Pakistan Security Brief - August 27, 2014

Supreme Court orders evacuation of PTI and PAT protest locations; PTI chief Khan refuses to negotiate with government; Intelligence agencies say Red Zone vulnerable to terrorist threat; Prime Minister Sharif address National Assembly for first time in crisis; TTP commander killed in Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa; London police arrest Pakistani suspect in 2010 murder of former MQM leader; Four militants killed and more than two dozen suspects arrested in Jamrud, Khyber Agency; Two Levies Force personnel injured in Khar, Bajaur Agency; Indian, Pakistani military chiefs agree to reduce tensions along LoC and Working Boundary; UN peacekeepers visit shelled villages along Indo-Pak border; Afghan government to request UN to pressure Pakistan to cease cross-border rocket and artillery fire; U.S. military states U.S., Afghanistan, and Pakistan equally threatened by terror.

Politics

• On August 27, the Supreme Court ordered the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) parties’ protestors to evacuate Constitution Avenue by August 28.[1]
• On August 26, PAT chief Tahirul Qadri declared that the party would announce its next move in a meeting on August 27 if the government failed to accept its demands.[2]
• On August 27, PTI chief refused to negotiate with the government and reiterated his demand for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation in order to end the protests.[3]
• On August 26, security forces warned that Islamabad’s Red Zone was vulnerable to a terrorist attack after intelligence agencies informed them of an explosives-laden vehicle entering Islamabad with one suicide attacker aimed at hitting a specific target.[4] 
• On August 27, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif addressed the National Assembly and discussed the ongoing political crisis for the first time, indicating that he would neither resign nor allow the dissolution of Parliament.[5] 

Militancy

• On August 27, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) commander Waleed Akbar was killed and one militant arrested in a police raid in Prova sub-district of Dera Ismail Khan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.[6]
• On August 27, London Metropolitan police arrested a British national of Pakistani origin as a suspect in the 2010 murder of Dr. Imran Farooq, a former leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).[7]
• On August 25, security forces killed four militants in Jamrud, Khyber Agency. On August 26, security forces arrested more than two dozen suspects in a follow up search operation.[8]
• On August 26, militants injured two Levies Force personnel in Khar, Bajaur Agency.[9]

Indo-Pak Relations

• On August 26, the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of Pakistan and India agreed to reduce tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary. The DGMOs also discussed the possibility of arranging a meeting between the commanders of India’s Border Security Force (BSF) and the Pakistan Rangers [10]
• On August 26, United Nations peacekeeping mission observers visited villages along the Sialkot border and met with officials of the Pakistan Rangers regarding the reported recent shelling by Indian forces in Sialkot, Punjab.[11]

Afghanistan-Pakistan Relations

• On August 26, the Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government will request the United Nations (UN) to pressure Pakistan to cease cross-border firing into Afghanistan at the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting.[12]

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• On August 26, Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby stated that the United States, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are equally at risk from terrorism, further emphasizing that the US and Pakistan will continue collaborating against terrorism. Kirby praised recent Pakistani successes against terrorism.[13]