Pakistan

Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 07 October 2019

Policy

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

In December 2018, Pakistan stated 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 that it 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.”[1]

Previously, Pakistan has stated that “landmines continue to play a significant role in the defence needs of many States. Given our security demands and the need to guard our long borders that are not protected by any natural obstacle, the use of landmines forms an important part of our self-defence strategy. The objective of the total elimination of anti-personnel landmines can best be promoted, inter alia, by making available non-lethal military and cost-effective alternative 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) have previously demanded that the government clear their villages from 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 to landmine victims. The sit-in ended after the government agreed to both demands.[5] In September 2019, the Pakistan army claimed to have 100 teams in the field removing landmines which it states were planted by Tehrik-i-Taliban, and that much of the area is now clear.[6]

Pakistan participated as an observer in the Ottawa Process and the Mine Ban Treaty negotiations, but it has rarely engaged in 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 15 December 2018, Pakistan abstained from voting on United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 73/61 calling for universalization of the Mine Ban Treaty. It has abstained on all previous annual UNGA resolutions in support of the treaty.

International Campaign to Ban Landmines partner in Pakistan, the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization, has called for comprehensive clearance in tribal areas and has called for coordination between the government and civil society in addressing the issue of landmines in FATA.[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 2018 or 2019. 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 planted by security personnel and by militants posed a threat to the lives of residents of Gandaw, Dawra, and Landi Kallay in Sipah and 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 the domestic media of new mine casualties in those areas. Media reports in 2012 and 2013 attributed the new casualties to use of mines by Pakistani forces for “security purposes,” but it is unclear if the mines were 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 April 2019, Pakistan stated that 232 incidents of use of explosive devices, resulting in casualties, occurred in locations throughout the country attributed to “terrorists.”[18] It is unknown how many of those incidents were due to improvised landmines.

Previously, in March 2017, Pakistan reconfirmed that antipersonnel mines, antivehicle mines, and IEDs have been used throughout the country, and attributed the use to “terrorists.”[19] 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 May 2018, Pakistan reported that more than one IED incident occurs per day.[20] 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.[21]

In its CCW Amended Protocol II Annual report for 2018, Pakistan documented 438 instances of IED use in the year.[22] The report further provided that roughly half of these instances resulted in casualties.

Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in Balochistan and Khyber Paktunkhwa used improvised antipersonnel landmines during the reporting period, as attributed to a variety of unidentified militant groups and Balochi insurgent groups.[23] As in previous years, many military personnel and some civilians were killed or injured in incidents of new use, however, it is difficult to identify the perpetrators from 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 Casualties profile for more details). NSAGs also use antivehicle mines. Civilian and military casualties resulting from NSAG use of IEDs and landmines continues 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 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 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, in July 2017, and in November 2016, Pakistani officials seized landmines, among other weapons, in raids in Balochistan.[37]

Stockpile destruction

During 2018, Pakistan reported destroying 13,803 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]

During 2017, Pakistan reported destroying 955 antipersonnel mines; during 2016, 7,370 antipersonnel mines; during 2015, 1,429 antipersonnel mines; during 2014, 2,944 antipersonnel mines of Pakistani origin; during 2013, it destroyed 8,184 antipersonnel mines of Pakistani origin; and in 2012, Pakistan destroyed 2,107 antipersonnel mines of United States, Pakistani, and unknown origin.[40] In 2011, it destroyed 153 antipersonnel mines, and in 2010, Pakistan reported that a total of 43,248 antipersonnel mines were destroyed between 2000 and 2009.[41]



[1] Statement of Pakistan, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 26 November 2018.

[2] Pakistan, Explanation of vote on L.7/Rev.1, 71st Session, UN General Assembly (UNGA) First Committee, New York, 31 October 2016, UNGA, Official Records, A/C.1/71/PV.24, pp. 29/35. For similar statements, see also, A/C.1/70/L.50 on 4 November 2015, A/C.1/69/L.5 on 3 November 2014, and A /C.1/68/L.3, 1 November 2013. Landmine Monitor Report 2013; Landmine Monitor Report 2008, p. 973; Landmine Monitor Report 2007, pp. 948–949; and Landmine Monitor Report 2006, p. 1,039.

