U.S. to continue using Shamshi air base; ISI wants CIA to sign contract prohibiting future unilateral raids; Bin Laden family to remain in Pakistan for investigation; Canada designates TTP as terrorist group; Afghanistan will not retaliate for Pakistani rocket attacks; Troops clash with militants in Miran Shah; Ten militants killed in Kurram offensive; Drone kills at least four militants in North Waziristan; Bara continues to suffer two years after FC operation; Pakistan IED attacks up 145% in last four years; Hundreds of militants attack Upper Dir; Paramilitary soldiers killed in Balochistan convoy attack; Twenty-four killed in overnight in Karachi; ISI threatens Pakistani journalists.
U.S.-Pakistan Relations
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On Monday, U.S. officials claimed that Shamsi air base will continue to support U.S. counter-terrorism efforts in the region, contrary to recent reports. Last week, Pakistani Defence Secretary Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar declared that Pakistan had shut the U.S. out of the base. U.S. officials told Reuters that if the U.S. were to be prohibited from using Shamsi air base, there would be “other ways to continue the program and to sustain the intense pressure it [has] put on al Qaeda.” It has been reported that the U.S. may have begun to launch drone strikes in the region from its bases in Afghanistan.[i]
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A senior Pakistani security official claims the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) wants the CIA to formally agree in writing to never execute a unilateral raid on Pakistani soil again. The source said the two parties needed to “formalize things,” definitively expressing what is and is not acceptable on either side of the relationship.[ii]
Bin Laden Family
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On Tuesday, the commission investigating the May 2 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden met for the first time and requested continued access to Bin Laden’s wives and children captured in the raid, delaying their departure from Pakistan. The commission asked the Ministry of the Interior and the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) “to ensure that the family of Osama bin Laden is not repatriated from Pakistan without the consent of the commission.”[iii]
Canada Puts TTP on Terrorist List
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On Tuesday, the Canadian government designated the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as a terrorist organization. The designation prohibits Canadian residents and citizens from “knowingly dealing with assets owned or controlled by the TTP” and “knowingly participat[ing] in, contribut[ing] to or facilitat[ing] [TTP] activities.”[iv]
Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
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On Tuesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced Afghanistan would “not respond with military force to…cross-border shelling from Pakistan.” The Afghan Interior Ministry claims up to 800 rockets have been launched into Afghanistan in the last month, killing forty-two people and wounding fifty-five. Karzai’s announcement comes amidst calls for revenge from the Afghan people and demands to cut ties with Pakistan from within the Afghan parliament.[v]
FATA
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On Wednesday, Pakistani troops with attack helicopter support clashed with militants in Miram Shah. The clash allegedly began after Pakistani troops tried to blow up a private hospital used by militants. Militants then began “firing on Pakistan army checkposts with automatic weapons and rocket launchers.” Witnesses claim Pakistani helicopters attacked a school where militants were hiding. Other witnesses claim to have heard militants speaking Uzbek and Urdu. AFP reports the clashes show no signs of being “the start of a major operation.” The Express Tribune reports two militants have been killed. Troops have shut down the market and instituted a curfew.[vi]
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The Express Tribune reported on Wednesday that security forces killed ten militants and retook the Sangora and Mantaloo areas of Kurram agency. The offensive is reportedly “aimed at reopening the road to Parachinar,” a Shia majority town that has been isolated from the rest of Pakistan and targeted by Sunni militants for several years. Up to 4,000 families, averaging seven people per family, have fled the area in the first days of the offensive.[vii]
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On Tuesday, a drone strike killed at least four militants in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan. Two missiles struck a house located two hundred yards away from the town bazaar. Up to ten suspected militants were in the house, and as many as six are being reported dead.[viii]
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An article in the Express Tribune describes the toll militancy has taken on the town of Bara in Khyber Agency. The local economy has suffered greatly since September 2009 when “paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) troops moved into the region to flush out . . . [the] Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI).” A strict curfew has been enforced in Bara since the operation. A local resident claims “several innocent . . . tribesmen, especially the elderly, have been killed for violating the curfew unwittingly.”[ix]
Improvised Explosive Devices in Pakistan
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Reuters reports that improvised explosive device (IED) attacks within Pakistan have increased by “145 percent in the last four years.” A Pakistani intelligence official explained that IED expertise had been transferred first from Iraq to Afghanistan and had now come to Pakistan. A senior Peshawar police official noted how easy it still is to purchase explosive materials in Pakistan without the purchase being checked or tracked.[x]
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
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Early Wednesday morning, over a hundred militants from Afghanistan attacked the Nusrat, Soro and Shahteer areas of Upper Dir. The militants burned down a school and are reportedly “engaged in a battle with ground troops and gunship helicopters.” Three militants have been killed, as have two members of the local peacekeeping committee. This comes in a string of recent attacks launched by militants based on the Afghan side of the border.[xi]
Balochistan
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On Tuesday, five paramilitary soldiers were killed in an attack on their “convoy between the towns of Turbat and Mand.” No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but there has been a spike in Balochi separatist violence recently.[xii]
Karachi
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Up to twenty-four people have been killed in targeted killings in Karachi in the last day. Both the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP) claim their supporters are among the dead. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reports 1,300 people have been killed in Karachi this year, including at least 490 targeted killings.[xiii]
Violence against Journalists
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An article in Time tells the story of Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi who has endured constant harassment from Pakistan’s security apparatus. The article claims Sethi has been “charged with treason three times,” “held incommunicado,” and tortured. Sethi had reportedly been pressured by the ISI since he questioned how “the military had failed to discover bin Laden's presence” before the May 2 Abbottabad raid. Sethi reflects on the death of journalist Saleem Shahzad and recalls how he was abducted, hooded, and beaten in 1999 after accusing the government of corruption.[xiv]