The relentless US drone attacks and the Pakistan ASrmy operations in the tribal areas has affected the Taliban's to carry out spectacular terrorist strikes in the non-tribal areas. They seem to be a weakened, but not a defeated force, writes security expert B Raman.
The move came hours after four security personnel were injured in a bomb attack on a military caravan in the Malakand area late on Tuesday. Seven persons were arrested in connection with the attack.
A bomb blast on Wednesday injured a provincial legislator and two others in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, which has witnessed a series of terror attacks in recent weeks.
The militant apparently blew himself up when police tried to intercept him in Bannu, reports said.
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the press club in Peshawar on Tuesday, killing at least three persons and injuring several others, including journalists, in the latest in a wave of terror attacks that have rocked Pakistan. The bomber detonated his explosives when a policeman deployed at the gate of the press club tried to prevent him from entering the premises. The policeman was among the three persons who died in the blast, local media reported.
The chopper crashed in Karak town in North Waziristan.
At least ten people were killed and nearly 50 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a crowded court complex in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Monday, the latest in a wave of deadly terrorist attacks across the country.
A Pakistani legislator was killed in a suicide attack in the northwestern Swat valley on Tuesday. Details awaited.
The taxi which was hit by the suicide bomber was parked in a parking area of Eidgah market. Five shops and several vehicles were also destroyed in the incident.
The militants have also decided to establish a seminary similar to Jamia Hafsa, the girls madrassa attached to Lal Masjid which was razed to the ground by the government after its capture early this month.
Security at sensitive installations, including places of worship, airports, government offices and international missions, has been beefed up.
The country's volatile tribal areas were turned into virtual killing fields in three different suicide attacks.
Former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan and former chief secretary of the North West Frontier Province, Rustam Shah Mohmand, tells Aditi Phadnis that the United States is part of the problem in Afghanistan.
'The Taliban are their own worst enemy. They are a public relations disaster,' says Nicholas Schmidle, who spent two years reporting from Pakistan.
For the last 30 years, Afghanistan has been beset by a cruel and callous war, the likes of which the modern age has not seen. Afghans are now seeking to determine their own future. But the Pashtuns still remain a divided people by an arbitrary Line of Control scratched across the heart of their nation.
It is raising 'special militant groups' drawn from Lashkar-e-Tayiba, Harkat-ul-Jehadi-Islami, al-Badr and tribals of North West Frontier Province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Taliban's move came as Pakistani forces stepped up their campaign to retake territory in the districts of Buner, Dir and Swat. The military said they had killed more than 100 militants and lost several soldiers since fighting began on Tuesday.
The New York Times reported that Pakistan was moving 6,000 troops (more than a brigade) to fight militants on its western border with Afghanistan, quoting a Pakistani official who did not want to be identified. The Pakistan military, advancing on three fronts backed by fighter aircraft and attack helicopters in Buner, snatched the vital 8-km-long Ambela heights which overlook most of Buner.
Islamists controlling the conservative NWFP last week passed a bill to enforce sharia or Islamic law that critics say is reminiscent of neighbouring Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime.
Major Adil Qudoos is believed to be the uncle of Ahmed Qudoos, who was arrested along with Sheikh Mohammed, a top Al Qaeda operative.
The Pakistan government on Monday agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province, including the Swat valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, which has been the scene of a raging Taliban insurgency.
The blast occurred near an Imambargah in the congested Kucha Risaldar area of the walled part of Peshawar.
Initial reports said the blast occurred within the barracks of the Anti-Terrorism Squad at the Police Lines. Witnesses said several injured persons were rushed to nearby hospitals by ambulances.
Nine persons were killed and several others injured when a police van transporting prisoners was targeted in a roadside bomb attack in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province on Thursday.The van, which was taking prisoners from a jail to court, was attacked near a bridge in the Bannu area of NWFP, police officials told TV channels. Most of the dead were believed to be policemen who were escorting the prisoners.
According to agencies, supporters of a Shi'ite leader, who was shot earlier in the day, were protesting outside a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan town when the blast went off.
The Pakistan batsman, who was bought by Jaipur for USD 225,000, said he is surprised at the low price tag he attracted in the IPL players' auction.
The pro-Taliban militants warned the authorities that they would not allow the conduct of elections in the restive Swat district, sources were quoted on Wednesday by The News daily as saying on condition of anonymity.
The suicide bomber got close to the personnel and detonated his explosives on a road that is also used by the local population, military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said.
The blast occurred as the recruits were returning to the cantonment after participating in a sports event. The suicide bomber got close to the personnel and detonated his explosives on a road that is also used by the local people.
A large number of militants led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah have fled the Swat valley and adjoining Shangla district in the North West Frontier Province. After more than two weeks of fierce clashes with the security forces, key militant leaders had also gone into hiding, the army said.
The tribals, many of whose children, particularly girls, were killed during the raid, have hit back with ferocious vengeance at the Pakistan Army, paramilitary forces and the police deployed in the Pashtun belt as well as outside.
Rescuers scrambled to remove the rubble of over 20 houses that collapsed due to the impact of the suicide car bombing at a playground in northwest Pakistan as the toll in the devastating attack rose to 95 on Saturday.
At least three people were killed and five others injured on Monday when a suicide bomber in an auto-rickshaw blew himself up near a group of policemen in Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, a day after 14 people died in a similar attack in the city.The bomber, who was in his early 20s, detonated his explosives when the auto-rickshaw was stopped by policemen at the check post on the ring road at 10 am.
A child was killed and nine persons injured on Thursday in a bomb blast on a residential area in northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, hours after terrorists struck in Lahore and Kohat leaving 41 people dead.
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