• A criminal court on the island nation of the Maldives issued an arrest warrant for the first democratically-elected President, Mohammed Nasheed, who awaited arrest in his home on Thursday, following last week’s alleged coup attempt. The ousted President was still walking free on Friday despite the arrest warrant and called upon new elections and vowed mass street protests if the new government did not relent. On Sunday, the new President Mohamed Waheed told a visiting American diplomat that he would be willing to cooperate with a probe into the circumstances of the transition of power; while he expanded his cabinet to strengthen the new coalition government, swearing in six members from four political parties as ministers; and the Commonwealth announced it would send a team to investigate the circumstances surrounding the President leaving power. On Monday, a senior UN official called on all sides to urgently reach agreement on forming an inclusive government of national unity and for a credible and independent probe into recent events, though said that it was up to the local population it is up to them to resolve violent divisions. On Tuesday, the new President pledged “peace and order” in the country and assured the visiting European delegation that he would form a “fully inclusive” cabinet.
• The Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency in Pakistan is facing charges in the courts over the case of 11 men who were allegedly abducted and tortured; while a US drone missile strike is reported to have killed Taliban leader Badar Mansoor and three others in the North Waziristan region on Thursday. On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from PM Gilani, upholding that he must appear before the court next week to answer contempt-of-court charges; a second US drone attack in two days in the North Waziristan region killed at least four people, including a senior militant commander with alleged links to al-Qaeda; militants fired two RPGs at a military airport in Miranshah near the Afghani border; unidentified attackers threw two hand grenades and opened fire on a police vehicle after a political rally in the northwest, wounding some 12 people; a homemade bomb planted in a donkey cart exploded in the Khuzdar area, killing one person and wounding another; and Pakistani forces fired artillery shells at three militant hideouts in the Mamozai area of the northwest, killing some 11 militants and wounding another 19. On Saturday, a homemade bomb exploded in a house in the outskirts of Peshawar, killing some seven people and wounding another three; while PM Gilani said that corruption charges against the President were “politically motivated” and that the President had immunity as head of state. On Monday, PM Gilani was formally charged with contempt at the Supreme Court, accused of failing to reopen old corruption cases against the President; and a homemade bomb exploded next to a police vehicle in the southwest, killing two and wounding 14. On Tuesday, militants opened fire on a group of labourers in the southwestern town of Turbat, killing seven. On Wednesday, the Atlantic ran an article that claimed that the US Special Forces have infiltrated Pakistan, the CIA entering after the 2005 earthquake under the guise of construction workers and aid workers, others slipping in through the Afghani border.
• A young man was killed late on Friday in Kashmir when a soldier reportedly accidently fired his rifle as security forces combed the area for militants. Angry demonstrators blocked the main highway to protest the killing the following day, with police using batons and tear gas to disperse them.
• The Atlantic ran an article about the razing of historic neighbourhoods in Beijing, China and the subsequent displacement of often....

[continued at http://apeaceofconflict.com/2012/02/16/this-week-in-asian-conflict-...]