Pakistan Security Brief

Kayani meets Kerry in Jordan, calls a meeting with Corps Commanders; Kerry avoids visiting Pakistan to avoid elections conspiracy; China confirms nuclear power plant deal; Water Commission meets to contest Indian hydro-plants; Clerics attack house in Punjab; Four killed in Karachi violence, one injured; U.S. to pay $6 billion to remove equipment from Afghanistan, only using Pakistani route sparingly; Police arrest four terrorists in Karachi; IED in Bajaur injures security guards; U.S. man convicted of lying to FBI about attempting to join Taliban or al Qaeda; Three men shot in Faisalabad; Iran, India, U.S. discuss pipeline and sanctions.

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• On Sunday, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman, Jordan to discuss pursuing a peace deal in Afghanistan prior to the U.S.’s scheduled 2014 military pullout from Afghanistan.  They also spoke to security issues in the region generally, and talked specifically about releasing Afghan Taliban prisoners to help catalyze a deal with the Taliban and Afghanistan. On Monday, U.S. officials announced that Kerry had originally meant to visit Pakistan, but decided not to in order “to avoid accusations of meddling in the upcoming elections.” [1]

• According to a Dawn article released on Tuesday, the U.S. government is making significant efforts to deny the “general perception in Pakistan that it wants to influence Pakistan’s elections.”  The article cited Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent decision not to visit Pakistan this week, and State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s statements that the U.S. has no favorites in the election as examples of the U.S. push for neutrality.[2]  

• According to an article in The Guardian on Monday, the U.S. military will have to pay roughly $6 billion to remove their weapons, equipment, and vehicles from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.  Tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan, unreliable relations and security, and a history of closing the land routes through Pakistan means that the U.S. “will not send any high-tech or sensitive equipment by that route.”  Most of the supplies in Afghanistan came through the port in Karachi originally, and at least one ship has returned to the U.S. from Karachi already. The U.S. is flying its expensive and sensitive equipment to Kuwait to be shipped home.[3]

Domestic Issues

• On Tuesday, Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani announced a meeting on Wednesday with the Corps Commanders to discuss security issues and his recent meeting on Sunday in Jordan with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.[4]

Sino-Pakistan Relations

• During a meeting with the press in Beijing on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei confirmed that China signed an agreement with Pakistan to build a 1000 MW nuclear power plant at Chashma, Pakistan.  He defended the agreement, asserting that the deal was exclusively for peaceful energy production, and conformed with the “safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).”[5]

Indo-Pak Relations

• On Monday, Pakistani and Indian officials from the Indus Water Commission met in Lahore to discuss three hydropower projects India is building on the Chenab River.  The Pakistani delegation considers the projects a violation of the Indus Waters Treaty, and the commissioner asked “his Indian counterpart to amend the engineering design of the project” to match the treaty. [6]

Iran-Pakistan-India Pipeline

• On Sunday, Indian Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas M. Veerappa Moily said that the Indian, Iranian, and American governments are discussing sanctions related to the gas pipeline that would bring natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and potentially India. [7]

Militancy

• In Kasur district of Punjab on Tuesday, a mob of clerics attacked a house and tortured and beat the residents because the religious minority Ahmadi family would not convert to Sunni Islam.[8]

• On Monday, a jury in Brooklyn convicted Abdel Hameed Shehadeh of lying to the FBI about his intentions to meet up with the Taliban or al Qaeda at a terrorist camp in Pakistan.  The FBI began investigating him after he purchased a one-way ticket to Islamabad in 2008.[9]

• On Monday, three motorcyclists shot and killed a policeman in Sultanabad, Manghopir, Karachi.  Elsewhere, two motorcyclists shot and killed another policeman in Bilal Colony in the Korangi Industrial area.  A man was killed in a drive-by shooting near Cable-Chowrangi in SITE-B.  Police recovered the body of a man who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed, in North Nazimabad.  Another man was injured when motorcyclists opened fire on him near the Shaheen Hotel in Shershan area. [10]

• Rangers and police arrested four terrorists and seized their weapons and explosives in Karachi’s Manghopir area and Northern Bypass area on Sunday.[11]

• On Tuesday morning, unknown militants gunned down a female teacher in Shakas area, Jamrud, Khyber agency. [12]

• On Monday, one person was killed and another injured in a shooting in Hala Naka, Hyderabad.[13]

• On Monday, a remote-controlled bomb detonated in Mamund sub district of Bajaur agency, injuring two security personnel.[14]

• In Khuzdar district on Monday, unknown gunmen shot and killed a man in his store.[15]

• On Monday, a bomb exploded outside an advertising company on Dorra road in Peshawar, leading to no casualties and minimal damage.[16]

• On Monday, unknown attackers shot and killed three people near Balochni, Faisalabad, as the three men were walking to court.[17]