Pakistan Security Brief

Secretary Clinton says U.S. could slow aid to Pakistan if cooperation does not improve; Bin Laden courier cell-phone records show links to Pakistani militant group; India-Pakistan talks continue; Gen. Kayani will not quit; Gen. Kayani says army will not leave South Waziristan until the “job is done”; President Zardari “approves legal framework” for military operations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; Two killed in NATO oil tanker attack.

  U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the U.S. could slow military aid to Pakistan if further steps are not taken to combat extremism in the country. Although Secretary Clinton agreed with many of the senators that relations with Pakistan can be “very outraging” at times, she defended the diplomatic relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan. This comes a day after President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan troop withdrawal announcement, in which he promised to hold Pakistan to its “commitments.” Obama administration officials argue that while the “threat has been effectively neutralized in Afghanistan,” terrorist groups operating out of Pakistan still pose a threat to the West. The Pakistani foreign ministry has yet to offer a clear response to Obama’s announcement, stating only that Pakistan continues to be engaged “on issues of peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan and counter-terrorism.”[i]

• On Thursday, the Washington Post reported that pro-American sentiments are extremely rare in Pakistan. The Washington Post tells the story of Ali Khan Afridi, who puts his family at risk by expressing his belief that “America is the only power that can defeat . . . [the] terrorists.” Shaheed Soherwordi, a professor at Peshawar University, said that in Pakistan, “[e]very thing and every person associated with the U.S. is a target.”[ii]

Bin Laden Aftermath

• According to the New York Times, a cell-phone, formerly belonging to Osama Bin Laden’s courier, shows a connection between Bin Laden and the Pakistani militant group Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM.) Additionally, by tracing the calls, U.S. analysts have reportedly found “that [HuM] commanders had called Pakistani intelligence officials.” The analyst was careful to note, however, that this did not show a direct link between Pakistani intelligence and Osama Bin Laden. The New York Times reports that the HuM does have “deep roots in the area around Abbottabad,” but, according to CNN, a member of the HuM claims he was unaware of any interaction between his group and Bin Laden in recent years. It was recently reported that HuM leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil lives freely just outside Islamabad.[iii]

• The Associated Press reports Bin Laden contemplated changing the name of al Qaeda to invoke a stronger sense of Muslims being at war with America. In a letter found in his Abbottabad compound, Osama Bin Laden reportedly wrote that al Qaeda had lost momentum, partially because their attacks had killed too many Muslims, and they needed to revive the sentiment of jihad by changing the name. He suggested “Taifat al-Tawhed Wal-Jihad, meaning Monotheism and Jihad Group.”[iv]

• Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has rejected the formation of the commission to investigate the Abbottabad raid because he claims his party, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), was not consulted. He did, however, declare that the raid was a “severe violation of country`s sovereignty.”[v]

• On Friday, both Pakistani and Yemeni officials confirmed that Bin Laden’s youngest wife, Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah, will be permitted to leave Pakistan to return to Yemen. Reportedly, Abdullfattah has fully recovered from a gunshot wound to her leg during the raid that killed Bin Laden.[vi]

India-Pakistan Relations

• Friday marks the second day of talks in Islamabad between the Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries. Issues being covered reportedly include “programs for journalists, artists, and exchange of documentaries and films.” Geo also reports that the foreign secretaries will discuss Kashmir. Meanwhile, during his Washington visit, prominent Indian opposition politicians urged U.S. officials to pressure Pakistan to crack down on terrorism and stop using “terror as an instrument of state policy.”[vii]

Kayani Survives

• Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has reportedly shown “no outward sign of being under pressure,” according to colleagues. Speculation has been rife lately regarding criticism of Kayani coming from within the Pakistani military. A recent New York Times article reported that Kayani was struggling to maintain his footing as Chief of Army Staff. At a recent army meeting, Kayani told his officers to ask him “whatever they wanted,” and then he defended his recent actions and statements. When asked why he continues to work with the U.S., Gen. Kayani told a colonel that while soldiers “tend to see everything in black and white . . . [i]n the real world there are a lot of grey areas and you have to deal with it.”[viii]

FATA

• During his visit to Wana, South Waziristan on Thursday, Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said the army would continue “eliminating terrorists” in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) until “the job is done” and tribes can handle regional security alone. He also announced “mega” development projects, worth roughly $230 million, to aid South Waziristan in its recovery from the battle against militancy.[ix]

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

• Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has approved a “legal framework” for potential operations against militants in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The bill dictates how captured militants are to be treated, allowing for the “incapacitating of miscreants by interning them only during duration of action in aid of civil power operation[s].”[x]

Balochistan

• On Thursday, “unknown gunmen” shot the driver and cleaner of a NATO oil tanker before blowing up the vehicle in Dhadar, Balochistan. In a separate incident, armed men “blew up a natural gas pipeline in the Loti area of Dera Bugti on Friday.”[xi]

Karachi

• The rangers accused of killing Sarfaraz Shah on June 8 have been assigned a lawyer by the court after being given extra time to seek legal counsel.[xii]

• Two men have been released after being detained under suspicion of having aided in the attack on the PNS Mehran naval base.[xiii]