Policy

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty.

In November 2019, Pakistan stated, “Landmines continue to play a significant role in meeting the defence needs of many States. Given our security considerations and the need to guard long borders, which are not protected by any natural obstacle, reliance on landmines is an integral part of Pakistan’s defence.”[1]

Pakistan stated in December 2018 that it “supports the humanitarian objectives of this Convention and is guided by humanitarianism and respect for international humanitarian law and protection of civilian life. Pakistan also stated that it “is supportive of an international legal instrument banning the transfer of antipersonnel landmines,” and believes “that the objective of the total elimination of antipersonnel mines can be promoted, inter alia, by making available non-lethal, militarily and cost-effective alternate technologies.”[2]

In March 2016, a representative of Pakistan stated that it will not be joining the Mine Ban Treaty because of India, and that Pakistan had previously laid mines along its border with India and would do so again, should it be necessary.[3]

Communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, now including areas previously known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have previously demanded that the government clear their villages of landmines. In April 2018, an estimated 60,000 people joined a rally organized by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Peshawar calling for the removal of landmines from war-torn provinces along the Afghan frontier as one of their main grievances.[4] This followed a 10 day sit-in in front of the National Press Club Islamabad and came after a long march to Islamabad, also organized by the PTM, which demanded landmine clearance and compensation for mine victims. The sit-in ended after the government agreed to both demands.[5] In September 2019, the Pakistan Army said it had 100 teams in the field removing landmines which it claimed were planted by Tehrik-i-Taliban, and that much of the area was now clear of mines.[6]

Pakistan participated as an observer during the Ottawa Process and the Mine Ban Treaty negotiations, but has rarely engaged on the treaty since 1997 and has never attended a Review Conference. Pakistan has participated as an observer in six of the convention’s meetings of States Parties, including the Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in November 2018. Pakistan has participated in few of the treaty’s intersessional meetings held in Geneva.

On 12 December 2019, Pakistan abstained from voting on the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/61, which called for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. Pakistan has abstained on all previous annual UNGA resolutions in support of the treaty.

In December 2019, the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO), ICBL partner in Pakistan, held a press conference for the release of printed copies of the Landmine Monitor 2019 Country Report on Pakistan.[7]

Pakistan is not a party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions. It is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II.

Use

Landmine Monitor has received no reports of the Pakistan army emplacing landmines in 2019 or 2020. In November 2018, Pakistan reiterated that its use of landmines is exclusively by the military for defense purposes.[8]

However, in April 2019, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society stated that landmines emplaced by security personnel and by militants over the years pose a threat to the lives of residents of Gandaw, Dawra, and Landi Kallay in Sipah, and in the Sheen Kamar area near Mastak, all in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.[9] In April 2016, a representative of Pakistan stated to the Monitor that the army has a policy not to use antipersonnel mines around its outposts in operations in FATA.[10]

Previously, following an increase in Pakistan Army operations in the country’s border areas with Afghanistan in 2012, there were reports in domestic media of new mine casualties in those areas. Media reports in 2012 and 2013 attributed the new casualties to the use of mines by Pakistani forces for “security purposes,” but it is unclear if the mines had been laid recently or in the past.[11] Subsequently, no new reports occurred since 2013 that were attributable to use by Pakistani forces. In February 2018, responding to public calls for mine clearance, an army official was quoted as saying, “No mines have been laid by Pakistan Army in South Waziristan Agency or [any other part of] FATA and none were sprinkled on [an] emergency basis. We continue to make efforts to demine all mines, IEDs and booby traps laid by terrorists.”[12] However, residents in some villages state that if they complain about the presence of mines, they are jailed.[13]

Pakistan reports annually that it has not laid mines since the Pakistan-India border mine-laying more than a decade ago.[14] That last confirmed large-scale use of antipersonnel mines by Pakistan took place between December 2001 and mid-2002, during the escalation of tensions with India.[15] Pakistan maintains permanent minefields along certain portions of the Line of Control (LoC) that divides Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. These previously laid mines continue to move during floods from the LoC into Pakistan.[16]

In November 2018, Pakistan stated it “has itself been a victim of the use of landmines, including as IEDs [improvised explosive devices], by terrorists and non-state actors. Notwithstanding their use by terrorists, Pakistan’s security forces do not use mines for the maintenance of internal order and law enforcement or in counter-terrorism operations.”[17] In March 2020, Pakistan reported that 187 incidents of use of explosive devices, resulting in casualties, occurred in locations throughout the country, attributing these incidents to “terrorists.”[18] It is unknown how many of those incidents were due to improvised landmines.

