pakistani

India, Pakistan hold talks on gas pipeline project

by on January 26, 2012

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(MENAFN – Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Indian and Pakistani Petroleum Ministers – Jaipal Reddy and Asim Hussain, respectively, held detailed discussions on various matters relating to bilateral …

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India, Pakistan hold talks on gas pipeline project

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Pakistani Journalist Seeks $500 Million From U.S. For Relatives’ Deaths, Threatens To Sue CIA

by Mother Jones on November 30, 2010

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – A Pakistani man who said two of his relatives were killed in a U.S. drone strike said Monday that he planned to sue the CIA in Pakistani courts for “wrongful death” if he is not compensated within two weeks, a move that could renew debate over the legality of the covert program. Kareem Khan, a journalist from the semi-autonomous Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan, said he was seeking $500 million in damages from U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, CIA director Leon Panetta and the CIA station chief in this capital city. Khan said the strike killed his brother, his son and another man. He said that they were not connected to Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who are based in the region and are the targets of regular CIA drone strikes. The U.S. carries out unmanned drone strikes in the tribal areas with the cooperation of the Pakistani government, but neither nation publicly acknowledges the clandestine program, and it is unlikely U.S. officials would cooperate with a court case. The attacks have increased sharply this year, and the vast majority have targeted militants in North Waziristan.

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Pakistani Journalist Seeks $500 Million From U.S. For Relatives’ Deaths, Threatens To Sue CIA

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Pakistan-Afghanistan Trade Deal: Clinton Seeks More Cooperation

July 19, 2010

ISLAMABAD (Associated Press) – Pakistan and Afghanistan sealed a landmark trade deal Sunday as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed the two neighbors to step up civilian cooperation and work together against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Shortly after kicking off a South Asia trip aimed at refining the goals of the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan, Clinton looked on as the Afghan and Pakistani commerce ministers signed the trade agreement. It was reached only after years of negotiation with recent and very active U.S. encouragement. The pact, which eases restrictions on cross-border transportation, must be ratified by the Afghan parliament and Pakistani Cabinet. U.S. officials said they believe it will significantly enhance ties between the two countries, boost development and incomes on both sides of the border and contribute to the fight against extremists. “Bringing Islamabad and Kabul together has been a goal of this administration from the beginning,” said Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. “This is a vivid demonstration of the two countries coming closer together.” Despite the agreement, Clinton faces challenges in appealing for greater cooperation between the neighboring nations on the nearly 9-year-old war, pressing Pakistan for more help in taking on militants accused of plotting attacks on the U.S., including the failed Times Square bombing, and stepping up action against extremists along the Afghan border. Although Pakistan has relented on issuing long-delayed visas for some 450 U.S. officials and Clinton is bringing new U.S. development aid for Pakistan, anti-American sentiment remains high. In addition, U.S. officials have also expressed concerns about Pakistan’s plans for a deal with China that would give energy-starved Pakistan two new nuclear power plants. Critics said transferring the reactors would violate international nonproliferation agreements. In talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, ahead of Monday meetings with military and civilian officials, Clinton was conveying the message that the U.S. is committed to the country’s long-term development needs, not just short-term security gains. Clinton is offering a package of about $500 million in development programs, funded by legislation approved by Congress to triple nonmilitary aid to $1.5 billion a year over five years. The aid will focus on water, energy, agriculture and health. The initiatives mark the second phase of projects begun under a new and enhanced strategic partnership. Holbrooke noted that when Clinton visited Pakistan last October she had “waded into continually hostile and skeptical crowds.” But he maintained that the new U.S. focus is “producing a change in Pakistani attitudes, first within the government and gradually, more slowly, within the public.” Still, he and other officials acknowledge, mistrust of America runs deep in Pakistan, particularly over unmanned drone strikes. They’re aimed at militants but often kill or injury civilians; to many Pakistanis, they represent an unacceptable violation of sovereignty. Vali Nasr, a Holbrooke deputy, said overcoming the suspicion remains a work in progress. “We’re not going to be able to get them aligned over a one-year time period on every single issue and change 30 years of foreign policy of Pakistan on a dime,” he said. Underscoring Pakistan’s fragility, only hours after Clinton’s arrival a suicide bomber ran past guards at a minority Shiite mosque in eastern Pakistan then blew himself up, wounding several worshippers. The attack, hundreds of miles away from Islamabad, appeared to be the latest in a string by Sunni extremists against other Muslims they consider infidels. After her stop in Pakistan, Clinton is set to attend an international conference on Afghanistan on Tuesday in Kabul, where Afghan officials will present details on their plans to reintegrate militants into society and outline how they intend to implement reform and anti-corruption pledges made earlier this year. Security was tightened in the Afghan capital ahead the conference which will assemble diplomats from 60 nations as well as the heads of NATO and the United Nations. Nonetheless, a suicide bomber killed three civilians near a busy market. American lawmakers and voters are increasingly questioning the course of the drawn-out war with rising death tolls among U.S. and international troops and growing questions about corruption. Last month was the deadliest of the war for international forces: 103 coalition troops were killed, despite the addition of tens of thousands more U.S. troops.

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Anti-Taliban Campaign May Be Bolstered by Revival of India-Pakistan Talks

