With a little more than a month to go for Pakistan's general election, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud has described democracy as a system of 'kafirs' (non-believers) and vowed to wage jihad to implement Islamic law in the country. In a video message issued on
India has a new headache on hand: Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence directing the Taliban to join them in their Kashmir battle. According to reports in the Intelligence Bureau, the fight for Kashmir will get even more intense with the Taliban agreeing to join the ISI in this fight.
Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif has asked the United States to target the hideouts of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists and their chief Mullah Fazlullah in Afghanistan.
Residents also reported, heavy artillery, tanks and ground troops in hundreds moving towards Buner as forces sought to drive the Taliban back into the Swat Valley. The army estimates there are 400-500 Taliban militants hiding in Buner.
"The operation will continue till the last Taliban militant is eliminated," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told media persons at the Islamabad airport on his return from the US. Malik's remarks come as Pakistani army and fighter jets resumed their pounding of Taliban positions after a nine hour pause ordered to lead the trapped civilians reach safer areas.
Taliban has come under tremendous pressure following Pakistan's military action against the militant group in Swat valley and adjoining areas, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday.
'Pakistan should evolve a common narrative. The country should have common position in combating all kinds of terrorism and not fight selectively.' 'The main motive was revenge, of course. But the Nobel Prize to Malala Yousufzai also contributed to the Taliban's anger' Bestselling Pakistani author and foreign policy expert Ahmed Rashid speaks exclusively on the Peshawar school attack with Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
One of the two abducted Sikhs rescued during an army operation in Pakistan's Taliban-infested tribal belt was injured in a shootout between security forces and militants, according to the Pakistan military.
A video showing Azizuddin, asking the Pakistan government to meet the demands of his abductors, including the release of some Taliban cadres, was aired by the Al Arabiya TV channel on Saturday. The militants holding Azizuddin, his driver and bodyguard had demanded the release of Taliban leader Mullah Obaidullah Akhund. They have also demanded the release of five or six other Pakistani and Afghan militants held by Pakistani authorities.
At least 22 Taliban militants were killed and scores wounded as Pakistani war planes kept up their relentless strikes on the bases of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in restive Waziristan, while police shot dead five other radicals in Karachi on Saturday.
The Taliban has vowed to launch more "high-profile" attacks against government and military installations in Pakistan.
An audio message has been released in Pushto, circulated by Taliban commanders, where Akhundzada said, "Taliban will never bow their heads and will not agree to peace talks," reports Dawn.
Concerns that Afghanistan and India became too close in the post-2001 period was one reason why Pakistan was reluctant to act against Taliban and Al Qaeda, according to a report, which recommends engagement with the militants to end the conflict in the restive nation.
Blaming Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence for the killing of Osama bin Ladin, the Tehrike Taliban Pakistan has vowed to avenge the death the Al Qaeda chief. Both the United States and Pakistan are enemies, but Taliban's prime target is Pakistan, as without its help the West could not operate in Abbottabad.
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".
TTP is making Punjab the centre of its activities. The outfit believes that the government frames most anti-Taliban policies with help from the bureaucracy dominated by officials from Punjab, says Tahir Ali
A group of clerics today asked the government not to hold peace with the banned Pakistani Taliban after it condoned the recent bomb attack on a church in Peshawar that killed over 80 people.
TTP released a video of its militants holding a Shoulder Launch Missile, which the militant group claimed to have used in downing a Pakistan military helicopter.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said India considers Taliban as a dreaded terror outfit, and wants Pakistan to take action against it along with other groups like Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD).
The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday said they had not threatened to kill cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan if he holds a march to Waziristan, and blamed a Western news agency for falsely reporting the threat.
Mullah Fazlullah, the militant commander who ordered the assassination of teenage activist Malala Yusufzai, was today named by the Pakistani Taliban as its new chief to replace Hakimullah Mehsud, killed in a US drone strike last week.
The Taliban on Monday warned the Pakistan government not to release American national Raymond Davis, who allegedly shot dead two men in Lahore in January, saying any official involved in a move to free him would be killed by militants. "Any Pakistani government official playing any role in Davis' release will be killed by the Taliban," said Azam Tariq, spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The Taliban have also demanded that Davis should be executed by the authorities.
Taliban chief Mullah Omar is dead, the Afghan government announced tonight, "confirming" reports about the one-eyed extremist leader who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1996 and 2001.
Over 50 terrorists have been killed in clashes between the Taliban and another banned group in the restless Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan, according to media reports on Friday.
For two decades the US paid in blood and blood money for dependence on Pakistan to carry out one president's boast. Now, having been defeated by its proxies, another president will go into Rawalpindi's embrace to satisfy his constituents, predicts Shekhar Gupta.
A top local Taliban leader has dismissed contentions by Pakistani officials that India is helping militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
A top United Nations official has blamed Pakistan of blocking reconciliation efforts with the Taliban by arresting several top extremist commanders.Admitting that there were secret negotiations going on with the Afghan Taliban, former UN envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide criticised Pakistan for the arrests of high-profile Taliban leaders, including the second-in command Mullah Ghani Baradar, which he said has 'completely stopped a channel of secret communications with the UN'.
Angered by the coverage of its attempt to assassinate teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has drawn up plans to target Pakistani and international media organisations across the country.
The decision to target the Pakistani Taliban comes at a time when the UN is seeking to encourage the Afghan Taliban to pursue peace talks with the government there, a prelude to a US withdrawal from the war-ravaged country.
Together with US sanctions, the new action prohibits any financial transaction of these terror leaders in member countries of the United Nations, which is likely to put pressure on Pakistan to initiate operation against the group
Peace talks with the Taliban, trade and security would be high on the agenda during a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Afghan capital Kabul.
The Taliban in northwest Pakistan have changed their strategy and adopted a new approach of target killings and kidnapping for ransom with a psychiatrist teaching youngsters brainwashed by militants. Among the latest victims of this conspiracy is a relative of a senior Pakistani politician.
This year saw no improvement in bilateral ties as India accused Pakistan of cross-border infiltration and re-activation of terror-launching pads near the LoC.
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.
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.
Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan tried to undermine the Afghan government led by ex-president Hamid Karzai for helping "India stab Pakistan in the back".
The much anticipated peace talks between the Taliban and the United States might not happen as well, a US official said, as the Special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan left Qatar without any talks with the Afghan insurgent group.
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.
