Pakistan Security Brief

Prime Minister Ashraf’s cabinet approves signing of memorandum of understanding with U.S. to regulate NATO supply route; Movement of NATO supplies suspended at Torkham border crossing due to security concerns; NATO ISAF condemns cross-border attack from Pakistan; British High Commissioner to Pakistan says UK trusts Pakistan’s passport and visa process; Pakistan government concerned by killing of Muslims in Burma; Report links CIA informant Shakil Afridi to Lashkar-e-Islam militants; UK parliamentarians ask U.S. to halt drone strikes in Pakistan; Pickup truck blast kills eight people in Bajaur bazaar.        

NATO Supply Route

• On Wednesday, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf’s cabinet approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the U.S. regulating the transit of NATO supplies and equipment across Pakistan into Afghanistan. According to Geo News, the agreement, which lasts through December 2015, precludes the transport of arms and ammunition into Afghanistan unless designated for the Afghan National Army. It also identifies the southern and northern transportation routes through Chaman and Torkham, respectively, and states that no storage or warehouse facilities will be provided for American goods. Pakistan, however, does agree to provide facilities for security purposes and will require commercial carriers to pay transit fees. Furthermore, the MoU designates Pakistan’s Defence Ministry as responsibility for coordinating the supply route’s day-to-day operations and implementation. Express News reports that a “negative list” of 24 banned items was included in the agreement, and that a fee of $250 would be assessed per container clearance.[1]

• A Pakistani official confirmed on Thursday that the Torkham border crossing in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province was temporarily suspended due to security concerns following Tuesday’s attack by unknown gunmen on trucks carrying NATO supplies into Afghanistan. Traffic across the border was suspended Wednesday evening, after intelligence officials reported the possibility of additional attacks on NATO trucks this week. Local officials launched a search operation for Tuesday’s attackers in the Jamrud area of Khyber agency, while intelligence officials began work on a security plan to protect NATO convoys. Meanwhile, the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan remains open with some 17 trucks currently awaiting clearance to enter Afghanistan.[2]  

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) released a statement on Wednesday condemning the “indirect fire attacks from across the Durand Line” that killed four people in Afghanistan’s Kunar province on Sunday. In the statement, ISAF welcomed the announcement of talks on the issue between Afghanistan and Pakistan’s foreign ministries. Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesman George Little said that the U.S. was working with Afghanistan and Pakistan to limit violence along the border and improve border coordination.[3]  

International Relations

• On Wednesday, Prime Minister Ashraf’s cabinet discussed the possibility of initiating talks with India for the purchase of petroleum, oil, and lubricants (POL) products. Information and Broadcasting Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said Pakistan’s proximity to India, compared to Iran, made construction of a pipeline for importing natural gas more feasible. He also suggested that Pakistan could export Naptha, a natural gas component, to India.[4]

• British High Commissioner to Pakistan Adam Thomson said on Thursday that the United Kingdom trusted Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA). His comments came in response to a story published by the UK-based tabloid The Sun regarding a crime ring issuing fake visas and passports to “potential terrorists” from Pakistan. Following its own internal investigation, Pakistan’s Immigration Department released a report on Wednesday stating that the passport office had no role in the crime ring. In response to Pakistan’s decision to file a suit against The Sun for libel, the tabloid responded that it possessed evidence to support its claims and was prepared for the suit.[5]

• On Thursday, Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Muhammad Umer Daudzai spoke to Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on a range of issues, including Afghan reconciliation and security. The conversation was a follow up to Prime Minister Ashraf’s recent visit to Kabul, Afghanistan.[6]

• Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman expressed concern over the killing of Muslims in Burma for refusing to convert to Buddhism, and urged the government to control the situation. Additionally, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan threatened that the group would attack Burma in retaliation for crimes against the Muslim Rohingya and demanded that Islamabad cut all relations with the country. Portraying the group as a defender of Muslims in Burma, Ehsan added that if Burma did not close its embassy in Islamabad, the TTP would “not only attack Burmese interests anywhere but [would] also attack the Pakistani fellows of Burma one by one.”[7]

Osama bin Laden Informant

• According to a report released by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on Wednesday, Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the CIA locate Osama bin Laden, frequently met with and treated injured Lashkar-e-Islam (LeI) members while running Khyber agency’s Droga Hospital in 2008. After being convicted of treason by a tribal administration, he sought asylum in the U.S., but was told by another Pakistani doctor based in the U.S. that he would have to convince an American judge that he was kidnapped by LeI before being granted asylum. Afridi and his children were reportedly issued five-year visas, while his wife was only issued a one-year visa. The JIT report was released in light of previous claims that Afridi’s connections with LeI were part of a smear campaign initiated by Pakistani officials who opposed Afridi’s role in the Navy SEAL raid that killed bin Laden.[8]    

Domestic Politics

• The Pakistani Supreme Court resumed hearing challenges to the Contempt of Court 2012 Bill on Thursday, with a parliamentary record of the debate that occurred during the passage of the legislation being presented before the five-member bench.[9]

Drone Strikes

• A group of UK parliamentarians sent a letter to the U.S. government demanding that the Obama administration halt drone strikes in Pakistan. The letter says that the aggressive drone campaign kills innocent civilians, violates Pakistan’s sovereignty, provides justification for terrorist activities, and places Britain and other Western countries under threat.[10]

Militancy

• Eleven people were killed and another 21 injured when a pickup truck packed with explosives detonated in the crowded Pasht bazaar in Salarzai town, Bajaur agency on Thursday. Though the Pakistani Taliban maintains a strong presence in the area, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan condemned the attack and denied responsibility for the incident. The attack comes as tribal elders of the Mamundu tribe in Bajaur agency announced the formation of a militia to prevent cross-border attacks from militants in Afghanistan. Speaking at a jirga on Wednesday, tribal elders announced that a Mamund Qaumi Lashkar, comprising all sub-tribes of Mamund, would “target their enemies inside Afghanistan if any attack takes place in the border areas of the region in the future.”[11] 

• Continued instability in Khyber agency has displaced more than 350,000 people from Bara district in Khyber agency and forced them to flee to Peshawar. More than 61,000 refugees now occupy the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCR)’s Jalozai camp, southeast of Peshawar, where food supplies are running short, according to UNHCR officials. As the Bara refugee influx intensifies – reaching a peak of 10,000 a day in mid-March – the Pakistani Taliban influence continues to grow in the area, a trend which is particularly troubling because container trucks carrying NATO supplies to Afghanistan frequently pass through the surrounding areas.[12]

• Militants killed a tribal elder in the Bara sub-district of Khyber agency on Wednesday. According to police, they found the tribal elder’s bullet-riddled body near his house with the phrase, “those spying for the government would meet the same fate” written across his chest.[13]

• Unidentified assailants killed two civilians in the Jinnah Colony and Liaquatabad areas of Karachi on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a joint operation between Rangers and police in Karachi resulted in the arrest of 28 suspects and the seizure of several weapons during raids in Pehlwan Goth and Pak Colony. Unidentified gunmen also opened fire on a passenger bus near Quetta as it travelled from Panjgur to Karachi on Wednesday night. No casualties were reported in the incident.[14]