Pakistan Security Brief

PTI leader and four others killed in Kasur; Gunmen kill high-ranking ANP leader and two others in Peshawar; Militants target leader of PML-N, killing five and injuring four of his security detail near Shangla district; TTP Chief named charged over killing of Karachi senior police official; Government planning operation against TTP if talks fail; Pakistan’s Interior Minister renews offer for peace talks with the TTP; Afghan President and Pakistani Prime Minister discuss bilateral relations; Indian security forces kill three in Kashmir; Indian forces fire across LoC, injuring one; Bomb disposal unit defuses bomb in Peshawar; Security forces kill one in Khyber agency; Pakistan’s intelligence agencies arrest three militants affiliated with TTP in Punjab; Police arrest 29 criminals throughout Karachi; Three killed in Kech district, Balochistan; Government promises to end tax exemptions; Militants attack two gas pipelines in Balochistan; Militants bomb electricity line in Loralai, Balochistan; IMF mission chief says Pakistan has not made adequate progress on tax collection.

Political Violence

• On Saturday, Maqsood Bhatti, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader was shot to death in Kasur district, Punjab. Four others died in the attack, although it is unclear whether they were the gunmen or Bhatti’s guards.[1]

• On Sunday, gunmen shot and killed a high-ranking member of the Awami National Party (ANP), Mian Mushtaq, and two others near Peshawar. The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack. On Monday, militants detonated a remote-controlled improvised explosive device (IED) near the entrance of the location set for the funeral of Mian Mushtaq Ahmed, the Awami National Party (ANP) leader who militants assassinated on Sunday, in Peshawar, injuring one policeman.[2]

• On Sunday, militants detonated two roadside bombs that targeted a member of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), killing five of his security detail and injuring four others in the Martong area of Shangla district.[3]

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Talks

• According to a Monday report in The Express Tribune, the government is planning to begin a military operation against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) if talks with the group fail. The reports says that military action remains the last resort, but that the TTP has not given any indication to the government that it is seriously considering talks.[4]

• On Sunday, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan renewed the government’s offer to talk with the TTP, stating that talks with militants are “a top priority of the government.” Although Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of the TTP, has rejected talks with the government, Khan stated that the government was nevertheless committed to negotiations with the militants. Khan also commented that Pakistan would respond aggressively to militant groups that resort to violence.[5]

Kashmir Violence

• On Monday, Indian security forces killed three militants in Sopore, Baramulla district, Jammu and Kashmir. One of the dead was identified as a “top militant commander.”[6]

• On Saturday, Indian troops reportedly fired across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, injuring a civilian in Tatapani, Kotli district, Azad Kashmir.[7]

Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations

• On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif discussed bilateral relations, including a joint campaign against terrorism, and agreed to tri-lateral talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey to be held in Ankara.[8]

Death of Karachi Police Chief

• On Saturday, police in Karachi named the head of theTTP, Mullah Fazlullah, and TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid in a First Information Report (FIR) regarding the killing of a senior police official, Chaudhry Aslam Khan. In response, the TTP stated that it was a reward for the organization that Mullah Fazlullah and Shahidullah Shahid were nominated in the FIR for the murder of Chaudhry Aslam. Investigators also identified the suicide bomber who attacked Khan’s motorcade as a 36-year old resident of Karachi’s Pirabad area and son of a prayer leader. Both Naeemullah, who was identified by his fingerprints, and his father are reportedly members of the Zikria Mehsud group, the TTP’s Karachi chapter in the Sohrab Goth neighborhood.[9]

Musharraf Trial

• On Sunday, former President Pervez Musharraf’s lawyer said that Musharraf will appear in court for his treason trial only if his health improves.[10]

Militancy

• On Monday, sources from Pakistan’s intelligence agencies reported they had arrested three terrorists in Murdike, Shaikhupur district in Punjab, who were allegedly affiliated with the TTP and were planning terrorist activities in Lahore and Gujranwala on Eid Milad-un-Nabi.[11]

• On Monday, a bomb disposal unit (BDU) defused a bomb planted in the Bana Mari area of Peshawar.[12]

• On Friday, security forces responded to an attack on a police officer’s vehicle near the Sarband Police Station in Khyber agency, killing one militant.[13]

• On Monday, police arrested 29 criminals and confiscated weapons and drugs in two different raids carried out throughout Karachi. [14]

• On Monday, the Frontier Corps claimed to have captured a student in Attashad Degree College in Turbat district Balochistan who was supposedly recruiting students to become Baloch separatist by distributing separatist literature and the biographies of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Gandhi.[15]

• On Sunday, unknown gunmen killed a levies official in Mand Soro, Kech district, Balochistan.[16]

• On Sunday, unknown gunmen killed two people in Turbat, Kech district, Balochistan.[17]

• On Saturday, militants attacked two gas pipelines in Nasirabad and the Malguzar area of Suhbatpur district, Balochistan. The Baloch Republican Army (BRA) claimed responsibility for the attacks.[18]

• On Sunday, militants bombed a main electricity line in the Rakhni area of Loralai, Balochistan, disrupting power supply to several areas and destroying the main electricity pylon.[19]

• On Sunday, militants attacked a mobile van of the Levies personnel, stealing weapons, walkie-talkies, and personal cell phones in the Bali Sourab area of Panjgur, Balochistan. No one was injured in the attack.[20]

Domestic

• According to a Sunday report in The News, the government has submitted a plan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) promising to end tax exemptions to individuals and corporations and collect $4.7 billion in tax revenue in the next three years.[21]

• On Friday, IMF mission chief Jeffrey Franks said that, contrary to claims made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the caretaker government which preceded Nawaz Sharif’s did not make an agreement with the IMF to raise $1.9 billion in tax revenue. Franks said that Pakistan has not made adequate progress in tax collection.[22]