Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. negotiators “take break” on NATO supply route talks; No deal between India and Pakistan on Siachen Glacier dispute; British Foreign Minister calls UK “unswerving supporter” of Pakistan; Judicial commission says former Ambassador Haqqani involved in secret memo to U.S.; Pakistani Air Force jet crashes in Balochistan; TTP warns residents to leave South Waziristan’s Wana area; Bomb blasts in Tirah allegedly target Zakhakhel militia members; Suicide attacks in Peshawar target two anti-Taliban group leaders.

NATO Supply Route

• Commenting on the Pentagon’s withdrawal of negotiators from Pakistan on Monday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. decided to “take a break” after achieving some progress at a technical level on reopening the NATO supply route. She further noted that the negotiators, reportedly all low-level technical experts, could be sent back at an appropriate time, and that high-level negotiations would continue. Her comments came as U.S. and Pakistani officials attempted to play down the withdrawal. Pentagon spokesperson Bill Speaks said the U.S. was ready to send back negotiators once the Pakistani government was ready to conclude an agreement. Meanwhile, Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Sherry Rehman said the withdrawal of the U.S. negotiating team was not an “institutional pullout” and that the ongoing stalemate between the two countries was not tied to fee-per-truck differences but rather to Pakistan’s continued demand for a U.S. apology for last November’s Salala border strike. Minister of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Moazzam Ahmad Khan also suggested that a realistic approach was necessary to improve bilateral relations.[1]

International Relations

• Pakistani Defence Secretary Nargis Sethi and Indian Defense Minister Shashikant Sharma ended their two-day talks on Tuesday with no agreement on the Siachen Glacier, an area in the Himalayas whose ownership remains a point of contention between the two countries. The two officials signed a joint statement agreeing to foreign minister-level talks in Islamabad in July.[2]    

• During his visit to Pakistan, British Foreign Minister William Hague called the UK an “unswerving supporter” of Pakistan and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to bilateral ties. Although Hague said the trip was not meant to broker an agreement between the U.S. and Pakistan to reopen the NATO supply route, he acknowledged his concern of a “rift between the United States and Pakistan” and hoped for a resolution to ongoing negotiations, a matter he raised in meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Reza Gilani.[3] 

Memogate and Domestic Politics

• A judicial commission on Tuesday submitted its findings to the Pakistani Supreme Court concluding that Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the U.S., secretly sent a memo to U.S. Admiral Michael Mullen requesting American help to prevent a supposed Pakistani military coup. The findings further described his actions as “not loyal” to the Pakistani state and reported that Haqqani had not yet accounted for $2 million in a secret fund in Pakistan’s Washington embassy. The court ordered Haqqani, who currently resides in the U.S. and who could face treason charges as a result of the findings, to return to Pakistan for a hearing. In response, Haqqani said the commission’s findings were “political, not legal” and denied involvement in writing the memo.[4]

• On Monday, Pakistani Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reprimanded Frontier Corps chief Obaidullah Khattak for a June 3 news conference in which he attributed ongoing unrest in Balochistan to “foreign agencies.” Chaudhry called the statement a “defiance of the court” and ordered a video of the statement sent to the Army chief of staff for further action. Chaudhry, speaking about the situation in Balochistan, said the court could summon Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for questioning on the matter.[5]     

Pakistan Air Force Jet Crash

• On Tuesday, a Pakistani fighter jet crashed near the Balochistan town of Uthal, west of Karachi. The jet, a French-made Mirage V, took off from the Masroor Base in Karachi on a routine training mission. The pilot successfully ejected, and no civilian deaths were reported. The crash was the second to occur in the region this month.[6]

Militancy

• The militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Monday distributed leaflets in South Waziristan’s Wana bazaar, warning local residents to leave the Mehsud area. The leaflets said nongovernmental organizations, contractors, and pro-government groups were on TTP’s hit list, and warned against the continued resettlement of Mehsud tribespeople, who were displaced following the Pakistani military’s offensive in October 2009, in the area.[7] 

• Three civilians were injured on Monday during a firefight between Pakistani security forces and militants in South Waziristan’s Rustam bazaar. Security forces later demolished the office of local militants affiliated with the Maulvi Nazir group.[8]

• On Monday, a bus traveling through the Mastak area of Tirah valley, Khyber agency was hit by a roadside bomb, killing the driver. After members of the Zakhakhel anti-Taliban militia arrived at the scene, another bomb exploded, killing two members of the militia and injuring six others. Zakhakhel members believed that militant group Lashkar-e-Islam was responsible for the attack.[9]

• On Tuesday, a suicide bomber targeted the vehicle of Muhammed Fahim, the head of Bazdi Khel’s anti-Taliban militia, on the outskirts of Peshawar. The attack killed his two security guards and injured two civilians. Fahim was not at his vehicle at the time and was unharmed. In Peshawar’s Budh Bair area, another suicide bomber targeting Fahim Khan, leader of another anti-Taliban militia, exploded near Khan’s car. Two policemen were killed and five people injured, though Khan himself was not in the car.[10]

• On Monday, a bomb hidden in a toy ball exploded in the Nasir Bagh area, on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing a mother and injuring three children.[11]