February 24, 2010

By Jay Shankar and Khalid Qayum Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — India and Pakistan hold their first formal talks today since the 2008 terrorist assault on Mumbai, reviving regional peace moves the U.S. is counting on to support its strategy to defeat Afghanistan’s Taliban. After a 15-month impasse, the two sides’ senior foreign ministry officials meet in New Delhi far apart on an agenda India wants to focus on security and Pakistan insists must be broadened to include disputed Kashmir and water rights. Further attacks like the Feb. 13 bombing of an Indian cafe that killed 15 people may shatter even this new beginning. Terrorism is the priority, an official at India’s foreign ministry who asked not to be named said in a Feb. 18 interview, adding that the talks between Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and her Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir aren’t a revival of the overall dialogue paused after the Mumbai killings. Ties must not become “hostage” to terrorists attacking both nations, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the same day. A relationship bedeviled by 60 years of mistrust and three wars is a matter of concern to the U.S. as it seeks to prevail in a war with Afghan Taliban fighters in which 994 American troops have died. “The U.S. must have Pakistani cooperation if it hopes to gain an intelligence edge on al Qaeda and Taliban militants,” Stratfor , an Austin, Texas-based intelligence group, said in a report. “The last thing Washington needs is for Pakistan to be distracted from its counterterrorism obligations by a conflict with India.” ‘Indispensable Player’ For the U.S., Pakistan is an “indispensable player as far as a resolution in Afghanistan is concerned,” Zorawar Daulet Singh, an international relations analyst at the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Alternatives , said. “This gives Pakistan a significant amount of leverage that they are trying to use to seek concessions” in disputes with India, he said. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month praised India’s restraint after the Mumbai raid while saying a repeat attack would test its patience. “While we would like to see India and Pakistan reach a stable relationship, they will do so on their own terms at the appropriate time,” Robert Blake , the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said in a Feb. 18 speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh scrapped five years of peace talks after a rampage by 10 Pakistani gunmen killed 166 people in the November 2008 raid on India’s financial center. Singh demanded Pakistan close down militant groups plotting against India, including the Lashkar-e-Taiba organization India blamed for the three-day assault on Mumbai. Trade Boom Negotiations might help reignite growth in annual bilateral trade that had almost quadrupled to $2.24 billion four years after talks on Kashmir , economic and commercial cooperation, terrorism and drug trafficking began in 2003. Diplomatic, transport and sporting links between the two cricket-loving nations flourished. India is returning to talks despite making little progress in its efforts to get Pakistan to crack down on anti-India militants based there, Stratfor said Feb. 4. Pakistan has begun a secret trial of Lashkar members, one of the groups its military covertly used as proxies to destabilize India. “Under pressure and facing the threat of terrorism in its own country” Pakistan has taken some initiatives to “fight this scourge,” Indian Foreign Secretary Rao said in a Feb. 22 speech in London . “But these steps are selective.” She warned that drawing distinctions between the Taliban, al-Qaeda and terrorist groups like Lashkar was meaningless as the groups are “fused both operationally and ideologically.” Taliban Arrest Pakistan’s arrest of the Afghan Taliban’s No. 2 commander, Abdul Ghani Baradar , near Karachi may signal it’s ceding to U.S. pressure for tougher action against top guerrillas hiding there, analysts such as Michael Semple , who served as the European Union’s top political officer in Afghanistan, say. Still, banned militant groups are preaching their ideology with “full freedom” in their Punjab stronghold, Sherry Rehman , a lawmaker from Pakistan’s ruling party, said in Parliament on Feb. 23, the Daily Times reported. Today’s talks come almost two weeks after the bombing of a bakery popular with foreigners in the western Indian city of Pune triggered opposition calls to halt talks with Pakistan. Prime Minister Singh, who has stressed the inevitability of dialogue with Pakistan after meeting its leaders on the sidelines of regional summits, didn’t point fingers at India’s neighbor. Responsibility for deadly bombings in major Indian cities in 2008 was claimed by local militant group Indian Mujahideen, a group Rand Corp. analyst Christine Fair said has links with Lashkar. Beijing Postings Rao and Bashir are not strangers, overlapping as their countries’ respective ambassadors in Beijing for two years. “The two foreign secretaries go with different agendas and different approaches,” Lalit Mansingh , a former Indian foreign secretary and ambassador to the U.S., said in a phone interview from New Delhi. “Informal discussions outside the formal sessions,” will help develop relations. Not talking only “widens the communication gap and increases mistrust,” Rashid Ahmad Khan, former chairman of the Department of Political Science at Punjab University said in an interview. That will only benefit hardliners on both sides, he said. For Related News and Information: Regional News: TOP INDIA India’s General News: TNI INDIA GEN BN Stories on Pakistan and India: TNI INDIA PAK BN Stories on terrorism in India: TNI INDIA TERROR Stories on Mumbai attacks: STNI MUMBAIATTACKS

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U.S. Detains Taliban Deputy Baradar; May Be Biggest Capture of Afghan War

February 16, 2010

By Eltaf Najafizada and Farhan Sharif Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — The Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has been captured near Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi in what may be the most significant blow to the eight-year insurgency. Baradar, who has directed daily operations as deputy to Mullah Omar , was among four Afghans travelling in a car intercepted by Pakistani police on a highway to the north of the city, a senior Karachi intelligence officer who can’t be named as he’s not authorized to speak to the media, said in an interview. Another top police official confirmed the detention. “We were ordered to hand them over to other agencies,” the intelligence officer said of the operation. Baradar’s capture was first reported by the New York Times, which said he was nabbed in Karachi by Pakistani and U.S. intelligence teams. While two senior Taliban commanders in Afghanistan confirmed Baradar had been taken, they said he’d been held during a U.S.- led assault in the country’s south. The capture of Baradar, whom various reports say is about 40 years old, comes as U.S., British and Afghan soldiers advance into southern Helmand Province in the biggest offensive against the Taliban since the beginning of the war in 2001. Baradar is undergoing joint interrogation, the Times said, citing unnamed American government officials. His detention could hamper insurgent operations for months, said Waheed Mujda, an Afghan analyst and former Taliban official. “He is very important, the mastermind of their operations,” Mujda said in a phone interview from Kabul. Still, “the Taliban have faced this problem before,” when three top deputies to Mullah Omar were killed or reported captured within six months in 2007, he said. Omar Confidante Baradar is the deputy leader of the “Quetta shura,” the top council of Taliban leaders, which analysts and U.S. officials say fled into hiding near the Pakistani border city of Quetta after being driven from Afghanistan in 2002. Pakistan denies that the Taliban leadership operates on its territory. His capture could provide information on the whereabouts of Omar, the one-eyed cleric who is the group’s spiritual leader. Omar’s “relative lack of operational experience” means that the Taliban leadership council’s “day-to-day operations are handled by” Baradar, said a report last month by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. “Omar and Baradar have a close, long-standing relationship. Both fought side-by-side against the Soviets” in the 1980s, the report said. Baradar comes from the same ethnic Pashtun tribe as Afghan President Hamid Karzai , said Taliban commander Akhtar Mohammad, one of the two top militants who confirmed the detention. Taliban Losses Mohammad said by phone that Baradar was taken during weekend fighting in Helmand. Another Taliban official, Abdul Qayum, said he “was captured by foreign troops on Sunday, along with some of his bodyguards, during the operation in Marjah,” a town in Helmand attacked by U.S. Marines on Feb. 13. Qayum also spoke by phone from an unspecified place in Afghanistan. Baradar is the highest-ranking Taliban official reported killed or captured since May 2007, when top military chief Mullah Dadullah was killed. Dadullah’s death came within six months of the Taliban losing their previous top commander, Akhtar Mohammad Osmani , and their former defense minister, Mullah Obaidullah. In an attempt to improve the Taliban’s standing inside Afghanistan, Baradar last year helped issue a “code of conduct” for the group’s fighters. The handbook told Taliban guerrillas how to avoid civilian casualties and win the support of villagers. ISI Role The raid that grabbed Baradar was carried out by Pakistan’s military spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, with the assistance of CIA operatives, the Times said. Karachi, a port city of 18 million people, has attracted fighters belonging to Pakistan’s own Taliban movement who have moved from the tribal northwest to escape missile attacks by U.S. unmanned aircraft and an offensive by Pakistan’s army, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, New York, said in a Jan. 26 report. Karachi also has one of Pakistan’s biggest populations of ethnic Pashtuns, the group within which the Taliban movement arose. Largely spared the retaliatory suicide bomb attacks the campaign triggered, Karachi religious processions by the city’s Shiite Muslim community were bombed in December and earlier this month, killing nearly 70 people. Opium Center The Marjah area of southern Helmand Province, where the current U.S.-led offensive is under way, is one of Afghanistan’s biggest opium-production areas. The offensive is the allied forces’ effort to consolidate their biggest previous attempt, in July 2009, to establish government control in Helmand, where opium and smuggling trails to adjacent Pakistan have provided the guerrillas with revenue and supply routes. Controlling Marjah would connect areas seized by U.S. and British forces last year, according to U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal , the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. To contact the reporters on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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Pakistan Suicide Bomb Kills at Least 80 at Volleyball Tourney in Northwest

