Pakistan Security Brief - June 4, 2012

U.S. drone strikes kill 15; NATO Secretary General says no deal reached with Pakistan over reopening supply routes; Pakistani government officials said Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had finalized security arrangements for NATO vehicles traveling through the province; Public opinion between U.S. and Pakistan remains low; Pakistani intelligence exposes unauthorized U.S. embassy travel; Pakistani anti-terrorism court acquits four men connected to 2010 Times Square bombing; Militant group asserts that Dr. Afridi did have connections to Lashkar-e-Islam; Pakistani security forces arrest five militants in FATA; Pakistani jets kill ten militants in Khyber agency; Two killed in explosion in Hangu; Pakistani Supreme Court suspends Rehman Malik’s membership in the Senate

Drone Strikes

• On Saturday, a U.S. drone killed 2 militants in Doog village near the city of Wana in South Waziristan. AFP placed the figure at 3 militants and located the strike in Khawashi Khel village. The drone fired two missiles at a motorcycle carrying both militants who, according to intelligence sources, belonged to the Mullah Nazir group. One of the militants killed was identified as Rahmanullah, a key commander of the group.[1]     

• On Sunday, a suspected U.S. drone fired four missiles at a compound in South Waziristan, killing up to ten militants, according to CNN and AP. The strike, located in Wacha Dana, a village near the Afghanistan border, targeted a house belonging to suspected militant commander Malang Khan, and occurred while militants met to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed in Saturday’s drone strike. One of those killed in the strike is believed to be Ghulam Khan, a commander in the Maulvi Nazir group.[2]

• On Monday, U.S. intelligence officials reported that a U.S. drone killed up to 15 people in North Waziristan. According to the BBC, the drone launched one missile at a suspected militant hideout in Hesokhel, a village east of the capital Miram Shah, killing three militants. A second missile killed 12 more militants who later arrived at the scene. Unconfirmed reports suggested that some of the dead may be foreign militants.[3] 

NATO Supply Route

• The New York Times published an article on Saturday highlighting the challenges of transporting NATO supplies through Central Asia’s Salang Pass. Coalition forces have relied on the pass—an old Soviet-built tunnel that was built to handle 1,000 vehicles  daily but is now trying to accommodate nearly 10,000 a day—since Pakistan closed its supply lines following the Salala border strike in November. The pass’s deteriorating condition, however, has lengthened ordinary one-day journeys from the Uzbek city of Hairatan to Kabul to nearly 10 days. Lt. Gen. Mohammad Rajab, head of maintenance for the pass, stated, “It’s only a matter of time until there’s a catastrophe.”[4] 

• At a news conference on Monday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that no deal with Pakistan over the reopening of the supply route had been reached. He did announce, however, that deals had been made with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan to aid NATO forces as they transported equipment out of Afghanistan.[5]

• Minister for Culture and Information Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Friday that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government had finalized security arrangements for NATO vehicles traveling through the province, once the supply route was reopened. He noted, however, that the provincial government would only permit the transportation of food items.[6] 

U.S.-Pakistani Relations

• Public opinion in the U.S. and Pakistan reveal that the citizens of both countries increasingly see the other as an adversary, directly contributing to the deadlocked talks on re-opening NATO supply routes. Significant anti-American sentiments in Pakistan make it exceedingly difficult for the Pakistani government to take any action that may appear to be concessional to the U.S. Public opinion of Pakistan in the U.S. also remains low, with many accusing Islamabad of directly supporting militant groups and undermining counterterrorism efforts in the region.[7]

• Following the release of an interior ministry report alleging U.S. embassy officials had taken unauthorized trips to Gilgit-Baltisan, Pakistan’s National Crisis Management Cell issued guidelines for providing security to foreign missions to all provincial home departments, police chiefs, and heads of law enforcement agencies.  The report claims that foreign missions had used diplomatic vehicles with fake number plates to meet covertly with officials and private individuals without obtaining the necessary documentation from the foreign office or interior ministry. The American officials mentioned in the report claimed to have been given permission by the Gilgit-Balistan police chief prior to travelling to the region.[8] 

