Pakistan Security Brief

Rangers refuse investigation and prosecution powers; 35 people arrested in Karachi; Reshuffle of Sindh police department continues; Governor of Sindh resigns;  Unidentified gunmen kill police official in Karachi; All-Parties Conference planned in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; TTP attack kills senior military official for Malakand Division; Prime Minister and Army chief respond to attacks; Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government decides to withdraw troops from Malakand; Security officials detain 21 foreigners from Gurjanwala mosque; Militants fire on NATO tankers, close highway between Quetta and Karachi; WAPDA officials kidnapped two years ago freed from capivity; TTP member detained in Karachi; IDPs returning to Maidan area of Tirah valley; Rocket attack in Frontier Region Bannu kills two soldiers, wounds four more; IED blast at checkpoint kills two security personnel; IED blast along roadside kills one soldier; Traders supplying NATO targeted in Khyber agency; Targeted operation planned for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; Army chief and Chief Justice will not have terms extended.

TTP Attack Kills General

• An improvised explosive device struck a security convoy in the Gat area of Upper Dir district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, on Sunday.  The explosion killed General Officer Commanding for Malakand Divison Major General Sanaullah Khan Niazi and Lieutenant Colonel Tauseef Ahmed.  In addition to these senior officials, one other soldier died and two more were wounded.  The TTP claimed responsibility the same day via its spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid.  Security officials detained three suspects in a subsequent search operation.  The attack came a day after the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government’s decision to withdraw troops from Malakand division beginning in mid-October.[1]

• On Saturday, a spokesman for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak announced that the provincial government will begin a phased withdrawal of military forces from Malakand division as early as mid-October.  The first phase will remove soldiers from Buner district and Shangla district.  The next phase will remove army personnel from Upper Dir, Lower Dir, and Swat districts.[2]

Negotiations with the TTP

• On Friday, the TTP handed over a list of names to representatives of the Pakistani government during a meeting in Sara Rogha, South Waziristan. The list contained the names of 4,752 prisoners whom the TTP would like to see released before negotiations with the government.  Additionally, the TTP demanded the government withdraw from the organization’s tribal sanctuaries before it will engage in peace talks.  According to TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid, the TTP’s shura council met for three days in North Waziristan to deliberate the government’s proposition for dialogue before deciding on these two preconditions.[3]

•  On Monday, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said that the Pakistan Army would not allow terrorist organizations to “take advantage of the military’s support to the political process” by setting preconditions for peace talks. His remarks followed Sunday’s attack that killed Major General Sanaullah Khan Niazi, as well as three additional attacks on security personnel over the weekend.  “While it is understandable to give peace a chance through a political process…no one should have any misgivings that we would let terrorists coerce us into accepting their terms.”[4]

• One of the 35 demands allegedly presented to the Pakistani government by the TTP on Friday is that the United States ends its drone strikes in the Tribal Areas against the TTP.  Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) spokesperson Jan Achakzai, whose party is a coalition partner of the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, said that the demand could not be met, and that it could threaten the peace process if the TTP does not back down.[5]

• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif expressed his condolences to the families of the military personnel killed in Upper Dir on Sunday, but notably did not name the TTP as responsible or indicate that the attacks would derail the peace process.[6]

• The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa announced that it will begin an all-parties conference (APC) modeled on the one recently held by the federal government. The aim will be to have a meeting of all the major political parties in the province to come to an agreement on how to secure peace in the region.[7]

• On Saturday, militants released seven of the eight Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) officials kidnapped two years ago during construction of the Gomal Zam dam along the border between North Waziristan and South Waziristan agencies.  The government and WAPDA each paid half of the Rs 25 million ($238,100) ransom to the “Commander Latif group,” an offshoot of the TTP.  The status of the final hostage is unknown. Officials denied the prisoners were released as a show of goodwill by the Taliban for ongoing peace talks.[8]

• PTI leader Imran Khan responded Monday to the Sunday attack by the TTP against army personnel. He said that the attack was detrimental to the peace process.[9]

Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations

• According to the Prime Minister’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan plans to release Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the former Taliban deputy leader currently in Pakistani custody, within the next few days. Aziz confirmed earlier reports that Baradar would not be sent into Afghanistan, but would instead be released in Pakistan.[10]

