Rediff.com brings for you the third in the series of leaked Wiki cables, which point towards some startling revelations.
Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence had brought in Haqqani network's chief Sirajuddin Haqqani as the deputy leader of the Taliban last year to protect him from the Americans, a media report said on Sunday.
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.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has admitted for the first time that it is using Afghan soil as a springboard for launching attacks on Pakistani security forces.
'They are not following through, and have not followed through, by going after one of the truly great threats that face us here in Afghanistan, which is the coming into Afghanistan from Pakistan of Haqqani fighters,' The Daily Times quoted US Armed Services Committee Chairman, Carl Levin, as saying.
The offer of peace talks came at a time when the Pakistani military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the Pak-Afghan border had had little impact on the operational capabilities of the Tehrik-e-Taliban. Amir Mir reports.
"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.
New Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced on Monday and vowed to strike United States and Pakistani interests -- to avenge the killing of his slain leader Baitullah Mehsud and American drone attacks on the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His appearance in front of a select group of reporters in the South Waziristan tribal area ended speculation over his reported death in a contest for leadership of the Pakistan Taliban, sparked by Baitullah's killing.
Pakistani troops on Sunday captured a strategic mountaintop and pushed deeper into Taliban-held territory after consolidating their hold on areas around the hometown of Hakimullah Mehsud in Waziristan, where 15 rebels and a soldier were killed in fresh fighting.
At least 30 militants were killed and 15 others injured in the air strikes in Pandiali area of Mohmand Agency, sources close to the security forces said.
Expressing concern over the Islamabad government's failure in curbing terrorism, a prominent Pakistani jurist has said that the country should focus on 'Taliban instead of rivalry with India'. Pakistan has failed to curb terrorism and the government is incapable to deal with the looming threat posed by Taliban and other extremists, senior Supreme Court lawyer Abid Hassan Minto said. Minto said that the Pakistani military and political leaders should fight internal extremists.
Months after the Pakistani army declared that the Taliban had been flushed out of Bajaur, the outfit's militants have resurfaced in the insurgency-hit tribal region and resumed broadcasts on their illegal FM radio channel warning the women against casting votes.
One of the two terrorists arrested during audacious terror strikes on two mosques of the minority Ahmedi sect in Lahore has told investigators that the attackers had received training in the lawless Waziristan tribal belt and were working at the behest of the Pakistani Taliban's Punjabi wing.
Afghan Taliban and their Pakistani sympathisers have turned the Kharotabad area in the southwestern outskirts of Balochistan's capital, Quetta, into a safe heaven and a veritable 'vacation spot', raising fears among the people of possible strikes by US drones.
US officials said the message did not amount to an ultimatum but rather it was intended to "prod a reluctant Pakistani military" to go after Taliban insurgents in Pakistan who are directing attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, shot in the head by the Taliban, spent a third "comfortable" night at a UK hospital, with doctors on Thursday saying they are "pleased with her progress so far".
A Pakistani court gave three weeks to the federal government to submit a detailed reply on the status of 10 high-profile Afghan Taliban leaders who are in the custody of authorities.
Taliban rebels are earning up to 2 lakh Pakistani rupees for each Nato soldier they kill, Times Online has said. The money usually reaches commanders via the traditional hawala transfer system which is then shared within the militia.
Pakistani security agencies have informed the government that the Taliban have plans to attack foreign election observers, foreign journalists, important candidates and officials of the Election Commission during the May 11 polls, according to a media report on Thursday.
A prominent global think tank has termed the radical Sunni-Deobandi groups as the "primary source" of terror in Pakistan and said their continued patronage by the army has influenced Islamabad's relations with India and Afghanistan.
Blaming the American private military company Blackwater and Pakistani secret agencies for the suicide attacks in International Islamic University in Islamabad and the deadliest attack in Khyber bazaar in Peshawar that claimed a number innocent of lives, Qari Hussain, commander of Tehrik Taliban Pakistan said that it is an attempt to malign the Taliban and warned that militants would avenge 'the killing of innocent people within few days.'
Revelations by Pakistani-American David Headley, a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative charged with conspiring in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, may have prompted Islamabad to finally go after the Afghan-Taliban, a noted United States scholar on South Asia has said.
Dismissing this as "nonsense", the Pakistani President accused Karzai of being "totally oblivious of what is happening in his own country."
Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has invited the Taliban to play a cricket match in a bid to revive a stalled peace process but his remarks were criticised on social media.
Describing the Pakistani Army's offensive against the Taliban and other extremist groups as "terrific", US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has assured Islamabad that Washington would keep supporting the troubled nation in future also.
Pakistani authorities agreed during talks with Afghan peace negotiators toc release several Afghan Taliban prisoners to give a push to Kabul's troubled reconciliation process, according to a media report.
Pakistani authorities have released 12 Taliban prisoners in the restive Swat valley as a goodwill gesture in the wake of a peace deal signed by the North West Frontier Province government and religious hardliners.
Seven militants were killed and two others injured when Pakistani security forces used gunship helicopters and artillery to target Taliban positions near Kohat town in the troubled North West Frontier Province today.
Over 100 Taliban fighters crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked military posts in Upper Dir area of northwest Pakistan, triggering clashes that left eight soldiers and 15 militants dead, officials said on Monday.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said there was a sea change in the attitude of Pakistanis in the last one year and appreciated the military actions being taken by its army against the Taliban militants.
The diplomatic crisis between Pakistan and Afghanistan deepened on Sunday after Kabul announced that it will withdraw its ambassador and other senior staff from Islamabad after the abduction and torture of the daughter of its envoy to Pakistan.
Taliban appears to be nearing collapse as in another blow to the group, Pakistani authorities have captured Mulla Abdul Kabir, a member of the Quetta Shura and the shadow governor of Afghanistan's eastern Nangahar province.
Moving from street to street, Pakistani troops on Sunday captured several key areas in Swat valley's main town Mingora from Taliban as their offensive to regain the control of the restive tribal region entered the decisive phase.
Musharraf also demanded that coalition fighting Taliban help spread economic development in Pashtun areas to wean them away from the Taliban and ensure that they do not join them.
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.
Mullah Akhtar, a close aide of Mullah Omar who served as his deputy for the past three years, was chosen as the new leader.
'Will Imran compromise with the army? We are all human beings. We all compromise.'
Taliban's move came as Pakistani forces stepped up their campaign to retake territory in the districts of Buner, Dir and Swat. The military said they had killed more than 100 militants and lost several soldiers since fighting began on Tuesday.
The school at Badaber, 10 km south of Peshawar, was destroyed when militants set off six explosive devices. Police said at least 40 kg of explosives was used in the attack. No casualties were reported as the school was closed for the summer vacation.
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