Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistani government and TTP negotiating committees meet in Islamabad; U.S. Department of Treasury and U.S. Department of State designate founder of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi as Specially Designated Global Terrorist; Officials in Pakistan put on hold the Iran-Pakistan pipeline; Pakistan to negotiate for lower prices on LNG from Qatar; JuD leader says India is responsible for terrorist attacks in Pakistan; General Raheel Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince discuss defense and security cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan; TTP’s Peshawar district chief takes responsibility for Tuesday suicide attack in Peshawar and killing of Shia leader; Gunmen kill local Taliban commander and bodyguards in North Waziristan; Gunmen kill two local peace committee members in Tank district; Police defuse two bombs in Karachi; Baloch Republican Army claims responsibility for Tuesday attack on train; Balochistan government to begin negotiations with militants; Afghan Taliban capture U.S. military dog.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Peace Talks

• On Thursday, representatives of the government and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) negotiating committees met in Islamabad to “chart a roadmap” for further discussions. According to a statement released by TTP committee leader Maulana Samiul Haq, the government committee limited the scope of the talks to insurgency-affected areas and insisted that all activities that could negatively impact the peace efforts should be stopped. Additionally, they requested that all talks be held within the framework of the Pakistani constitution. The TTP’s committee requested that the government committee clarify its level of authority, and demanded that the TTP representatives meet with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel, and the Director-General of the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).[1]

• On Wednesday, the head of the caretaker committee of the TTP, Qari Shakil, requested helicopters be provided to transport members of the TTP’s peace committee to meet with the TTP because the roads the committee would need to take for the meeting would be too hazardous to travel.[2]

Terrorist Designations

• On Thursday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Treasury Department listed Malik Ishaq, the founder of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), on the Specially Designated Nationals List. The U.S. Department of State also designated Ishaq, and the militant organization LeJ, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224, which prohibits any U.S. person from engaging in transactions with Ishaq, and freezes all property and interests of Ishaq in the U.S.[3]

Iran-Pakistan Relations

• According to a Thursday report in The News, Pakistani officials have informed representatives in Iran that the two countries should shelve the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, and that Iran should give Pakistan some leeway on the penalty associated with the December 2014 deadline for the completion of the project. Due to funding issues and the fear of U.S. sanctions, Pakistan has been unable to build its section of the pipeline.[4]

Qatar-Pakistan Relations

• According to a Thursday report in The News, Pakistani officials will travel to Qatar later in February to negotiate a deal for lower prices for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) from Qatar.[5]

India-Pakistan Relations

• On Wednesday, Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) leader and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed accused India of carrying out terrorist attacks in Pakistan and operating in Afghanistan. He said that the recent string of violence in the country was not carried out by the TTP, but by India.[6]

Saudi-Pakistan Relations

• On Wednesday, Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif met with Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, where the two discussed defense and security cooperation, regional stability, and taking steps to strengthen bonds between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.[7] 

Militancy

• On Wednesday, Mufti Hassan Swati, who claimed to be the Peshawar district chief of the TTP, accepted responsibility for Tuesday’s suicide attack at a Peshawar hotel that killed nine and injured at least fifty people.  Mufti Hassan Swati stated that TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, who denied the group’s involvement in the attack, was not aware of the operation orchestrated by the TTP’s Peshawar branch to avenge the attack on a seminary in Rawalpindi in November 2013 at the time he made the statement. Swati also claimed that the revenge attacks included the killing of Tehreek Nifaz Fiqah-i-Jafria Pakistan leader Ali Asghar, and that he organized the attacks to fulfill the wishes of the TTP’s central deputy emir Shaikh Khalid Haqqani. According to a report in The News, Swati is said to be a commander of the Swat section of the TTP that was led by Maulana Fazlullah before Fazlullah became head of the TTP.[8]

• On Wednesday, unknown gunmen killed a local Taliban commander and three of his guards while they were driving on the Miram Shah-Mir Ali road in Pir Kallay area of North Waziristan.[9]

• On Thursday, unidentified gunmen killed two members of a peace committee in Karhi Haider, Tank district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[10]

• On Wednesday, a grenade attack damaged a house in Dheri Banda, Kohat district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but caused no casualties.[11]

• On Thursday, the Bomb Disposal Squad defused two bombs found near the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s head office near SITE area, Karachi.[12]

• On Wednesday, the Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for a Tuesday attack in Karachi on a Lahore-bound train that killed one and injured 23. According to sources within the BRA, the group carried out the attack in reaction to the killing of political activists and the targeting of Baloch youths by security forces.[13]

• According to a Thursday report in The Express Tribune, the government of Balochistan is planning to begin negotiations with insurgents based in the province. The model for talks is reportedly the federal government’s attempt to negotiate with the TTP, with the provincial government appointing a committee of negotiators to begin a dialogue with Baloch militants.[14]

• According to a Thursday article in BBC, the Afghan Taliban claim to have captured a dog used by U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan last December. The group released a video of the dog wearing a harness with a GPS tracking device and a small camera.[15]