Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistani officials claim four killed by U.S. drones; China signs agreement to build nuclear reactor in Punjab; Zardari urges regional trade through Gwadar Port; Pakistan says it is ready to negotiate with all militants to end Afghan war;  IED kills eight, injures 40 at market in Jafarabad; Gunmen open fire on PML-Q chief’s house; Death toll from refugee camp bombing rises to 17; NATO convoy ambushed en route to Afghanistan; Gunmen kill policeman in Karachi; IED in Karachi injures two; India foils terrorist attack in New Delhi; Seven killed in targeted violence in Karachi; Girls killed in IED blast in Sakhakot; Musharraf granted pre-arrest bail; Pakistan rejects involvement in 1993 Mumbai bombing; Afghan spy chief secretly visited Pakistan in December.

Drone Strike

• On Friday, Pakistani government officials claimed that four people were killed by a U.S. drone strike in Datta Khel Bazaar, North Waziristan, late Thursday night. According to the officials, a Central Intelligence Agency drone targeted four men in a moving vehicle. [1]

Elections

• On Friday, a bipartisan committee tasked with selecting a caretaker prime minister to oversee upcoming general elections failed to reach consensus on a candidate. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will now have to resolve the issue and select one out of four potential candidates within the next two days. A member of the bipartisan committee stated that the committee will accept any decision made by the ECP. [2]

China-Pakistan Relations

• According to a report by the Washington Times published on Thursday, China and Pakistan reportedly reached a formal agreement in February to build a third nuclear reactor in Chashma, Punjab province. According to U.S. officials, the agreement was signed in Beijing during a visit by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission; they claim the agreement violates international nuclear proliferation accords. [3]

Taliban Negotiations

• On Thursday, Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani, after attending a Senate Defence Committee meeting, announced that the Pakistani military and government are ready to engage in negotiations with all militant groups to help end the war in Afghanistan. [4]

Militancy

• Friday morning, eight people died and 40 were injured when unknown militants detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) attached to a motorcycle in Dera Allah Yar, a town roughly 270km southeast of Quetta in Jafarabad district, Balochistan.  Authorities told the press that “All those killed were civilians,” and explained that the 20kg remote-detonated bomb also destroyed numerous shops and damaged vehicles.  No one has taken responsibility for the attack. [5]
• On Friday, unknown gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and his brother, PML-Q president Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s house at Zahoor Elahi road in Lahore.  There were no casualties in the attack. 
• On Friday, Indian police thwarted a potential terrorist attack by Hizb-ul Mujahedeen when they seized weapons from a hotel in Delhi’s old quarter after interrogating a suspected militant arrested Wednesday.  The militant, Syed Liaqat Shah, flew from Pakistan to Nepal’s capital, Katmandu, and then traveled by road to the India-Nepal border, where he was arrested.  Shah had planned on launching an attack during the Indian festival of Holi on Wednesday “to avenge the recent hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru,” the militant from Kashmir who was recently executed by Indian authorities. [6]
• On Thursday, police recovered the body of a man who had been gunned down in Data Darbar, Lahore. [7]
• Three unknown men attacked a NATO supply convoy in Jamrud sub-district of Khyber agency, injuring three convoy personnel, including the driver.  The convoy was headed to Afghanistan to deliver supplies to coalition forces fighting the Taliban. [8]
• As of Friday, the death toll from the IED blast in the Jalozai refugee camp in Nowshera district on Thursday is up from 13 to 17.  The blast killed refugees as they were waiting for food and registration, wounding nearly thirty in the process. [9]
• On Thursday, unknown gunmen opened fire on a police car in Shaheed-e-Millat Road, Karachi, killing a policeman and a woman, and wounding another police man. In a separate incident, two members of the Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) were injured when the bomb they were defusing exploded at the railway track in Kotri area, Karachi. BDS members successfully defused two other bombs in the same area. Elsewhere, a man was shot down in Sarjani Town.  Another man was shot to death by an unknown group of people in Gulbahar Colony. A shopkeeper was shot in Shah Latif Town, and another man was killed at Keamari’s Masan Road.  In three separate attacks, unknown assailants shot and killed a man near Nazimabad Matric Board Office, one man in Lyari’s Miran Naka, and a man in Boat Basin area. [10]
• On Thursday, two girls died when a bomb they mistook for a toy detonated at their house in Ghundo village, Sakhakot, north east of Charsadda. [11]

Domestic Politics

• On Friday, the Sindh High Court accepted former President Pervez Musharraf’s application for pre-arrest bail in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case.  Musharraf previously announced that he will return to Karachi on the 24th of March. [12]
• According to an article published by The News on Friday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has decided to draft more than 150 police officers for his and former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s personal security. [13]

India-Pakistan Relations

• On Thursday, a Foreign Office Spokesperson, Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, rejected Indian media claims of Pakistan’s involvement in the 1993 Mumbai attacks. He said that neither the Pakistani government nor any of its agencies had any involvement in the attack. He said Pakistan was also a victim of terrorism and reiterated that Pakistan has offered to cooperate with India in fighting terrorism. [14]

Asian Trade

• On Thursday, President Asif Ali Zardari stated that Pakistan is ready to play a role in connecting the regions of Central Asia to South Asia through Gwadar Port in Balochistan and ensure the safe transportation of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Zardari also said that connecting the region through air, rail, and road was important to strengthen regional cooperation. He also urged cooperation in fighting terrorism. [15]

Afghan-Pakistan Relations

• On Thursday, Dawn news reported that the head of Afghan intelligence services, Hassamuddin Hassam, secretly visited Pakistan in December after an attack on the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS). According to the report, although Hassam only visited Pakistan to investigate the attack, bilateral relations between the two countries improved as a result. [16]