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Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Pakistan back in the game
Listen to article When the US pulled the last batch of its troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, it was the end of what many believe was a costly and unwinnable war. For 20 years, the US and its allies spent trillions of dollars only to see the return of the Afghan Taliban, who were thrown out after the 9/11 attacks. The US involvement in Afghanistan brought Pakistan again in the spotlight as Washington needed Islamabad's help for its campaign in the neighbouring country. Despite the trust deficit, the successive US administrations had to work with Pakistan given its strategic location. But once the US was out of Afghanistan, relations with Pakistan started dwindling. It was almost the repeat of first Afghan Jihad when after the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan, the US left Pakistan in lurch. Washington imposed crippling economic sanctions on Pakistan, reinforcing fears that the US can never be a trustworthy partner. The situation again looked bleak when the US withdrew troops from Afghanistan. President Joe Biden, once a strong advocate of close ties with Pakistan, never spoke to any of the Pakistani PMs during his four-year term. There were hardly any high-level exchanges between the two sides. And when Donald Trump won the elections in November last year, there were many in Pakistan who were concerned that ties with the US would only get worse given Trump's America first policy. Second, unlike the past, Pakistan had little to offer to the US or the US had little interest in the region. There was near consensus among the experts that Trump 2.0 would further bolster its strategic partnership with India. Pakistan was nowhere to be seen a foreign policy priority of the Trump administration except in the realm of security and counterterrorism. But six months into Trump's presidency, all those predictions fell flat. Contrary to the forecast, Trump's presidency proved positive for Pakistan at least for now. It all began when Pakistan arrested and extradited to the US one of the masterminds of the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul in August 2021. Thirteen American servicemen were among those killed in the deadly attack outside the Kabul Airport. Trump had, during his election campaign, promised to bring to justice those behind the bombing. Many here may not be aware of the fact that any fatality of an American serviceman has huge domestic implications. In the past, elections were won and lost on the body bags of American soldiers. Pakistan helped Trump fulfil his election promise. It was because of this reason that Trump had praised Pakistan in his maiden address to the US Congress. That initial Pakistan help led to revival of contacts at the level of intelligence agencies as well as at the political level. What brought the two countries even closer was the Indo-Pak conflict in May, following the Pahalgam attack. While Pakistan acknowledged the Trump Administration's positive role in brokering the ceasefire, India kept challenging the US claims. Pakistan, in order to make further inroads, nominated President Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his courageous leadership and peace efforts in the subcontinent. The unprecedented luncheon hosted by President Trump for Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir in the middle of the Iran-Israel war highlighted that Pakistan still remains a key player to be reckoned with. This upset India since it was trying to portray the Pakistan Army Chief as evil. But Trump seems to care a dam. This past weekend, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar at the State Department in a first structured meeting between the two sides in several years. The US Secretary of State praised Pakistan's efforts to counter terror and maintain regional stability, much to the dismay of New Delhi. While Dar was in Washington, the Army Chief was in Beijing holding meetings with senior Chinese civil and military authorities. This goes to show the delicate balance Pakistan is trying to maintain with big powers. Given Pakistan's vulnerabilities and so many other challenges, Islamabad seems to be playing its cards well.
Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Pakistan seeks 'stable relationship' with US
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pakistan's Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar meet at the State Department in Washington, DC, signaling a diplomatic reset. PHOTO: REUTERS Listen to article Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Pakistan sought "expanded and stable" bilateral relationship with Washington, highlighting "strong convergences" between the two sides on several issues. Dar held talks with Rubio in Washington in a first face-to-face meeting between the two top diplomats at the State Department following their several telephonic conversations. This was the first formal meeting at the level of foreign ministers between Pakistan and the United States after several years as the previous administration under President Joe Biden completely ignored Islamabad. The meeting between Dar and Rubio came against the backdrop of renewed push by the two sides to reset their ties often marred by mistrust. However, contrary to all expectations, under President Trump's second term, the relationship between the two countries took off to a positive start. It was Pakistan's assistance in arresting and extraditing one of the masterminds of Kabul Airport attack in August 2021 that led to the reset in ties with the US. President Trump publicly praised Pakistan's efforts in his first address to the US Congress. The India-Pakistan conflict brought the two countries closer, as Trump repeatedly took credit for brokering the ceasefire between the two South Asian rivals. Then in the middle of the Iran-Israel war, President Trump hosted Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir at the White House in an unprecedented move that raised eyebrows in New Delhi. Following the army chief's luncheon meeting at the White House, there have been increased contacts between the two countries. The meeting in Washington on Friday was seen as Pakistan's push to revive the structured mechanism between the two countries. A statement issued by the Foreign Office said upon arrival at the State Department, Dar was received by senior US officials. Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, accompanied him during the visit. Senior officials from both sides also joined the delegation-level talks. The discussions focused on bilateral relations and prospects for cooperation across multiple sectors, including trade, investment, agriculture, technology, and minerals. Both sides reviewed progress in the ongoing Pakistan-US trade dialogue, expressing optimism over positive developments. Dar highlighted Pakistan as an attractive destination for US businesses and investors. On regional security, the leaders discussed counterterrorism cooperation and broader peace efforts. Dar lauded President Donald Trump and the US leadership for their efforts to promote global peace, particularly appreciating the President's role amid recent Pakistan-India tensions. Secretary Rubio acknowledged Pakistan's sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and appreciated its positive role in promoting regional and global peace. Later in his message on X, the US secretary of state said: "Met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar today to discuss expanding bilateral trade and enhancing collaboration in the critical minerals sector. I also thanked him for Pakistan's partnership in countering terrorism and preserving regional stability." Dar reaffirmed Pakistan's desire for expanded and stable bilateral relations, underscoring that there is a strong convergence of views and shared interests between the two countries on regional peace and stability. He also appreciated the role of the Pakistani-American community as a "bridge" between the two nations. Both leaders reiterated their commitment to further strengthen bilateral ties and enhance institutional cooperation in diverse sectors, expressing determination to work together for long-term stability and prosperity.
Al Jazeera
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Trump's Pakistan embrace: ‘Tactical romance' or a new ‘inner circle'?
Islamabad, Pakistan – In his first address to a joint session of Congress on March 4 this year, after becoming United States president for a second time, Donald Trump made a striking revelation. He referred to the deadly Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul airport in August 2021 – which occurred as thousands of Afghans tried to flee following the Taliban takeover – and said the alleged perpetrator had been apprehended. The country he credited with the arrest: Pakistan. 'I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster,' Trump declared. A little more than three months later, Trump hosted Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir for lunch at the White House on Wednesday — the first time a US president has hosted a military chief from Pakistan who isn't also the country's head of state. Munir is on a five-day trip to the US. For a country that Trump had, just seven years earlier, accused of giving the US 'nothing but lies and deceit' and safe havens to terrorists – and one that his immediate predecessor Joe Biden called 'one of the most dangerous nations' – this marks a dramatic shift. It's a reset that experts say has been in the making for weeks, under Trump's second administration, and that was solidified by the brief but intense military confrontation between India and Pakistan in May, during which the US tried to mediate a ceasefire. Some analysts warn that the evolving relationship should be viewed as a product of Trump's personal position, rather than institutional policy. 