Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar says Pakistan “dragged its feet” over reopening NATO supply routes; Pakistan sends first CSF bills to U.S.; British Prime Minister David Cameron meets with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf in Kabul; Pakistan and Iran agree to form Joint Working Committee to advance Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project; Pakistani and Indian officials meet in Islamabad to discuss Cross-Line of Control; UNHCR Representative visits Balochistan; Three British Muslims found guilty of travelling to Pakistan for terrorist training; Pakistani military officials denies reports of security operation in Balochistan; TTP militants attack Pakistani security check post in Chitral district; Police foil terrorist attack in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

NATO Supply Routes

• On Wednesday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that the Pakistani government “dragged its feet” by prolonging negotiations over reopening the NATO supply routes beyond January, when the U.S. initially offered an apology for the Salala border incident. Speaking at a Senate panel on foreign affairs in Islamabad, Khar noted that a trust deficit remained between Pakistan and the U.S., mainly due to disagreements over how to eliminate alleged militant safe havens in Pakistan. The foreign minister admitted that drones are the only way to eliminate terrorists in tribal areas of Pakistan, but urged the U.S. to keep in mind “Pakistan’s concerns over the unilateral actions of [the] U.S. and collateral damage cause by drone strikes.”[1]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• The Pakistani Joint Staff headquarters has sent the first Coalition Support Fund (CSF) bills to Washington since the May 2011 U.S. raid in Abbotabad that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden, according to a senior official from the Pakistani finance ministry. Though neither the U.S. embassy nor the Pakistani finance ministry disclosed the exact amount of the CSF receipts, the amount is expected to be between $500 and $600 million. Should the U.S. Congress refrain from objecting to the claims during the requisite 15 day period, the Obama administration will then be able to disburse the existing claims. According to a senior official speaking on the condition of anonymity, 60 percent of the CSF payment will be distributed to the military and the remaining funds will be utilized for budget financing.[2]

International Relations

• British Prime Minister David Cameron met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Thursday to discuss the United Kingdom’s withdrawal of 9,500 troops from Afghanistan before the end of 2014. Speaking in Kabul, Cameron called upon Pakistan and Afghanistan to take action for a common cause, saying “the terrorists that are trying to wreck Afghanistan are by and large the same terrorists that are trying to wreck Pakistan." The British Prime Minister drew attention to stalled talks with the Taliban and reiterated that there is a strong plan in place to transfer security responsibility from NATO and ISAF forces to “capable Afghan forces.” Prime Minister Ashraf and President Karzai also met on the sidelines of the trilateral talks to discuss specific measures to eliminate militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.[3]

• During a Wednesday meeting in Islamabad, the Pakistan-Iran Joint Committee on Oil, Gas and Energy agreed to form the Joint Working Group (JWG) to advance the technical, legal, and financial aspects of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project, which is estimated to cost between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion. In the meeting, Iranian officials stated their desire to invest in Pakistan’s energy and petroleum sector and encouraged Pakistani officials to invest in Iran’s. Iran has discussed a plan to lay a portion of the oil pipeline that will transport crude oil to a refinery in Gwadar, which Iran has also offered to assist in constructing. According to a Pakistani state news agency, the working group signals both countries’ commitment to the IP gas pipeline project.[4]      

• Pakistani and Indian officials met in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss confidence building measures (CBMs) to strengthen trade across the Cross-Line of Control (LoC). The two delegations reviewed the progress made at the last Pakistan-India Working Group on Cross-LoC and “discussed modalities for introducing additional Cross-LoC CBMs,” according to a Pakistani Foreign Office statement.[5]

• Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Pakistan Neill Wright travelled to Balochistan this week to examine the progress of UNHCR projects in Killa Saifullah, Loralai, and Ziarat. During a three-day visit to the province, Wright also met with Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi and several heads of NGOs assisting in UNHCR projects in the area. Speaking during the visit, Wright drew attention to the importance of collaboration between the federal and provincial governments for ensuring a high standard of living for “Afghan refugee communities and local communities who had so generously hosted refugees for over three decades.”[6]

Militancy

• A British court on Wednesday found three British Muslims who were arrested in early July guilty of traveling to Pakistan for terror training. According to Scotland Yard, the suspects “traveled to Pakistan between 2010 and 2012 with the intention of committing acts of terrorism or assisting another to commit such acts.” The court also found two others guilty of having materials useful for terrorism. In early July, police arrested one of the suspects with a memory chip containing several issues of al Qaeda’s English-language magazine Inspire and arrested another suspect caught with issues of the magazine and a CD containing a document called “39 Ways to Support and Participate in Jihad.”[7]

• On Tuesday, Director General of Military Operation (DGMO) Major General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmed refuted reports that Pakistani security forces are carrying out military operations in Balochistan. Speaking at a two-day National Workshop on the “Balochistan Situation: Perceptions and Realities- The Way Forward,” organized by the National Defence University (NDU) in Islamabad, Nadeem said “there is no military operation in any part of Balochistan and not a single soldier is out of the barracks.”[8]

• On Wednesday, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants based in Afghanistan attacked the Gambhir and Arandu security check posts in Chitral district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistani security forces responded with retaliatory fire, killing at least nine militants.[9]

• On Wednesday, police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province’s Lakki Marwat district defused explosive devices planted at a government primary school in Kotka Gul Zafar as well as an explosive device near Gulbaz Dehqan village. Meanwhile, in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district, Pakistani police defused a 10 kilogram bomb planted at a hotel in Wudh bazaar.[10] 

• In Karachi on Wednesday, an improvised explosive device (IED) struck a Rangers vehicle near Namak Bank in the Buffer Zone area, killing one person and injuring five others. Nine people were killed and three others wounded on Wednesday in separate incidents of gunfire in Karachi’s Manghopir, New Karachi, Orangi Town, Liaquatabad, Surjani Town, Khokhrapar, Baloch Para, Nazimabad, and Ranchore Lane areas. Two additional bodies were found in the Mureed Goth and Sharafi Goth areas.[11]