Police raided a Pakistani security firm that helps protect the US embassy on Saturday, seizing 70 allegedly unlicensed weapons and arresting two people. The incident follows a series of scandals surrounding the US’ use of private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The raid on two offices of the Inter-Risk company is especially sensitive because of a slew of rumors and media reports that US embassy expansion plans in Pakistan include hiring the security firm formerly known as Blackwater.
The US says there is no truth in the reports, but they have resonated with the many Pakistanis familiar with allegations that Blackwater employees were involved in unprovoked killings of Iraqi civilians.
Police official Rana Akram said that two Inter-Risk employees were arrested and being questioned. He said authorities were also seeking the company’s owner, a retired Pakistani army captain.
Reporters were shown the weapons — 61 assault rifles and nine pistols — that were seized by dozens of police from the sites in pre-dawn raids in the capital, Islamabad.
US embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said the US contract with Inter-Risk to provide security at the embassy and consulates took effect this year. It is believed to be the first US contract for the firm, Snelsire said.
He did not know how long the contract was for or its value.
“Our understanding is they obtained licenses with whatever they brought into the country to meet the contractual needs,” he said. “We told the government that we had a contract with Inter-Risk.”
A man who answered the phone number listed for the company and identified himself as Riaz Hussain said a raid had occurred, but gave no more information.
Inter-Risk’s Web site says it was formed in 1988 and offers wireless home alarm systems as well as security guards and other services.
CONTRACTORS
Though the US embassy in Islamabad does have US security staff, much of the work is done by local workers. At checkpoints and gates leading to the embassy compound, for instance, Pakistani security guards inspect vehicles and log in visitors.
Scandals involving private contractors have dogged the US in the Middle East and South Asia.
In Washington on Friday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting heard testimony about another contractor — ArmorGroup North America — involving alleged illegal and immoral conduct by its guards at the US embassy in Afghanistan.
NO LICENSE
Earlier this year, the Iraqi government refused to grant Xe Services — the new name for what was once Blackwater — an operating license amid continued outrage over a 2007 lethal firefight involving some of its employees in Baghdad, although the State Department has temporarily extended a contract with a Xe subsidiary to protect US diplomats in Iraq.
Many of the recent rumors in Pakistan have been prompted by US plans to expand its embassy space and staff. Among the other unsubstantiated stories that the US denies are claims that 1,000 US Marines will land in the capital and that the US will set up a Guantanamo-style prison.
The US says it needs to add hundreds more staff to help disburse billions of dollars in additional humanitarian and economic aid to Pakistan. The goal is to improve education and other areas, lessening the allure of extremism.
Local reporters, anti-US bloggers and others have repeatedly alleged that the US is using Xe. The issue continues to pop up in major newspapers despite US embassy denials.
Xe officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday.
The US has signed a contract worth up to US$18.3 million with DynCorp International, another US-based security firm, federal online records showed.
Some analysts say Islamist and other opposition groups may be planting the stories in the Pakistani press and blogs to portray Pakistan’s government as a lackey of the US.
Pakistani political analyst Talat Masood said Inter-Risk’s association with the US “will increase the apprehensions that existed that the Americans are engaged in clandestine activities,” and that the raid shows “the Pakistan government is asserting itself.”
The US considers stability in Pakistan critical to helping the faltering war effort in neighboring Afghanistan and has pressed Pakistan to crack down on extremism on its soil.
Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are believed to use Pakistan’s northwestern regions as hideouts from which to plan attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
MILITIAS
Pakistan has launched offensives against militants, but has also relied on some local militias to help fend off the Pakistani Taliban. Some of these militias share the same aims as the Taliban in Afghanistan, but disagree with targeting the Pakistani government.
On Saturday, the leader of a pro-government militia said the army had asked him to stop fighting the Pakistani Taliban.
Turkistan Bhitani said he and 24 aides surrendered their weapons to the army in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan and that he had asked 350 of his men to do so as well.
Pakistani army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, however, said he knew nothing of any such arrangement.
Also on Saturday, a bomb at a security checkpoint in the northwestern region of Dara Adam Khel killed at least two people, local government official Aslam Khan said.
He said police were investigating whether it was a suicide attack and were trying to determine the identity of the victims.
Taliban fighters in Pakistan’s northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan frequently target security checkpoints.
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