Obama to make Afghan drawdown announcement Wednesday; Pakistani brigadier arrested for ties to militants; Six Haqqani militants killed in Monday drone strike in Kurram; Car-bomb targeting anti-Taliban militia leader kills three; Government imposes Section 144 in response to Balochistan attacks; Focus of India-Pakistan talks will be terrorism; Chief Justice nominates heads for investigatory commissions on the Abbottabad raid and the Saleem Shahzad murder; Trial against rangers to close in seven days; Pakistan comes in 12th in Foreign Policy failed states index.
U.S.-Pakistani Relations
-
On Wednesday, President Obama will announce his plans for a U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan. The President is reportedly likely to order the withdrawal of 3,000-5,000 troops this July, followed by the eventual withdrawal of the 30,000 troops, added in December 2009, by 2012. President Obama is expected to outline plans for gradual withdrawal of troops leading to an Afghan security force takeover in 2014.[i]
-
In response to reports that the U.S. is talking to the Taliban about a political solution in Afghanistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information Mian Iftikhar Hussein warned that if the talks excluded Pakistan and Afghanistan, they “would bear no fruitful results.” He also discussed recent “border violations” by U.S. and Afghan forces and condemned the activities of NATO and Afghan forces that he described as being “against national integrity and sovereignty.”[ii]
-
According to the Express Tribune, U.S. military personnel “tried to crash the gate of the Frontier Corps Complex in Hayatabad, Peshawar, a few days ago.” The U.S. soldiers had lived in the complex until recently, when Pakistan requested a reduction of U.S. military personnel in the country. The soldiers were reportedly returning to the complex to retrieve their belongings. Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune claims the U.S. soldiers “resorted to hooliganism . . . by kicking the gate and hurling abuses upon the FC personnel,” when they were refused entry. Pakistan has lodged a complaint to the U.S. ambassador, and has instructed their embassy in Washington “to raise the issue at [the] appropriate level.”[iii]
Pakistani Military Affairs
-
According to reports, the Pakistani military has detained a senior army officer, Brigadier Ali Khan, on charges that he has ties to the banned extremist group Hizb-ul-Tahrir. An army spokesman emphasized that the Pakistani military had a “zero-tolerance policy” when it came to ties to extremists and militants. Hizb-ul-Tahrir is an international Islamist extremist group calling for an Islamic caliphate across the Muslim world. The Hizb-ul-Tahrir has not directly used violence in Pakistan, but “many critics say it has ties to militant organizations and encourages young men to radicalism.”[iv]
-
The Pakistani Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has claimed that quotes attributed to Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in a recent New York Times article were “fabricated.” The article, which highlights Gen. Kayani’s struggle to maintain influence in the Pakistani military after falling on the wrong side of recent controversies with the U.S., quotes Gen. Kayani comparing Pakistan to “a mortgaged house” and the U.S. to a lender forced to intervene when Pakistan could not “pay back the loan.”[v]
FATA
-
AFP reports that six of the twelve killed in Monday’s drone attack in Kurram were “Afghan fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.” The attack marked the first drone strike in Kurram Agency this year, and the fourth ever. Monday’s attack was linked to reports that members of the Haqqani network have moved to Kurram in anticipation of a military operation targeting their North Waziristan headquarters.
-
An attack in Ladah sub-district of South Waziristan agency killed a member of the security forces on Tuesday. A remote-controlled device was used to detonate the explosive. Security forces killed four militants in a retaliatory attack.[vi]
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
-
On Monday, a car-bomb targeting the leader of an anti-Taliban militia killed three people outside of Peshawar. One of those killed was a 9-year-old child. AFP reports the bombing took place outside the compound of “local anti-Taliban vigilante commander Altaf Khan in the restive [Matani] suburb of Peshawar.” In a separate incident, a leader of the anti-Taliban Adezai Qaumi Lashkar and two police officers were killed in “a powerful car bomb attack at a security post in Matani Monday night.” According to The News, “[the] leader of the local Qaumi Lashkar Ijaz Bacha had established a police post . . . in the wake of frequent militant attacks on Adezai and Matani villages.” Ten people were also wounded in the attack.[vii]
-
On Monday, police detained a 9-year-old girl who had allegedly been forced to wear explosives “and told to blow herself up a police checkpoint.” The girl claimed she was “abducted several days ago in . . . Peshawar and . . . taken to Lower Dir near the Afghan border.”[viii]
Balochistan
-
The regional government of Balochistan has imposed Section 144, banning “pillion raiding, protest rallies [and the] unauthorised gathering of people,” in response to recent a recent uptick in violence. Balochistan has long been dealing with a low-level insurgent threat from Balochi nationalists. On Monday, a car bomb killed one civilian and wounded six others in Saryab just outside Quetta.[ix]
India-Pakistan Relations
-
On Monday, Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said terrorism would be the focus of talks between Indian and Pakistani foreign secretaries in Islamabad on Thursday. The secretaries are also expected to discuss Kashmir and the “recent brush between an Indian and a Pakistani warship in the Gulf of Aden.”[x]
Judicial Probes
-
Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has named commission heads for the investigations of the May 2 Abbottabad raid that killed Osama Bin Laden and the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad. Justice Javeb Iqbal will lead the investigation of the Abbottabad raid, and Justice Saqib Nisar will lead the investigation of the Shahzad murder. Regarding the Shahzad investigation, The News reports Saleem Shahzad’s autopsy was performed forty-eight hours after his death.[xi]
Karachi
-
On Monday, special public prosecutor Muhammad Khan Baror announced that the anti-terrorism court (ATC) trial of the rangers accused of murdering Sarfaraz Shah will be concluded in seven days. This comes after Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry “ordered the case proceedings to be completed without any delay.”[xii]
Failed States Index
-
Foreign Policy magazine’s Failed States Index has ranked Pakistan number twelve. It has moved two spaces down from number ten in last years index.[xiii]