Pakistan Security Brief
Pakistan Security Brief – April 22, 2010
Security forces clash with militants in Orakzai; stray mortar round kills one woman in Khyber; a new report indicates militants relocating to North Waziristan; COAS Gen. Kayani visits Swat and Bajaur, praises local and military efforts towards security; militants attack a security checkpoint in Swat; commander in Dir says district has been cleared of militants; former MP killed in Charsadda; new details emerge about one of the ex-ISI officials recently kidnapped in the FATA.
FATA
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Security forces in Orakzai Agency bombarded Taliban hideouts in the villages of Mishti and Kambar Masi. Clashes erupted when ground troops later advanced into Mishti, resulting in 5-15 militants and one Frontier Corps soldier killed. Troops also advanced into Kambar Masi and reportedly secured the village and the surrounding areas without incident. Elsewhere, militants blew up a basic health center in the Akhoon Kot area of Upper Orakzai.[1]
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A stray mortar round fired by security forces struck a house in the Kamar area of Khyber Agency’s Bara sub-district, killing one woman and wounding four children.[2]
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A new report indicates that North Waziristan has seen a recent influx of militants fleeing Pakistani military operations being conducted elsewhere in the FATA. Pakistani, Arab, Chechen, and Uzbek militants are now a reportedly common sight in the agency’s main towns of Miram Shah and Mir Ali, where the Taliban has reportedly set up command and control centers.[3]
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP)
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Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani addressed tribal and political leaders as part of his trip to Swat and Bajaur on Wednesday. At the Circuit House in Swat, Kayani stated that the Pakistani Army’s role in the war on terror was “matchless” and that it had set a “unique precedent” for combating militancy. In addition, he promised that security forces would remain in Swat and the surrounding areas until they had eliminated all militants from the area. Kayani also attended a jirga in Bajaur where he praised tribal efforts to fight militants, adding that security forces had greatly improved the overall security situation in the area.[4]
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Early this morning, a security checkpoint in the Swat Valley town of Kabal came under attack by a group of militants. Security forces returned fire, killing four militants.[5]
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Dir’s operational commander, Colonel Nadeem Mirza, has said militants no longer control any part of the district, adding that the operation was essentially over and security forces were now merely conducting search and cordon operations as part of efforts to fully secure the area.[6]
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Charsadda district’s former Member of Parliament district has been killed by a group of unknown gunmen. Alam Zaib Umer Zai of the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Sherpao group was shot to death in his car outside his office in Charsadda city. Two men riding in the car with him later succumbed to their wounds while two other people were also reported injured in the shooting.[7]
ISI kidnapping
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The wife of Khalid Khawaja, one of the two former Inter Services Intelligence officials recently captured by militants in the FATA, has said she is convinced that her husband was kidnapped by the Punjabi Taliban. Khawaja supposedly once gave a list of Punjabi Taliban members to Beitullah Mehsud on behalf of the ISI, requesting that Mehsud rein them in. Khawaja has been a known Taliban sympathizer who claims to have hosted Osama bin Laden and also openly sided with clerics during the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) incident in 2007.[8]
