khalid-qayum

Four Peshawar Blasts Fail to Damage U.S. Consulate as Rally Bomb Kills 30

by on April 5, 2010

By Anwar Shakir and Khalid Qayum April 5 (Bloomberg) — At least four explosions struck near the U.S. consulate in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar today, an hour after a bomb killed as many as 30 people at a political rally in the region. Gunfire following the blasts in Peshawar, the northwest’s largest city, is preventing rescue services from reaching the wounded, Mujahid Khan, a spokesman for the Edhi ambulance service, said by telephone, adding one person is confirmed dead. Police are fighting militants after the bombings, AAJ television said, citing unidentified police officials. Earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a political rally of the Awami National Party in the district of Lower Dir, killing more than two dozen people, Mian Iftikhar Hussain , the information minister in the state government, told reporters. The party rules the North West Frontier Province. The U.S. embassy in Islamabad confirmed the attacks in Peshawar took place near the country’s consulate in the city, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a spokeswoman in Islamabad. The three explosions took place within 20 minutes, causing mobile phone networks to jam. One of the bombings sent a column of smoke several stories high over the city, according to images broadcast on local television. The attackers’ ability to reach the neighborhood of the U.S. consulate may have been eased after a police checkpoint nearby was recently moved, Mahmood Shah , a security specialist and retired army brigadier, said on Dawn News television. Last Attack Militants last attacked the U.S. diplomatic mission in Peshawar in 2008, ambushing the armored car of the consulate’s chief officer as she drove to work. While the diplomat, Lynne Tracey, escaped injury, gunmen killed a senior American aid worker in the city three months later. The 2008 attacks followed a Taliban buildup in Peshawar, which is Pakistan’s eighth-largest city. Pakistan deployed units of its paramilitary Frontier Constabulary in mid-2008 after armed Islamic militants appeared in its streets, warning residents to abide by Taliban strictures against playing music or selling entertainment videos. Pakistan’s army last year began offensives against Taliban militants in the Swat Valley and the tribal area of South Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan. Pakistan’s government said 80 percent of terrorist attacks were planned in the Waziristan area. The guerrillas have repeatedly struck back at Pakistan’s major cities, killing hundreds. Today’s attacks came hours before President Asif Ali Zardari is scheduled to address lawmakers in Parliament. To contact the reporters on this story: Anwar Shakir in Peshawar at Ashakir1@bloomberg.net Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net

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Twin Lahore Blasts Leave 53 People Dead, 95 Injured, Rescue Service Says

by on March 12, 2010

By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif March 12 (Bloomberg) — Two suicide bombings in Pakistan’s Lahore killed at least 20 people and wounded 45 others, the second attack in the city this week, police and rescue services said. Bombers targeted two cars in a convoy of army vehicles as they drove through an area where military officers are based, Chaudhry Shafeeq, a police spokesman, told reporters in Lahore. Most of those killed and injured are army members, he said. A suicide car bombing outside a Pakistan police building in the same city, Pakistan’s second largest, killed 12 people on March 8, the first attack this year on major northern cities struck repeatedly by Taliban militants in late 2009. Pakistan’s government blames the Tehrik-e-Taliban militant network based in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan for the terrorist attacks. The militants have increased bombings and gun attacks after the army launched its biggest offensive against Taliban guerrillas in October. The first explosion today occurred at 12:48 p.m. local time on a road near Lahore’s RA Bazar, according to Rescue 1122. The second blast followed seconds later, it said. Lahore is Pakistan’s cultural center and is located to the southeast of the capital, Islamabad. Since the army operation began last year, terrorists have hit major cities and towns killing at least 800 people. In a major setback for the Taliban, Pakistan says their leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, was killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone aircraft in January. The Taliban deny Mehsud is dead. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ;

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Pakistan Girls’ School Bombing Kills 10, Including Students, U.S. Soldiers

