KABUL: The Nato-led military force in Afghanistan will no longer publish statistics on Taliban insurgent attacks, the coalition said yesterday, a week after admitting some of its records were incorrect. Officials regretted that a reported seven percent decrease in “enemy-initiated attacks” in 2012 was wrong and said attacks were roughly the same as in 2011. International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman Jamie Graybeal denied that the error, which cast doubts on Nato claims of progress in the war, had forced the change of policy. “Because the [Afghan army and police] are conducting an increasing number of successful unilateral operations, often beyond the view of ISAF, we have determined that our databases will become increasingly inaccurate. Additionally, we have come to realise that a simple tally... is not the most complete measure of the campaign’s progress,” he added. The mistake in the figures occurred because some Afghan units that had recently taken the lead from Nato had not entered numbers correctly into a database, according to officials.
Minister kidnapped in Baluchistan
Islamabad: Awami National Party’s Minister of Prisons in Baluchistan Sultan Mohammed Tareen was kidnapped near the Kuchlak area of the province yesterday, his brother Ghulam said. Tareen was abducted around midnight when he was going to Harnai from Quetta. His family said they lost contact with him in Kuchlak when he left Quetta in his car for Harnai town, 170km from the provincial capital.
Afghan forces foil attack on parliament
Kabul: Afghan security forces foiled a rocket attack on parliament in Chahar Asiab district of the capital Kabul, the Interior Ministry said yesterday. It said several BM 16 and BM 12 rockets were recovered in the district. The attackers indented to fire them on the inauguration ceremony of parliament’s spring session which begins today.
12kg roadside bomb defused in Peshawar
Islamabad: Security authorities in Peshawar foiled a terror operation yesterday in the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa northwest Pakistan. Police received a tip-off about a 12kg roadside bomb in a suburb of Peshawar and a team of experts deactivated it.
Agencies
