Pakistan Security Brief
Pakistan kills Indian soldier in Kashmir; India suspends Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus line; India injures two civilians in Punjab; India kills three alleged drug smugglers at border in Punjab; Indian troops kill militant south of Srinagar; Six killed and 83 injured in India bombing, Indian Mujahideen being investigated; Indian Mujahideen terrorist captured; Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security says that TTP-government talks to start soon; Prime Minister to consult all parties during TTP talks; Government has evidence that TTP is behind recent high profile attacks; Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security expects drone strikes to decline, says Pakistan will not go after LeT founder Hafiz Saeed; UN Ambassador denies that Pakistan has approved drone strikes; K-P Chief Minister says that he may stop NATO supply lines if drone strikes continue; TTP member killed in Karachi; Eleven people killed in Lyari gang violence; Al Qaeda-linked militant captured in Karachi; Police officer killed in Karachi; Operations in Peshawar to be ramped up; One Pakistani soldier killed, three injured in North Waziristan; Two Frontier Corps personnel killed in Balochistan; Two killed in Quetta; One anti-militant activist killed in Swat district; IMF team to determine whether to release further loan tranches to Pakistan.
India-Pakistan Relations
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On Monday, India accused Pakistani forces of firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in Uri, Baramulla district, Indian-administered Kashmir, killing one Indian officer.[1]
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After the attack on Monday which reportedly killed an Indian Army officer, India suspended the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus line, which runs through the capitals of the two sides of Kashmir.[2]
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On Friday, the Punjab Rangers reported that Indian Border Security Forces (BSF) fired mortars across the border at Wada Dhamala, Sialkot district, Punjab injuring two civilians.[3]
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On Saturday, Indian forces reportedly fired at a Rangers’ checkpoint in Thatti Kodi village, which is near the Wagah border-crossing between Indian and Pakistani Punjab. A BSF official claimed that Indian forces killed three Pakistani drug smugglers in the exchange.[4]
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On Saturday, Indian troops clashed with militants in Hushenpura, a village about 50 miles south of Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. One alleged militant was killed and a civilian was injured.[5]
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On Sunday, 7 people were killed and at least 83 injured in a series of six low intensity bomb blasts in Patna, Bihar at a rally for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. According to a Monday Associated Press report, authorities are investigating a possible connection with the Indian Mujahideen, a group with close ties with the Lashkar-e-Taiba.[6]
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According to a BBC News report, Afzal Usmani, an Indian Mujahideen terrorist who escaped from custody last month in Mumbai has been recaptured by Indian police.[7]
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Foreign Office spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry said on Friday that recent violations of the cease-fire at the LoC are of “grave concern” to Pakistan and called for the meeting between the two countries’ Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to happen immediately. He also said that Pakistan is not to blame for the escalation in violence.[8]
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On Sunday, the Union Jihad Council (UJC) an organization with ties to Hizb-ul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) among other Kashmir-focused jihadist groups, organized a rally in Muzaffarbad in Pakistani-administered Kashmir. The protestors shouted slogans vowing to end Indian control of Kashmir through jihad. October 27th is the anniversary of Indian troops arriving in Kashmir in 1947.[9]
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On Saturday, a Pakistani judicial commission travelled to Amritsar, Indian Punjab to meet with Pakistani prisoners detained for illegally crossing the border. Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal told the media after the meeting that those who had served their sentences should be released immediately.[10]
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In an interview with The News published on Sunday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed willingness to mediate a dialogue between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.[11]
Talks with the TTP
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In an interview in Dawn published on Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said that talks with the TTP are expected to begin in the next few days.[12]
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On Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman met in Rawalpindi to discuss negotiations with the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and possibly including the JUI-F in the federal cabinet.[13]
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On Saturday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif decided to consult with all political parties on the upcoming talks with the TTP, after National Assembly opposition leader Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah complained of being ignored.[14]
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According to a Monday report in The News, one of the main reasons that Pakistan has not initiated talks with the TTP is that the government has “unimpeachable evidence” that the TTP or TTP-affiliated groups are responsible for many of the recent high-profile terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Specifically mentioned by The News’ source were the assassination of Major General Sanaullah Niazi, the bombing of a church in Peshawar, and the assassination of a Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial minister, all of which have been publically disavowed by the TTP.[15]
