At least 10 people, including women and children, were killed on Wednesday when armed terrorists attacked houses of pro-government peace militia members in northwest Pakistan.
Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, considered a close confidante of army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, was appointed on Monday as the new head of Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence.
The United States' Embassy in Islamabad suspended visa and routine consular services on Friday due to "heightened security', a spokesman said.
The master plan reveals a far more expansive project involving Chinese penetration into Pakistan's agriculture, industry, telecommunications, surveillance and intelligence networks and even leisure and popular culture.
Rafia Qaseem Baig, who joined the police force as a constable seven years ago, will work in BDU after completing her 15-day training along with 31 other male members at Nowshera's School of Explosive Handling, media reports said.
A 14-year-old boy arrested with five terror suspects, who were allegedly plotting an attack on a five-star hotel to kill Americans, has said that a Pakistani Taliban activist had lured him to the eastern city of Lahore with the promise of a job.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan is verifying the facts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Warning that the situation in Pakistan is 'very serious', Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday said terrorism is spreading in that country and asserted that India is prepared to meet any challenge from Taliban militants. Asked if the Taliban's threat to carry out attacks on India was a cause of concern, Antony said, "We are always prepared to meet any challenge to our territorial integrity and national security from any quarter. Our security forces are vigilant."
The Taliban has recruited a new, unsuspected lot as suicide bombers: women in burqas. In a civilisation where women have always been protected and hidden behind head-to-toe black veils, the new cadre of women suicide bombers who kill people has surprised investigators.
Two powerful explosions in a crowded commercial hub in Lahore on Monday killed a dozen people and injured over 80 others, hours after a suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Peshawar left 10 people dead. The blasts rocked Moon Market in Allama Iqbal Town area shortly after 8.45 pm. One explosion occurred within the market while the other occurred on its outer perimeter. The blasts went off within a minute of each other near a bank and a police station, witnesses said.
Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last week, in 10 images.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operations commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, one the seven Pakistani nationals accused of planning and abetting the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was granted bail on Thursday by the anti-terrorism court in the country.
Pakistan on Friday executed two more prisoners, convicted by anti-terrorism courts.
Pakistani officials confirmed the development while the US embassy spokesperson refused to comment, saying the information 'appears to be only hearsay', The News daily reported. Some diplomats in Islamabad were aware of the Taliban operation but were not ready to speak on record. One of the hijacked helicopters had already been sold to an unidentified customer in Afghanistan, the report said.
Taliban militants, who had kidnapped a top civil official in the restive Swat valley in North West Frontier Province on Sunday, released him only in exchange for two militants, raising question marks over a peace deal stuck between the militant group and the government. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said the official, Kushal Khan, and his guards had been released in exchange for two militants who were arrested in Peshawar last week.
The ground reality is that the government of Pakistan has no choice but make the not-so-fine distinction to save their people getting killed as collateral damage when they fight the Taliban.
Acknowledging that his government had underestimated the threat from Taliban, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said the terrorist group was present in "huge amounts of land" in the country extending its reach beyond the tribal belt to larger cities like Peshawar.
The Pakistan police on Tuesday said it is clueless of the whereabouts of kidnapped Afghan diplomat Abdul Khaliq Farahi.
Times when the 62-year-old BJP MP from Nawada has triggered a row with his highly-volatile remarks.
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.
Twenty-eight people, including a leader of the ruling PPP, a woman councillor and 25 militants, were killed in separate incidents of violence in Pakistan's troubled North West Frontier Province and nearby tribal belt.
Pakistani troops on Sunday stepped up the crackdown on militants in a tribal region near Peshawar as the restive Swat valley bordering Afghanistan witnessed fresh violence that killed four people, including two soldiers who died in a bomb blast.
Under the aegis of Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, the ministry has set up a special cell that would monitor movement of the Talibans. There are reports that Talibans are just 25 kilometers away from the international border in Punjab and could move in towards the border.
Seven terror convicts were hanged on Tuesday in jails across Pakistan, including a junior technician at Pakistan Air Force who was involved in the attack on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
The mishap occurred when a man was reportedly overrun by a freight train and the driver stopped to recover the body.
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.
The twin attacks came as former prime minister Nawaz Sharif along with his daughter Maryam returned to the country to face arrest in a corruption case.
'What was the need for the investigating officers to tell the journalists about the place where the surviving Lashkar terrorist was being detained and where he is going to be transferred next? Don't they realise that such information would be useful to the Lashkar and the ISI if they want to mount an operation to rescue or eliminate him? What was the need for the journalists to find out such sensitive details and disseminate them in the media?'
Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed led Jamat-ud-Dawah has set up various new fronts and established camps all over Pakistan to collect donations and sacrificial animals in the name of helping Kashmiris in India.
The blast occurred near an Imambargah in the congested Kucha Risaldar area of the walled part of Peshawar.
The decision was taken by the Opposition alliance, the All Parties Democratic Alliance, headed by Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N at a meeting in Peshawar.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided to limit Australia's tour, which is under threat due to security concerns, to four venues, an official said on Wednesday.
'We aren't attacking Pakistan, we're attacking terrorism'
Hussain said that a blind following of western traditions will lead to a degradation of "our values
Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, who was kidnapped by militants three months ago, has been freed after secret parleys between the government and local Taliban leaders.
An outraged India told Pakistan on Thursday that release of Laskhar-e-Tayiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, one of the key conspirators of the Mumbai terror attacks, on bail was unacceptable to it and demanded immediate steps for reversal of the decision.
'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).
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.
Pakistani security forces on Thursday launched a crackdown against tribesmen, arresting nine of them in the Khyber Agency, after they failed to trace the country's ambassador to Afghanistan, who is believed to have been kidnapped in the region on Monday.The authorities defended the action, saying the tribesmen were taken into custody under the collective responsibility law as the ambassador had gone missing from a main road in their area.
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