Editor's note: today is my last day writing the AfPak Channel Daily Brief. Beginning next week, my colleague Andrew Lebovich will be writing it full time. Thanks for reading! --Katherine Tiedemann

A harsh attack

Yesterday, a Pakistani Taliban suicide bomber reportedly drove a pickup truck with some 1,000 pounds of explosives into a barrier outside a district police station in the northwest Pakistani town of Hangu, killing as many as 36 and wounding 60 (DT, AJE, ET, NYT, AFP, Geo, Dawn). There have been more than 20 militant attacks, killing almost 150 people, in Pakistani since the May 2 death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Clashes between the Zakhakhel tribe and the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam continue in Khyber, and warring Sunni and Shia tribes in Kurram reportedly agreed to a ceasefire, even as four more were killed yesterday (DT, Dawn).

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In the wake of the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a daring raid by U.S. SEALs in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2, the threat from the Taliban in Pakistan has shown no signs of flagging. An increasingly important element of the Taliban's strategy over the last several years has been to exacerbate sectarian rifts across the entire country, which allows the group to expand its reach, increase the pressure on overburdened law enforcement agencies, and undermine the state's legitimacy and authority.

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Memorial service: A memorial for photojournalist Tim Hetherington will be held today in New York City at 4:00pm EST. Details here.

New release: Thomas Ruttig describes the history of and prospects for the future of negotiations with the Taliban (NAF).

The fog of war

Pakistani police have released an account of this weekend's brazen, 18-hour Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan attack on a naval air base in the southern port city of Karachi, stating that 10 to 12 men were involved, rather than up to six as Pakistani officials originally said (AP, NYT, DT, Independent, Guardian, FT, Dawn, Post, WSJ). Two of the attackers are now thought to have escaped, rather than being killed. Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik said yesterday that the attackers, who he stated dressed all in black and resembled "Star Wars characters," entered from a nearby residential district, and suggested without citing evidence that "external elements" may have been involved (Post).

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WikiLeaks: Pakistan edition

Partnering with Pakistan's Dawn and India's NDTV and The Hindu, the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks has released a new batch of U.S. diplomatic cables related to Pakistan (Dawn, Dawn, NDTV, Hindu). Chief among the cables is the news that Pakistani Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani requested more "Predator coverage" of South Waziristan from then-CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon, in early 2008, who said he did not have the resources and offered U.S. ground troops instead, which Kayani turned down for political reasons (Dawn). The Pakistani military has denied that Kayani wanted more drone strikes in Pakistan (ET).

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While the unfolding disaster at Japan's Fukushima reactor riveted the world, Pakistan quietly observed an important milestone in its own nuclear power program. Pakistan's Chashma 2 nuclear power plant commenced operation and was connected to the electricity grid on March 15, just four days after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan and initiated what is now one of the worst nuclear accidents on record. Last week, on the eve of his visit to China, Pakistani prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani commissioned Chashma 2 and indicated that China would construct two additional nuclear reactors at the same site. With Pakistanis spending hours each day in the dark due to "load shedding," a euphemism for managed power outages, never has energy been more critical for Pakistan. 

According to figures from the Pakistan Electric Power Company, Pakistan's current electricity supply deficit averages about 3000 megawatts, which is probably enough to power about 3 million households in Pakistan. This shortage exacts a high toll on the Pakistani people, especially in the summer when temperatures can exceed 115 degrees. The more insidious effects of Pakistan's electric shortfalls are economic. The country now finds itself in a catch 22: the moribund economy limits large investments in new or rehabilitated electric generation capacity, but won't register dramatic improvement without more and consistent electricity.

Pakistan's ability to meet its energy requirements indigenously is constrained by the relatively poor quality of its coal, the feast or famine nature of hydroelectric power in a monsoon climate, and the political and security challenges of tapping effectively the natural gas reserves in its Baluchistan province. Pakistan will have to seek energy security through a mixture of external and internal sources. As one element of a long-term plan for energy diversity, nuclear power makes sense for Pakistan, as it does for many states. But it is an ineffective solution to Pakistan's current energy needs.

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The Rack: A. Q. Khan, "My nuclear manifesto," and Andrew Bast, "Pakistan's nuclear surge," both in Newsweek.  

Outrage forthcoming?

After receiving fire from the Pakistani side of the border early this morning, two NATO helicopters reportedly flew into Pakistani airspace in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan and fired on a Pakistani Army post, injuring two Pakistani paramilitary soldiers (AP, ET/Reuters, Dawn, Post). The alliance said it is investigating, and the Pakistani Army has lodged a "strong protest" with NATO. Yesterday, a pair of suspected U.S. drone strikes was reported in Mir Ali, also in North Waziristan (CNN, AP, AFP, Dawn, Reuters). One of those killed was the son of al-Qaeda operative Abu Kashif, according to intelligence officials.  

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On September 2, 2010 an airstrike conducted by Joint Special Operations Command in Afghanistan's Takhar province killed a man named Zabit Amanullah and nine of his companions. NATO forces in Afghanistan believe the raid killed a Taliban deputy governor called Mohammed Amin, but there is ample evidence that all those killed were in fact civilians who were caught in the crossfire of a military intelligence case of mistaken identity.

I began investigating the Takhar air strike as soon as it happened because I knew Zabit Amanullah, who had previously worked with me as a human rights researcher. With the help of another Afghan friend who had acted as Amanullah's security focal point, by the following day, I had discovered the identities of those civilians killed in the attack. It took me six months to find the real Mohammad Amin and work out the relationship between him and Zabit Amanullah. Special Forces helpfully supplied the Afghanistan Analysts Network, which recently released an authoritative investigation into the Takhar airstrike, with the sketchy biographical details they had on Amin. I sought the help of contacts within the Taliban in northern Afghanistan to find the real man who matched their profile. 

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Up in the north of England, a trial is being heard against a group of men allegedly at the core of a cell recruiting and radicalizing individuals to fight in Afghanistan. The group, part of an ongoing trickle of people from the U.K. attracted to fighting in South Asia, is notable because it counts amongst its ranks a white convert, the latest in a long line of such individuals who have been drawn to militancy in South Asia. These reports of white converts in the region are naturally of particular concern to Western security services: their capacity to blend effortlessly back into the West makes them highly attractive weapons for groups seeking to launch terrorist attacks.

Back in mid-2009, an older moderate Muslim convert in London told me that his theory behind converts in terrorist cells was that they played a key role as catalysts. The presence of a convert, usually a zealous individual who had moved from a troubled past as drug addict or petty criminal to Islamist extremist, would reinforce the group's internal dialogue and help push them deeper into their militant ideologies.

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