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TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2014 INTERNATIONAL Taleban infighting hampers Pakistan peace talks ISLAMABAD: Weeks of infighting between Taleban TTP insider said on condition of anonymity. the late TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud, led by and rocket-propelled grenades. “Our jihad will con- groups have hampered stop-start peace talks with Another Taleban commander in the northwest con- commander Sheheryar Mehsud, against supporters tinue until sharia is enforced or we embrace martyr- Pakistan’s government, sources said yesterday, as firmed to AFP that “peace talks have been halted of Khan Said Sajna. Hakimullah Mehsud was killed dom,” Fazlullah said in the video, urging would-be the insurgents’ leader vowed to continue fighting until end of differences between the two rival by a US drone last November. “Differences militants to make contact with commanders. until Islamic law was enforced in the country. Two groups”. The development threatens to undermine between the Sajna and Sheheryar groups mean “We have accepted the writ and power of Allah, factions of the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), what little progress has been made in the peace differences in the Mehsud tribe and its continua- and the Pakistan army, intelligence agencies and the umbrella grouping for disparate militant negotiations. The government of Prime Minister tion is very harmful for the Taleban,” the command- government will have to accept Allah’s groups, have been locked in bloody clashes since Nawaz Sharif began the talks in February to try to er said. writ.”Hardline cleric Fazlullah first rose to promi- at least March. The fighting has claimed more than end the TTP’s seven-year insurgency which has Fazlullah, who became TTP chief on Hakimullah’s nence as the leader of the Taleban’s two-year rule in 90 lives in the tribal areas along the Afghan border claimed thousands of lives. death, has separately vowed to continue his armed the northwestern Swat Valley, which featured pub- and has now forced the TTP’s commander-in-chief Insiders say the TTP feud, which came to light in struggle until Islamic sharia law is in force across lic floggings and executions. Fazlullah, who has a Mullah Fazlullah to appoint a mediator to try to March, is over command in the South Waziristan Pakistan. In a video released by the TTP’s media $500,000 government bounty on his head, has end the feud, militant sources said. tribal area and who has the right to lead the wing, Fazlullah was seen arriving in a training camp mounted some brutal and humiliating attacks on “The infighting has forced the Taleban leader- Mehsud tribe, from which the movement draws somewhere in a mountainous area with around two Pakistan’s military, including the beheading of 17 ship to postpone peace talks for the time being,” a many of its members.The conflict pits followers of dozen masked men armed with assault rifles, pistols soldiers after an attack in June 2012. — AFP India’s PM-elect quick on Twitter diplomacy Modi shuns US for now NEW DELHI: India’s prime minister- elect Narendra Modi has taken to Twitter to thank fellow leaders in Japan, GHAZNI: Former Afghan prisoners prepare to leave after their release from jail in Russia, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Australia Ghazni yesterday. Around 100 prisoners were released by a decree from Afghan for their support, but one man still President Hamid Karzai. — AFP waiting for a reply is US Secretary of State John Kerry. While Canadian Prime Castles in the air: Afghans pay Minister Stephan Harper has had two mentions and Russian President Putin a heavy price for uncertainty received warm words yesterday, Modi has conspicuously made no reference KABUL: A bored security guard, a Kalashnikov biggest donors, have already cut aid by up to at all to the leaders of the world’s rifle over his shoulder, stands guard alone out- half. International aid groups, which provide a superpower. side an idle construction site for a 10-storey lifeline for marginalized Afghans, say funds are Washington, along with European building in downtown Kabul, one of more than drying up fast. One US non-profit group that powers, boycotted the 63-year-old for a dozen concrete shells with not a single con- runs 13 schools for 3,000 girls says it hasn’t paid a decade and denied him a visa over struction worker in sight. It was meant to be its teachers for more than a year. Property religious violence in 2002 during his boom-time after decades of war and privation, prices have slumped as much 50 percent, rents tenure as chief minister of Gujarat with shiny new shopping malls springing up are down 75 percent by some counts and state that left about 1,000 people, around the Afghan capital and construction investors have pulled funding from construc- mostly Muslims, dead. Kerry tweeted cranes dotting Kabul’s