January 1, 2010

By Farhan Sharif and Anwar Shakir Jan. 1 (Bloomberg) — At least 51 people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a volleyball game in a pro-government town in northwest Pakistan , police and rescue workers said. At least 80 people were also wounded in the explosion, Edhi ambulance service spokesman Mujahid Khan said in a phone interview from Peshawar. “A building collapsed because of the blast, and we are busy trying to rescue the injured,” Police officer Mazher Hussain Shah said in a telephone interview from Lakki Marwat, where the incident occurred. The residents of the town have been supporting the Pakistani government’s efforts to suppress Taliban militants responsible for killing thousands of civilians in terror attacks in 2009, Lakki Marwat Police Chief Mohammed Ayub said in a phone interview. Pakistan’s military is battling the Taliban in South Waziristan and Swat Valley in the nation’s northwest border regions adjacent to Afghanistan. On Dec. 28 at least 43 people were killed and 100 were injured in a suicide bomb attack during a religious procession in Karachi. This was the deadliest bombing in the city since 170 people were killed in an attack on slain leader Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming procession in October 2007. To contact the reporter on this story: Farhan Sharif in Karachi, Pakistan fsharif2@bloomberg.net ; Anwar Shakir at ashakir@bloomberg.net

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Homegrown Terror Challenges U.S. Officials as Cases Hit Post-Sept. 11 High

December 11, 2009

By Justin Blum Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — The case of five Muslim Americans who traveled to Pakistan, possibly to train to fight against U.S. troops, may represent part of a growing threat: homegrown Islamic extremists. U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a proliferation of extremist Web sites and increased recruiting have inspired more Americans to train in overseas terrorist camps and plot attacks in the U.S., anti-terrorism specialists said. “It’s been brewing for a while as the Web sites and as the message becomes more extensive,” said Thomas Fuentes , a former assistant FBI director who headed the international operations office before leaving the agency in 2008. “It’s pretty clear it has picked up in the last year or two.” American-based extremists are a challenge for law enforcement because they’re harder to track than foreigners who travel to the U.S., said Frances Fragos Townsend , the former homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush . Terrorists overseas are increasingly recruiting Americans because border security has been strengthened making it harder for them to enter the country, Townsend said. The number of incidents this year involving American Muslims who have been accused of planning terror attacks, carrying them out or leaving to join a Jihad, or holy war, has risen to the highest level since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a tally by Brian Michael Jenkins , a terrorism specialist and senior adviser to the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica, California- based policy group. He said he counted 12 cases this year out of a total of 32 in the eight-plus years since the attacks. The rise of American extremists is causing concern among U.S. officials. ‘Threat Picture’ “Home-based terrorism is here,” said Janet Napolitano , the homeland security secretary, in speech this month in New York. “And like violent extremism abroad, it is now part of the threat picture that we must confront.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation, which says it has been developing relationships in U.S. Muslim communities, declined to comment. Law enforcement officials have repeatedly emphasized that most Muslim Americans don’t pose a threat. The arrests of the five men in Pakistan this week came after their families reported them missing from their homes in the Washington, D.C.-area. One of the men left behind a “farewell” video that showed images of conflicts in the Muslim world, “misused” verses from the Koran and suggested “young Muslims have to do something,” said Nihad Awad , national executive director of the Washington-based Council on American- Islamic Relations , who saw the video. Militant Contacts The men intended to fight against American troops in Afghanistan and had been in contact with a Pakistani militant with links to al-Qaeda before arriving in Pakistan on Nov. 30, the New York Times reported, citing Pakistani police. The men were rebuffed when they tried to join an extremist Islamic school and approached an extremist group, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, because of their demeanor and inability to speak Urdu, the national language, the Times reported. The FBI is investigating and couldn’t confirm the Pakistani police allegations, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Other cases this year include an Afghan immigrant who allegedly plotted to set off bombs in the U.S. in what officials said may have been the most serious terrorist threat since Sept. 11. Earlier this week, a Chicago man whose father was from Pakistan was accused of attending a terrorist training camp and conducting surveillance before the 2008 attack in Mumbai that killed about 170 people. Minneapolis Recruits Young men from the Minneapolis area whose families are from Somalia were recruited this year to travel to Somalia to fight on behalf of al-Shabaab, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., according to the Justice Department. Authorities also said this year that a Jordanian citizen living in the U.S. had planned to blow up an office tower in Dallas, and a Muslim convert plotted to blow up a federal courthouse in Illinois. “We basically have had one a month, which is not an encouraging development,” said Bruce Hoffman , a terrorism specialist and professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Cases of homegrown terrorists and those in the U.S. found to be associated with terrorist groups are “off the map,” he said in an interview. U.S. Muslim leaders say they’re working on ways to prevent young Muslim men from being swayed by radical messages on the Internet. “Our big challenge is now to be able to compete, challenge and scrutinize things in cyberspace,” said Mahdi Bray , executive director of the Muslim American Society’s Freedom Foundation , which focuses on civic education. The group is based in Washington. To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net

