[DAWN] Taliban...Arabic for
students...
fighters killed a governor and took control of his district in northern Afghanistan as festivities broke out across the country, officials said on Tuesday, accusing the gunnies of defying the start of a government ceasefire with them.
There was intense fighting between Afghan cops and Taliban button men in the northern provinces of Faryab and Sari Pul, with officials reporting an unspecified number of casualties on both sides.
The governor of Kohistan
...a backwoods district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa distinguished by being even more rustic than is the norm among the local Pashtuns....
district in Faryab was killed along with eight others in an ambush overnight, provincial governor front man Jawed Bidar told AFP, blaming the Taliban.
He said the gunnies had seized control of the district. That was confirmed by provincial police chief Nabi Jan Mullah Khail.
The Taliban claimed the Faryab attack as well as one in Sayad district of neighbouring Sari Pul where provincial governor front man Zabiullah Amani said fighting was still underway.
"Last night large numbers of Taliban attacked several villages... the fighting continues and both sides have casualties," Amani told AFP. "We have asked for more reinforcements."
A jacket wallah driving a Humvee and button men also attacked a district government building in the southeastern province of Ghazni overnight, killing five people, all coppers, and wounding 26, including the district governor, provincial governor front man Arif Noori told AFP.
Noori blamed the Taliban for the attack, although no group has so far grabbed credit.
"The ceasefire went on effect this morning," interior ministry front man Najib Danish said.
"We have ordered our forces to defend with all their power if they are attacked by an enemy that has no respect for anything." The attacks come as Pakistain's powerful army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa visits Kabul where he was set to meet with President Ashraf Ghani
...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. .., Pakistain's military front man Major General Asif Ghafoor said.
Pakistain has long been accused of supporting the Taliban and providing safe haven to its leaders ‐ charges Islamabad denies.
Ghani on Thursday announced police and troops would halt hostilities with the Taliban for eight days ‐ though he warned that operations against other groups, including Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group, would continue.
The Taliban said Saturday their fighters would stop attacking Afghan cops but only for the first three days of Eid, the holiday capping Ramadan, that begins at the end of this week.
They said they would continue attacking US-led NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
troops.
If it holds, analysts had expressed cautious optimism that the agreements could help build trust between the government and the Taliban and lay the groundwork for peace talks.
But with myriad gangs in Afghanistan, there are still fears that IS could continue to carry out attacks ‐ or even be helped by the Haqqani Network, a brutal arm of the Taliban that is suspected of partnering with IS on attacks in Kabul in the past.