Times Square Bomb Plot

• On Saturday, a Pakistani anti-terrorism court acquitted four men accused of aiding the Taliban-trained terrorist Faisal Shahzad, who plotted to explode a car-bomb in New York’s Times Square in 2010. The four men were accused of financing Shahzad’s training, arranging his meeting with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mahsud, and sending him $13,000 while in the U.S. The men were acquitted following a 20-month trial that, according to the New York Times, highlighted the Pakistani criminal justice system’s failure to prosecute terrorism suspects.[9]  

Osama bin Laden Informant

• On Saturday, Samiullah Afridi—lawyer to Shakil Afridi, the doctor who aided the CIA in locating Osama bin Laden—told CNN that he appealed Afridi’s conviction, which alleged ties between the doctor and the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam.[10]

• The militant group Ansarul Islam (AI) asserted that Afridi indeed had links to Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), alleging his involvement in murdering of 250 tribesmen and his provision of medical treatment to LI members. At a press conference, members of AI further noted that Afridi had previously been on the side of AI but later joined with LI, aiding LI fighters during clashes between AI and LI from 2007-2008.[11]   

• According to The News, the Pakistani government ordered Peshawar Central Jail officials to tighten security in preparation for transferring Afridi to a more secure prison in Punjab. The transfer, following government officials’ concerns that militant groups are targeting Afridi, will involve the use of guards and a bullet-proof vehicle, according to jail officials. Though the government maintains that Afridi will be sent to an “undisclosed location,” jail officials, speaking to Express Tribune, speculate that Attock Fort or Bala Hisar Fort are the ideal locations because “there are no ordinary prisoners there.”[12] 

Indo-Pakistan Relations

• Speaking to BBC Urdu, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar emphasized that the armies of both Pakistan and India presented the greatest challenge to resolving the Siachen issue. The Defense Minister stressed that Siachen was Pakistan territory and that neither country stood to gain anything from a prolonged conflict in the mountainous region. Mukhtar emphasized the role of Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani in resolving the issue, stating that “Kayani would offer guidance – support, just as the government cooperates and supports the army.”[13]

Militancy

• Pakistani security forces killed at least ten militants when jet fighters bombed eight militant hideouts of the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP) Tariq group in the Dwatoi area of the Tirah Valley, Khyber agency on Monday. The air attacks come a few days after a Koki Khel tribal militia attacked the TTP and regained control of three compounds the militants had captured in the Sra Valley area.[14]

• On Sunday, four unidentified gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a welding shop in the Sarki area of Quetta, Balochistan, killing five civilians. Upon fleeing the area, the gunmen fired on a police patrol, wounding a police official who later died. According to a senior police official, four of the victims were Shia, suggesting that the incident could be a case of “sectarian target killing.” City police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood said two of the gunmen were injured during the shooting, though both escaped.[15]

• On Monday, separate firing incidents across Karachi killed at least 9 persons and injured another 12 people. One person was killed at a market in Kharadar, one was killed and another injured in the Garden area of the city, a security guard was shot and killed in the North Nazimabad area, and three people were injured in Gulistan-e-Jahur. On Sunday, unidentified attackers opened fire in the Paposh Nagar area of the city, killing 2 persons and injuring several more.[16]

• Pakistani security forces arrested 5 militants and seized a cache of arms and ammunition following a search operation, on Saturday, in the Frontier Region Tank of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Official sources also reported that a soldier in the area was injured following the detonation of an improvised explosive device near his checkpost.[17]

• An explosion in Hangu, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday injured two people after unknown persons planted explosives in a shopping cart. The attack was identified as a retaliatory act by militants following the arrest of two of their commanders in Doaba, Hangu district on Wednesday.[18]     

Domestic Politics

• The Pakistani Supreme Court on Monday suspended Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s membership in the Senate, following Malik’s failure to produce sufficient documentation that he had renounced his British citizenship. Members of parliament in Pakistan are not permitted to hold dual citizenship. The case followed the Supreme Court’s suspension of Farahnaz Isphanai’s membership in the National Assembly last month for holding U.S. citizenship. The Court notified an additional 14 parliamentarians from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to explain their cases of dual citizenship to the Court.[19]  

• The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is planning to boycott budget proceedings to protest Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s refusal to step down following his conviction for contempt of court. Speaking to Express Tribune, PML-N Information Secretary Senator Mushahidullah Khan said that “after detailed consultations with the PML-N’s finance team and members, our party chief Nawaz Sharif has decided to stay away from the budget proceedings.”[20]