A senior Corps Commander, Lieutenant General Masood Alam, has said that there are reports that Swat Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah had fled the region fearing arrest by security agencies.
A suicide attack on a police station in Kabal, Swat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, killed at least 14 people, including five security personnel, and injured over a dozen. The attack occurred during a peace rally, with police intercepting the bomber at the compound gate, preventing a larger tragedy.
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai reveals her mental health struggles after a marijuana session triggered flashbacks of her attack by the Taliban. She discusses anxiety, panic attacks, and her journey to seek therapy.
Speculations are rife in the Pakistani media that 'Pakistan's Switzerland' -- Swat, the principal city in the troubled Waziristan region has fallen to Taliban.
Taliban militants on Tuesday declared an indefinite ceasefire in Pakistan's restive Swat valley where they have been waging an armed campaign for the last two years. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told reporters in Swat that a meeting of the 'Shura' or 'council' of the militants had decided to extend the ceasefire for an indefinite period. The local Taliban led by Fazlullah had last week called a ten-day unilateral truce to facilitate peace talks.
Pakistani authorities and the local Taliban have agreed to a ceasefire in the troubled Swat valley following peace talks between militants and religious hardliners, a top official said on Saturday. Syed Mohammad Javed, the commissioner for Malakand division which includes Swat, told reporters that the security forces and the Taliban would observe the truce. He made the announcement after meeting Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a hardline cleric who is negotiating with the militants.
Talking to media persons in Islamabad, Malik claimed that the military offensive being carried out in the North West Frontier Province's Swat and Malakand Divisions have been successful with the killing of top Taliban commanders.
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.
Gaining an upper hand in the restive Swat valley in north-western Pakistan after signing of a deal with the authorities, an emboldened Taliban has told all Non Government Organisations working in the area to pack their bags, saying their activities are un-Islamic.
"Our peace pact agreement with the North West Frontier Province government practically stands dissolved", Taliban spokesman Muslim Khansaid and sought to put the onus on authorities saying "security forces are attacking us".
Facing a major Pakistani offensive, the retreating Taliban militants have carried out the gruesome beheading of a captured police official. The police found the decapitated body of a constable in a town in Swat valley, where for the last three months the Pakistan army is carrying out a flushing operation against the Taliban, officials were quoted by TV channels as saying. They said the police constable was kidnapped a week ago by militants.
Taliban cadres have been carrying out armed patrols on roads in Buner district and established a check post at Pacha Killay over the past few days, local residents were quoted as saying by The News daily.
The Pakistani Taliban have taken control of mines producing precious lapis lazuli stones in the insurgency-hit Swat valley and started operating them on their own. The Taliban have confirmed that they took control of the mines two months ago, when they arrived in the hilly area of Fiza Ghat, a resort on the outskirts of Mingora, the main city in Swat valley. The militants have appointed hundreds of local labourers to work round the clock to excavate lapis lazuli stones.
Taliban forces in Pakistan have announced a ten-day ceasefire in the restive north western Swat valley, as peace talks between a senior cleric and local authorities are believed to have struck a deal to enforce Shariah laws in some parts of the region.The announcement of the truce came a day after a Chinese engineer, abducted by the Taliban six months back, was set free in Swat as a 'goodwill gesture'.
The Pakistani Taliban has staged a bloody comeback in Malakand division by killing three peace committee chiefs, reports Tahir Ali.
Members of the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed and militants from South Waziristan tribal region are fighting alongside some 5,000 Taliban fighters in Pakistan's restive Swat valley, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said on Friday.
The Taliban had earlier banned music and video centres in the area. But now even pornography is freely available at video centres and mobile shops and sell like hot cakes. Though a number of indigenous movies are the talk of the town, three movies are, to use a Bollywood-ism, a super hit
The bold abduction was carried out when the army and paramilitary forces had suspended operations to break the siege to rescue the trapped personnel, local police officials and TV channels reported. Taliban militants have overrun most of the Swat Valley, called the Switzerland of Pakistan and once the haunt of tourists and rich and this has triggered a massive exodus of residents.
Aiming at a "decisive" victory over the Taliban, Pakistan on Thursday pressed with air and ground operation in the north-western tribal belt, where fierce fighting killed nine soldiers and 14 militants, including a son of a hardline cleric who negotiated the Swat peace deal.
