EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

• Bajaur Agency is key terrain for the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban as it borders Pakistan’s Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa and Afghanistan’s thinly defended Kunar Province.
• The Pakistani Army has consistently declared the Bajaur Agency cleared of militants.
• The 04 May 2012 suicide bombing was the first major attack by militants in Bajaur Agency since December 2010.
• The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in response to the Pakistani security forces’ killing of Sheik Marwan.
• Successful targets of the 04 May 2012 attack were Major Javed Khan Bajauri Shaheed, Chief of Bajaur Levies (police) and Subedar Fazl-e-Rabbi Khan Bajauri Shaheed, Deputy Chief and Quarter Master of the Bajaur Levies (police).