Pakistan Security Brief - February 3, 2011

Davis to remain in police custody; U.S. consulate driver has reportedly left Pakistan; 7/7 ringleader received instructions from Pakistan; Further Afghan-Pakistani troop clashes; 22,000 flee Mohmand Agency Three people killed in Mohmand; Ten militants killed in Kurram; Wrongful termination appeals turned down; NATO tanker attacked in Khyber; Militant houses destroyed in Bajaur; Policemen killed by Baloch insurgents; NATO tankers assailed near Quetta; Gas pipeline bombed; Car blast near Peshawar.

U.S.-Pakistani Relations

• On Tuesday, the Lahore High Court prohibited security officials from releasing Raymond Davis, the U.S. diplomat accused of murdering two Pakistanis last week. Public prosecutor Abdus Samad stated, "We produced the American in the court of magistrate Zafar Iqbal, who extended his remand in police custody to another eight days. We have to conduct further investigations, which necessitates extension in the remand." Davis is scheduled to reappear in court on February 11.[i]
• Reports have circulated that the U.S. consulate driver accused of killing a third Pakistani last Thursday in Lahore has left Pakistan. The driver had reportedly arrived to the scene following a phone call from Davis, and subsequently hit a Pakistani national. Both the Foreign Office and U.S. Department of State spokesperson Courtney Beale have stayed silent on reports of his location.[ii]

7/7 Terror Attacks

• A report published in The Guardian has stated that the ringleader of the London “7/7” terror plot had received bomb-making directions from Pakistan in the days leading up to the attack. Mobile phone records analyzed after the bombings revealed calls made from phones in Rawalpindi to the bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan. Detective Sergeant Mark Stuart of the Metropolitan police said that the bombers are believed to have received guidance from an individual in Rawalpindi because they required further knowledge on constructing the bombs.[iii]

Afghan-Pakistani Clashes

• Following clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces in Ghulam Khan, further clashes occurred in Nangarhar later on Thursday. An Afghan border police commander, Major General Aminullah Amarkhel, stated that Pakistani forces had attacked police checkpoints in Gushte district of Nangarhar province. PressTV has reported that Pakistani troops also assailed residential areas and government buildings in eastern Afghanistan, damaging two police checkpoints.[iv]

FATA

• The United Nations has reported that over 22,000 people have fled Mohmand Agency in the midst of an offensive by Pakistani forces. UNHCR spokeswoman Ariane Rummery stated, “Over the last few days about 22,000 people have been registered in the two camps that UNHCR has helped to set up.” A Frontier Corps official said more than seventy militants had been killed over five days of clashes.[v]
• Three people were killed in separate incidents on Wednesday in Mohmand Agency. In the first incident, a man and woman were killed after a mortar shell hit their house in Pandyalai sub-district. In the second incident, a woman was killed when she came into contact with an IED planted by militants.[vi]
• Ten militants were killed in Kurram Agency on Thursday after gunships attacked hideouts in the Ali Sher Zai area, located at the convergence of the Orakzai and Kurram tribal regions. Eight other militants were injured and three hideouts destroyed in the attack.[vii]
• The FATA Secretariat has turned down wrongful termination appeals from 609 members of the Khassadar Force, on the grounds that they did not follow orders by Khyber Agency authorities. An official of the FATA Secretariat said, “The sacked Khassadars will not be reinstated because they rebelled against the state by refusing to perform their duties at a critical time.” The men allegedly failed to participate in a military operation against militants in Bara sub-district, following threats from the Lashkar-e-Islam.[viii]
• The driver of a NATO oil tanker was killed in Khyber Agency on Tuesday after militants from the Abdullah Azzaam Brigade attacked the vehicle in Landi Kotal sub-district. Elsewhere, in Bara sub-district, an abducted tribesman died while in captivity of his kidnappers, after being held for two days. In addition, a jirga of Zakhakhel tribesmen secured the release of a militant commander from the Lashkar-e-Islam insurgent group. Ghuncha Gul had been kidnapped last Thursday along with his three bodyguards from the Bazaar Zakhkahel area.[ix]
• The houses of thirteen militants in Bajaur were destroyed on Wednesday in an operation by security forces. Local sources report that the houses were destroyed in the Ghundai and Inzari areas over the course of the search operation.[x]

Violence in Balochistan

• Baloch insurgents killed five policemen on a highway near Mach on Thursday. Around twenty gunmen impersonating security officers intercepted the police vehicles and shot them to death. The militants also kidnapped two Levies officers stationed near a gas well in the same area.[xi]
• Militants attacked two NATO tankers traveling between Chaman and Quetta on Thursday, killing a driver and injuring one other. The gunmen opened fire on the tankers when the drivers refused to stop their vehicles.[xii]
• A gas pipeline was bombed in the Sohbatpur area on Wednesday after militants detonated an IED attached to the line. Separately, a power transmission line tower was damaged in an additional bombing in the Kili Qambrani area of Quetta. No group has claimed responsibility for either incident.[xiii]

Attack in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

• Nine people were killed in a car bomb blast near Peshawar on Wednesday. Twenty others were wounded in the attack, which occurred on a main road leading to the border area with Afghanistan.[xiv]