February 3, 2010

By Anwar Shakir and Khalid Qayum Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) — A bomb outside a northwest Pakistan girls’ school killed 10 people including students and three U.S. soldiers who were training government paramilitary forces, Pakistan’s army said. “Three U.S. trainers, soldiers, call them whatever you like, were killed in the attack,” said a Pakistani military spokesman , who couldn’t be named under army policy. “They were giving anti-terrorism training to the Frontier Corps.” The troops were accompanying a convoy, including journalists, to a school opening ceremony, an army statement said. The Americans were “U.S. military personnel,” the U.S. Embassy said in an e-mailed statement. They were in the northwestern valley of Dir “to attend the inauguration ceremony of a school for girls that had recently been renovated with U.S. humanitarian assistance,” it said. The U.S. Defense Department is giving training and equipment to the Frontier Corps, which has a leading role in the fight against Taliban insurgents. The Taliban, a collection of ethnic Pashtun militant movements in northwestern Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan, have attacked girls’ schools in both countries. While they charge that education for girls violates Islamic principles, the region’s strict isolation of women behind veils or in the home is a Pashtun cultural tradition. Classrooms were reduced to rubble at the girls’ school at Balambut in Pakistan’s Lower Dir district today, officials and witnesses said in interviews. Four of those killed were schoolgirls, said Mujahid Khan, a spokesman for the Edhi ambulance service . Ninety people were injured. ‘Digging for Bodies’ Initial reports said the foreigners involved were aid workers or reporters. “We were on the road, with security forces escorting us, and there was a big blast outside the Government Girls School . It smashed our vehicles,” said Harun Rashid, a local journalist who was injured and spoke by telephone. “There was a big column of smoke and dust, and two classrooms were demolished” by the bomb, said Ibrash Pasha, a development worker whose office is close to the bombing site. “People have been digging in the collapsed part of the building to remove the girls’ bodies,” he said. The Dir Valley is set between two Pakistani districts — Swat and Bajaur — where Pakistan’s army has fought intensive campaigns against the country’s Taliban movement. While the military claims it has restored peace in the region, violence periodically spills into Dir, including a bomb explosion that killed three children on Jan. 27. Bomb Makers Militants in Dir have threatened women’s rights activists in recent years, while the government says Taliban have destroyed hundreds of schools in the region. Insurgents have been active in Balambut, where police seized explosives and arrested suspected bomb makers in August, according to GEO television . “We have been facing these attacks on schools, especially for girls, for the past three years,” said Pasha, whose organization, Khwendo Kor, runs programs for women’s and children’s welfare in northwestern Pakistan. During that time, about 490 schools “have been burned or bombed in Dir and the nearby districts,” he said in a telephone interview. “Sometimes the Taliban claim responsibility for these attacks and sometimes they deny them,” Pasha said. “Usually the bombings happen in the middle of the night, but this time they bombed while the girls were in the classroom,” he said. Revenge Attacks Pakistan’s military has reported men from Dir fighting among the Taliban in Bajaur, along the Afghan border. The army is engaged in a major operation against the Taliban further south in the South Waziristan tribal region. Since October, 28,000 troops have fought insurgents, triggering a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks in major Pakistani cities that have killed at least 600 people. As army soldiers squeeze the militants in their former strongholds, the U.S. has stepped up missile attacks in regions along the Afghan border using CIA-operated drone aircraft. The leader of Pakistan’s Taliban movement, Hakimullah Mehsud , was reported killed in one such attack. Pakistan’s government is investigating the claims, which the militants have dismissed as propaganda. Drones fired as many 17 missiles at Taliban targets yesterday, local officials said, killing 18 people. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net Anwar Shakir in Peshawar at Ashakir1@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Bomb Explosions in Lahore, Peshawar Kill at Least 20, Injure 100

December 7, 2009

By Khalid Qayum Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — Twin blasts in a market in the northeastern Pakistan city of Lahore killed at least 10 people and injured more than 50 following an earlier blast in the northwestern city of Peshawar which killed another 10. The Lahore market is one of the city’s busiest and the injured included dozens of women and children, Lahore Police Superintendent Shafiq Gujar told reporters. The Peshawar explosion wounded 44 people, according to Mujahid Khan, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, the biggest ambulance service in the country. To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net .

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Pakistan’s Zardari May Face Corruption Charges as Political Crisis Deepens

