Pakistan Security Brief - April 12, 2011

General Kayani demanded reduction of U.S. personnel in Pakistan; Pakistan officials have demanded drone strikes to be halted; Pasha meets with Panetta and Mullen; Munter calls for renewal in relations; Farooque Ahmed sentenced to twenty-three years for terror planning; Three killed in Kurram; TTP vows to protect schools in tribal region; Two power transmission towers blown up in Mohmand; JI provincial general secretary targeted by bomb; Five wounded in Balochistan.

U.S.-Pakistani Relations

• The New York Times reports that in reaction to the Raymond Davis incident, Pakistan Army Chief General Kayani personally demanded the reduction of CIA officers, contractors, and Special Operations forces operating in the country. The media outlet declares that following the incident, 335 U.S. personnel were requested to be removed, though a U.S. official called it a “very inflated number.” The New York Times also states that, “It was not clear how many C.I.A. personnel that would leave behind; the total number in Pakistan has not been disclosed. But the cuts demanded by the Pakistanis amounted to 25 to 40 percent of United States Special Operations forces in the country.” U.S. officials had previously stated that the Pakistanis had “allowed a maximum of 120 Special Operations troops in the country, most of them involved in training the paramilitary Frontier Corps in northwest Pakistan.” However, a Pakistani official said that the Americans had reached that quota. Kayani had also told officials of the Obama administration that the drone campaign in the FATA had “gotten out of control.”[i]
• The Wall Street Journal reports that the Pakistani government has privately demanded that the U.S. cease drone strikes in its territory. The media outlet makes the claim that, “The CIA's covert drone program has operated under an arrangement in which Pakistani officials deny involvement in the strikes and criticize them publicly, even as Pakistan's intelligence agency secretly relays targeting information to the CIA and allowed the agency to operate from its territory.” However, Pakistani officials have allegedly sent messages to the Obama administration in recent weeks which condemn the strikes. An unidentified U.S. official also said that the Pakistani government has asked for more “visibility” on the strikes. Meanwhile, The New York Times cites a Pakistani official as saying that, “The Pakistani army firmly believes that Washington’s real aim in Pakistan is to strip the nation of its prized nuclear arsenal, which is now on a path to becoming the world’s fifth largest.”[ii]
• On Monday, Pakistan's ISI chief Lieutenant General Pasha participated in a four-hour meeting with CIA head Leon Panetta and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. The News reports that General Pasha cut short his visit and remained in the U.S. capital for only twenty-four hours. The article states that, “Earlier reports had indicated he may be staying in Washington for three days and leave on April 13.” Two U.S. officials stated that in the meeting Pasha did not request “reductions of C.I.A. officers, contractors or American military personnel in Pakistan.” One of the officials also declared that, “There were no ultimatums, no demands to withdraw tens or hundreds of Americans from Pakistan.” A CIA spokesperson, George Little, said that the relationship between the two spy agencies “remains on solid footing.” Meanwhile, in a public address at the Institute of Strategic Studies by U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter, the diplomat stated that, “It remains vital to us both to see progress in Pakistan and the region, in the interest of peace, stability and prosperity of Pakistan and its neighbors. In all these areas, I stress one word:  renewal.”[iii]

Farooque Ahmed Sentenced for Planning Attacks

• Farooque Ahmed, the Pakistani-American man accused of planning attacks on subway stations in Washington DC, was sentenced to twenty-three years in prison on Monday. Ahmed pleaded guilty to charges of “attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization and collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack.” He was arrested in 2010 in a sting operation by the FBI, who said that Ahmed had taken photographs of local subway stations and provided diagrams to “fake Al-Qaeda affiliates.”[iv]

FATA

• Three people were killed and thirteen others wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in Kurram Agency on Monday. A vehicle carrying passengers from Kanraki to Parachinar came into contact with a landmine planted by unidentified militants. Among the dead was a religious cleric, Maulana Rahmat Ali.[v]
• The Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Taliban group in North Waziristan has vowed to prohibit militants from targeting educational institutions in the tribal areas. A spokesperson for Hafiz Gul Bahadur, Ahmadullah Ahmadi, said that the Taliban had “always supported male and female education in the tribal region and provided full security to their schools.” Ahmadi also condemned the recent attack on a girls’ school in Dande Darpa Khel. He vowed that the perpetrator would be punished according to Shariah law.[vi]
• Two power transmission towers were blown up in Safi sub-district of Mohmand Agency on Monday. Meanwhile, military helicopters targeted suspected militant hideouts in Bazai and Safi sub-districts, as well as in Mattai and Suran Darra.[vii]

JI Provincial General Secretary Targeted

• Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) provincial general secretary Shabir Ahmed Khan was targeted by a bomb in Afghan Colony of Peshawar on Monday. A bomb was planted outside of his residence, but was defused by local police before it could detonate. An investigation has commenced into the incident.[viii]

Blasts in Balochistan

• Four security officers and a civilian were wounded in two separate explosions in Noshki and Dera Bugti on Monday. In the first incident, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated as a Frontier Corps vehicle was passing through the area, killing three officers and a civilian. In the second incident, a security officer was injured by a landmine explosion in Dera Bugti. In addition, a bomb that was placed under a bridge on the Quetta-Taftan National Highway detonated, damaging the bridge.[ix]