Karachi Unrest

• According to Sindh Home Department Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah, the paramilitary Rangers have declined the investigative and prosecutory powers proposed by Sindh government officials.   Claiming little experience in those areas, the Rangers chose to restrict their powers to the apprehension of potential criminals; a senior police officer at each station will handle the investigations.[11]

• 35 more people were taken into custody in Karachi on Monday as the Rangers-led law-enforcement operation continues. Several of the 35 were connected to gang violence and are suspects in a murder case.[12]

• The Karachi police captured an alleged member of the TTP on Friday. He had two submachine guns in his possession when he was caught.[13]

• On Friday, the reorganization of the Sindh police department continued with the appointment of fourteen district police chiefs throughout the province, including five in Karachi.[14]

• The Governor of Sindh, Dr. Ishratul Ebad Khan resigned from his position on Saturday to protest his lack of involvement in the operation in Karachi. Khan, who is a member of the MQM, feels that he has been ignored by the federal government during the operation.[15]

• On Saturday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah agreed during a telephone conversation that the ongoing operation in Karachi has been effective, and that it should be continued and accelerated.[16]

• Sardar Qadir Patel, a leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Karachi, proposed forming an alliance between the PPP and the other major parties in Karachi to counteract the MQM. The other parties he mentioned were the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the Jamaat Islami (JI), the PML-N, and the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT).[17]

• Unknown gunmen killed the Deputy Superintendent of Police in the Model Colony area of Karachi on Saturday.  The victim was stationed at Landhi prison.[18]

• Sindh Rangers raided multiple areas of Karachi on Friday night and detained 22 suspects.[19]

• Rangers personnel detained two suspects in the Orangi Town area of Karachi on Saturday.[20]

• Karachi Police Chief Shahid Hayat announced that four alleged terrorists had been arrested, and their weapons and explosives seized. Hayat said that they belong to a banned organization but did not specify which one. One of the arrested men was allegedly trained in Afghanistan.[21]

Militancy

• On Sunday, security officials raided two madrassas operated by Qazi Hamidullah Khan in the Sheranawala Bagh area of Gurjanwala, Punjab province: Jamia Darul Aloom and Madrassa Anwarul Aloom.  Khan is known for being one of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s teachers.  The operation resulted in the detention of 21 foreigners in connection with the murder of officials investigating the June 23 attack on foreigners at Nanga Parbat in Gilgit-Baltistan.[22]

• On Sunday, militants launched rockets against NATO container trucks and oil tankers in Hub, Balochistan province.  Fifteen trucks caught fire.  The attack has suspended traffic on the highway between Quetta and Karachi.[23]

• Police detained alleged TTP member Qari Bilal from the Garden Masjid in Karachi on Friday night.[24]

• On Sunday, internally displaced persons (IDPs) began returning to the Maidan area of the Tirah Valley in Khyber agency, including approximately 7,000 families of the Malikdinkhel Afridi tribe.  Two other tribes – the Zakhakhel Afridi and Shalobar – claim militants still occupy their territory and thus refuse to return.  The TTP and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) occupied Maidan in March.[25]

• Unidentified militants conducted a rocket attack on a security patrol in Frontier Region Bannu on Sunday, killing two Khasadar personnel and wounding four more.[26]

• On Sunday, an IED blast at a military checkpost along the Miram Shah-Datta Khel road in North Waziristan agency killed two military personnel and injured three more.[27]

• On Sunday, an IED blast killed one soldier and injured another along the Miram Shah-Mir Ali road in Karam Kot, North Waziristan agency. [28]

• An explosion on Sunday morning in Jamrud, Khyber agency, damaged the residence of a petrol station manager servicing NATO trucks.  In a separate incident, another bomb damaged the Jamrud residence of a merchant selling tires and batteries to troops in Afghanistan.[29]

• On Saturday, an IED blast near Khar, in the Salarzai sub-district of Bajaur agency, killed two tribesmen and injured four more.[30]

• On Saturday night, a rocket attack damaged a school in Janikhel, Frontier Region Bannu.[31]

• An Awami National Party (ANP) spokesperson, Senator Zahid Khan, claimed that the TTP has reestablished itself in Swat and Malakand districts since the PTI took over the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province in May due to the leniency of the PTI.[32]

• On Thursday, unidentified assailants launched a rocket at a cement factor in Darra Pezu of Lakki Marwat district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.  Police recovered one additional rocket during a subsequent search operation.[33]