'We are dealing with an administration which changes its tune by the hour. There is no process here,' Marvin Weinbaum, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), told Al Jazeera. 'One minute the US has no interest, and the next minute priorities change rapidly. You're dealing with an administration that is mercurial and personalised, and you don't associate that with traditional US foreign policy,' he added. However, others point out that even the optics of Trump hosting Munir are significant. 'Trump's lunch invite to Pakistan's army chief isn't just protocol-breaking, it's protocol-redefining,' said Raza Ahmad Rumi, a distinguished lecturer at the City University of New York (CUNY). 'It signals, quite visibly, that Pakistan is not just on Washington's radar, it's in the inner circle, at least for now.' The meeting between Trump and Munir came amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, where Israel has been conducting strikes inside Iranian cities since June 13. Iran has retaliated with missile attacks of its own on Israel. The Israeli offensive – targeting Iranian generals, missile bases, nuclear facilities and scientists – has killed more than 200 people. Iran's missile and drone attacks on Israel over the past six days have killed about 20 people. The Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government has been urging the US to join the offensive against Iran, which shares a 900-kilometre-long (559-mile) border with Pakistan. Speaking to the media in the Oval Office after the lunch with Munir on Wednesday, Trump noted that the Pakistanis 'know Iran very well, better than most,' but added that they are 'not happy'. According to Trump, however, the main reason for meeting Munir was to thank him for his role in defusing the May conflict between Pakistan and India, a confrontation that brought the region, home to more than 1.6 billion people, to the brink of nuclear war. 'The reason I had him here was that I wanted to thank him for not going into the war [with India]. And I want to thank PM [Narendra] Modi as well, who just left a few days ago. We're working on a trade deal with India and Pakistan,' said Trump, who is known to enjoy a warm relationship with Indian leader Modi. 'These two very smart people decided not to keep going with a war that could have been a nuclear war. Pakistan and India are two big nuclear powers. I was honoured to meet him today,' he added, referring to Munir. The crisis had begun after an April attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 Indian civilians. India blamed Pakistan, which denied the charge and called for a 'credible, independent, transparent' investigation. On May 7, India launched strikes inside Pakistani and Pakistan-administered Kashmir territories. Pakistan responded via its air force, claiming to have downed at least six Indian jets. India confirmed losses but did not specify numbers. The conflict escalated as both sides exchanged drones for three days and eventually launched missiles at military targets on May 10. It ended only after intense backchannel diplomacy, particularly involving the US, led to a ceasefire. Trump reiterated his role on Wednesday. 'I stopped the war between Pakistan and India. This man [Munir] was extremely influential in stopping it from the Pakistan side, Modi from the India side, and others,' he said. While Pakistan has acknowledged the US role, India insists the ceasefire resulted solely from bilateral dialogue. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri stated on Tuesday that Indian PM Modi had spoken to Trump by phone to underscore New Delhi's view that there was no US-led mediation between India and Pakistan. Arif Ansar, chief strategist at Washington-based advisory firm PoliTact, said Pakistan's military performance during the confrontation prompted Trump's engagement. 'It demonstrated that despite its political and economic challenges, the country can outmanoeuvre a much bigger adversary,' Ansar told Al Jazeera. 'This has led President Trump to engage with Pakistan's traditional power centres based on core strategic interests.' That engagement has a long history. Pakistan's relationship with the US dates back to its 1947 independence, after which it aligned with Washington during the Cold War. After the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pakistan supported US objectives there, and the two collaborated closely to support the mujahideen that eventually forced Moscow to pull out its troops. Subsequently, Pakistan also backed the post-9/11 US 'war on terror'. However, over the years, many within the US strategic community also started questioning Pakistan's credibility as a reliable security partner, especially after 9/11 architect Osama bin Laden was found in Abbottabad, close to Rawalpindi, home to Pakistan's military headquarters in 2011. Since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021, the strategic partnership has waned further. Pakistan has increasingly turned towards China for economic, military and technological support. But Weinbaum said that since Trump returned to office, Pakistan has been getting respect that was lacking under the previous Biden administration. Trump wanted 'counterterrorism assistance,' Weinbaum said – and seemingly got it. On June 10, General Michael E Kurilla, chief of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), detailed how that cooperation led to the capture of the suspected Abbey Gate bomber. 