Contamination and Impact

Pakistan is affected by mines and other ordnance from the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (1979–1989) and three wars with India. Areas bordering Afghanistan, however, are affected by varied contamination from more recent and continuing conflict, including not only mines, but also unexploded ordnance (UXO) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Mines

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, mines were scattered by Soviet forces from helicopters in areas along the border with Afghanistan, some of which landed in Pakistan. In addition, the mujahideen used mines to protect their bases in the tribal areas.[1] There is also mine contamination from Pakistan’s wars with India and from more recent tribal and sectarian conflict, which has involved increasing use of IEDs.[2]

Pakistan’s flood disaster in 2010 added to the problem by displacing mines from areas of conflict in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)  to lower valleys, causing many casualties.[3] More recently, the Pakistan army disclosed that it is again considering plans to emplace mines along the border with Afghanistan to try to prevent infiltration and cross-border attacks by militants. Similar plans were considered in 2007 and 2009 but never implemented. Media quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying “since our long borders are not protected by any natural obstacle, the use of landmines forms an important part of our self-defence strategy given the nature of our security compulsions.”[4]

Pakistan has repeatedly affirmed that it “faces no problem of un-cleared mines; hence no casualties were caused accidentally.”[5] It has also stated “mines have never caused humanitarian concerns in Pakistan.”[6] Its latest CCW Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) Article 13 report states that all the mines laid on the border with India “have been completely removed/cleared/destroyed.” It adds that “Pakistan at present faces no problem of uncleared mines because no mines have been laid by the Army” since the border conflict with India.[7] 

Pakistan’s Article 13 annual report submitted in 2007 had, however, acknowledged that “in the area adjoining Pakistan-Afghanistan border, sometimes mines are encountered, but these are mines left by the former Soviet troops.”[8]It also noted that “Existing perimeter marking signs have been painted and marked according to [Amended Protocol] AP-II standards,” acknowledging that some mined areas remained.[9]

More recent evidence that Pakistan is affected by both mines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) includes a steady flow of mine/ERW casualties recorded in 2010 and 2011 (see Casualties and Victim Assistance section of Pakistan country profile).[10]

No estimate exists of the extent of residual contamination, but increasing conflict between the government and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in 2009 and 2010 reportedly resulted in new mine use. Human Rights Watch cited residents of Mingora in the Swat Valley as saying the Taliban had placed mines in the town as the army embarked on its offensive to drive them out of the area in May 2009.[11] Reports from the FATA bordering Afghanistan point to continued use of mines in 2010 as an offensive weapon in tribal and sectarian conflicts.[12]

During field research in 2010 in North and South Waziristan, the Monitor was told by both local elders and journalists, as well as by officials and NGO representatives, that the Pakistani Taliban and other NSAGs have continued to use former mujahideen bases, and that the area around these camps was contaminated with mines emplaced by NSAGs, as well as by mines dating back to the Afghan-Soviet war. Inhabitants of these tribal areas said mine incidents were still occurring, but did not provide specific casualty data.[13] In Kurram agency, on the border with Afghanistan, community-based organizations report six to seven mine and UXO incidents per month.[14]

Despite government claims that it had cleared the mines it laid on the Indo-Pakistan border during the 2001–2002 stand-off with India and that “minefields laid along the Line of Control (LoC) are properly fenced and clearly marked,”[15] inhabitants of Pakistani-administered Kashmir report consistently that some areas along the LoC are still contaminated and have not been properly fenced by the militaries of either India or Pakistan.[16] Inhabitants of Garhi Sher Khan in Poonch district, for example, informed the Monitor that villages on both sides of the LoC were contaminated by mines and ERW, and that rainfall caused mines to drift onto the Pakistani side of the border from higher areas on the Indian side.[17]

Cluster munition remnants and other explosive remnants of war

The transparency report Pakistan submitted in March 2011 under Article 10 of CCW Protocol V said there were no ERW in Pakistan.[18] Its latest Article 13 Report, however, claimed “terrorists” had used IEDs to attack the government and civilians, mounting 4,570 attacks between 2000 and the end of 2010 and causing 3,665 casualties in 2010 alone, including 992 people killed.[19]

NGOs operating in northwestern districts report an ERW threat to communities from UXO, including mortars, artillery shells, hand grenades, IEDs, and rocket-propelled grenades.[20] It is not known whether contamination includes cluster munition remnants.

