Pakistan Security Brief

Ambassador Hoagland slams Bilour’s bounty announcement; Former U.S. envoy to Islamabad calls for change in U.S.-Pakistan relationship; Heads of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and U.K. discuss Afghanistan reconciliation; U.K. and Pakistan discuss bilateral relations; Putin defers meeting in Pakistan; Bomb blast in Lower Orakzai kills 2, injures 7; One killed, 30 wounded in bomb blast during Sufi celebration; Nineteen killed in Karachi on Tuesday ; Islamist and right wing political parties declare Pakistan should block  NATO supply routes; Government helps IDPs return to South Waziristan.

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• The acting U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Richard E. Hoagland stated in Islamabad on Thursday that railways minister Ghulam Bilour’s bounty announcement was “irresponsible and hate-mongering.” Hoagland said that the film maker could not be stopped due to free speech, but that there are individuals like the film maker in every society.[i]

• Speaking at a think tank, former U.S. envoy to Islamabad Cameron Munter has called for a change in approach to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, emphasizing “people-to-people contacts,” according to a report by Dawn on Thursday. Munter noted that there has been an imbalance in American foreign policy in the region and that “U.S. policy makers and diplomats have been trying to balance relations with Pakistan between immediate U.S. goals in Afghanistan and the demands of long-term ties with Islamabad.” Munter urged that America should try to focus its foreign policy vis-à-vis Pakistan on long-term issues and cooperation with Pakistan on education, industry, and public policy.[ii]

Afghan Reconciliation

• The leaders of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Britain all met to discuss Afghan reconciliation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. In his address to the Assembly, Afghan President Hamid Karzai explained that the recent cross-border shelling incidents between Pakistan and Afghanistan “might undermine peace efforts.” Karzai also urged nations to de-list Taliban leaders as terrorists as this was making it difficult to reconcile with the insurgents. President Zardari agreed with the importance of peace in Afghanistan, and “underscored the need for an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace process.”[iii]

UK-Pakistan relations

• President Asif Ali Zardari and British Prime Minister David Cameron met on Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to discuss issues including “bilateral relations, Pak-UK  strategic dialogue, trade access to EU markets for Pakistani products, [and] the fight against militancy.” Zardari highlighted the contribution the Department for International Development (DFID) and its role in promoting education around Pakistan. Zardari also discussed an increase in the UK’s education assistance that might help Pakistan battle extremism.[iv]

Russo-Pakistani relations

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has deferred attendance at an upcoming quadrilateral summit with Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Russia and Pakistan according to a report by Geo on Thursday. The Foreign Office of Pakistan issued a statement saying that it will announce a new date for the summit later. Furthermore the statement said that Putin wrote Zardari a letter in which he “expressed his desire to boost economic ties with Pakistan.”[v]

Militancy

• A bomb attack took place in Feroz Khel, Lower Orakzai agency on Thursday, killing two and injuring seven. Among the wounded was tribal leader Malik Mohammad Sharif, the target of the attack according to a regional official.[vi]

• One man was killed and 30 others were injured in a bomb blast during a celebration near the shrine of Sufi saint Kehroz Lal Eisan in Layyah, Southern Punjab. The celebration had been postponed since 2007 due to threats from the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), though it is unclear if TTP is responsible for the Tuesday blast.[vii]

• Nineteen people were killed in different acts of violence Tuesday night in Karachi, all from gunfire.  Police conducted a search operation and arrested 40 suspects in Gulbahar and Surjani Town. Several attacks were targeted killings while others were indiscriminate firing.[viii]

Domestic Affairs

• Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and other Islamist and right-wing political parties attended the “Tahaffuz-e–Hurmat-e-Rasool [THR] Conference” in a hotel in Islamabad on Wednesday. Participants argued that either the U.S. ambassador should be expelled from Pakistan, or that Pakistan should close down the NATO supply routes again in response to the anti-Islam film. Attendees also declared that leaders of prominent Muslim countries around the world must do their part in adopting an anti-blasphemy law.[ix]

• 721 families from the Mehsud tribe have returned to their homes in different parts of South Waziristan in the “9^th three-day phase of a government-sponsored rehabilitation process for internally displaced persons [IDPs].” Officials claimed that a total of 3,141 people have moved back home over the three-day period. The returned tribesmen were urged not to let the militants gain a foothold in their areas. The returning IDPs are to be given food and other staple rations for the next six months.[x]