'They [Pakistan] are in an active counterterrorism fight right now, and they have been a phenomenal partner in the counterterrorism world,' Kurilla said, in a testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington, DC. According to Kurilla, who also oversees the US military's Middle East operations including Iran, this progress, including the arrest of the Abbey Gate bombing suspect, was made possible due to direct coordination with Pakistan's army chief. 'Field Marshal Asim Munir called me to tell me they had captured one of the Daesh-K [ISKP or ISIS-K] individuals,' he said. As the icing on the cake for the bilateral relationship, Weinbaum suggested, Pakistan has thrown in 'more goodies, such as a trade deal with no tariffs, offering rare earth minerals, and crypto'. Weinbaum previously served as an analyst for Pakistan and Afghanistan in the US State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Rare earth minerals, critical for industries like defence, robotics and electronics, are among Pakistan's assets now being offered to foreign investors, including the US and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan has also recently formed a crypto council and held talks with US officials to attract investment and partnerships. Rumi called the Munir-Trump meeting 'historic'. 'The US wants Pakistan's help in de-risking regional volatility without offering much in return. For Munir, it's an opportunity to reassert relevance and perhaps negotiate manoeuvring space at home,' he said. Historically, Pakistan's ties with the US have been largely transactional, particularly in the security sphere. US aid and investment often followed Pakistan's alignment with US strategic goals, helping build its infrastructure and military. But the relationship has also been marked by distrust, with US administrations accusing Pakistan of double-dealing, while Pakistan claims the US has failed to respect the sacrifices it has made while siding with them. Whether this latest engagement proves to be another fleeting phase or a more durable alignment remains to be seen, say experts. Rumi, the New York-based academic, said the US has traditionally engaged Pakistan when it needed to, and retreated when it could. 'Unless this relationship is institutionalised, beyond the security lens with which it is viewed, it's another tactical romance. And like past dalliances, it could fade once strategic goals are met or regimes change,' he said. Ansar added that Pakistan again stands on the brink of a major strategic choice amid the global power shift. 'Much depends on whether it leans toward China or the US. That decision is also tied to the evolving Israel-Palestine conflict and the role of Iran,' he said. But Weinbaum, the former State Department official, described the reset in ties as temporary, as 'nothing is permanent in this administration'. 'If Pakistan does play some role in the Iran crisis, they have could have more substantial meaning to these ties. But it needs to be prepared that there is nothing settled with this administration. It can change on a dime, at any hour,' he said. The military remains Pakistan's most powerful institution, exerting enormous influence over politics and society. It has ruled directly for more than three decades, and the current government, elected in a controversial vote last year, is widely seen as secondary to the military leadership under Munir. This is consistent with historical precedent. Pakistan's first military ruler, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, had close ties with the US in the 1960s. Subsequent military rulers, including General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq in the 1980s and General Pervez Musharraf in the 2000s, also maintained strong US relations. All three were hosted by US presidents at the White House – but only after they became heads of state. Munir, now only the second Pakistani to hold the rank of field marshal after Khan, reinforces the perception that Pakistan's real power remains with the military, despite the presence of a civilian government, say experts. Still, CUNY's Rumi said it was important not to 'confuse symbolism with transformation'. 'This [Trump-Munir] meeting validates the enduring military-to-military track in US-Pakistan [ties], but it also bypasses the civilian setup, which should worry anyone rooting for democratic consolidation. If this is the 'reset,' it's one where khaki once again trumps ballot,' he cautioned, referring to the colour of the military's uniform. Ansar from PoliTact concurred, saying that the meeting reflects adversely on the civil-military balance in Pakistan, as it showed who remains the 'real power bearer' in Pakistan. 'In the long run, these dealings in the past have led to tremendous political, economic and security-related repercussions for the nation [Pakistan],' he said. 'But additionally, it has promoted a norm that critical decisions impacting the nation must be made in private without discussion, consensus or public ownership. This results in increased societal and political disillusionment regarding the future of the country.'
