Pakistan Security Brief

Pakistan Army arrests three al Qaeda members, including a senior leader; U.S. praises Pakistan’s capture of Younis al Mauritani; Virginia resident, Jubair Ahmad, charged with providing support to Lashkar-e-Taiba; Taliban claims Pakistani boys kidnapped in retaliation for their tribe’s assistance with Pakistani military effort in region; U.S. ramps up security as 9/11 anniversary approaches; Ten years after 9/11 majority of Pakistanis "don’t know" who orchestrated 9/11 attacks; suicide bombings in Pakistan increase dramatically over past decade; Pakistani authorities ban doctor that assisted CIA from leaving country; Insurgents want to join political process in Balochistan; Pakistani Rangers recover large cache of arms in Karachi; Supreme Court resumes hearing on Karachi violence; Four killed in New Karachi on Sunday; Interior Minister Rehman Malik pushes for continuation of Karachi operation and requests judicial investigation into Dr. Zulfikar Mirza’s allegations against him, Lahore police have yet to recover Shahbaz Taseer; Floods in Southern Pakistan kill 132; Swat operation enters its fifth day.

• Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Taliban spokesperson, announced that the Pakistani Taliban abduction of 30 boys from the Mamund tribe last Thursday was a response to the tribe’s cooperation with the Pakistani military’s efforts to combat the Taliban along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The spokesperson claimed that the fate of the children will be decided by a Taliban committee (shura) from Bajaur. Pakistani officials said future action will be determined by tribal leaders from both sides of the border. [5]

 9/11 Anniversary

• U.S. officials have ramped up security measures throughout the country in anticipation of the 10^th anniversary of September 11, 2011. While there is no intelligence indicating a specific plot, the trove of materials found in Bin Laden’s compound contained frequent references to the ten year anniversary of the attacks in New York and Washington. According to a spokesman for the NYC police department, “We would be paying extra attention because of the Sept. 11 anniversary alone without what was found at the bin Laden compound, but the fact that in the aftermath of his death there were documents indicating an attack on or about the anniversary — that has certainly focused our planning.” [6]

• Ten years after September 11, most Pakistanis still don’t know who orchestrated the attacks on the United States. According to a 2008 World Public Opinion Poll, 72 percent of Pakistani respondents didn’t know who were behind the attacks, and 19 percent thought that the attacks were carried out by the U.S. According to GlobalPost's Pakistan reporter Suzanna Koster "This is an argument that I have heard over and over again. In this conspiracy theory, the U.S. staged the attacks to have a reason for invading Afghanistan." Since 2003, about 11,400 civilians and 3,900 security forces have been killed in Pakistan due to terrorist related violence. [7]

• According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, suicide bombings in Pakistan have increased dramatically in the decade following September 11, 2001. Before 9/11, Pakistan suffered just one suicide attack in 1995 that killed 15 people. Over the course of the past decade, suicide bombers have struck more than 290 times in Pakistan killing at least 4,600 people and injuring over 10,000 more. [8]

Bin Laden Doctor Barred from Leaving Country

• A Pakistani commission probing May’s Bin Laden raid has banned Dr. Shakil Afridi from leaving the country. Afridi reportedly assisted the CIA prior to the raid by conducting a phony vaccination program in Abbottabad in an effort to obtain DNA to confirm Bin Laden’s identity. Afridi has not yet been charged by Pakistani authorities and U.S. officials have requested he be released. [9]

Insurgents Want to Join National Politics

• Pakistani Senator Nawabzada Lashkari Raisani announced on Monday that Baloch insurgents had contacted him about peaceably joining mainstream politics. Raisani said that he had alerted the Prime Minister about his contact with the insurgent group and would take further action after hearing back from the PM. Raisani also criticized the alleged role Interior Minister Rahman Malik played in the destabilization of Balochistan and urged the Pakistani government to seriously examine former Sindh home minister Zulfikar Mirza’s accusations against Malik. [10]

Karachi

• On Friday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced that the operation against extortionists and target killers in Karachi would continue. Malik also emphasized that the actions carried out against terrorists in Lyari should not seen as an attack on the city’s residents. [11]Elsewhere, Pakistani Rangers recovered a large cache of arms after conducting targeted raids throughout Karachi. [12]

• On Monday, the Supreme Court resumed its hearing on the violence in Karachi which has raged for three months and resulted in the deaths of over 400 people. In his testimony before the court, Inspector-General (IG) of Sindh Police Wajid Ali Durrani complained of a lack of cooperation and information sharing by the Rangers. According to Durrani, the “Rangers have not turned over the men they had arrested during raids. The arms recovered have also not been handed over to us and the Rangers are interrogating those in their custody”. The court reaffirmed their faith in Durrani but told him that it was time to deliver results. [13]

• Four people were killed in an altercation between two religious groups in the Godhra area of New Karachi late Sunday evening. According to police, the two groups have a history of clashes over collections of donations and management of a local hospital. [14]

• Interior Minister Rehman Malikcontacted Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to request a judicial investigationinto Dr. Zulfikar Mirza’s allegations of Malik’s connection to targeted killers in Karachi. On September 3, Malik issued a written request to the PM, saying, “I would like to apprise you that some false allegations have been leveled against me by former home minister, Sindh. I categorically deny these allegations as there is no truth in them”. Gilani praised Mirza’s decision to present himself before the judiciary. [15]

Swat

• Violence erupted between security forces and militants in Bishban on Monday. A search operation for militants in the area has entered its fifth day and a curfew has been imposed in the region. Tensions increased in the region after security forces disrupted a suicide attack targeting a mosque in Kabal. According to security forces, five militants have been killed during the course of the operation. [16]

Abduction case

• Lahor police have yet to recover Shahbaz Taseer, son of former slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who was abducted ten days ago. According to local officials, "The investigation teams are in contact with Shahbaz's family but the kidnappers had not yet contacted the Taseer family”. [17]

Flooding

• Monsoon rains in Southern Pakistan have killed 132 people and affected nearly five million others over the past month. According to Dr. Zafar Qadir, the country head of the National Disaster Management Authority, "A total of 690,000 houses were damaged, in which 250,000 were completely destroyed," Charities have accused Pakistan of failing to invest in flood prevention measures in the wake of last year’s flooding which was the worst in the country’s history and killed nearly 2,000 people. [18]