Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. drone strike kills seven in North Waziristan; Shia clerics condemn Parachinar attacks, call for military response; Balochistan chief minister announces dialogue with militant groups; Militants attack a post in Gwadar, killing 10 officials; Suicide bomber shot in Quetta; 18 militants killed near Kohat; Pakistan seeking to strengthen economic ties with U.S.; Taliban violence escalates in Peshawar, claims report; Six people killed in Karachi; Four TTP militants arrested in Lahore; Militants injure 8; ECP to reveal election results same day of polls; PPP stages walk-out of National Assembly in protest of election re-scheduling; PPP calls for the resignation of ECP Chief Commissioner; U.S. Secretary of State to visit Pakistan on July 31; Pakistani soldier killed at LOC by Indian troops, who claim firing is retaliatory; Pakistan suggests potential dates for re-start of peace talks with India; President Asif Ali Zardari will attend Iranian presidential inauguration on August 4; PML-N allegedly shifts stance on U.S. drone strikes; Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif post-pones All-Parties Conference

 U.S Drone Strike

• On Sunday evening, a U.S. drone strike killed at least seven suspected militants in Shawal, North Waziristan. According to a New York Times report, the men were reportedly crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan and four of the men were of Arab origin. However, a contrary Guardian report claims the men were moving from Pakistan to Afghanistan. According to Pakistani security sources, one may have been a high value target. On Monday, the Pakistan Foreign Office condemned the drone strike, once again calling it a violation of Pakistan’s sovereign territory.[1]  

• According to unnamed sources cited in an Express Tribune report on Monday, the PML-N  government's leadership now believes drone strikes are of critical importance in combating terrorism within Pakistan.  The sources claim this policy shift follows briefings by the military and intelligence agencies to senior PML-N officials, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.  The PML-N has not confirmed these claims, and Sharif has frequently promised to end U.S. drone strikes.  According to the Abbottabad Commission report, however, previous governments have secretly condoned U.S. strikes despite maintaining public criticism for the sake of domestic political capital.[2]

 U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• According to a Dawn report on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit Pakistan on July 31, although the U.S. Department of State has not yet confirmed this rumor. Media reports last week claimed that Kerry would visit Pakistan on July 28 and 29, but an unnamed Foreign Office official said the U.S. canceled the visit due to security concerns.  According to an Express Tribune report today, U.S. officials have threatened to postpone Kerry’s visit again if the specific dates are publicized.[3]

India-Pakistan Relations

• On Saturday, Indian armed forces personnel allegedly fired across the Line of Control in Kashmir near Rawalkot, killing a Pakistani soldier and wounding one other. Pakistan’s Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) claims the firing was unprovoked. However, an Indian official claims that Pakistan had fired at Indian troops in Kashmir earlier on Saturday, and that an Indian security member had been injured earlier in the day.[4] 

• Unnamed Pakistani and Indian officials confirmed on Sunday that Pakistan has suggested potential dates for the resumption of bilateral peace talks, which were indefinitely postponed in January after the deaths of two Indian soldiers in Kashmir.  The proposed dates include an August 27-28 meeting between the secretaries for Water and Power, and a meeting to discuss maritime boundaries on September 16-17.[5]

• On Monday, The News featured a report highly critical of the government’s dialogue with India regarding the importation of electricity.  The report alleged that accepting energy from India would do little to alleviate the ongoing electricity crisis while de-legitimizing Pakistan’s accusations that Indian violations of earlier agreements, such as the Indus Waters Treaty, will contribute to a national water crisis.[6]

Militancy

• In the wake of last Friday’s Parachinar blasts which killed 57 people, Shia leaders, including Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Imam Ulema Council President Allama Khurshid Anwar, condemned the attacks and demanded military action against the perpetrators.  Anwar encouraged the government to take part in large scale operations in Kurram agency, similar to the 2009 military deployments to Swat.[7] 