Daily Mail
07-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I was about to meet my wife at the airport when I was blindfolded and put through 77 days of torture
Dave Lavery knew something was wrong as he made his way towards the terminal exit at Kabul Airport. His wife was anxiously waiting for their reunion after he had texted her from the plane the moment its wheels had touched down on the runway.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A War Hero, Wounded Pride, and a Killing to Shame Us All
Four years after unsung war hero Abdul Rahman Waziri flew out of Kabul Airport to start a new life in America, his remains returned there in a coffin. The 31-year-old was shot to death by a Texas gunman on April 27 in a parking lot dispute. Waziri was unarmed, and his killer has so far escaped arrest by claiming self-defense. As Waziri was buried in an elegantly simple, stone-lined grave in the Barmal District of Paktika Province, his grief-stricken wife was 8,000 miles away in Houston with their two daughters, aged 4 years, and 9 months. The older girl was repeatedly asking a question that her family did not want to answer. 'Where is my dad?' When Waziri fled Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban had targeted him for torture and execution as a member of the Afghan National Mine Reduction Group (NMRG). This elite, highly trained unit cleared improvised explosive devices (IEDs) ahead of American Green Berets, whose missions from 2019 on were conducted entirely at night. The NMRG had demonstrated year after year, without Hurt Locker-style bomb suits, that the bravest acts are sometimes performed on hands and knees. Waziri had been on Team 7 and had disabled two dozen bombs before he became an instructor training NMRG replacements for those who died. His older brother, Abdullah Khan, was on Team 8 and disabled 40 bombs. Khan's 12-man unit lost three members. 'The hazards they undertook were immense,' former Green Beret Thomas Kasza told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last year. 'From 2015 onwards, 22 Green Berets died, compared to 47 NMRG members. We owe them and their families a debt.' During the chaos of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, Waziri took the time to establish safe houses for his comrades before he escaped to America. He had communicated while still in Taliban territory via encrypted messaging apps with Shireen Connor, a U.S.-based volunteer with an Afghan evacuation team. 'I really have tried to underscore the panic and level of danger that was present at the time,' she told the Daily Beast. 'He was a high-value Taliban target, and despite that, was still putting his life at risk to set up safe houses for other people to try and wait for potential evacuation.' She added, 'That really gave me a sense of who he was; someone who's willing to step forward and keep doing the right thing for other people, people he doesn't even know. A good person down to his core.' After arriving in America, Waziri went to work for a Houston security company. He settled into an apartment complex at 3400 Ocee Street with his wife, Malalai, and their two daughters. He was returning from the gym in his white Toyota Camry shortly after 9 p.m. on April 27 when he pulled over outside the apartment complex's mailboxes. He put on his hazard lights, apparently to signal that he was just pausing there and would proceed to a parking spot closer to his apartment after he collected his mail. He never got the chance. Surveillance footage shows that a black Kia pulled up moments later. But a carport roof obscured from the camera much of what followed in the minutes before a Houston police dispatcher put out a call for that address. 'Person shot is a male, gray shorts, gray shirt,' the dispatcher said. 'Caller is a male, black, striped shirt, blue pants. Gun is in his pocket.' The caller was the shooter. 'It's about a male trying to take over this parking spot, and he shot him,' the dispatcher added. Officers arrived moments later, where they saw the man in gray shorts and a gray shirt lying in the parking lot with gunshot wounds to his head, chest, and leg. 'This guy isn't moving or breathing,' a cop reported over the radio. An ambulance responded and rushed the unconscious Waziri to Ben Taub General Hospital. There, Abdullah Khan Waziri was pronounced dead. Back at the scene of the shooting, the caller surrendered his gun to the police. 'We've got one male detained,' a cop reported on the radio. 