Describing the Pakistani Army's offensive against the Taliban and other extremist groups as "terrific", US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has assured Islamabad that Washington would keep supporting the troubled nation in future also.
India has much paranoia in India about a new 'Terroristan' coming up between Pakistan and a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Pakistan has zero ability economically, diplomatically, geostrategically or militarily to create one. If they try, it will be great for India as they will destroy themselves yet again, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Blaming the American private military company Blackwater and Pakistani secret agencies for the suicide attacks in International Islamic University in Islamabad and the deadliest attack in Khyber bazaar in Peshawar that claimed a number innocent of lives, Qari Hussain, commander of Tehrik Taliban Pakistan said that it is an attempt to malign the Taliban and warned that militants would avenge 'the killing of innocent people within few days.'
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said India considers Taliban as a dreaded terror outfit, and wants Pakistan to take action against it along with other groups like Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).
America's Central Intelligence Agency has taken its war against Taliban and the Al Qaeda from the mountainous Af-Pak border region to the bases in Pakistan's Peshawar and Quetta cities, a media report said on Thursday. The report by the New York Times said that the agencies that have previously shared a 'tormented relationship', are now working on the several reconnaissance missions together.
Pakistan has released 14 Afghan Taliban cadres, including 'commander' Anwar Haq Mujahid, and may consider a request by Afghan peace negotiators to free Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to kick-start the Afghan reconciliation process. The 14 Afghan Taliban cadres were freed in two phases.
Dreaded Islamic State militant group has appointed a breakaway Taliban commander as its chief in Khurasan, a historic name used by militants for an area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.
Three people were killed and seven others injured.
Moving from street to street, Pakistani troops on Sunday captured several key areas in Swat valley's main town Mingora from Taliban as their offensive to regain the control of the restive tribal region entered the decisive phase.
Pakistani authorities have released 12 Taliban prisoners in the restive Swat valley as a goodwill gesture in the wake of a peace deal signed by the North West Frontier Province government and religious hardliners.
Seven militants were killed and two others injured when Pakistani security forces used gunship helicopters and artillery to target Taliban positions near Kohat town in the troubled North West Frontier Province today.
General Sharif will meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other civil as well as military leaders during the day-long trip.
Eight soldiers and 15 militants were killed in fierce clashes that erupted after over 100 Taliban fighters sneaked in from Afghanistan and attacked military posts in northwest Pakistan.The Taliban launched the attack late on Sunday night and killed at least eight soldiers.
The Pakistani Taliban has reportedly issued a challenge to the country's media to stop the praise of retired Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and instead get behind Pakistani captain Misbah-ul Haq, whom they branded as ''sub-standard'' and a ''low-level player''.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban strongholds in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Friday as the death toll from the series of US drone attacks in the region rose to 13. The warplanes hit targets in preparation for a full scale military operation which Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said would take off as soon as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud was spotted.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quershi has asked the US to help Islamabad fight the Taliban, saying his government is "very determined to eliminate sanctuaries of the extremists on its soil".
Two policemen were killed and seven other security personnel, including two officials of an intelligence agency, were injured in a crackdown on Taliban militants in Karachi that resulted in the arrest of over 79 suspects. The crackdown followed media reports over the past few months about the steady inroads made into Karachi by the Taliban. The militants had recently warned transporters in the city not to ferry supplies for troops from United States and NATO.
Pakistani Taliban commanders have contacted cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan to broker peace talks with the Pakistani government, but he said he would act as a mediator only if authorities give their consent.
A report based on the assessment of the US led 'war on terror' by General Stanley McChrystal, the top military commander in Afghanistan, also highlights the increasing clout of the Taliban even after eight years of continuous struggle.
TTP released a video of its militants holding a Shoulder Launch Missile, which the militant group claimed to have used in downing a Pakistan military helicopter.
Talking to media persons in Islamabad, Malik claimed that the military offensive being carried out in the North West Frontier Province's Swat and Malakand Divisions have been successful with the killing of top Taliban commanders.
