After the recent suicide attacks in Pakistan's tribal areas, which left at least 100 people dead, the Pakistan army, with US help, is reportedly set for a major military offensive in the area.
Former military dictator Pervez Musharraf on Sunday ended nearly four years in self-exile defying threats of arrest and assassination by Taliban, saying that he returned home to "save" Pakistan and would face all "challenges" that lay ahead.
As the US announced deepening of its involvement in Afghanistan by despatching 30,000 more troops, President Barack Obama has quietly authorised an expansion of war against terrorism in Pakistan under which CIA would widen its campaign of strikes against militants by unmanned drones.
Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, who was kidnapped by militants three months ago, has been freed after secret parleys between the government and local Taliban leaders.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has asked Afghan President Hamid Karzai to plug the entry of militants fleeing into his country following a massive army operation against Taliban, officials said on Tuesday.
Former senator Amarjeet Malhotra has been included in the list of suspects involved in the killing of Singh, 52, who was the Special Assistant to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister on minority affairs.
Pakistan government is expected to confer posthumously one of the country's highest civilian awards for bravery on slain Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, who was lauded by President Asif Ali Zardari as a symbol of tolerance, harmony and respect for minorities.
Pakistani law enforcement agencies have arrested two members of the Taliban on charges of involvement in the kidnapping of American Non-Governmental-Organisation worker Warren Weinstein from the city in August last year.
The incident occurred early Tuesday morning in Datta Khel region of North Waziristan Agency, which has witnessed numerous missile strikes by US drones over the past few years.
Hours after a suspected Taliban suicide bomber detonated his vehicle in Peshawar killing 49 people, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said the government had no option but to strike back on the militant stronghold of south Wazirstan."We have no other option but to carry out an operation in south Wazirstan," the interior minister told a private television channel after the attack.
India's "proactive operation" against terrorists in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir should be "commended" and supported by the international community, a top European Parliament official has said, underlining that New Delhi deserves global support in its fight against terror.
Pakistan missed a valuable opportunity to create goodwill with the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation members when it failed to announce a reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan at the summit held Sunday and Monday in Chicago, says Lisa Curtis.
Militants armed with assault rifles and rockets, who are guarding the troops, have said that the captured men would not be killed.
India has been discomfited by signs that the United States and its allies are preparing to leave Afghanistan.
Pakistan's leading Muslim clerics on Monday denounced all forms of terrorism as the greatest crime against Islam, humanity and the country, as they asked the people to back the security forces in their campaign against the militants.
A report by a Pakistani daily newspaper alleges that India, Israel and the US, among others, are using satellite technology to monitor sensitive areas in Pakistan.
'We know that there is a cross-border fertilisation of extremism and terrorism. Afghanistan cannot get control over its territory and defeat the Taliban if they can go across the border into Pakistan as a safe haven,' Clinton told the Azadi Radio in an interview. Similarly, Pakistan cannot root out the people that threaten them and their government if they can seek refuge across the border in Afghanistan, she said according to a transcript released by the State Department.
US immigration authorities have released a Pakistani journalist who reports for the Voice of America and whose home was destroyed by Taliban militants last month.
Pakistan has once again requested the United States to provide it with drone technology, so that it can carry out operations against the Taliban and other extremist groups in the lawless tribal region along the Afghan border.
'There are no links between India and the Taliban. Even if India supports militancy, it is not foolish enough to leave evidence.'
The suicide attacker detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a check post near the army camp at Kabal town in the Swat valley. Three soldiers at the check post received minor injuries.
The American soldiers who were killed in a blast in Pakistan's Lower Dir district on Wednesday were members of the United States Army's Special Forces, which has been training the (paramilitary) Frontier Corps to fight against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.The slain troopers were part of a 100-member strong military training unit, which was involved in training a paramilitary commando unit of over 1000 men, to carry out operations against Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The Taliban expanding its writ is no longer the primary concern of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. Rather it is the unrest in Balochistan that is troubling him the most.Presiding over a meeting of senior officials that was convened to discuss the Balochistan situation, Gilani said the Baloch conflict is the most daunting task before the government."The situation in Balochistan is the most challenging task currently facing the government," Gilani said.
The battle to manage the international environment over Kashmir has just begun, but what is expected to help is the lifting of internal controls. All eyes are now on that exercise. Aditi Phadnis reports.
The four Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorists were shot dead by Pakistani police in Lahore.
In an operation in this capital of Punjab province, police picked up 40 people, including a key suspect Luqman, who was caught with an explosive jacket, police said. Most of the suspects arrested here belong to banned militant groups like the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Siphah-e-Sahaba, Sipah-e-Muhammad and Jaish-e-Mohammad, all Punjabi militant groups.
The parliament unanimously adopted a resolution asking the government to declare teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, the target of a recent assassination attempt by the Taliban, as the "Daughter of Pakistan".
Pakistan's negative perception of India's role in Afghanistan is a matter of "continuing concern," a Pentagon official has said, while appreciating the development assistance being offered by New Delhi to the war-torn country.
Accusing the Pakistan army of inflating the threat of religious sectarianism and jihadi extremism for its own self-interest, the report said the West adopted a more lenient attitude toward the regime due to a perceived lack of alternative.
There is no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in Kashmir, Rahul said.
Pakistan's plan to execute 500 militants who have been given death sentences is deeply disturbing and would do nothing to protect civilians from the conflict with Taliban, a leading rights group has said.
Slamming Pakistan for not taking action against the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, a United States report on counter-terrorism on Wednesday said India remained severely affected by and vulnerable to terrorism, including from Pakistan-based groups.
Militants clad in military uniforms intercepted a convoy of buses and gunned down 18 minority Shia men on Tuesday in a northern Pakistan region that borders the former Taliban stronghold of Swat.
The United States has put its covert air campaign that targets al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in Pakistan's tribal agencies "on hold", in the wake of strained ties between the two countries.
Afghanistan will never allow its territory to be used for any anti-India activity, Afghan ambassador Shaida Mohammad Abdali said here and dismissed apprehensions that withdrawal of NATO forces may allow the Taliban to make a comeback.
The Pakistan government has received "credible intelligence reports" confirming the death of local Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack and physical evidence is being collected to validate the claim, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Monday.
At least 19 people were killed and 25 others injured on Sunday in a car bomb attack that targeted a bus taking Shia pilgrims to Iran in Pakistan's restive southwest, hours after 21 soldiers abducted by Taliban from check posts near Peshawar were gunned down by the militants.
The spread of the Taliban in Pakistan has senior American officials concerned about the safety and security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, including the potential for terrorists to get their hands on a weapon in transport or to infiltrate laboratories and nuclear fuel-production facilities.
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