Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistan Security Brief – June 7, 2010 

Security forces continue to battle with militants in Orakzai; clashes break out between TTP and LI in Khyber; government, security officials address tribal grand jirga in Bajaur; police seize vehicle carrying weapons being transferred to US embassy in Islamabad; prisoners arrested in Swat transferred from Peshawar jail to Mingora; Pakistan’s defense budget set for 17-percent rise in next fiscal year; new report examines a former army major’s links to jihadist groups and the protection provided to him by the military establishment; PML-N chief meets with senior party members to discuss terrorist links in south Punjab; life sentence issued for six terrorists who plotted to kill Americans in Lahore; police take action to quell violence between rival gangs in Karachi; rocket attack in Quetta wounds one policeman.

FATA

• Military offensives continue in Orakzai Agency with reports of 25-40 militants killed in aerial bombardments on Saturday and as many as 44 insurgents, including at least one militant commander, were killed in operations in Upper Orakzai on Sunday. Security forces also reported killing 11 more militants during the retaliation of an ambush on a military checkpost earlier today that left one soldier dead and two others wounded.[1] (For bi-weekly updates on the security situation in Orakzai, CLICK HERE)

• At least 21 people have been killed in Khyber Agency during two days of fighting between Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), two terrorist organizations banned by the Pakistani government. Unconfirmed reports also indicate that TTP commander Tariq Bhittani was killed in the fighting in the Landi Kotal area on Sunday. Fighting between the two groups began on Saturday after both groups accused one another of espionage. Several civilians have also been killed in the crossfire and some locals are claiming that as many as 50 people have been killed in total.[2]

• Bajaur Agency’s political agent, Zakir Hussain Afridi, and the commandant of the Bajaur Scouts, Colonel Nauman Saeed, addressed a grand jirga of elders from the Tarkhani and Utmankhel tribes on Sunday and praised the efforts of the Utmankhel tribe’s stand against militancy. Afridi further added that “had the tribesmen of the entire Bajaur… taken a joint stance” then militants “would have not dared to trespass…and displace them.” Saeed also said that security forces had successfully cleared militants from Bajaur and the situation in the region was quickly returning to a state of normalcy.[3]

US embassy

• On Saturday night, police in Islamabad seized a truck carrying military equipment allegedly bound for the US embassy and arrested the two men riding in the vehicle. The suspects told police that “American officials in Peshawar” had loaded the vehicle with M-16 rifles, 9mm pistols, ammunition, and black military uniforms for transportation to the US embassy in Islamabad. When phoned by police, the US embassy initially denied ownership of the equipment but later recanted and said that the equipment was being used “by the American trainers in Peshawar for training officials of police and the Frontier Constabulary.” US embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire stated that they had decided to move the equipment to the facility in Islamabad after the training project in Peshawar had ended and had duly informed the Pakistani army about the movement of the equipment, adding that the truck was carrying “only training equipment and no weapons.” The two arrested men were later released on bail but the equipment is still in police custody, which officials say will be released “after following proper procedure.”[4]

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

• On Saturday, more than 30 suspects arrested from Swat district were transferred to the Mingora Jail from the central jail in Peshawar after violence erupted between the prisoners and jail staff. Tehrik-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) founder Sufi Muhammad, who was also being held at the complex, was not transferred with the other prisoners but has been moved to a different cell.[5]

Budget

• Pakistan’s defense budget is set to increase by 17-percent for the 2010-2011 fiscal year making for a total of Rs442.2 billion ($5.17 billion). Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that security is Pakistan’s “topmost issue” and that the rise in defense spending was to support the “armed forces, paramilitary forces, and security forces” who are “laying down their lives” in various anti-militancy campaigns throughout the country. Also included in the 2010-2011 budget is a Rs51.9 billion grant coming from the Kerry-Lugar Act, which promises to give Pakistan a total of $7.5 billion in non-military assistance over a five year period ending in 2014.[6]

Jihadists protected

• According to police, investigations have uncovered that retired army major Ansahrul Haq, who trained jihadist fighters in Afghanistan and Kashmir, to have had possible involvement with several terrorist incidents over the years, including last year’s attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. However, authorities say they have not been able to get access to Haq due to his links with the ISI, which treated him “like a VIP” while he was being held by the organization for a five month period in 2007. In his first ever interview, Haq denied links to terrorism but said that he did not see a problem with “jihad against infidels,” stopping short of commenting on the issue of terror attacks within Pakistan.[7]

Punjab

• Nawaz Sharif, chief of the Pakistani Muslim League (PML-N), and several other senior party members met in Raiwind to discuss issues related to a recent increase in the number of terrorist attacks in Punjab. Sharif said that evidence into the attacks pointed to a terrorism connection in south Punjab and called for a review of the province’s security policy. Included in the talks was the discussion of a possible military operation in the region.[8]

• On Saturday, a Lahore court issued life sentences for six terrorists who were arrested for planning to carry out an attack on US nationals staying at a five-star hotel in a main area of the city. Authorities apprehended the men in February 2009 and seized explosives, hand grenades, and a suicide vest found in their possession. Police say that the men later revealed in interrogation that they belonged to the TTP.[9]

Karachi

• On Saturday, police and Rangers equipped with armored personnel carriers launched an early morning assault into the Lyari area of Karachi in an attempt to quell four days of gang violence between the Bada Ladla and Ghaffar Zikri groups that has left several people dead. The raid took place in Ali Mohammad Mohalla, a stronghold of Ghaffar Zikri, and killed the gang leader’s teenage brother. Three more people were also reported killed as the gangs continued to exchange fire on Sunday.[10]

Quetta

• Unidentified attackers fired a rocket at a police checkpoint in Quetta on Sunday, wounding one police officer and damaging a nearby vehicle.[11]