The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday named Khan Syed Mehsud alias Sajna as its new chief, a day after a US drone strike killed its former leader Hakimullah Mehsud in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.
She will be visiting her ancestral home in Makan Bagh in Mingora, her school besides inaugurating a girls school in Shangla district.
A convoy of seven army trucks was stopped by armed Taliban militants at Qambar, a small town near Mingora, the main city in Swat valley, witnesses and Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said. Witnesses said the convoy withdrew from Qambar after the Taliban forced the troops to go back, averting any clash.
Pakistani security forces have killed over 30 militants in fresh fighting in Swat and the Waziristan tribal region, where the security forces carried out retaliatory air strikes after the Taliban launched attacks on several military bases.
After the Hindus, it is the Sikhs who are fleeing the restive Taliban dominated Swat region in Pakistan. At least 200 Sikhs have fled the Swat region and are taking shelter in various gurudwaras in Pakistan.
The family of a girl who was injured in the Taliban attack on teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai has decided to leave the restive Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan and move to Punjab province for security reasons.
Muslim Khan and senior Taliban commander Mehmood Khan, for whom authorities had offered rewards of Rs 10 million each, were arrested by security forces 'in a successful operation in Swat'
Four days after a peace pact was inked between religious hardliners and the North West Frontier Province government, leading cleric Maulana Sufi Mohammad is yet to make Taliban leaders accept the deal, to enforce Islamic laws in the violence-hit Swat valley.Mohammad, who has been holding talks with Taliban leaders, on Friday met its commander Maulana Fazlullah, who is his son-in-law, for direct talks as reports said the Taliban was demanding the withdrawal of security forces.
Pakistan on Monday said its anti-Taliban operations in Swat had entered the final phase with troops having "totally dismantled" the militants' infrastructure, even as over 30 rebels and 16 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting in the unruly North West Frontier Province and Waziristan.
Pakistan's parliament on Monday endorsed a move to enforce Islamic laws in the restive northwestern Swat valley, which is largely controlled by the Taliban, and asked President Asif Ali Zardari to accord approval to the measure to usher in peace across the country.The National Assembly or lower house of the parliament adopted a resolution recommending that President Zardari should accord approval to the Nizam-e-Adal Regulation to implement Shariah or Islamic laws in Swat.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari has expressed concern about the agreement between Pakistan and Taliban about the implementation of Shariat laws in the Swat region. Tewari was speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The military, which has accused the Taliban of violating the accord by abducting and killing civilians and security personnel, said it is awaiting instructions from the government for launching a full-fledged operation in the region located 160 km from Islamabad.
Refugees from the Swat valley, displaced by conflict between the Taliban militants and the Pakistani forces in the restive north-west region of the country have started returning home, the United Nations has said.
"We are troubled and confused in the sense about what happened in Swat, because it is not an encouraging trend," Richard Holbrooke, the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan told the PBS news channel in an interview.
A hardliner religious leader led hundreds of his supporters in a peace march in the violence-hit north-western Swat valley in Pakistan on Wednesday apparently to convince the Taliban militants to honour a new pact reached with the government which envisages their laying down arms.
The army said the militants were apprehended during a search and cordon operation at Kuza Bandai in Swat, where troops have been conducting a major operation since mid-November 2007 to quell the activities of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah and his followers.
'Pakistan's only concern has been while they were on the FATF watch list was to distance their State institutions and organs from any direct connection with the actual execution of militancy inside Kashmir.'
Defence Minister A K Antony said on Friday that the truce between Pakistan and Taliban has added to India's "worries" over the security scenario in the region.
A furious Taliban leadership has decided to send their fighters to Islamabad as a reaction to the army operations in the Swat valley on the troubled border with Afghanistan.
Pakistani security forces have retaken a strategic mountain from pro-Taliban militants in the restive Swat valley in north-west Pakistan and shut down an illegal radio station used by their radical head as a propaganda machine.
Though the army has claimed it has secured several former militant strongholds in the restive Malakand division, including Mingora, Charbagh and Pir Baba, the Taliban continued to mount raids and attacks on positions held by security forces.
