Pakistan Security Brief - June 1, 2011

Speculation on NWA operation; Details emerge on journalist’s death; 200 militants stage attack across Afghan border; Pakistani officials appoint members to bin Laden commission; Los Angeles Times: Extensive cynicism in Pakistan that bin Laden was killed; Headley finishes providing testimony; Navy officials admit to security failures; Russian diplomats arrive in Quetta to retrieve bodies; Two FC officers killed; Two NATO supply vehicles attacked; Baloch scholar fatally wounded; Mehsud placed on ‘most wanted list.’

Operation in North Waziristan

• The Wall Street Journal reports that Pakistan's army may be taking preliminary steps towards conducting a military operation in North Waziristan. A senior Pakistani army general last week told tribal elders in Kurram Agency that security forces were planning an attack on Taliban militants in their region in order to better position the miliaary for operations in North Waziristan. However, Dawn reports that the offensive would be "intelligence-led" and limited in scope, as “there are only two to three pockets having terrorist presence which need to be cleared,” according to a military source. Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik, a top Pakistani army commander, said that the military has “no imminent plans to launch an offensive,” despite speculation that Pakistani officials were convinced to initiate an operation as a means of improving ties with the U.S. Malik stated that, “There is no change in North Waziristan in past months and weeks…We will undertake an operation when we want to, when it's in the national interest."[i]

Syed Saleem Shahzad Found Dead

• Further details have emerged on the death of Syed Saleem Shahzad, the Pakistan bureau chief for the Asia Times Online. The body of the journalist was found in a canal in the Mandi Bahauddir area of Gujarat district, southeast of Islamabad. Shahzad had gone missing on Sunday evening after leaving his house in Islamabad for Pakistan's Dunya News channel studios, days after authoring an articleabout suspected links between navy officials and al Qaeda. Ashok Kumar, one of the doctors who carried out the post-mortem report, said that “The cause of death is torture and there are several signs of torture on his body and face.” A separate doctor said that “Shahzad’s lungs and liver had been damaged, that the body was swollen and bore more than 15 signs of having been beaten.” Human Rights Watch reports that Shahzad had received threats from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency last October. On Monday, Ali Dayan Hasan, the country representative for Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, told reporters that he had been able to confirm that the journalist was in the custody of the ISI. Shahzad was buried in his hometown of Karachi on Wednesday. [ii]

200 Militants Stage Attack Across Afghan Border

• At least seven Pakistani military officers were killed in an attack by around 200 militants who assaulted a checkpoint near the Afghan border. The attack took place in the region of Upper Dir in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. According to local officials, the insurgents had donned military uniforms and crossed over the border from Afghanistan. Rahim Gul, a police official, stated that helicopter gunships had been dispatched to conduct a counter-offensive, with around forty local police fighting on the ground. [iii]

Bin Laden Raid and Response

• On Tuesday, Pakistani officials appointed members to a commission tasked with investigating the U.S. operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. The commission's directive includes “establishing ‘the full facts’ regarding bin Laden's presence in Pakistan, as well as details about the U.S. incursion,” including how the U.S. Navy SEALs were able to enter Pakistani airspace and leave undetected. The committee will be headed by Javed Iqbal, a Supreme Court justice and will include a retired lieutenant general and a former ambassador.[iv]
• The Los Angeles Times reports on the extensive cynicism in Pakistan that bin Laden was killed in the U.S. operation in Abbottabad. A poll conducted by the international market research firm YouGov found that “two-thirds of Pakistanis do not believe Bin Laden was killed last month by a team of U.S. Navy SEALs.” The media outlet states that the skepticism shared by many Pakistanis is due to their deep distrust of the U.S.[v]

Tahawwur Rana Trial

• David Headley has finished providing his testimony in the trial of Tahawwur Rana, the Chicago resident charged with providing material support in connection to the 2008 attacks in Mumbai. On Tuesday, Headley testified that the leadership of the ISI was not involved in the planning of the Mumbai attacks, supporting Pakistan’s defense that the ISI’s involvement was “limited to a handful of rogue agents.” Headley additionally stated that during interrogation in October 2009, he collaborated with FBI agents to attempt to lure Sajid Mir, a leader of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant organization, out of Pakistan so he could be apprehended. He also revealed that Ilyas Kashmiri, an al Qaeda-connected leader, had planned to assassinate the chief executive of Lockheed Martin, which produces the Predator drone, as retribution for the drone strikes in Pakistan.[vi]

Attack on Karachi Naval Base

• In the Senate’s Standing Committee on Defense on Tuesday, Pakistani navy officials admitted to “security failures,” which allowed the attackers onto the PNS Mehran naval base. The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Noman Bashir declined to participate in the meeting.[vii]

Balochistan

• Two Russian diplomats arrived in Quetta to retrieve the bodies of five people killed at a police checkpoint in the city on May 17. Four of the deceased are suspected to be Russians, though a proper identification of the bodies has not yet taken place. Meanwhile, a judicial tribunal has been established to investigate into the incident.[viii]
• On Tuesday, two Frontier Corps officers were killed and five others were injured in a blast on the outskirts of Quetta. A Frontier Corps vehicle was targeted by the roadside bomb, which was planted near a checkpoint in Darakhshaan. Meanwhile, two NATO supply vehicles were attacked by unidentified militants in the Wada area. The insurgents opened fire on the trucks before torching them.[ix]
• A Baloch scholar was killed on Sariab Road in Quetta on Wednesday. Saba Dashtyari, a professorof Islamic Studies at the Balochistan University, was fatally wounded when unidentified militants opened fire on him. [x]

Mehsud on “Most Wanted List”

• Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Baitullah Mehsud has been placed on top of Pakistan’s “list of most wanted terrorists,”in spite of official acknowledgement of his death in a 2009 U.S. drone strike. A senior police official stated that Mehsud “would not be considered as dead until his ‘death certificate’ was produced before the police.”[xi]