Pakistan Security Brief - March 4, 2010

Pakistan Security Brief – March 4, 2010

Top Taliban leader and Mullah Omar’s son-in-law, Mohtasim Agha Jan, arrested in Karachi; Military forces arrive in Miramshah; militants clash with security forces in Mohmand, Orakzai; security official says TTP nearly crippled; LeT deny role in Kabul bombing; FC and local law enforcement begin replacing regular army in Bajaur; Pakistan makes final decision not to hand over captured Taliban leaders; five Pakistani construction workers shot dead in Afghanistan; two injured in Balochistan explosion.

• Reports circulate that Mullah Omar’s son-in-law, Mohtasim Agha Jan, was arrested in Karachi on Thursday along with two of his aides. Agha Jan is said to be a “chief Taliban political strategist” and his name was floated as a possible replacement for Mullah Baradar, the recently arrested Taliban second-in-command. Agha Jan is a former Taliban finance minister and, according to U.S. intelligence officials, was seventh on the “post 9/11 watch list.”[1]

• Tanks and army reinforcements were spotted in Miramshah on Wednesday, fueling speculation that an operation in North Waziristan will begin soon. Locals also reported that the military was distributing pamphlets in the area labeling the Taliban as “agents of Israel and India”. These incidents are reflective of increased tensions in the agency following an ambush on a Frontier Corps (FC) checkpost the day before that killed two soldiers.[2]

• Just before dawn, more than 100 Taliban assaulted an FC checkpoint in the town of Chamarkand in Mohmand district, killing one soldier and wounding four others. FC forces returned fire, killing approximately 30 militants. Later in the day, seven militants were reportedly killed in airstrikes targeting suspected militant bases in the town of Daburai in Orakzai Agency.[3]

• On Wednesday, a Pakistani security official stated that recent operations have left the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) nearly crippled. According to the official, the leadership elements of the TTP are in complete disarray, over 90 percent of its militants have been eliminated, and its spying network has been completely dismantled.[4]

• Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has denied that it had a role in last week’s bombing in Kabul that left 16 people dead, rejecting claims that it has any network operating in Afghanistan. US envoy Richard Holbrooke has also denied that LeT was behind the bombing, stating that the seven Indians killed were not the specific targets of the attack.[5]

• On Wednesday, Frontier Corps and Bajaur Levies, a tribal police force, began replacing regular army forces occupying the former militant stronghold of Damadola in Bajaur Agency. However, sources have said that army forces will remain in Mamund sub-district for some time.[6]

• A senior government official has stated that Pakistan has made final its decision not to hand over its captured senior Taliban leaders, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to Afghanistan.[7]

• Unknown gunmen riding motorcycles have shot dead five Pakistani construction workers in southern Afghanistan while they were waiting to be taken to a road-building project in Kandahar province.[8]

• A remote-controlled explosion in the town of Turbat, Balochistan has wounded two security personnel. Violence has been reported in different areas of Balochistan following the killing of two members of the Baloch Students Organisation in Khuzdar district on Tuesday.[9]