Daily brief: four killed in Karachi bombings

Rush hour dangers

During the morning rush hour today in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, remote-controlled bombs exploded near two buses carrying Pakistani Navy personnel, killing four and injuring nearly 60 in the first major attack on security forces in the city in seven years (AFP, AP, CNN, Reuters, NYT, ET). In Baluchistan, unknown gunmen reportedly attacked a bus and set it on fire, burning alive 15 passengers, including women and children (CNN, AP, Dawn). There have been no claims of responsibility for either attack. 

Yesterday, U.S. prosecutors unveiled the names of four additional men allegedly involved in the deadly 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks: "Sajid Mir, who was described as a "handler" in the banned Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba; Mazhar Iqbal, a Lashkar "commander;" Abu Qahafa, who trained the attackers in combat for Lashkar; and an individual known only as "Major Iqbal," who allegedly "participated in planning and funding attacks carried out by Lashkar" (AP, Dawn). A Pakistani military spokesman denied the involvement of current Pakistani intelligence officials with the Mumbai attack, though suggested retired ISI officials could have had roles. Yesterday, top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus made his sixth trip to Pakistan since assuming the Afghanistan command, for meetings with Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani (AFP).  

Pamela Constable has today’s must-read describing the implications for women’s rights in Pakistan of the alleged 2002 rape of Mukhtar Mai, who, despite offers to move to the U.S. and Canada, is staying in her Punjab village (Post).  

The Guantanamo files

Classified files from the prison at Guantanamo Bay reportedly claim al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden escaped American and British forces at Tora Bora in December 2001 by traveling to the northeast of Afghanistan, rather than into Pakistan as widely thought (Guardian). The Post reports on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leaders after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, based on documents from Guantanamo (Post). Files also assert that al-Qaeda pursued plans to target London’s Heathrow airport after September 11, and that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the 9/11 plot’s self-proclaimed mastermind, warned that the terrorist group had hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe that would go off if bin Laden were killed or captured (Spiegel, Tel). The oldest detainee still held at Guantanamo, Saifullah Paracha, reportedly worked with KSM to plan follow-up attacks to 9/11 (NYT). And documents are said to link Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist serving an 86-year prison sentence in New York for attempting to shoot U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in 2008, with an al-Qaeda cell in Karachi in 2002 and 2003 and with a plot to smuggle explosives into the U.S. (Guardian).  

The ISI has not commented on leaked documents in which Guantanamo authorities included the intelligence organization alongside al-Qaeda and the Taliban on a 2007 list of terrorist groups (AP, ET). Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik asserted, however, that the ISI is "being wrongfully defamed internationally" and is a "patriotic organization" (Dawn, AFP). For more on the Guantanamo files, sign up for our sister newsletter, the Legal War on Terror (FP).    

Inside the jailbreak 

More details are emerging about the Taliban’s jailbreak from Sarposa prison in Kandahar yesterday, as escapees talk to media outlets about how the plan was carried out: the militant group said they relied on "informants" inside the prison, only three prisoners knew of the plan in advance, one of whom obtained copies of keys to the cells, and the some 500 inmates who escaped were dispersed to safe houses across Kandahar city after the late night escape (WSJ, NYT, Post, CNN, ABC, LAT, Pajhwok, Daily Beast, Tel, Guardian). A U.S. soldier told Time, "Basically there’s an order out to arrest anyone walking around barefoot in Kandahar city," since the inmates are not believed to have been wearing shoes at the time of the jailbreak (Time). Afghan security forces have reportedly recaptured 65 inmates, and killed two in a shootout, while the Karzai government said the escape was an inside job (AP, AFP).  

NATO announced that the "number two overall targeted insurgent" in Afghanistan, Saudi al-Qaeda leader Abu Hafs al-Najdi, also known as Abdul Ghani, was killed in an airstrike in Kunar earlier this month (CNN, Reuters, AP, BBC, WSJ). Another member of al-Qaeda, Waqas, was also reportedly killed in the same April 13 strike. Earlier today in Paktia, the provincial governor narrowly escaped an apparent assassination attempt (AP, Pajhwok).

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction released an audit yesterday finding that Afghan authorities at the Ministry of Interior do not know how many police there are in the country or whether those getting paid are doing the job, "making it difficult to determine whether the money is being properly spent" (AP, Post, WSJ, Bloomberg, CNN, Reuters). Afghanistan’s police force is funded by international donors.       

A new public opinion poll finds that 49 percent of respondents disapprove of U.S. President Barack Obama’s handling of the Afghanistan war, while 44 percent approve (Post). The full results of the poll are available here (Post).   

Bridal couture

Karachi is currently hosting the second annual Bridal Couture Week fashion show, after the event debuted in Lahore last year (ET). Indian designer JJ Valaya opened the show with "a muted antiquated collection that represented the regalia that his brand is famous for," and day two featured collections by Mona Imran, Shireen Hasan, and Zainab Sajid (ET).

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