Faisal Shahzad, the man behind the failed Times Square bombing plot, is seen in a new video footage along with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, with the two shaking hands and hugging each other. After his arrest, the Pakistani American had claimed that he had met Mehsud and a host of other radical leaders, but investigators had then said they were yet to verify his claims. The video that has emerged shows a man who appears to be Shahzad shaking hands with Mehsud.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bloody suicide bombing of the United Nation food agency's heavily fortified office in Islamabad in which five people were killed, claiming that the world body was working for the United States' interest.
The Pakistani Taliban may include disgraced nuclear scientist A Q Khan and federal minster Makhdoom Amin Fahim in a list of persons who could act as guarantors for possible peace talks with the government, according to a media report on Tuesday.
Two Sikhs who were kidnapped for ransom were found beheaded by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan's restive tribal belt in yet another brutal act by the militants.
The Pakistani Taliban has reportedly issued a challenge to the country's media to stop the praise of retired Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar and instead get behind Pakistani captain Misbah-ul Haq, whom they branded as ''sub-standard'' and a ''low-level player''.
Pakistan, in recent months, has been increasingly frustrated by the Taliban government's reluctance to eliminate the terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Pakistani Taliban terrorists on Tuesday carried out two attacks on North Atlantic Treaty Organisation container trucks in the Khyber tribal region in country's northwest, killing one person and injuring another in the first strikes since supply routes to Afghanistan were reopened earlier this month.
Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had expressed doubts about a claim by the regime of his former boss Pervez Musharraf that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban, a United Nations investigator has said.
"We will wait till January for our offensive since we are stronger during the snowing season," said Hakimullah, who was made chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan after his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in August
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
At least 12 persons, including four children, were killed and 30 injured as two explosive-laden vehicles rammed into the boundary wall of the main cantonment in Bannu in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday while the army personnel neutralised at least six terrorists.
A university vice-chancellor abducted by the Pakistani Taliban from the country's troubled northwest nearly two years ago has appealed to his colleagues and student groups to pressure the government for his release in a new video issued by the militants.
During a secret meeting held at Asad Khel village in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud allocated Rs 25 million for attacks targeting the PAF base in Lahore and offices of the ISI, Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and Counter-Terrorism Department.
'Every decision India makes along the LoC, it must also consider implications along the LAC.'
Nearly three-fifths of the people of Pakistan believe that India poses a greater threat to their country than those from the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a latest survey results released on Wednesday said.
The Pakistani Taliban on Friday targetted a United States consulate convoy in Peshawar with a car bomb killing one person and injuring over a dozen others, the first attack on Americans in the country since Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's death.
Mehsud, on whom the US has announced a bounty of $5 million, made the claim to the media from an undisclosed location, even as the prime suspect in Monday's assault has said that all his accomplices were from the tribal areas.
Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa, one of Pakistan's largest and oldest seminaries and dubbed as a 'university of jihad' by its critics for helping sow violence across the region for decades, has educated more Taliban leaders than any school in the world and its alumni now hold key positions in Afghanistan, according to a media report.
Delhi has come to accept the Taliban takeover in Kabul as a reality and seems increasingly unsure of its dogmatic view of the Taliban as a mere proxy of the Pakistani military and security establishment, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Rescue officials on Tuesday recovered the severed head of the suspected suicide bomber who they believe blew himself up inside a mosque packed with worshippers during the afternoon prayers on Monday in the high-security zone in Pakistan's restive northwestern Peshawar city.
A US federal jury has convicted a 77-year-old Pakistan-origin Imam of a local mosque in Miami for providing material support to terrorists, including the banned Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistani Taliban's fugitive leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad has said that he is holding peace talks with the government and a deal could be signed by the two sides "very soon", a claim rejected by local authorities and another militant commander.
Pakistani combat jets pounded militant bases in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region, including the home of Taliban commander Adnan Rashid, and killed 25 terrorists in retaliation for a string of attacks on security forces.
'Pakistan and the jihadis's capacities have been diminished because of increasing dominance of our security forces.'
An anti-terrorism court on Friday handed down '23 times' death sentence to three militants of outlawed Pakistani Taliban for the 2009 attack on the country's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence's headquarters here that killed 35 people.
Pakistani Taliban's Sindh unit, which had penetrated into various departments of the provincial government, was involved in a foiled terror attack at a Naval dockyard in Karachi in the country's financial capital.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack, adding: "The target was Christians."
The activation of diplomatic channels is likely to yield better results than a simmering hostility, recommends Ajai Shukla.
There was no official word on the development. Pakistani authorities rarely confirm US drone attacks or provide details of casualties.
The Pakistani Taliban on Monday warned all international organisations and individuals to leave the country or face violence as it was in a "state of war". Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that Pakistan had buried the desire of its people for peace in the North Waziristan tribal region and launched a military operation to make its western backers happy.
'The struggle of insurgents and pro-independence political activists is fuelled by a deep conviction that not only is a free Balochistan possible, but they also believe that Pakistan will inevitably break apart, leading to Balochistan's independence.'
"Now we live in a completely independent Afghanistan. The new government will be announced very soon," said Anaamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban's cultural commission, reported Tolo News.
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.
The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to attack installations of Shell Pakistan and the state-run Pakistan State Oil if the two firms do not pay a total of Rs 400 million within 20 days as extortion money, a media report said on Sunday.
A powerful car bomb exploded outside a Shiite imambargah at a busy market.
'It will remain hostile to Indian interests owing to its close proximity to China.'
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was among six militants killed in a US drone strike on Friday in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.
Pakistani Taliban chief has ordered militants to hit the leaders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party after the government lifted a moratorium on death penalty and set up military courts to try terrorists.
'It was always anticipated that the return of the Taliban would embolden armed Islamists including anti-India groups like the Lashkar and Jaish.'
Despite dependence on the ISI for years of sustenance, Taliban leaders may harbour resentment over the ISI's excessive control, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
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