Pakistan Security Brief
Drone strike kills four in North Waziristan; Pakistan suspends Afghan Taliban prisoner releases; Karzai orders forces to prevent Pakistani border gate construction; Car bomb kills nine in Peshawar; Arrested TTP commander killed in Taliban ambush on police in Karachi; NATO, Afghan forces arrest senior LeT leader in Ghazni; TTP kills ANP member, injures ANP election candidate; Militants bomb Sui-Karachi pipeline; Rangers arrest six in Karachi; Seven, including MQM activist, killed in Karachi violence; Militants destroy electoral office; Militants kill independent election candidate and his driver in KP; School destroyed in Khyber.
Drone Strike
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On Sunday, a U.S. drone killed four militants in a strike in Datta Khel sub-district of North Waziristan, destroying their compound with two missiles. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the attack [1]
Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
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On Monday, the Express Tribune reported that Pakistan has indefinitely suspended releasing Afghan Taliban prisoners due to increased tensions between the two countries, following Afghan allegations that Pakistan is “sabotaging the peace process.” Pakistani officials say the Afghans are unwilling to continue the discussion about releasing prisoners.[2]
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On Sunday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered his security officials to stop Pakistan from finishing a new border check post on the Afghan-Pakistan border which Pakistan maintains is well inside its territory in Mohmand Agency. Afghanistan disputes the border known Durand Line, and argues that Pakistani officials should have coordinated with their Afghan counterparts prior to beginning construction. Students at the local Afghan Nangarhar university protested on Sunday, shouting chants against Pakistan and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).[3]
Militancy
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On Saturday, a van full of explosives detonated near a market in the Matani area on the outskirts of Peshawar, killing nine people and injuring at least seven more.[4]
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On Sunday, over a dozen militants in Surjani Town, Karachi ambushed a police team escorting the arrested commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) Karachi faction. The commander and reported “mastermind” of the Abbas Town bombings, Qari Aslam Mehsud, was killed during the exchange; two police officerswere also wounded in the exchange. Mehsud had been arrested as an alleged commander for the TTP’s Zaman Khan Group on Friday, confessed to masterminding the Abbas Town bombing and to planning another one, and was guiding police to the location of his hideout when they were attacked. Mehsud was among four TTP members arrested on Friday, and the police reported seizing a large weapons and explosives cache in the raid.[5]
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On Monday, Afghan and NATO coalition forces arrested a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leader in Andar district of Ghazni province in Afghanistan. According to a statement by NATO, “The leader is alleged to have planned and participated in multiple attacks against Afghan and coalition forces throughout Kunar, Kandahar and Ghazni provinces. He is known to have links to multiple foreign fighters, and was actively planning a high-profile attack at the time of his arrest.”[6]
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On Monday, militants from the TTP killed an Awami National Party (ANP) member and injured an ANP candidate in separate bombings. In Mingora, militants attached a bomb to an ANP activist’s car, and killed him on his way to work. In Charsadda, TTP fighters detonated a roadside bomb as ANP leader Syed Masoom Shah drove by, injuring him.[7]
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On Monday, militants on Mauripur road, Karachi bombed and destroyed a gas pipeline, stopping the pipeline from delivering gas from Sui, Balochistan.[8]
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On Sunday, Karachi Rangers conducted an operation in Kunwari Colony in the Manghopir area, arresting six suspected militants and seizing a weapons cache.[9]
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Seven people were killed in various targeted attacks in Karachi on Saturday. Among those killed was an activist for the Muttahida Qaumi Movemen (MQM), who was kidnapped, tortured, and shot in Gulshan-e-Hadeed area. In two unrelated incidents, activists for the Sunni Tehreek (ST) were killed on Nishtar Road and in Shah Faisal Colony No 5. Separately, unknown gunmen shot and killed a man and his son in Mubina Town in their shop. In another attack, a man was killed in Musharraf Colony by unknown motorcyclists. Separately, motorcyclists shot and killed a man in the Sohrab Goth area.[10]
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On Saturday, militants blew up an office of an independent election candidate in Mihram Shah, North Waziristan, causing no casualties.[11
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On Saturday, militants burned a school and two peoples’ houses in the Akakhel area of Bara sub-district in Khyber agency.[13]
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On Saturday, a bomb detonated in the safe room in Badhber police station, Peshawar, damaging the room but causing no casualties.[14]
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On Friday, police arrested a 14 year old Afghan national suspected of being a suicide bomber in the Japan Friendship Tunnel in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[15]
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On Sunday, police defused two bombs attached to motorcycles in Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[16]
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On Sunday, a landmine detonated in a field, injuring two boys as they were playing in Anjghali area in Orakzai agency.[17]
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On Sunday, police defused an IED outside a local health secretary’s house in Gilit, Gilgit–Baltistan.[18]
