Reg: No 352 Volume No. 3832 Saturday March 17, 2018 Hoot 26, 1396 www.outlookafghanistan.net Price: 20/-Afs

Quote of the DayThe world must be made safe

for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations

of political liberty. Idowu Koyenikan

www.thedailyafghanistan.comEmail: thedailyafghanistan@yahoo.com

Phone: 0093 (799) 005019/777-005019Add: In front of Habibia High School,

District 3, Kabul, Afghansitan

Democracy

25,000 Books Torched in Badakhshan Blaze

PUL-I-ALAM - Four Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers have escaped from Taliban prison in Dara-I-Mangal district of central Logar province on Fri-day, an official said.Shahpoor Ahmadzai, Logar police spokesman, told Pajhwok Afghan News that Taliban captured the four ANA soldiers about one and half a month ago in Zazai Ayob district of Paktia province.He said the soldiers were able to flee from the Tali-ban’s prison on Friday morning. These soldiers cur-rently stay in police headquarters of Azra district ofLogar.Hamidullah Hamid, Azra district chief confirmed the issue and said the soldiers were in stable health condition. ...(More on P4)...(2)

KABUL - Two fresh polio cases were detected in Af-ghanistan bringing to five the number of confirmed cases of polio virus since January this year, said a local private news agency on Friday. “Two cases of wild polio virus were registered in Shah WaliKot district of southern Kandahar and Ghazi Abad district of eastern Kunar province re-cently, bringing to five the nationwide number of the polio virus cases in 2018,” Pajhwak Afghan News reported, citing a Public Health Ministry statement. On Monday, the ministry launched a five-day mass polio vaccination ...(More on P4)...(3)

4 ANA Soldiers Escaped from Taliban Prison

Polio Cases Reach 5 in Afghanistan So Far

this Year: Report

SCA to Spend 104million Afs on Samangan Projects

UN Security Council Welcomes Offer to Engage

Taliban in Peace Talks

UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Coun-cil on Thursday welcomed the Afghan gov-ernment’s offer to engage the Taliban in direct peace talks and called on the Taliban to accept it without preconditions. The offer was made at the second meeting of

the “Kabul Process” in early March. The Tali-ban had insisted on direct negotiations with the United States. In a press statement, the Security Council wel-comed the convening of the meeting and under-lined the importance of an inclusive Afghan-led

peace process for the long-term prosperity and stability in Afghanistan. The Security Council welcomed that partici-pants of the meeting recognized the Kabul Pro-cess as a forum under the leadership of the Af-ghan government to ...(More on P4)...(1)

Date for Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan Announced

Peace Possible With Tribal Elders’ Mediation: Sherzai

MOSCOW -An international conference on Afghanistan is set to be held on March 26-27 in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Ministry spokeswom-an Maria Zaharova said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will participate in the confer-ence.Security and regional coopera-tion are on the agenda, Zaharova said.“Main purpose of meeting is to form a wide international con-sensus on fundamental princi-ples of Afghan settlement and

KABUL - Tribal elders held a meeting in capital Kabul on Wednesday and voiced their sup-port for the government’s latest peace offer to the Taliban.The meeting was organized by the Coordination Center of Tribal councils of the Ministry of Tribal and Border Affairs.New tribal and border affairs minister Mohammad Shafique Gul Agha Sherzai, who attended the meeting, said war could not bring peace to the country, some-thing proven by the history.He said disputes in Afghanistan had historically been resolved through mediation of tribal elders and the ongoing conflict could also be settled the same way.Sherzai announced convening a ‘Consultative Jirga’ in coming few months in Kabul and said:

AIBAK - The Swedish Commit-tee for Afghanistan (SCA) would spend 104 million afghanis in northern Samangan province on projects concerning good govern-ance, rural livelihood, rehabilita-tion of disabled people, educa-tion, health and human rights.In this regard a Memorandum of

involvement of Afghanistan into trade, transit, energetic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation in Central Asia and beyond,” she said. The conference in Tashkent is part of international communi-ty’s efforts to end the conflict in Afghanistan. Turkey is expected

“This Jirga in cooperation with the High Peace Council (HPC) would help all the warring sides find the path to peace and help us reach to our goal.”Sherzai termed the government’s recent peace offer to the Tali-ban as unprecedented and said the government and the Taliban needed trust building before en-tering a dialogue.

Understanding (MoU) was signed between SCA head for the Northern Zone of Afghanistan, Najibullah Yazdan Pana, and heads of government departments concerned and heads of 20 development councils in Aibak, the provincial capi-tal, on Thursday.YazdanPana said 20 million afghanis would be spent on projects suggested by heads of the local councils, seven million afghanis on construction of two schools in Dara-i-SufPaeen and

Bala and the remaining 77 million afs on good governance, educa-tion, health, human rights and disables. Governor Abdul LatifI-brahimi. Who was present on the occasion, thanked the Swedish support. He added the SCA in the past had supported Samangan as well.(Pajhwok)

FAIZABAD - Thousands of books were lost when a library in Faizabad, the capital of northeast-ern Badakhshan province caught fire, an official said Friday.Lt. Col. Abdul Jabbar, the firefight manager at the provincial police headquarter, told Pajhwok Af-ghan News that the incident took place around 8pm on Thursday night.Besides 25,000 scientific and lit-erature books, an amount of sta-tionary materials and food items also torched in the fire, he said.He said a number of nearby shops and commercial offices also burnt. Jabbar said that leak from a lique-fied gas balloon was the reason of the blaze.Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Sayed Mah-ruddin Anwari, Badakhshan crime branch chief, said that a team was tasked to find the real reason of the fire and the losses it caused.Rohul Amin ...(More on P4)...5)

to participate in the conference as well. Uzbek President Shavkat Mir-ziyoyev had requested Turkish President RecepTayip Erdogan to send a delegation to the con-ference during his talks with him over the phone in February. (AA)

The former Nangarhar governor said trust could be built between the government and the Taliban with mediation of tribal elders and influential figures.He asked the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) to support the Afghan government in imple-mentation of its peace proposal.Sherzai ...(More on P4)...(4)

TENDER NOTICE- RADIO SERVICES War Child Canada, Afghanistan invites registered firms to submit sealed bids for provision of radio services for its public awareness raising programs. Bidders must have a track record of radio broadcasting services through a network of provincial and local radio stations, or in collaboration with well-known media companies (BBC, Voice of America, Moby Group, etc. Interested service providers/firms are advised to request Tender Documents through e-mail at munir@warchild.ca or by visiting our office from 8:00 -4:00PM except Friday and Saturday

The last date requesting for tender document is 12:00 PM (Kabul time) on Thursday March 22, 2018.