Pakistan Security Brief

U.S. military trainers return to Pakistan; Pentagon official to visit Pakistan to negotiate NATO supply route reopening; Lashkar-e-Islam denies ties to Osama bin Laden informant Shakil Afridi; Pakistan conducts successful cruise missile test; TTP releases video about success of Shariah law in Orakzai; Incidents of “target killings” continue in Karachi; Jamaat-e-Islami proposes “grand alliance” against President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani.

U.S.-Pakistani Relations

• Despite persisting tensions in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, Reuters reported on Thursday that a handful of U.S. military trainers had returned to Pakistan to aid counterinsurgency operations. The trainers, all U.S. special operations soldiers, were sent to a site near Peshawar to instruct Pakistan’s Frontier Corps. A Pakistani Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman cited the report as “incorrect.” A U.S. official called the return of U.S. military personnel to Pakistan “an important sign that at least in some areas we’re getting a healthy sense of normalcy.” In the past, U.S military personnel numbered between 200 and 300 persons. The number of U.S. trainers, however, was reduced following the Navy SEAL raid on Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound. Later, all U.S. trainers were expelled after the Salala border strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.[1]   

• U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Levoy is scheduled to return to Pakistan next week to resume negotiations aimed at reopening NATO supply lines into Afghanistan. Levoy’s previous meetings with Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, on April 26, ended abruptly when Khar demanded an apology for the Salala border strike. This time, the Pakistani embassy in Washington will play a lead role in negotiations, with current talks focusing on the U.S. helping to rebuild Pakistani highways damaged by NATO convoys in return for a reduced fee per truck.[2]    

Osama bin Laden Informant

• On Thursday, a commander of the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) denied any connection between his group and Shakil Afridi, the doctor who aided the CIA in locating Osama bin Laden. A Khyber tribal court order made public on Wednesday showed that Afridi had been convicted on charges of supporting militancy and providing support to LI. The LI commander, however, said Afridi’s alleged donation of $22,000 to the group was, in fact, a fine imposed on him for “fleecing tribesmen,” performing “unnecessary surgeries and over-charging” patients. On Thursday, the Pakistani Taliban identified Afridi as the number one target on its hit list and vowed to kill him for aiding the U.S. in tracking bin Laden. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. was seeking clarification from Pakistan on Afridi’s “new” sentence.[3]

Nuclear Missile Test

• On Thursday, Pakistan conducted a successful test flight of the Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad), a “cruise missile with stealth capabilities.” According to a statement issued by the ISPR, the Ra’ad is a “low altitude, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability” that “can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin point accuracy” at a “range of over 350 km (217 mi).” According to the ISPR, a new feature of Thursday’s test was the use of the National Command Authority’s fully automated Strategic Command and Control Support System, which is capable of monitoring missile flight paths in real time.[4]

Militancy

• Umar Studio, a media unit of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), released a video interview with Hafiz Saeed Khan, the TTP official for Orakzai agency. The video was posted on jihadist forums on April 16, 2012, and has a production date of September 2011. In the interview, Khan spoke about the successful implementation of Shariah law in Orakzai and the benefits that it brought to the people in the region. Khan also said that Pakistan’s “apostate” government and army are despised by the people of Orakzai because they are “un-Islamic” and because the army’s military operations in the area bring death and destruction.[5]

• At least eight people were killed in separate attacks across Karachi on Wednesday. Police found the bullet-riddled bodies of two young men who had gone missing on Tuesday night near Timber Market. Slips of paper recovered from the crime scene stated that the men had been killed for opposing the formation of the new Mohajir province. In a separate incident, gunmen on motorcycles killed two Shia men outside their factory in the Hariana Colony of Orangi Town. Police conducted raids in parts of Orangi Town following the shooting incident and arrested over half a dozen suspects belonging to the outlawed militant group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan. A Muttahida Qaumi Movement activist was gunned down by armed men on a motorcycle outside his home in Shah Faisal Colony. The body of a young man was found in the Lyari River, and police said that the victim had been tortured and shot dead.[6]

• Several incidents of “target killings” in Karachi continued on Thursday.  A paramilitary Rangers sub-inspector was killed when unidentified assailants opened fire near Korangi. One person was killed and another severely injured after unknown gunmen opened fire on them in the Napier area. In another incident, one person was gunned down on Mauripur Road in the Kalri area. Unidentified assailants entered a house in Zamaan Town and killed the owner.[7]

Domestic Politics

• Ameer Syed Munawar Hasan of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) called for the formation of a “grand alliance” to topple Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He welcomed petitions from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insafe (PTI) challenging the National Assembly Speaker’s decision not to disqualify Gilani from office. Hasan cited both leaders as “corrupt” and called for their ouster to ensure fair elections under an independent Election Commission. Election Commission member Riaz Kayani noted the commission could not act on its own to disqualify Gilani and that it would wait on the outcome of those petitions.[8]

International Relations

• On Wednesday, the Russian president’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador Zamir N. Kabulov, met with Prime Minister Gilani to discuss mutual cooperation on issues related to defense, energy, narcotics control, and trade. Prime Minister Gilani drew specific attention to opportunities for cooperation between the two countries on the Iran-Pakistan Pipeline and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline projects. Ambassador Kabulov said President Vladimir Putin plans to visit Pakistan in the near future to discuss a wide range of issues with the Pakistani leadership. President Zardari will also meet with President Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China next week.[9]