive.
The agency says it believes the majority of those who have crossed into Afghanistan will return home once the fighting stops.
NATO Troops
Karzai pleas for Saudi peace role (click here)
Mr Karzai says that he is 'working for peace'
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that he has made repeated efforts over the last two years to engage Saudi Arabia in peace talks with the Taleban.
The president said there had not yet been any direct negotiations, only requests for help.
He said that Afghan officials had travelled to Saudi Arabia and to Pakistan to kick-start the process.
The comments came during the president's traditional message to the Afghan people during the Eid holiday....
