Daily brief: Mullen links Haqqanis with Pakistani intelligence

J’accuse!

Outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen called the insurgent Haqqani Network a "veritable arm" of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI) in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, in perhaps the most direct public statement since 9/11 from a U.S. official about alleged Pakistani complicity with militants (NYT, Post, WSJ, LAT, Globe and Mail, ET, Dawn, DT, Reuters). Mullen said that the Haqqanis operated with ISI "support" when they attacked Kabul in the vicinity of the U.S. embassy on Sept. 13 (NYT, Reuters). He also accused the agency of involvement in a major truck bombing Sept. 10 on foreign troops in Wardak province, as well as the late-June attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul. The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, also said Thursday that he personally asked Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to intervene after receiving intelligence information early this month about an impending attack, and that Kayani offered to "make a call" to stop it (Guardian). And head of the Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday to name the Haqqani Network a foreign terrorist organization (AFP).

Senior Pakistani officials immediately denied the charges, as Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar warned that if such allegations continue, the United States, "will lose an ally" (Reuters, Dawn, BBC, AP, The News). Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that Pakistan was necessary to the United States in Afghanistan, who he said, "can’t live with us. They can’t live without us" (Dawn). As Pakistani leaders met to discuss the new development, Interior Minister Rehman Malik also warned against a U.S. intervention in Pakistan against the Haqqanis, even as the United States has increasingly ramped up its efforts to target the group in North Waziristan (Tel, Dawn, ET, CNN, Reuters, AP).

Iran closed its border with Pakistan Thursday in response to the massacre this week of Shi’a pilgrims in Baluchistan by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), as Baluchistan’s High Court formed a committee to investigate the killings, and Pakistani police placed key LeJ figure Ghulam Rasool Shah under house arrest Friday (Dawn, Dawn, ET, TIME, ET). In Karachi, Dawn reports that the target of a suicide attack this week on the home of important police official Chaudhry Aslam may have been the official’s son (Dawn). A roadside bomb killed four suspected militants in Khyber agency Thursday, while in Bajaur two explosions killed four people, including two women (Dawn, ET). And a suicide bomber killed himself and another militant during clashes with security forces in the Swat Valley Friday (ET).

Flooding in southern Pakistan has killed nearly 370 people, as the government continues to struggle to reach impacted areas weeks after the rains that triggered the deluge (CNN, BBC). The Journal reports on the difficulties facing Baluchistan’s Tethyan gold mine, a project set to be the largest foreign investment in Pakistan (WSJ). And at least 75 people have died from the recent outbreak of dengue fever in Lahore (ET). Bonus read: Haider Warraich, "Dengue fever: Pakistan’s recurring nightmare" (FP).

Hilltop burial

Throngs of weeping and chanting supporters turned out Friday to bury former Afghan president and head of the country’s High Peace Council Burhanuddin Rabbani, killed Tuesday by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban emissary (Tel, LAT, Reuters, BBC, AP). Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised to continue to seek peace during Rabbani’s funeral, even as opposition figures called for talks to end, and the slain leader’s supporters elsewhere shouted slogans against Karzai, Pakistan, the Taliban, and the United States (AFP, Tel, ET, BBC). And Afghanistan intelligence officials blamed the Taliban for Rabbani’s death Friday, though no one has claimed responsibility for the attack (WSJ, BBC, NYT). Bonus read: Omar Samad, "The post-Rabbani Afghanistan" (FP).

Kevin Sieff has a must-read today on the challenges faced by incoming U.S. commanders in Afghanistan as they fight a war while planning for its drawdown (Post). And a third U.S. soldier, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, has pled guilty to killing Afghan civilians, out of five soldiers accused of being part of a "kill team" that intentionally targeted civilians and then sought to cover up the crimes (AFP, AP, Reuters).

Let them eat burgers

Long a symbol of class divide in Karachi, more of the city’s residents can get their hands on hamburgers with the opening of a Hardee’s restaurant in the North Nazimabad neighborhood Thursday (ET). Access to the restaurant’s opening was mostly reserved for those with VIP passes, including Pakistani cricket star Shahid Afridi.

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