Kerry Offers to Help Mend India-Pakistan Relations

By Nicole Gaouette 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered to help India and Pakistan overcome decades of distrust to ensure Afghanistan’s stability as American troops withdraw.

“The United States will do whatever we can in that effort,” Kerry told reporters today in Islamabad, referring to improving ties between India and Pakistan. “We need to work together to support a secure, stable Afghanistan,” he added.

Kerry is seeking to stave off a proxy war between the nuclear-armed neighbors in Afghanistan as the U.S. withdraws most troops by the end of next year. Pakistan was one of three countries to recognize the ousted Taliban regime and has been accused by U.S. lawmakers of harboring its leaders.

Throughout his 24-hour visit, Kerry stressed the need for Pakistan to eliminate all militant groups, no matter whether they have foreign or domestic targets. He said the massacre of 134 students at a Peshawar-based military school last month may have changed attitudes in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif repeated today that Pakistan is taking all necessary steps to root out terrorism. Kerry, who met yesterday with Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders, said there was “strong consensus expressed about the importance of combating all forms of terrorism.”

“We all of us have a responsibility to ensure that these groups do not gain a foothold, but rather are pushed back into the recesses,” Kerry said, mentioning the Taliban, the Afghan-focused Haqqani network and the anti-India group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

‘Enormous Credit’

He praised Pakistan’s military offensive in tribal areas near the Afghan border.

“The operation is not yet complete, but already the results are significant and Pakistani forces and their commanders deserve enormous credit,” Kerry said. He said that the U.S. would deepen security ties with Pakistan “to eliminate threats from the border area and elsewhere.”

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Pakistan has received billions of dollars in U.S. aid while providing supply lines for its invasion of Afghanistan. The relationship has also been marked with tension over disputes about whether Pakistan is doing enough to combat military groups.

Border Fighting

Ties between India and Pakistan have deteriorated in recent months. The worst border firing in a decade came in September after India canceled talks because Pakistani diplomats held meetings with Kashmiri separatist leaders. No talks have been scheduled since.

Kerry said the U.S. was “deeply concerned’ by the increase in cross-border violence and called on India and Pakistan to cooperate on trade and counter-terrorism.

‘‘It is profoundly in the interest of Pakistan and India to move this relationship forward,’’ Kerry said. ‘‘This is the hardest kind of work.’’

Sartaj Aziz, an adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, called India’s cancellation of talks a ‘‘serious concern.’’

‘‘Pakistan wants peaceful relations with all its neighbors, both our eastern and western borders,’’ Aziz said in the joint briefing with Kerry. ‘‘With India we want a constructive sustained and results-oriented dialogue on all issues of mutual concern.’’

Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin had no immediate comment.

India Commanders

Army Chief Dalbir Singh today told reporters that Pakistan is supporting a proxy war in the disputed region of Kashmir, and that Indian commanders were free to retaliate. India and Pakistan have fought three of their four wars since partition in 1947 over the Kashmir region, which is divided between them.

The U.S. withdrawal of troops in Afghanistan could affect India’s security, Singh said.

‘‘Terrorist networks from Afghanistan can extend to India, particularly Kashmir,’’ he said. ‘‘We are keeping a careful watch.’’

Kerry today also praised efforts by Pakistan and Afghanistan to improve ties. Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani’s November visit to Islamabad, Sharif’s attendance at a London conference on Afghanistan in December and improved coordination among intelligence services were ‘‘enormously important steps,” Kerry said.

“We particularly welcome Pakistan’s support for Afghan-led reconciliation,” he said, pledging U.S. backing for the effort. “Such a process is the surest way to reduce extremist violence and provide lasting peace and security.”

Kerry urges Pakistan to fight terror groups threatening whole region

BY ARSHAD MOHAMMED

 Pakistan must fight militant groups that threaten Afghan, Indian and U.S. interests, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday as he offered sympathy for the victims of last month's massacre of children at a Pakistani school.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has long been suspected by the West of playing a double game, fighting some militants while supporting those its generals have regarded as strategic assets to be used against rivals and neighbours, India and Afghanistan.