U.S. Drone Strikes
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On Friday, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz said that he expects drone attacks on Pakistan to decline by the end of the year and that Pakistan will not move against Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) founder Hafiz Saeed.[16]
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Ambassador to the United Nations Masood Khan said on Friday that Pakistan has not secretly agreed to U.S. drone strikes on its territory and that drone strikes violate Pakistan’s sovereignty as well as international humanitarian law. He also called for an end to the strikes.[17]
U.S.-Pakistan Relations
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On Sunday, U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promised to reconsider the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who aided the United States in its search for Osama bin Laden, during their meeting on October 22.[18]
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On Saturday, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak said that if drone strikes against Pakistan do not stop, he will consider closing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supply lines to Afghanistan which run through his province.[19]
Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
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On Friday, the Frontier Corps (FC) arrested 60 alleged illegal immigrants from Afghanistan at Baleli checkpoint in Balochistan.[20]
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On Monday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif departed for London where he will meet with United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. Karzai is expected to press Sharif on the status of former Taliban deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar who was supposedly recently released from Pakistani custody although his whereabouts remain unknown.[21]
Militancy
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On Friday, Karachi police arrested Adil Azeem Sheikh, an accused member of the al Qaeda-linked Ahmad Farooq group, for allegedly planning an attack on an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) office in Sukkur, Sindh on July 24th which killed four and injured 35.[22]
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According to a Sunday report in The Express Tribune, an alleged member of the TTP was killed in a clash between Rangers and the TTP in the Ijtamah Gah Road area of Karachi.[23]
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On Saturday a day-long clash between rival gangs in Lyari, Karachi, killed eleven people, four of whom were gang members.[24]
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On Saturday, three people, including a police officer, were killed in violence throughout Karachi. The police officer was killed in Baldia Town by unknown gunmen.[25]
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According to a Saturday report in Dawn, Peshawar police are planning to step up the joint operations with the Army and Frontier Corps in Peshawar following reports that terrorists have been entering the city in preparation for attacks on processions in the upcoming holy month of Muharram.[26]
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On Sunday, a roadside bomb killed one Pakistani soldier and injured three others in Chasma Pul, North Waziristan.[27]
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On Saturday, two Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed by a bomb blast in Dringarh, Mastung district, Balochistan. The FC was escorting several buses filled with Shia pilgrims heading to Iran.[28]
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On Friday, two laborers were killed by unidentified gunmen in the Masjid Road area of Quetta, Balochistan.[29]
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On Saturday, unidentified gunmen killed a member of an anti-militant group in Sirtiligram, Swat district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[30]
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On Saturday, security forces seized explosives in Darra Adam Khel and arrested two alleged terrorists in Lachi, Kohat district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[31]
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On Saturday, two suicide jackets were discovered in the Wazir Colony area of Peshawar and defused by a Bomb Disposal Unit.[32]
Domestic
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This week, a team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will arrive in Pakistan to review whether Pakistan is meeting the conditions for the promised $6.7 billion loan. According to a Monday report in The News, Pakistan has failed to meet three conditions and will have to ask for waivers on them.[33]
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On October 15, an Indian daily, The Hindustan Times, retracted an article from its website alleging that the ISI, in concert with Indian mafia don Dawood Ibrahim, were funding the launch of new television channel in Pakistan to be called BOL TV, following suits from parties in Pakistan.[34]
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On Friday, Reporters Without Borders, a media advocacy group, criticized a tweet by a TTP-affiliated group renewing a fatwa on journalists in Pakistan reporting with an alleged anti-Taliban stance.[35]
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On Sunday, tribal elders in Swat district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa said that they objected to a plan to build an army cantonment in the sub-district of Khwazakhela because it would deprive people of their ancestral lands.[36]
Iran-Pakistan Relations