'Suspect's on scene. He says it's self-defense.' A sergeant called over the air for the usual ritual to begin: 'Do me a favor and start putting up yellow tape.' A cop responded, 'Yeah, this is going to be a homicide most likely.' In further keeping with standard procedure, the deceased's family was notified. Word reached 36-year-old Khan in Florida, where he had settled with another brother, Gul Shabar Gul, 44. Gul had served as an interpreter with the Americans. Khan and Gul flew together to Houston and arrived at the apartment complex the following morning. They saw Waziri's blood where he had fallen. Khan asked several residents if they had seen what happened. They seemed fearful and did not respond. 'I asked them to give me a bucket,' Khan recalled. Khan poured out bucketful after bucketful of water and borrowed a brush. He crouched down just like he and Waziri often had while finding and disabling IEDs with NMRG. He set to scrubbing away what remained of his younger brother's blood. 'It was, like, in between the cracks,' he told the Daily Beast. Khan became aware of a man who was casually walking back and forth nearby, carrying clothes and other belongings from an apartment complex to a car in the lot. A resident told Khan that this was the man who killed Waziri. The police had briefly handcuffed him when they responded to the scene of the shooting, but had quickly released him. He claimed he had acted in self-defense. The 'stand your ground law' in Texas allows private citizens to use deadly force to defend their person or property, and there is no duty to retreat. He now remained at liberty. 'He was normal, walking in front of me,' Khan recalled. 'He was not feeling like, 'I did this with his brother, I should not show my face.'' A retired Green Beret who learned of this disrespectful indifference and knew Khan's physical capabilities as a highly trained special forces operator marveled at his restraint. Khan simply finished scrubbing and went with Gul to the rental office. There, the brothers viewed the surveillance video from the time of the shooting. They saw Waziri's Toyota and then the gunman's Kia arrive and largely disappear from view. At one point, Waziri and a Black male from the Kia can be seen above the upper edge of the obscuring carport roof, speaking to each other and pointing. At another point, the other man's feet appear below the lower edge of the roof, moving toward the Kia and then quickly back toward Waziri and the Camry. What appears to be the man from the Kia then strides into full view in a striped shirt and blue shorts, almost be-bopping, as if he had nary a care. The detectives in charge of the case did not speak to the brothers until the day after they arrived. They declined to identify the gunman. They would only say that the case was under continuing investigation and any charging decisions would be made by the Harris County district attorney. The D.A.'s office would only say the investigation was ongoing. But while the police officer who responded to the shooting could be heard on the radio following the usual routine, there is some question about the detectives who then took the case. A spokesman for the Houston police department says the detectives have been conducting a thorough investigation from the very start. But a lawyer for Waziri's family says that he discovered a spent 9-mm Hornady Luger shell casing in the vicinity of the Camry that almost certainly should have been taken into evidence. The lawyer, Omar Khawaja, also says the detectives failed to conduct a full canvass for witnesses with an interpreter who could allow them to communicate with the numerous Afghans in the complex who do not speak English. Five days after the shooting, Khawaja brought a woman to the police who said she had witnessed the entire incident from the balcony of her second-floor apartment. Khawaja says she told them that after Waziri continued on toward the mailboxes, the other man began kicking the Camry. Waziri had turned back before he could get his mail, and there had been a verbal dispute that turned physical. As the woman told it, Waziri had quickly subdued the man without inflicting serious injury to anything but, perhaps, his pride. The man had gone to his car and gotten a gun, loading it as he headed back toward Waziri. The witness said Waziri raised his hands to signal 'don't shoot.' The man allegedly shot him three times and then walked off with an improbable bounce in his step. That a soldier such as Waziri would meet such an end was particularly heart-wrenching for Green Berets who served with him in Afghanistan. Retired Master Sgt. Ben Hoffman remembered that when he met Waziri, he had first been struck by the size of the 6-foot-4-inch, 230-plus-pound Afghan. Hoffman then came to know Wazari as a 'gentle giant' who, at his core, embraced the U.S. Army Special Forces motto De Oppresso Liber (To Free the Oppressed). 