Visiting Pakistan after going to India at the weekend, Kerry said all militant groups should be targeted to bring security to the region.

"Terror groups like the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other groups continue to pose a threat to Pakistan, to its neighbours and to the United States," Kerry told a news conference in Islamabad, listing some of the most feared groups.

"And all of us have a responsibility to ensure that these groups do not gain a foothold but rather are pushed back into the recesses of (Pakistan’s) memory... Make no mistake. The task is a difficult one and it is not done."

Most U.S.-led forces in neighbouring Afghanistan officially completed their combat mission last month, prompting concern about the stability of the region where insurgents have been increasingly aggressive in past months.

Following the attack on the Peshawar school in which 134 children were killed, Pakistan has promised to stop differentiating between "good" and "bad" militants and to step up operations against their hideouts on the Afghan border.

Before leaving Pakistan for Geneva, where he is due to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif, Kerry had been expected to travel to the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar to visit the victims but the plan was scrapped.

"Kerry had hoped to make a brief trip to Peshawar to visit survivors of the school massacre recovering in a hospital there but weather concerns forced him to cancel," said a senior State Department official.

FURTHER AID

The United States identified Pakistan as a key partner in its war against terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and spent billions of dollars on military aid to help the country fight insurgents.

But there is growing consternation in Washington about continuing with the same level of assistance unless Pakistan provides evidence it is using the funds effectively to eliminate militants holed up in its territory.

Kerry said, however, Washington would provide an additional $250 million in food, shelter and other assistance to help people displaced by conflict in tribal areas.

"We expect our defence forces to remain engaged in counterterrorism operations for some time in the foreseeable future," said Pakistani foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz.

"Continuation of coalition support fund reimbursements are therefore a valuable support that must continue in the interests of both countries."

He reassured his counterpart that "action will be taken without discrimination against all groups".

But, although observers have noted some progress, most agree that Pakistan has yet to show it is seriously committed to go after all groups equally, including the powerful Haqqani network which attacks targets in Afghanistan from its bases in Pakistan.

"Obviously, the proof is going to be in the pudding," Kerry said. "It will be seen over the next days, weeks, months, how extensive and how successful this effort is going to be."

Aziz said, however, that the Haqqani group’s infrastructure had been “totally destroyed” as a result of the Pakistani army’s operation in a tribal region that has long been regarded as a safe haven for militants.

"Their ability to operate from here across to Afghanistan has virtually disappeared," Aziz said.

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French Officials Defend President Obama Amid Questions About Paris Rally Absence

BY BENGE NSENDULUKA 

French Officials defended President Barack Obama on Monday amid growing criticisms about his absence from an anti-terrorism rally in Paris on Sunday. The United States was represented by the Ambassador to France Jane Hartley.

World leaders from around the world joined an estimated 3.7 million people who marched in rallies across France yesterday (1.5 million in Paris), to promote peace and unity days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

Top White House officials, including the president himself, were noticeably absent from the unity march, which drew criticism, but on Monday senior French officials defended Obama to veteran CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour.

"President Obama was "very present" from the start, Senior Official in President Hollande's office tells me. #CharlieHebdo," Amanpour tweeted to her 1 million followers early Monday.

On Jan 7 three jihadists, reportedly armed with a Kalashnikov and a rocket-launcher, stormed the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo killing 12 people, including the editor Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, staff cartoonists and a police officer.

Obama wasted no time condemning the attack, which marked the worst terrorist attack France has seen in the last decade, by calling it "an attack on our free press." According to Amanpour, French President Francois Hollande expressed "deep appreciation" for the president's support.

Obama is also said to have personally called Hollande to offer condolences.

