Daily brief: Pakistan formally protests U.S. drone strike

Official protests

Pakistan’s foreign ministry formally protested yesterday’s drone strike in South Waziristan, which reportedly killed up to six suspected militants, with Pakistan’s official statement calling the drones "a core irritant in the counter-terror campaign" that disrupt Pakistani efforts to separate tribes in the country’s northwest from militant groups (NYT, McClatchy, BBC, Bloomberg, AP, AFP, Reuters, Pajhwok, ABC).

Pakistani foreign secretary Salman Bashir reportedly called the drones "counter-productive" in a meeting with U.S. Ambassador Cameron Munter, while Pakistani prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the country’s National Assembly that Pakistan was "against drone attacks" and was increasing pressure on the United States to stop the strikes (Dawn, ET, Daily Times). Punjab chief minister Shabhaz Sharif blamed the government for cooperating with the drone strikes, which he claimed fueled extremism (ET). According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which released its 2010 report on violence in Pakistan today, 900 people were killed in drone strikes in 2010, while 1,100 were killed in terrorist attacks (Dawn). For details about the drones campaign, visit The Year of the Drone (NAF). 

Anti-Taliban operations continue in Mohmand agency, where the Pakistani army says it has killed 18 Taliban fighters and wounded 25 in villages bordering the Afghan province of Kunar (Reuters). And violence continues to wrack Karachi, as up to eight people, including four Muttahida Qaumi Movement activists and one Awami National Party activist were killed (Dawn, ET, Daily Times). In the capital of Nepal, a Pakistani official who works in the visa section of the Pakistani embassy was shot by an unidentified gunman (AFP).   

CNN discusses Mohamed Imran, a Shi’ite man acquitted of violating Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law who was killed earlier this year by "vigilantes" outside of Islamabad (CNN). And lawyers for Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist convicted and sentenced to 86 years in prison last year for trying to kill U.S. soldiers and agents in Afghanistan, said they would appeal her conviction on April 15 (ET). Bonus read: Not a daughter of Pakistan (FP).

Over the hills and not too far away

Afghan president Hamid Karzai reacted angrily to the suicide bombing yesterday in the eastern province of Kunar which killed the local leader and former anti-Soviet commander Malik Zareen, saying that the attack was perpetrated by "cowardly foreign agents hired by our historical enemy" an apparent reference to Pakistan (McClatchy, LAT, NYT). A suicide attack in Panjwai district of Kandahar province wounded nine people, including five international forces and four Afghans, and in Kandahar city, a suicide attack wounded three people including two women earlier today (Pajhwok, AFP). A team of three or four Taliban suicide attackers targeted Afghan Local Police trainees in Paktia province earlier today, killing two trainees and one Afghan police officer (AP, BBC). Additionally, a suicide attacker detonated explosives outside the the office of the Musayi district chief some 12 miles southeast of Kabul (AFP). Seven suicide attacks have been reported in Afghanistan in the last two days. 

The commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Brigadier James Chiswell, told reporters yesterday that the insurgency in Afghanistan is "increasingly fractured and increasingly demoralized," as other British military leaders expressed frustration at the lack of political progress in Afghanistan (Guardian). Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports that the Taliban have spread their intelligence network further and deeper into Afghanistan, reaching into formerly unfriendly territory as well as the Afghan government and security forces, and exploiting weaknesses in governance and security (LAT).

Pesky invasion

Afghan farmers in the northern province of Kunduz are preparing themselves for summer, which brings an influx of grasshoppers who destroy crops before they can be harvested (Pajhwok). Farmers have demanded that the Afghan government step up efforts to spray fields before the grasshoppers can fly.

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