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Cricket: Pakistani players to miss IPL III

December 10, 2009

Cricket: Pakistani players to miss IPL III

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Bombs Strike Pakistan’s Punjab Province for Second Day, Killing 12 People

December 8, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Farhan Sharif Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Two bombs near a spy agency’s office in the Pakistani city of Multan killed at least 12 people today, taking the death toll from 16 hours of militant violence in the Punjab province to more than 50. The blasts minutes apart badly damaged the security building, rescue services and eyewitnesses said. At least 15 people were wounded. Several people may be trapped under the debris, Arshad Ali, a spokesman for the Edhi emergency service, said by telephone. GEO television said women and children were among those killed. Earlier, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said 40 people died and 100 were injured in twin market bombings last night in Lahore, Punjab’s capital. About 450 civilians and security officials have died in retaliatory bomb and gunfire attacks since Pakistan’s army began a military offensive on Oct. 17 against Taliban guerrillas based in the tribal region of South Waziristan. “The militants are going for civilian and security targets in a no-holds-barred manner and in a barbaric manner,” Mahmood Shah , a security analyst, said in a telephone interview from the northwestern city of Peshawar, repeatedly hit in recent terrorist attacks. “Terrorists have spread out and are taking advantage of a loose and untrained Pakistani security system.” Gunmen with bombs and grenades attacked a mosque near the Pakistani army headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi Dec. 4, killing at least 36 people attending weekly prayer services including military officers, women and children. Mufti Wali Rehman, second in command of the Taliban in Pakistan, told GEO the group took responsibility. Economic Powerhouse Punjab generates more than half of Pakistan’s economic growth. While the province has seen fewer terrorist attacks than Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun northwest, guerrillas in Lahore attacked three police headquarters in October and ambushed the Sri Lankan national cricket team’s bus in March. The province is home to about half of the country’s 180 million people. As the army continues its Waziristan offensive, Taliban militants have fled to the Khyber, Kurram and Orakzai districts of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal zone along the border. They have fought escalating battles with security forces in the past month. The army will continue its attacks on suspected Taliban camps in those areas, military spokesman Athar Abbas said Nov. 30 in a telephone interview. President Barack Obama said on Dec. 1 that the U.S. will dispatch 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan next year, calling Afghanistan and Pakistan the “epicenter of violent extremism practiced by al-Qaeda.” To contact the reporters on this story: Khalid Qayum in Islamabad at kqayum@bloomberg.net ; Farhan Sharif in New Delhi at fsharif2@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan Mosque Bombed by Militants During Prayers, Killing at Least 28

December 4, 2009

By Farhan Sharif and James Rupert Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — A suspected suicide attacker exploded a bomb during weekly prayers at a mosque in the Pakistani army’s headquarters city of Rawalpindi, Pakistan TV reports and rescue officials said. The explosion was followed by volleys of gunfire, said Mohammed Akram, a spokesman for the Edhi Ambulance Service. He said an unknown number of injuries were feared. The bomb struck a mosque in Rawalpindi’s Qasim Market, a district several minutes’ drive from the army’s general headquarters complex. Numerous people were injured or killed at the mosque, according to Dawn News television. The channel showed Pakistani police and soldiers directing traffic away from the neighborhood, and helicopters hovering overhead. To contact the reporters on this story: Farhan Sharif in Karachi at Fsharif2@bloomberg.net ; James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net .

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Gilani Says Osama Bin Laden Escaped Pakistan, Disputes U.K. Terror Claims

December 3, 2009

By Thomas Penny and Brian Lysaght Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani disputed U.K. claims that three-quarters of terror plots against Britain start in his country and said he does not believe al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan. Gilani was speaking in London after a meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown , who said on Nov. 29 that Pakistan should do more to “break” the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The Pakistani prime minister repeated his country’s call on the U.K. and U.S. to hand over any “credible or actionable” evidence they have about terrorists in Pakistan. “I don’t think that Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan,” Gilani said at a news conference with Brown today. “Most of them are not in Pakistan, they might be in Afghanistan.” The comments indicate divisions between Britain and Pakistan about the conduct of the war on terrorism. Brown has been saying for a year that Pakistan was the source of the majority of terror plots in the U.K. and repeats the claim regularly as justification for the British involvement in the conflict over the border in Afghanistan. Thousands of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters sought shelter in Pakistan’s tribal region after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, and Pakistani forces have recently stepped up operations against them. Osama’s Escape There have been no confirmed sightings of Bin Laden since he escaped U.S.-led forces in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in December 2001. Gilani said he did not agree with Brown’s claim that three quarters of plots start in Pakistan. “I do not agree with this information because we are fighting this war on terrorism,” Gilani said. He said, “Uzbeks, Chechens, Arabs and Taliban from Afghanistan” had been fighting with al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Brown, who announced 50 million pounds ($83 million) in aid to Pakistan to assist with stabilization of the areas around the border with Afghanistan, praised the success of Pakistani operations in the Swat valley. He said Britain will continue to work together to combat the terrorist threat. “In this strategic dialogue between Pakistan and Britain we can all step up our efforts to fight this terrorist threat,” Brown said. “We’re seeing on both sides of the border the determination on the part of everyone concerned to take on terrorism on both sides of the border.” “That’s a welcome sign that all of us are working together for the common goal of dealing with terrorism,” Brown said. Gilani said the Pakistani government is seeking “more clarity” on the measures President Barack Obama set out earlier this week to guide the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. American Visitor U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal , the commander in Afghanistan, will be visiting Pakistan to discuss greater military co-operation with the U.S. He urged increased emphasis on political and humanitarian solutions in Afghanistan to win “hearts and minds.” “I don’t think military action is the solution to problems so we must have an exit policy,” Gilani said, citing the Pakistani experience in tribal areas. “Military action is only 10 percent; 90 percent is that you have to complement it with political decisions, with economics, with social and cultural input in those areas.” To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Penny in London tpenny@bloomberg.net

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Pratt & Whitney delivers F100-229 engines to Pakistani Air Force

November 17, 2009

Pratt & Whitney delivers F100-229 engines to Pakistani Air Force

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Pakistan Says U.S., NATO Should Share Intelligence on Afghanistan Border

