The Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has acknowledged that the Taliban, with whom his government reached a truce deal in the restive Swat valley days ago, are "murderous thugs and militants" who "pose a danger to Pakistan, the United States and India".
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 Pakistan Army on Sunday launched a fresh drive against pro-Taliban militants in the northwestern Swat region amidst indications that the security forces would adopt a tougher approach against the ultras in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said 15-year-old Malala would continue her rehabilitation at her family's temporary English home before undergoing major reconstructive surgery in a few weeks.
Ehsanullah Ehsan said that he will release a detailed statement later in which he will mention the agreement he made with the Pakistani security authorities.
The Taliban on Wednesday abducted and released 30 Pakistani security personnel in Swat Valley after the hostages promised to quit their jobs in exchange for freedom.
President Asif Ali Zardari has assured the United States that the Pakistan government will not allow anybody to challenge its writ or run a parallel administration in any part of the country. Zardari gave the assurance to US Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke during a telephonic conversation, the Daily Times reported on Friday.
A 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who spoke out against Taliban atrocities in their former stronghold of Swat was on Tuesday shot in the head and seriously injured, with the banned outfit saying they had targeted her for her "pro-West" views.
Pakistani Taliban chief has ordered militants to hit the leaders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party after the government lifted a moratorium on death penalty and set up military courts to try terrorists.
Police and paramilitary troops set up security posts and bunkers protected by sandbags in Kabal, a small town near Maulana Fazlullah's stronghold at Imamdheri.
The United States has reacted cautiously to a deal between Pakistan and Taliban in the restive Swat valley saying while there is a track record of such agreements not working, it will be supportive if it meets the benchmark of ending domestic and international terrorism. Washington is willing to see what results the deal bring in and would be supportive if it leads to end terrorist violence, brings in individuals outside the political process into political process.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has announced a one million dollar bounty on Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban who is behind the attack on teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai. "This conspiracy assassination plan was made across the border in Afghanistan. Of course, (by) Mullah Fazlullah, who had fled when we took action in Malakand Swat," Malik saod.
Adnan Rashid, a Taliban fighter wanted for an attempt to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf, wrote a letter to Malala, who was shot in the head in a militant attack last year.
Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has urged the United States to strike a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan on the pattern of the Swat pact, saying that the real threat was from the Al Qaeda. "The only way forward is dialogue, which is what (Afghan President) Hamid Karzai is finally saying. You have to start talking to the Taliban," Khan said. He warned that US President Barack Obama's Afghan policy is 'exactly the same way as the mess' made by Bush.
Two top leaders of a banned pro-Taliban group, which brokered the controversial Swat peace deal, were killed on Saturday in Pakistan's restive northwest, when militants ambushed a security forces' convoy transporting the detained extremists to a prison in Peshawar.Maulana Muhammad Alam, deputy chief of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e- hariah Muhammadi which is headed by radical cleric Sufi Muhammad, and the group's spokesman Amir Izzat Khan were killed.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday indirectly blamed the Taliban for the daring suicide attack on the Inter Services Intelligence's provincial headquarters in Lahore. "It appears to be a fall-out of the ongoing military operations in Swat, Dir and other areas of the North West Frontier Province," Malik said and warned that there would be no let up in the crackdown on these 'anti-national elements'.
Dr Sandeep Pandey, a Magsasay award winner, who was part of an Indian delegation that visited Pakistan recently, writes about the situation there.
The teenage girl who was filmed being flogged by the Taliban in Pakistan's restive Swat Valley has denied that the incident ever occurred in a statement made to government officials, media reports said today.
A top Pakistani diplomat in the United States on Saturday said that Islamabad was aware that the peace deal with Taliban in the country's troubled Swat valley would not work but went ahead with it as a tactical move. Pakistan's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani, in a television interview, said even President Asif Ali Zardari knew about its result from the very beginning of the deal. He also said that such strategy could be repeated in the future.
Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province government has announced a bounty worth Rs 10 million for information leading to the arrest or killing of Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, the mastermind of the Peshawar school massacre that left 150 people dead, mostly students.
Asim Malik's shift to the important DG, ISI post comes as something of a surprise now, but it indicates the army chief's confidence in him, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad, who brokered a now-defunct peace deal between the authorities and insurgents, was arrested on Sunday in northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar for his links to militants and his role in fomenting unrest in the lawless Swat valley. Sufi, who heads the banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi, was arrested with his sons Ziaullah and Rizwanullah and an accomplice by a large police contingent during a raid in the City Town area of Peshawar.
The TTP, however, did not confirm the death of its chief in the drone strike.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has met top US officials to discuss the Barack Obama Administration's review of the Afghan policy.
The court found 4 of the accused guilty and handed down the 25 year sentence.
The dastardly attack on Malala Yousufzai is a disturbing sign that Taliban militants may be regrouping in Swat valley, warns Tahir Ali
The son of Sufi Muhammad, a hardline cleric who negotiated the controversial peace deal between Pakistani authorities and Taliban, has been killed in shelling in the Dir district of North Western Frontier Province, where security forces are conducting operations against the militants. Kifayatullah, the son of Sufi Muhammad, was killed while another relative was injured in the shelling at the cleric's hometown of Maidan in Dir.
Suspected militants shot and killed a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader in the erstwhile Taliban stronghold of Swat in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, police said.
Weeks after teen education campaigner Malala Yousufzai was attacked by the Taliban for advocating girls' right to education, another school girl from Swat, who raised her voice publicly against Taliban atrocities in the Malakand Valley, has claimed to be on the Taliban's hit list
A leader of the secular Awami National Party was killed and another injured in two roadside bomb attacks in Pakistan's restive northwest on Sunday, the latest in a string of strikes by the Taliban against the party's workers ahead of the May 11 polls.
The youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner who once took a bullet for campaigning for girls' education in Pakistan, was over the moon on Friday after completing her degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Britain's prestigious Oxford University.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command in the Al Qaeda, has urged the citizens of Pakistan to join a Jihad to thwart 'America's attempts to divide Pakistan'.Zawahiri's statement comes in the wake of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's death in an American missile strike and an intensive operation launched by the Pakistan army to flush out Taliban militants from the Swat valley.
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to demonstrate the same 'force' to deal with terror groups like Laskar-e-Tayiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed like it has done against the Taliban in Swat Valley.
Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, who masterminded the Peshawar school massacre, was believed to be killed after being seriously hit in air strikes in Pakistan's restive Khyber tribal area over the weekend.
In an "important breakthrough", three men have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the near-fatal attack on teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai in Swat, a former stronghold of the Taliban in northwest Pakistan, police said on Friday.
Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived a Taliban assassination attempt last year, on Wednesday received the EU's Sakharov human rights prize at a ceremony in Strasbourg.
As 2012 draws to a close, rediff.com takes a look at the international personalities who hit headlines around the world.
The army operation against militants in Swat and Malakand division will soon be over but Pakistan will continue to fight terrorism and take the campaign to its "logical conclusion", Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Wednesday. "The nation will soon hear the good news... soon the army operation will be over.
Over 50 people, including 41 Taliban fighters and 10 security personnel, were killed in fierce clashes in the restive Bajaur tribal region and the Swat vally in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has met Malala Yousufzai in a United Kingdom hospital, describing the 15-year-old rights activist shot by the Taliban as a 'remarkable girl'.
