Alarmed by the recent terror attacks on Shia processions by Taliban, Pakistan on Friday shut down the mobile phone network in Karachi, Quetta and some other cities as a part of security measures for this weekend, which is the climax of the holy month of Muharram.
Let's face it. When it comes to the Pentagon, the Pakistani military can do no wrong. Even if it's going after only the Pakistani Taliban and not the Afghan Taliban, which it apparently continues to promote for strategic depth against India and as a hedge in case the US decides to cut and run.
Pakistani security forces foiled a major cross-border attack by militants on its check-posts near Afghanistan, killing seven militants and wounding 9, prompting the government to summon the Afghan envoy.
While US officials believe much of the American money was not making its way to the frontline, Pakistani officials see it as American ingratitude for Pakistani counterterrorism efforts.
Three persons were killed and two others injured when pro-Taliban militants attacked several North Atlantic Treaty Organisation container trucks in the restive Khyber tribal region of Pakistan on Monday, officials said.
The United States on Tuesday appreciated the increased cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against terrorism, terming it as beneficial to both the countries, but refused to confirm the reported capture of a top Taliban commander.
The recent claim by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan that it had orchestrated the botched bombing plot at the Times Square in New York is a clear indication that terror patterns are changing. Terror outfits have realised that their operations are becoming all too familiar, and hence have decided to go in for a complete revamp of their entire strategy.
Pakistan had reportedly launched 'strikes' against militant bases in Afghanistan on Saturday.
Nine years after their mysterious disappearance following the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the US still believes the two top Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are in hiding in northwestern Pakistan.
A Pakistan Air Force official wounded during a Taliban attack on the Kamra airbase succumbed to his injuries on Friday, taking to two the number of security personnel killed in the incident, which also left nine terrorists dead.
A beefed-up campaign of American drone strikes over the last three months has battered Al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the tribal area of North Waziristan, says a report in the New York Times.
Former President Pervez Musharraf has abandoned plans to return to Pakistan from self-exile in Britain after the military leadership "cold-shouldered" his demands for extra security to counter multiple threats to his life from militant outfits like Al-Qaeda and Taliban.
When asked if the Indian investigating agency would be allowed to visit Pakistan, Basit said that 'the whole investigation is not about reciprocity in view'.
Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has rejected United States' strategy of linking policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan in a bid to end the Taliban insurgency and bring stability to the region.
Seven security personnel, including three police officers and a captain of the Frontier Corps, were killed when militants ambushed a security forces convoy near Malakand division, where the Pakistan army is conducting operations against the Taliban. The militants carried out the ambush in an area between Mardan and Buner district, where the army is conducting operations against the Taliban. This was the first major attack in Mardan after army captured Taliban strongholds.
As the fate of Hindu and Sikh hostages held by Taliban remained unknown, a concerned All Pakistan Minorities Alliance has convened a meeting on February 28 to frame a strategy to protect their members.
Pakistan on Wednesday suspended a top commander of the country's major naval air base, three days after a brazen attack by Taliban militants, which killed 10 navy personnel and destroyed two spy planes in the port city Karachi, television channels reported.
Thirty militants and 23 soldiers have been killed during fighting between security forces and pro-Taliban rebels in the lawless Khyber tribal region of Pakistan. The fighting erupted after troops, including Special Services Group commandoes, launched a "decisive operation" against militants in Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency.
In major swoops across the key federal capital and the southern port city of Karachi, the Pakistani police nabbed 13 suspected terrorists linked to the Al Qaeda, with authorities claiming that this had averted major terror strikes on VVIPs in the country.
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan's troubled Swat valley declared local Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, his spokesman Muslim Khan and five other aides as "proclaimed offenders", on Wednesday and ordered them to appear before it within a week.
Slamming Pakistan for refusing to cut ties with the Haqqani network of militants, a leading US daily has said the military of the 'crippled and chaotic' state continues to play a "double game" of accepting aid from America while enabling the Afghan Taliban.
After a 7-year hiatus, Pakistan Monday showcased its growing military might, including tactical nuclear missiles and fighter jets, at a joint tri-service parade to celebrate the National Day in a symbolic show of strength in the war against the Taliban.
The United States' mounting pressure on Pakistan -- to go after the Afghan Taliban inside Balochistan -- could affect the cohesion of the Pakistan army and lead to the destabilisation of the government, according to US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke.Earlier, Holbrooke said, "We will not be able to succeed in Afghanistan unless our Pakistan policy is equally successful".
Pakistan intelligence officials say Islamabad is apprehensive about the expanding US offensive, as it feels that it could create further problems in already troubled Balochistan.
Pakistan on Thursday dismissed reports that Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar was being treated in a Karachi hospital, with the help of officials of the Inter Services Intelligence, after he suffered a heart attack."This is hackneyed speculation with no substance whatsoever," said Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit.He said such reports were aimed at maligning Pakistan and creating misgivings.
Al Qaeda and the Taliban are planning suicide and rocket attacks on the embassies, consulates, NGOs, firms and citizens of the US and UK in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
Three senior officers of the Pakistan navy have been penalised after a court martial found them guilty of negligence and dereliction of duty during a deadly Taliban attack on a key naval airbase in Karachi last year, which also destroyed two US-made surveillance aircraft.
Pakistani troops on Friday consolidated their positions in the restive north-western Swat valley and nearby areas in the wake of two attacks by Taliban fighters that killed 14 security personnel, even as militants retaliated by targeting a mosque, leaving 40 dead.
A Pakistani legislator was killed in a suicide attack in the northwestern Swat valley on Tuesday. Details awaited.
Khan also said Pakistan has decided to partner any other country only for peace and named the partnership with the US as the one.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking abolition of the death penalty saying that the "right to life and liberty is not absolute" in the constitution.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who just couldn't stop praising Pakistani Army General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani , told Congress Thursday that Kayani has purged the so-called 'rogue' elements from the ISI who are in cahoots with the Taliban.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai made a torrid attack on the Pakistani leadership in a face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and demanded that Islamabad produce top Taliban leaders to negotiate with him. Karzai confronted the Pakistanis at an official delegation-level talk on Thursday in Islamabad between the two countries on the sidelines of a trilateral summit meeting of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
Terrorist outfit Al Qaeda is training a 12-member team of westerners in Pakistan for a special mission including plotting attacks on return to their home countries, a media report has said.
Authorities on Monday removed four senior officials over the escape of 384 prisoners in a jailbreak in Pakistan's restive northwest and launched a probe to find out whether militants who attacked the prison had any link to the Taliban siege in Afghanistan.
Accusing Pakistan of harbouring Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, a top Afghan official on Monday said the global community is committing a blunder by embracing it as a strategic partner despite the fact that terrorism emanating from the region is affecting India, United Kingdom and others. "Unfortunately, the military-intelligence establishment of one of our neighbours still regards Afghanistan as its sphere of influence," Rangin Dadfar Spanta said.
The United States has begun to squeeze the funding and flow of money to terrorist organisations in the Af-Pak region including the Taliban, Al Qaeda, the Haqqani network and Laskhar-e-Tayiba, and keeping a tab on 'hawala' transactions, a top Obama administration official has said.
Currently placed on the FATF'S 'grey list', 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 by the FATF.
The US, the official said, is monitoring the situation carefully in Pakistan and expects some progress.
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