November 25, 2009

By Khalid Qayum Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari may face renewed corruption charges once a law that protected him lapses this weekend, deepening a political crisis as the country’s army battles Taliban militants. Zardari, the widower of slain Pakistan People’s Party leader Benazir Bhutto , took office 14 months ago. More than a dozen criminal and graft cases against him were withdrawn under a National Reconciliation Ordinance drafted by former leader Pervez Musharraf to bolster a power sharing deal with Bhutto. Supreme Court judges ruled on July 31 that parliament must renew the ordinance within 120 days, something opposition legislators have refused to do, or it would cease to be valid. “The corruption cases will reopen in courts after the Nov. 28 deadline set by the Supreme Court,” said lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar, who is president of Supreme Court Bar Association, a body of advocates. Zardari, 53, is already under pressure from opposition parties to give up extraordinary powers that Musharraf added to the constitution. Any further weakening of his position could jeopardize a military offensive against guerrillas in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Militants have killed more than 400 people in gun and bomb attacks over the past five weeks. Junior Law Minister Afzal Sindhu on Nov. 21 named more than 8,000 people, including Zardari and his ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani , offered clemency under the law adopted in 2007. Survival Battle Haqqani’s office said in a statement from Islamabad that the ambassador denies the charge against him that he violated rules in awarding a television and radio license when secretary at the Information Ministry in 1994. “Zardari is facing a number of challenges including the challenge of his own survival,” said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal , assistant professor of international relations at Islamabad’s Quaid-i-Azam University . Lawyers and former bureaucrats plan to ask Supreme Court judges to open all corruption cases halted under the special ordinance, according to Nov. 22 report in the News newspaper. When his wife was assassinated at a rally in December 2007, Zardari took over the PPP. In August 2008, he joined hands with Pakistan Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif and forced Musharraf to resign. He was elected president three weeks later. Zardari, who has spent a total of 11 years in jail since 1990, made enemies with his decision to appoint some officials who became political liabilities, Jaspal said. After initially agreeing to give up powers to appoint military chiefs and dismiss the government, Zardari backtracked, angering the opposition led by Sharif. Politically Motivated Adding to Zardari’s woes, a key ally, the Mutahidda Qaumi Movement, has objected to an extension of the clemency law. The government has rallied to his defense, with Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira saying the charges against Zardari are politically motivated, and arguing the president enjoys immunity from prosecution until his five-year term ends. Charges against Zardari relate to cases before he became president, nullifying any immunity, Supreme Court lawyer Anwar said. “The problem with Zardari is that he doesn’t do what he says, which essentially lands him in crisis,” said political analyst and former Pakistani general Talat Masood in an interview from Islamabad. “The people are disenchanted and looking for someone to lead them out of insecurity and economic turmoil, while he is hiding in the presidential palace. There is a huge trust deficit between the president and the military.” Army Rule The army has ruled Pakistan for more than half the period since independence in 1947. Its six-week offensive against the Taliban faction the government blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacks follows a similar campaign against militants in the northwestern Swat Valley after a truce collapsed. Differences between top generals and the government broke into the open last month when the army led by its chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani criticized conditions attached to a $7.5 billion U.S. aid deal for Pakistan as threatening the nation’s sovereignty. Zardari’s government described the accord as “landmark” legislation. Zardari “will quit powers quickly but cautiously,” said Hassan Abbas , a senior adviser at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. “The transition from a military to civilian rule is always a slow and complicated process. Military takeover under the prevailing international scenario is out of the question,” Abbas said. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Army Says Troops Will Soon Enter Mountainous Taliban Strongholds

November 13, 2009

By James Rupert and Khalid Qayum Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s army is one to two weeks away from winning control of all major roads in its assault on Taliban fighters in a tribal region, and will then move to take on the militants in their mountain strongholds. In the first stage of the month-old South Waziristan operation, 28,000 troops have captured key highways and all the significant towns in the region, Major General Athar Abbas said in an interview at army headquarters. “In the second phase, we go and chase and eliminate them from the pockets and their hideouts,” he said hours after militants attacked a spy agency office in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 18 people. The army started the campaign, its biggest yet against Islamic militant insurgents, on Oct. 17. The U.S. is pressuring Pakistan to clear the area of Taliban guerrillas, who it says are using bases there for attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban “keep calling it a tactical retreat, but in fact it was a rout,” Abbas said in Rawalpindi, the military headquarters city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad. “You don’t leave behind your personal weapons and ammunition” in an organized withdrawal, he said, as the army has found the guerrillas doing in Waziristan. More than 500 militants have been killed in the offensive, while 55 soldiers have died, he said. The offensive has provoked suicide bombings and commando raids by militants that have killed about 400 people in towns and cities, including the capital, over the last six weeks. Terrorist attacks had already increased after former Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a missile strike by a drone aircraft in the Waziristan area in August. Swat Offensive The army operation comes months after a similar offensive in the northwestern Swat valley where the military says it has defeated the Taliban. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said militants are staging a “desperate” guerrilla war as they are defeated. The bombings have been provoked by their losses in the fighting, he said. The army complex Abbas spoke from was among the places targeted by militants in recent weeks, along with police complexes in the eastern city of Lahore and a twin suicide bombing at the International Islamic University in Islamabad. Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, has been repeatedly struck. Today’s bombing badly damaged the offices of the country’s main intelligence agency. The army operation in South Waziristan is targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban, the group now led by Hakimullah Mehsud that Pakistan blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacks on its soil. Army Chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani while talking to his top commanders two days ago said attacks by militants were acts of “cowardice and frustration,” as they were unable to face the military. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net James Rupert in Islamabad at Jrupert3@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Bombs, Explosion at Wedding Kill 24 as Taliban Escalate Attacks

