Meeting to Demilitarise Siachen Glacier Fails to Yield Results
31 May 2011
India and Pakistan failed on Tuesday to break ice on how to demilitarise the world's highest battlefield in the Himalayan region in a sign of how far apart the nuclear-armed rivals are even on less contentious issues. Defence secretaries from both countries held two days of closed-door talks in New Delhi on how to agree on withdrawing troops from the financially costly , mountainous no-man's land above the Siachen glacier and defining the official...
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Pakistani Journalist Who Wrote about Military's Links to Al Qaeda Found Dead
31 May 2011
A Pakistani journalist who was feared abducted after he went missing on Sunday has been found dead, his family has confirmed. Police said Saleem Shahzad's body was found in a canal in Mandi Baha Uddin in Pakistan's northern Gujarat district. Earlier, Human Rights Watch researcher Ali Dayan Hasan said he had "credible information" that Shahzad was in the custody of Pakistani intelligence. He recently wrote an article about al-Qaeda infiltration in...
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Pakistani Warplanes Kill at Least 16 in Orakzai
31 May 2011
Pakistani warplanes attacked Taliban positions in the northwestern Orakzai region on Tuesday, killing 17 militants, a senior regional government official said. Orakzai is one of seven ethnic Pashtun tribal areas where the Pakistani army has tried to root out militants with offensives against their strongholds. The strike came a day after a local newspaper reported that Pakistan will launch an offensive in North Waziristan, a known sanctuary for al...
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Indigenous Politics in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas
31 May 2011
Is it an exaggeration to say that every day a new militant group forms in Pakistan's tribal areas, but never a political party? Maybe. It would be more accurate to say that every few months a new militant group forms in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). But it would hardly be an exaggeration to say there are no indigenous political parties, when there are just a few tiny groupings. One is a struggling party that launched itself last...
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US Presses Pakistan to Target Specific Militant Leaders
31 May 2011
The United States has drawn up a list of five militant Islamic leaders it expects Pakistan to provide intelligence about immediately and possibly target in joint operations, including Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al Zawahiri and Taliban commander Mullah Omar, according to a U.S. official and a Pakistani official. The list also includes Siraj Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqani network, the most violent group in the Afghan Taliban and...
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Security Officials Arrest Former Navy Commando in Connection with Attack on Naval Base
30 May 2011
Pakistani security officials have detained a former navy commando and his brother in connection with last week’s militant attack on a naval air base, intelligence officials and relatives said on Monday. The brazen assault on the PNS Mehran base in Karachi, the headquarters of Pakistan’s naval air wing, embarrassed the military and raised doubts about its ability to protect its bases after a similar raid on the army headquarters in the...
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Militancy in Khyber Agency: Backgrounder
30 May 2011
The Khyber Agency in Pakistan has emerged in recent times as a centre of sectarian conflict - partially as a result of the spillover of deep-rooted differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the nearby Kurram Agency and partially as a reaction to efforts by hardline Sunni groups to establish their writ in the area. One of seven tribal agencies located along the Pakistan-Afghan border, the strategically significant Khyber Agency offers easy access...
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Authorities Warn Aid Agencies to Prepare for Mass Displacement as Military Plans N. Waziristan Offensive
30 May 2011
Humanitarian agencies active in Pakistan's northwest have been quietly told to prepare for up to 365,000 displaced people in advance of a military offensive against North Waziristan, a senior official with an international humanitarian agency said Monday. The official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, was responding to a media report in a local newspaper that Pakistan will launch a military offensive against al Qaeda...
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Hangu Bazaar Suicide Attack Kills Dozens
27 May 2011
At least 28 people, four policemen among them, were killed and 55 injured when a suicide bomber exploded his vehicle at a checkpoint in Hangu bazaar on Thursday. Officials said the pick-up was laden with 450kg of explosives. It was detonated by the bomber as soon as he reached the police post. The nearby official residence of the district coordination officer, offices of the Hangu police chief and the special branch, the city police station, 17 shops,...
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Mumbai Attack Co-Accused Claims He "Attended Over 50 Training Sessions" with ISI Handler
27 May 2011
Mumbai attack co-accused David Headley on Thursday told a U.S. court that a Pakistani Navy man was present during discussions with his Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) handler Major Iqbal on landing sites and arrival of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists by sea. Headley also said he had attended over 50 training sessions with the powerful Pakistan's intelligence agency and that he always briefed Iqbal first during his visits to Paksitan. Iqbal was...
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