Pakistan’s Ambassador to U.S. arrives in Islamabad, meetings with political and military leadership scheduled; TTP holds talks with Pakistani government focused on South Waziristan; Clashes between militants and security forces continue in Orakzai agency; Militants and security forces clash in Bara sub-district; Security forces kill militant in North Waziristan; Militants destroy government girls school in Bajaur agency; Search operations continue in Mohmand agency; Police arrest militants in ANP leader assassination; Militants kill prayer leader in Nowshera mosque; Militant activity in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province; Unidentified gunmen kidnap Pakistani prince; Washington Post reports on Afghan refugees in Pakistan; Identity of Karachi terrorist ascertained; Police arrest three suspects in May attack on Saudi consulate; Karachi movie theater blast injures five; Karachi’s largest Christian church opens; Militants kill 15 Frontier Corps soldiers in Balochistan; Militants kill NATO truck driver in Bolan district, destroy three NATO container trucks in Mastung district; Landmine kills two in Dera Bugti; Security forces arrest five police officers involved in death of ISI officials; PML-N chief to offer Qureshi party position; Malik reveals death threats against parliamentarians; Pakistan to reduce military spending; UK investigates death of two British nationals in drone strike; IMF urges Pakistan to “improve access to credit.”
U.S.-Pakistan Relations
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Hussain Haqqani, the Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. at the heart of the “memo-gate” political scandal, returned to Pakistan on Sunday after being recalled by President Asif Ali Zardari and held a last-minute meeting with the U.S. Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, to discuss the memo. Upon arrival in Pakistan, President Zardari met with Haqqani in Islamabad as Pakistani political leaders, such as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, called for an investigation into the memo. The memo was reportedly delivered shortly after the U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The memo, which was allegedly written by Haqqani for former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen and delivered by Mansoor Ijaz, “an American businessman of Pakistani origin,” reportedly proposed that the U.S. support a reshuffling of the Pakistani government where civilian officials curb the dominance of the military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) leadership and form a new civilian national security team. The memo also delineated a six-point plan that the newly installed national security institution would follow to help the U.S. achieve its interests in the region. Haqqani is expected to meet with Pakistan’s top political and military leaders on Monday, including Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and ISI spy chief Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court heard a petition to form a commission to investigate the authenticity of the memo as Pakistanis called for Ijaz to be “declared persona non grata in Pakistan.” A day later, Ijaz claimed that General Pasha had “forensically tested…evidence connected to the controversial memo and deemed it legitimate” during a trip to London while backtracking on previous reports that Zardari had knowledge of the memo’s existence.[1]
FATA
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On Monday, a Pakistani Taliban commander told Reuters that the terrorist group has been “holding exploratory peace talks” with the Pakistani government focused on South Waziristan agency. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has demanded that the government facilitate the free movement of Taliban commanders throughout the country in addition to releasing Pakistani Taliban prisoners and paying for damages suffered in a military operation launched in 2009. The Pakistani Taliban has also called for Pakistan to “cut ties with the U.S. if it wants to make peace with the militants” and has released five kidnapped ISI officials “as a confidence building measure.”[2]
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Militants and security forces clashed for a fourth day in a row on Friday in Orakzai agency, killing 17 militants and one soldier. Clashes in Orakzai and Kurram agencies continued on Saturday, resulting in the deaths of another 18 militants, while 10 militants and six soldiers were injured. Security forces engaged militants in Orakzai again on Sunday after a military convoy was attacked, killing seven militants.[3]
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Security forces clashed with Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) militants in Bara sub-district, Khyber agency on Friday. Five militants and one soldier were killed in the fighting. Later, security forces launched an offensive, destroying the homes of two militants and attacking various militant strongholds. Several civilians were injured during subsequent clashes between security forces and militants and two civilians were killed by mortar rounds in the Tirah Valley. Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen killed two suspected militants in the Aka Khel area on Saturday, while the bullet-ridden bodies of six militants were discovered throughout different parts of Bara sub-district over the weekend.[4]
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One militant was killed during a clash with security forces in the Spin Wam area of North Waziristan on Friday.[5]
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Militants detonated explosives at a government girls primary school in Salarzai sub-district, Bajaur agency on Friday, destroying the structure. Local officials later arrested 11 people in connection to the incident. This bombing was the 107th of its kind in Bajaur agency since 2007 and came a day after the Pakistan Army Peshawar Corps Commander declared the agency “cleared of militants.”[6]
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Security forces closed roads and seized “contraband” during ongoing search operations in Mohmand agency on Saturday.[7]
