[ToloNews] The Afghan government on Tuesday released around 900 Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... prisoners, according to the National Security Council.
The 900 prisoners were released from different prisons across the country, mainly from Pul-e-Charkhi Prison in Kabul and Bagram Prison in Parwan province.
The order for the release of these prisoners was issued by 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... on the first day of Eid as he pledged to release up to 2,000 Taliban inmates. His announcement came as a response to the Taliban's calling a three-day ceasefire during Eid.
"The number will reach 2,000, but what remains is related to the Taliban... The continuance of violence by the Taliban will not help the grinding of the peace processor," said Javid Faisal, a front man for the National Security Council.
Some released prisoners said they want unity and solidarity in the country.
"We want unity and solidarity," said a released Taliban prisoner.
"Peace should come. There should be stability. Our country has witnessed forty years of war. We are happy for stability," said a released Taliban prisoner.
Critics still doubt the intentions of the prisoners and say they might return to the war as there is a lack of a monitoring system from them after they are freed.
"There is question about whether they will return to the battleground or to their homes," said MP Abdul Zahir Tamim.
"If we witness the release of 2,000 prisoners of the (Taliban), I can say for sure that the Islamic emirate will think about extending the ceasefire," said former Taliban member Jalaluddin Shinwari, referring to the group as Islamic emirate.
The Afghanistan Human Rights Commission said there should be guarantees on the prisoners to not return to the war.
"There will be individuals who have committed war crimes or crimes against humanity or there might be people who have cases against them... They should not be included among released prisoners," said Naeem Nazari, member of the commission.
[FoxNews] A pigeon suspected of being trained as a Pakistani “spy” has been detained near a disputed border in India after officials discovered a coded ring attached to its foot, according to a report.
The pigeon, painted pink, was captured Sunday by villagers in Manyari, located near the international border that separates Indian and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, the Times of India reported.
While it is unclear where the bird came from, it is reportedly believed the bird flew from across the border in Pakistan.
“The pigeon, suspected to be trained in Pakistan for spying, has a ring with alphabets and numbers written on it,” a police source told the paper. “Though birds have no boundaries, and many fly across international borders during migration, a coded ring tagged to the captured pigeon’s body is a cause for concern as migratory birds don’t have such things.”
Villagers in the countries around Israel regularly kill migratory birds they’re certain are Israeli spies because they have exactly that kind of band on their legs, part of a century-long international scientific effort. None of them are painted in pastel colours, though.
Kathua Police's senior superintendent Shailendra Mishra said it was unclear whether the bird was intended to spy, noting that people in Pakistan tie number tags on pigeons to claim ownership, according to Sky News. He said an investigation was underway. There have been previous reports of birds carrying suspected secret messages across the border into India.
Indian authorities captured a bird in 2015 that was found to have a message written in Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, on its wings, the Telegraph reported.
“Buy Mor Chickn”
In 2016, a bird with a note that allegedly threatened Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was found at the Pakistan border and taken by police, according to Sky News.
The Times of India said that pigeons and even balloons sometimes carry coded messages across the border as a type of “psychological operation.”
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/27/2020 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistain Proxies
[Jpost] A bill passed last week on “confronting the hostile acts of the Zionist regime against peace and security” prevents any cooperation with Israel.
[IsraelTimes] Legislation bars any cooperation, including ‘activities of the Israeli software platforms in Iran and using its hardware and software products’
“That must be how they’re finding our weapons depots in Syria, so we’re just gonna throw out everything the Israelis are listening through, see?”
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
05/27/2020 10:50 ||
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#1
Iranians: Death to the Juice!
Iranian Mullah: Yes! Now throw down your cell phones.
Iranians: Wait, what?
[Rudaw] Iran’s oil minister has accused Ankara of dragging its feet on repairs to a critical natural gas pipeline that was damaged in a bully boy attack in late March, depriving Tehran of hundreds of millions of dollars in desperately needed hard currency.
"The pipeline carrying Iranian natural gas to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... was damaged in a kaboom earlier this year and it has not been fixed," oil minister Bijan Zanganeh told an Iranian radio station on Monday.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/27/2020 01:52 ||
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Top|| File under: Sublime Porte
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
