Pakistan Security Brief

Kayani says U.S. should “focus on stabilizing Afghanistan”; Pakistan's ambassador to U.S. calls for normalization of relations; U.S. reports increase in “infiltration into Afghanistan from Pakistan”; Terrorism the result of open border with Afghanistan, says Corps Commander; Malik announces use of biometrics border system; Videos exhibit Pakistan’s lack of control on tribal regions; Pakistan to modernize its navy; Army has “no objection” to talks with Pakistani Taliban, says Kayani; Militants kill 3 in FATA rocket attacks; Security forces kill 6 militants in Kurram; Mastung “massacre” clues kept under wraps; Terrorists operating in Balochistan prisons, says Malik; Pakistani fighter jet crashes, killing pilot; Landmine blast kills one in Quetta; Peshawar police conduct raid, recover arms cache; Five killed in Karachi “target killing incidents,” bomb discovered; Abbottabad Commission receives ammunition and ballistic reports; Pakistan will transport Iranian gas to China; SC agrees to hear case on foreign assets.

U.S.-Pakistan Relations

• Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Kayani briefed Pakistan’s Senate and National Assembly Standing Committees on Defense on Tuesday at the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.  Kayani reportedly stressed that U.S. should “focus on stabilizing Afghanistan instead of pushing Pakistan to attack militant groups” in North Waziristan, indicating Afghanistan as the source of Pakistan’s militant problem.  Kayani went on to tell the committee, which was also briefed by the Director Generals of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Military Operations, that any military offensive in Pakistan’s “crucial border region” would be on Pakistan’s “schedule and according to [the country’s] capacity.”  Kayani commented that the U.S. would “have to think ’10 times’ before taking any unilateral action” in North Waziristan, but recognized that an “immediate” unilateral military operation by the U.S. in Pakistan remained unlikely.[1]

• During a lecture at the University of California at Berkeley on Wednesday, Pakistan’s Ambassador to U.S., Hussain Haqqani, called for the normalization of U.S.-Pakistan relations.  Haqqani said the U.S. and Pakistan must work toward finding “common ground,” suggesting that doing so was “vital” to both countries.[2]

Af-Pak Border

• U.S. and NATO forces have reported an increase in infiltration of militants into Afghanistan using Pakistani routes, according to a senior NATO official, who also said that that the U.S. may bolster its support of Afghan troops along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border depending on the “level of threat” emanating from Miram Shah, which is believed to be the Haqqani Network’s headquarters in Pakistan.[3]

• On Tuesday, Peshawar Corps Commander Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik spoke to a group of tribal elders in Kohat, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, stating that military operations against Pakistan’s militants were near completion.  Malik expressed that terrorism within the country was the result of Pakistan’s open border with Afghanistan but said that sealing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was not solely the “responsibility of Pakistan.”  Malik went on to applaud the role of local anti-Taliban militias known as lashkars in assisting the army in its fight against militancy and pledged to continue army support of such lashkars.[4]

• Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that Pakistan would “reactivate” a biometrics system at a “key Afghan border terminal” in November in an attempt to better examine travelers crossing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.  The system will assist both countries in monitoring border traffic and may deter Taliban and al Qaeda militants from carrying out cross-border attacks.[5]

• Recent videos on YouTube have exhibited the lack of control that “Pakistan has over its strategic border region with Afghanistan,” according to a Wednesday article in Reuters.  Reuters notes that security forces are nowhere to be seen as “armed men in black with balaclavas,” believed to be members of the Pakistani Taliban’s militant hit squad, the Khurasan unit, terrorize North Waziristan.”[6]

Pakistan Navy

• Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Asif Sandila, met with Pakistan’s Federal Defense Minister, Ahmad Mukhtar, in Rawalpindi on Wednesday to discuss the modernization of Pakistan’s navy to prepare Pakistan to “meet any internal [or] external challenges” presented by the “international war against terror.”[7]

Pakistani Taliban

• Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Kayani said Tuesday that the Pakistan Army has no objection to government talks with the Pakistani Taliban. This statement came as Interior Minister Malik claimed to have received messages of reconciliation from unnamed militant groups.  Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Minister for Information and Culture, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, also reiterated the government’s willingness to participate in negotiations with militants, as long as the militants agreed to disarm.[8]

FATA

• Militants launched a rocket attack on the village of Landi Kotal, Khyber agency on Tuesday morning, resulting in the death of two people.  Two other people suffered injuries and multiple structures were damaged.  The attack reportedly targeted a well known shrine.  A separate attack killed another person in Mandikas area.[9]

• Security forces demolished two militant compounds in Kurram agency on Wednesday, resulting in the death of six militants.[10]

Balochistan

• Balochistan’s Crimes Investigation Department (CID) has reportedly discovered an “important clue” in the September 20 killing of 29 Shia Hazaras in Mastung district, although the Balochistan High Court overseeing the “Mastung massacre” case has declined to reveal the information regarding the development due to the “sensitivity of the matter.”  Also, the Express Tribune reports that the government may be gearing up for a countrywide military operation against the militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which has been responsible for multiple attacks against the Shia Hazara community, including the September 20 massacre, according to a letter drafted by Malik calling for the arrest of LeJ’s founder. [11]

• On Wednesday, Interior Minister Malik stated that terrorists responsible for acts of sectarian violence in Balochistan have been operating from within Balochistan’s prison system. The information is reportedly based on the findings of intelligence reports and a “massive [prison] crack down.”  Malik suggested that the terrorists had maintained contact with Punjabi militant organizations through use of cell phones while in prison.[12] 

• A Pakistani fighter jet reportedly crashed during a routine training flight on Wednesday, killing the pilot, according to air force officials. The aircraft was reportedly a French-made Mirage-V.[13]

• A law enforcement official was killed on Tuesday in a landmine explosion in Dera Bugti, Quetta.  An investigation has been launched into who may have planted the landmine.[14]

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

• Peshawar police disrupted a terrorist plot to smuggle an arms cache into Peshawar on Tuesday.  The car transporting the arms cache was reportedly in transit from Bara sub-district to Punjab when it was intercepted by police.   Another weapons cache was seized by police following a police raid aimed at “anti-social elements” in Peshawar.[15]

Karachi Violence

• Five people were killed in a spate of alleged target killings in Karachi on Tuesday night, according to police officials, including a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) activist.  Another eight people were reportedly injured.  Later, a 10-kilogram bomb was discovered underneath a vehicle in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and was diffused by Karachi’s bomb disposal unit.  Meanwhile, The News reports that Karachi violence is reportedly depleting the city of over $1 billion in business revenue each year as businesses flee the city to escape Karachi’s “chaos, anarchy and lawlessness.”[16]

Abbottabad Commission

• The Abbottabad Commission, which is investigating the May 2 raid by U.S. Special Operations Forces on the compound of deceased al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, received ballistics and ammunition reports from Pakistan military experts on Tuesday in an attempt to identify the weapons employed by the U.S. in the raid.[17] 

Energy

• Iranian Oil Ministry officials announced Wednesday that Pakistan has agreed to transport gas between Iran and China once the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project has been completed.[18]

Pakistani Politics

• On Wednesday, the Supreme Court agreed to conduct a hearing “regarding [the] foreign assets of civil and military officers,” to establish whether Pakistani officials may have saved money made illegally in Swiss bank accounts.  Former Information Minister Mohammad Ali Durrani claimed that offshore accounts could harbor as much as $5 billion in assets belonging to Pakistan.[19]