Free Republic

QUETTA: As many as 13 young girls have been bartered to settle a blood feud between two tribes in Dera Bugti district of Balochistan, officials and tribal elders said on Monday. The girls — aged between four and 16 — were given in Vani by a tribal jirga which arbitrated a five-month-old blood feud between the Baloch tribes of Masoori and Shahwani Masoori. Both are sub-clans of the Bugti tribe. Mir Tariq Masoori Bugti, a lawmaker in the Balochistan Assembly, is said to have conducted the jirga, which was attended by tribal elders and notable locals, in the Baikar area...

The Taliban in Afghanistan say they have obtained a government security plan for the grand assembly of leaders, or loya jirga, which opens in Kabul this week. The document includes what appears to be a detailed list of security arrangements for senior figures. Afghan security officials have denied that the document is genuine. If the real security plan was in Taliban hands, it would be a huge embarrassment to the Afghan government. The 27-page plan supplied by the Taliban to the media includes what appears to be a list of security arrangements for Afghan ministers and the President, Hamid Karzai....

KABUL, Afghanistan - Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told more than 600 Afghan and Pakistani tribal leaders Sunday that the two countries have been mired in the rise of militancy, extremism and radicalism while the rest of the world races forward with economic development. Musharraf said the world is "forging ahead" while Pakistan and Afghanistan are confronted with a "particularly dark form" of terrorism he said is fostered by foreign influences. He said the Talibanization of the countries' border regions has prevented Afghanistan and Pakistan from benefiting from globalization. "Along with Afghanistan, Pakistan has also witnessed the rise of militancy...

ISLAMABAD: After a flurry of ‘telephone diplomacy’ between Islamabad, Washington and Kabul, President Gen Pervez Musharraf has agreed to attend the concluding session of the Joint Peace Jirga in Afghanistan. The president conveyed his consent to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday evening when the latter telephoned him and invited him to the jirga’s closing session. A brief statement issued by the Foreign Office said President Karzai telephoned President Musharraf on Friday evening and invited him to attend the closing session of the Joint Peace Jirga. “President Karzai said that the president’s personal participation would be a source of support...

Karzai calls in the tribes in bid to oust Taliban (Filed: 09/10/2006) The first thing you notice when you enter the Presidential palace in Kabul is that the Americans are missing. For the past five years President Hamid Karzai has been guarded by rude, scruffy, heavily built American male and female Rambo-style bodyguards. They treated everyone with contempt. President Hamid Karzai is protected by one of his new Afghan bodyguards Now much to the relief of tribal elders, there are different guards for the president: young Afghans in sharp suits and ties, but with machine guns slung across their shoulders....