Three members of TTP peace committee meet in Islamabad; PTI’s Imran Khan and Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Aziz decline TTP’s offer to be part of negotiating team; Both TTP and government peace committees will meet in Islamabad on Tuesday; TTP shura will monitor peace talks; Tribal elders in Wana offer to help ensure successful talks; TTP offers to provide security to negotiating committees; Police receive arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf; Afghan President says persistent rocket attacks from Pakistan are hampering relations; U.S. senator says counterterrorism operations in tribal areas successful in reducing threat from the region; Militants damage three natural gas pipelines in Balochistan; Chief Justice orders report on Balochistan mass graves; Three dead and 31 injured in Peshawar grenade attack; Security forces kill four and arrest 50 in Swabi district; Bomb blast in Peshawar kills three; Police defuse bomb in Hangu district; Bomb damages police van in Charsadda district; Six Kurram agency tribes sign agreement ; Two policemen injured in Karachi blast; Four dead in Karachi violence; Pakistani hackers claim responsibility for hacking over 2,000 Indian websites; Pakistan to ask for waiver from IMF; Punjab Chief Minister and Chief of the Army Staff discuss security situation in Pakistan; Pakistan to allow regional trade through its territory after signing WTO pact.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Peace Talks
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On Monday, three members nominated by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to engage in peace talks with the Pakistani government held their first meeting in Islamabad. The TTP initially nominated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Imran Khan to be part of a five member committee, but Khan declined the offer after the PTI’s core committee stated that Khan’s involvement was not needed since Rustam Shah Mohmand, a senior PTI party figure, was already part of the government’s committee. The PTI issued a statement saying that the party had full faith in the TTP committee and would discuss how the PTI could be of assistance to the dialogue. Maulana Abdul Aziz also declined the TTP’s offer to be part of the peace negotiations. On Saturday, the TTP announced five people nominated to be part of the organization’s peace committee, including PTI leader Imran Khan, Maulana Samiul Haq, the former cleric of the Lal Masjid Maulana Abdul Aziz, Professor Mohammad Ibrahim of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), and a former lawyer of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F), Mufti Kifayatullah. TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid also stated that the TTP leader, Mullah Fazlullah, supported the five members nominated by the committee.[1]
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A Monday article in Dawn reported that both the government and TTP peace committees will meet on Tuesday in Islamabad. According to a related article in the Express Tribune, a nine-member political shura led by Qari Shakil Ahmed Haqqani, a TTP commander from Mohmand agency, will monitor the Tuesday peace talks.[2]
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On Sunday, the TTP offered to provide security to members of the negotiating committees in areas under TTP control.[3]
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On Monday, tribal elders in Wana praised the government’s initiative to hold peace talks with the TTP and offered their help and cooperation to make the peace process a success.[4]
Musharraf Trial
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On Saturday, police received a bailable arrest warrant for former president Pervez Musharraf after the special court re-issued the warrant on Friday. Once served with the warrant, Musharraf will either be arrested or will have to submit a bond for his bail, currently set at $24,000. The court also ordered police to submit a compliance report to the special court on February 7.[5]
Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations
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On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that alleged rocket attacks from Pakistan will damage relations between the two countries. The Governor of Kunar province, Shuja Malek Jalala claimed that a rocket attack on Friday killed three and injured five, and that Kunar suffered 17 rocket attacks from Pakistani territory in January.[6]
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On Friday, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated its support for an Afghan-led peace and reconciliation process.[7]
U.S.-Pakistan Relations
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On Wednesday, U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein said that she believes that “the threat emanating from Pakistan’s tribal areas has diminished due to persistent counterterrorism operations.”[8]
Militancy
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On Saturday, police in Swabi district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa arrested 50 people and killed four in an hour-long gun-battle with militants to reclaim a school in Khanpur. Security forces then recovered explosives and weapons from the school.[9]
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On Monday, militants damaged three natural gas pipelines that supply gas to the Uch power plant in the Dera Murad Jamali area of Nasirabad district, Balochistan.[10]
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On Saturday, the Supreme Court Chief Justice ordered a report from Balochistan’s Inspector General of Police and the Deputy Commissioner of Khuzdar district, Balochistan on the discovery of 13 bodies in a mass grave in Tutak, Khuzdar.[11]
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On Thursday, militants destroyed a gas pipeline in Pat Feeder, Nasirabad, Balochistan in a rocket attack.[12]
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On Sunday, a hand grenade attack in a movie theater in Peshawar killed three people and injured 31.[13]
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On Saturday, a bomb blast in Mushtarzai on the outskirts of Peshawar killed three members of a peace committee and injured another.[14]
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On Sunday, security forces arrested two alleged militants in Mardan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The two suspects were reportedly preparing for a suicide attack.[15]
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On Saturday, the bomb disposal unit (BDU) defused a bomb found in Thall sub-district of Hangu district.[16]
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On Friday, a bomb blast partially damaged a police van in Pir Killay, Charsadda district.[17]
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On Friday, six tribes in Kurram agency signed an agreement where each tribe agreed to maintain law and order in the area.[18]
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On Friday, a small improvised explosive device (IED) blast at a police station in Pirabad, Karachi injured two policemen.[19]
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On Friday, two people died in an armed clash between two groups in Lyari, Karachi. Additionally a bomb blast in Manghopir injured two people and police killed two people in an encounter in Landhi. Rangers also arrested 300 people in targeted operations.[20]
Domestic
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On Saturday, Pakistani hackers confirmed previous reports in The Hindu where they claimed responsibility for hacking into over 2,000 Indian websites on India’s Republic Day. The hackers stated that they targeted Indian cites to protest for the rights of Kashmiris.[21]
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According to a Monday report in The News, the government is considering asking for a waiver from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to receive the next $545 million installment of the $6.7 billion IMF loan despite failing to meet a benchmark: the government borrowed $6 billion from its State Bank by January 17, instead of the $3.7 billion target.[22]
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On Sunday, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif met with the Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif at Army House in Lahore, where the two discussed the security situation in Pakistan.[23]
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As of Friday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was continuing its protests of the shipping of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) supplies through Peshawar. However, the protests are no longer preventing supplies from reaching Afghanistan.[24]
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In December, Pakistan signed an agreement at a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Bali, Indonesia promising to allow regional trade to flow through Pakistan. According to a Sunday report in Dawn; Some in Pakistan have expressed concerned about the agreement that would allow Indian trade to move through Pakistan into Afghanistan. Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir Khan reportedly countered that the benefits of Pakistani trade through India going to Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan outweigh the downsides of the deal.[25]