Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistan Security Brief – July 7, 2009

Pakistan’s high court rejected a government appeal to re-arrest Lashkar-e Taiba (LeT)-affiliated leader Hafiz Muhammad Saeed; drone strikes on Tuesday in the Zangara area of South Waziristan killed more than a dozen militants; Pakistani military continues to clash with militants in Swat this week; Pakistani security forces claimed to have arrested militants in Dera Ismail Khan, bordering South Waziristan on Monday.  

• On Tuesday, Pakistan’s Supreme Court reportedly rejected on “technical grounds” an appeal by government prosecutors to re-arrest Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a charity front for terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Saeed was released in June following his house arrest after the 2008 attack in Mumbai.[1]
   
• A drone strike on Tuesday killed sixteen “foreign and local militants” according to security officials. The missiles are said to have hit Taliban compounds in Zangara area of South Waziristan. It is not presently known if any high-value targets were killed in the strike.[2]
   
• Up to fourteen militants have been killed and thirty-four arrested in Swat and Bannu in the NWFP since Monday. Military spokesmen say a militant commander, Muhammad Rasool, was amongst those killed in the operations. The military further claims to have seized large amounts of weapons, ammunition, medicines and food. The ISPR, Pakistani military press representative, released a statement saying that nearly 5,000 families have been repatriated to homes in Bajaur Buner, Shangla and Dir.[3]
   
• Security forces arrested nearly a dozen suspected Taliban militants in Dera Ismail Khan on Monday. They also claim to have demolished several houses belonging to suspected militants, among them the guest house of a local Taliban commander, Fazal Habib.[4]