Pakistan Security Brief
Indian forces kill five militants in Kashmir, stop additional infiltration; Pakistan awaiting reply from India on LoC plans; TTP jailbreak leader profiled; Mention of new Karachi militant group struck from record; JUI-F leader keen to facilitate talks with TTP; Pakistan says it opposes Syria intervention, War on terror cost put at over $17 billion for 2011-12; Bomb kills child in Quetta; Senior politician shot at in Islamabad, Several dead in Karachi violence; Policeman killed in Mardan, Security forces attacked in Quetta; TTP extortionists arrested in Peshawar.
Indo-Pak Relations
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Indian security officials say they killed five militants in northern Kashmir on Friday. The five were reportedly killed near the Najwan forest area, 20 miles north of Srinagar. Officials believe the militants were members of Hizbul Mujahideen and had crossed over from Pakistan around a year ago.[1]
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Indian forces on Friday say they managed to thwart an attempt by an unknown number of militants to infiltrate across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Akhnoor area.[2]
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Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Chaudhry said on Thursday that Pakistan was still awaiting a response from India to its “concrete” proposals for maintaining the ceasefire along the LoC. The proposed measures reportedly include “reinforcing the existing political and military mechanisms and convening a meeting of senior diplomats and military officials.”[3]
Taliban Jailbreak Faction
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A Thursday Reuters report looks at how senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) member Adnan Rashid went from a life in Pakistan’s air force to become the head of Ansar al Aseer, a TTP sub-group that focuses its efforts on breaking militants out of jail. Rashid himself was freed in a massive prison break in Bannu in 2012, and masterminded a similar jailbreak in Dera Ismail Khan in July 2013, reportedly with the help of the Afghan Taliban, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and al Qaeda.[4]
Militancy
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A child was killed and another injured in Akhtarabad, Quetta on Friday when a toy-like bomb they were playing with exploded.[5]
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In Quetta’s Turbat region, militants on Friday attacked security forces personnel. One militant was killed in the shootout.[6]
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A policeman was killed and another person injured when unknown gunmen opened fire on them near Shago bridge, Mardan on Thursday.[7]
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Senior politician and leader of the Awami Muslim League Shaikh Rashid came under fire in Islamabad near Shakarparian on Thursday. One bullet struck Rashid’s vehicle but he escaped unharmed.[8]
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On Thursday, police in Peshawar arrested two extortionists working for the TTP. The men, hailing from Bajaur, were arrested near Kohati chowk.[9]
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Villagers in Sheikhan village, near the border with Akka Khel, Khyber agency, on Friday reported receiving more blackmail letters from militant group Lashkar-e-Islam demanding they kill a local woman for “immoral behavior” or hand her over to the group for judgment.[10]
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Six people were killed and two others injured in separate incidents of firing and violence in Karachi on Thursday.[11]
Domestic
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On Friday, the day after submitting a report to Pakistan’s Supreme Court on recent violence in Karachi that included mention of a “shadowy” new militant group called the Muhajir Republican Army, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the government had decided to withdraw mention of the group from the report. Khan said the report bearing the group’s name had been submitted without his approval and he would seek the court’s forgiveness for the occurrence. Khan clarified, however, that removing mention of the group from the report did not imply that the report on the group’s existence and activities was erroneous.[12]
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Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party leader Fazlur Rehman said on Thursday during a meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that he was willing to facilitate peace talks between the government and the TTP. Rehman said a forum for negotiation could be established within a month.[13]
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Pakistan’s Finance Ministry told the Senate on Thursday that the total cost to the country of the “war on terror,” was around $17.82 billion during 2011-12.[14]
UN and Syria
