Word: pashtun
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...permitted to initiate the fight, German forces in July launched their biggest operation since World War II to clear Chahar Dara district, a Pashtun insurgent stronghold west of Kunduz city where hundreds of fighters travel openly in pickup trucks and demand money and food villagers. But, says local resident Abdul Matin, 28, the militants simply filtered back into the area when the Germans returned to base and police are nowhere in sight. The insurgent efforts accelerated ahead of the Aug. 20 presidential elections, which the Taliban had vowed to disrupt. President Hamid Karzai's running mate, Mohammad Qasim Fahim...
...starters, Laghmani was the only senior Pashtun to hold a key intelligence post. Most are Tajiks from northern Afghanistan who know as little about the troubled Pashtun regions of southern and eastern Afghanistan as an Indiana farm boy would about gangs in the Bronx. Posted in Kandahar and then in Kabul, Laghmani had the contacts and the cunning to catch many Taliban involved in kidnappings, bomb attacks and drug-trafficking. Laghmani also was the CIA's most reliable Afghan expert on al-Qaeda. A former Afghan security adviser told TIME that Laghmani had knowledge of who within the Taliban were...
Votes are still being counted in the presidential elections, with Karzai, a Pashtun, winning more than 45%, ahead of his rival, ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who is supported by the Tajiks and other non-Pasthun minorities. But allegations of fraud and vote-rigging have stirred up the ethnic tensions that are always bubbling under the surface of Afghan society. With Laghmani gone, this source explained, "There's nobody who can stop the excesses of the Tajiks running the security services." (Read "Afghanistan: Will the U.S. Settle for Karzai...
...results are officially announced. Getting Abdullah to accept defeat will be hard: there have been widespread allegations of fraud. If the former Foreign Minister contests the results in the street - in the manner of Iran's Mir-Hossein Mousavi - that could set off an ethnic conflict between Karzai's Pashtun base and his rival's Tajik following (Abdullah's father is Pashtun, his mother Tajik). "The challenge is to ensure that the election doesn't end up dividing the country," says a U.S. official familiar with Afghan policy. (Check out a profile of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah...
...solution favored by the White House is to pressure Karzai into installing a powerful second in command: a Prime Minister who would run the government's day-to-day functions. Abdullah himself is a possible candidate, as is another presidential contender, former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani, who is Pashtun. Both men have clean reputations and some administrative experience, although it is far from clear that they have the political skills to navigate Afghanistan's multiethnic society...