"Senior official in Pres Hollande's office expresses deep appreciation for Pres Obama's strong statement & actions ever since the attacks. President Obama was one of the first leaders to call President Hollande on Wednesday, Senior Official in Hollande's office tells me," Amanpour wrote in a series of tweets.

The following day, a solemn-looking Obama paid a visit to the French Embassy in Washington to showcase support for French allies. He again condemned the Paris shooting and signed a condolence book.

"As allies across the centuries, we stand united with our French brothers to ensure that justice is done and our way of life is defended," Obama wrote. "We go forward together knowing that terror is no match for freedom and ideals we stand for — ideals that light the world … Vive la France!"

Senior French officials acknowledged the Embassy visit and called it "an emotional moment of solidarity," according to Amanpour.

World leaders present at yesterday's rally at Paris' Place de la Republique included Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU President Donald Tusk, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas among others. Each of them marched arm-in-arm alongside Hollande to showcase support in the wake of France's horrific ordeal.

Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden and Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who has deep ties to France, did not attend and while an official explanation has not been made public, some critics have likened their absence to security risks and logistics.

USA Today's Ray Locker said that it is common for presidents to avoid public gatherings of such a large magnitude because it is difficult to properly execute the standard security routines.

It should be noted that Kerry attended an entrepreneurship summit with new Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India last week.

Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris attending a security summit on combating terrorism, but he too did not attend the rally.

"As far as public signs of French solidarity from the U.S. -- don't forget several public statements from the president, his call to [French President Francois] Hollande and a condolence stop to the French embassy," an administration official told CNN, with a White House official adding "It is worth noting that the security requirements for both the president and (vice president) can be distracting from events like this. For once this event is not about us!"

Clinton now ready to embrace President Obama on economy

By Amie Parnes 

Hillary Clinton is ready to run on President Obama’s record when it comes to the economy.

Clinton allies say that if the former secretary of State does in fact announce a second bid for the presidency this year, they expect that she’ll tether herself to a main slice of Obama’s legacy.

A series of economic reports including Friday’s positive jobs numbers is adding to Democratic confidence that the economy will finally be a winner for Obama in his last two years in office, and that it will help the Democratic White House candidate in 2016.

But even as Clinton embraces Obama’s economic record, they expect her to  telegraph that more needs to be done to help the middle class, a message Obama will highlight in his State of the Union address later this month. 

They also predict that Clinton will present policies distinct from those of the Obama administration she served, and even her own husband’s administration, which is regularly credited with presiding over years of strong economic growth.

This tack, allies say, will allow her to to carve out her own identity and provide her with the opportunity to speak about education, making housing more affordable and helping younger Americans find jobs and build her own narrative.

“She'll be running armed with the current information and with programs and plans and polices that she wants to support,” said Ellen Tauscher, the former congresswoman who serves as undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security Affairs at the State Department under Clinton.

Democratic strategist Jim Manley said that he expects Clinton to “keep pretty close to the administration’s basic economic policies. But, he added, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she found ways to exploit the growing debate on economic equality.”

One longtime Clinton ally agrees with that sentiment. This source said Clinton would argue for “a Main Street platform that combines certain kinds of tax reform, trade agreements and investment strategies, perhaps fashioned around overarching goals.”

“This is an approach that a Republican candidate could choose to take too; what will matter is who does it best,” the ally said.

Republicans—from the RNC to the superPAC America Rising-- are already working to portray Clinton as a third term for Obama.

“She has no choice but to own the Obama economic agenda because she has been in lock-step with him on it ever since 2008,” Tim Miller, the executive director for America Rising, said Friday.

Miller said healthcare will fall under Obama’s economic package and Clinton has no choice but to own that piece as well. The bookHRC State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, revealed that the secretary of state played a role in pushing along Obamacare. She voiced her support for it in a cabinet meeting and spoke to lawmakers about the issue, even though Secretaries of State rarely get involved in domestic matters.

“He took her healthcare plan and then she whipped votes for it,” Miller said. “There is no path for her to distance herself from him on it.”

