Key Pakistani counterterrorism official resigns amid turf battle

The head of a federal group who meant to coordinate with the fight against terrorism in Pakistan had resigned Tuesday. The counterterrorism official is said to resign amid bureaucratic turf battle that waged as the country continues to suffer militant attacks according to officials.

Tariq Pervez a former police officer and head of the Federal Investigation Agency was appointed by the government to lead the authority shortly after its formation but several analysts have expressed frustration with the government’s slow pace of standing up the group, despite funding from the European Union. His resignation on Tuesday was confirmed by Asif Syed, a senior official at the counterterrorism authority, but the said official give no further details.

Pervez resigned several hours after army guards shot and killed three suspected suicide bombers and some other two militants. The suspects tried to enter a sprawling military firing range in the northwestern city of Mardan in Pakistan that prompt the guards to open fire.

Mardan, which lies about 30 miles away from the north-west’s main city of Peshawar, has witnessed several attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist militant groups that have proliferated along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

The lack of coordination between various intelligence and their allies received many criticisms from analysts that prompted the government to establish the National Counterterrorism Authority in early 2009.

An official spoke with condition of anonymity said that the resignation of Pervez took place after the government caved to pressure from the Interior Ministry to give it control over the organization. It also comes as the Pakistani Taliban and their allies continue to attack the state, which they deem unIslamic and too closely allied with the United States.

An official also said that Pervez was embroiled in a struggle over where the new group would be placed within the government.

Pakistan has suffered hundreds of attacks by the Taliban and their allies in the past several years that have killed thousands of people. The government has responded by launching several military offensives in the northwest along the Afghan border.