Pakistan Security Brief - August 14, 2014

Islamabad police lift previous ban on PAT march; PTI and PAT leaders and supporters head from Lahore to Islamabad; Police finalize Azadi March security plan; PAT chief Qadri says talks with government still possible; Constitutional experts deem Imran Khan’s technocrat government plan unfeasible; Pakistan rejects Afghanistan’s claim that Pakistan is responsible for cross-border attacks; Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif says army hopes to complete North Waziristan offensive soon; Militants shoot rockets into Miram Shah security forces camp; IED hits security forces vehicle in Hazar Ganji area of Quetta, killing one; Militants attack in Matta sub-district of Swat and injure two security personnel;  Militants attack two security checkpoints in Isakhel area of Mohmand Agency, two militants killed; Unknown assailants fire mortar shell into house in Bara sub-district, Khyber Agency, injuring 15 people.

PTI and PAT Marches

• On August 14, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan’s Azadi (freedom) March and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) chief Tahirul Qadri’s Inqilab (revolution) march set off for Islamabad from Lahore.  Khan and Qadri and their respective supporters will travel separately the nearly 218 miles from Lahore to Islamabad.  They plan to arrive early on August 15 at Islamabad’s Zero Point. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on August 14 that the Pakistani government will allow the marches to proceed, despite the fact that the Lahore High Court on August 13 deemed any sit-in or long march by the PAT or PTIin the capital as unconstitutional.  Islamabad police also lifted a previous ban on Qadri’s PAT march early on August 14.  On August 14, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Syed Khurshid Shah said that the PTI has the democratic right to hold its August 14 Azadi march.  Jamiat-e-Ulema Fazl (JUI-F)’s general secretary, on the other hand, strongly criticized Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri for “promoting violence” and undermining the constitution by holding marches on Pakistan’s Independence Day.[1]

• On August 13, police officials finalized a security plan to monitor the PTI’s Azadi March and to stop the PAT’s Inqilab March from proceeding on August 14. Elite Force Police will escort Imran Khan part of the way and police advised Khan to travel in a bulletproof car due to security threats.  Police officials also deployed 10,000 police to Lahore’s Model Town to prevent any PAT protestors from leaving the area, as police fear violence from armed PAT protestors.  A press report on August 14 alleged that police have detained 2,100 protestors from the PTI and PAT in the past three days.[2]

• On August 14, during talks with PPP senator Rehman Malik, PAT chief Tahirul Qadri reportedly claimed that talks with the government are still possible despite recent PAT calls for revolution and the ongoing PAT march on Islamabad.[3]

• According to an August 14 press report, PTI chief Imran Khan has supposedly suggested the replacement of the current government with a technocratic one, a suggestion deemed unfeasible by constitutional experts.  Constitutional experts have recently said that the constitution contains no provisions for such an arrangement and the prospect of such an arrangement remains unlikely, as it would require the dissolution of the National Assembly by the Prime Minister.  In a conference of the South Asia Free Media Association on August 13 in Lahore, experts said that Khan retains the right to stage peaceful protests, but he should not attempt to undermine Pakistan’s democratic system with calls for Prime Minister Sharif’s resignation and a government of technocrats.  Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on August 13 that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif cannot offer anything to Khan further than a three-member judicial commission to investigate old claims of election rigging.[4]

Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations

• On August 13, Pakistan rejected claims made by Afghan officials on August 12 that 38 missiles were launched into eastern Kunar province from Pakistan over the past two days.[5]

North Waziristan Offensive

• During the Independence Day festivities Chief of the Army Staff General Raheel Sharif said that the army is trying to complete the ongoing North Waziristan offensive soon.[6]

• On August 14, unidentified militants shot rockets into a Miram Shah security forces camp. No one was harmed in the attack.[7]

Militancy

• On August 14, a remote-controlled roadside IED hit a security forces vehicle in the Hazar Ganji area of Quetta. The explosion destroyed the vehicle, killed one Foreign Corps personnel and injured another.[8]

• On August 14, suspected militants attacked and injured two security personnel in Matta sub-district of Swat district.[9]

• On August 14, suspected militants attacked two security checkpoints in the Isakhel area in the Mohmand tribal region near the AF-Pak border. Security forces retaliated killing two of the suspected militants.[10] 

• On August 13, unknown assailants fired a mortar shell into the house of the chief of an anti-Taliban militia in the Akkakhel area, Bara sub-district of Khyber Agency. The attack injured 15 members of the family.[11]