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.
Teenage Pakistani female education rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination bid in 2012 and became the youngest recipient of a Nobel peace prize, has secured high marks in UK's national school exams.
The militant apparently blew himself up when police tried to intercept him in Bannu, reports said.
Islamic courts have started functioning in the Taliban stronghold of Swat in north-western Pakistan as per a peace deal signed by the government with militants in the restive region a month ago.
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.
The country's volatile tribal areas were turned into virtual killing fields in three different suicide attacks.
Twenty-eight people, including a leader of the ruling PPP, a woman councillor and 25 militants, were killed in separate incidents of violence in Pakistan's troubled North West Frontier Province and nearby tribal belt.
Security expert B Raman writes on the alarming rise of Taliban in Pakistan.
The death toll in two suicide car bombings in northwest Pakistan today rose to 25 with the recovery of five more bodies from the debris of a police station that was destroyed in one of the attacks.
About 300 students held hostage by three would-be suicide bombers at a school in north-western Pakistan on Thursday were freed by armed local residents who stormed the building killing two of the militants in a gunbattle. The militants took control of the government-run primary school in Dir district of the North West Frontier Province and held the children hostage for several hours.
The restaurant was located at the crowded Naz Cinema Road close to the centuries-old Mahabat Mosque in Peshawar, the capital of NWFP.
At least six people were killed and over 20 others injured in a car bomb attack in a busy commercial area in the provincial capital of Peshawar in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province on Saturday. A car laden with explosives blew up outside a seven-storey building housing the offices of several banks. The intensity of the blast was so severe that it also damaged other buildings in the area and destroyed nearly a dozen cars.
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.
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.
There has been an increase in violence in Bannu and other cities in the northwest ever since the Pakistan government stormed a radical pro-Taliban mosque in Islamabad recently.
As Sachin turns 50, Rediff brings you 50 fascinating facts about the God of Cricket.
Pakistan's holy trinity -- its government, military establishment and the ISI -- differ on Pakistan's domestic and foreign policy issues. So when India talks to Pakistan's political leadership it can't be sure that the promises can be delivered, says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
The Coast Guard has increased surveillance along the Gujarat coast, after a Pakistani boat blew itself off Porbandar on New Year's Eve.
'Once accession to Pakistan appeared unlikely, the British instituted Operations Gulmarg and Datta Khel respectively to foil possible accession to India.'
A suicide bomber on Tuesday blew himself up in a north-west Pakistani town bordering the restive tribal area, killing at least 10 people and injuring several others.
If General Asim Munir, Pakistan's new army chief, wants to help defuse the current polarised atmosphere and shepherd civilian politicians towards negotiations on an acceptable date for elections, he may need to distance himself from any perception of needless hostility to Imran Khan, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
Sanjeev Nayyar suggests 16 measures by which we can tackle our unrelenting and untrustworthy neighbour.
World over, pluralism is in retreat. Luckily for us, Indian pluralism and its consequent tolerance of diversity is rooted in our basic values. As long as we remain faithful to these values and keep our institutions in good health, the Indian miracle of last 75 years is likely to last centuries, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The creation of Pakistan was integral to Britain's grand strategy.' 'If they were to ever leave India, Britain's military planners had made it clear that they needed to retain a foothold in the NWFP and Baluchistan because that would provide the means to retain control of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.'
'India is now surrounded on its north, west and east by unfriendly neighbours -- Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh -- some of whom are openly inimical,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
Those covered under the raids also included gangsters involved in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala.
Seven Pakistani security personnel were on Monday killed when Taliban militants ambushed their vehicle near a strategic tunnel in the troubled North West Frontier Province.
Contradicting statements have been made about who really blew up the Pakistan terror boat
WWhat Pakistan faces in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is virulent insurgency and terrorism, fuelled by its association with Al Qaeda
'We are losing the battle of secularism, but we have not lost.'
'Our policy seems to be to give away part of J&K, even though we are entitled to the entire state.' 'The Congress has done so, and the BJP is following the same policy.' 'No one is applying their mind to the legal position.' 'Kashmir is not a part of Pakistan under its own constitution.'
The decision to renovate the memorial was taken by Rajnath Singh when he visited Leh in June 2021. Renovation commenced in mid-July and the complex was ready within three months for inauguration on the 59th anniversary of the battle.
Altaf Hussain, Pakistan's powerful Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader, was arrested on Tuesday in London on charges of money laundering.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday visited the National Martyr's memorial at Savar in Dhaka and paid homage to those who sacrificed their lives in the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence against Pakistan.
Naga splinter groups impatient with stalled talks as well as rebel Manipuri groups who have a stake in disrupting upcoming elections to the state assembly, are believed to be regrouping in the borderlands of China's Yunnan province and Myanmar, taking advantage of the turmoil in the latter by using it as a transit corridor.
Altaf Hussain has been arrested in relation to the hate speech of 2016 in which he had urged his followers to take the law into their own hands, it said.
For all those auto enthusiasts who thought Mahindra have only been manufacturing Jeeps and trucks in the '90s, Timeless Mahindra offers plenty of interesting surprises, discovers Rajesh Kareka/Rediff.com.
Lancashire County Cricket Club are aiming to win the hearts of Indian fans as they look to build on a record-breaking financial year despite the impending impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Signing Indian players would be an obvious route to popularity and although the IPL Twenty20 league has restricted Indian players from playing in T20 competitions abroad, players can still play in first-class cricket in England.
By maintaining that all Indians are tolerant, the Pew centre appears to have skimmed over the surface of its subject matter without delving deep, asserts Amulya Ganguli.
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