Clinton allies say they are aware that Republicans will do everything to tie her to Obama's policies.

But as Tauscher cautioned, Republicans have to be careful invoking that Clinton could be a third term Obama because Democrats could very easily say that Jeb Bush or other Republican candidates could be a third term for George W. Bush, who was president during the economic meltdown. 

The Democratic National Committee was quick to strike back at Jeb Bush’s intentions to run for president on Friday, putting out a release accusing the Bush team of being “the same people who not once but twice were at the helm as our nation headed into recessions, one of which was our worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

The plan to embrace Obama’s economic record differs from Clinton’s approach to Obama on foreign policy.

Even though she serves as Obama’s secretary of state, she has made a point of highlighting her differing views and strategies on Syria. In an interview with The Atlantic, she said that the administration’s decision not to get involved in the Syrian conflict was a “failure.”

People in Clintonworld have also signaled recently that she would have taken a different approach to ISIS.

“You never want to be a Monday morning quarterback on these issues because who knows how things would ultimately turn out but Obama has been passive on these issues,” one former Clinton aide told The Hill in September. “She would have taken a more aggressive approach.”

When it comes to the economy though, Clinton could face a different set of challenges in a Democratic primary.

Progressives have bashed her support of Wall Street and have insinuated that she cares more about protecting the well-heeled over the middle class.

But Tauscher pushed back at that notion calling that debate “distracting.”

“The question should be how do we get a Main Street thriving and doing well and how do we get a responsible Wall Street that is stimulating jobs,” she said. “It’s not an either or.”

Pakistan executes seven terror convicts in Sindh, Punjab

As many as seven convicted prisoners were hanged in Karachi, Sukkur, Rawalpinid and Faisalabad on Tuesday morning.

Behram Khan, convicted of a murder, was hanged in a detention facility in Karachi. He was found guilty of having murdered a lawyer in a courtroom in 2003.

Khan was handed down death punishment in 2004 by an anti-terrorism court while his review petitions were also rejected by the the Sindh High Court and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Behram Khan was hanged after the President of Pakistan rejected his appeal for clemency.

Similarly, three other prisoners who had been on a death row in Sukker Prison were sent to gallows.

Shahid Hanif, Talha Hussain and Khalil Ahmed were found sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering Zafar Hussain Shah, a Director of Zafar Hussain Shah in Karachi in 2001.

Mushtaq Ahmed and Nawazish Ali convicted in Musharrf attack case were executed in Faisalabad’s District Jail amid tight security outside the prison.

A death row prisoner Zulfiqar Ali, who was sentenced to death for killing two policemen, was hanged In Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

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Afghanistan Announces New Cabinet After Long Delay

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's office has announced nominees for the country's cabinet after months of delays following a disputed election.

Ghani's chief of staff, Abdul Salam Rahimi, announced the 25 cabinet nominees on January 12 at a ceremony in Kabul that was attended by the president.

Ghani did not speak at the gathering.

The so-called "unity" cabinet includes three women -- nominees to head the higher education, information and culture, and women's affairs ministries.

The list also includes nominees for the governor of the central bank and director of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), Afghanistan's intelligence service.

The cabinet still needs to be approved by parliament, and there was no immediate word on the timing of a vote.

In keeping with a promise from Ghani, no former government minister was nominated. However, current NDS chief Rahmatullah Nabil is nominated to retain the same position.

Former President Hamid Karzai's government was dogged by allegations of widespread corruption and cronyism.

Divided Loyalties

Ghani and his election rival, Abdullah Abdullah, now in the new No. 2 post of chief executive, have spent months wrangling over the makeup of the new cabinet.

The delays have raised worries over whether their unity government could survive, let alone govern effectively.

Ghani was sworn into office on September 29, after negotiations produced a power-sharing deal with Abdullah following a runoff election marred by fraud allegations.

The tense election standoff dragged on for months before the breakthrough.