October 23, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) — At least 24 people, including women and children traveling to a wedding, were killed in explosions in Pakistan as militants escalated near-daily attacks and the army pressed an offensive in a Taliban stronghold. A suicide bomber killed seven people outside the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in the northwest city of Kamra around 7:30 a.m. as staff arrived for work, district police officer Fakhar Sultan told reporters. Two of those who died worked for the armed forces, while the rest were civilians. A car bomb exploded near a restaurant in the nearby city of Peshawar five hours later, injuring eight people, the Edhi ambulance service said. Seventeen people were killed when an explosion hit a bus traveling for a wedding in the Mohmand tribal agency north of Waziristan, Associated Press reported. The cause of the blast in an area where the Taliban has operated was unknown, AP said. Pakistan’s army a week ago began its biggest offensive against the Taliban and its allies in the northwestern tribal region of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan, deploying 28,000 troops. They are seeking to destroy the faction that was led by Baitullah Mehsud until his death in a U.S. missile strike in August. Pakistan blames the group for 80 percent of terrorist attacks in the country. Mehsud’s successor vowed to avenge his killing with suicide bombings. Military Under Fire Retaliation by militants was expected, said Zafar Nawaz Jaspal , assistant professor of International Relations at Islamabad’s Quaid-e-Azam University . “Controlling South Waziristan won’t end terrorist attacks completely but it will destroy their training camps and weaken” them, he said. The military are “willing to pay the price,” Jaspal said. The air force plant at Kamra, 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest Islamabad and on the main road to Peshawar, manufactures and services aircraft. Foreign military experts have mentioned Kamra as a possible place to keep planes that can carry nuclear warheads, AP reported today. The army has denied the facility is tied to the nuclear program in any way, AP said. The attack there was the latest against military targets. Gunmen killed an army brigadier and his guard when they opened fire on a military jeep in Islamabad yesterday, and militants launched an attack on the army’s headquarters in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi on Oct. 10. Attacks last week that largely targeted security installations left at least 150 civilians, soldiers and police dead. Latest Fighting Pakistan’s army said today it had killed 13 guerrillas in the past 24 hours in South Waziristan, while two soldiers died. Heights were secured overlooking Kotkai, the hometown of suicide bomb mastermind Qari Hussain, the military said in a statement on its Web site. The army said six Uzbeks militants had been killed. The army said Kotkai ha been surrounded four days ago, adding later “intense” fighting was continuing. Accounts of fighting can’t be confirmed as foreigners are banned from tribal areas and local reporters have been forced out by the government and Taliban. The Waziristan offensive is Pakistan’s biggest yet against the Taliban and its allies, who have mounted increasing attacks on government targets since mid-2007. The U.S. has urged Pakistan to tackle militant strongholds it says are used to launch attack on international forces in Afghanistan. While the army has said it expects the operation to last six to eight weeks, analysts like Ashraf Ali , director of the FATA Research Center, an Islamabad think-tank that studies the tribal regions, say the fight could last longer in a region well suited to guerrilla-style fighters. The army failed to defeat militants in South Waziristan with offensives in 2004 and 2007. Refugees Flee In Washington, the U.S. Congress passed a defense spending bill that imposes restrictions on military assistance to Pakistan in a move to ensure the aid is spent fighting the Taliban. The conditions may trigger complaints in Pakistan and fan anti-U.S. sentiment. Earlier this month, Pakistani opposition lawmakers and the military said conditions attached to a $7.5 billion civilian aid package signed by President Barack Obama undermined the nation’s sovereignty. That legislation provides funds over five years to build roads, schools, power facilities and other projects serving civilians. Pakistan’s military said it cleared Taliban militants from the Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province after a 10-week offensive that began in April. The fighting prompted an exodus of up to 2.7 million people, a million of whom remain displaced, UNICEF said in a statement today. As many as 250,000 people may be displaced by the fighting in South Waziristan, Tariq Hayat, the government’s secretary for the tribal areas, said this week. UNICEF said 139,000 people have left the remote region to date, 57,600 of them in the past week. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net Farhan Sharif in Karachi at fsharif2@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Begins Offensive Against Militant Stronghold in South Waziristan

