Policy

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

In November 2022, Pakistan repeated, as it has in previous years, that “Landmines continue to play a significant role in meeting the military needs of many States. Reliance on landmines is an integral part of Pakistan’s defence in view of our security need to guard long borders that are not protected by any natural obstacle.”[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…by making available non-lethal, militarily and cost-effective alternate technologies.”[2]

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

Pakistan participated as an observer during the 1996–1997 Ottawa Process that created the Mine Ban Treaty, but has rarely engaged on the treaty since then and has not attended any of its four review conferences. Pakistan has participated as an observer at six Meetings of States Parties, most recently in November 2018. Pakistan has participated in few of the treaty’s intersessional meetings.

On 7 December 2022, Pakistan abstained from voting on annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 77/63, which called for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. Pakistan has abstained from voting on all previous annual UNGA resolutions promoting the treaty.[4]

In April 2021, at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Pakistan called for the strengthening of international mine action cooperation, to counter the threat posed by mines and other explosive ordnance to civilians and infrastructure.[5]

In the past few years, there have been repeated marches and demonstrations by landmine victims and residents of mine-affected areas in Pakistan, demanding mine clearance and government action on compensation.

In August 2023, a demonstration in Bara Tehsil, in Khyber district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, draw attention to the threat from landmines in the region. The Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) also held a demonstration in Islamabad, voicing the need for urgent mine clearance in Waziristan and other former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).[6]

In June 2023, landmine victims from two tribal districts in Waziristan staged a five-day sit-in at the National Press Club in Islamabad. They demanded stipends and job quotas for mine victims as well as clearance of all mines. They ended their sit-in without any response from the government, but drew media attention to the need for support for landmine victims.[7]

In June 2021, citizens of North Waziristan and South Waziristan districts, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, staged a protest in Makeen to demand landmine clearance. The protesters also called on the government to compensate affected families.[8] Members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also expressed concern over the killing and maiming of children in landmine explosions in tribal districts of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, and demanded that the authorities demine the region.[9] In September 2021, landmine victims in South Waziristan blocked roads in protest, while demanding that the government provide financial support and employment, as well as compensate families whose relatives had been killed by mines.[10]

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

Use

Use by Pakistan Army

The Monitor has received no reports of the Pakistan Army emplacing landmines in recent years. In March 2020, Pakistan stated that it had not laid mines since emplacing them on the border with India more than a decade ago.[11] Previously, in November 2018, Pakistan reiterated that its use of landmines was exclusively by the military for defense purposes.[12] That last confirmed large-scale use of antipersonnel mines by Pakistan took place between December 2001 and mid-2002, during an escalation of tensions with India.[13] Pakistan maintains permanent minefields along certain sections 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.[14]

In April 2019, the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) stated that mines emplaced by security personnel and militants over the years posed a threat to the lives of residents in Dawra, Gandaw, and Landi Kallay in Sipah, and in Sheen Kamar near Mastak, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.[15]

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 FATA.[16]

In 2012–2013, after an increase in Pakistan Army operations along the border with Afghanistan, there were media reports of new mine casualties attributed to use of mines by Pakistani forces for “security purposes.” Yet it was unclear whether the mines had been laid recently or in the past.[17]

In February 2018, responding to public calls for landmine 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 [improvised explosive devices] and booby traps laid by terrorists.”[18] Residents in some villages stated that if they complained about the presence of mines, they were at risk of being jailed.[19]

Use by non-state armed groups

In 2022, as in previous years, military personnel and civilians were killed or injured in incidents resulting from new landmine use. It is difficult to identify which groups laid these mines, and the precise date of incidents was often not reported. Media monitoring by the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO) found that 16% of incidents involving explosive remnants of war (ERW) in 2022 were attributed to antipersonnel mines.[20] NSAGs in Pakistan have also used antivehicle landmines. Civilian and military casualties resulting from use of IEDs and landmines by NSAGs in Pakistan continued to be documented into 2023.[21]

Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in the provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have previously used antipersonnel landmines.[22] In 2020, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for mines laid in Kohlu district, Balochistan province, which had caused casualties among Pakistan Army soldiers. The BLA said it had planted mines to target the Pakistani military, as well as security staff working for energy companies.[23] Evidence has since emerged indicating that the BLA imported factory-made antipersonnel mines into Pakistan.[24] In April and November 2021, Pakistani forces displayed antipersonnel mines seized from the BLA.[25]

In January 2020, an unknown NSAG laid at least 26 improvised antipersonnel landmines on the grounds of a rural college in Khar Tehsil, in Bajaur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.[26]

Pakistan documented 349 instances of IED use in the country in 2019.[27] Pakistan attributed many of these incidents to “terrorists,” though it is unknown how many involved improvised mines.[28]

In November 2018, Pakistan stated that it “has itself been a victim of the use of landmines, including as IEDs, 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.”[29]

In April 2016, a representative of Pakistan told the Monitor that 14% of recovered IEDs used by militants were victim-activated. These devices used pressure and infra-red initiation mechanisms, while some also had low metal content detonators. In some cases, antipersonnel mines were used as detonators for larger explosive devices, or one initiator was used to trigger multiple devices.

In 2016, Pakistan reported having recovered a total of 2,500 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines from militants, without specifying the timeframe.[30] 

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Pakistan is one of a small number of countries still producing antipersonnel landmines.[31]

Since 1997, Pakistan Ordnance Factories has produced detectable versions of hand-emplaced blast mines in order to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.[32] In 2007, Pakistan reported that it “has also planned [the] incorporation of self-destruct and self-deactivation mechanism[s] in its future production,” in order to meet CCW Amended Protocol II requirements.[33] Pakistan reported in 2002 that it was developing a remotely-delivered antipersonnel mine system but has provided no further details.[34] 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.[35]

Pakistan’s Statutory Regulatory Order No. 123 (1), of 25 February 1999, makes the export of antipersonnel landmines illegal.[36] The law also penalizes the importation of antipersonnel mines. No data is available on whether anyone has been arrested or charged under this law. Pakistan has stated that it has not exported landmines “since early 1992.”[37]

In December 2017, Pakistan stated that the private sector is not allowed to manufacture or trade in landmines.[38] In November 2018, Pakistan stated that it “continues to scrupulously adhere to a policy of [a] ban on all exports of mines, and ensures that the private sector is not allowed to manufacture or to trade in landmines.”[39] Previous CCW Article 13 reports submitted by Pakistan state simply that “no manufacturing or trade of landmines is allowed in the Private sectors.”[40]

In the past, the country was a major exporter of landmines. 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. The Monitor has estimated that Pakistan stockpiles at least six million antipersonnel landmines, though Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate.[41]

Seizures of landmines from NSAGs in Pakistan have been regularly reported.[42] In March 2023, authorities seized 140 antipersonnel landmines, among other weapons, from a cache discovered in Chaman, in Balochistan province, near the border with Afghanistan.[43] In October 2022, authorities announced the seizure of four landmines and 44 IEDs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.[44] In May 2021, authorities seized an unknown number of mines in Dera Bugti, Balochistan province.[45] In July 2020, the Frontier Corps seized an unknown number of improvised mines in Kech, also in Balochistan.[46] 

Pakistan has not provided updated information on stockpile destruction during 2020–2022. During 2019, Pakistan reported destroying 15,925 unserviceable antipersonnel landmines, all of Pakistani manufacture.[47] Previously, in April 2016, a representative of Pakistan told the Monitor that all landmines reported destroyed in its CCW Article 13 reports were expiring stocks of antipersonnel mines. The representative 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.[48]

Antipersonnel landmines destroyed by Pakistan[49]

                                                        Note: N/R=not reported.