Ghani, a former finance minister and World Bank official, has promised a reformist, corruption-fighting government made up of technocrats and free from the patronage that marked the government of his predecessor, Hamid Karzai.

However, the makeup of the government reflected the balancing act to include candidates favored by the two camps.

The four most prominent positions -- the defense, interior, finance, and foreign portfolios -- were evenly divided between nominees seen as close to Ghani or to Abdullah.

Defense Ministry nominee Sher Mohammad Karimi and the nominee for finance minister, Ghulam Jilani Popal, are seen as close to Ghani.

The nomination for the powerful Interior Ministry post went to Nur ul-Haq Ulumi, who endorsed Abdullah during the election campaign.

Foreign Ministry nominee Salahuddin Rabbani is also associated with Abdullah, a former foreign minister.

Many government institutions have been all but paralyzed for a year amid the protracted election crisis and uncertainty over whether the withdrawal of most foreign troops in December 2014 -- when NATO formally ended its combat mission -- would lead to more violence by Taliban insurgents.

Afghanistan’s $3.6 billion police problem: Broken systems and corruption

By Jamie Tarabay

Shortly after the U.S.-led military invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the international community, together with the transitional Afghan government, set about standing up security forces to counter retreating Taliban forces and remaining Al-Qaeda fighters. Along with the Afghan National Army, in 2002 it established the Afghan National Police (ANP), which consisted of uniformed police, border police, anti-crime officers and civil order police.

Since then it has spent over $3.6 billion dollars on police salaries and payroll costs, with U.S. taxpayers paying $1.3 billion of that tally. The U.S. will continue to spend $300 million annually on ANP salaries while U.S. forces reduce their presence on the ground. It’s part of the ongoing U.S. commitment to Afghanistan’s security.

But those payments will continue without any guarantees the money is going where it’s supposed to, a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction [SIGAR] has found.

After nine years focusing on building a payroll system that works, SIGAR says the two main electronic systems used for payroll data are not fully functional and cannot even communicate with each other.

“There is no documentation that unit commanders are accurately reporting subordinate personnel attendance,” SIGAR noted. “All these factors could result in personnel being paid for days not worked, either with or without the knowledge of supervisory personnel.”

Identification cards, meant to be the bridge between the two systems, are incorrect or not being used on a daily basis to record officer attendance. Additionally, there are almost twice as many ANP ID cards in circulation as there are active police officers, SIGAR says. Police officers who leave the force are not made to hand in their ID cards. The failure to collect the ID cards exposes the ANP to corruption as well as security threats, the watchdog said. Further, there are dozens of police officers who have yet to receive their ID cards.

Nearly 20 percent of the ANP were at risk of not getting their full salaries because they are paid in cash by agents appointed by the Afghan Interior Ministry. There is limited oversight of these agents, SIGAR says, and risk of corruption. The international military force command says that corruption by these agents “could take as much as 50 [percent] of a policeman’s salary.”

None of the three authorities — the Combined Security Transition Command for Afghanistan (CSTC-A), the Afghan Interior Ministry (MOI), or the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) — have verified the payroll processes. Consequently, there are no accurate numbers of how many police officers there are and whether they are the same people receiving the U.S. money. “UNDP’s independent monitoring agent may have artificially inflated the percentage of successfully verified ANP personnel from 59 percent to as much as 84 percent,” SIGAR noted.

“Unless the MOI develops the capability to ensure and verify the accuracy of ANP personnel and payroll data, there is a significant risk that a large portion of the more than $300 million in annual U.S. government funding for ANP salaries will be wasted or abused,” SIGAR said.

The ANP’s payroll data system was established in 2005, and by July of last year was working in 25 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. However, the remaining nine provincial headquarters handle just over half of all ANP personnel, and cannot enter data directly into the system because they have little or no Internet access. Those provinces have to physically transport that data on compact discs, SIGAR reported.

