Their leaders in the provinces, which have been under the control of Taliban commanders for several months now, speak the language of the bigot. Women are known to have been abducted and enslaved. Several young girls have simply disappeared.
Latif's free-meal offer to Indians went into effect last week and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
The ex-army chief left for Dubai for medical treatment in March 2016 and has not returned since, citing security and health reasons.
'If the bulk of the Pakistan population and the all powerful army are now against radical elements, there is indeed hope that Pakistan's India policy will be more realistic and less ideology driven,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi on Tuesday termed the killing of 124 students in a school in Pakistan's Peshawar by Taliban militants as "one of the darkest days of humanity" and offered himself to the terrorists if they were ready to free the children taken hostage.
Pakistan's parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed two key bills aimed at setting up military courts for the speedy trial of "hardcore terrorists" in the aftermath of the Peshawar school massacre by Taliban.
At least 28 people, including five children, were killed and 30 others injured when a suicide bomber shouting 'Allahu Akbar' blew himself up inside a mosque packed with worshippers for Friday prayers in Mohmand Agency in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal region.
At least 13 militants affiliated to Al Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban were killed in a heavy exchange of fire with security forces in the country's financial capital on Monday. The terrorists, in police and rangers' uniforms, were killled in the notorious Al-Asif square of Karachi, said senior superintendent police of Malir district, Rao Anwar.
'Against the backdrop of difficult administrative, political and economic problems, Imran's temperament and staying power will be the subject of intense expectation and public scrutiny,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan Desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Amid tight security and special prayers, Bacha Khan University in northwestern Pakistan on Monday briefly reopened before closing down indefinitely, days after it was attacked by the Taliban, killing 21 people, mostly students.
The Interior Ministry issued an order on Saturday asking all provincial governments not to carry out any executions in the Muslim month of fasting.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Official said the crackdown would be intensified in the coming days as government had resolved to eliminate militancy.
The deal was agreed between the government and more than 280 tribal elders and terrorists in North Waziristan last month, The Daily Telegraph reported, quoting a government official in Peshawar.
'Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai? Don't you believe it. I don't trust the Chinese one bit,' Nehru told Gopalaswamy Parthasarathi before he traveled to China as India's ambassador. Asking GP to be ever vigilant, Nehru advised the diplomat to send telegrams on important matters only to him. Many such anecdotes from a long and eventful career as diplomat and bureaucrat crowd the pages of GP: 1912-1995, discovers Uttaran Das Gupta.
At least 55 militants were killed in Pakistan military airstrikes and a gun battle with the army in the volatile northwest tribal region where a major offensive to wipe out terrorists is on, officials said.
At least 54 suspected militants belonging to a pro-Taliban outfit, including its spokesman, were killed on Wednesday when Pakistani fighter jets pounded their hideouts and troops clashed with the insurgents in the volatile northwest tribal region near the Afghan border.
Five Pakistani soldiers and at least 27 militants, including some foreigners, were killed On Sunday in clashes and air strikes in the restive northwestern tribal belt, where the military has launched a major offensive against the Taliban.
After initial reservations, Pakistan's political leaders on Friday agreed to amend the constitution to set up military courts for speedy trial of terrorists in the aftermath of the deadly Peshawar school attack.
The new ISI chief Lt Gen Mukhtar possesses a vast experience in the field of intelligence and has headed the counter-terrorism wing of the spy agency in Islamabad. He was commissioned in the Armoured Corps regiment in 1983.
Pakistan's Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking abolition of the death penalty saying that the "right to life and liberty is not absolute" in the constitution.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
'The Indian Air Force wanted to fight. My squadron leaders and flight lieutenants, all of us were eager to fight. Unless they are keen I can't have confidence.' Marshal of the Air Force, the legendary Arjan Singh, on the 1965 War.
"On Kashmir as I said, we would all like to see improved relations between India and Pakistan."
At least 60 militants were killed on Wednesday in precision bombing by air force jets on Taliban targets in Pakistan's restive tribal region on the Afghan border, military officials said.
The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The Border Security Force on Tuesday said Pakistani troops were not accepting protest notes from India over ceasefire violations and that there was "no communication" between the two sides.
The blast took place during Dhamaal -- a Sufi ritual -- when hundreds of devotees were present inside the premises of the vast mausoleum of the saint.
'We are not going to let him go free. Justice will be served,' a Pakistan official tells Rediff.com contributor Shahzad Raza in Islamabad.
A 31-year-old Indian engineer has been sentenced to three years in prison for espionage by a Pakistani military court over three years after he went missing when he illegally entered the country from Afghanistan reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online.
Pakistan on Tuesday executed 12 prisoners convicted under militancy and murder charges
'Pakistan's provision of safe haven to the LeT a will probably continue to be a key irritant in relations with India'
'132 hearts snuffed out. 132 coffins. 264 bereft parents. And hundreds and hundreds of classmates traumatised for life...' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel mourns those unfinished lives, murdered on a cold morning in Peshawar.
Pakistan on Friday executed two more prisoners, convicted by anti-terrorism courts.
'Pakistan is paying the price for ignoring secularism. In seeking to be ever more Muslim to define its nationhood, it has become a terrorist haven.'
Pakistan on Tuesday hanged 17 prisoners, the highest number of executions on a single day
At a time when China is trying to make its foray into South Asia, India should use its shared history to strengthen its ties in the region, says Dr Rup Narayan Das.
After repeatedly essaying the role of doomed lover, Dilip Kumar, a thinking actor, found it diffcult to break out of in real life. Heeding his psychoanalyst, he flirted with some frothy roles and played the swashbuckling hero with elan, recalls Dinesh Raheja.
Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad launched to fight terrorism across country.
Amidst Taliban threats, over 230 educational institutions, most of them government-run, in Pakistan's Punjab province have been shut, with authorities asking them to step up security by Sunday or face action.