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
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Police officials claimed to have arrested five militants in connection to the recent assassination of former Awami National Party (ANP) leader Hanif Gul Jadoon on Friday. Police conducted two separate search operations in Nowshera and Mardan, apprehending three Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants. The TTP Malakand Chapter previously claimed credit for the assassination.[8]
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Two armed militants entered a mosque in Shaidu village, Nowshera on Saturday and opened fire on a local prayer leader, killing the man. Sources reported that the leader had previously received death threats from “banned militant organizations” for his refusal to wage or advocate jihad.[9]
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On Saturday, militants reportedly blew up a bridge and home in Bannu district. Meanwhile, militants in Lakki Marwat detonated explosives at the home of a prominent businessman on Friday and at a government boys school on Saturday.[10]
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On Friday gunmen in Peshawar kidnapped Prince Saif Ali, a member of the Chitral royal family and the son of a former Pakistani diplomat.[11]
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On Friday, the Washington Post reported on the problem surrounding the millions of Afghan refugees living in Pakistan as hundreds of Pakistanis took to the streets in Nowshera earlier this month to protest their presence.[12]
Karachi Violence
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The identity of a suicide bomber that killed himself with a hand grenade during a Friday Rangers raid in the Gulistan-e-Jauhar neighborhood of Karachi has been revealed. The suicide bomber has been identified as Abdul Moeedul Islam, an al Qaeda commander and dual Pakistani and Yemeni citizen. Islam was reportedly responsible for “operating the al Qaeda Network in Pakistan” and allegedly coordinated “major terrorist attacks, including the one on the house of [senior police officer] Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam” in September.[13]
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On Sunday, Karachi police arrested three suspects in connection to the May 11 attack on the Saudi consulate after killing the main suspect during a raid near Gulistan-e-Jauhar.[14]
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At least five people were injured by an improvised explosive device (IED) that detonated in a movie theater in Karachi on Sunday night.[15]
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On Sunday, the AP reported on the opening of Pakistan’s largest Christian church which has served as a “sign of the resilience of a faith that has long suffered from state discrimination and attacks by extremists allied with al Qaeda and the Taliban.”[16]
Balochistan
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Militants killed 15 Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers during an ambush on their convoy in southwest Balochistan on Monday and fired rockets on a FC camp.[17]
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On Friday, gunmen opened fire on a NATO container truck in Bolan district, killing its driver. Meanwhile, on Sunday militants set fire to three NATO container trucks in Mastung district, destroying all three trucks.[18]
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On Saturday, two people were killed and another three were injured when their vehicle hit a landmine in Dera Bugti district.[19]
Punjab
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On Monday, security forces “detained five policemen…for their alleged involvement in the deaths of four intelligence operatives” near Jhelum on November 12.[20]
Pakistani Politics
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PML-N Chief Nawaz Sharif will reportedly offer former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi a “key slot” in PML-N during a meeting on Tuesday in order to garner party support in south Punjab and upper Sindh. Currently, both the PML-N and Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), led by former cricket star turned politician Imran Khan, are vying for Qureshi’s membership. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) denied allegations published in the Sunday Times that Khan had met with both ISI spy chief General Pasha and U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter as Sharif staged a political rally in Faisalabad where he termed Khan a “pawn of the establishment.”[21]
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On Monday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik revealed that over 150 parliamentarians from the Senate and National Assembly had been told to “resign or face death” via text message. Two suspects have been arrested by police in connection to the messages.[22]
Pakistani Military
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Pakistan Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas announced on Saturday that Pakistan would move to reduce its military spending by two to three percent for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. Abbas expressed hope that, in the future, the military budget would not increase to more than 16 percent of Pakistan’s annual budget as it had done in fiscal year 2011-2012.[23]
Drone Strikes
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The British Foreign Office is reportedly investigating the deaths of two British terror suspects with “extremist links” in recent U.S. drone strikes in South Waziristan, although no specific details of the strikes are known. The suspects have been identified as Ibrahim Adam and Mohammed Azmir Khan.[24]
IMF
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On Saturday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Pakistan to improve credit access for small and medium businesses and lower bank lending rates to deter “referential access to loans.”[25]