Police in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Monday that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group Islamic State is behind the suicide attack on a political convention of a hardline Islamist party that killed at least 46 people and injured over 100.
The release of Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan was part of a deal between the government and the local Taliban, under which they will swap about 330 prisoners after signing a formal peace agreement in the restive northwest tribal areas. The Taliban wanted 250 militants, currently in the government's custody, to be swapped with 80 soldiers and government officials, who had been taken hostage by the rebels. Azizuddin was handed over by militants to authorities at Razmak.
The Pakistan government and Taliban militants in the restive South Waziristan tribal region are expected to swap prisoners as part of efforts for a formal peace agreement. A formal agreement could be reached in three to four days. The swapping of prisoners is expected to take place at Tiarza in South Waziristan, sources said. An official said all of them were members of the Mehsud tribe.
Pakistan's former interior minister Major General Naseerullah Babar denies a rediff.com column.
More than 35 Pakistani soldiers went missing on Thursday after a fierce attack by the Afghan Taliban on a border check-post in the country's restive tribal belt. The militants have claimed that they are holding ten Pakistani soldiers hostage.
The current Indo-Pak crisis over Kashmir is a godsend for the US. With tensions running high, Pakistan is in no position to militarily help the Taliban. Once this realisation dawns on the Taliban, they are likely to be more amenable to a compromise on American terms, says Colonel Anil Athale (retired).
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.
At least 45 Taliban fighters and four security personnel were killed when Pakistani troops repelled an overnight attack by militants on a paramilitary camp in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, officials said on Sunday.
The Taliban on Wednesday abducted and released 30 Pakistani security personnel in Swat Valley after the hostages promised to quit their jobs in exchange for freedom.
Tharoor's social media post condoling Musharraf's demise evoked a sharp response from the Bharatiya Janata Party which accused the Congress of "Pakistan parasti (worshipping)".
Over 90 militants were killed in raging battles in Pakistan's lawless northwest, as security forces on Wednesday pounded Taliban positions, to provide crucial back-up to a tribal militia taking on the insurgents. The military said troops had engaged militant positions at Janikhel in Bannu district with heavy fire and a 'clearance operation' was underway in Zaidi Akbar Khan area. There was no official word on the exact number of casualties in fighting in this region.
An anti-terrorism court on Friday handed down '23 times' death sentence to three militants of outlawed Pakistani Taliban for the 2009 attack on the country's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence's headquarters here that killed 35 people.
Pakistani officials have revealed that they had captured Taliban's operational commander Abdul Ghani Baradar in February to shut down his secret peace talks with the Afghanistan government.Baradar was captured in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces in Karachi."We picked up Baradar and the others because they were trying to make a deal without us," The New York Times quoted a Pakistani security official as saying.
The Indian American Intellectuals Forum and Nambdhari Sikh Foundation of New York have sharply criticised the Pakistan government for not taking action against Taliban who demanded US $ 50 million from Sikhs in border areas of the country as Jazia (religious tax) and ransacked, looted and blew up their houses when they refused to pay.
Six policemen, including a senior officer, were killed and nearly a dozen others injured when a large group of Taliban militants stormed a police check-post on the outskirts of Peshawar city in northwest Pakistan, officials said on Monday. Superintendent of Police Khurshid Khan was among the policemen killed when militants targeted the check post at Mattani, a suburb of Peshawar, at about 10 pm on Sunday.
The Taliban on Monday warned the Pakistan government not to release American national Raymond Davis, who allegedly shot dead two men in Lahore in January, saying any official involved in a move to free him would be killed by militants. "Any Pakistani government official playing any role in Davis' release will be killed by the Taliban," said Azam Tariq, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The Taliban have also demanded that Davis should be executed by the authorities.
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.
The official in question has not served in India before.
Pakistan has granted some concessions to key Afghan Taliban leaders in its custody, including Mullah Omar's deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, shifting them to "roomier facilities" and allowing them to make telephonic contact with their families.
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