November 11, 2009

By Anwar Shakir and Paul Tighe Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. and NATO should share intelligence with Pakistan to help “sanitize” the border with Afghanistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said. The “flow of weapons, drugs, illicit money and militants” must be prevented along the 2,430-kilometer (1,510-mile) frontier, Gilani told a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Islamabad yesterday, the official Associated Press of Pakistan reported . The Obama administration should take Pakistan into its confidence over its revised security policy for Afghanistan, Gilani said. President Barack Obama is deciding whether to send as many as 40,000 additional soldiers to the country. Pakistan’s army is engaged in its biggest offensive against pro-Taliban militants in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , who visited Islamabad last month, this week praised the government’s “forceful response” to the Taliban. Improved intelligence cooperation will help Pakistan enforce security along the border, APP cited Gilani as telling the delegation headed by John Tierney , a Massachusetts Democrat in the House of Representatives. The U.S. should discuss its plans for Afghanistan with the government in Islamabad to ensure a military buildup doesn’t have an adverse effect on Pakistani regions where militants are operating, Gilani said without elaborating. Military Supplies Pakistan needs military supplies to help it bring the army’s offensive to a successful conclusion, the prime minister said. The government has called on the U.S. to provide technology so it is able to use remote-controlled drone aircraft against militant bases. The country has received about $7.6 billion in military reimbursements from the U.S. since 2001 for counterterrorism. Militants have retaliated for the South Waziristan offensive by staging suicide bombings and attacks that have killed more than 300 people since mid-October in towns and cities, including Islamabad. They are mounting a “desperate” guerrilla war after suffering defeats in the tribal area, Gilani said two days ago. The bombings and raids are a “direct attack on the authority of the Pakistani government,” Clinton said in a Nov. 9 interview with the PBS network. At least eight members of the security forces were killed yesterday when a mine exploded in Mohmand near the Afghan border. A suicide bombing at a market in Charsadda in North West Frontier Province two days ago killed 40 people and 17 others were killed in two separate bombings Nov. 8 and 9 in Peshawar, the provincial capital. The army’s operation in South Waziristan is targeting the Tehreek-e-Taliban, the group Pakistan blames for 80 percent of terrorist attacks on its territory. While the government says it’s aiming to complete the offensive before winter begins in the tribal region next month, the Taliban said earlier this month it is withdrawing its forces deliberately in order to draw soldiers into the region and engage them in a long war. To contact the reporters on this story: Anwar Shakir at ashakir1@bloomberg.net ; Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net .

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Pakistan Market Bombing Kills 60 as Clinton Arrives for Talks on Terrorism

October 28, 2009

By Farhan Sharif and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) — At least 44 people were killed and 100 injured by a bombing in a crowded Pakistani market as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her first official visit to the country to support the fight against terrorism. “Bodies are scattered and badly burned because of a fire caused by the explosion,” Mohammed Naeem, a spokesman for the Edhi Ambulance Service said today by telephone from Peshawar, the site of the explosion. Pakistan’s military is engaged in a campaign to rout Islamic militants from strongholds in South Waziristan along the porous border with Afghanistan. The almost two-week assault has sparked retaliatory suicide bombings and assaults that have claimed more than 150 lives before today’s attack, prompting tight security and secrecy around Clinton’s visit. Clinton, arriving in Islamabad on a three-day visit, is seeking to douse tension that flared this month over perceived conditions attached to a new U.S. assistance bill and back a military offensive against Taliban militants who have carried out suicide attacks. “We are turning the page on what had been in the past several years primarily a security, anti-terrorism agenda,” Clinton told reporters traveling with her. While security remains “our highest priority,” she said she’ll highlight U.S. support for the civilian government and initiatives on energy and economic development. Praising the resolve of authorities in fighting insurgents, she said it is “important for Americans and others to recognize the high price the Pakistanis are paying” in civilian, police and military casualties in battling allies of al-Qaeda. Army Anger Clinton traveled to Islamabad less than two weeks after a visit to Washington by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi . He conveyed the anger of Pakistan’s military establishment, government opponents and media over perceived strings attached to a $1.5 billion annual U.S. aid package passed by Congress last month. “It is unfortunate that there are those who question our motives who are perhaps skeptical that we are going to be there for the long term,” Clinton said. Language in the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act became a rallying point for opponents of the government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari , and she said the outcry was misplaced. “There is misunderstanding,” Clinton said. “These aren’t conditions on Pakistan so much as they are metrics for measuring whether we think our aid is being productive.” The bill requires the Secretary of State to certify civilian control of Pakistan’s military, cooperation with counter-terrorism, protection of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and compliance with international non-proliferation standards. Defense Bill An unrelated U.S. defense bill passed last week requires the secretaries of State and Defense to report to Congress on whether payments to Pakistan are spent in line with U.S. interests and not diverted to military spending against India. Clinton’s visit — to include meetings with tribal elders, women, journalists, civic leaders and government officials in Islamabad and Lahore — is intended to dispel fears the U.S. will abandon the region when counterterrorism objectives are accomplished. Polls show a majority of Pakistanis disapprove of U.S. policy, especially unmanned air strikes on suspected insurgent hideouts in tribal regions. Strong anti-American sentiment could “jeopardize the U.S. ability to partner with Pakistan effectively,” said Lisa Curtis , a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. The Kerry-Lugar-Berman civilian aid bill signed this month by President Barack Obama authorizes $7.5 billion over five years for road construction, schools, power facilities and livelihood projects. It’s in addition to about $7.6 billion in U.S. military payments to reimburse Pakistan for counterterrorism spending since 2001. Obama’s Challenge Obama is weighing how to address a worsening regional insurgency eight years after the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. and the retreat of its architects into tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Pakistani authorities may raise their concern with Clinton that U.S. and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan must not abandon frontier posts lest militants seek haven on either side. In the Afghan capital of Kabul today, gunmen stormed a United Nations guesthouse and killed six UN workers in an attack the Taliban said was aimed at disrupting next month’s Afghan presidential runoff election. Eight more U.S. troops killed by bombings in Afghanistan made October the deadliest month for the U.S. since its 2001 invasion. Since May, the Pakistani army has cracked down on extremists who previously enjoyed some support from authorities. That has sparked an internal refugee crisis, suicide bombings on busy streets, assaults on military bases and the assassination of an army brigadier this month. The attacks have diminished public sympathy for religious extremists. Disengagement Asked if Pakistani security services had ceased to collaborate with militant groups they have sponsored as proxies in skirmishes with India, Clinton said, “We are constantly assessing that, because it remains a concern.” Still, “the level of cooperation that we have received from the Pakistani military and intelligence services has increased geometrically” since Obama took office in January, she said. “Nine months is not a lot of time to turn around a relationship that has a lot of scars,” Clinton said. The secretary acknowledged the U.S. helped create Muslim militias known as the mujahadeen in the 1980s and then abandoned the region after the Soviets were driven out. To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Islamabad at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