In its CCW Amended Protocol II annual report for 2019, Pakistan documented 349 instances of IED use in the year.[19] The report further stated that roughly half of these instances resulted in casualties. In April 2016, a representative of Pakistan told the Monitor that 14% of recovered IEDs used by militants in Pakistan were victim-activated. Militant groups’ victim-activated IEDs use pressure and infra-red initiation, and some also have low metal content detonators. In some cases, antipersonnel mines are used as detonators for larger explosive devices, or one initiator sets off multiple explosive devices. Pakistani security forces have recovered 194 tons of explosives from militants and 2,500 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines in recent years.[20]

Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa used improvised antipersonnel landmines during the reporting period, as attributed to a variety of unidentified militant groups and Baloch insurgent groups.[21] In April 2020, a spokesman for the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for mines laid near a Pakistan Army post in the Kalgari mountains in Kohistan Marri, causing two casualties among the soldiers. The spokesman was quoted as saying the BLA had planted mines near the security teams of oil and gas companies and against the Pakistani security forces.[22] In January 2020, an unknown group laid at least 26 improvised antipersonnel landmines on the grounds of a rural college in Khar Tehsil of Bajaur District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, near the border with Afghanistan.[23]

As in previous years, many military personnel and some civilians were killed or injured in incidents of new mine use, however, it is difficult to identify the perpetrators from the available information. The Monitor has recorded numerous antipersonnel mine incidents in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, although in some cases the precise date of mine use cannot be ascertained, nor can the perpetrator be identified (see Pakistan’s Casualties profile for more details). NSAGs also use antivehicle mines. Civilian and military casualties resulting from NSAG use of IEDs and landmines continued to be documented into 2019.[24]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Pakistan is one of a small number of countries still producing antipersonnel mines.[25] Since 1997, Pakistan Ordnance Factories has produced detectable versions of hand-emplaced blast mines in order to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.[26] In 2007, Pakistan reported that it “has also planned incorporation of self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanism in its future production” in order to meet CCW Amended Protocol II requirements.[27] The protocol requires that all remotely-delivered mines have self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanisms. Pakistan reported in 2002 that it was developing a remotely-delivered antipersonnel mine system but has provided no further details.[28] In 2007, Pakistan also stated that it had “met the deadlines to improve the specifications on detectability of mines” to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.[29]

Pakistan’s Statutory Regulatory Order No. 123 (1) of 25 February 1999 makes the export of antipersonnel mines illegal.[30] The law penalizes the importation of mines, but no data is available regarding whether anyone has been arrested or charged under this law. Pakistan states that it has not exported mines “since early 1992.”[31]

In December 2017, Pakistan stated that the private sector is not allowed to manufacture or to trade in landmines.[32] In November 2018, Pakistan stated that it “continues to scrupulously adhere to a policy of ban on all exports of mines, and ensures that the private sector is not allowed to manufacture or to trade in landmines.”[33] Previous Article 13 reports state simply that “no manufacturing or trade of landmines is allowed in the Private sectors.”[34] In the past, the country was a major exporter of mines. Pakistani-made mines have been found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sri Lanka.

There is no official information available on the size of Pakistan’s antipersonnel mine stockpile. In the past, the Monitor has estimated that Pakistan stockpiles at least six million antipersonnel mines, the fifth-largest stockpile in the world.[35] Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate.

As in previous years, seizures of mines, among other weapons, have been reported.[36] Previously, in February and July 2017, and in November 2016, Pakistani officials seized landmines, among other weapons, in raids in Balochistan.[37]

Stockpile Destruction

During 2019, Pakistan reported destroying 15,925 unserviceable antipersonnel mines, all of Pakistani manufacture.[38] Previously, in April 2016, a representative of Pakistan told the Monitor that all mines reported destroyed in the Article 13 reports are expiring stocks of antipersonnel mines. He further stated that all mines seized during operations in Pakistan by the security forces are destroyed and that “thousands” had been destroyed during previous years.[39]

Pakistan reported destroying 13,803 antipersonnel mines during 2018; 955 antipersonnel mines during 2017; 7,370 antipersonnel mines during 2016; 1,429 antipersonnel mines during 2015; 2,944 antipersonnel mines of Pakistani origin during 2014; 8,123 antipersonnel mines of Pakistani origin during 2013; and 2,107 antipersonnel mines of United States, Pakistani, and unknown origin during 2012.[40] During 2011, Pakistan destroyed 153 antipersonnel mines; while in 2010, Pakistan reported that a total of 43,248 antipersonnel mines were destroyed between 2000 and 2009.[41]