October 17, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Naween Mangi Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s military began a ground and air offensive against Taliban guerrillas in their stronghold of South Waziristan, its most direct attempt to end terrorist violence that has threatened to destabilize the government of the nuclear-armed state. The operation started late Oct. 16, said an army spokesman yesterday. He declined to be identified in accordance with military policy. The operation may take eight weeks or longer to complete, he said. Troops will target both Pakistani and foreign militants, he said. Fighters loyal to the late Baitullah Mehsud have led an escalating campaign against President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration. The U.S. has encouraged offensives against Pakistan-based Taliban, saying Waziristan and other border districts are sanctuaries for jihadists who attack U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan. A Pakistani news channel, Express News, reported that residents were leaving the mountainous region as fighting began. Thousands of displaced people have reached the nearby city of Dera Ismail Khan, where they are being registered at the main sports stadium, the network said. Northwest Frontier Province Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said as many as 2 million families may be displaced as a result of the military operations South Waziristan. He spoke in televised press conference in Peshawar yesterday. He didn’t say what plans the government has for housing the displaced people. Deaths Four Pakistani soldiers were killed and 12 injured in initial clashes with militants, the military said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday. A bomb exploded near a military convoy as it moved from Razmak, a military base in North Waziristan, Agence France- Presse reported. Razmak is one of four main launching points for the offensive, to the north, east and west of Mehsud’s forces, Pakistan’s Samaa television said. The government said last week it had approved an offensive and given authority to the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , to decide when to launch it. The army says it has deployed 28,000 troops around South Waziristan to attack an estimated 10,000 fighters of a major Taliban faction led until August by Baitullah Mehsud . Mehsud Mehsud was killed in August by a missile from a U.S.- operated unmanned aircraft, and his forces now are led by a relative, Hakimullah Mehsud. While other Taliban factions have focused their attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan and their Afghan government allies, the Mehsud fighters have waged an escalating campaign within Pakistan. Pakistan’s government blamed Baitullah Mehsud for the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto , the wife of President Zardari, an accusation Mehsud denied. Spokesmen for the Mehsud Taliban have claimed responsibility for a spate of bombings and guerrilla assaults this month against government, army and police targets. At least seven guerrilla attacks in the past week killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing Oct. 16 in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Pakistan’s Taliban and their allies also are turning to commando raids on police and soldiers as a tactic to convince Pakistanis the government can’t contain them. At least 26 people were killed in assaults on Oct. 15 on a federal police headquarters and two police training centers in the eastern city of Lahore, and a bombing at a police station in Kohat. Commando Assaults While suicide bombings killed most of those who died in the last week, the Pakistani media’s focus has been on the commando assaults Oct. 15 and a 22-hour siege one week ago at Pakistan’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi. Jihadists also used commando assaults in Lahore in March, against a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team and at a police academy that was attacked again on Oct. 15. The tactic has been revived in an effort to fight back after the army drove the Taliban out of the Swat Valley in July and killed Mehsud in August, said Kamran Bokhari, regional director for the Middle East and South Asia at Stratfor , an Austin, Texas- based intelligence-consulting firm. The week-long series of attacks has been in part an effort to demoralize Pakistan’s security forces in advance of the South Waziristan offensive, Bokhari said. To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net or Naween A Mangi in Karachi at nmangi1@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Blast Kills 11 as Islamic Militants Stage Seventh Attack in Week

October 16, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — A blast in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar killed 10 people, the country’s leading ambulance service said, the seventh attack in a week as Islamic militants escalate a campaign against security forces. “More casualties are feared,” Mohammed Naeem , a spokesman for the Edhi ambulance service said in a telephone interview from Peshawar. The attack appeared to target the city’s intelligence agency building. Pakistan’s Taliban and its allies are turning to commando raids on police and soldiers, on top of suicide bombings, as a tactic to convince Pakistanis the government can’t contain them. At least 26 people were killed in attacks yesterday on a federal police headquarters and two police training centers in Lahore, plus in bombings of a police station in the town of Kohat. “There seems to be a new strategy by terrorists in recent attacks,” said Rana Sanaullah, law minister of Punjab province , of which Lahore is the capital. Attacking and taking hostages is meant “to get maximum TV coverage and make their demands.” Taliban spokesmen have said recent attacks that have killed more than 140 police, troops and civilians, were revenge for the August killing of their top commander, Baitullah Mehsud, by a U.S. missile. The spate of violence comes as the government and military prepare an assault on the group’s South Waziristan encampments near the Afghan border. Lahore Attacks Yesterday, a child was killed and nine people were injured by a remote-controlled bomb in a building housing government officers in Peshawar. That attack came after guerrillas firing assault rifles and throwing hand grenades stormed three police complexes in Lahore, the country’s second-largest city, and militants exploded two bombs in northwestern Pakistan. While suicide bombings have killed three-quarters of those who died in the past week, most of the Pakistani media’s focus has been on the commando assaults yesterday and the 22-hour siege involving Taliban-affiliated attackers this past weekend at Pakistan’s army headquarters in Rawalpindi. After years of relying on bomb attacks within Pakistan, jihadist groups have made at least four commando-style assaults this year, two in the past week. The raids echo last November’s three-day attack on Mumbai, India’s business capital, when 10 gunmen killed 166 people at a railway station, restaurant and two luxury hotels. India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group and halted peace talks with its nuclear-armed neighbor. Ground Assault The week-long spate of attacks is in part an effort to demoralize Pakistan’s security forces as the army has deployed what it says are 28,000 troops around the stronghold of Mehsud’s Taliban faction, in the mountainous region of Waziristan, near the Afghan border. The government said this week it has given the army chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , authority to begin an offensive against Mehsud’s fighters, and warplanes have been pounding their positions in the area. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Bombing Kills 42 as Government Steps Up Campaign Against Taliban

