Pakistan Conflict Monitor

Press Q&A with Admiral Mullen on AfPak Security

Pakistan Press Avail, Delivered by Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joint Chiefs of Staff, July 24, 2010

EXCERPT: "[Q] Admiral, you were just quoted in New Delhi saying something that we do not always agree to the whole way the ISI works: 'The manner that they work, we have our differences.' Can you expand on that? Exactly where do you differ on the manner of working? [A] It is both the Pakistan – the military as well as the ISI. And the ISI in particular have captured or killed more terrorists than any other organization, any other country – sorry, it’s the military as well as the ISI – in the world. They’ve worked with us incredibly well in important areas. There are parts of the ISI I don’t understand specifically. [...] I think I’ll just leave it where I said it: that very specifically, there have been great accomplishments on the part of the Pak mil and ISI specifically and there certainly are areas that I just don’t have a clear picture of. [...] [Q] There are perceptions in Pakistani press and Pakistani people that Americans always rely on the information provided to them by Indian sources, like the movements of the – (inaudible) – in Pakistan or the whereabouts of the – and coming – the terrorists want Pakistan to be Afghanistan. [...] [A] Well, I’ll be very specific with respect to terrorists which move freely across the border. And I want to assure you that our information and intelligence in that regard doesn’t come from the Indians, very specifically."

Read the full interview.

Related articles:
Admiral Mullen asks ISI to shift its strategic focus, Times of India, 30 July 2010
Afghans pose awkward questions for US military chief, The Associated Press, 27 July 2010

Related posts:
US troops in Pakistan to oversee development projects, 21 July 2010
ISI trains, funds, and supplies Taliban: Report, 14 June 2010
US special ops aiding Pakistan's "hold and build" operations, 13 April 2010
Response to US troop presence surprisingly muted, 4 February 2010

Lashkar-e-Taiba Expands Focus, Links with Al-Qaeda

Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Growing International Focus and Its Links with al-Qaeda, The Jamestown Foundation // Terrorism Monitor, 29 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Recent revelations that several so-called 'home-grown militants' connected to terrorist plots in Europe, North America and Australia had passed through camps controlled by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) have generated growing concern that the group may be emerging as a new global actor working in collaboration with al-Qaeda. Compounding these fears is evidence that LeT’s ideological and operational focus is now going well beyond the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the foment of an Islamist revolution in India. However, while ties with al-Qaeda cannot be fully discounted, LeT’s close relationship with the Pakistani state combined with its fabled discipline and tight organizational cohesion would seem to suggest that it is not (yet) morphing into another affiliate of Bin Laden’s global Islamist enterprise. [...] Although the LeT has always promoted an international agenda (promising, for instance, to plant the Islamic flag in the capitals of the United States, Russia and Israel), it has mostly focused its activities on local and regional theaters. Today, there is as much emphasis given to fighting Washington and allied governments supportive of the global war on terror as on staging attacks in India and J&K. [12] This shift in focus is arguably supported by LeT’s alleged involvement in the aforementioned attacks and other plots in the UK, Australia and Bangladesh."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Lashkar-e-Taiba has become global threat: Admiral Mullen, Times of India, 25 July 2010
India fears LeT strike at Commonwealth Games: Report, The Hindu, 25 July 2010

Related posts:
LeT seeks to destabilise South Asia, ISI-Taliban links a problem: Holbrooke, 22 July 2010
Pakistan bans 23 Militant outfits, 6 July 2010
Lashkar-e-Taiba increasingly independent, ambitious: Report, 19 March 2010
US worries LeT might trigger India-Pakistan war, 11 March 2010
Lashkar-e-Taiba: One year after Mumbai, 26 November 2009

Pakistan Furious after UK PM's "Exporting Terror" Remark

Pakistan Furious about Cameron's Terrorism Allegations, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 29 July 2010