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Clinton Arrives in Pakistan to Underscore U.S. Support on Terrorism Fight

October 28, 2009

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Islamabad for a three-day visit intended to underscore U.S. support for a crucial partner in the fight against terrorism and to chip away at mistrust of American aims in the region. Clinton is making her first trip to Islamabad as the top U.S. diplomat at a delicate moment for relations with Pakistan, which for decades have been strained by mutual suspicion of each others’ motives. The tension flared this month in Pakistan over perceived conditions in a U.S. assistance bill. “We are turning the page on what had been in the past several years primarily a security, anti-terrorism agenda,” Clinton told reporters traveling with her to Islamabad. While security “remains a very high priority,” she said her visit will highlight U.S. support for the civilian government and economic development. It also will seek to counter fears that the U.S. will abandon Pakistan when its objectives in Afghanistan are accomplished, she said. Pakistan’s military is engaged in a politically sensitive campaign to rout Islamic militants from strongholds along the porous border with Afghanistan. The offensive has sparked retaliatory suicide bombings and assaults that have claimed more than 150 lives this month, leading to heightened security across the country. Many Casualties It is “important for Americans and others to recognize the high price the Pakistanis are paying” in civilian, police and military casualties in the battle against local allies of al- Qaeda, Clinton said. She arrived in Islamabad less than two weeks after a visit to Washington by Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi . He conveyed the anger of Pakistan’s military establishment, political opponents of the government and the media over perceived strings attached to a five-year $7.5 billion economic aid package. “It is unfortunate that there are those who question our motives who are perhaps skeptical that we are going to be there for the long-term,” Clinton said. The anger in Pakistan over the aid package is misplaced, she said. Her visit — to include meetings with tribal elders, women, Pakistani media, civic leaders and government officials in Islamabad and Lahore — is intended to dispel that skepticism. Building Infrastructure The U.S. assistance plan, signed this month by President Barack Obama , authorizes funds for road construction, schools, power facilities and other civilian projects. It is on top of about $7.6 billion in U.S. military aid to reimburse Pakistan for counterterrorism since 2001. The latest aid demonstrates “the American people’s long- term commitment to the people of Pakistan,” Senator John Kerry , a Massachusetts Democrat, and Representative Howard Berman , a California Democrat, said in a document released Oct. 15. Obama is weighing how to address a worsening regional insurgency eight years after the Sept. 11 terror attack on the U.S. and the retreat of its masterminds into tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Pakistani authorities may raise their concern with Clinton that U.S. and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan must be vigilant in patrolling the frontier to protect against militants seeking haven on either side. Army Crackdown Since May, the Pakistani army has cracked down on extremists who previously enjoyed support from authorities. That has sparked an internal refugee crisis, suicide bombings on busy streets and a university, assaults on military bases and the assassination of a senior army official this month. The attacks have diminished public sympathy for religious extremists. Clinton praised Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and military authorities for their commitment to push back Taliban forces that seized territory in the Swat Valley and nearby districts within 100 miles of the capital. Clinton said she is unsure that Pakistani security services had ceased to collaborate with militants they have sponsored as proxies in skirmishes with India and as a hedge against U.S. disengagement from the region. “We are constantly assessing that because it remains a concern to us,” she said. Still, “the level of cooperation that we have received from the Pakistani military and intelligence services has increased geometrically” since Obama took office in January, she said. “Nine months is not a lot of time to turn around a relationship that has a lot of scars,” Clinton said. There is a longstanding Pakistani view that the U.S. helped create Muslim militias known as the mujahadeen in the 1980s and then abandoned the region after the Soviets were driven out. Osama bin Laden was among the CIA-supported mujahadeen fighters in Afghanistan who turned against the West and formed al-Qaeda. To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Islamabad at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

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Higher remittances inflow raises Pakistani banks liquidity

October 26, 2009

Higher remittances inflow raises Pakistani banks liquidity

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Famous Pakistani cleric against army action in South Waziristan

October 21, 2009

Famous Pakistani cleric against army action in South Waziristan

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Taleban put up strong resistance against Pakistani govt push

October 19, 2009

Taleban put up strong resistance against Pakistani govt push

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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 Begins Offensive Against Militant Stronghold in Waziristan Region

October 17, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and Naween Mangi Oct. 17 (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 yesterday, said an army spokesman, who 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 continuing to leave 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 today. 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. A bomb exploded near a military convoy as it moved from Razmak, a military base in North Waziristan, Agence France- Presse reported. While the agency said two soldiers were killed, that was not confirmed by the army statement. 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 have killed 140 people, including 11 who died in a car bombing yesterday 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 past week, the Pakistani media’s focus has been on the commando assaults Oct. 15 and a 22-hour siege last weekend 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 spate of attacks is in part an effort to demoralize Pakistan’s security forces in advance of the offensive begun today, 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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U.S. Seeks to Calm Concerns in Pakistan Before Obama Signs Aid Legislation

