Pakistan Security Brief

Islamabad bombing kills 24, injures 116; United Baloch Army claims responsibility, TTP denies involvement; TTP accuses government of violating ceasefire, dithering over TTP demands; Iran reportedly initiates new Iran-Oman-India (IOI) pipeline project; Clashes between TTP factions continue in South Waziristan; Five dead in clash between rival TTP groups in Tank; 24 blasts throughout Sindh coincide with Sindhi separatist group’s strike; Bomb targets railroad in Nawabshah district; Three bomb attacks target railroads in Hyderabad and Jamshoro; Four injured in Karachi grenade attacks; Police defuse bomb targeting railway in Punjab; Musharraf transferred to hospital in Karachi; Corps Commanders meet to discuss internal, external security threats with military leadership; IMF projects slow but steady growth; Baloch group calls for province-wide strike to protest security operation in Kalat district.

Terrorist Attack in Islamabad

• On Wednesday, militants detonated an 11-pound improvised explosive device (IED) at a vegetable market in Islamabad, killing at least 24 people and injuring 116. Other sources claim the blast killed between 20 and 24 people and injured between 80 and 116. According to an article in Dawn, the United Baloch Army (UBA) has claimed responsibility for the attack. The UBA’s spokesman, Mureed Baloch, said the group carried out the attack in retaliation to a military operation in Kalat district, Balochistan on Monday. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has reportedly condemned the attack and denied any involvement.[1]

TTP Peace Talks

• According to a Wednesday article in Dawn, the TTP has accused the government of violating the ceasefire, which the TTP extended till April 10th. TTP Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid added that the government had not responded to any of the TTP’s demands.[2]

• On Tuesday, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid accused the government of dithering over the TTP’s demands for the establishment of a peace zone, the release of non-combatant prisoners, and an end to crackdowns against TTP members across Pakistan. Shahid stated that the government has not released any non-combatant prisoners and has continued to arrest, torture, and detain TTP members despite the extension of the ceasefire. TTP intermediary Maulana Yousaf Shah appealed to both sides to extend the ceasefire indefinitely, adding that the government assured the intermediary committee that it will release TTP non-combatants before the second round of direct talks.[3]

Iran-Pakistan Relations

• According to a Wednesday article in The News, Iran has initiated a new natural gas pipeline project with Oman and India in response to Pakistan’s failure to begin construction on its 781 kilometer portion of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline. On February 28, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, Omani Minister for Foreign Affairs Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met in New Delhi to discuss the Iran-Oman-India (IOI) pipeline. Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, stated that the Ministry had no news of such a project, adding that both Iran and Pakistan have contractual obligations to the IP pipeline, which can be implemented once sanctions against Iran are removed.[4]

Militancy

• On Tuesday, clashes between loyalists of Khan Said Sajna and the late Hakimullah Mehsud killed ten more militants and injured six others in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan. A related article in AFP reported that clashes killed 14 people on Tuesday. Fighting between the two factions began on Sunday night. TTP Spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, who confirmed the clashes between the two factions, denied that infighting was due to disagreements between TTP factions over peace talks with the government.[5]

• On Wednesday, gunmen in Kot Khadak, Tank district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa killed five people and injured one. Police said that the clash may have been between rival TTP factions, and three of the dead were reportedly affiliated with the TTP.[6]

• On Wednesday, 24 low intensity blasts were reported throughout Sindh. No casualties were reported. The attacks coincided with a strike announced by the Jiye Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) a Sindhi separatist group, although it is not clear if they were connected. Police arrested 13 JSMM activists.[7]

• On Wednesday, a bomb blast destroyed a train track in Sarhari, Nawabshah district, Sindh, narrowly missing a passenger train.[8]

• On Tuesday, a bomb blast destroyed part of a train track in Kotri, Jamshoro district, Sindh. Bomb blasts also destroyed tracks in Sehrish Nagar, Hyderabad, Sindh and in downtown Hyderabad. There were no casualties in any attack.[9]

• On Tuesday, three grenade attacks across Karachi injured a total of four people. Two people were injured in the attack in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, two in North Nazimabad, and none in Clifton.[10]

• On Wednesday, a bomb disposal squad (BDS) defused a 26-pound IED planted in the PECHS area of Karachi.[11]

• On Wednesday, police defused a bomb on a railroad track in Sadiqabad, Rahim Yar Khan district, Punjab.[12]

Musharraf

• According to a Wednesday article in the Express Tribune, former president Pervez Musharraf is being transferred from a military hospital in Rawalpindi to the naval medical treatment facility, PNS Shifa in Karachi due to security threats in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.[13]

Domestic

• On Wednesday, the Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif held a meeting of the Army’s top leadership at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi to discuss Pakistan’s national security situation, as well as internal and external security threats. Members at the meeting also discussed the ongoing peace talks between the TTP and the government.[14]

• On Tuesday at the World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected a slow but steady growth rate of 3.1 percent in the current year and a projected 3.7 percent in the following year. Additionally, the IMF projected that the consumer price index will increase from 7.4 percent last year to 8.8 percent during the current year.[15]

• On Tuesday, the Baloch National Front (BNF) called a strike throughout Balochistan in protest of a recent operation by security forces in Kalat district. The strike was observed in Kech, Gwadar, Kharan, Kalat, Panjgur, Awaran, Khuzdar, and Naushki districts.[16]