U.S. confirms reports of preliminary talks with Taliban; Kayani attempts to gain back army’s pride; Abbottabad materials shed light on al Qaeda leadership; Al-Qaeda financing examined; Rare drone strike in Kurram kills seven militants; Karachi killings continue; Member of Akakhel peace committee killed in Peshawar; Roadside bomb targeting troops kills four civilians in Balochistan; Pakistan and India to discuss Kashmir next week in Islamabad despite Rana case revelations; U.N. reports says Pakistan has largest refugee community; ISI to investigate murder of Saleem Shahzad; Salmaan Taseer’s daughter speaks out against extremism.
U.S.-Pakistan Relations
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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates confirmed that U.S. officials had engaged in “preliminary talks with the Taliban . . . but said he didn't expect significant progress for months.” The announcement comes after Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s Saturday statement that the U.S. was in talks with the Taliban. Gates said that, in his opinion, the talks were unlikely to make significant progress for several months. It remains difficult to determine “who really represents the Taliban.” AFP reports the U.S. still sees contact with Taliban leader Mullah Omar as essential to peace talks. According to The News, Secretary Gates also noted Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal as a reason to keep open “lines of communication” between the U.S. and Pakistan.[i]
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Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani defended Pakistan’s detention of over thirty people, including five alleged CIA informants, in relation to Osama Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad leading up the May 2 raid in which he was killed. Regarding Pakistan’s arrest of the CIA informants, Haqqani stated that Pakistan would “deal with them as we would deal with a friendly intelligence service, and we will resolve this to satisfaction of our friends, as well as to our own laws." Haqqani also rejected the implication that Pakistan was punishing those who led the U.S. to Bin Laden, asserting that many of the U.S.’s crucial leads came from Pakistani officials.[ii]
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CNN reports that Pakistani officials knew of “increased U.S. intelligence activity” in the lead-up to the May 2 raid that killed Bin Laden. Officials also told CNN that it was unlikely that Pakistan knew of Bin Laden’s location because “they would have done something about it” if they did.[iii]
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The Associated Press reports that Pakistani troops found two more bomb-making facilities empty after the U.S. gave Pakistan the intelligence tip last week. Using unmanned drones and satellites, the U.S. watched militants abandon the facilities with weapons and materials, exactly as they had in the previous two incidents. A Pakistani military official told CNN that reports that Pakistan leaked plans of a raid on bomb-making facilities in Waziristan to militants are “totally false” and similar to other unsubstantiated stories “that appea[r] weekly in the media.” In a statement released Friday, the Pakistani army announced it had destroyed two bomb-making factories, “but intelligence received about two other factories was incorrect.” The army also continues to deny that any “collusion with militants” relating to the failed raids occurred.[iv]
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Also, in a statement on Saturday, Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik declared that the CIA is not conducting operations in Pakistan and would not be permitted to do so. Dawn reports the Pakistani government has officially “requested the Chief Justice of Pakistan to nominate a judge of the Supreme Court to head a commission to investigate the May 2 covert US operation in Abbottabad in which Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed.”[v]
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According to Pakistani officials, NATO aircraft attacked a military post near the Afghan border in Mohmand Agency on Friday. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry stated “NATO aircraft intruded around [1.5 miles] inside Pakistani territory and attacked a military post. Pakistan has issued a complaint to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.[vi]
Gen. Kayani Suffers Continued Criticism
- The Associated Press reports that Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani is “working to repair his army’s wounded pride in the bitter aftermath of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.” Gen. Kayani has received a lot of criticism from within the military lately for not taking a strong enough stand against the U.S. after the Bin Laden raid. The surge of anti-U.S. sentiment within the military has given rise to doubts about Kayani’s control and ability to maintain his position.[vii]
Insight into Al Qaeda Leadership
- According to the Telegraph, primary sources found at Bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound describe Bin Laden’s ideas as “weird.” The sources also reveal that Bin Laden and new al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri disagreed when Bin Laden attempted to “micromanage” operations, confirming recent reports that Bin Laden was more involved on the operational level than originally assumed.[viii]
Al-Qaeda Kidnaps for Ransom
- According to intelligence acquired in the May 2 raid in Abbottabad that killed Bin Laden, al Qaeda in Pakistani has begun to kidnap and ask for ransom to “offset dwindling cash reserves.” Donors have become less dependable as U.S. efforts to identify them have intensified. The CIA’s National Counter-terrorism Centre, the Treasury Department, the FBI and the military are trying to identify wealthy al Qaeda donors in the Persian Gulf “who dealt with Bin Laden dating to his work with Afghan fighters in the campaign against Soviet occupiers in ’80s.”[ix]
FATA
