Pakistan Security Brief

Bin Laden’s sons accuse U.S. of violating international law; Youngest son has disappeared following raid; U.S. still waiting for access to bin Laden’s wives; U.S. had repeatedly warned Pakistan that Washington would send forces if evidence that bin Laden was hiding there; Senator Kerry to visit Pakistan; Kerry and Lugar: Opportunity for the U.S. to rethink its role in Afghanistan; Pakistani military cut off its communication with forces in Afghanistan following raid; Senate and House committees permitted to see photos of bin Laden; Journalist killed in Peshawar; Three militants killed in Lower Dir; Saudi consulate attacked in Karachi.

Response to Bin Laden Raid

• The sons of Osama bin Laden have accused the United States of violating international law by killing bin Laden while he was unarmed and shooting his family members before burying his body at sea. In defense of the operation that killed bin Laden, Obama administration officials have referred to the principle of national self-defense, declaring that Bin Laden had pledged war on the United States and killed thousands of American citizens. The letter, prepared at the direction of Omar bin Laden, also condemning the shooting of one of bin Laden’s wives and asked the Pakistani government to hand over the three wives to family members. The three widows have told interrogators that bin Laden’s youngest son Hamza has disappeared following the operation on May 2. Intelligence officials believe that Hamza was being groomed as a potential future leader of al Qaeda. Meanwhile, the United States is still waiting for access to bin Laden’s widows. However, the Express Tribune reports that Pakistan may allow U.S. investigators access to the widows if Washington shares with it the data seized from the residence in Abbottabad. CBS News has reported that 2.7 terabytes of data was seized from the compound, equivalent to 220 million pages of text.[i]
• According to U.S. officials, the Bush and Obama administrations had repeatedly warned Pakistan that Washington would send American forces into Pakistani territory if the U.S. obtained evidence that bin Laden was hiding there. There existed an "understanding" between the two countries that “amounted to an acknowledgment by Pakistani authorities that the United States would take unilateral action on Pakistani soil if it had intelligence on the al Qaeda leader's whereabouts.”[ii]
• U.S. Senator John Kerry said that he will visit Islamabad early next week to raise "all relevant issues" regarding the May 2 operation. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said that it is “important that we have a good relationship with Pakistan, but not at any price.” Meanwhile, in a hearing yesterday, both Senator Kerry and Senator Richard Lugar declared that bin Laden's death provided an opportunity for the U.S. to rethink its role in Afghanistan. While Senator Kerry called U.S. engagement in Afghanistan “ultimately unsustainable," Senator Lugar questioned whether “Afghanistan is important enough to justify the lives and massive resources that are being spent there, especially given our nation’s debt crisis.”[iii]
• Following the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the Pakistani military cut off its communication with U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan for two days, according to Major General John Campbell, the commander of U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan. The general said that “this forced his soldiers to safeguard some 450 miles of border with Pakistan, a suspected transit point for insurgents, without support from the Pakistani side.”[iv]
• A U.S. official has said that members of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as those in the equivalent House committees, will be permitted to view photos taken of bin Laden after he was killed. The viewing of the photos will take place at CIA headquarters in Langley.[v]

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

• A tribal journalist was killed in Peshawar on Tuesday when a bomb detonated near his vehicle on Bara Road. Three vehicles and nearby buildings were also damaged in the blast. Nasrullah Afridi had previously been attacked by unidentified assailants in 2007, but had escaped unharmed. Sources have said that Afridi “was not in [the] good books” of the militant organization Lashkar-e-Islam (LI).[vi]
• Three militants were killed in an operation by security personnel in Lower Dir on Monday. The insurgents had planted an improvised explosive device (IED) in the Munda sub-district when police and Frontier Corps officers targeted them with gunfire.[vii]

Attack on Saudi Consulate in Karachi

• On Wednesday, two grenades were thrown at the Saudi consulate in Karachi, though no casualties were reported. A local official alleged that the attack could have been in reaction to the killing of Osama bin Laden. Following the attack, policemen opened fire on the assailants, who escaped on motorbikes. Meanwhile, a separate grenade attack took place in the Lyari area on Tuesday, injuring one person.[viii]