Daily brief: floods in south Pakistan receding

A storm of fortunes

After thousands more people fled the Sindhi city of Thatta and nearby towns in southern Pakistan as another levee was breached on Saturday, emergency officials said earlier today that floodwaters are beginning to recede, though cautioned that it could be 10 to 12 days before the swollen Indus River reaches "normal flow" (BBC, AFP, AP, NYT, Daily Times, AJE). The Pakistani Army has deployed units along the length of the Indus in Sindh, the province now worst affected by the flooding, which has suffered damages of at least Rs 438 billion ($5.1 billion) (AFP, Dawn).

The effects of the last month of flooding will likely be felt in Pakistan for years; the Post reports that "1.2 million houses, 10,000 schools, 35 bridges and nine percent of the national highway system have been damaged or destroyed," and livestock losses and "extensive agricultural ruin" are "unique to this disaster" (Post). The U.N. has assessed that some 3.5 million Pakistani children are at risk for waterborne diseases (AP).

And likely seeking to counter criticism that Muslim countries have not contributed enough relief aid to Pakistan, the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, announced over the weekend that Muslims have pledged nearly $1 billion (AP). Bonus read: Steve Coll, "Flood tides" (New Yorker).

Restless violence

A suspected U.S. drone strike killed three or four alleged militants in Kurram in Pakistan’s northwest tribal regions, the first reported strike in that agency in more than a year (CNN, AFP, AP, Geo, AP/Reuters, NAF). In the Swat Valley, the body of Taliban commander Qari Abdullah was found over the weekend (Daily Times).

On Saturday morning, three captured Pakistani militants of unknown affiliation overpowered their guards and took two people hostage inside an army intelligence building in Peshawar, sparking a ten hour gun battle with Pakistani security forces (AFP, AJE, Geo, WSJ, AP). No fatalities were reported, and the militants surrendered after the hostage recovery operation.

Sabrina Tavernise profiles Jamshed Dasti, a member of Pakistan’s parliament and a "scrappy" politician who comes from a lower-class background, as an example of a "broad shift in political power" underway in Pakistan, where politics has historically taken place "in the parlors of a handful of rich families, a Westernized elite that owned large tracts of land and sometimes even the people who worked it" (NYT).

Flashpoint

Indian authorities prevented a separatist protest in Kashmir by deploying paramilitary troops and police in Srinagar on Saturday, and on Sunday, re-imposed a curfew and other restrictions in parts of the Valley (AFP, Hindu, PTI, ANI). The hardline faction of separatists has called for more protests and a strike, which will be lifted from 5:00pm this evening until 7:00am tomorrow morning.

Local partners

The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a strongly worded denial of reports that members of his administration have received payments from the CIA (Reuters, AP). Another statement from Karzai’s office over the weekend stated that "the strategy of the war on terrorism must be reassessed… The experience over the past eight years showed that fighting (Taliban) in Afghan villages has been ineffective and is not achieving anything but killing civilians" (AFP). Karzai’s chief of staff, Mohammed Umer Daudzai, who normally plays a "behind-the-scenes role at the presidential palace," also warned that "we will be on the path
toward losing" without a strategy review, adding, "We cannot afford to spend a lot of time on accusations and counter-accusations" (Post).

The former deputy attorney general of Afghanistan, Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, said Saturday that Karzai fired him last week because he refused to block corruption investigations of more than two dozen senior Afghan officials, which Karzai’s office denies (NYT, WSJ). Faqiryar asserted that Afghanistan’s attorney general, Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, is "taking orders directly from Mr. Karzai" and also stalling or blocking investigations (WSJ).

Aloko claims Faqiryar, who is in his 70s, stepped down in accordance with Afghan law, which calls for mandatory retirement after 40 years of service (LAT). Faqiryar said his prosecutors have opened cases on 25 current or former Afghan officials, but none has gone forward. The Journal reports, "U.S. officials said the flare-up over Mr. Faqiryar shows the difficulty of managing relations with Mr. Karzai, who they say has become increasingly confrontational, in public and private, especially when he feels pressure to combat corruption in his administration" (WSJ).

Across Afghanistan

The district chief of Lal Pur was killed earlier today when a bomb planted in his car exploded as he headed to a meeting of provincial political and security leaders in Jalalabad, east of Kabul (AP). The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack (Pajhwok). Also in eastern Afghanistan, on Saturday morning in Khost militants reportedly wearing U.S. military uniforms attacked two forward operating bases, and managed to breach the perimeter of one before being killed (AP, Post). Seven U.S. troops were killed in security incidents across Afghanistan over the weekend, and twenty Afghan schoolgirls and a teacher have reportedly fallen ill in Kabul from suspected gas poisoning, three days after a similar incident in the same location in the Afghan capital (AFP, Tolo, Pajhwok).

Five campaign workers who had been kidnapped by the Taliban while working for a female parliamentary candidate in Herat were found shot and killed yesterday (AP, NYT, Guardian, AFP). Also in Herat, a candidate for parliament was killed by unknown gunmen (NYT). Haji Abdul Manan is the fourth would-be MP to be killed, drawing condemnations from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan (Reuters). Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s former presidential rival, has predicted that the Afghan president will seek to extend his term beyond 2014, when he is supposed to step down (Tel).

Tony Perry reports that U.S. Marines are working on projects in the southern Afghan province of Helmand to "expand the footprint" for the longer-term (LAT). Perry writes, "The massive assault in February on the Taliban-run town of Marja has not lived up to the U.S. prediction that it would prove a ‘tipping point’ for the province. Two battalions of Marines are still assigned to protect Marja, but Taliban fighters spread messages of terror at night and plant bombs, killing Marines and villagers." The Times of London interviews the then-top U.S. commander in southern and eastern in Afghanistan, who in 2006 was "scathing about the British effort in Helmand" (Times).

Pakistan’s Mother Teresa

Abdul Sattar Edhi, an 80-something philanthropist who is hailed as Pakistan’s Mother Teresa, runs 250 charity centers across the country, funded by donations from fellow Pakistanis (AP). Edhi says, "Serving humanity is the biggest jihad. It is the real thing."

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