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On Monday, twelve militants were killed in drone strikes in the Khardand area of Kurram agency. The first attack hit a vehicle, killing five militants. Two more were killed when they rushed towards the vehicle were hit with another missile. A second strike on a militant hideout killed five people. Dawn reports Khardand is a stronghold of TTP commander Fazal Saeed. It is suspected that many of those killed could be affiliated with the Haqqani Network, with whom Saeed is closely allied. Monday’s attacks were the first drone strikes in Kurram Agency this year. The Associated Press reports Monday’s strikes “could indicate an expansion” of drone operations in Kurram.[x]
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On Sunday, at least fifty militants attacked a checkpoint in the Walidad area of Mohmand Agency “triggering intense fighting that killed four soldiers and up to 25 insurgents.” AFP reports that Pakistani jets were involved in the operation “pound[ing]” the militant stronghold in Walidad. Reports on the number of militants killed have differed. The military says twenty-five were killed, but a local government official told the Associated Press only eight were killed. Pakistan claims the surviving militants fled across the border into Afghanistan. Later in day, militants attacked “the homes of two tribal elders” in Mohmand, killing six. The two elders, Malik Ghazi Khan and Malik Ghulab Khan, “were also members of a local peace committee.”[xi]
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On Saturday, six militants were killed when they attacked a checkpost in the Ladha area of South Waziristan. Also on Saturday, “a girl and a woman of the same family” were killed and nine more were injured “when a mortar shell hit a house and a hotel” in North Waziristan. The shells were fired by Frontier Corps personnel who were retaliating against a militant rocket attack on their security post near Miram Shah.[xii]
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Security forces are establishing checkpoints along the border in the Mamund sub-district of Bajaur agency after recent cross-border attacks by militants.[xiii]
Karachi
- On Sunday, the remains of five men were found in bags around Karachi. Two of the deceased have been “identified as workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).” The News reports five others have been found, including members of the Peoples Aman Committee. This adds to the forty or more target killings in Karachi that occurred last week.[xiv]
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The six paramilitary soldiers detained in connection with the murder of unarmed 22-year-old Sarfaraz Shah were ordered “into indefinite judicial remand” on Friday. On Saturday, Public Prosecutor Irshad Iqbal Cheema submitted “statements of 46 witnesses” and “fourteen pieces of evidence” On Sunday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told a “high level meeting” of local officials that the Rangers’ privileges in the region would not be revoked.[xv]
- The News reports that the militants killed during the attack on the Pakistani naval base PNS Mehran “could be foreigners.” On May 22, terrorists breached the security of PNS Mehran and destroyed two P3C Orion aircraft. The DNA tests reportedly show that there could be blood relations between the four terrorists killed and that they are likely of Central Asian origin.[xvi]
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
- According to The News, a member of an anti-Taliban lashkar in Akakhel was killed on Saturday. The militia member was shot and killed by “unknown armed men” in the Pishtakhara area of Peshawar. The Akakhel peace committee recently joined the struggle against militants in the region.[xvii]
Balochistan
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Two children and one other civilian were killed and twenty-eight were wounded by “a remote-control motorcycle bomb targeting security forces in Punjgur district.” Of the four killed, two were children. No one has claimed responsibility, but AFP reports the attack could be an act of Balochi rebels demanding political autonomy. On Monday, a car-bomb near Government Degree College in Quetta killed one civilian and injured seven.[xviii]
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AFP reports an oil tanker exploded after “four people riding on two motorbikes shot dead the driver and then set fire to the vehicle in Mian Ghundai,” a suburb of Quetta. Recently, militants have attacked a number of NATO oil tankers in Balochistan in an attempt to hurt NATO efforts in Afghanistan.[xix]
India-Pakistan Relations
- Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will visit Islamabad next week to discuss Kashmir and terrorism. Information emerged in the recent Chicago trial of Tahawwur Rana that pointed to a Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) role in the Mumbai attacks, but an Indian official told the Associated Press on Friday that the talks will go ahead as planned. Tension between the two countries also increased after a minor collision between Indian and Pakistani ships in the Gulf of Aden last Thursday.[xx]
Refugees in Pakistan
- UNHCR’s annual report says Pakistan has the largest refugee community in the world, with 1.9 million refugees. UNHCR also points out that, contrary to what is commonly assumed, developing countries, like Pakistan, host 80% of the world’s refugees.[xxi]
Saleem Shahzad Investigation
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The News reports that Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) will launch an “internal inquiry” regarding the abduction and murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad. Officials have rejected claims that the ISI erased Shahzad’s cell phone records in the weeks leading up to his death. After a warning from Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president Asma Jahangir said she would continue to express the allegations “without any fear.” Interior Minister Rehman Malik has ordered the investigation of the alleged torture of Guardian journalist Waqar Kiani in a separate incident. Kayani claims he was tortured by police officers "on the pretext of searching his car.”[xxii]
Taseer’s Daughter Speaks Out
- The Associated Press reports that Shehrbano Taseer has condemned extremism in writing and speaking engagements around the world since her father’s murder on January 4. Salmaan Taseer was murdered by one of his guards after he spoke out against blasphemy laws.[xxiii]