• In the aftermath of the attacks on Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai similarly condemned the attacks in Kurram, calling them “anti-Islamic.” Meanwhile, in Parachinar, protests raged throughout the city as residents demanded the government provide Rs 1 million ($10,000) to families of the victims in the attacks.[8]

• Two people were killed, and another two men were injured on Sunday after their vehicle ran over a landmine in Pewar Tangi, Kurram agency.[9]

•  Balochistan Chief Minister Dr. Abdul Malik Baloch announced on Monday that the provincial government will convene a committee to hold formal dialogues with the region’s militant groups after Eid.[10]

• Officials in Lahore announced on Saturday that they have developed “fool proof” security measures – including the deployment of approximately 3,000 personnel – to thwart any potential militant or terrorist attacks during Youm-e-Ali religious ceremonies on Wednesday.[11]

• In Suntsar, Gwadar, Balochistan on Saturday, militants armed with small arms and rocket propelled grenade launchers attacked a security post, killing at least ten coast guard personnel and wounding seven others. The identity of the attackers had not yet been discerned.[12]

• A would-be suicide bomber was shot and killed by local residents in Hazara town, Quetta on Saturday evening. The bomber was reportedly wearing a suicide jacket and holding a grenade when he was shot while walking on foot towards a crowded area.[13] 

• An explosion occurred at Kohlu Cadet College in Kohlu, Balochistan on Monday; no casualties were sustained in the incident.[14]

• During attacks on security forces near Kohat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday, militants killed two security forces and injured 25 others. Reportedly, 18 militants were killed in a counter-attack  by security forces.[15] 

• An explosion near a police vehicle in Peshawar wounded two policemen and damaged the vehicle on Saturday night.[16]

• A roadside bomb injured four policemen near Yakatoot, Peshawar on Sunday. All are reportedly in critical condition.[17]

• An errant mortar shell landed in Mattani near the border of Frontier Region Peshawar on Saturday morning, killing a teenager and wounding four others. In a separate incident, unknown militants opened fire on a police car near Badhaber, Peshawar on Friday evening, wounding two policemen.[18]

• On Friday night in Hangu district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, militants assaulted a security post in Spin Tal; eight militants were reported dead in the assault, while two Frontier Corps members were killed. One of the militants who was killed was reportedly an al Qaeda-linked Arab national. Documents in Arabic were recovered from the site of the assault.[19]  

• In Doaba, Hangu district on Saturday, an improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a motorcycle detonated, injuring five Frontier Corps (FC) officials and a one civilian.[20]

• According to a Sunday report in the New York Times, while violence has declined in the rural swaths of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Taliban militant activity has escalated in large cities in the province, particularly in Peshawar. According to a report in The News, militants average one attack a day in Peshawar, which accounts for approximately half of all militancy in the province. According to security officials, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, which advocates talks with the Taliban, is partly to blame. According to one official, “what we need is a pat on the back, not daily derision.”  In the past, the PTI has described military action against the Taliban as “futile.”[21]

• A member of an anti-Taliban local militia was killed on Friday in Matta, Swat district after unknown gunmen walked up the man and shot him outside of a bazaar. In a separate incident, another member of a local militia was shot and killed in Kabal, Swat, by unidentified gunmen while he was on his way home.[22]   

• Police conducted search operations throughout Koza Bandai, Swat on Sunday, arresting approximately 50 people in the region.[23]

• Six people were killed on Monday in Karachi in separate shooting incidents. A policeman was killed in Gurumandir by unknown gunmen, while another policeman was killed in Landhi Colony. Two bodies were found stuffed in gunny bags in Baldia, while one man was killed near Mauripur and another was shot on  Abul Hassan Isfahani Road.[24]

• On Monday, a Karachi anti-terrorism court ordered two suspects in the June 26 attack on Sindh High Court Justice Maqbool Baqar into judicial remand until August 9.[25] 