October 9, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) — A car bombing in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar today killed at least 42 people, as the government moved toward expanding its campaign against Taliban militants. The bombing at the Khyber Bazaar wounded at least 90, many of them seriously, Sher Gul, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation ambulance service, said in a telephone interview. The toll may rise, he said. Vehicles including civilian buses were destroyed in the blast, Mian Iftikhar Hussain , information minister of the ethnic Pashtun North West Frontier Province, told reporters. “The attackers are the enemies of humanity,” Hussain said. “We won’t rest until we have eliminated them.” The bomber used about 50 kilograms (110 lbs) of explosives in today’s attack, Shafqat Malik, assistant inspector general of police, told reporters, without saying it was a suicide attack. Today’s was the deadliest of more than a dozen terrorist attacks this year in Peshawar, a city of 1.5 million near the Khyber pass border crossing with Afghanistan, where international forces are fighting a spreading insurgency. Pakistan blames the attacks on Taliban guerrillas based in the nearby tribal region that borders Afghanistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said the attacks are to avenge the killing of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who died in a U.S. drone attack in August. On June 9, militants killed at least 12 people, including two United Nations workers when they drove a truck bomb into Peshawar’s main luxury hotel, the Pearl Continental. A suicide bomb attack at the United Nations World Food Program headquarters in Islamabad on Oct. 5 killed 5 people. Expanded Campaign Malik said earlier today that the government will decide in a day or two about how soon to start a military operation against militants in South and North Waziristan tribal districts, the main Taliban strongholds along the border with Afghanistan. The people of these regions are demanding a campaign against militants, he said. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the Peshawar blast and ordered a probe. “Such activities cannot deter the government from its action against the extremists and action will continue till their complete elimination,” he said according to a statement released by his office in Islamabad. The new Taliban chief Hakeemullah Mehsud has reportedly threatened to carry out more terrorist attacks to in retaliation for Baitullah Mehsud’s killing. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net

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Blast at World Food Program Office in Pakistani Capital Kills Four People

October 5, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — A bomb planted in the Pakistan headquarters of the United Nations’ World Food Program killed three of the agency’s employees and injured several others, police and UN officials said. “This is a terrible tragedy for WFP, and for the whole humanitarian community in Pakistan,” WFP Deputy Executive Director Amir Abdulla said in a statement. “These were people working to assist the poor and the vulnerable on the frontlines of hunger in Pakistan.” The explosion ignited a fire in the WFP office and raised a column of smoke over the upscale Islamabad neighborhood where President Asif Ali Zardari has his home only a few blocks away. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. Pakistan’s Taliban guerrilla movement vowed to launch attacks in to seek vengeance for the killing in August of its commander, Baitullah Mehsud , in a missile strike by U.S. unmanned aircraft. “I was getting ready to go out and I saw a UN vehicle enter the gate” of the building, said Saadia Abbasi, a Pakistani lawyer and former senator who lives across the street. “About 45 seconds later, there was a terrible blast, and everything shook and smoke started pouring out” of the compound. “The UN staff have brought about four or five people out of there, bleeding and injured,” Abbasi said. A bomb was planted in the building, said the WFP spokeswoman in Pakistan, Ishrat Rizvi. Swat Refugees The UN agency has been providing food to many of the estimated 2 million Pakistanis uprooted by fighting in the Swat Valley and the Bajaur region of northwestern Pakistan this year. Like many UN offices in Islamabad, the WFP headquarters is in a rented villa on a two-lane, residential street. After last year’s truck bomb attack that killed 53 people at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, WFP barricaded its office against vehicle bombs by building a two-story-high earth-filled barrier near the street. Neighbors protested to the Pakistani government that the UN office represented a danger to the neighborhood because it could be targeted in an attack, said Abbasi. “There are four other UN offices in the same street, all surrounded by residences,” she said. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in New Delhi at 2024 or jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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Pakistan Arrests Two Senior Taliban Leaders in Swat to Disrupt Militants

