Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. drone strike kills 10 suspected militants in North Waziristan; NATO, Afghan and Pakistani military officials meet to improve border coordination; U.S. briefs Pakistan on initial talks with Afghan Taliban; Pakistan rejects Secretary Panetta’s demand for release of Dr. Shakeel Afridi; Prime Minister Gilani files appeal against contempt charges; Islamabad High Court bars Pakistani government from appointing new defense secretary; Police officials raid over 10 madrassas in Peshawar; Senior politician killed in Balochistan; Explosion in Quetta’s Liaquat Bazaar; President Zardari tells Iran he is committed to early implementation of gas pipeline project; Pakistan and Qatar transform friendly ties into strategic relationship; Pakistani Foreign Minister on three-day visit to Russia; Sri Lankan president to visit Pakistan.

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• A U.S. drone strike killed 10 suspected militants in North Waziristan on Wednesday. The missiles struck a house suspected of being a militant hideout in Tappi village, near Miram Shah. Security officials said that some of the dead included foreign militants, but they did not specify the militants’ nationalities. Local authorities also reportedly said that the dead militants belonged to the Haqqani Network.[1]

• The U.S. briefed Pakistan on its initial talks with the Afghan Taliban when key officials from the Obama administration recently met with Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Sherry Rehman.[2]

• Pakistan rejected U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s recent demand for the release of Shakeel Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who faces treason charges for assisting the CIA in identifying Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. A Pakistani judicial commission has already declared Afridi a “national criminal” and has charged him with conspiring against Pakistan by working with a foreign spy agency.[3]

International Relations

• NATO, Afghan and Pakistani military officials, including the Pakistan Army’s Director General of Military Operations Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, met on Wednesday at a border coordination center in Torkham to discuss improving coordination along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.[4]

• On Tuesday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari met with an Iranian delegation led by Iran’s vice president, Ali Seedlou. Zardari told the delegation that Pakistan was committed to implementing the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project earlier than expected, while Seedlou said that Iran had already laid the pipeline within its borders and was prepared to fully implement the project.[5]

• Pakistan and Qatar have decided to transform their friendly ties into a strategic relationship, and “Qatar is willing to cooperate with Pakistan in all fields,” Qatari leader Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani said on Tuesday.[6]

• During her three-day visit to Russia, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on expanding and diversifying bilateral relations in fields such as energy and trade. At a joint press conference on Wednesday, Khar responded to a question on Afghanistan, saying that Pakistan has a policy of providing help and cooperation to any “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned and Afghan-driven peace initiative,” because it would be the only “lasting solution.”[7]

• Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will make a three-day visit to Pakistan on February 10 in an effort to further strengthen economic, political and defense relations between the two countries.[8]

Domestic Politics

• On Wednesday, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s lawyer filed an appeal on his client’s behalf against Gilani’s contempt of court charges and hearing on February 13. The Supreme Court has formed an eight-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to hear Gilani’s appeal on Thursday.[9]

• The Islamabad High Court barred the Pakistani government on Wednesday from appointing a new defense secretary, until it finishes assessing the constitutional and legal standing of former defense secretary Lt. Gen. (ret.) Naeem Lodhi’s removal from office. The court also issued an interim order to acting Defense Secretary Nargis Sethi to continue the duties of the office until further notice.[10]

Militancy

• During a search operation conducted in various parts of Peshawar on Tuesday, police officials raided over 10 madrassas and arrested more than a hundred suspects, including many Afghan nationals. According to police officials, they planned the operation after noting “suspicious activity” in some madrassas.[11] 

• Unidentified assailants shot and killed Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Nazriati (JUI-N) leader Maulana Abdul Ghani while he was traveling in Chaman, Balochistan.[12]

• Four people including a security official were injured on Tuesday night when a remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle went off in the Notal area of Nasirabad district, Balochistan.[13]

• An explosion occurred in Quetta’s Liaquat Bazaar late on Tuesday night, injuring a security guard and destroying about 20 stores. Officials reported that there were no casualties since the area becomes deserted at night due to freezing temperatures.[14]

• On Wednesday, four people were injured in a bomb blast near a car garage on Double Road in Quetta, Balochistan.[15]

• On Tuesday evening, four unidentified assailants on motorcycles threw a hand grenade at an office of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Karachi’s Lyari area, killing two people and injuring five others.[16]

• Local law enformcement officials were performing a routine check in Safi district of Mohmand agency on Wednesday, when an explosion killed two security personnel and injured another. The blast seemed to be caused by either a landmine or an Improvised Explosive Device (IED).[17]