• On Saturday, four people were killed in separate shootings in Karachi. One suspected gang member was killed in Baldia, while another man was shot dead in Old Sabzi Mundi. Another man was shot near Dhobi Ghat while the body of a man was recovered near Adam Khan road.[26]

• Rangers officials conducted raids throughout Patel Para, Karachi on Monday morning and arrested nine people, including two suspected target killers.[27]

• On Monday in Lahore, police arrested four Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members wanted in the Rasul Park, Lahore attack during mid-July last year, which killed ten people.[28]

• According to a Saturday report in The News, the Centre for Pakistan and Gulf Studies (CPGS) in Islamabad had begun a program to fight extremism in Pakistan by initiating several programs aimed at tracing the origins of radicalism in Pakistan and on educating the general academic and policy making community on radicalism.[29] 

• A  poll in Gallup Pakistan released on Saturday claims that 46 percent of Pakistanis believe that Nawaz Sharif will not be able to forge a lasting peace agreement with the Taliban. However, 32 percent of the people polled did recommend peace talks, while only 30 percent supported military force.[30]

Presidential Election

• According to a statement on Monday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will reveal the results of the presidential election on the same day as balloting, on July 30.  The ECP has requested that the Registrar of the High Court in each province submit their polling results as soon as balloting concludes.[31]

• On Monday, the National Assembly and Senate bodies convened in preparation for the presidential election.[32]

• Members of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) walked out of the National Assembly today to protest the re-scheduling of the election from August 6 to July 30.  PPP leader Ameen Faheem offered to withdraw his party’s decision to boycott the election if the ECP reinstated the original polling date.  Separately, PPP leader Yousuf Talpur told Geo News that the PPP did not consult with its members before announcing the boycott last week and claimed he would address this issue at the next party meeting.[33]

• National Assembly Opposition Leader and PPP leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah demanded the resignation of the chief ECP commissioner and its other members.  According to Shah, the ECP has failed “to protect their independence” given its acquiescence to the Supreme Court’s order to re-schedule the presidential election.[34]

• On Sunday, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan expressed solidarity with the PPP’s decision to boycott the presidential election, but advised the press that the PTI would still field its nominee, Justice (retd) Wajihuddin, in order to oppose the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s candidate.[35]

Iran-Pakistan Relations

• The Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday that President Asif Ali Zardari has accepted an invitation to visit Iran for Iranian president-elect Hassan Rohani's inauguration on August 4.[36]

Domestic

• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met on Sunday with his brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.  According to unnamed sources in an Express Tribune report, the brothers decided to delay the All-Parties Conference (APC) on national security issues until the draft of Pakistan’s new National Security Policy is complete.  The Prime Minister will also meet with PTI Chairman Imran Khan to persuade him to reconsider the PTI’s decision boycott the APC.  In a press statement on Monday, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain urged the federal government to host the APC “soon” in order to formulate a new national security strategy.[37]

• According to a report in the New York Times on Saturday, police officials in Peshawar have blamed the PTI-led provincial government’s “ambivalent attitude” towards terrorism and militancy for violence in the region.  PTI Chairman Imran Khan publicly favors talks with the Taliban.[38]

• In a press conference on Monday, Sindh Chief Minister and provincial President of the PPP Qaim Ali Shah told the media that the MQM was only interested in a political alliance with whichever party happened to be in power.  This accusation follows the MQM’s pledge of unconditional support for PML-N presidential candidate Mamnoon Hussain.[39]

• The Balochistan High Court adjourned a hearing on Monday regarding the Balochistan police force’s request to transfer the Akbar Bugti murder case from Quetta to Islamabad due to security concerns for the chief defendant, former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.  Balochistan Chief Justice Qazi Faez Essa observed that the provincial government of Balochistan has not yet voiced its opinion on the transfer, and that the application requesting transfer did not have the required signatures.  Essa adjourned the hearing until August 24 in order to resolve these issues.  Musharraf stands accused of involvement in the death of Bugti, chief of the Bugti tribe, during August 2006 military operations against rebel forces in Balochistan.[40]