Daily brief: Pakistan denies talks with Taliban

Wonk Watch: International Crisis Group, "Islamic Parties in Pakistan (ICG).

Rumor mill

PakistaniPrime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, and Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan all denied this weekend that talks were taking place between the Pakistani government and the TTP (Reuters, AP, AJE, AFP). The statements came after the TTP’s deputy commander and leader in Bajaur, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, saida peace deal with the government was close, and that the latter had released 145 TTP prisoners as part of the negotiations (BBC, Dawn, Reuters, CNN, ET, AP).

Pakistan’smilitary confirmed Sunday that all U.S. personnel had left the Shamsi Airbase in the province of Balochistan, though U.S. officials said the base’s closure to U.S. drone flights would have little impact on American counterterrorism operations in the country (NYT, ET, WSJ, AFP, Tel, AFP, Dawn, AJE, Reuters). Ananonymous Pakistani military official told NBC that any U.S. drones in Pakistani airspace would be shot down, as Pakistan has reportedly increased its air defenses along the border with Afghanistan (MSNBC, CNN).The departure of U.S. forces, ordered after a U.S. airstrike in Mohmandkilled 24 Pakistani soldiers last month, took place as Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan’s shuttering of border crossings to U.S. supplies may last "weeks" (BBC, ET, AFP, ET). The stranded supply trucks and tankers are increasingly coming under attack and causing congestion in Pakistan’s ports (ET, ET, CNN, ET, AFP). Chairmanof the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey called U.S.-Pakistan relations "a mess" in remarks in Washington Friday (CNN, Dawn). And Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Monday chaired a meeting of 15 Pakistani ambassadors to key foreign capitals (ET, Dawn).

Gilanialso said this weekend that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will spend another two weeks resting in Dubai following a reported minor heart attack, as speculation abounds about the prospect of a shift in power in the country’s government (Reuters, WSJ, ET, AP, Dawn, AFP, ET, ET, Dawn). AZardari spokesman said that he would still submit a statement to the investigation of the "Memogate" scandal as ordered, despite his absence,while former Ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani this weekend challenged the Supreme Court’s decision to investigate the affair and ban him from leaving Pakistan (Dawn, Dawn). Andthe commission investigating the May 2 raid that killed Osama bin Ladenhas called Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom to explain statements he made that Pakistani officials were forewarned about the attack (ET).

Fivestories round out the weekend’s Pakistan news: A small bomb exploded outside of the University of Karachi Saturday, killing one man (Dawn).Military and civilian leaders from Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa province will brief members of the country’s National Assembly Monday on the situationin the besieged city of Parachinar in Kurram agency (Dawn).Dawn discusses a purported effort by North Korea during the 1990s to bribe the then-head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), Gen. Ziauddin Khawaja (Dawn). The Tribune looks at recent changes in Pakistani laws regarding violence against women (ET). And the Daily Times reports that Pakistan will have the world’s fourth-largest diabetic population by 2030 (DT).

The blame game

Americanambassador to Afghanistan Ryan C. Crocker told a small group of journalists this weekend that he doubted claims that the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) was responsible for the devastating attacks last week on Afghan Shi’a Muslims, but that he thought the attacks were planned in Pakistan (WSJ, Post, AJE, AP). Crocker also left open the possibility of American troops staying in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal deadline (NYT).The death toll from the attacks has climbed to 80, as a man in Balochistan named Ali Sher-e-Khuda claimed credit for the attacks on behalf of the group "Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Afghanistan," which he said was inspired by — but does not take orders from — the Pakistani LeJ (AP, BBC).And the Telegraph interviews the 12-year old girl whose grief-stricken,blood-stained image captured the carnage of the Kabul Shi’a shrine bombing (Tel). Bonus read: Hassan Abbas, "History lessons from Karbala" (FP).

Ina meeting with journalists this weekend, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command Adm. William McRaven defended night raids in Afghanistan, calling them "very valuable" and saying that less than one percent of raids caused civilian casualties last year (AP).He also said that militias known as Afghan Local Police (ALP) were not spurring local conflict, and said that the ALP could nearly triple in size to 30,000, if the Afghan government approves the plan (AP, CNN, WSJ).

CanadianForeign Affairs Minister John Baird said Friday that under a new detention agreement, Afghans detained by Canadian forces would be turnedover to the United States, rather than Afghan authorities (AP).An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman said this weekend that the country was on schedule to shut down private military contractors in Afghanistan by March of next year (AP).And Iran summoned Afghanistan’s ambassador Saturday to protest the intrusion into Iranian airspace of a drone flying from a U.S. base in Afghanistan that crashed in Iran recently (NYT, AP).

Meanwhile,Afghan President Hamid Karzai castigated "foreigners" for causing corruption in Afghanistan Sunday, and called for the extradition by the United States of Afghanistan’s former Central Banker Abdul Qadir Fitrat,who fled Afghanistan after helping expose the massive fraud taking place at the Kabul Bank (NYT). And Reuters reports on the bleak but improving outlook for maternal health in Afghanistan (Reuters).

Once upon a time in Afghanistan

ThePost’s Joshua Partlow this weekend details an effort to spread literacyin Afghanistan using folk tales compiled by celebrated Afghan author Idries Shah (Post).The stories were first published in the West in 1998, two years after Shah’s death in London, and are now distributed in Afghanistan (in Dari and Pashto) with the help of the U.S. Embassy — around 1 million books have already been distributed, with another 1.5 million yet to come.

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