The system also lacks the ability to properly identify recruits, often entering them at higher ranks, which allows them to receive salary and entitlement benefits “at this inflated level for the remainder of his or her ANP service,” the report found.

As international forces draw down, the U.S. government will become completely reliant on the Afghan government and its security forces to ensure the data is accurate and the money is being paid correctly. SIGAR recommended improved oversight and mandatory controls be implemented quickly. “The window of opportunity to effect change is narrowing and this may be the international community’s last chance to ensure that ANP data collection and reporting processes lead to accurate salary payments,” SIGAR said.

The U.S. military acknowledged the shortfalls.

In a handwritten note, Maj. Gen. Todd Semonite responded that the U.S. military would be increasing fiscal oversight and discipline and wouldn’t release the funds otherwise. “It is CSTC-A’s intent to not transfer DOD (Department of Defense) funds for 2015 to UNDP until we can be assured of revised process control by UNDP,” Semonite wrote. “There is no doubt that we still have more to accomplish, but in the last 90 days we have applied significant rigor. We look forward to your review of our strategy.”

As the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan continues, SIGAR’s role investigating taxpayer-funded projects will persist. It has recently catalogued a number of programs that may have squandered money. U.S. government agencies recently were unable to specify successes in programs designed to aid Afghan women. Another report discovered that Afghan troops had an oversupply of weapons and trouble tracking their shipments.

SIGAR also inspected a $3 million food-storage facility that has never been used, along with a faltering $34 million initiative to develop a market for soybeans, which are not traditionally farmed or eaten by Afghans.

ISIS active in south Afghanistan, officials confirm for first time

Afghan officials confirmed for the first time Monday that the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is active in the south, recruiting fighters, flying black flags and, according to some sources, even battling Taliban militants.

The sources, including an Afghan general and a provincial governor, said a man identified as Mullah Abdul Rauf was actively recruiting fighters for the group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

Gen. Mahmood Khan, the deputy commander of the army's 215 Corps, said that within the past week residents of a number of districts in the southern Helmand province have said Rauf's representatives are fanning out to recruit people.

"A number of tribal leaders, jihadi commanders and some ulema (religious council members) and other people have contacted me to tell me that Mullah Rauf had contacted them and invited them to join him," Khan said.

But he said the Taliban, which is active across Helmand and controls some districts, have warned people not to contact Rauf.

Rauf was a corps commander during the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, according to Amir Mohammad Akundzada, the governor of Nimroz province neighboring Helmand, who said he is related to Rauf but has not seen him for almost 20 years.

Both Khan and Akundzada said Rauf was apprehended after the fall of the Taliban in the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and was detained for years at Guantanamo Bay.

"People are saying that he has raised black flags and even has tried to bring down white Taliban flags in some areas," said Saifullah Sanginwal, a tribal leader in Sangin district. "There are reports that 19 or 20 people have been killed" in fighting between the Taliban and ISIS, he added.

Khan and Akundzada suggested Rauf may have fallen out with the leaders of the Afghan Taliban after spending time in the Pakistani city of Quetta, where Afghan officials and analysts believe senior Taliban leaders are based.

A video released online Saturday purports to show militants from both Afghanistan and Pakistan pledging support to ISIS.

But Akundzada said ISIS was not likely to gain traction with ordinary Afghans. "People who want to fight in Afghanistan just create new names - one day they are wearing white clothes (of the Taliban) and the next day they have black clothes and call themselves Daesh, but they are the same people," he said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Analysts say most claims of allegiance to ISIS in Afghanistan have been motivated by opportunism and that a new jihadist outfit would find it difficult to establish a presence where there are already long-established militant groups with tribal links. The Taliban have confined their insurgency to Afghanistan, and do not espouse the pan-Islamic model of jihad embraced by ISIS.

Parts of Helmand have seen fierce fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces since U.S. troops pulled out more than six months ago.

Meanwhile, ISIS has posted a new video on Twitter telling its followers to attack targets in the West, New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.

