Pakistan Security Brief

Sindh police chief relieved of command; CIA Seizes Sulaiman Abu Ghaith; Supreme court to convene Karachi bombing hearing Friday; Indian government wants to normalize relations, says Pakistani anti-terror efforts insufficient; India delays talks until new Pakistani government established; IED in Bannu injures five; Violence in Karachi kills two Rangers, MQM members; Security forces kill 12 in Orakzai; Zardari to visit Iran on Monday; Ashraf says elections will not be delayed; Pakistan Navy participates in show of force exercise with U.S. and China; Fatima group reportedly stops production of CAN fertilizer.

Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline

• On Thursday, during a press conference in Islamabad, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Moazzam Ahmad Khan announced that President Asif Ali Zardari will  visit Iran on Monday for the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline’s “groundbreaking ceremony.”  Khan also expressed his hopes that the U.S. will understand that the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline is necessary to solve Pakistan’s energy crisis. [1]

CIA Seizes Sulaiman Abu Ghaith

• On Thursday, The News reported that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) seized Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law Sulaiman Abu Ghaith in Jordan after Turkish authorities deported him for illegally crossing the border from Iran.[2]

Domestic Politics

• Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that all political parties are participating to eradicate terrorism, and commended the All Parties Conference held last week to discuss the Taliban negotiations. Ashraf also stated that the general elections will not be delayed.[3]

India-Pakistan Relations

• On Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated that India continues to normalize relations with Pakistan, but Pakistan has yet to make any tangible progress in stopping terrorist attacks and bring those responsible for the 2008 attack in Mumbai to justice.  Singh explained that while India is interested in cooperation, their ties with Pakistan are tense because of recent fighting in Kashmir, and relations “Couldn’t be business as usual until the guilty were brought to justice.” Singh also stated that India will continue to support the Afghan reconciliation process.[4]

• On Wednesday, an anonymous diplomat in Islamabad said that India will wait until the establishment of a new Pakistani government before holding serious talks about any of the thorny issues between the two nations, including the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir, and other peace discussions.[5]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• The Pakistan Navy participated in a joint training exercise relating to terrorism and piracy, along  with the U.S. and Chinese navies, in the Arabian Sea on Thursday. According to Pakistan Navy officials, the exercise aims to facilitate “information sharing, mutual understanding and identifying areas of common interest.”[6]

• On Wednesday, Senator Bob Casey announced that the Fatima Group, a fertilizer company which produces calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) fertilizer often used in the construction of improvised explosive devices (IED), has voluntarily stopped the production of CAN fertilizer in the Afghan border regions.  In a further effort to reduce circulation, Fatima is also limiting fertilizer distribution and beginning a buy-back program.[7]

Karachi Bombing

• On Wednesday, a lawyer for the Sindh provincial government announced to the Supreme Court that Sindh’s police chief Fayyaz Leghari, along with several other deputies, were relieved from their post over the Karachi bombing that killed at least 45 people on Sunday.[8]

• The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that a five-member bench will be constituted at the Karachi bombing hearing scheduled for Friday.[9]

Militancy

• Five soldiers were injured when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near their vehicle on the way to Janikhel, Bannu district.[10]

• On Wednesday, security forces in Upper Orakzai killed at least twelve militants in two operations.  Forces killed five militants in Ghunda Mela.  In Nadir Mela, one security official and seven militants died in a firefight after militants struck the security convoy with an IED.

• Unknown attackers killed eight people in separate incidents in Karachi on Wednesday.  Two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activists were killed, one in in Malir City, the other in Landhi.  Police found the bodies of two Rangers near the Mewa Shah Graveyard, after they were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. In SITE, motorcyclists shot and killed a policeman as he rode his motorcycle on the way to work.  In two incidents in Korangi, motorcyclists opened fire on a man walking in the street, killing him, while another person was wounded outside a flour mill.  At the Khajoor Bazaar, motorcyclists shot and killed a man riding in a pickup truck.[11]

• In a Thursday operation in Karachi, Rangers captured six terror suspects and rescued four torture victims from captivity in Pak Colony.  Rangers launched another operation in the Lyari area after the two Rangers kidnapped earlier in the day were found tortured and dead near the Mewa Shah Graveyard. [12]

• On Tuesday night, Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers arrested eight suspects and seized their weapons and vehicle stash in Chairekani, Gwadar district.[13]

• In Angoor Bagh area of Peero Khel, Landi Kotal, unidentified assailants captured and tortured a polio worker, warning him to stop his work.  The attackers stole his vaccines and equipment before releasing him.[14]

• Unknown motorcyclists shot and killed a man in Mirpur Bathoro, Thatta, Sindh, on Wednesday.[15]

• On Wednesday, a man in Jamrud subdistrict of Khyber Agency was injured when explosives detonated in Takhtabaig.[16]

• On Wednesday, unknown armed attackers on a motorcycle shot and killed a man in Eastern Bypass area, Quetta.[17]