Pakistan Security Brief

Fourth day of ongoing search and rescue operation for avalanche victims; Six Shia Muslims from Hazara community killed in Quetta; Target killings and violence continue in Karachi; LeJ receives shipment of stolen weapons; Prime Minister Gilani’s son involved in illegal import of ephedrine; British authorities seize 234kg of heroin exported from Faisalabad to the UK; Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Pakistan conditional on Pakistan’s progress in prosecution of terrorists; Internally displaced persons injured by police at Jalozai camp; Osama bin Laden’s wives and children to be deported in seven days.

Avalanche

• More than 450 people, including military personnel and civilians, continued relief efforts for the fourth day as they searched for the 135 people buried under an avalanche on the Siachen Glacier at a military complex in Giari in northern Kashmir. U.S., German and Swedish rescue teams are in Rawalpindi waiting for hazardous weather conditions to improve so that they can proceed to the avalanche site and aid in the rescue operation. No survivors have been found, and officials believe it is likely that all of the 135 missing people are dead.[1]

Militancy

• Six Shia Muslims were killed and at least two others were injured on Monday when four gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a group of ethnic Hazaras inside a shop in Quetta, Balochistan. A spokesman for Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the killings. The attack sparked demonstrations around the city as protesters blocked Jinnah Road and forced shops to close.[2]

• Six people, including a government official and a police officer, were killed in different areas of Karachi as “target killings” and violence continued throughout the city.[3]

Law Enforcement

• On Sunday, a college student was killed by police on Meccangi Road in Quetta, Balochistan. According to the Express Tribune, police stopped the student while he was on his way to his shop, and they opened fire on him when he tried to escape custody. The student’s family and other activists marched toward the governor house and chief minister secretariat in protest of the shooting, forcing shops to close throughout Quetta.[4]

• Ten internally displaced persons from the Zakha Khel tribe in Khyber agency were injured at a registration point in Jalozai camp in Nowshera district when police officials baton charged them for failing to wait their turn and creating panic by jumping ahead in line.[5]

International Relations

• Indian government officials said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will probably visit Pakistan sometime between October and December, but his visit is conditional on Pakistan’s progress in the prosecution of the seven suspects allegedly involved in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.[6]

Osama bin Laden

• Pakistan’s interior and foreign ministries are in the process of completing travel documents for Osama bin Laden’s family members. Bin Laden’s wives and children will finish serving their prison sentence in seven days, at which point they will be deported to their home countries of Saudi Arabia and Yemen.[7]

Smuggling

• McClatchy Newspapers reported that anti-Shia al Qaeda affiliate LeJ received a shipment of 232 pistols in January that had been stolen by corrupt Afghan National Army soldiers from a NATO armory in Afghanistan. According to militants in Quetta, LeJ used some of the stolen 9 mm semi-automatic pistols in “deadly attacks,” while others were distributed to “favored militants.” According to an LeJ militant known as Raees, “the absence of security checkpoints in much of Balochistan has facilitated the development of several major smuggling routes.” One senior official in the U.S. Department of Defense stated that the prospect of NATO weapons ending up in al Qaeda hands is “troublesome,” but even more problematic is that al Qaeda affiliates are being financed at a high enough level to allow for large-scale weapons purchases.[8]

• On Tuesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued notices to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son Ali Musa Gilani and Principal Secretary Khushnood Lashari in a case involving the illegal import and sale of ephedrine, a controlled medical substance. According to Dawn, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has requested that the Interior Ministry place Ali Musa Gilani and Lashari on the Exit Control List preventing named individuals from leaving the country. The Supreme Court has adjourned the case until April 20.[9]

• On Tuesday, authorities in Yorkshire, UK seized 234kg of heroin from a textile goods container exported from Faisalabad to the United Kingdom, and British police arrested nine suspects. British authorities suspected that government officials were also involved in the smuggling due to its large quantity.[10]