Pakistan Security Brief - June 17, 2013

25 killed in Quetta terror attacks; BLA militants destroy the Quaid-e-Azam residency; Government officials condemn attacks; Secretary of State Kerry telephones Nawaz Sharif; TTP extorts CEO of Islamabad business; Peshawar on high alert following the blasts; TTP refuses to take part in peace talks; IMF deal with Pakistan to occur; TTP executes informant; Budgets released by provincial governments; Imran Khan to be sworn in June 19; 8 killed in Karachi; India reportedly willing to sell electricity to Pakistan; State Department spokesman reports “bilateral ties are strong”; 6 policemen killed in Balochistan; Polio vaccinators gunned down; War games conclude in Pakistan; Policeman killed in Peshawar; World Bank posts projected 3.4 % growth for Pakistan; Army Chief Gen Kayani meets with Nawaz Sharif.

Militancy 

• Two explosions and an armed attack by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi -terrorists killed at least 30 people on Saturday in Quetta. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest on a bus, killing 14 female students on their way to Bahadur Khan University, and injuring 19. While the victims were being moved to the Bolan Medical Complex, a second bomber exploded and 14 terrorists attacked the hospital, killing four Frontier Corps personnel, four nurses and a deputy commissioner. Security forces responded, killing at least four attackers and arresting one suspect. According to officials, the first bomber was female, and snuck onto the bus, while the second bomber was a male who detonated himself as high level officials arrived. President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the blasts as “cowardly and inhuman acts,” and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims on Sunday.[1]    

• In a press conference on Sunday, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan declared that militants who use violence against the state will be met with similar force, but that the state would negotiate with those militants who renounced violence; Khan also said that Pakistan is currently in a “kind of war.”[2]

• Separatist militants from the Balochistan Liberation Army attacked the historic Quaid-e-Azam residency, a house in which Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah once lived, in Ziarat on Saturday, destroying the national landmark with hand grenades thrown inside the facility. Bomb disposal squads also dismantled several bombs outside of the residence. In addition to destroying the property, the militants also killed one security guard. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday announced that a joint investigation team has been dispatched to investigate the attacks.[3]  

• In defiance to a prior order from head of al Qaeda Ayman al Zawahiri, which forbade a merger between al Qaeda’s arm in Iraq (Islamic State of Iraq) and the Jabhat al Nusra Front in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced his intention to merge the two organizations regardless, indicating a divide in the senior leadership of al Qaeda.[4] 

• The TTP executed a police informant, Sher Alam, in Manghopir, Karachi on Sunday. Alam was reportedly the area commander and finance secretary for a local branch of the TTP, but had been feeding the police department information. However, other reports indicated that Alam may have been killed for embezzling funds that the TTP acquired through extortion.[5] 

• Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan reiterated the TTP’s May 29 decision, in response to Wali-ur-Rehman’s death by a U.S. drone strike,  to withdraw from peace talks with the Pakistani government on Sunday, noting that the TTP is, “still in the state of shock at the martyrdom of our deputy chief and there is no change in decision of not to talk to the government.”[6]

•  On Sunday, youths from the National Students Federation staged protests throughout Karachi, blaming sectarian militancy for the Quetta attacks, and condemning Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.[7] 

• Peshawar was placed on high alert on Sunday, following the terror attacks in Quetta. According to Geo News, policemen are heavily guarding all of the “sensitive” areas of the city.[8]

• According to a senior police official on Sunday, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has sent out several extortion letters to the Chief Executive Officer of an Islamabad business, demanding $25 million for jihad. The TTP has threatened that its “operational wing” would act against the business if the demands are not met.[9]

• On Sunday, militants attacked a police check post in Chaman, Balochistan, killing three policemen.[10] 

• Three policemen, including a head constable, were killed when unknown gunmen on motorcycles attacked their checkpost in Qila Abdullah, Balochistan on Sunday.[11]  

•  Two polio vaccinators were gunned down in the Khandaray village of Swabi district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday. The men were administering polio drops when militants riding a motorcycle shot them.[12]

• A policeman was killed and another policeman was wounded near the Peshawar Bus Terminal on Saturday by armed assailants. Police also recovered and defused a remote-controlled bomb in the area following the attack. In a separate attack, militants also attacked a police post in Mashogagar, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, wounding three police officials and one woman.[13]

•  A man was killed on his way to a Sargodha, Punjab court on Monday when unidentified gunmen fired at him and his brother, who was critically wounded in the attack.[14]

• A policeman and eight other security personnel were wounded in two explosions on Manghopir Road, Karachi on Saturday. One blast occurred when suspected militants lobbed hand grenades towards security personnel; the second blast, from an improvised explosive device (IED) occurred as more security forces arrived at the scene of the first blast.[15]  

• An explosion occurred near a fuel station in Sheireen Jinnah Colony, Karachi on Saturday. No casualties were reported. [16]          

• Unknown men hurled a grenade at the Pakistan Air Force Base Faisal outside of Karachi on Sunday, injuring three people.[17]