Mine Action Program

Pakistan has no formal civilian mine action program. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed the Monitor in April 2011 that it planned to establish a mine action facility to provide information, mine/ERW risk education (RE), and victim assistance services to the conflict-affected population. However, the Ministry said that due to lack of resources the program could not be started yet.[21] Previously in 2007, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had disclosed plans to establish a Training Center for Demining and Awareness to act as a mine action center for operations in Pakistan and overseas, and to provide RE in affected areas of Pakistan. In April 2009, however, the ministry had reported that it had made no progress with this initiative.[22]

An Inter Services Public Relations representative told the Monitor that Pakistani military engineering units are responsible for mine clearance in contaminated conflict zones.[23] The Frontier Constabulary (FC) also says it conducts mine clearance in contaminated areas of Balochistan, FATA, and other conflict zones in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP). The army provided clearance training and mine detectors to the FC.[24]

Mine clearance in 2010

The army and FC released no information on mine clearance activities in 2010. The army was reported to have conducted demining operations in the area of Chamalang in Balochistan in 2009, clearing antivehicle and other unspecified mines.[25] Army engineers and Pakistan’s FC are said also to have also undertaken demining operations in FATA and the Swat Valley in 2009.[26]

Other Risk Reduction Measures

Pakistan has no strategic framework for RE. In its Article 13 report submitted in 2007, Pakistan stated that its army engineers were educating people in the “border belt regarding the hazards posed by mines.”[27] However, Monitor field research and interviews with aid workers, activists, and journalists in 2010 did not identify any measures by local authorities in border areas to protect civilians from mines.[28]

Since July 2009, UNICEF has supported a Pakistani NGO, the Sustainable Peace and Development Organisation (SPADO), and other NGOs in developing and implementing RE activities in Malakand division and other conflict-affected areas in the northwest. After an initial training jointly conducted by UNICEF and Handicap International (HI), NGOs received technical assistance through a coordination mechanism that meets monthly. The project has included the development of RE materials.[29]

HI started an emergency RE program for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the NWFP in August 2009, funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Office initially for six months, but this funding was later extended. The program, comprising a manager and eight agents, reportedly delivered RE to 1.5 million IDPs in refugee camps and temporary schools, mainly in  Mardan and Swabi districts, but also in Swat and Buner. The program distributed RE materials and prepared radio spots and messages broadcast on local radio and cable television.[30]

The Swiss Foundation for Mine Action (FSD) started community-based RE in March 2009 in partnership with SPADO. By June 2010, it was operating 15 four-person teams, including three all-women teams, in four districts of Buner, Dir, Shangla, and Swat.[31] Beginning in December 2010, it continued community-based RE in partnership with the Peshawar-based NGO BEST and expanded the geographic scope of its operations to include the FATA agencies of Bajaur and Mohmand, as well as the displaced populations from Bajaur and Khyber in Peshawar’s Polzai camp. Working with 17 three-person teams, including five all-women teams, it conducted 11,857 RE sessions through August 2011 reaching more than 540,000 people.[32] Its RE activities led to 274 ERW being reported to the military for destruction in 2010 and a further 78 items in the first seven months of 2011.[33]

Mines Advisory Group (MAG) started an RE project in Pakistan in March 2010, also in partnership with SPADO. MAG provided RE training for SPADO staff as a first step towards training community personnel in the FATA and the NWFP. MAG and SPADO have two field offices in the center (Kohat) and south (DI Tank) of Khyber Pakhtunkwa, which has around a million people displaced by the conflict in the neighboring FATA. MAG and SPADO conduct train the trainer courses and operate eight teams in the center and south (four in each) delivering direct RE training in schools, madrassas, community centers and homes, working with 80 community focal points who facilitate access to the population.[34]

SPADO reports that it started the first comprehensive community-based RE in Malakand  following fighting there, covering the districts of Buner, Dir, Shangla, and Swat. It concluded its activities in Malakand in March 2011. Similarly, when military operations started in South Waziristan, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, SPADO extended its operations into the South Waziristan districts of Tank and DI Khan. The program focuses mainly on RE through direct sessions with communities and children in schools. Between April 2010 and March 2011, SPADO held 8,152 training sessions for over 301,000 people in these districts. It also trained and used local media, government institutions, religious scholars, civil society organizations, and community leaders.[35]