Pakistan Security Brief
Pakistan Security Brief – April 12, 2010
Military continues operations in Orakzai; fighter jets target LI meeting in Khyber; militants clash with security forces in South Waziristan; school blown up in Mohmand; six people killed in Abbottabad protests; militants bomb school in Upper Dir; ISI allegedly releases two Afghan Taliban leaders; Afghan official says Baradar arrest derailed peace talks; Pakistan launches largest war game in 20 years; Gilani meets with Obama ahead of nuclear summit.
FATA
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Security forces successfully repulsed an early morning attack by more than 100 Taliban fighters on a security checkpoint in the Shireen Darra area of Orakzai Agency, killing at least 32 thirty-two militants. At least two soldiers were also reported killed and eight others wounded. Military forces continued aerial bombardments and ground operations over the weekend, killing a total of nearly 100 militants, including two important commanders, and are now reportedly moving ground forces into Upper Orakzai.[1]
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Fighter jets bombarded militant positions in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Saturday, killing at least 42 people. Sources say two air strikes targeted the area where an alleged meeting of members of the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) was being held.[2]
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Militants clashed with security forces in the Sara Roga area of South Waziristan on Saturday. Ten militants and three soldiers were killed and several others wounded. Helicopter gunships and jet fighters were later dispatched to the area.[3]
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On Sunday, militants planted explosives at a government school for boys in Mohmand Agency, damaging several classrooms. No casualties were reported.[4]
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP)
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At least six people have been killed in Abbottabad district during protests against the renaming of the NWFP to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Around 200 people of the Hazara ethnic group gathered for the demonstrations in the district’s main city, throwing stones at policemen and torching a police vehicle and a police station. Police responded by firing tear gas and other weapons in attempts to disperse the crowd.[5]
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Unknown militants bombed a boys’ primary school in the Charagali area of Upper Dir district on Saturday. The structure was completely destroyed but no one was reported hurt in the attack.[6]
Afghan Taliban
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Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has quietly released at least two top Afghan Taliban leaders it captured last month, according to an anonymous US official. An ISI spokesman denied the claims adding that “it is our policy that we will go against these people”.[7]
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An Afghan official has publicly stated that Pakistan’s arrest of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban’s second in command, has derailed peace efforts in Afghanistan. The Afghan government claims it was in negotiations with Baradar at the time of his arrest and talks with the Taliban have since been suspended.[8]
Pakistan war game
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On Saturday, the Pakistani military launched its much anticipated Azm-e-Nau III3 war game near the its eastern border with India. It is the country’s largest military exercise in more than 20 years and is expected to include more than 50,000 military personnel from multiple branches of service. The war game is scheduled to conclude on May 13.[9]
Nuclear summit
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Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani met with President Barack Obama on Sunday ahead of this week’s nuclear summit in Washington, with promises from both leaders to strengthen ties between the two countries. Obama praised Pakistan’s response to last week’s attack on the US consulate in Peshawar, adding that extremists are a “common enemy” which both countries are faced with.[10]
