Pakistan Security Brief - January 25, 2011

Suicide blast in Lahore; Frontier Corps soldier injured; Khyber Agency demonstrations; Malik: No military operation in Karachi; Washington Post: “Deep-seated factionalism” at University of Karachi, 9,000 gather to protest in Kashmir; 25 Pakistani prisoners in U.S. custody in Bagram.

Bomb Blast in Lahore

• A suicide blast in Lahore on Tuesday killed thirteen people and injured fifty-two near a religious procession of Shia Muslims. The Lahore police chief reported that “a 13-year-old boy detonated explosives as policemen tried to check him at a cordon near the procession.” A spokesman for the Fidayeen-e-Islam militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to continue such acts in the future.[i]

FATA

• A Frontier Corps soldier was injured in Bara sub-district of Khyber Agency on Sunday night after militants fired at least twenty rockets at various government offices. Security forces responded to the attack with heavy artillery fire in the direction of the militants, but no further casualties were reported.[ii]
• Koki Khel tribesmen in Khyber Agency on Monday began a demonstration in protest of the “illegal occupation [of tribal land] by Frontier Corps soldiers.” A local tribesman said that, “We have started observing token hunger strike camp and also displayed black banners and flags on our houses and shops to record our protest.” He further cautioned that if the tribesmen failed to reacquire their land, they would block NATO supplies to Afghanistan.[iii]

‘Target Killings’ in Karachi

• Interior Minister Rehman Malik refuted the prospect of a military operation in Karachi after the recent wave of killings. He said that security forces have arrested twenty-five terrorists this month and have intercepted large quantities of illegal arms. Malik also said that every murder in Karachi should not be labeled as a ‘target killing,’ unless the government confirms it as such.[iv]
• A report Monday by the Washington Post highlights the political turf wars within the University of Karachi, which have culminated in lunchtime bombings, professors’ strikes, and clashes between student organizations. The article draws attention to a “deep-seated factionalism” which reflects the ethnic and political feuds that exist in the surrounding city of Karachi.[v]

Protest in Kashmir

• Over 9,000 Indian Hindu-nationalist opposition supporters gathered outside of Kashmir on Tuesday, ahead of a planned flag raising ceremony. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers intended to hoist India’s flag in a main square of the Kashmiri capital, Srinagar, to commemorate Republic Day, which celebrates India’s adoption of a democratic constitution. Officials in Kashmir feared that the symbolic illustration of Indian control in Kashmir could encourage violence and further separatist protests in the region.[vi]

US-Pakistani Relations

• The Daily Times has reported thatmore than twenty-five Pakistani prisoners are currently in direct U.S. custody at Bagram in Afghanistan. The newspaper reported that, in an interview with BBC Urdu, a U.S. Army spokesman said that fewer than fifty of the prisoners originate from third-world countries, adding that a little more than half of this faction is made up of Pakistani nationals.[vii]