'It's not about conquering the enemy; it's about freeing people that are being conquered by the enemy,' Hoffman said, 'And he was all about De Oppresso Liber. He saw his own crew, men and the kids and the women being persecuted by the Taliban, and he wanted to see them free, which is why he was willing to go and crawl on his hands and knees to clear IEDs for us.' Hoffman went on, 'Crawling on hands and knees at night under night vision goggles, digging up IEDs that could kill American special forces and other Afghans. I definitely saw him on multiple occasions doing stuff like that. 'And then you get into contact with the enemy, and see him rear up and return fire, and then, come back to us, and we're fighting side by side.' He added, 'It's a story of a teammate that I definitely would have gone side by side with at the gates of hell.' Hoffman says he and Waziri shared a mindset. 'Which is, we are strong, we are trained, we are absolutely capable of destroying the enemy,' he said. 'But at the same time, we are calm, and we're able to see a situation and draw back and escalate or deescalate as needed.' That was Waziri. 'He was all about bringing peace to a situation, if he could.' In the meantime, Khan and Gul brought their brother's widow and children to Florida. 'My brother's wife, she's like, 'My husband was not a person to hurt anybody. My husband was always trying to save other people's lives,'' Khan told the Daily Beast. 'She was talking the whole night and day about that, and now she's panicking and doesn't know where she is. But then we spray water on her face… and then, she gets better.' The 9-month-old is too young to even remember her father, but the 4-year-old keeps asking for him. 'She's always asking, 'Where is he? When is he coming?'' Khan told the Daily Beast at the start of last week. 'And I'm like, 'He's in work. He's coming. He's doing (his) job right now.'' The family decided to hold off telling the girl the truth, partly because that would include telling her that, so far, nothing has happened to the man who shot her father. She had become only more insistent on Wednesday. 'She said, 'Tell my father to take me back to Texas,'' he reported. 'And I'm like, 'OK.'' He told the Daily Beast that he felt the time was nearing when he would have to tell her the truth. 'I will just say, 'He's not coming to you anymore, he is not with us anymore,'' Khan said. 'Maybe that's all I can say to her.' But over breakfast on Friday morning, the girl's mother told Khan to hold off. 'She said, 'No, just keep it like this, don't tell her,'' Khan told the Daily Beast. 'I said, 'One day, she needs to know.' [The wife] said, 'Yeah, but we can say, like, 'He's here, he's there.'' And maybe she forgets later on. And then I'm like, 'OK, whatever you say.'' Khan called the police and was told he could leave a message, as he had been instructed to do on at least five other occasions. He has yet to receive a call back. 'I've been calling so many times, and nobody responded, and my message is, 'I want to know where is the investigation and what's going on?'' Khan reported. 'So they said, 'Okay, she will call you back. I'm gonna take a note and leave it on her desk with your phone number.'' A spokesman for the district attorney was saying, 'We are still awaiting investigation results before making a decision.' Khawaja told the Daily Beast that he had heard that the district attorney will turn the matter over to the grand jury and let it decide whether the gunman should be charged. He said that the witness from the second-floor balcony had become so frightened after the gunman remained at liberty despite her account that she had left the country. But the police have her statement, and when Khawaja spoke to her, she told him she would still be willing to testify. 'I don't know what the mechanics of that look like in terms of getting her back over here,' he said. Khawaja added that there was supposedly a second witness who had been smoking a cigarette nearby at the time of the shooting, but he had apparently not come forward. He had likely also seen the police handcuff and immediately release the gunman. In the weeks since the shooting, Hoffman and other Green Berets have issued calls for justice. Reports of the shooting appeared in various news outlets, including local TV stations, the Daily Mail, People, the New York Post, and then in greater detail by NBC News. Shireen Connor wrote an impassioned letter to Houston Mayor John Whitmire describing Waziri's selfless courage. 'Always helping other people in the face of significant personal peril,' she wrote. 'How do you define a human being like this?' Whatever the authorities do or do not do, the 4-year-old daughter of that magnificent human will never see her daddy again.