September 11, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan has arrested two senior Taliban leaders in the Swat Valley, northwest of the capital, including the movement’s spokesman, the army said. The detention of Muslim Khan , who also served as a senior negotiator for the Taliban, and Mahmood Khan is meant to disrupt a militant effort to reorganize in Swat, three months after the army re-captured the valley from Taliban control. “The army is trying to consolidate its victory in Swat before it would attempt any other offensives,” notably against the main Taliban strongholds along the western border with Afghanistan, said Fazl Rahim Marwat, a political science professor at the University of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan. Pakistan had offered a reward of 10 million rupees ($120,500) for both men, said Major General Athar Abbas, the Pakistan army spokesman. The top Taliban leader in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, heads the government’s list of wanted guerrillas, with an offer of 50 million rupees for his capture. Muslim Khan, 55, became the Swat Taliban’s main spokesman last year, leading a delegation that negotiated a truce with provincial authorities. As a fluent English-speaker, his “multilingual skills and his rich experience of working abroad in Western countries makes him a rare talent for the Taliban movement, a group that involves mostly madrasa graduates and illiterate activists,” said a report in February from the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Student Leader In the 1970s, Khan was a student leader in Swat of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party. He told the BBC in an interview last year he worked as a seaman and visited Europe in the 1980s, before returning home and joining Swat’s Islamist movement. Three other “terrorist leaders” — Fazle Ghaffar, Abdul Rehman and Sartaj — were also arrested in an army operation in Swat, the military said. An English-language daily, The News, cited the Taliban as saying the three men are clerics. The military’s announcement of the arrests came after The News quoted a Taliban spokesman named Salman as saying the five men were detained eight days ago after meeting an officer of military intelligence for peace talks. Interior Minister Rehman Malik denied that report, telling reporters in Islamabad that “the arrest was a result of action by the security forces and not because of talks.” “Most of the militants have either been killed or arrested, and the remainder have no choice but to surrender,” Malik said. Mehsud Killing The government says the Taliban are in disarray after losing control of Swat in June and suffering the death last month of Baitullah Mehsud, the movement’s overall leader in Pakistan. Mehsud was killed in a U.S. missile strike on his home in South Waziristan, the Taliban’s biggest stronghold. Fazlullah’s Taliban group has fought the government for control of Swat for more than five years. The guerrillas’ advance there marked their deepest penetration into Pakistan from its western border, and the closest approach to the capital. President Asif Ali Zardari’s administration signed a peace deal with the guerrillas in February, agreeing to impose Islamic Shariah law in Swat and nearby districts. Despite the truce, Taliban guerrillas advanced from Swat in April taking an adjacent district, Buner, centered only 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Islamabad. Swat Refugees The Taliban advance triggered a 10-week army offensive that re-captured the valley in June. The military killed 1,800 Taliban militants and arrested 2,000 in the Swat campaign, Abbas said yesterday on Aaj TV . About 340 soldiers died, Abbas said. Fighting in Swat and other parts of northwest Pakistan displaced an estimated 2.7 million people and destroyed 548 schools, according to UN figures released yesterday. About two- thirds of those displaced have returned to their villages and towns, the UN said. Many face a struggle to rebuild their homes. After pushing back the Taliban in Swat in 2007, the army failed to arrest their leaders, said Marwat, author of a book on the Taliban movement in the area. “Fazlullah was able to recover that time and recapture the valley, but this time the army is being tough to stop them from re-grouping,” he said. The U.S. wants Pakistan to continue its offensives against the Taliban and other militant groups. Richard Holbrooke , the special U.S. envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and General Stanley McChrystal , the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, made appeals when they visited the capital, Islamabad, last month. To contact the reporter on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in New Delhi at 2024 or jrupert3@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Cuts Rate for Second Time This Year as Taliban War Hits Growth

