Pakistan Security Brief

PTI protests in Peshawar against American drone strikes; NATO convoys halted due to security fears; Police deployed to keep supply lines open; American consulate in Peshawar on high alert; Indian and Pakistani DGMOs not close to meeting; Indian Defense Minister urges Pakistan to give Mumbai planners maximum penalty; Afghan delegation meets with Mullah Baradar in Islamabad; Pakistan welcomes Iranian nuclear deal; Prime Minister’s National Security Advisor leaves for Tehran to discuss revived gas pipeline project; Afghan shelling injures two in Bajaur agency; Khyber agency reopens border with Afghanistan; Pakistan to build surveillance drones; TAPI agreement signed; Seven killed and 28 injured in TTP bombing attacks in Karachi; North Waziristan bombing kills two, injures five; Kurram agency bombing kills three and injures one; Police official shot to death in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; Frontier Corps kill two in Balochistan clashes; Three killed in Karachi violence; Commander of the Karachi TTP and two associates arrested; Rocket attack in Balochistan kills one and injures six; Eleven polio workers kidnapped in Khyber agency.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Protests

• On Saturday, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) staged protests in Peshawar against American drone strikes in Pakistan and threatened to block North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply lines. The protesters numbered between ten and thirteen thousand. On Friday, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), praised Khan’s promise to block NATO supply routes. According to a Monday report in The Express Tribune, a blockade of NATO supplies would cost Pakistan $1 million per day.[1]

• After Saturday’s protests against drone strikes, the All Pakistan Combined Truck and Trailers Welfare Association, which is responsible for NATO convoys in the country, stopped transporting NATO cargo, due to concerns about the safety of their drivers.[2]

• On Sunday, the PTI set up protests at five points in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to try to halt NATO supply trucks. Some PTI leaders claimed to have stopped the trucks, while others said that the trucks had been let through. Police in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were deployed on Monday to ensure that the supply lines stayed open.[3]

• On Sunday, thugs belonging to the PTI stopped and searched trucks near Peshawar for NATO supplies.[4]

• After protests by the PTI against American drone strikes, the American consulate in Peshawar was put on high alert on Saturday.[5]

India-Pakistan Relations

• According to a Saturday report in The Frontier Post, India and Pakistan are still not close to arranging a meeting between their respective Directors General of Military Operations (DGMO), with India reportedly claiming that Pakistan has not suggested a date.[6]

• On Saturday, India tested the nuclear-capable Dhanush missile off the coast of Odisha. The test was reportedly successful.[7]

• On Monday, Indian Defense Minister AK Antony said that Pakistan should give the “maximum punishment” to the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.[8]

• On Monday, lawyers for the seven Pakistani nationals accused of participating in the planning of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks said that India is responsible for the lack of evidence against their clients.[9]

• On Saturday, while addressing an International Cultural and Literary Conference in Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called on Pakistan and India to solve all issues, including Kashmir, through diplomatic channels. Sharif expressed his wish for peace with India.[10]

Afghan Reconciliation Process

• On Friday, a delegation from Afghanistan met with former Afghan Taliban deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Islamabad to discuss the Afghan reconciliation process.[11]

TTP Talks

• On Friday, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that the group is not considering negotiations with the government because the TTP believes that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif lacks the power to negotiate.[12]

Iran-Pakistan Relations

• On Sunday, Pakistan officially welcomed the understanding reached between Iran and the P5+1 on Iran’s nuclear program. Defense Analyst General (retd.) Talat Masood said, “There will be less tension in this region and I believe this will help Pakistan to pursue the Iran gas pipeline project more vigorously.”[13]

• On Monday, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz left for Tehran, Iran to meet with the Economic Coordination Committee and President Hassan Rouhani. He is expected to discuss the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline. According to a Saturday report in The Express Tribune, the deal is back on track, and Pakistan has invited Russia and China to help fund the project.[14]

Afghan-Pakistan Relations

• On Friday, cross-border shelling from Afghanistan injured two people in Nawagai, Bajaur agency, which is across the border from Kunar province, Afghanistan.[15]

• On Monday, Khyber agency opened its border with Afghanistan, which had been closed to protest the November 21 suicide bombing attack in Landi Kotal. All traffic, including NATO supply convoys, had been stopped.[16]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• On Friday, the U.S.-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group issued a statement agreeing to continue a strong defense partnership and bilateral counterterrorism cooperation after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan next year. The United States also recognized Pakistan’s support for “promoting reconciliation” and negotiations between Taliban leaders and Afghan officials.[17]

Domestic

• On Monday, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced that Pakistan has introduced a fleet of surveillance drones, the first to be constructed in Pakistan and not imported from elsewhere. The drones will be primarily for surveillance, though, in its press release, ISPR did not say whether they would be used only for that purpose or whether they could also be armed.[18]

• On Saturday, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (TAPI) signed the Transaction Advisory Services Agreement (TASA) with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The TASA signing is a milestone toward the implementation of the TAPI Gas Pipeline project.[19]

• On Thursday, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) spokesman said that Pakistan is moving in the right direction with respect to dealing with inflation. The State Bank of Pakistan recently tightened the monetary policy in the country.[20]

Militancy

• On Friday, seven people were killed and 28 injured in two bomb blasts in the Ancholi area of Karachi. The area is predominantly Shia.  On Saturday, the TTP claimed credit for the attacks, calling them revenge for the recent sectarian violence in Rawalpindi.[21]

• On Sunday, a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and injured five others in a security forces’ convey near Mir Ali, North Waziristan agency.[22]

• On Sunday, two separate explosions in Kurram agency killed three people, including two students, and injured one. The first explosion detonated near a car in the Shablan area of Kurram agency, killing two; the second explosion occurred in the Dal area, killing one.[23]

• On Sunday, unknown motorcyclists killed a police official at the Bannu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police station.[24]

• On Saturday, the Frontier Corps conducted an operation in Bakhtiarabad, Sibi district, Balochistan and killed two members of an unnamed outlawed organization. Security forces recovered an explosives-laden motorcycle from the militants, who allegedly planned to carry out an attack targeting government officials.[25]

• On Saturday, clashes between rival groups killed two people and injured twelve in Lyari gang violence. One of the members killed, Baba Golden, was affiliated with Uzair Baloch’s gang and worked under a gangster known as Shiraz Comrade.[26]

• On Friday, Rangers shot and killed the alleged gangster, Sana Niazi, in Kalri, Bhimber district, Azad Kashmir.[27]

• On Monday, Police and Rangers arrested 44 people in raids throughout the city.[28]

• On Monday, three people were killed in Karachi by gunmen. Two died in an incident in North Nazimabad, and another died in Orangi town.[29]

• On Saturday, Karachi police arrested Abdul Qadir, a commander of the Karachi branch of the TTP, and two associates in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Colony part of the city.[30]

• According to a Monday report in The News, a rocket attack in Lahoo, Kech district, Balochistan killed one person and injured six.[31]

• On Saturday, unknown militants kidnapped eleven teachers who were participating in a polio vaccination campaign in Sipah, Khyber agency. The BBC reported on Saturday that tribal elders in Khyber agency were negotiating with the kidnappers for the release of the captives.[32]

• On Saturday, unidentified gunmen attacked a NATO container truck near Dasht Kharan district, Balochistan. There were no casualties, but the container was damaged.[33]

• On Sunday, former Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani said that he is waiting for a new TTP negotiator before resuming talks regarding his kidnapped son, Ali Haider Gilani.[34]