October 13, 2009

By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) — Criticism in Pakistan over the terms of a $7.5 billion U.S. assistance offer has American lawmakers and the administration seeking to mollify the concerns as President Barack Obama readies to sign the bill. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman are drafting an “explanatory statement” to accompany the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act that passed Congress last month and that Obama is set to sign. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi is in Washington to convey concerns some have raised in his country that the U.S. would impose restrictions on Pakistan’s sovereignty as a condition of the economic assistance. The measure’s $7.5 billion would be provided to Pakistan over five years to build roads, schools, power facilities and other projects serving civilians. The debate in Pakistan has exposed anti-American sentiment and distrust over U.S. intentions in the country. It also has underscored the uneasy relationship between the elected government and the Pakistani military that has run the country for half of its six-decade history. “There are no conditions on Pakistan attached to the $7.5 billion in nonmilitary aid,” Kerry said yesterday after meeting with Qureshi on Capitol Hill. “There is nothing in the bill that impinges on Pakistani sovereignty.” Domestic Furor Qureshi, who was in Washington last week to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton , was dispatched again this week in response to the domestic furor over the aid package. Language in the bill referring to U.S. support for civilian control of Pakistan’s military and the military’s cooperation in combating terrorism irked Pakistan’s army. Parliamentary opponents of the Pakistani government have exploited that divide by fanning the dispute. “I’m carrying a message from the Parliament of Pakistan,” Qureshi said after meeting Kerry. “There are some misperceptions, concerns raised” that need to be addressed. Qureshi said he had reiterated “loud and clear” that “Pakistan will not compromise on its sovereignty,” while adding that he understands “the bill intends to build a partnership.” He said he would work with Congress to clarify understanding of the legislation in his country. “The bill has not been characterized accurately in some quarters,” Kerry said. “We need to respond in a way that will address those concerns.” Support Needed The strain the issue has put on U.S.-Pakistani relations comes as the Obama administration is under pressure to revamp its strategy to defeat a resurgent Taliban militant movement in neighboring Afghanistan. The U.S. needs the support of the Pakistani military in cracking down on terror groups along the border. Criticism of the bill from prominent voices in Pakistan has prompted some U.S. lawmakers to question how Pakistani leaders view the relationship with the U.S.. “It’s Pakistani politics — there are agencies and players in Pakistan that want to show they’re standing up to America. To what: our gifts, our support, our best wishes?” Rep. Gary Ackerman , a New York Democrat and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, said in an interview yesterday. Last week, Ackerman said, ‘If Pakistan doesn’t want us as a partner, that’s up to them. But should they take such a decision, they should do so knowing full well that our military assistance, advanced technology and intelligence cooperation are not gifts, but the specific consequences” of a working relationship between the two countries. ‘Long-Term Commitment’ State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said yesterday the aid measure “represents the kind of long-term commitment” that is in the interests of both countries. “It’s hard to see how that impinges upon the relationship between the Pakistani military and the Pakistani civilian government,” he said. Qureshi met yesterday with Kerry, Berman, and Richard Holbrooke , U.S. special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan. The assistance measure was co-sponsored in the Senate by Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Richard Lugar , an Indiana Republican; Berman, a California Democrat, spearheaded it in the House. The U.S. provides more than $1 billion a year to Pakistan in military assistance. To contact the reporter on this story: Indira Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net

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Pakistan’s Army Says 22 Hostages Freed, 3 Killed in Rescue at Headquarters

October 10, 2009

By James Rupert and Naween Mangi Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s military said 22 hostages were freed and another three killed during a rescue operation against Islamic guerillas inside army headquarters today. Four of the five militants, who seized the Pakistani troops and civilians after earlier trying to storm the site in Rawalpindi, were killed in the raid, army spokesman Athar Abbas told Dawn News Television in a telephone interview. The assault began at 6 a.m. local time with four large explosions and gunfire. The militants’ direct assault on the center of Pakistan’s most powerful institution “will have an unpredictable political impact far beyond” the number of casualties, said Hassan Abbas , a Harvard University analyst and author on the ties between Pakistan’s army and Islamic militants. After decades in which the military covertly supported guerrillas via its intelligence agencies, “such a sophisticated attack by militants” on the army’s command center is “unprecedented,” he said. The attack, in Rawalpindi, adjacent to Islamabad, the capital, began shortly before midday yesterday when a white van rolled toward an army checkpoint outside the headquarters, the army spokesman told reporters. Men in camouflage uniforms struck two such posts with automatic rifles and grenades, he said. “This shows the continuing threats to the Pakistani government,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters en route to London. Hit and Run The fighters did not seem to have a specific target within the headquarters, army spokesman Abbas said. “Their mission seems to be hit and run or hit and get hit,” he told Pakistan’s GEO TV news channel. Pakistan’s government blames recent terrorist attacks on Taliban militants based in the ethnic Pashtun tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. The government is preparing a fresh offensive against the Taliban, in the tribal region of Waziristan. “The militants are trying to make the government reconsider the operation in Waziristan” by showing “their ability to strike at the symbol” of security and power in Pakistan, said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies. The army has ruled for 32 of Pakistan’s 62 years. The Rawalpindi siege came a day after a car bomb killed 50 people in the center of Peshawar, the northwestern provincial capital. A suicide bomber killed five at the United Nations World Food Program headquarters in Islamabad on Oct. 5. Pressure Building Analyst Mahmood Shah , a former security chief of the tribal region, said the recent attacks “build pressure on the government to start” its planned attack in Waziristan. “The terrorists are trying to prove their superiority and preparedness in counter-attack.” A caller to GEO TV, claiming to represent a Taliban faction named the Amjad Farooqi Group, claimed responsibility for the attack, the station reported. Farooqi helped lead the 2002 kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and was killed in a battle with police in 2004. The group bearing his name is based in southern Punjab, apart from the main Taliban strongholds in Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun western region, GEO said. Interior Minister Rehman Malik did not confirm the group’s claim in an interview late yesterday with CNN. The 12 attackers rented a house in a rural area of Islamabad and “had been planning for it for a long time,” he said. “We want to take them alive, so we have more information on them.” Uncertain Response “It’s uncertain how this attack might change the army’s relationship” with militant groups, said Hassan Abbas, who recently returned to the U.S. from research in Pakistan. In the 1980s and 1990s, Pakistan’s army supported the Taliban and other groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group that Pakistan and India say plotted the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai. The army may turn more decisively against the militants, though its commanders “are picking their battles very carefully,” and are wary of starting a fight with Lashkar-e- Taiba, which has a strong organization and has gathered sympathizers nationwide, Hassan Abbas said. “I’m worried that people in the security establishment will say this attack was an Indian-backed plot” in retaliation for the Oct. 8 bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Hassan Abbas said. Pakistan’s army officer corps “perceives many enemies, including India and sometimes the U.S.” and “we don’t know whom they will blame,” he said. Malik said yesterday the government will decide soon on when to start an offensive against the main Taliban force, in Waziristan. He said the army’s recapture of the northwestern Swat Valley this year and the killing in a missile strike of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud have left the Taliban movement in disarray. Samina Ahmed, South Asia director of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, disagreed. The steady stream of attacks, especially in large cities, “raises questions about government claims that the militants’ operational capacity is being destroyed,” she said yesterday in a telephone interview. To contact the reporters on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@ bloomberg.net; Naween Mangi in Karachi nmangi1@bloomberg.net .