[3] Landmine Monitor interview with Pakistani delegation to the CCW Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts, Geneva, 8 April 2016.

[4]Some 60,000 Pakistanis Rally In Peshawar For Rights Of Ethnic Pashtuns,” RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, 8 April 2018. Rally held by the PTM. The PTM began in May 2014 as an initiative for removing landmines from Waziristan and other parts of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), but has since incorporated other demands such as investigations into enforced disappearances.

[7]Pakistan- 90 percent landmine victims are women, children, reports: SPDO,” Tribal News Network, 9 December 2017; and Zofeen Ebrahim, “Displaced Pashtuns Return to Find Homes “Teeming” with Landmines,” Inter Press Service News Agency, 27 April 2018.

[8] Statement of Pakistan, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 26 November 2018.

[10] Landmine Monitor interview with Pakistani delegation to the CCW Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts, Geneva, 8 April 2016.

[11] See, ICBL-CMC, “Country Profile: Pakistan: Mine Ban Policy,” 28 November 2013.

[13] Mureeb Mohmand, “Landmine kills one teenager, injures three others in Mohmand,” Express Tribune, 25 August 2019; and “Landmines Killing People In Pakistan's South Waziristan,” Malaysian Digest, 6 February 2018.

[14] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, Form B, 25 May 2018. Pakistan has republished this statement each year. Presentation given by Pakistani delegation to the CCW Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts, 6 April 2016. Digital recording available on the UNOG website.

[15] See, Landmine Monitor Report 2004, pp. 1,087–1,088; and Landmine Monitor Report 2003, p. 661. There were also reports of use of mines by Pakistani troops in Kashmir during the Kargil crisis in mid-1999. See, Landmine Monitor Report 2004, p. 1,088. In December 2006, Pakistan stated its intention “to fence and mine some selective sections” of its border with Afghanistan to prevent cross-border militant activity but did not do so after widespread international criticism. See, Landmine Monitor Report 2007, pp. 949–951.

[16] See for example: “India-made anti-tank mine found in Nullah Dek near Kartarpur corridor, claims Pakistan,” Times Now Digital, 10 July 2019; and “Summer thaw brings landmines in Pakistani Kashmir,” The National (AFP), 6 July 2018.

[17] Statement of Pakistan, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 26 November 2018. Pakistan made an identical statement at the Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties in December 2017.

[18] Article 13 Report, Form B, 11 April 2019. See also, previous Article 13 reports.

[19] Article 13 Report, Form B, 31 March 2017. See also, previous Article 13 reports.

[20] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, Form B, 25 May 2018. In 2017, 518 IED attacks were attempted throughout the country, of which 262 exploded causing casualties.

[21] Time frame not specified. Presentation given by Pakistani delegation to the CCW Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts, 6 April 2016. Digital recording available on the UNOG website. Landmine Monitor interview with Pakistani delegation to the CCW Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts, Geneva, 8 April 2016.

[23] Emails from Raza Shah Khan, SPADO, 30 September 2019, and 21 September 2017. See also, “Landmine blasts kill five in Pakistan’s tribal areas,” Arab News (Pakistan) 21 August 2019; “Soldier martyred, 5 injured in North Waziristan landmine blast,” Tribal New Network, 25 August 2019; “At least 2 FC personnel killed, 5 injured in Kurram Agency blast,” The Nation, 10 July 2017; and Ajmal Wesai, “4 children wounded in Tirinkot bomb explosion,” Pajhwok Afghan News, 5 August 2017.

[24] See, “Woman loses her leg to a landmine in South Waziristan,” Samaa News, 5 April 2019; “Pak Army sepoy martyred in North Waziristan terrorist attack,” Dunya News, 1 June 2019; and “FC trooper martyred in South Waziristan landmine explosion,” The Express Tribune, 14 June 2019.

