Pakistan is probably the most dangerous country for the world as it is ripe with the threats of terrorism, a failing economy and the fastest growing nuclear arsenal, a retired CIA official has said.
Pakistan has been scrambling in recent months to avoid being added to a list of countries deemed non-compliant with anti-money laundering and terrorist financing regulations.
'Washington appears to be playing the long game, and making the argument to India that over the longer term, Russia -- sanctioned, cash-strapped, isolated by the West -- will no longer be a viable defence partner for India'
'A six month extension, if not extended further, would make General Bajwa a lame duck chief, altering the balance of his equations with the senior peer group of lieutenant generals,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Fidayeen Islam, the suicide bomber squad of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, has claimed that more than 300 fidayeen (suicide bombers) have been sent to various parts of Pakistan to target the Shia and Bralvi religious centres.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday for meetings with Pakistan's top leadership, where the ongoing offensive against the Taliban and the regional security situation are expected to be the top agenda.
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Stepping up the campaign against terrorists, Pakistani security forces killed at least 67 militants in a countrywide swoop on Friday, taking the number of insurgents killed to 124 after the brutal Peshawar school massacre that left 148 people dead.
Teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, who is still critical after being shot in the head by the Taliban, was on Thursday airlifted to Pakistan's top army hospital in Rawalpindi for better post-surgery care.
'The decision has been taken in view of the regional security environment.'
The Kerry-Lugar bill, which triples United States' aid to Islamabad, seems to have ignored New Delhi's concern about use of Pakistani soil for terror attacks in India, even as it requires presidential certification that the Pakistan army is making "concerted efforts" against Taliban.
Officials were quoted by TV news channels as saying that the drone fired one missile at the militant training centre located near Makeen in South Waziristan Agency, a stronghold of the militant commander Mehsud.
Though the army has claimed it has secured several former militant strongholds in the restive Malakand division, including Mingora, Charbagh and Pir Baba, the Taliban continued to mount raids and attacks on positions held by security forces.
Warning that the situation in Pakistan is 'very serious', Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday said terrorism is spreading in that country and asserted that India is prepared to meet any challenge from Taliban militants. Asked if the Taliban's threat to carry out attacks on India was a cause of concern, Antony said, "We are always prepared to meet any challenge to our territorial integrity and national security from any quarter. Our security forces are vigilant."
India maintained thatthe well being and state of Jadhav's health is a "matter of great concern" to it.
Afridi had ran a fake vaccination drive in Abbottabad city to help CIA agents track the former Al Qaeda chief, who was later killed by US Navy Seals in a controversial raid on May 2, 2011.
A study has pointed out that the Al Qaeda seeks to employ white men with Western nationalities to successfully strike in the heart of the West. Amir Mir reports from Islamabad
"The FATF plenary decided continuation of Pakistan in 'Grey List' till its next meeting to be held in October," an official privy to the development told PTI.
The Pakistan army killed at least 120 suspected terrorists in the North Waziristan tribal region during the Zarb-e-Azb operation.
A federal minister in Pakistan on Saturday announced a bounty of $100,000 on the head of the maker of an anti-Islam film that has sparked violent protests, shocking many people with his announcement.
The declared agenda of the Difa-e-Pakistan Council is to oust the United States from the region, break Pak-US ties, back Taliban militants, force the government to revoke the Most Favoured Nation status being granted to India and stop the NATO supplies pass through Pakistan. But that's not going to benefit Pakistan, writes Amir Mir
The Pakistan army will deploy about 50,000 troops across the country to secure the general election process on May 11, which is facing a 'massive terrorist threat' from the Taliban and other terrorist groups.
Shamsi airfield, in the Baluchistan region in southern Pakistan, has become the new ground zero in the United States war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.The Times, London, reports that the Central Intelligence Agency is covertly using the Shamsi airfield, located just 30 miles from the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, to launch Predator strikes on Taliban and Al Qaeda bases on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan -- a fact repeatedly denied by US and Pak
The US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces are all set to roll out an "intensive 18-month" ground campaign in Afghanistan to stamp out Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, top US generals have said warning the insurgents that Marjah offensive was just the start.
India strongly condemned the 'barbaric' terror attack by the Taliban on a school in Pakistan that killed 141 people, mostly children, as United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council called for perpetrators of the blood-curdling attack to be brought to justice.
The Indo-Pak peace process and deteriorating Pak-Afghan ties following the resurgence of Taliban are expected to figure in the talks.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in the lawless North Waziristan Agency killing at least 15 militants, official sources on Thursday said, as peace talks with the Taliban remained in limbo.
A Pakistani court has issued a notice to the Jamat-ud-Dawah, led by the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, for running a Taliban-style parallel judicial system in Lahore.
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
Terrorist safe havens inside Pakistan, providing shelter to terrorist outfits like the Taliban and the Haqqani network, is a serious problem, a top US general nominated to be the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said.
"It is my hope that, coupled with international pressure, the language in H.R.1 will convince President Musharraf to take immediate action against the Taliban militants in his country," the senior lawmaker in the House of Representatives said.
Pakistan's former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday said he had spoken to his son Ali Haider for the first time since he was kidnapped by a Taliban group in 2013 and is now being held in Afghanistan.
Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif was on Wednesday formally elected Pakistan's prime minister by an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly, setting the stage for an unprecedented third term as premier.
Pakistani troops entered Kotkai, the hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud and his close aide Qari Hussain, also known as trainer of suicide bombers, late on Saturday night after subjecting the village to heavy bombing by fighters and attack helicopters. In the intense battle, 13 militants and two soldiers were killed.
Pakistan and Afghanistan on Friday began negotiations on a Strategic Partnership Agreement even as Kabul called on Islamabad to take more steps, including the release of Taliban detainees, to push forward the troubled peace process in the war-torn country.
Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday dashed off to Afghanistan to seek extradition of Taliban leader Mullah Fazlluah, whose group claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on an army school in Peshawar, which left 141 people, mostly children, dead.
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban, has been reunited with her friend who was injured in the same attack in Pakistan last year.
Taliban terrorists have on Saturday night held 10-15 hostages, including security personnel, hours after launching an audacious attack on Pakistan Army's headquarters in nearby Rawalpindi that sparked a fierce gun battle in which a Brigadier and five other armymen were killed.
Media reports said even though the Immigration and Customs Enforcement had confirmed that Bunairee was in the agency's custody, they were unwilling to give out further details owing privacy reasons.
Expressing concern over political instability and drug trafficking in Afghanistan, Russia and Pakistan today said the situation could deteriorate further post-2014 after International Security Assistant Forces are withdrawn from the country.
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday promised to "stand together" with Pakistan in the war against terrorism and nudged his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to help clinch a peace deal with Afghanistan before NATO's withdrawal from the war-torn nation next year.
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