Pakistan Security Brief – January 13, 2010
Security forces capture more TTP militants in the districts neighboring FATA; President Zardari takes action to address the recent violence in Karachi; a bomb in Tank kills at least one child and wounds five more; one man is killed in an exchange of gunfire in Quetta.
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Security forces have captured one of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) top commanders as well as nine other militants at a stronghold in Tora Warai in the district of Hangu. Officials have not disclosed the names of the captured militants, who were later moved to an army interrogation facility. In an unrelated incident, a headless body was found by police in the Peepal Kalay area of Hangu. The body was rigged with explosives and detonated as it was approached by police, but no officers were injured. Police have also arrested nine ‘accomplices of suicide bombers’ from Orakzai Agency during a raid of a TTP hideout near a Pakistani Air Force range outside the village of Lachi.[1]
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On Tuesday President Asif Ali Zardari presided over a meeting between members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) at Bilawl House in Karachi. The meeting set up a peace committee in which members from both parties will meet every fifteen days to review the city’s law and order situation. During the meeting President Zardari has also ordered the Rangers to cease their operations in Lyari, although a spokesman said the Rangers will continue to maintain security checkpoints for individuals going in and out of the neighborhood.[2]
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At least one child has been killed and five more injured when a bomb went off at a playground in the town of Tank. The cause of the blast is still unknown.[3]
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One man was killed following an exchange of gunfire between two groups in the Brewary area of Quetta. Police have stated that four men on a motorcycle opened fire on the vehicle of local Shia leader Mohammad Rahim Jaffary. Jaffary was not in the vehicle at the time but one of his bodyguards returned fire, killing one of the attackers.[4]