Daily brief: Questions remain in Rabbani killing

Confusion sets in

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid issued a statement Wednesday denying that the group had prior knowledge of the killing of former Afghan president and head of the country’s High Peace Council (HPC) Berhanuddin Rabbani, whose death has thrown the limited progress on a peace deal with the Taliban, as well as Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s alliance with non-Pashtun leaders, into doubt (LAT, NYT, Post, AP, ET). Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari telephoned Karzai yesterday to urge the latter to continue working towards peace in the country without Rabbani (ET). And Karzai said Thursday that Rabbani’s killer presented officials with an audio recording of a supposed peace offer from a Taliban representative in order to gain access to the HPC leader (AP). Bonus read: Candace Rondeaux, "Reconsidering reconciliation in Afghanistan" (FP).

Unnamed American officials tell Reuters that according to uncorroborated information, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) urged the Haqqani Network to stage attacks on American targets in Afghanistan, including the September 13 rocketing off the U.S. embassy in Kabul (Reuters). Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters during a visit to the country by FBI director Robert Mueller that the Haqqanis "were partners" during the Soviet War in Afghanistan, but are now no longer in Pakistan, while Defense Minister Ahmad Mukhtar and other officials denied allegations of collusion with the group (Dawn, Dawn, ET). And reports indicate that growing resentment in the U.S. Congress over the lack of action against the Haqqanis may imperil U.S. aid to Pakistan (ET, Reuters).

NATO officials say they have killed Qari Tahir, the Taliban leader targeted in a failed raid in Wardak province that resulted in the deaths of 38 American and Afghan troops, including elite U.S. Special Operations Forces (BBC, AFP). And U.S., German, and Afghan officials will host talks Thursday on a "New Silk Road" for Afghanistan, in the hopes of boosting the country’s struggling economy (AFP).

Action and reaction?

Pakistan’s government placed the leader of the banned group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Malik Ishaq, under 10 days’ house arrest for stoking tension between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims in Pakistan (AFP, ET, AP). The move comes two days after LeJ claimed an attack on a bus carrying Shi’a pilgrims to Iran in Baluchistan’s Mastung district, an attack which Pakistan’s Human Rights Commission blamed on the country’s lack of action against sectarian militant groups and failure to protect Shi’a populations (DT). Four people were killed Wednesday in Mastung by unidentified gunmen, while other unidentified gunmen briefly seized control of a Quetta hospital (ET, ET). Bonus read: Saba Imtiaz, "Massacre in Mastung" (FP).

The commander of Pakistani military forces in the country’s Swat Valley, Maj. Gen. Javed Iqbal, was lightly wounded Tuesday when his helicopter came under fire in Upper Dir (BBC, AFP). Meanwhile, an anti-Taliban militia leader and four others were killed by a roadside bomb Thursday in Bajaur (AFP, ET). In Khyber, two people have been killed during an attack on NATO supply containers (AFP). And the headless bodies of three tribesmen kidnapped last month in Mohmand were found in the agency Wednesday (Dawn). 

In a statement Wednesday, Pakistan’s army cautioned against the early removal of the paramilitary Rangers’ police powers in Karachi, as army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ordered the Rangers to do more to protect business interests in the city (Dawn, ET). And police in France have detained two close friends of President Nicolas Sarkozy as part of an investigation into possible corruption over submarine sales to Pakistan and a 2002 bombing in Karachi that killed 11 French naval engineers (Tel, Reuters).

Four stories round out the day: A report by two Pakistani organizations alleges that as many as 65 percent of votes cast in Baluchistan in elections in 2008 were fake (ET). The death toll from dengue fever continues to rise, as Pakistan’s government suggested clothing and other lifestyle changes to help combat the virus’ spread (ET, Dawn). Pakistan’s Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar on Wednesday ordered the "mass disconnections" of people who are more than 60 days late on their energy bills (Dawn). And a Pakistani man convicted of drug smuggling in China, Zahid Husain Shah, was executed Wednesday in Shanghai (BBC).

Fall cleaning

The Islamabad municipal government announced that they were "all set" to deliver basic services to rural outlying areas of the capital, who may see their garbage picked up for the first time in 50 years (Dawn). However, the extension of services would only benefit about half the rural population in the Islamabad Capital Territory, or ICT.

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