Policy

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

In November 2021, Pakistan repeated, as it has in previous years, that “Landmines continue to play a significant role in meeting the military needs of many States. Given the security concerns 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 would 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]

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

On 6 December 2021, Pakistan abstained from voting on annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 76/26, 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 Security Council, 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 June 2021, citizens of South Waziristan and North Waziristan districts, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, staged a sit-in protest in Makeen, to demand that the government clear landmines from these areas. The protesters asked the government to provide compensation for families and remove mines from both districts.[6] In June 2021, members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also expressed concern about the killing and maiming of children in mine explosions in tribal districts of North Waziristan and South Waziristan, and demanded that the authorities demine the region.[7]

In September 2021, popular discontent over continued casualties prompted mine victims in South Waziristan to block roads in protest, while demanding that authorities provide financial assistance and employment for victims, and compensation to families whose relatives had died due to mines.[8]

Previously, communities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including areas formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), demanded that the government clear their villages. In April 2018, around 60,000 people joined a rally organized by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Peshawar, calling for the removal of mines from war-torn provinces along the border with Afghanistan.[9] This followed a march and a 10-day sit-in protest in front of the National Press Club of Islamabad, also organized by PTM, which demanded mine clearance and compensation for victims. The protest ended after the government agreed to both demands.^[10]

On 28 December 2021, the Sustainable Peace and Development Organization (SPADO)—ICBL’s partner in Pakistan—held an event in Islamabad to present the Monitor’s 2021 country profile on Pakistan.[11]

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, but has not submitted an annual Article 13 transparency report in either 2021 or 2022.

Use

The Monitor received no reports of the Pakistan Army emplacing landmines in 2020 or 2021. In November 2018, Pakistan reiterated that its use of landmines is exclusively by the military for defense purposes.[12]

However, 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 Gandaw, Dawra, and Landi Kallay in Sipah, and in Sheen Kamar near Mastak, all in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.[13] 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.[14]

Previously, after an increase in Pakistan Army operations along the border with Afghanistan in 2012, there were media reports 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 whether the mines had been laid recently or in the past.[15] Subsequently, no new reports occurred since 2013 that were attributable to use by Pakistani forces.

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 and booby traps laid by terrorists.”[16] Residents in some villages stated that if they complained about the presence of mines, they were at risk of being jailed.[17]

Pakistan previously reported that it had not laid mines since emplacing them on the border with India more than a decade ago.[18] 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.[19] 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.[20]

In November 2018, Pakistan stated that 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.”[21] In March 2020, Pakistan reported that 187 incidents of use of explosive devices, resulting in casualties, had occurred in locations throughout the country during 2019, attributing these incidents to “terrorists.”[22] It is unknown how many of these incidents were due to improvised landmines.

In its CCW Amended Protocol II report for 2019, Pakistan documented 349 instances of IED use during the calendar year.[23] The report further stated that roughly half of these instances had 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. Victim-activated IEDs used by militants in Pakistan 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. In 2016, Pakistan reported having recovered 194 tons of explosives and 2,500 antipersonnel and antivehicle mines from militants in recent years.[24]

Non-state armed groups (NSAGs) in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have previously used antipersonnel landmines.[25] In April and October 2020, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for mines laid in Kohlu district, Balochistan province, which killed one soldier and left another injured near a Pakistan Army outpost in the Kalgari mountains in Kohistan Marri. 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.[26] There is some evidence that the BLA has imported factory-made antipersonnel landmines.[27] In April and November 2021, Pakistani forces displayed antipersonnel landmines seized from the BLA.[28] In January 2020, an unknown group laid at least 26 improvised antipersonnel mines on the grounds of a rural college in Khar Tehsil, Bajaur district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan.[29] In early 2021, there were reports of casualties due to explosive devices placed within toys or other household type items, which exploded upon being handled.[30]

In June 2021, the office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Islamabad expressed its concern over landmines laid in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after an antipersonnel landmine killed three children and left another two injured. This use was not attributed, but UNICEF called on the authorities to remove landmines.[31]

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. Media monitoring by SPADO in 2021–2022 found that 13% of explosive incidents were attributed to antipersonnel landmines, down from 20% in 2020–2021.[32] The precise date of use in relation to reported incidents could often not be ascertained. NSAGs have also used antivehicle landmines in Pakistan. Civilian and military casualties resulting from the use of IEDs and landmines by NSAGs continued to be documented into 2021.[33]

Production, transfer, and stockpiling

Pakistan is one of a small number of countries still producing antipersonnel mines.[34] Since 1997, Pakistan Ordnance Factories has produced detectable versions of hand-emplaced blast mines in order to be compliant with CCW Amended Protocol II.[35] 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.[36] 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.[37] 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.[38]

Pakistan’s Statutory Regulatory Order No. 123 (1), of 25 February 1999, makes the export of antipersonnel landmines illegal.[39] 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 states that it has not exported mines “since early 1992.”[40]

In December 2017, Pakistan stated that the private sector is not allowed to manufacture or trade in landmines.[41] 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.”[42] Previous CCW Article 13 reports submitted by Pakistan state simply that “no manufacturing or trade of landmines is allowed in the Private sectors.”[43] 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. In the past, the Monitor has estimated that Pakistan stockpiles at least six million antipersonnel mines—the fifth-largest stockpile in the world.[44] Pakistan has neither confirmed nor denied this estimate.

In previous years, seizures of landmines from NSAGs in Pakistan have been regularly reported.[45] In May 2021, authorities seized an unknown number of landmines, among other weapons, in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan province.[46] In July 2020, the Frontier Corps seized an unknown number of improvised landmines in the Kech district of Balochistan.[47]

Stockpile destruction

Pakistan has not provided updated information on stockpile destruction for 2020 or 2021. During 2019, Pakistan reported destroying 15,925 unserviceable antipersonnel landmines, all of Pakistani manufacture.[48] 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.[49]

Antipersonnel landmines destroyed by Pakistan[50]

Note : N/R=not reported.