A Pakistani anti-terror court conducting the trial of seven suspects, including Lashkkar-e-Tayiba commander Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, for alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks adjourned the matter for a week on Saturday, even as defence lawyers boycotted the proceedings.
The advance on Mehsud tribal positions began on Saturday morning after a go-ahead was given by the government for starting an offensive on Taliban stronghold at a meeting attended by the top political and military leadership.
The Pakistani military had roped in several top militant leaders, including one currently in jail, to negotiate with terrorists who had held dozens of hostages after an attack on the army headquarters last week, a media report said on Friday.The leaders of banned militant groups were flown to the garrison city of Rawalpindi on special flights from Lahore, Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan,shortly after the terrorists took over the building.
The Islamabad police on Friday claimed to have foiled a possible terrorist attack by arresting two men with suicide jackets, grenades and pistols. The two suspected terrorists were arrested on the outskirts of Islamabad at 9.15 pm on Thursday night while they were trying to sneak into the city on motorcycles to hit their targets, police said.Another terrorist managed to escape with explosives. A contingent of police and paramilitary troops cordoned off the area.
As his militants triggered a series of attacks and suicide blasts across Pakistan on Thursday, Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud threatened to dispatch terrorists to fight India, once an Islamic state had been created in Pakistan. "We want an Islamic state. If we get that, then we will go to the borders and help fight the Indians," Hakimullah said. "We are fighting the (Pakistan) military, police and militia because they are following American orders," he added.
Terrorists struck in a big way on Thursday, storming Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore and attacking three police facilities in synchronised attacks that killed at least 23 people. A suicide bomber also rammed in an explosive-laden vehicle in northwest Pakistan's Kohat town, killing 10 people.
At least 28 people were killed and over 40 injured on Monday in a suicide attack in a market in northwest Pakistan's restive Malakand area, the latest in a series of terror strikes that have rocked the country.
Terrorists from the Taliban and other banned groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad carried out the assault on the Pakistan army headquarters with the intention of taking hostages who could be swapped for over 100 arrested militants, a military spokesman said on Monday.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is set to embark on his second visit to the US in less than a week to convey Pakistan's concerns on conditions linked to US $ 7.5 billion in aid to be provided to it over under the aegis of the Kerry-Lugar Bill a period of five years under a bill passed by American Congress.
Pakistani authorities have arrested 20 people for their alleged links with the mastermind of the terror attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi and formed a high-level police team to probe the audacious strike.
A Pakistani anti-terror court has formally indicted Lashkar-e-Tayiba's operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects arrested in connection with the Mumbai attacks and adjourned the case for a week.
In a dramatic rescue mission, Pakistani commandos on Sunday stormed a building near the army headquarters in Rawalpindi to end a 20-hour siege freeing 42 hostages held by the Taliban terrorists, who staged a brazen assault on the top military facility, and killed 4 militants.
Hours after a suspected Taliban suicide bomber detonated his vehicle in Peshawar killing 49 people, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said the government had no option but to strike back on the militant stronghold of south Wazirstan."We have no other option but to carry out an operation in south Wazirstan," the interior minister told a private television channel after the attack.
A day after its powerful army expressed "serious concern" over some of the provisions in the US economic aid bill, the Pakistan government said on Thursday that the legislation is "not an ideal document" and that it is not binding on it to accept clauses laid in it.
Pushed on the back foot by the powerful military's criticism of some of the provisions in the US economic aid bill, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday that the clauses of the Kerry-Lugar legislation are not binding on Pakistan.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq warned of "harsh response" to any military attack on its main stronghold of South Waziristan, as Pakistani fighter jets pounded their hideouts in the area where reports said an all out offensive was imminent.
The United Nations on Monday closed all its offices across Pakistan after a suicide attack on a World Food Programme office in the heart of the federal capital killed four persons, including an Iraqi national. UN spokesperson Ishrat Rizvi had told reporters that all UN offices in Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi had been closed. Rizvi said the UN will attempt to continue its operations, including humanitarian relief programmes.
New Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced on Monday and vowed to strike United States and Pakistani interests -- to avenge the killing of his slain leader Baitullah Mehsud and American drone attacks on the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His appearance in front of a select group of reporters in the South Waziristan tribal area ended speculation over his reported death in a contest for leadership of the Pakistan Taliban, sparked by Baitullah's killing.
At least four people, including an Iraqi national and two women, were killed and six injured on Monday when a suicide bomber disguised as a security officer struck at the UN food agency's office here, amid Taliban's warning of launching fresh strikes in Pakistan to avenge US drone attacks against them.
British Defence and Home Ministers will arrive in Islamabad on Monday for meetings with the top Pakistani leadership to take stock of the regional security situation and the war against terror.
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