• A low-intensity IED detonated near the Boat Basin police station, Karachi on Saturday night. No one was injured; however, police noted that several Chinese engineers might be the intended target, as they had been working on a project in the area.[18]

• An alleged TTP militant was arrested in connection with the death of a Shia Sindh High Court advocate, who was gunned down on May 28 along with his two sons. The attack was initially considered a “sectarian” motivated shooting.[19] 

• Eight people were killed in several different instances of violence in Karachi on Sunday. Two men were killed at a wedding ceremony in Landhi, one man was found dead in Saudabad, while another man was found in Ghanchi Para with a bullet wound to the head. A 40-year-old man was also shot dead in Musharraf Colony and a Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) worker was shot in New Karachi.[20] 

• A bomb disposal squad dismantled a bomb in Makrani Parah, Hyderabad on Sunday. The defused bomb had been placed next to train tracks, and would have damaged “four to five feet of track if it had exploded.”[21]     

• According to the Excise Police in Karachi, a truck-load of explosives was seized on its way from Peshawar to Karachi on Sunday. Along with the explosives, the police discovered 53 hand grenades, 15 rocket propelled grenades, 2 rocket launchers, 40 detonators, 2 suicide jackets and 4 radios. Three suspects have been taken into custody.[22]  

• Chairman of European Union's Military Committee General Patrick de Rousiers expressed his gratitude for the Pakistan Army’s commitment to the war on terror on Friday, noting that the E.U. and Pakistan, “have common values and wide-ranging areas of cooperation.”[23]

•  Three men were kidnapped in Dasht, Mastung district, Balochistan on Sunday. One of the men, Mir Mehrullah Magsi, is a relative of former governor Nawab Zulfikar Ali Magsi.[24]       

• An explosion occurred near a fuel station in Shireen Jinnah Colony, Karachi on Saturday. No casualties were reported. [25]         

• A suspected terrorist was arrested on Saturday with 2.2kg of explosives, 20 detonators, a machine gun and two pistols in a hideout at Mughalabad, Punjab.[26]

• A man was injured on Friday in Jaffarabad,Balochistan after a landmine detonated under him while he was on his motor bike.[27]

 U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry telephoned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday, congratulating him on his return to office, and discussing regional matters with Sharif. In the conversation, Sharif emphasized the strategic dialogue between the U.S. and Pakistan, in the wake of a June 7 drone strike which killed TTP high value target Bahadur Khan, as well as a May 29 strike which killed former deputy TTP commander Wali-ur-Rehman.[28]      

• In response to recent differences between the U.S. and Pakistan on drone strikes and the National Security Agency leaks, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Saturday stated the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. remains strong, and the two countries will, “work together to address any of these concerns.”[29]

India-Pakistan Relations

• Salman Bashir, Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, discussed economic cooperation and enhanced trade with Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Friday. Prior to the meeting, a delegation from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry met with Bashir.[30]

• According to the Express Tribune in a report on Friday, India is reportedly willing to help Pakistan by supplying around 500MW of electricity through power transmission lines across the border.[31]

Domestic

• Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan will take his oath as a member of National Assembly on June 19, according to Dawn. Khan was unable to take his oath on June 1, due to injuries he suffered from a fall while campaigning in Lahore on May 7.[32]  

Economic

• The Sindh, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government budgets were all announced on Monday. Sindh has a total outlay of Rs 617billion ($6.26 billion), Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s budget stands at Rs 344 million ($3.49 billion), while the Punjab budget will be Rs 882 billion ($8.94 billion). [33]  

• On Wednesday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced his decision to increase government salaries by ten percent, and withdrew a proposition intending to remove former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's name from the “Benazir Income Support Programme.” Dar made both changes in response to outrage from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) opposition leaders, Khursheed Ahmed Shah in the National Assembly and Senator Raza Rabbani, leader of the PPP in the upper house, at the initial policies proposed.[34]

• On Friday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced Pakistan’s intention to accept an International Monetary Fund bailout package; however Dar claimed that he would not accept any “dictation” from the IMF, nor would he compromise national interests for the loan.[35]

• Despite Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s goal of 4 percent fiscal growth in 2013-2014, the World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects Report suggests that Pakistan will only grow at a 3.4 percent rate, due to “unfavourable domestic factors, including security uncertainties, unreliable delivery of natural gas and electricity to firms, and weak investment rates.”[36]

Defense

• The Pakistani military concluded its latest set of war games titled Azm-e-Nau IV on Sunday according to Chief of Army Staff General  Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. According to Kayani, the Pakistani armed forces are, “fully configured and prepared to thwart any military aggression against the country.” In particular, the Pakistani military has been training to counter India’s Cold Start doctrine which places emphasis on the ability to rapidly deploy and attack unexpectedly within a 72-hour window, before the Pakistani military or community can react.[37]

• On Thursday, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. In the meeting, Sharif ensured General Kayani that all of the resources needed to protect Pakistan would be met; the two also spoke about Pakistan’s overall current security situation.[38]