Afghan President Demands Pakistan Take Military Action Against Taliban
President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan said that Pakistan needed to live up to the agreementmade in quadrilateral talks to help eliminate Taliban sanctuaries within its country.
KABUL, Afghanistan — After courting Pakistan for more than a year, President Ashraf Ghani
of Afghanistan changed course on Monday and warned that he would lodge a complaint with
the United Nations Security Council if Pakistan refuses to take military action against
Taliban(41 leaders operating from its soil to wage an increasingly deadly insurgency across
Afghanistan.
Mr. Ghani has taken pains to persuade Pakistan's leadership, particularly its powerful
military, to bring the insurgent leaders to the negotiating table. But an increase in Taliban
violence, including a brutal attack last week in the heart of the Afghan capital, Kabul, that
left at least 64 people killed and more than 300 wounded, has forced Mr. Ghani to effectively
end what has been a cornerstone effort of his troubled presidency.
"l want to make it clear that we do not expect Pakistan to bring the Taliban to talks," Mr.
Ghani said on Monday in a rare joint session of the two houses of the Afghan Parliament.
He said that in quadrilateral talks over the past year that involved the United States and
China, Pakistan had pledged "in writing" to go after Taliban leaders who refuse to join the
peace process.
"We want the Pakistanis to fulfill their promises in the quadrilateral and take military action
against those who have their centers in Pakistan and whose leaders are in Pakistan based on
our security organizations, the intelligence of our international partners, and the words of
Pakistan officials," Mr. Ghani said.
"If we do not see a change, despite our hopes and efforts for regional cooperation, we will be
forced to turn to the U.N. Security Council and launch serious diplomatic efforts."
Despite repeated promises from Pakistan to bring Taliban leaders to talks, the peace efforts
seem to have gone nowhere with the insurgency using the window to consolidate after
infightingll Il emerged in the ranks and launch another spring offensive promising to be
bloodier than in years past. Unlike previous years, the violence did not subside even in the
harsh winter months.
In his address on Monday, Mr. Ghani called the insurgents terrorists who "take pleasure in the
torn-up bodies of our innocents," and their leaders "slavelike" and involved in narcotics
mafias.
But the Taliban were quick to respond; their spokesmen posted on Twitter live during Mr.
Ghani's address.
"The nation is not blind — it realizes who is a slave, and who is a hireling," said Zabihullah
Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, posting a picture of senior government officials listening to the
former commander of NATO and United States forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell.
"We will continue fighting until the occupation is ended."
Follow Mujib Mashal on nvitter@MujMasht.
Citation: Mashal, Mujib. "Afghan President Demands Pakistan Take Military Action Against Taliban." 25 April 2016. New York Times. 26 April 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/world/asia/afghanistan-pakistan-taliban.html?ref=world&_r=1>
Response: This article is talking about how the Afghan president is urging
Pakistan to take out the leaders of the Taliban residing on their soil that
refuse to join the peace talks. Pakistan has promised "in writing"
but no action has taken place. Recently the Taliban attacked the capital city
of Afghanistan, Kabul, and as a result many people were killed. This article is
very clearly biased towards Afghanistan. The author of this article never
mentions any possible reasons for Pakistan's lack of action and paints them to
look like cowards. The author chose to relay that 300 were wounded and 64 were
killed in the attacks in Kabul which may be truthful information it is not 100%
relevant to the author's point. The article ends with a tweet posted by the
Taliban against the government of Afghanistan. This article portrays the
Taliban in an unruly and brutal light, while victimizing Afghanistan, and at
the same time seemingly blaming Pakistan for everything.
You are very accurate to recognize the heavy bias that this article contains. Throughout the article, there is no mention of Pakistan's side of the story and as the old adage goes there are two sides to every story. The tweet used to finish this story is very manipulative. The tweet made by the Taliban dramatizes the evil of the Taliban group and implies incompetency of the Pakistan government. I am not disagreeing that the Taliban is a harmful terrorist group, but this article portrayed the Pakistani government to enable the group thus almost equating the liability of the government with the evils of the group. The article may make the assumption that the audience has some knowledge on this issue, so perhaps that is why it did not expound on the Pakistani side. However, that is not an excuse to write a very biased article. You covered all of this in your response, so good job Carlin!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job summarizing the article and relaying the information within it. I agree that there is bias towards Afghanistan, as they are victimized through this article. Pakistan is only mentioned as being uncooperative enhancing their brutality. I would agree with Soni that the writer may have assumed that the reader already had some knowledge of the conflict, but as she stated does not give them the write to completely disregard their situation. I could see why the writer would be upset with Pakistan, since it has not taken action, but there are probably reasons. It is not a light subject to remove Taliban leaders that are not part of peace talks. You covered this article very precisely. Good job!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job summarizing the article and identifying the author's bias. I agree that the article is biased towards Afghanistan because the author does not give reasons from Pakistan's point of view. The Taliban are obviously very dangerous and I am sure that bringing the Taliban to peace talks in NOT the easiest job in the world and would take time. But I also understand to the necessity of something being done in light of the recent attacks in Afghanistan and to strengthen the relationship between the two nations who are fighting the same war against terrorism. Awesome job Carlin!
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