NATO to Keep 12,000 Troops in Afghanistan; Pakistan Executes Four Involved in School Terror Attack; Heavy Rains Paralyze Chennai

Afghanistan

Bonus Read: “The Beauty and the Peril of Being a Photojournalist in Afghanistan,” by Bryan Schatz (Mother Jones)

NATO to keep 12,000 troops in Afghanistan

On Tuesday, NATO agreed to keep the alliance’s troop levels in Afghanistan at 12,000 for 2016 and launched a campaign to fund Afghan forces (Reuters, VOA, Pajhwok). The force will consist of about 7,000 U.S. troops and 5,000 troops from other NATO countries and partner nations. Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani welcomed the support stating: “Despite the challenges we face, Afghanistan has done much better than expected.”

Boeing to produce drones for Afghanistan

On Nov. 25, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it awarded a contract to Boeing’s Insitu subsidiary to produce eight ScanEagle unmanned aerial systems for Afghanistan (Jane’s, GovConWire). The ScanEagle system is a surveillance and reconnaissance system. The ScanEagles are expected to be delivered in June 2018. Bonus Read: “World of Drones” (New America)

Pakistan

Pakistan executes four involved in school terror attack

On Wednesday, Pakistan hanged four men convicted of involvement in the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar last year, which killed 134 school children (Guardian, WSJ, Reuters, VOA, ET). The execution was carried out in a prison in the city of Kohat. One of the hanged men was convicted of being a gunman during the attack while the other three were convicted of facilitating the attack. Pakistan lifted its moratorium on the death penalty last year following the attack on the school.

PM Sharif: Pakistan to renew push for Afghan peace talks

On Tuesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced his intention to make a renewed push to facilitate a peace process between the Afghan government and the Afghan Taliban according to a statement released by Pakistan’s Foreign Office (Pajhwok). The statement quoted Sharif as stating: “Pakistan… would like to make renewed efforts to resurrect the peace and reconciliation process.” The statement concluded: “Pakistan does not believe in any blame game, and instead would like to make renewed efforts to resurrect the peace and reconciliation process.” Sharif’s comments follow a meeting between Prime Minister Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Conference where they discussed a possible resumption of stalled talks (WSJ, Reuters). A senior Afghan official, however, cautioned: “Don’t get your expectations too high.” Ghani commented: “There is no such thing as the Taliban after the death of Mullah Omar,” continuing, “There are groups of Taliban and we will engage in talking with some of them and if some of them would like to come through the mediation of Pakistan, that’s something that we need to talk about.” Bonus Read: “The Essential Lessons of Terrorists at the Table,” by David Sterman (South Asia).

— David Sterman

India

Bonus Read: “5 Things the RBI and GDP Taught Us About the Indian Economy This Week,” by Corinne Abrams and Gabriele Parussini (WSJ)

Heavy rains paralyze Chennai

The city of Chennai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu was brought to a standstill on Wednesday due to heavy rains and severe flooding (BBC, TOI, The Hindu). The city’s airport has been shut down since Tuesday morning, and all trains in and out of the city have been canceled. The Indian Army and the National Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the city’s suburbs to rescue people stranded in their homes, and the central government has sent two C-17 aircraft to assist in the rescue and relief operations. Reports state that 60 percent of the city is now without power. At least 188 people have died in Tamil Nadu as a result of floods in the past month. The heavy rains were triggered by a depression in the Bay of Bengal, and the meteorological office expects “scattered to heavy” rains to continue for the next three days.

Supreme Court blocks release of former PM’s assassins

The Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the release of seven prisoners convicted for their role in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (HT, NDTV). Gandhi, who served as prime minister from 1984 to 1989, was assassinated in 1991 by a suicide bomber from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a militant Tamil separatist group in Sri Lanka, for sending Indian troops to Sri Lanka to help fight the group. Four people are serving life terms for their involvement in the plot, while three others sentenced to death had their sentences commuted by the Supreme Court in February of last year. The government of the state of Tamil Nadu —  where there is sympathy for the LTTE’s cause of a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka — sought to release the convicts, but were blocked by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The court upheld the life sentences for all seven convicts, ruling that only the central government had the power to release them.

Police officer killed in Maoist landmine attack

At least one police officer was killed and another critically injured in a landmine blast triggered by Maoist rebels in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, the Hindustan Times reported (HT). According to the local police superintendent, the Border Security Force and district police were conducting a joint operation when the incident took place. A search operation to capture the attackers is underway.

— Udit Banerjea

Edited by Peter Bergen

JONATHAN ERNST/AFP/Getty Images