Pakistan Security Brief

Four-member peace council holds first meeting; TTP’s eight-member shura meets to discuss peace talks; TTP Central Council will meet Saturday, make final decision regarding negotiations; Pakistan’s advisor on national security emphasizes position of non-interference in Afghanistan, but fears impact of U.S. military withdrawal; Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif creates reconciliation committee to address grievances of Baloch nationalists; Foreign Office spokesman calls for early resumption of composite dialogue with India; Gunmen kill two in Peshawar; Three Frontier Corps personnel killed in Balochistan blast; Three injured in botched Karachi attack on police van; NATO driver killed in Sindh; Bomb blast damages school in Charsadda; ANP politician’s house bombed in Mardan; Court rejects Musharraf’s request to leave Pakistan for medical treatment; Head of Central Bank resigns; Prime Minister and former President Zardari participate in groundbreaking for coal plant; foreign exchange reserves drop to $7.994 billion the previous week.

TTP Peace Talks

• On Friday, the four-member peace committee held its first meeting, at which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif outlined guidelines for the negotiations and discussed a strategy for the peace talks. Sharif granted the group complete authority to initiate the dialogue process with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Irfan Siddiqui, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on National Affairs whom the committee appointed as its coordinator, also called on the TTP to announce its negotiators as soon as possible.[1]

• On Thursday, the spokesman for the TTP, Shahidullah Shahid, stated that the primary objective of the TTP is the enforcement of Sharia law, “whether through peace or war.” According to Shahid, the TTP have taken the government’s offer for peace talks seriously. The eight-member shura, led by a Taliban commander from Mohmand agency, Qari Shakil Ahmed Haqqani, will reportedly forward its decision regarding peace talks to the central council. TTP leader Mullah Fazlullah will chair the 16-member central council on Saturday, which will administer the organization’s final decision.[2]

• According to a Friday article in The News, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s decision to initiate peace talks with the TTP is meant to build public support for a military offensive in North Waziristan. Government insiders reportedly claimed that neither the military nor political leadership were optimistic about peace talks, but rather favored a military response to counter TTP militants.[3]

Afghanistan Reconciliation Process

• On Wednesday, Advisor to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz expressed his concern that pressure on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border could rise following the withdrawal of U.S. and allied forces from Afghanistan. Aziz emphasized the need for close monitoring of the border region to prevent coordination between the Afghan Taliban and the TTP.[4]

Balochistan Peace Talks

• On Thursday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif directed authorities to form a committee that will initiate a negotiation and reconciliation process with Baloch nationalists. Representatives discussed the presence of terrorists in the province, as well as the need for job opportunities and development projects throughout Balochistan. Sharif also urged for both the civil and military leadership to create a joint strategy to address terrorism and ensure peace in the province.[5]

• On Thursday, the Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif visited the Combat Training Area in Quetta, where 200 policemen and Balochistan Constabulary forces are being trained in a specialized anti-terrorism course to help keep peace in the province.[6]

India-Pakistan Relations

• On Thursday, a Foreign Office spokesperson called for reviving the composite dialogue with India as soon as possible.[7]

Militancy

• On Friday, a bomb blast targeting a Frontier Corps (FC) vehicle killed three FC personnel and injured four in Jahoo, Awaran district, Balochistan.[8]

• On Thursday, unknown gunmen killed two people and injured one in Peshawar.[9]

• On Friday, two militants were injured by a grenade in Sohrab Goth, Karachi when attempting to attack a police van. One policeman was also injured.[10]

• On Friday, unidentified attackers threw hand grenades at a local labor leader in the SITE area of Karachi. He was not injured.[11]

• On Thursday, unidentified gunmen killed the driver of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) oil tanker in Bhirya, Sukkur district, Sindh.[12]

• On Wednesday, unidentified attackers fired rockets at a sugar mill in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after the owner refused to pay extortion money.[13]

• On Thursday, a bomb detonated outside a house in Mohallah Sakligaranwali, Dera Ismail Khan district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after its owner refused to pay extortion money. There were no casualties.[14]

• On Wednesday, a bomb detonated inside a boys’ school in Sro Kalay, Charsadda district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, damaging the building but causing no casualties.[15]

• On Thursday, the house of a former member of the National Assembly from the Awami National Party (ANP) was bombed in Mayar, Mardan district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. There were no casualties.[16]

• On Thursday, four people who had been kidnapped were found, and two of their kidnappers were arrested, in Prang Ghar, Mohmand Agency.[17]

• On Thursday, a Rawalpindi oil refinery reportedly received a letter demanding $5 million in protection money on pain of the refinery being blown up.[18]

Domestic

• On Friday, an Islamabad court rejected former President Pervez Musharraf’s request to be allowed to leave Pakistan for medical treatment. The court summoned Musharraf to a February 7 hearing and issued an arrest warrant.[19]

• On Thursday, Yaseen Anwar, the head of Pakistan’s Central Bank resigned from his position, reportedly for personal reasons. His resignation comes shortly before an International Monetary Fund review of Pakistan’s economic progress.[20]

• On Friday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former President Asif Ali Zardari participated in the groundbreaking of a coal plant in Thar, Sindh. The plant will be completed in 2017.[21]

• A Friday article in The Associated Press highlighted the Pakistani military’s Counter Improvised Explosive Device (IED), Explosives and Munitions School in Risalpur, Pakistan, which trains Pakistani soldiers to detect and defuse homemade bombs that have become an increasingly common weapon used by militants in Pakistan.[22]

• On Thursday, the Minister of State for Interior, Mohammad Balighur Rehman, told the National Assembly that despite the government’s offer to begin negotiations with the TTP, Pakistan’s security forces would remain on high alert to protect both civilians and soldiers from the recent surge in attacks by TTP militants.[23]

• A Friday article in The Frontier Post reported that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to $7.994 billion the previous week. Additionally, remittances rose 9.46 per cent to $7.8 billion in the first half of the 2013/2014 fiscal year. [24]