Assassination of key U.S. ally adds to Pakistan's crises
Pakistani plainclothes police officers remove the body of the Chief of Frontier Constabulary Sifwat Ghayur from a burnt car at the site of suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010. A suicide bomber attacked a vehicle carrying Ghayur in northwestern Pakistan, killing him and two others.
ISLAMABAD -- A Taliban suicide bomber assassinated a top-ranking Pakistani security official and key U.S. ally Wednesday, adding to a string of crises here that have raised alarm in recent days over whether the government can cope.
Since last week, Pakistan has endured its worst air crash in history, the most severe floods in living memory, its deadliest ethnic riots this year and now the killing of a commander known for his unusual vigor in hunting insurgents.
While not all connected, the confluence of so many calamities has appeared to overwhelm a government that has trouble performing basic services even during the best of times.
"It is all too much," said Javed Hussain, a security analyst and retired Pakistani general. "The problems are big, but the leaders are small."
As the U.S. confronts its own struggles with its flagging war in Afghanistan, the disasters in Pakistan -- both natural and man-made -- threaten to take Pakistani attention away from efforts to eliminate key al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries.
The flood, in particular, could have negative long-term consequences for the war effort. The rains have been concentrated in Pakistan's northwest, which is also the area where militant groups are most active. With at least 1,500 people dead and another 3 million affected, the vast scale of destruction has created needs that the government admits it is unable to meet. Anger has been rising all week in the northwest, where residents say they have seen little sign of a coordinated assistance program.
The U.S. has earned rare praise here for reacting swiftly to the floods, promising $10 million in aid, flying in six helicopters from Afghanistan and providing hundreds of thousands of ready-to-eat meals. The aid response reflects U.S. recognition of both the peril if humanitarian needs continue to go unmet, and the promise of a chance to rehabilitate the American brand in a country where U.S. policies are unpopular.
Pakistan is a critical U.S. ally, but the two have long had a deeply uneasy relationship. Pakistani officials say they are doing their best to assist flood victims with limited resources. But U.S. officials say they are concerned that the flood could become a major internal catastrophe if more is not done to help the victims. With the government already facing political turmoil, that could be destabilizing for Pakistan, officials say, and would eliminate all hope of persuading the nation's military to take on certain insurgent groups that operate on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border.
The Taliban may see opportunity in the floods. In the void left by the government, Islamic charities that are known fronts for militant groups have taken to the streets to distribute food, medicine and tents.
Analysts say, meanwhile, that Wednesday's suicide bombing, which left the head of a key security agency dead, may be the first in a series of attacks as the armed forces turn their focus to flood relief.
"The pressure on the Pakistani Taliban has been considerably released," Hussain said. "They are ruthless people and they are going to exploit this."
Wednesday's attack came in one of the most heavily patrolled areas in the regional capital of Peshawar, outside the office of the Frontier Constabulary. The agency's chief, Sifwat Ghayur, had just stepped into his car when a suicide bomber walked up to the vehicle and detonated himself, police said.
The Frontier Constabulary, along with the Frontier Corps, forms a central front for Pakistani security in the tribal lands that flank Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Unlike the Pakistani army, the Frontier forces are made up almost exclusively of ethnic Pashtuns who are native to the region.
The U.S. has bet heavily on efforts to professionalize the forces, pouring money into training and equipment programs in the hope that the Pashtun troops will take a more active role in confronting the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Ghayur had been Peshawar's top police official before he was promoted to run the Frontier Constabulary, and he was credited with helping to substantially reduce the militant threat in the frontier city. His anti-terrorism efforts were considered unusually energetic, and he had earned the ire of the Taliban, which claimed responsibility for his death.
"We've lost a brave soldier who always stood against the militants and the criminals," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the provincial government spokesman. "We will continue our fight until they are eradicated."
Hussain's own struggles personify just how much Pakistan is up against: Less than two weeks ago, his only son was shot to death by the Taliban. Two days later, a suicide bomber struck outside Hussain's house in an unsuccessful assassination attempt.
And just days after that, Hussain was on television conceding humbly that the provincial government was overmatched by the devastation wrought by the floods.
Forecasters say the floods will likely extend to more areas of Pakistan, including Punjab and Sindh provinces, where sustained damage to agricultural regions could disrupt the nation's food supply.
The northwest's problems seem to be spreading in other ways, as well. In the southern port city of Karachi this week, at least 72 people have been killed in a cycle of revenge attacks unleashed by the assassination of a local politician.
The nation's largest city, with 16 million people, has long been a cauldron for ethnic and sectarian tension, but those problems have been exacerbated by what city officials say is an influx of militants fleeing army offensives in the northwest.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the assassination was carried out by a nexus of the Pakistani Taliban and anti-Shiite groups, which appear to be working together in Karachi to foment unrest.
Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, has been absent for much of the week's turmoil. He left on Sunday for a previously scheduled trip to Europe that included a visit to his family's French chateau. His decision to leave the country while millions suffered from the floods has generated widespread criticism, as has his choice to go ahead with a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron recently enraged Pakistanis with comments, made while on a visit to India, in which he referred to Pakistan's "export of terror" to other countries. The statement touched a nerve among Pakistani officials who feel the nation is making great sacrifices in the war against Islamic extremism, but only receives blame in the West for alleged covert support for militant groups.
Zardari seemed to deepen the divide with the West in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde in which he said the international community is "losing the war against the Taliban. This is above all because we have lost the battle to win hearts and minds."
The comments drew a quick rebuke from the White House, but they reflect a widespread view within Pakistan that the nation is suffering in support of a misguided war.
Radical Islamic leaders have been promoting their own take on the war this week, telling followers that the reason for all the country's troubles, from plane crashes to floods, is very simple: divine punishment for Pakistani cooperation with the United States.
Staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington and special correspondent Haq Nawaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.