spectacular, snow- tion projects. congratulations to Modi on Friday capped horizon over the past few years. The afghani currency has also fallen and is after a landslide win for his Hindu VARANASI: Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leader and India’s next prime minister Narendra Modi However, business has now ground to a halt now at around 57 to the dollar, from 52 at the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, say- speaks after performing evening rituals on the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi, an ancient city across much of Afghanistan. Political uncertain- start of 2013. “Investment is mostly on hold in ing he looked forward to “growing revered by millions of devout Hindus, India. — AP ty abounds before another presidential vote Afghanistan,” the deputy chief of the central shared prosperity/security”. “should not and cannot be influenced years to come.” Japanese premier Investigators have never found evi- and security fears are growing as the last for- bank, Khan Afzal Hadawal said. International President Barack Obama tele- by incidents related to individuals”. Shinzo Abe meanwhile was thanked for dence to prosecute him, but a woman eign combat troops prepare to leave. “To invest institutions expect Afghanistan’s GDP growth phoned Modi but is yet to comment in But analysts are looking closely at his good wishes “Personally, I have a he later appointed to his cabinet was in such an environment would be craziness,” to fall from a high of about 14 percent in 2012 person. He had warm words for his how the world’s biggest democracies wonderful experience of working with jailed for life for orchestrating some of acknowledges Hameedullah Omar, marketing to about 3.5 percent this year. The World Bank predecessor on Saturday, however. As embrace each other with Modi at the Japan as CM (chief minister). I am sure the worst of the killing. Modi was manager of a deserted nine-storey office com- has said more uncertainty could dampen Manmohan Singh left office after 10 helm and following a highly damaging we will take India-Japan ties to newer refused a visa to the United States in plex in Kabul’s main shopping district that was growth further this year. The International Crisis years in power, Obama called to tell him spat over the arrest of an Indian diplo- heights,” he wrote. 2005. Britain also boycotted Modi, but completed only last year. Group think tank said in a report released last that that there were “very few people in mat in New York in December. Modi, Modi was chief minister of Gujarat British Prime Minister David Cameron Foreign donors worried about deteriorating week that the number of attacks by Islamist public life that I have admired or appre- writing on Twitter to his 4.19 million fol- in 2002 when anti-Muslim riots broke sent a message of congratulations on security are leaving as Western forces wind insurgents had risen since the drawdown of ciated more.” Modi has displayed no lowers, addressed a message to Russian out and, although he has never been Friday which was acknowledged by down operations, leaving aid-dependent Kabul foreign troops began, and forecast a bloody rancor publicly about his treatment by President Putin on Monday saying that found guilty of wrongdoing, the failure Modi the day after. “Hoping to further to manage its threadbare finances on its own. future unless there was more foreign assis- Washington, telling an interviewer earli- he looked forward “to making our rela- of his administration to control the vio- strengthen India-UK relations,” he The United States and Britain, two of the tance. er this month that foreign relations tions with Russia even stronger in the lence left a legacy of suspicion. wrote. — AFP India Hindu hardliners see Modi as ‘one of their own’ NAGPUR: Young men gaze reverently at the flame-shaped teer as a young adult-taking the requisite vow of celibacy-for memorial to a Hindu supremacist in the grounds of India’s more than 15 years before he joined the BJP. He recently said the biggest grassroots religious organization, which prime minister- RSS “should be appreciated for their good work”. The group is elect Narendra Modi joined as a boy. In the city of Nagpur, oppo- widely described as an ideological parent of the BJP, although site a black-painted statue of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh volunteers in Nagpur were wary of discussing the elections. (RSS) founder Keshav Hedgewar, the solemn tribute to his succes- “When the RSS says we are a cultural organization, it actually is,” sor Madhav Golwalkar is a reminder of what critics say is the said Sameer Gautam, 39, who runs a software company- group’s deep-rooted religious prejudice. Back in 1938, Golwalkar although he joked about “the wall” that comes down on inquir- said India’s non-Hindus must adopt Hindu culture, language and ing journalists.

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