Daily brief: 6 dead in Pakistan suicide attack

Bomb in Bannu

Six people, including two children, were killed earlier today when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives near a police van in the northwest Pakistani town of Bannu (AP, Dawn/AFP, Geo, ET). The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan’s Dawn reports that commanders of the Haqqani insurgent group and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan met yesterday with tribal elders and lawmakers from Kurram to discuss reopening the road between Thall and Parachinar, which has been under militant control; sources say no agreement on that front was reached, though commanders reportedly agreed to free some members of the Turi tribe currently in their custody (Dawn). Shiites in Kurram have reportedly been allowing the Haqqani network access to Afghanistan in exchange for Haqqani mediation of the brutal Sunni-Shia conflicts in the agency (AP). Hundreds of Haqqani and TTP fighters are said to be seeking refuge in Kurram from U.S. drone strikes in North Waziristan and Pakistani military operations in South Waziristan and Orakzai.

Yesterday in Karachi, a Shia leader was killed by an unidentified gunman in an apparently sectarian attack (Daily Times). A senior Pakistani military official gave a wide-ranging interview to editors yesterday, listing a series of complaints about the U.S., including that "the U.S. still has a ‘transactional’ relationship with Pakistan; the U.S. is interested in perpetuating a state of ‘controlled chaos’ in Pakistan; and…the ‘real aim of U.S. strategy is to de-nuclearize Pakistan’" (Dawn). The anonymous official also called Pakistan the U.S.’s "most bullied ally."

And the Lahore High Court has prevented Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari from pardoning Asia Bibi, the Christian mother who has been sentenced to death following a conviction on blasphemy charges, until her case is heard by an appeals court (Reuters, AP, CNN, Daily Times/Reuters, ET).

Al-Qaeda watching

The AP profiles the CIA’s hunt for al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, who has had several "close calls" since 2003 (AP). The 59 year old Egyptian doctor is believed to have spent time in the northern Pakistani tribal agency of Bajaur, relies heavily on Arabs rather than locals for security, and may have diabetes.

Abductions

Nine security guards for a private construction company were kidnapped yesterday in the Surobi district of Kabul province, some 27 miles east of the Afghan capital (AP, Tolo, Pajhwok). Nine other guards escaped and recovery efforts are underway for the abducted men. The Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami have both claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attack by a man wearing an Afghan border police uniform on a training exercise in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which left six American troops dead (WSJ, Post, Pajhwok). An investigation into the killings has been launched. And five people, including a failed parliamentary candidate, were injured in a roadside bombing in Khost (Pajhwok).

One of the diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks reportedly sent by U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry in August 2009 alleges that 150 prisoners transferred from U.S. to Afghan custody, including 29 Guantanamo alums, were released without trial, and that Afghan president Hamid Karzai repeatedly interferes in narcotics cases related to his supporters (Times). Karzai is also said to have freed five Afghan policemen with 273 pounds of heroin who were tried, convicted, and sentenced to prison terms because they are distantly related to two men who died during the country’s civil war (AP).

Carlotta Gall describes the challenges of patrolling for roadside bombs in districts in Kandahar, noting that the destruction of some homes and villages too booby-trapped to risk searching is "not the norm" (NYT). She also details the IED attack that wounded NYT photographer Joao Silva, a Russian plastic antipersonnel mine, and the quick rescue operation to save him (NYT).

Pass go, collect scholarship

Hundreds of Afghan students from Laghman, Nangarhar, and Kunar recently sat for an exam as part of a U.S. program to give scholarships to Afghans to study in the U.S. for 18 months (Pajhwok). A similar test for Indian educational institutions was administered earlier this year.

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