I'm Mohammad Ashan and I claim my $100

A couple of days ago many news sites reported on the strange case of a minor Taliban leader  giving himself up and claiming the reward for his capture.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul says that Mr Ahsan is a mid- to low-level Taliban commander in the south-eastern province of Paktika. He is not thought to have commanded a significant number of insurgents. But he is suspected in a role in planting IED that were damaging enough to prompt officials into putting up numerous "wanted" posters in the districts where he was active.

NATO officials and Afghan troops are at a loss to understand why Mr Ashan attempted to claim a reward for his own capture.

Perhaps he thought that claiming his own reward would keep him in beer and fags (cigarettes) for a while... Whatever the reason it was a pretty stupid thing to do!

Militants block polio vaccinations

The eradication of polio is not far off. The incidence of this crippling disease has reduced from 350,000 cases a year 20 years ago, last year there were just 1659 cases, most of which were in Nigeria, India and Pakistan. Although the figures for 2009 indicate a further reduction this year, this could be subverted by the ignorance and suspicion of cretinous militant islamist.

According the Telegraph Taliban militants in Swat Valley in Northern Pakistan have obstructed officials from vaccinating over 300,000 children. Militants have seized control of most of Swat and its capital, Mingora, and have extended their rule since striking a peace deal with the government and army earlier this year.

“There is a real emergency there. It is urgent to go in and vaccinate children,” said Dr Nima Abid, the Polio Team leader from the World Health Organisation in Pakistan. “Polio vaccination is effective in first three months of the year when virus transmission is lowest and so there is no interference with the vaccine virus,” said Dr Abid.

Militants had reportedly agreed to allow the vaccination program to take place as part of the peace agreements. However, they had reneged on their word and despite assiduous efforts made by the increasingly irrelevant local administration, no vaccinations have taken place.

“It’s a US tool to cut the population of the Muslims. It is against Islam that you take a medicine before the disease”, said, Muslim Khan, Swat’s Taliban spokesman, speaking by telephone.

Swat had recorded 4 cases of polio last year of the total 53 recorded by NWFP and the tribal areas. Pakistan had 118 cases in 2009.

Militants in the tribal areas of Bajaur and Mohmand have also opposed polio vaccinations.

It’s not the first time that Islamists have obstructed attempts to eradicate polio but their sheer idiocy continues to anger. Perhaps the bastards will do something decent and for once and evolve into a higher life form – an amoeba might not be out of their reach.

Hell goes round and round – North West Frontier

Israel and the Palestinians continue their fatal dance and there are protests a-plenty (against the Israelis of course....The role of Hamas in this current situation is conveniently forgotten by most of the protestors). But not a word is heard from a large swathe of fellow leftists, or from the right for that matter, for the atrocities of the Taliban I am not diminishing the situation in Gaza but I do wonder....

The Times reports that the Taliban have taken a ghastly revenge on a village that threw them out four months ago. 40 locals, many children, were murdered in a car bomb blast.

Shal Bandai, a remote settlement in North West Frontier province, about 175 miles north of Peshawar, was targeted because its citizens had dared to challenge the Taliban, who now control huge swathes of Pakistan in the tribal territories along the Afghan border. Last Sunday a suicide bomber drove up to the village school, which was being used as a polling station for a local by-election, and blew himself up.

Rokhan Gul, a pupil at the school, witnessed the attack. “I saw the bomber just before the blast,” he said. “While taking a sharp curve at the corner of the street his car slipped into a culvert and all of us helped push him out of the hole. Just 10 minutes later I heard a huge explosion and I immediately knew he was the bomber.”

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing. The following day Shah Durran, a Taliban commander in the neighbouring district of Swat, announced on his banned radio station: “We will even kill your children.” Last week in Swat another Taliban commander declared a ban on girls’ education, saying it was unIslamic. The Taliban have burnt down more than 100 schools in the past year.

People have formed lashkars (local militias) to protect themselves. Shal Bandai was the first village to raise a lashkar last summer to fight back against the Taliban and paid the price. Fakhre Alam, a schoolteacher who is the head of the committee charged with the security of the village, said the locals had turned down a reward of 5m rupees (£44,000) from the Pakistani government after their clash with the Taliban. “We don’t need money. We need peace and security. We asked the government to set up a college instead of sending more weapons to our young people”, he said

“We shall fight. This is our life and only we have a right to it. Who are they to dictate to us? We’re not going to give in,” said Alam

Hell goes round and round

According to today’s Times two United Nations doctors working on a polio vaccination campaign for children were killed by a suicide bomber yesterday in the first significant Taleban attack against the organisation in Afghanistan.

The men died with a driver when the bomber rammed their UN vehicle in the market town of Spin Boldak, close to the border with Pakistan in the southern province of Kandahar. The attack was the first to single out marked UN vehicles

A statement issued by the Taleban on their website claimed responsibility for the attack: “This morning Taleban conducted a martyrdom attack by a hero, Abdul Salaam, in the centre of Spin Boldak against a convoy of Unama [UN Assistance Mission Afghanistan]. Two Land Cruisers of the convoy were targeted and eight high ranking foreign officials were killed.”

In a statement the UN special representative in Kabul said: “This attack was on innocent civilians working only for the people of Afghanistan, and is beyond comprehension.”

Beyond comprehension indeed.