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Suicide Bomber at World Food Program Office in Pakistan Capital Kills Five

October 5, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — A suicide bomber in Pakistan killed five people in the UN World Food Program headquarters by dressing as a soldier and asking to use the toilet, officials said. The attacker’s disguise concealed about 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of explosives, police said, and circumvented a two-story defensive wall the UN had built against car bombs. The assault underscored the vulnerability of Islamabad’s best-protected areas, raising a column of smoke over the upscale neighborhood where President Asif Ali Zardari has his home a few blocks away. The attack was the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since April, and prompted a “temporary closure” of all United Nations offices in the country, WFP spokeswoman UN Ishrat Rizvi said. No decision has been made when to open them, she said. Five people — an Iraqi man and four Pakistanis, two of them women — died by early evening, said Wasim Khawaja, spokesman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital. WFP said earlier that four of its staffers were dead. “This is a terrible tragedy for the UN and for the whole humanitarian community in Pakistan,” UN Secretary-General Ban KI-moon said in a statement released in New York. “This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and the vulnerable on the frontlines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan,” he said. Foreign Targets The bombing was the third in 16 months against foreign institutions in the capital, after attacks that killed 53 at the Marriott Hotel in September of last year and six at the Danish Embassy in June. While no one claimed responsibility for the blast, Interior Minister Rehman Malik blamed Pakistan’s Taliban guerrilla movement, which has fought an escalated war this year against army troops in the country’s northwest. “Five days ago there was a meeting of Taliban and they decided to attack cities and towns with suicide bombers,” he said. “There may be a few more attacks in the near future, but I assure you we will finish the remaining terrorists.” The Taliban vowed to launch attacks to seek vengeance for the killing in August of its commander, Baitullah Mehsud , in a missile strike by U.S. unmanned aircraft. Pakistani troops are poised for a possible offensive against Mehsud’s fighters in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border. The bomb exploded without warning about noon, said Saadia Abbasi, a Pakistani lawyer and former senator who lives across the street. “There was a terrible blast, and everything shook and smoke started pouring out” of the compound, she said in a telephone interview. UN Food Aid “The UN staff have brought about four or five people out of there, bleeding and injured,” Abbasi said 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. The attack was the deadliest since April 4, when a suicide bomber attacked a paramilitary police post about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the site of today’s blast, killing eight officers. The attack will increase pressure on the UN and foreign embassies to move their offices in Islamabad out of the city’s elite residential neighborhoods to a fenced and guarded diplomatic enclave set up by the government. Rizvi said UN agencies are discussing such a move with Pakistani authorities and Malik said he has asked embassies to shift their facilities. Bomb Defenses 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 the capital, 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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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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Blast at World Food Program Office in Pakistani Capital Kills Three People

October 5, 2009

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) — A bomb exploded in the Pakistan headquarters of the United Nations’ World Food Program , police told reporters, killing at least two people and injuring several others. The midday blast in Islamabad killed a foreigner and a Pakistani woman, said Wasim Khawaja, a spokesman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences , a hospital in the capital. It was caused by a bomb that may have been placed in the basement, Islamabad police superintendent Tahir Alam told reporters. The explosion raised a column of smoke over the elite Islamabad neighborhood where President Asif Ali Zardari has his home only a few blocks away. “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. Within an hour of the blast, at least four injured people had been taken to the PIMS hospital, Khawaja told reporters. 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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Taliban Deny Pakistani Report of Infighting, Say U.S. Didn’t Kill Leader

August 10, 2009

By James Rupert and Khalid Qayum Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — A deputy leader of Pakistan’s Taliban dismissed a government statement that he was killed in guerrilla infighting over who should replace the movement’s leader, Baitullah Mehsud . Hakimullah Mehsud telephoned an ethnic Pashtun analyst today to rebut the government’s report of a gunbattle among top aides to Baitullah Mehsud, who U.S. and Pakistani officials say was killed by a U.S. missile on Aug. 5. “Hakimullah called me to deny the claim of the government,” the analyst, Sailab Mahsud , said in a telephone interview from Dera Ismail Khan, a Pakistani city just east of South Waziristan. Hakimullah said Baitullah also is alive and couldn’t come to the phone to prove it because they were “in the battlefield,” said Mahsud, a co-tribesman of the Taliban leaders who publishes a newsletter on Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtun community. The Taliban leader’s telephone call was the latest of several claims surrounding the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said yesterday that Hakimullah Mehsud had died in a gunfight with a rival candidate to lead the Taliban. “There is a full-scale psy-war going on,” said Bahukutumbi Raman, a terrorism analyst who directs the Institute for Topical Studies in Chennai, India. Pakistan and the U.S. have described Baitullah’s killing as a major victory in their fight against the Taliban, whose main stronghold is in the rocky mountains of Waziristan, home to the Mehsuds and several other Pashtun tribes. Secondary Leaders Retired and current Pakistani officials voiced hope that Mehsud’s death might change the war in the government’s favor. “The 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. Other analysts say the Taliban may not be critically weakened by a possible loss of their leader. “The secondary leaders are having discussions,” rather than battles, about a new commander, said Karim Mehsud, a Pakistani lawyer who cited his contacts from his past mediation with Taliban and tribal leaders. Taliban accounts of Baitullah Mehsud’s fate have varied so widely that he may indeed be dead, analyst Mahsud said. Many Mehsud tribesmen and Taliban sources have confirmed his death to Pakistani and Western news organizations. While Hakimullah told Mahsud that Baitullah was too busy to be brought to the phone, Maulana Nur Syed, a guerrilla spokesman, said he is gravely ill, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. The leader needed treatment for diabetes, according to Taliban officials cited by the New York Times. Challenged Government In his phone call, Hakimullah “challenged the government to bring out any proof that Baitullah is dead,” said Mahsud. 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.” Some degree of Taliban rivalry is indeed likely, Shah, Mahsud and other analysts said. Mutual suspicion among Taliban leaders has been deepened by the increasing accuracy of U.S. missile strikes such as the one that targeted Mehsud, said Raman. “Taliban are asking who is the mole in their midst” who might be sending information to Pakistani or U.S. forces to help target the missiles, he said in an e-mail. The U.S. offered a $5 million bounty for the capture of Mehsud, who said he ordered suicide bombings from his base in the tribal district bordering Afghanistan . Taliban Funds The government’s account of a battle between Hakimullah Mehsud and another top Taliban lieutenant, Waliur Rehman, was reported today by an English-language Pakistani daily, The News. The two men claimed the leadership amid a fight for control of Taliban funds and weapons worth millions of dollars, The News said, citing a security official it didn’t identify. Pakistan’s government blames Mehsud for the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto , the wife of current President Asif Ali Zardari . 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. Baitullah 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, according to Malik and local media reports. ‘A Big Deal’ 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 No. 1 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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