Former UN envoy criticizes Taliban arrests

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The UN’s former envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, has strongly criticized Pakistan’s recent arrest of high-ranking Taliban leaders. Eide told the BBC the arrests had completely stopped a channel of secret communications with the UN. Pakistani officials insist the arrests were not an attempt to spoil talks. Jason Margolis reports. Download MP3

• BBC interview with Eide
• Taliban conflict
• Richard Holbrooke on the fight against the Taliban

Richard Holbrooke on the fight against the Taliban

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For years Pakistan’s northwest has been plagued by Islamist violence fueled by anger over the war in Afghanistan and Islamabad’s alliance with Washington. A Pakistani military offensive that began in October against the Pakistani Taliban spurred attacks that killed more than 600 people. Marco Werman talks with Washington’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, about US policy in the region. Download MP3
(Photo: Martha Stewart/Harvard’s Institute of Politics)

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