Home Minister Amit Shah said the decision to impose the anti-terror law was taken after one of the accused, Zabir Bin Yamiun Behra, confessed in the court that the conspiracy was hatched three-four days before the carnage.
Despite dependence on the ISI for years of sustenance, Taliban leaders may harbour resentment over the ISI's excessive control, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
Irrespective of their voting preferences, most voters would find this comparison with ISIS revolting. More specifically, would it persuade anybody who voted for Narendra Modi to change her or his mind? asks Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan on Tuesday said it had freed 26 Afghan Taliban prisoners, including former ministers Mullah Nooruddin Turabi and Maulvi Allah Dad, since last month as part of its efforts to give impetus to the reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
A top Taliban commander was among the five people killed on Friday in a powerful blast in a market in Pakistan's restive South Waziristan tribal region.
India is worried about Pakistan getting the Taliban to ignite trouble in Kashmir, observes Ramesh Menon.
Slamming Congress president Sonia Gandhi's meeting with Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid to prevent split in secular votes, Shiv Sena on Thursday said it was akin to "fox and wolf" discussing non-violence and vegetarianism.
The Pakistani Taliban have introduced "moral policing" in parts of northeastern Afghanistan in a bid to enforce their puritanical version of Islam, Afghan police officials have said.
There have been a number of players who have shown solidarity, but the big guns have been silent, with the stellar exception of former India captain Anil Kumble, notes Suhit K Sen.
A cleric in Pakistan's Punjab province has warned that a jihad would be launched against polio vaccination teams at a time when the World Health Organisation has expressed concern at the emergence of new cases of the disease across the country.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has welcomed the Pakistan government's offer for peace talks with all insurgent groups. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had said recently that his administration was ready to hold negotiations with all militant groups, including the Haqqani network.
The Pakistan Supreme Court has told the government that President Asif Ali Zardari cannot avoid proceedings in the memogate case by presuming that he enjoys immunity under the Constitution.
At least 15 militants, including two Taliban commanders, were killed when US drones struck twice in the restive South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on Tuesday.
A rebel commander who was recently removed from the post of deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban has said that the Pakistan government suspended negotiations with local militants because of pressure from the United States.
A Pakistani court has admitted a petition seeking to block any attempt by the government to sack army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and Inter Services Intelligence chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha over the memo scandal. The petition filed by lawyer Maulvi Iqbal Haider was accepted by the Islamabad high court on Wednesday. Haider asked the court to restrain the president and prime minister from taking any action against the army and ISI chiefs.
In a major setback to Pakistan's embattled government, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered a time-bound probe into the memo scandal, a decision that could add more pressure on President Asif Ali Zardari and Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani.
'It did not start as a Hindutva slogan.' 'It started to tease the TMC and slowly it got internalised and the BJP started countering with Jai Shri Ram slogans because Mamata was getting provoked.'
Pakistani Taliban's fugitive leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad has said that he is holding peace talks with the government and a deal could be signed by the two sides "very soon", a claim rejected by local authorities and another militant commander.
Moderate Hurriyat leaders Abdul Gani Bhat and Lone brothers -- Sajjad and Bilal, who have been critical of terrorists recently, stayed away from Pakistan National Day celebrations where People's Democratic Party leader Maulvi Ifthikhar Hussain Ansari was a surprise guest. Both moderate and hard-line factions of the Hurriyat Conference were represented by their chairmen Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively at the Pakistan Day celebrations.
A top Taliban militant leader has been sacked as the deputy commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, amid speculation of a deepening rift in the terror group over the peace talks with the government.
Nearly 7,000 paramilitary forces have been deployed in the affected areas of the northeast district since Monday.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has said it will continue carrying out suicide attacks and targetting Pakistani security forces despite joining other militant groups in a pledge not to kill innocent people or to resort to kidnappings for ransom.
A top leader of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has said that his group will seek mediation by countries like Saudi Arabia if the government offers to hold peace talks.
Jamat ud Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed on Monday made a rare public appearance to lead the funeral prayers for Kashmiri leader Maulvi Showkat Ahmed Shah, killed in Srinagar last week, and used the occasion to rubbish the India-Pakistan cricket diplomacy while vowing for a "jihad" in Jammu and Kashmir.
The entire base must be spic and span with flags fluttering along the roads. Everything that moves will be washed and bedecked with the best while everything that is static will be painted afresh, observes Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
Afghan-Taliban commanders Aminullah and Maulvi Bismillah represented supreme militant commander Mullah Omer in three round of talks with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who "partially participated" in the parleys, sources familiar with the process told PTI on Wednesday.
Sixty-three people, including the main accused Maulvi Hussain Umarji, acquitted in the 2002 Godhra train burning case, on Wednesday reached their hometown in Gujarat after spending almost eight years in prison.
The MNS chief demanded that videos of such people being thrashed be made viral on social media, to instill sense of "trust" among people.
Pakistani Parliamentarians were left stunned when a lawmaker led a prayer for slain al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the National Assembly despite being told by Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi not to do so.
The film release in India and Pakistan on July 18.
Justice U C Banerjee, who had described the Godhra train carnage as "accidental", said he will stand by his inquiry commission report "200 per cent."
Maulvi Hussain Umarji's son was jubilant over his father being acquitted in the Godhra case. "From the very beginning, due to faulty investigation of the agencies, my old father was confined to prison for eight long years. I think a big injustice was done to us," Saeed Umarji, son of Syed Hassan Umarji, said.
A special court in the Sabarmati jail in Ahmedabad on Tuesday convicted 31 accused in what is the first verdict in the Godhra train burning case.
The Special Investigation Team that investigated the Godhra train burning incident on Tuesday indicated that it may go in for an appeal against the acquittal of the main accused and 62 others in the case.
For many mullahs, religion and religious institutions are simply tools to feather their own nests and to whip up the support of the credulous by projecting themselves as pious defenders of the faith, says Yoginder Sikand
A division bench of the Sindh High Court here headed by Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Usmani issued the order against Musharraf for not appearing before it in connection with a petition filed by Maulvi Iqbal Haider of the Awami Himayat Tehreek seeking action against him for "disfiguring" the constitution and committing "high treason".
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has warned of intensifying attacks on security forces in Bajaur region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas if does not stop the offensive against extremists in the region.
At least 30 militants were killed and 15 others injured in the air strikes in Pandiali area of Mohmand Agency, sources close to the security forces said.
According to reports, the militant commanders, including Sim Khan, Mahmood Khan and Maulvi Umer, who were arrested during operation Rah-e-Rast, have confessed that they were provided financial aid, weapons and special training by secret agencies from India and Afghanistan to fight against the Pakistan Army.
The cleric is a key accused in the Godhra train burning case.
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