• On Friday, a Bomb Disposal Unit found and defused an IED near a residence in the Kotka Mulagan area of Bannu district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.[34]

• Two IED blasts on Sunday morning wounded four people in the Habib Colony area of Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.[35]

• Unidentified kidnappers abducted a doctor and an Afghan trader on Sunday from the Hayatabad area of Peshawar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.[36]

• A blast occurred in the Gulshan-e-Bunair area of Qaidabad, Punjab province, on Friday night.  No casualties have been reported.[37]

• On Sunday night, Islamabad police detained a suspect in connection with last week’s attempted vehicle-borne IED attack in Bara Kahu, on the outskirts of Islamabad.[38]

• On Saturday, police detained seven suspects during raids in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.  The individuals were arrested in connection with the September 10 attack on police officers in Doray Village, Islamabad.[39]

• On Friday, police recovered the body of a suspected kidnapper in the Taluka Dokri area of Larkana district, Sindh province.[40]

• On Monday, unidentified gunmen killed three people in separate incidents throughout Karachi.[41]

• Police detained four suspects on Friday following raids in the Satellite Town and Sariab Road areas of Quetta.  In a separate incident, security officials killed one suspect and injured another near the city’s Haidri market after the individuals reportedly attempted to steal a soldier’s firearm.[42]

• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the creation of a 2,000-person Counter-Terrorism Force (CTF) in Punjab on Sunday. Sharif has not yet decided whether the CTF would be independent, or a wing of the Punjab police department.[43]

• Police detained five suspects on Saturday near Quetta’s Jatak Stop in connection with the August 8 attack on the Jamia Farooqia that killed ten people.[44]

• Three people sustained injuries in a firefight on Saturday in the Haji Sher area of Jhal Magsi district, Balochistan province.[45]

• Unidentified gunmen killed a boy on Saturday in Terkhananwala, Punjab province.[46]

Indo-Pakistan Relations

• State Department Spokesperson, Marie Harf indicated that the United States supports any kind of discussions between India and Pakistan, including the upcoming meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the United Nations. President Barack Obama is also expected to meet with Sharif separately on September 24.[47]

• On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz and Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid met in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan during a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to discuss a range of issues of concern to both countries. They discussed maintaining a ceasefire along the Line of Control in Kashmir, prosecuting those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and the possibility of an upcoming meeting at the UN between Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.[48]

Turkey-Pakistan Relations

• Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif left for his visit to Turkey on Monday to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The visit will last three days, and the two leaders are expected to discuss areas where their countries could cooperate, especially on the economy.[49]

Domestic

• On Monday, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Khalid Maqbool claimed that Imran Farooq, an MQM leader who was murdered in London in 2010, was not trying to establish a new party when he was killed.  A statement by the London Metropolitan Police official on Monday indicated that Farooq’s alleged intention of creating a  new party  remains a “key line of inquiry” in the murder investigation.[50]

• The MQM issued a $10 million defamation notice to New York Times reporter Declan Walsh because of his September 12th article on exiled MQM leader Altaf Hussain. The article, which the MQM claims has caused disrepute to Hussain, was titled “Pakistani’s Iron Grip, Wielded in Opulent Exile, Begins to Slip”.[51]

• On Friday, Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan, one of the creators of Pakistan’s nuclear program, dissolved his political party, the Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz Paksitan, because he felt that he would gain more clout by endorsing a larger party than by leading a small one.[52]

• On Saturday, Pakistan Oilfields announced that it had discovered oil and gas at the Makori East 3 at Lockhart formation in Karak district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Oil and gas has already been discovered at the nearby Makori East 1 and 2 formations. The Makori East 3 site is expected to yield approximately 3500 barrels per day and 15 million cubic feet per day.[53]

• On Saturday, the Islamabad Inspector General of Police dissolved the team appointed to investigate charges of murder against former President Pervez Musharraf for his role in the 2007 Lal Masjid incident and appointed a new one. The new team has people who were requested by the family of Abdur Rashid Ghazi, a cleric who was killed in the attack.[54]

• On Saturday Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid denied rumors that either Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry or Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani will receive extensions when their current terms come to an end. He also added that neither man had indicated any desire for an extension.[55]

• The police are expected to begin an operation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa this week that would target criminals in the province. Security has also been increased at jails to prevent jailbreaks.[56]

• The PPP announced that former President Asif Ali Zardari, will step down from the leadership of the party, to be replaced by his son, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari by the end of the year.[57]