Pakistan Security Brief - October 20, 2011

Clinton to visit Pakistan, take tough stance on terrorism; Pakistan points to Afghanistan as source of militancy; DG reports Pakistan military losses in war on terror; U.S. releases interrogation videos of Pakistani-American terrorist; Terrorists threaten disruption of gas and oil to Pakistan Army and NATO troops; Pakistan’s UNSC bid; Nuclear power plant leak releases no radiation, say officials; Families of target killing victims to receive compensation; Pakistan and Japan discuss crime prevention and counterterrorism methods; Militant activity in FATA; IDPs return to homes in South Waziristan; Kalash tribe threatened by proselytizing militants; Bomb explodes in Swabi; Punjab suffers after turning down U.S. aid.

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Afghan President Hamid Karzai participated in a joint press conference in Kabul on the eve of Clinton’s visit to Pakistan.  In the Wednesday address, Clinton warned Pakistan against harboring terrorists, using what The New York Times labeled “some of the Obama administration’s most pointed language to date.”  Clinton and Karzai discussed the implications of Pakistan providing safe haven to militants including the Taliban, and Clinton pledged to “push the Pakistanis very hard” on the issue of terrorism. Clinton is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Thursday accompanied by an “unusually powerful” delegation including U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey and CIA Director David Petraeus, and will reportedly deliver a message of both “support and pressure” to Pakistan.  Despite the “muscular show of diplomatic force,” The New York Times reports that talks may be plagued by “fundamentally different views” held by the two countries on how to combat terrorism.[1]

• In recent months, Pakistan has “turned the tables” on the U.S. by charging that terrorist safe havens have developed in eastern Afghanistan, which Pakistan suggests is the “new regional hub for Islamist militants.”  According to the Washington Post, some analysts have expressed that Pakistan may be “pushing this case as an excuse for not pursuing the Haqqani Network” in Pakistani territory.  Meanwhile, the U.S. is pushing Pakistan to accept a proposal allowing for international monitoring bodies to be stationed along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to ensure regional security and non-interference prior to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2014.[2]

War on Terror

• During a meeting at the Pakistan Army General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi yesterday, Director General of Military Operations (DG MO) Major General Ashfaq Nadeem reported that 3,097 Pakistani military personnel had been killed while another 721 had been “permanently disabled” as the result of Pakistan’s war on terror.  Nadeem also noted that 40,309 Pakistani civilians have been killed during the decade-long war.[3]

• The U.S. has released FBI interrogation videos of Pakistani-American David Headley, a Chicago businessman and terrorist who “helped plot the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.”[4]

• Two unidentified terrorist groups have recently threatened “public oil and gas companies” in an attempt to disrupt gas and oil supplies to the Pakistan Army and NATO troops in Afghanistan.  Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has called on the “Rangers to ensure [the] security” of its facilities.[5]

Pakistan’s UNSC bid

• China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu expressed China’s desire for Pakistan to be elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Wednesday.  Yu underlined the strategic partnership between the two countries and said that China looked forward to Pakistan “play[ing] a greater role in upholding international peace and security.”  Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan are competing for a single seat allocated to the Asia-Pacific group.  If Pakistan wins the seat, it will serve on the UNSC for two years, beginning on January 1, 2012, alongside neighbor and “archrival” India.[6]

Nuclear Power Plant Leak

• The Karachi Nuclear Power Plant “declared a seven-hour emergency” on Tuesday night after heavy water “leaked out of a reactor during maintenance work.”  Officials reported no damage or radiation and the reactor is set to resume operations in one month.[7]

Karachi Violence

• The Sindh government is scheduled to assemble a commission to compensate families of “victims of target killings in Karachi” and will pay Rs 50,000 to each victim’s family.  The commission will also “conduct interviews of the families and of concerned police officials.”[8]

• The Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wasan hosted Japan’s ambassador to Pakistan Hiroshi Oe and Consul General Masaharli Sato on Wednesday in Karachi and the three reportedly discussed Japanese crime control methods. Oe briefed Wasan on technological gadgets “to facilitate better policing…in the wake of [the] growing threat of terrorism,” and Wasan conveyed Pakistani interest in improving the “performance of the Sindh Police” through Japanese training.[9]

FATA

• On Thursday, three Frontier Corps (FC) soldiers and 34 militants were killed during a firefight in Khyber. On Wednesday, security forces launched an aerial assault in Bara sub-district, Khyber agency, resulting in the destruction of three militant safe havens.  Meanwhile, militants set off improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at a government girls school in Bara tehsil, resulting in damage to a water tank and a classroom. Militants also used an IED to destroy a NATO tanker near Ali Masjid, and launched a mortar attack in Shlobar area that killed three people and injured another three.[10]

• Over 6,300 families have returned home to the Mehsud area of South Waziristan after a “restoration of peace” to the agency. The Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) had fled their homes when the Pakistan Army launched an offensive against the region’s militants in October 2009.[11] 

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

• The Kalash tribe, which resides in the Chitral district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and traces its ancestry to Alexander the Great, has recently come under attack by “proselytizing Muslim militants” from across the border in Afghanistan.  Many Kalash tribesmen have already converted to Islam and are pushing others to do the same, according to Reuters.[12]

• A bomb reportedly exploded at a Swabi graveyard shrine on Wednesday.[13]

Punjab

• Following the May 2 raid on deceased al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound, the Punjab government turned down $127 million in U.S. aid for “health care, education, and municipal services.” Now, the U.S. is considering making dramatic cuts to Pakistan civilian and military aid and Punjab is reportedly suffering from its decision to reject aid in order to “capitalize on pervasive anti-American sentiment.”[14]