EXCERPT: "A diplomatic row has broken out between the United Kingdom and Pakistan after U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron accused elements of Pakistan's security and intelligence services of promoting the export of terrorism. Pakistani officials are reportedly furious about Cameron's remarks and say they have damaged the prospects for regional peace. Speaking in Bangalore on July 28, Cameron opened a diplomatic rift between Islamabad and London when he suggested that Pakistan is 'looking both ways' on exporting terrorism while demanding respect as a democracy. [...] With his visit aimed at improving economic links between India and the United Kingdom, Cameron named several terrorism groups that, according to India, are sponsored by Pakistan -- including the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and Lashkar-e Taiba. [...] Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai entered into the diplomatic fray on July 29, questioning why, with so many intelligence reports about links between Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and the Taliban, NATO does not carry out more attacks against militants who have 'sanctuaries, sources of funding, and training' in Pakistan. [...] Pakistani lawmaker Khurshid Ahmad, vice president of the Islamist Jamaat-e Islami party, said 90 percent of the reports alleging Pakistani links with militants were 'attributed to Afghan intelligence agencies, whose reports are totally unreliable and fabricated.' Ahmad said it was 'unacceptable' for Cameron to make his statements about Pakistan on the basis of such reports.

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Pakistanis irate over PM's 'exporting terror' remark, The Independent, 29 July 2010
Cameron escapes diplomatic crisis with Pakistan, Financial Times, 29 July 2010
David Cameron defends 'frank' comments about Pakistan, BBC News, 29 July 2010
British HC summoned, will demand explanation: Qureshi, DAWN, 29 July 2010
Why David Cameron's words disappoint Pakistan [OpEd by High Commissioner of Pakistan for UK], The Guardian, 28 July 2010

Related posts: 
Afghanistan, Pakistan get higher priority at DfID, 26 May 2010
UK to provide £665 million in aid over four years, 9 April 2010
Pakistan's PM denies Bin Laden in Pakistan, UK pledges $83 million, 3 December 2009
Pakistan must do more: UK, 30 November 2009

Govt Attempts to Rehabilitate "Would-Be Suicide Bombers"

Pakistan Attempts Rehabilitation of Would-Be Suicide Bombers, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 28 July 2010

EXCERPT: "As suicide bombings have become a common tactic of terrorist groups in Pakistan, the authorities are now trying to rehabilitate would-be attackers, RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal reports. A suicide bomber who killed eight people on July 26 outside the home of a provincial minister near Peshawar is representative of the suicide bomber demographic -- like the vast majority, he was a juvenile male. Mohammad Farooq Khan is a doctor at a rehabilitation center in the northern Swat district for would-be bombers. His facility is one of two in Pakistan where a total of some 175 young people are being 'treated.' Farooq Khan told Radio Mashaal that the parents of most of the patients at the center had sent their children to strict madrasahs or to Islamic fundamentalist organizations to be educated. The parents later realized that their children were being turned into extremists. Farooq Khan said many of the boys grew up without their fathers, who were usually working abroad or in other parts of Pakistan."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
In Afghanistan, no shortage of suicide bombers, NPR, 28 July 2010
What goes into the making of a suicide bomber, The Express Tribune, 20 July 2010

Related posts:
Beyond madrasas: Assessing the links between education and militancy in Pakistan, 23 June 2010
Poor health facilities exacerbate bomb tolls, 6 January 2010
Taliban brainwashing kids into killers: Military, 5 January 2010
Suicide bombers cause torment for Pakistani children, 17 November 2009
Lack of basic education fuels rise in Taliban, extremism, 9 November 2009

Pakistan Investigates Ex-Army Officers in Mumbai Attacks

Pakistan Investigates Ex-Army Officers in Mumbai Attacks, The Wall Street Journal, 20 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Pakistan is investigating the possible involvement of two former army officers and four other militants in the 2008 attacks on Mumbai based on new information provided by India, according to a senior Pakistani government official. But the government denies India's assertions that Pakistan's military spy agency orchestrated the strike. Claims of Pakistani-intelligence involvement in the Mumbai attacks were made by a senior Indian government official last week on the eve of a heralded peace summit between the two nations' foreign ministers. Speaking to a local Indian newspaper, Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said New Delhi's questioning of David Headley, a Pakistani-American citizen involved in the Mumbai attacks and now in U.S. custody, had provided evidence that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency orchestrated the killings. Mr. Pillai's claims sparked a round of mutual recriminations that cast a pall over efforts to reduce tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors. India's national security adviser, Shivshankar Menon, reiterated India's concerns Tuesday that links between Pakistan's 'establishment' - a term for its powerful military and spy agencies rather than the civilian government - and Islamist terrorists were strengthening."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Lashkar e Tayyiba, Al Qaeda, and Pakistan: Time to clean house, The Brookings Institution // Up Front Blog, 20 July 2010
Pakistan rejects India's allegations on Headley, Sify News, 20 July 2010
Headley's revelations cannot be brushed under the carpet: Krishna, NDTV, 20 July 2010
US shares Headley's revelations with Pak, One India, 20 July 2010

