Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, after the banned TTP called off its ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and vowed to target security forces, police, and law enforcement agencies.
A series of Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan's Barmal district of Paktika province has resulted in the death of 46 people, with six people left injured so far, with the majority of victims being women and children, as reported by Khaama Press, citing reports from Taliban authorities.
The Pakistani Taliban confirmed on Tuesday, that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud had died of injuries sustained in a US drone strike, ending weeks of speculation over his fate.Taliban sources based in the Aurakzai tribal region told TV news channels that 28-year-old Mehsud was severely injured in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of North Waziristan Agency on January 14.
The shocking footage of the shooting incident, which took place a few days back near the border of Orakzai tribal agency, was made available to a Pakistani media outlet on Friday.
Pakistan launched fresh air strikes targeting terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, killing several people, including three cricketers, casting a shadow over the expected talks in Doha amid a fragile ceasefire that had temporarily halted hostilities between the two sides.
Afghan Taliban forces fired on multiple Pakistani border posts in the Upper Kurram district, killing one Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldier and injuring 11 others. The incident came after Pakistan targeted terrorist positions in Afghanistan to punish the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) militants. Pakistani forces retaliated, inflicting heavy casualties on the Afghan side.
Pakistan responded to what it called 'unprovoked' attacks by Afghan forces in border areas, destroying several Afghan border posts, training camps, and terrorist hideouts, security sources said on Sunday.
The Pakistani Taliban have released a dramatic video of an attack by militants on a jail in the country's northwest that resulted in the escape of nearly 400 prisoners last month.
The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has defended its attacks on politicians, claiming its fighters were targeting liberal political parties for their secular ideology and support for military operations.
An American drone strike on Tuesday killed at least nine Pakistani Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province
Rejecting the news that its chief Hakimullah Mehsud died in Punjab en route to Karachi for treatment, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) says that Hakimullah never left the tribal belt either for shelter or for medication.
Militant commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad declared himself the head of the Pakistani Taliban, saying he was temporarily replacing Baitullah Mehsud, whom Washington and Islamabad have said was almost certainly killed in a drone attack.
Pakistani news website thenews.com.pk reported that a clash broke out between the groups led by Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman. The meeting was convened to appoint a sucessor to slain Taliban commander Beitullah Mehsud.
At least two policemen were killed and many others injured when Pakistani Taliban militants seized a counter-terrorism centre and took some people hostage in the Bannu district of Pakistan's troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The local administration denied the rumours about aerial strikes by the Pakistani fighter jets on the compound, saying the explosives used in bomb making exploded, causing the death of 24 people, including 14 militants.
Pakistan's security forces and its intelligence agency have facilitated the rise of the Taliban, with whom they have an "ambiguous" relationship, a former top American army official, now headed to become the country's representative to Afghanistan has said.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has decided that the outfit will now focus on jihad inside Afghanistan, reports Tahir Ali
Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and setting up of 'mechanisms' to ensure lasting peace after days of violent clashes along the border that left several soldiers, civilians, and terrorists dead on both sides, officials said on Sunday.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for a botched car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010, on Tuesday denied any role in the bombings at the Boston Marathon in the US that killed three people and injured over 140.
'We are too important to want to be paired with Pakistan but too intensely connected to it to successfully detach ourselves,' asserts Aakar Patel.
The Pakistani Taliban have warned the government of a severe backlash if it continues making claims of having broken the back of the militants in operations in different parts of the country's northwest.
'The United States loves working with dictators' 'Because then you don't have to worry about public opinion and you don't have to worry about the media anymore'
The botched car bomb incident at Times Square in New York City indicates the Pakistan Taliban's ambitions are far expanding, says General David H Petraeus, head of United States Central Command, who recently toured Pakistan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is a terrorist organisation, even if it has not been officially designated yet, a top United States official has told his lawmakers. The US now says that the Pakistani Taliban was responsible for the failed Times Square bomb attempt on May 1, in which a Pakistani-American, Faisal Shahzad, 30, has been arrested by federal authorities.
"We've now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack," US Attorney General Eric Holder told ABC television's Sunday current affairs talkshow This Week.
The dreaded Al-Qaeda is trying to install one of its commanders as the new "chief" of Pakistani Taliban, which it fears is in disarray, following the reported slaying of group's leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US missile strike.
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 Pakistani Taliban have mastered the science of manufacturing explosive devices using more toxic chemicals to inflict lethal injuries on their victims, according to a media report.
Intercepts of militant communications have indicated that 28-year-old Mehsud had died after being wounded in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of Waziristan tribal region, Malik told the media after appearing in a court in Peshawar.
Pakistan Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud, the alleged mastermind in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto died on Tuesday after protracted illness, a media report has said.
Pakistani Taliban has warned that the next few days and weeks would be "disastrous" for the country as the banned outfit vowed to "teach" the government and its security agencies a lesson over the killing of its leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike.
No one claimed responsibility for the killing of Zainuddin, who had expressed his opposition to Baitullah Mehsud in recent media interviews. Zainuddin had also declared war against the Pakistani Taliban chief and his followers.
A Taliban commander in Pakistan's volatile tribal belt has broken away from the militant outfit to form his own group, as he is opposed to suicide attacks on mosques and civilians.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings targeting Shia processions in Karachi and Lahore that claimed 16 lives on Tuesday.Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told reporters in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday that the two attacks on Tuesday were aimed against security personnel because "they serve the United States's interests".
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has condemned the release of Central Intelligence Agency contractor Raymond Davis under a "blood money" deal with relatives of two men he killed and threatened to target all those who aided the US in securing his acquittal in court.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on a provincial cabinet minister on Monday. Seven people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up near Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain's residence in northwest Pakistan.Hussain, a vocal critic of the Pakistani Taliban, escaped unhurt in the attack. The bomber, a youth clad in black, detonated his explosive vest when he was stopped by the police.
"He (Shahzad) visited Pakistan seven times in the last few years and he met Hakimullah Mehsud and also met other people, (including) leaders of the Taliban," Rahman Malik told media persons in Pabbi town in the country's northwest.
The United States has reacted cautiously to a deal between Pakistan and Taliban in the restive Swat valley saying while there is a track record of such agreements not working, it will be supportive if it meets the benchmark of ending domestic and international terrorism. Washington is willing to see what results the deal bring in and would be supportive if it leads to end terrorist violence, brings in individuals outside the political process into political process.
"We are still in a state of shock at the martyrdom of our deputy chief and there is no change in our decision of not talking to the government," Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said.
The Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for a series of suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the bombing of Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar. "We claimed responsibility for these attacks," said a telephone caller who introduced himself as Saeed Hafiz, a deputy of Hakeemullah Mehsud based in Orakzai tribal region.
