Daily brief: U.S. announces new Pakistan aid

Buying me love

As part of a two-day visit to Pakistan, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced more than $500 million in new civilian aid to the country as part of the $7.5 billion development package approved by Congress last year (BBC, AFP, ET, MSNBC, AP, LAT, McClatchy, Bloomberg, The News, AFP). The funds will go toward improving Pakistan’s water, electricity, hospitals, and other infrastructure projects; Clinton is seeking to convince Pakistanis that the United States’ interest in the country is not limited to combating the Islamist militancy in its northwest.

At insistent U.S. urging, Afghanistan and Pakistan have signed a trade agreement decades in the making that will allow 18 border checkpoints to open and Afghan goods to be trucked directly through Pakistan’s Gwadar and Qasim ports, and to travel across Pakistan to the Indian border; currently, goods have to be offloaded and reloaded at the border (Wash Post, NYT, Pajhwok, WSJ, LAT, Dawn). The Pakistani cabinet and Afghan parliament now need to approve the trade pact.

Sabrina Tavernise reports on the lack of a functioning tax system in Pakistan, where fewer than 2 percent of the population of 170 million pay income taxes (NYT). The average worth of Pakistani members of parliament is reportedly $900,000, with the richest worth more than $37 million.

Sectarian attacks

As many as 18 Shia Muslims were killed when militants attacked a civilian convoy of buses being escorted by security forces in the Char Khel area of Kurram on Saturday (BBC, NYT, Reuters, AP, AFP). Officials said Shiites in another area of the northwest tribal agency attacked a Sunni-dominated village in retaliation, with no reports of casualties. Three dozen suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack, and around two dozen alleged militants were killed in Kurram on Sunday by airstrikes (Dawn, Dawn).

Up to three people were killed and 20 wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a Shia mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sargodha on Sunday night just before evening prayers began (AP, AJE, ET, Geo, Dawn, AFP, Daily Times, CNN). A group called Tehrik-i-Tahaffuz-i-Pakistan took responsibility for two low-intensity bomb attacks on Saturday on internet cafes in Lahore, telling the Pakistani government to "take steps to control the spread of vulgarity" (ET, Dawn, The News).

Human Rights Watch alleges that Pakistan’s military has carried out 238 ‘extrajudicial killings’ in the Swat Valley, site of a major offensive last year (BBC). A couple in Kala Dhaka, a remote area of Khyber-Puktunkhwa, has been sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery (Guardian). The married mother of three is being held until the man, who has fled, can be found and the sentence carried out.

From Islamabad to Kabul

Hillary Clinton’s next stop is Kabul, where she will participate in an international donors conference with diplomats from 60 countries, as Afghanistan seeks greater control over the streams of international funding, promises to assume greater responsibility for the country’s security, and discusses plans for Taliban reconciliation and economic growth (Reuters, LAT, AFP, Pajhwok). Security has been tightened in the Afghan capital for tomorrow’s meetings, but a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed three Afghans in a residential area of Kabul near a market on Sunday (AP, AFP, Wash Post, Independent, LAT, Reuters, AFP). Taliban insurgents also staged a "sophisticated and highly coordinated" prison break in the western Afghan province of Farah over the weekend, killing two and allowing some two dozen prisoners to escape (Independent, AP, NYT).

The Independent on Sunday reports that at the conference, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will announce a "timetable" for a "conditions-based and phased transition" to Afghan security forces taking the lead on all military operations in the country by 2014 (Independent). Afghan analysts are concerned that this timeline may be too quick (Times). Britain is planning to spend an additional £200 million on aid projects between now and 2014 as part of plans to support military withdrawal (Times, FT).

Taking the lead

In Helmand over the weekend some 500 Afghan troops participated in one of the first operations entirely planned and executed by Afghan forces (Times). The Taliban have taken responsibility for a car bomb in Kandahar province that left six Afghan police officers dead earlier today (AFP). And the latest quarterly report from the respected Afghanistan NGO Safety Office found that June marked a record level of Taliban operations and warned that military operations in Kandahar could "further strengthen" the Taliban’s hold over the area (Guardian, AJE, ANSO-pdf).

NATO officials have reportedly intercepted a letter from Taliban leader Mullah Omar that calls on militants to capture and kill any supporters of the Afghan government or international coalition, a turnaround from his edict last summer which urged Taliban fighters to show concern for civilians (AJE, VOA, Daily Times/AFP, McClatchy).

Alissa Rubin reports on the parallel Afghan and U.S. military systems of justice in Parwan prison (NYT). Greg Mortenson, author of "Three Cups of Tea," is consulted on Afghan military matters (NYT). And Laura King reports that Afghan minorities are concerned that Karzai’s plans to reach out to the mostly Pashtun Taliban will come at the cost of their interests (LAT). Bonus read: Taliban reconciliation and women’s rights (FP).

Transgender taxes

As part of a bid to collect taxes from defaulters in Pakistan, transgender tax collectors are going door to door and creating spectacles at the homes of those who do not pay up in Karachi (NYT). The TGs have collected some $100,000 in about nine months, about ten times the cost of the program.

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