Frequent reports of targeted assassinations, clashes, and attacks on security forces leave the residents of Waziristan worried over the specter of the region in western Pakistan relapsing into anarchy.
The two parties to intra-Afghan peace talks have exchanged positions in the Qatari capital, Doha, in what diplomats on September 16 described as a warm and "surprisingly positive" mood.
Indian and Pakistani soldiers barraged each other with mortar shells and gunfire along the highly militarized frontier in Kashmir, killing an Indian soldier and wounding two others, an official said on September 16.
The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on September 15 welcoming the start of negotiations between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban, encouraging the warring parties to aim for a permanent cease-fire.
A Pakistani soldier was killed and three others wounded when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in the northwestern South Waziristan tribal district.
The Afghan government intensified calls for a cease-fire with the Taliban on September 14 as Kabul and the militants began the second day of historic peace talks.
As delegations of Afghan society and the hard-line Taliban Islamist movement decide the agenda of expected lengthy talks over their country’s future political system, the issue of a cease-fire between their combatants looms large over the peace process.
The most intense of the clashes on September 12 were in Kunduz, where the Taliban again jostled with security forces for control of key highways and the Afghan military deployed air and artillery strikes.
The Pakistani military says it has killed a “terrorist” commander and three other militants in the country’s northwest.
Peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government are to begin in earnest on September 13 and will possibly include a discussion of a lasting cease-fire.
Afghan government officials, Taliban extremists, and U.S. officials are in the Qatari capital, Doha, for the negotiations that opened on September 12 designed to bring permanent cease-fire, ensure the rights of women and minorities, etc. (Reuters)
Nineteen years after the September 11 terror attacks in the United States led to a bloody conflict that ravaged Afghanistan and killed tens of thousands of people, talks designed to bring peace to the country are set to begin.
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