Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta says Pakistan planning combat operations in North Waziristan; U.S. Ambassador Richard Cunningham calls on Pakistan to play “positive, cooperative” role with Afghan reconciliation; Afghan officials deny meetings with senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar; Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Kayani renews military’s “fight against terrorism and extremism”; Twenty militants and five soldiers die in Orakzai clash; Afghan and Pakistani forces trade fire in Kunar province; Bomb blast in Quetta injures ten people.  

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday that Pakistan planned to launch combat operations against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in North Waziristan. According to Panetta, plans for the operation arose in recent conversations between Pakistani Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen. Although the operation would not target the Haqqani Network, which remains one of the U.S.’s key concerns, Panetta welcomed Kayani’s initiative and signaled that the offensive would likely begin in the “near future.” He also noted that U.S. relations with the Pakistani military have improved “a great deal.”[1]  

• U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Richard Cunningham called on Pakistan to play a “positive, cooperative” role in facilitating Afghan reconciliation. Cunningham noted that U.S. and Afghan officials have held discussions with Pakistani officials regarding ways in which Pakistan could aid the reconciliation process. Although the U.S. had not yet made a decision on whether to transfer Taliban members, currently held in Guantanamo Bay, to revive peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, Cunningham observed that ongoing contacts between the different parties indicated that elements of the Taliban were rethinking “future choices” and could be less hostile to peace talks.[2] 

Afghan-Pakistan Relations

• On Tuesday, the Afghan Embassy in Islamabad denied reports that an Afghan delegation met with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar—the Taliban’s former second-in-command who has been in Pakistani custody since 2010—in April regarding peace talks with the Taliban. On Monday, Afghan High Peace Council member Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar mentioned secret talks between Baradar and members of the Afghan Embassy in Pakistan; a Pakistani security official confirmed the meeting. The Pakistani interior ministry, however, called reports of a meeting “baseless and incorrect.” Meanwhile, AFP reported that Afghan delegates were not given access to Baradar but instead passed a message to him regarding Afghan reconciliation through his family members.[3]    

Independence Day and Domestic Politics

• During his Independence Day speech on Tuesday, Gen. Kayani spoke of renewing the military’s “fight against terrorism and extremism” in Pakistan. Kayani’s comments came amid reports of the Pakistani military launching a combat operation in North Waziristan agency. In his speech, Kayani emphasized the need for Pakistan’s civilian law enforcement agencies to function independently of the military, and called for effective counterterrorism legislation so that “missing persons” cases did not interfere with the military’s work.[4]

• Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Tuesday that democracy was the most effective system and that Pakistan’s future depended on its preservation. Ashraf, speaking at an Independence Day ceremony in Islamabad, discussed the importance of impartial and transparent elections to a successful democratic transition. Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari used his speech to announce the introduction of local governments in Pakistan’s tribal areas, a move he argued was important for bringing the tribal areas into the “mainstream of national life.” Additionally, he announced the extension of the Political Parties Order 2002, which permits political parties to hold public meetings in, and take their political messages to, the tribal areas.[5]

Militancy

• Afghan and Pakistani security forces traded fire on Tuesday after an Afghan border post received shelling from Pakistani forces, prompting retaliatory fire from the Afghan check post. Afghan officials reported that one policeman was killed and five others injured, prompting them to send hundreds of additional troops to the area. Afghanistan’s interior ministry stated that the incident, which lasted more than two hours, took place in eastern Kunar province’s Dangam district.[6]   

• On Tuesday, unknown militants ambushed a Pakistani military patrol in the Ghaljo area of Orakzai agency. Following the skirmish, at least 20 militants and five soldiers were reported dead and another 18 soldiers injured. According to Reuters, several militant groups operate in the area, which has been the site of military operations over the past several months.[7]

• A bomb blast in Quetta’s Shahbaz Town injured ten people on Monday. Police reports have not yet determined whether the blast was from a grenade or an improvised explosive device (IED). Additionally in Quetta, two bullet-riddled bodies were found in the Margat area of Hana Urak. Elsewhere in Balochistan, a Levies officer sustained injuries after a bomb was planted at a Levies station in Kohlu district.[8]

• On Sunday night, NATO helicopters bombed a vehicle in Naushki district, near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, killing two Pakistanis. Although the incident reportedly occurred near Chaghai district, Balochistan, a Levies official said the bombing actually took place on Afghan territory.[9]

• Explosives planted outside a civil court in Katchehri sub-district in Charsadda, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa injured one person and damaged nearby shops early Monday.[10]

• On Monday, police forces reportedly defused two bombs planted in the areas of Kotka Amandzai and Indus Highway in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district.[11]

• Incidents of violence left two people dead in Karachi on Monday. One man was shot dead in the Shahra-e-Faisal area, while a body was found in the Nabi Bux area. Meanwhile, local police arrested two suspected “target killers” following separate raids in Mauripur and District East.[12]