A Pakistani marine commando posted at the PNS Mehran naval airbase, which was attacked by terrorists on Sunday, was arrested in January for his links with militants. The marine commando had warned about an impending attack.
'I think the most important force in Pakistan is the army. We would like democracy to succeed and flourish in Pakistan. But we have to recognise that the power today rests virtually with the army,' PM Dr Singh says in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria
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.
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Pakistan today said the situation could deteriorate further post-2014 after International Security Assistant Forces are withdrawn from the country.
Ilyas Kashmiri, considered one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was behind the assassination of Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti earlier this year, according to a media report on Tuesday.
'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.
The United States Senate has approved the Department of Defence Authorization bill according to which the US military assistance to Pakistan can be used only for its fight against the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
At least eight persons, including three Haqqani network commanders, were killed on Thursday in a rare United States drone strike outside Pakistan's tribal belt, just a day after a top official said the US had agreed to halt such attacks during negotiations with militants.
'The decision has been taken in view of the regional security environment.'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Wednesday expressed concern over reported imposition of 'Jaziya' tax by the Taliban on Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan and demanded that the Indian government take all necessary steps to prevent "persecution" of the two communities living there.
The Taliban against whom US-led forces are fighting in Afghanistan grew "more effective" in the last three years because they had "safe haven" in the tribal areas of Pakistan to "rest" and "train" before returning to fight, US' top military commander has said.
Pakistani Hindu and Sikh families, who have been targetted by Taliban for failing to pay 'religious' tax, left their homes and moved to Punjab province to take shelter as the government in Islamabad on Saturday dismissed India's "verbal demarche" on the issue.
Fearing at the possibility of attacks against the US emanating from Pakistan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her second visit to the country has called on Islamabad to take further and specific actions against militant networks, British Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Pakistani security forces today announced a four-day ceasefire in the restive Bajaur tribal region in response to a truce called by the Taliban after signing a secret peace accord with the government.
The US defence secretary's visit comes ahead of the visit by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
The drone fired two missiles at Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's base at Khadezai village in a remote mountainous area of Aurakzai tribal agency, witnesses said. Local residents and witnesses told TV channels that at least 12 militants were killed and more than 15 others injured in the strike.
The United States would begin a "responsible, conditions-based" withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in July 2011, President Barack Obama's Af-Pak review said on Thurday, while acknowledging that the gains achieved in the war-torn country remained "fragile" and "reversible".
Pakistan Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani paid homage to slain Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti at a memorial service at a church attended by scores of people, as Christians protested for the second straight day against his killing and demanded arrest of his assassins.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government has established its writ in the scenic Tirah Valley in the troubled Khyber agency that had become a haven for Taliban militants.
Taliban-linked militants have threatened to carry out more attacks on soldiers and government installations similar to an assault on a Pakistan Army camp that killed eight security personnel on Monday, according to a media report.
Notwithstanding Taliban's insistence that militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri is dead, senior Pakistani military authorities in South Waziristan tribal region are still reluctant to confirm that he was killed in a US drone strike over a year ago.
At least eight people were killed and six others injured when two missiles fired by a suspected US drone hit a 'madrassa' founded by a Taliban leader in Pakistan's restive tribal region. The drone fired missiles at Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani's madrassa located a few kilometres from North Waziristan Agency's main town of Miranshah, late Wednesday night.
14 people, including three women, were killed and 20 others injured in missile strikes by suspected unmanned US drones on a seminary linked to top Taliban Commander Jalaluddin Haqqani in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region on Monday.
A scribe who reported government-army rift had barred from leaving Pakistan.
With Pakistan under fire from India for its inaction against terrorism, Interior Minister Rehman Malik tweeted on Thursday that Delhi must realise that his country is paying a heavy price for fighting militancy, which has claimed hundreds of lives.
The Pakistan army, while changing its operational priorities has described 'internal threats' such as anti-state terrorist groups as the biggest danger to the country's security.
Top US military commander has said that any links, if they exist, between Pakistan's military intelligence and militant outfits were "completely unacceptable".
A senior Taliban commander and his accomplice have been arrested for an attack at a base camp of Nanga Parbat that killed 10 foreign climbers and their Pakistani guide, officials said on Thursday.
"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.
Pakistan Army and United States-led forces in Afghanistan have decided to target Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah using drones rather than a ground operation in the areas where he is believed to be taking sanctuary.
The agreement, which aroused suspicion all around was signed with militants and not with tribal elders, as is being officially claimed, it said.
'Checkmating India by its nukes, Pakistan can pursue terrorism against India in the Kashmir Valley and also resume launching Mumbai 2008 style attacks.' 'The military oligarchy in Pakistan has a totally different view of what is desirable and possible in the subcontinent.'
US President Barack Obama, who made a surprise visit to Kabul and met President Hamid Karzai, has vowed to deny the Al Qaeda safe haven and reverse Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan.
Sharif raises Kashmir issue at UNGA, renews plebiscite demand.
Yousafzai, 15, was shot in Pakistan in October and later transferred to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham (QEHB) for further specialist treatment, where she is recovering from her injuries.
Notwithstanding United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's clarifications that there was not sufficient evidence to prove India's involvement in terror activities inside Pakistan's territory, Pakistan Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that Islamabad has found 'concrete evidence' regarding New Delhi's role in fanning insurgency in South Waziristan, where the military is engaged in an intense battle with the Taliban.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said he will not allow Pakistan to become a "sanctuary of terrorists" and asserted that the military operation against the Taliban in North Waziristan tribal region would continue until militants are eliminated.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has made a special plea to Pakistan to support the country's reintegration plans. "We ask all neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to support our peace and reconciliation endeavours," Karzai told a London conference on Thursday.
The Bethel Memorial Church has been the target of a terrorist attack in the past.
The report said the crucial meeting involved Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, CIA director General Michael V Hayden, new army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and Lieutenant General Nadeem Taj, the chief of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence.
