Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistan Security Brief – November 9, 2009 

The Pakistani military continues its offensive against Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in South Waziristan Agency, forces are reportedly consolidating forces around key positions; a large blast at a cattle market in Peshawar killed fifteen people, including an influential anti-TTP leader on Sunday; a suicide bomber riding a rickshaw killed three on Peshawar’s Ring Road on Monday morning; another suspected suicide bomber was shot by police as he attempted to detonate his vest near a police checkpoint outside of Islamabad on Sunday night.

• Pakistani security forces are consolidating their positions in South Waziristan Agency.  On Sunday, security forces say they killed twenty militants while only eight soldiers were injured.  The government claims that it has killed nearly five hundred TTP militants since the beginning of the offensive while less than fifty soldiers were reported as dead.  The military claims it now controls TTP strongholds of Makeen, Ladha and Sara Rogha (click here for more detail on operation in SWA).[1]

• An important anti-Taliban official, Nazim Abdul Malik, was killed in a suicide blast in Peshawar on Sunday.  He, along with fourteen other people, was killed during a sale at the Matani cattle market.  Nazim had survived dozens of attacks on his life since he stopped supporting the Taliban last year.  As a member of the Adezai Union Council he was effective in creating and armed lashkar (tribal militia) in support of the government.[2] 

• A suicide bomber riding in a rickshaw detonated his vest as he neared a police checkpoint on the Peshawar ring road on Monday.  Three people were killed in the attack including one policeman and the driver of the rickshaw.  .[3]

• A suspected suicide bomber was killed by police when he attempted to detonate a suicide vest at a police checkpoint just outside of Islamabad on Sunday night..  Two other suspects managed to escape the area in a vehicle.  Police say the would-be bomber was taken out by a “sharpshooter.”[4]