Taliban tells NATO

AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban have sent a message to NATO leaders at a major summit in Chicago, calling the “war on terror” an excuse for colonisation and urging them to follow the French lead and get out. A statement on the Taliban website, Voice of Jihad, says no Afghans were involved in Al-Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington that prompted a US-led invasion of Afghanistan. The statement fails to mention that the invasion in late 2001 followed a refusal by the hardline Islamists, who were then in power, to hand over Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was based in the country. The statement hails the decision of France’s new president, Francois Hollande, to pull French combat troops out this year, two years ahead of NATO’s schedule.

‘Death Railway’ to

YANGON: Myanmar aims to restore a stretch of the infamous “Death Railway” to Thailand which was initially built by Japanese-held prisoners of war, the minister in charge of the scheme said. The railway was immortalised in the Oscar-winning film “The Bridge on the River Kwai” which showed the dreadful working conditions endured by tens of the thousands of POWs who built the track during World War II. A feasibility study on the 105-kilometre stretch running from Myanmar’s “Three Pagodas Pass” area to Thailand is scheduled to begin in October, Railway Minister Aung Min told AFP late Saturday.

Jail warden shot dead

QUETTA: Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a senior prison official in Pakistan’s troubled southwestern city of Quetta, police said Sunday. Imtiaz Ahmad, chief warden of the district prison, was targeted late Saturday when two people riding a motorcycle sprayed him with bullets near his office. He received critical wounds and died instantly,” Qazi Abdul Wahid, a senior police official in Quetta said. Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) claimed responsibility for Saturday’s killing, telling local media: “The slain warden was a cruel person and used to subject our imprisoned leaders and workers to torture.”