Pakistan Security Brief
Pakistan Security Brief – February 25, 2010
Nearly half of Afghan Taliban’s leadership council captured in Pakistan; CIA and ISI increases cooperation; US soldiers not the target in the February 3 attack; Indian and Pakistani diplomats met in New Delhi; Afghanistan and Pakistan agree to prisoner exchange; Taliban leader Qazi Zafar killed in north Waziristan; bomb destroys NATO oil tanker.
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Pakistani officials announced on Wednesday that security forces have captured seven members, out of 15, of the Afghan Taliban’s leadership council. Two of the seven are Mullah Abdul Qayoum Zakir, who presides over the Taliban’s military affairs, and Maulavi Abdul Kabir, who commands insurgent operations in eastern Afghanistan. The council is believed to be based in Quetta.[1]
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A report from the New York Times details the increasing partnership between the CIA and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. The two services are working together on operations and sharing more intelligence, aspects of the relationship that were uncommon until recently. The CIA is also conducting more operations away from Pakistan’s tribal areas.[2]
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A Pakistani Army spokesman, Major General Tariq Khan, said on Thursday that US soldiers were not the target of the February 3 attack in Lower Dir. Militants blew up a car bomb as a convoy passed, believing that a local paramilitary commander was traveling inside one of the vehicles. Instead, the targeted vehicle contained the American soldiers.[3]
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Pakistan and India took the first steps in rebuilding their relationship on Thursday, as high-level diplomats from the two countries met in New Delhi. Terrorism, Kashmir, water issues, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks were all discussed during the meeting. Informal dialogue will continue between the neighbors, but neither country set an official date for another round of talks.[4]
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Afghan and Pakistani officials are finalizing a prisoner exchange that includes senior Afghan Taliban leaders recently arrested inside Pakistan. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, along with other Afghan militants, will be extradited from Pakistan, while Afghanistan will release an undisclosed number of militants to Pakistan.[5]
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It is now reported that Taliban leader Qazi Zafar was killed in Wednesday’s drone strike in the village of Dande Darpa Khel, located in North Waziristan. Zafar had a reward of five million dollars and was believed to be involved with the bombing of the US consulate in Karachi on March 2, 2002.[6]
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Militants placed a time bomb on a NATO oil tanker Thursday, and the bomb detonated while the truck was on a highway outside of Peshawar. One person was injured in the blast.[7]