Related posts:
Military's influence hinders political progress, 19 July 2010
India accuses Pakistan spy agency of executing Mumbai attacks, 14 July 2010
Headley attended Lashkar terrorism training camps, 15 January 2010
Tactical implications of the Headley case, 17 December 2009
Lashkar-e-Taiba: One year after Mumbai, 26 November 2009

Blast Evidence Suggests Militants Switching Tactics: Official

Tension Ramped Up a Notch in Pakistan, Asia Times Online, 21 July 2010

EXCERPT: "The discovery of a 'shaped charge' - an explosive charge shaped to intensely focus the effect of the explosive's energy - at the scene of a recent attack in Pakistan has raised fears that al-Qaeda aims to switch from targeted terrorist attacks to a high-level insurgency - a form of urban guerrilla warfare. A senior Pakistani counter-terrorism official confirmed to Asia Times Online that evidence of a 'shaped charge' device was found after the twin attacks this month at the shrine of a Sufi saint in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore in which more than 40 people were killed and nearly 200 injured. Shaped charges are more traditionally used to penetrate armor, but insurgents in Iraq used them to good effect in improvised explosive devices. 'This is simply preparation for urban guerrilla warfare in Pakistan, like al-Qaeda previously launched in Iraq,' the official said. [...] Military operations in the tribal areas in 2008 and 2009 were successful in that they forced militants to pull back from urban areas, where maintaining the peace on a long-term basis was left in the hands of the police and the local administrations. These, though, are riddled with corruption. Most police appointments in Pakistan are deeply politicized and made with political consent rather than on merit. Aware of this, the Americans and top Pakistani security agencies tried to make sure that appointments in the crucial region of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa were made on merit."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Key Pakistani counter-terrorism official resigns, The Associated Press, 20 July 2010
"Five militants killed in NW Pakistan attack", AFP, 20 July 2010
Six injured in two Lahore blasts, DAWN, 18 July 2010
Three killed, 20 injured in Sargodha suicide attack, DAWN 19 July 2010
24 Bajaur militants surrender, The News International, 19 July 2010

Related posts:
US pressure on Pakistan "off-target", 9 July 2010
Failed counterinsurgency strategy leads to rising number of US terror plots: Report, 21 June 2010
Al-qaeda, Taliban loosely align in Pakistan to survive, 20 May 2010
Taliban groups expand alliances, share expertise, 7 May 2010
Al-Qaeda threat assessment, 26 February 2010

Militants Kill 18 in Civilian Convoy Ambush

Militants Ambush Convoy in Pakistan, The Nation, 17 July 2010

EXCERPT: "Suspected militants in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border ambushed a convoy of vehicles being escorted by security forces today, killing 18 people, including two women, witnesses said. Militants opened fire on civilian vehicles in the convoy as it headed to the main northwestern city of Peshawar from Parachinar, the main town of the Pashtun-dominated Kurram region where the army has killed nearly 100 militants in operations in the past few months. [...] Militants have gone on the offensive again after a recent lull in violence, challenging government assertions that a major assault in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan along with smaller operations in other regions had dealt a major blow to insurgents. The road linking Kurram with Peshawar often remains closed because of militants and Pakistan army operations, forcing people to take a circuitous route through Afghanistan to travel to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and its capital, Peshawar."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Suicide attack on Pakistan mosque, Al Jazeera, 19 July 2010
Explosions hit Pak-Afghan highway, The Hindu, 19 July 2010

Related posts:
Afghanistan urges Pakistan to target terror groups, 6 July 2010
Peshawar braces for possible Taliban fight, 29 June 2010
Taliban regroup in areas thought secure, 24 June 2010
Pakistan fails to protect religious minorities from violence, discrimination: Report, 29 April 2010
Deadly bomb attack strikes Peshawar, 12 March 2010

Taliban "Widen Jihad", Target "Rival" Jamaat-i-Islami

Pakistani Taliban Widen Jihad with Strikes on Fellow Muslims, The Jamestown Foundation // Terrorism Monitor, 16 July 2010

