Pakistan Security Brief

Peace Committee meets to outline strategy to begin negotiations with TTP; TTP welcome talks with government, convenes shura to select members that will engage in peace talks; Prime Minister: government will give peace talks one more chance on condition that TTP stops attacks; Unknown gunmen kill influential cleric and aid to Mullah Omar in Quetta; Indian minister for foreign affairs says India may rejoin Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project; U.S. State Department says Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is secure; Iranian Consulate in Karachi denies Iran is behind sectarian violence in Pakistan; December 2013 U.S. Drone strike kills two al Qaeda operatives; Finance Minister: Pakistan intent on increasing foreign exchange reserves; Prime Minister Sharif to receive security briefing in Quetta; Brother of TTP deputy chief in arrested in Swabi district; Bomb blast in Orakzai agency kills one; Landmine blast injures six in Balochistan; Militants injure Orangi Town Pilot Project worker in IED blast; Three explosions injure 16 in Karachi; Gunmen kill political worker in Balochistan; Bomb kills one and injures twelve in Quetta.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Peace Talks

• On Thursday, members of the peace committee created by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to facilitate peace talks with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) met in Islamabad to outline their strategy. The committee will meet on Friday at the Prime Ministers house to discuss additional steps in the peace process. [1]

• On Thursday, the TTP convened a Shura to select members of a negotiating committee that will engage in peace talks with the Pakistani government. TTP spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, and other prominent TTP commanders, have welcomed the government’s offer for talks and expressed confidence in the four-member committee established by the government. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Affairs Irfan Siddiqui, a member of the government committee, has called for fruitful and “result-oriented talks without any preconditions.”[2]

• On Wednesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reacted to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to continue his effort to initiate peace talks with the TTP. Khan blamed Sharif’s failure to end U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan for ending peace talks late last year. Bilawal Zardari expressed disappointment in Sharif’s announcement, comparing him to 1930s British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.[3]

• On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the National Assembly on possible military operations against the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Sharif said that, contrary to rumors, the government will not launch a military operation and will give the TTP “one last chance” to begin peace talks. He added that the TTP must stop attacks before any negotiations begin. Sharif announced the formation of a four-person committee to spearhead talks with the TTP.[4]

Quetta Assassinations

• On Thursday, unknown gunmen killed an influential cleric, who supported the Afghan Taliban, in Quetta. Maulana Abdullah Zakiri was reportedly a close aide to Mullah Omar and a supporter of the Taliban’s fight against U.S. and allied forces. The cleric’s family has accused Afghan intelligence services of his murder.[5]

Iran Gas Pipeline

• On Wednesday, India’s Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid said that India is considering rejoining the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project. India was originally part of the pipeline project before withdrawing in 2009.[6]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• On Wednesday, the U.S. State Department released a statement expressing confidence in Pakistan’s efforts to secure its nuclear arsenal. On Wednesday, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said that Pakistan meets the standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency.[7]

• U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Pakistani Minister for Water and Power and Defence Khawaja Asif met in Washington D.C. Wednesday to discuss ways in which the U.S. can help Pakistan with its energy shortage.[8]

• On Wednesday, the White House released a statement after U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s meeting with Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz promising continued American cooperation with Pakistan on security and development.[9]

Iran-Pakistan Relations

• On Wednesday, the Iranian Consulate in Karachi released a statement denying any Iranian involvement with sectarian violence in Pakistan.[10]

U.S. Drone Strikes

• According to a Thursday article in the Long War Journal, a U.S. airstrike that targeted a boat along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border on December 13, 2013 killed two al Qaeda operatives. The two militants were allegedly “close companions” of Ilyas Kashmiri, the former Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) member and al Qaeda’s leader, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in South Waziristan in June 2011. The airstrike also killed three members of the TTP and two members of the Afghan Taliban.[11]

Domestic

• On Wednesday, the Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Ishaq Dar, stated the government intends to increase its foreign exchange reserves and promote Islamic banking in Pakistan. Dar also spoke with a four-member delegation of the Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) about working in an advisory capacity to help Pakistan promote Islamic banking while also facilitating trade and investment.[12]

• On Thursday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will meet with leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami at the Prime Minister’s house before departing for Quetta, where he and Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan and Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif will receive a security briefing at the Southern Command Headquarters in Balochistan.[13]

Militancy

• On Wednesday, law enforcement personnel arrested Roohul Wahab, the brother of TTP deputy chief Khalid Haqqani, near the Kunda area of Chota Lahor, Swabi district.[14]

• On Wednesday, three explosions injured 16 people in Qasba Colony of Karachi. Police reported that the attacks targeted a local Awami National Party (ANP) member, Mohammad Ali. [15]

• On Wednesday, unknown militants threw a small improvised explosive device (IED) at the car of the head of research and training of the Orangi Town Pilot Project, Salim Alimuddin, who was injured in the attack near Pirabad, Karachi. [16]

• On Wednesday, a car bomb in Orakzai agency killed one person.[17]

• On Tuesday, a bomb blast in Ali Masjid, Khyber agency damaged a house but caused no casualties.[18]

• On Wednesday, an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Shahukhel, Hangu district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa injured one person.[19]

• On Thursday, a toy-like bomb exploded on a roadside, killing two children who were playing with it, near Landi Kotal sub-district in Khyber agency.[20]

• On Wednesday, a landmine explosion planted by unknown militants injured six people who were traveling in a passenger van from Shah Pur to Dera Murad Jamali, Nasirabad district, Balochistan. [21]

• On Thursday, unknown gunmen killed a worker of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) in the Killa Abdullah district of Balochistan.[22]

• On Thursday, a bomb exploded in a truck at a gas station, killing one and wounding twelve in Quetta’s Nasirabad district.[23]