[25] Pakistan Ordnance Factories, located in Wah cantonment, is a state-owned company established in 1951 that in the past produced at least six types of antipersonnel mines, two low-metal blast mines (P2Mk1 and P4Mk2), two bounding fragmentation mines (P3Mk2 and P7Mk1), and two directional fragmentation Claymore-type mines (P5Mk1 and P5Mk2).

[26] Interview with Khalil Ur Rehman, Pakistan Foreign Office, Islamabad, 9 April 2011. See also, Article 13 Report, Form C, 2 November 2005; and Sixth Annual Conference of States Parties to CCW Amended Protocol II, “Summary Record of the 1st Meeting, Geneva, 17 November 2004,” Geneva, CCW/AP II/CONF.6/SR.1, 13 May 2005, p. 14.

[29] Article 13 Report (for the period 16 August 2006 to 15 August 2007), Form C. The nine-year deadline for Pakistan to destroy or modify all stockpiled low-metal-content (non-detectable) antipersonnel mines was 3 December 2007. Pakistan provided no details about how or when it met the requirement.

[30] Article 13 Report, Form D, 10 November 2006 states “Pakistan has declared a complete ban on export of landmines, even to States Parties, with effect from March 1997.”

[31] Interviews with Khalil Ur Rehman, Pakistan Foreign Office, Islamabad, 9 April 2011; and with Muhammad Kamran Akhtar, Director, Disarmament Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad, 23 April 2009; and see, Landmine Monitor Report 2002, p. 725.

[32] Statement of Pakistan, Mine Ban Treaty Sixteenth Meeting of States Parties, Vienna, 19 December 2017.

[33] Statement of Pakistan, Mine Ban Treaty Seventeenth Meeting of States Parties, Geneva, 26 November 2018.

[34] Article 13 Report, Form D, 1 April 2011.

[35] See, Landmine Monitor Report 2009, p. 1,058, fn 17.

[36] See, for example “Security forces recover large cache of arms from South Waziristan, Kohlu: ISPR,” Geo News, 24 May 2018; Parvez Jabri, “Security forces recover arms, ammunition from SWA, Balochistan,” Business Recorder, 5 May 2018; “Bombs, landmines recovered, defused in Kurram Agency,” The Nation, 1 November 2017; “Raddul Fasaad: FC seizes huge cache of arms, explosives in Balochistan,” Dunya TV News, 28 February 2018; and “Forces seize huge cache of weapons in S. Waziristan and Dera Bugti,” Financial Daily, 5 March 2018.

[37] Sajjad Ali, “Large quantity of explosives seized from Chagai,” Khyber News TV, 27 November 2016; “Levies naib risaldar shot dead in Mastung,” The Nation, 5 July 2017; and Salim Shaheed, “23 landmines seized in Loralai operation,” Dawn, 24 February 2017.

[39] Landmine Monitor interview with Pakistani delegation to the CCW Amended Protocol II Meeting of Experts, Geneva, 8 April 2016.

[40] CCW Amended Protocol II Article 13 Report, Form F, 25 May 2018; Article 13 Report, Form F, 31 March 2015. This included 992 P2, 1 P3, 1922 P4, 8 P5, and 21 P7 antipersonnel mines; Article 13 Report, Form F, 31 March 2014, which included 4,534 P2, 221 P3, 3,363 P4, and 57 P5 antipersonnel mines; and Article 13 Report, Form F, 5 April 2013, which included 645 ND P2, 165 NM M14, 1020 P4Mk-1, 18 M2A4 Jumping P-7, and 259 Shrapnel P50 antipersonnel mines.

[41] Article 13 Report, Form F, 25 October 2010. This included 30,615 Mine AP ND P2 Series, 7,014 Mine AP ND P4 Series, 2,884 Mine AP M14, and 2,735 miscellaneous antipersonnel mines.