August 15, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan cut interest rates for the second time this year as a war against Taliban insurgents threatens an already “anaemic” economy. State Bank of Pakistan lowered its benchmark discount rate to 13 percent from 14 percent, Central Bank Salim Raza said at a news conference in Karachi today. All 12 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News expected the central bank to reduce borrowing costs. The Pakistan Peoples Party-led government is betting lower interest rates will revive the confidence of investors, who have shied away from the country because of militancy in the northwest region and a near-stagnant economy. The International Monetary Fund this month agreed to increase a loan to Pakistan to $11.3 billion from the $7.6 billion approved in November to bolster the nation’s “anaemic” growth. “The challenge for policy makers is growth,” said Sayem Ali , an economist at Standard Chartered Plc in Karachi. “The inflationary cycle appears to be coming to an end.” Raza has this year lowered borrowing costs by two percentage points from a decade high, taking advantage of the slowest inflation in 19 months. “The revival will be slow and sporadic,” Raza said today. “Power shortages and security issues have hurt growth. The likely increase in oil and power costs may renew inflationary pressure.” Six Times The central bank will announce monetary policy six times a year instead of every quarter, Raza said. The next announcement will be in the last week of September. The monetary policy committee will be expanded to include independent experts, he said. The governor unexpectedly postponed State Bank of Pakistan’s monetary policy statement to today from its initially scheduled release on July 25. The delay may have been due to “fiscal slippages” resulting from declining tax revenue and “substantial” military expenditure that forced the government to borrow from the central bank for deficit financing, according to Ali from Standard Chartered. Policy makers last raised borrowing costs by 2 percentage points on Nov. 12, the fourth increase in 2008, as part of conditions for the IMF loan and to curb inflation that reached a 30-year high. Consumer Prices Consumer prices rose 11.17 percent in July from a year earlier, the slowest pace since December 2007. Large-scale manufacturing output fell 8.5 percent in the 11 months ended May 30, according to the statistics agency. “It is very critical that finance costs be lowered now,” said Asad Farid , an economist at AKD Securities Ltd. in Karachi. “If they aren’t, industry, which is already facing huge problems, will not be competitive.” South Asia’s second-largest economy was forced to turn to the IMF for a rescue package to avoid defaulting on its debt, after the country’s foreign-exchange reserves shrank 75 percent in a year to $3.5 billion and the current-account deficit widened to a record. The loan outstanding from the IMF is equivalent to about 6.3 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product, according to estimates from the Washington-based lender. The entire standby arrangement was also extended by about two months until the end of 2010. Economic Growth The $146 billion economy may expand as little as 0.8 percent in the fiscal year to June 2010, according to HSBC Holdings Plc, the weakest pace since 1952. The government estimates growth of 3.3 percent. “Monetary policy needs to strike the right balance between supporting growth and keeping inflation in check,” said Ali from Standard Chartered. To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; Farhan Sharif in Karachi at Fsharif2@bloomberg.net .

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Taliban Commanders May Be Fighting Over Weapons, Cash After Mehsud’s Death

August 10, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — Senior commanders of Pakistan’s Taliban may be fighting over who will lead the militants and control funds and weapons following the killing of chief Baitullah Mehsud in a U.S. missile attack. Arms and cash worth millions of dollars could be at the center of wrangling following Mehsud’s killing, The News daily reported , citing security officials it did not name. Hakimullah Mehsud, a potential successor, was killed in a shootout with another leader, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said yesterday. “Infighting among the Taliban commanders will weaken the group to the extent that it will eventually disintegrate,” said Mahmood Shah , an analyst and former security chief of Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. “Pakistan should feel relieved but it should not give up fighting militants.” There is no doubt about the Taliban chief’s death, which has been confirmed by local contacts, Karim Mehsud, a lawyer from the Mehsud tribe in Peshawar, said in a phone interview. The reports of a gun battle for the leadership of the militants are not true, he said. “The secondary leaders of Taliban are having discussions and no decision has been reported on who will become the new leader,” he said. “We expect to hear news about this today.” Malik challenged the Taliban to prove their assertions that Mehsud is still alive. The government stands by “credible information” he was killed last week, the official Associated Press of Pakistan cited him as saying. Suicide Bombings Mehsud said he ordered suicide bombings nationwide and Pakistan’s government blames him for the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto , the wife of current president Asif Ali Zardari . Mehsud led the Taliban in the tribal district bordering Afghanistan, and the U.S. offered a $5 million bounty for his capture. The army said last month it regained control of the Swat Valley in neighboring North West Frontier Province from Taliban fighters backed by Meshud after a 10-week offensive killed more than 1,700 militants. Mehsud, reportedly in his 30s, was killed when a U.S. missile fired from a drone hit a house in the village of Zangara in South Waziristan on Aug. 5, according to Malik and local media reports. A Taliban spokesman yesterday denied Mehsud was in the house when the missile hit, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. Maulana Nur Syed told the BBC that Mehsud is gravely ill. The leader needed treatment for diabetes, according to Taliban officials cited by the New York Times. ‘Big Deal’ The evidence of Mehsud’s death “is pretty conclusive,” Jim Jones , the U.S. National Security Adviser said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday. “We put it in the 90 percent category.” Mehsud commanded as many as 5,000 fighters, U.S. military analysts said. He formed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan from an alliance of about five pro-Taliban groups in December 2007, according to the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. The U.S. says he has carried out attacks on American troops in Afghanistan. His death is “a big deal,” a demonstration of progress in U.S.-Pakistani security efforts, Jones told NBC yesterday. “Mehsud was public enemy number one in Pakistan.” Mehsud was “a murderous thug and his elimination is a step forward for the safety of folks in that region and in our country,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama to Mexico yesterday. “It also shows that Pakistan has made progress in moving to root out and eliminate extremist elements.” To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in New Delhi at Jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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