Miller, a former CBS News correspondent, said the video specifically mentions the United States, Great Britain and France and suggests civilians, police officers, intelligence officials and the military as targets. It is a renewal of a call for attacks ISIS issued in September.

"We see they are using the momentum from the Paris attacks in part of their messaging strategy to see who can we get to follow this," Miller said. He added that New York City police officers have been informed of the threat and reminded to take extra care and be extra vigilant.

Grief and Defiance in Pakistan as Survivors of Taliban Massacre Return to School

By ISMAIL KHAN

The survivors of a massacre at a Pakistani school last month returned to their school on Monday, offering a grief-tinged show of defiance and apprehension.

It was the first time the Army Public School had opened since seven Taliban gunmen went through its classrooms and assembly hall on Dec. 15 in a rampage of bloodshed that traumatized Pakistan. New official figures put the number of dead at 150, with at least 134 of them children.

Army soldiers stood at the gates as children, many clutching a parent’s hand, streamed into a school where the authorities had worked hard to erase traces of the killing. Walls had been washed and bullet holes hidden, parents and teachers said.

But for many, the trauma was vivid and present. Some students traded stories of survival, marveling that they had survived the eight-hour assault. Others shed tears, describing empty classrooms where fellow students had been mowed down by Taliban gunfire.

“I knew it would be difficult for me to fight off the tears,” said Andaleeb Aftab, a teacher whose 15-year-old son, Huzaifa, was killed in the assembly hall along with most of his class.

Ms. Aftab, who escaped the killers by locking herself in a bathroom, said she had quietly slipped into the school early, over the weekend, to start grieving on her own.

“I am a teacher,” she said, “and teachers are supposed to be role models.”

Classes officially resume on Tuesday, and Monday’s ceremony was limited to students, parents, teachers and some military officials. The army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, visited with his wife and led prayers and the national anthem.

Among the crowd were young people still wearing bandages or casts — wounded students, some of them shot several times in the attack. Mothers sobbed as their children recited a poem by Pakistan’s national poet, Muhammad Iqbal, he said.

Afterward, several students said they were determined to complete their education, regardless of the Taliban threat. “I am going to stay,” said Rizwan Khan, who lost several friends.

Army snipers perched on nearby rooftops, and the school walls were lined with thick bales of barbed wire. Students had been told to leave their schoolbags at home on Monday.

Though most of the school has been refurbished, the school assembly hall, where most of the deaths occurred, remained closed and was draped in a green cloth, said Ms. Aftab, the teacher.

Army officers told school staffers that they were considering putting the building to another use, but did not specify what that might be, she said.

A national sense of anger and grief has created an unusually strong sense of unity among Pakistan’s normally fractious leadership figures. The army’s popularity has risen sharply, and the country’s parliamentary factions lined up behind a constitutional amendment last week to allow military courts to try suspected militants.

After leaving the school, General Sharif held a meeting in Rawalpindi with the United States Central Command commander, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III. On Tuesday, the commander was expected to meet with the United States secretary of state, John Kerry, who landed in Pakistan for a two-day visit on Monday.

The Pakistani national security adviser, Sartaj Aziz, told reporters that Mr. Kerry was expected to visit the Army Public School on Tuesday. American officials did not confirm those plans.

Fearing another Taliban attack on a school, the government has imposed onerous security requirements, including barbed wire, security guards and surveillance cameras, on educational institutions in many parts of the country.

Schools that failed the new standards were not allowed to reopen on Monday. In Peshawar district, only 118 of 1,380 private schools met the security guidelines, said Dr. Mian Muhammad Saeed, a senior police officer. In the capital, Islamabad, the police prevented some schools from reopening after the winter break on similar grounds.

Among students, even those who did make it back to class complained of a sense of pervasive vulnerability. “The uncertainty is terrifying,” said Nirmal Zara, 23, a student of psychology at Foundation University in Rawalpindi.