Pakistan Security Brief - December 3, 2009

Pakistan Security Brief – December 3, 2009 

Prime Minister Gilani denies bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan as Clinton asserts Pakistan must “do more”; Mumbai-accused Lakhvi denies guilt in Pakistan court proceedings; Pakistani military operations kill several militants; bomb blast near Peshawar wounds three.  

• On Thursday Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he did not believe Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan while reiterating his call for “more clarity” from the U.S. as to their new strategy for Afghanistan. On Wednesday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted during testimony on the Hill that Pakistan must “do more” in the fight against all extremist groups in the country, while recognizing that the Pakistanis had shown willingness to take on militant groups directly threatening their state.[1]

• Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, challenged his indictment on those charges in Paksitani court on Wednesday. Lakhvi claimed that the evidence being brought against him was either insufficient or inadmissible in court and claimed that the testimony of Ajmal Kasab, one of the captured attackers, was inadmissible because the prosecution had provided no good reason why the witness could not produced in court.[2]

• The Pakistani military killed several militants in operations across the northwest frontier on Wednesday. Air operations in Bajaur agency killed four militants while clashes in the Malakand and Swat areas led to the death of five militants and apprehension of several others.[3]

• A bomb blast at a checkpoint near a graveyard on the outskirts of Peshawar wounded three on Thursday. It is the third bomb attack in as many days.[4]