EXCERPT: "The local chapter of Pakistan’s Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Islamist political party held a rally on April 19 in the historic Kissa Khwani Bazaar of Peshawar to protest the extremely low gas pressure and rolling blackouts that affect Peshawar residents up to 10 hours per day (for the shortages, see Daily Times [Lahore], January 18; Frontier Post [Peshawar], July 10). As leaders announced the end of the rally and protesters started to leave, a 14-year old suicide bomber ignited his suicide vest, killing 23 persons and injuring 50 others. The suicide bomber successfully targeted local JI leaders and police officers – among the dead were JI Peshawar vice-amir Haji Dost Mohammad and deputy superintendent of police Gulfat Hussain (The News [Islamabad], April 20). [...] Due to the fact that Deputy Superintendent Hussain was a Shi’a Muslim, it was initially thought that the suicide bomber had specifically targeted him. However, all other evidence suggested that the real target of the bomber was the JI leaders. [...] The aim of the Pakistani Taliban is to establish an Islamic caliphate, one excluding the participation of all other Islamist groups. The enmity between the JI and different parts of the Pakistani Taliban is both ideological and political. [...] However, the real existential threat to the JI comes from the Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM), led by Maulana Sufi Mohammad and his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah."

Read the full article.

Related stories:
Sufi Muhammad’s trial to take place in Peshawar jail, Daily Times, 16 July 2010

Related posts:
Deobandi elders warn of sectarian rift following recent terror attack, 14 July 2010
Pakistan's largest sect to take action against Taliban, 9 July 2010
Coordinated suicide attacks kill at least 42 in Lahore, 5 July 2010
Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami, 2 June 2010
US blamed for suicide bombings, 20 April 2010

Fatal Market Blast in Khyber

Pakistan Market Bomb Kills 10, AFP, 16 July 2010

EXCERPT: "A bomb blast ripped through a busy car market in Pakistan's infamous tribal district of Khyber on Friday, killing 10 civilians including children, officials said. The explosion rocked Kuki Khel town in Khyber, on the NATO supply route into Afghanistan and part of Pakistan's tribal belt that Washington considers an Al-Qaeda headquarters and the most dangerous region on Earth. 'Ten people have been killed, there were three children among the dead. Fourteen people were wounded in the blast,' Khyber district senior official Shafeerullah Khan told AFP. The timed device was planted in a ditch in a crowded market where people buy and sell second-hand cars, he said. Two intelligence officials also confirmed the death toll saying three shops and four cars were destroyed. Officials described the area as a stronghold of Lashkar-e-Islam, a homegrown militant group that has carried out Islamist vigilante-style campaigns, kidnappings, shootings and attacks in Khyber."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Bomb at used car market in Khyber, Pakistan, kills six, BBC News, 16 July 2010
Bombing in Pakistan market kills eight, The Hindu, 16 July 2010
Taliban dynamite two "spies" in Pakistan [North Waziristan], AFP, 17 July 2010

Related posts:
Suicide blast kills 5 in Swat, 15 July 2010
Suicide bombers strike govt office, kill dozens in NW, 9 July 2010
Twin bombings kill dozens, 18 February 2010
Suicide bombings kill policemen, civilians in Khyber, 10 February 2010
Khyber agency military offensive advances, 1 December 2009

Suicide Blast Kills 5 in Swat Valley

Bus Stop Suicide Bomb in Pakistan's Swat Kills Five, BBC News, 15 July 2010

EXCERPT: "At least five people have been killed and nearly 50 injured by a suicide bomb next to a bus stop in north-west Pakistan's Swat Valley, officials say. The attack happened in Mingora, the main town in the former tourist region overrun by the Taliban in 2007. Police say the area where the bomb went off was crowded, so the number of casualties could rise. The army said it had driven insurgents from Swat following a huge offensive against them last year. Correspondents say the blast shows that militants are still active in Swat. The bomb ripped through a busy street next to the bus terminal - police say that a passing army patrol could have been the target."

Read the full story.

Related articles:
Explosion in Mingora, 5 dead, The Express Tribune, 15 July 2010
Mosque, shrines blasted in Pakistan's NW Khyber Agency, China View, 15 July 2010
Major militant attacks in Pakistan in 2010, The Associated Press, 9 July 2010

Related posts:
Pakistan army finds Taliban tough to root out, 5 July 2010
Swat locals: More needs to be done to ensure security, 12 May 2010
Who is the Swat Taliban's commander?, 22 April 2010
In Swat, Taliban back in action, 21 April 2010
Swat trains community police to keep Taliban away, 24 March 2010