The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has stated that it is willing to declare ceasefire if the Pakistan government withdraws from the US-led war on terror and forms a new foreign policy in accordance to the holy Quran and Sunnah.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has written a letter to the sister of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani convicted for attempted murder by an American court, promising to carry out a 'memorable attack against the United States".The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief "threatened a memorable response against the United States" in the letter he wrote to Fouzia Siddiqui nearly two months ago, Dawn News channel reported.
Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was reportedly killed in a United States drone strike in January, has vowed to attack the US in a new video dated early April."The time is very near when our fidayeen will attack the American states in the major cities," SITE quoted the Taliban leader as saying.Mehsud was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan in January. Pakistani intel officials and the US administration have never confirmed his death.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Prime minister-designate Nawaz Sharif, known for being soft towards militant groups, on Monday said the Pakistani Taliban's offer of talks should be taken seriously because the problem of militancy cannot be solved through the use of power and bullets. Addressing newly elected parliamentarians and legislators of his Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz party at the Aiwan-e-Iqbal hall in Lahore, Sharif stressed the need to respond to the Taliban's offer.
"Indeed, nearly all of the jihadi groups operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network, LeT, and others have joined together in an extended terrorist network that shares the same goals, including destabilising Afghanistan and destroying the Pakistani state," said Congressman Howard Berman, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Zafar, who was linked to Al-Qaida, was wanted by the US in connection with a March 2006 suicide attack on the US consulate in Karachi that killed an American diplomat and three Pakistanis.
The Russian-made chopper, owned by the provincial government of Punjab, was on its way to Russia on routine maintenance when it suffered unknown technical glitch and had to force land in Azra district of restive Logar province on Thursday.
If the killing of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack is confirmed, it could set off a new power struggle within the Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan, which may conclude with the naming of Qari Hussain, the chief instructor on suicide bombers, as the new Pak-Taliban chief, according to a report published in the New York Times.
Sitara-e-Shujaat, one of Pakistan's highest civilian awards for bravery, will be given to 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban last week for speaking out against the militants, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Tuesday.
The 'Shura' or council of a Taliban faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur yesterday warned parents not to send their children to five schools near the cantonment in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency.
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.
Pakistan, which is witnessing an influx of Tehreek-i-Taliban terrorists in significant numbers in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's tribal districts, is also facing a threat from the Islamic State (ISIS) which is trying to establish a foothold in the country, the ministry of interior has said.
Top Taliban leader Mullah Omar was sheltered by Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services intelligence after the outfit's leadership fled from Afghanistan in 2001, according to an email received by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton during her tenure.
Thirty-eight militants, including a top commander of Pakistani Taliban, were killed on Wednesday in air strikes and clashes with troops in the volatile tribal belt of northwest Pakistan.
Badruddin Haqqani, the key operational commander of the Al Qaeda linked Haqqani network, and top Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah are believed to have been killed in US drone and air strikes in the tribal region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst who was one of the key architects of US President Barack Obama's Af-Pak policy during his first term, has called for an offensive strategy against terrorist networks and this includes hitting out at terrorist groups inside Pakistan.
The drones targeted a compound in Sararogha sub-division of South Waziristan Agency, officials of the local political administration told the media.
Taliban militants had stormed the a jail in country's northwest primarily to free Adnan Rashid, on death row for an attempt to assassinate former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, and who was in touch with the outside world through a mobile phone, Facebook and blogs.
A rebel commander who was recently removed from the post of deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban has said that the Pakistan government suspended negotiations with local militants because of pressure from the United States.
Pakistan on Friday announced it will release former Afghan Taliban deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar on Saturday, meeting a long-standing demand of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to advance peace efforts in the war-ravaged country.
Barack Obama has said that he had ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid on Osama bin Laden's hideout because it was an "open secret" that certain elements inside Pakistan's military, and especially its intelligence services, maintained links to the Taliban and perhaps even al-Qaeda, sometimes using them as strategic assets against Afghanistan and India.
Trump disclosed that he was to meet the Afghan President and senior Taliban leaders on Sunday at his Camp David retreat.
Following the Taliban ban on Polio vaccination in tribal areas of Pakistan, the United Nations has selected international cricketer Shahid Afridi to boost the anti-polio campaign
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
At least 31 people were killed and another 60 were injured in a suicide bomb attack on a funeral of a member of a pro-government Pashtun tribe in a village in northwest Pakistan on Thursday.
With former prime minister Imran Khan in jail, Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is tipped to emerge as the single largest party in the elections.
Pakistan on Saturday released former Afghan Taliban deputy chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, meeting a long-standing demand of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to advance peace efforts in the war-ravaged country.
Jalaluddin Haqqani was closely tied to Al Qaeda leaders and had played a key role in supporting the terror group in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"The airport has been cleared. The security forces killed seven terrorists while three blew themselves up during the fight," Director General, Rangers, Major General Rizwan Akhtar told media. "Very soon we will hand over the airport to the civilian aviation authority to start its normal operations," he said. "The attack is over and we have cleared the area of all militants, and we will hand over the airport to the Civil Aviation Authority at 12.00 pm (0700 GMT)," paramilitary Rangers spokesman Sibtain Rizvi told reporters.
Voicing concern that Pakistan is not doing enough against the Afghan-Taliban, including the Haqqani network, two top US Senators have warned Islamabad that any future terror attack against America or Europe that can be traced back to that country would invite "very serious" consequences.
Terror suspect Faisal Shahzad has been charged with 10 terrorism and weapons counts in the botched Times Square car bombing in an indictment that also accuses him of receiving money and explosives training from Pakistani Taliban.
The official in question has not served in India before.
He was the chief of the hardline political party Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami.
The chief minister-designate of the militancy-hit Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday said his party had "no enmity" with the Taliban and was ready to hold talks with the militants.
'The last thing he would want is new tensions with India.'
Life has come a full circle for Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan.
'Where we differ, of course, is the treatment of the groups who are attacking our troops in Afghanistan,' she was quoted as saying by a newspaper.
Pakistani authorities have arrested two militants and a Syrian national in Lahore for their alleged role in recruiting people to the Islamic State terror group.