Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Monday made an unannounced visit to the restive Swat valley where troops are engaged in flushing out Taliban militants.A top-level review of the security situation and the repatriation of the displaced people, uprooted by insurgency, was the highlight of the visit. The visit also assumes significance with reports of the army being on the verge of wrapping up the intensive operation.
The dastardly attack on Malala Yousufzai is a disturbing sign that Taliban militants may be regrouping in Swat valley, warns Tahir Ali
Heavily armed Taliban on Friday began pulling out from the strategic Buner town and were returning to their bastion in Swat valley after a deal was brokered by hardline cleric Sufi Mohammed, amid intense global pressure on Pakistan over the presence of militants so close to Islamabad.
A key commander of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban, who was involved in number of attacks on security forces and checkposts in Swat valley, has been arrested in Karachi.
The court found 4 of the accused guilty and handed down the 25 year sentence.
'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.'
'I am leaving Swat today. I am committed to return to Swat but I cannot come back if there is no peace. I can only use my pen and camera to report the truth if there is peace. Otherwise, I will become another Musa Khankhel and my pen will be silenced.'
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.
Since being ousted of the main towns of the Swat valley during the recent military operation, Maulana Fazlullah-led Taliban are making preparation for new offensive during the month of Ramzan. According to Taliban, the holy warriors always achieved high targets during this month, so they would go all out to retake the valley of Swat.
The Taliban attacked 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, a campaigner for girls' rights, because she criticised the Taliban's activities via her blog, reports Tahir Ali.
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 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants have found sanctuary in Afghanistan's eastern provinces, which are under the Haqqani network's control, reports B Raman
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.
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.
In an interview to a private television channel, Malik claimed that extremists who were apprehended during raids in the Swat Valley have confirmed India's hand in terror activities inside Pakistan.
The Taliban in Pakistan's restive Swat valley received US $ 6 million in compensation from the government after agreeing to a ceasefire with security forces for an indefinite period, a media report said on Tuesday.
The United States on Tuesday announced a US $ 100 million humanitarian to Pakistan to counter the appeal of the Taliban among the nearly 2 million civilians displaced by the military operations against the militants in the Swat Valley and adjoining areas.
A resurgent Taliban in Pakistan's northwestern Swat valley on Monday vowed to enforce Islamic laws across the country while ruling out the possibility of laying down arms, following the implementation of Sharia in the region.The Sharia or Islamic law regime approved recently by President Asif Ali Zardari will not be confined to Malakand division, which includes Swat, and the Taliban wants the system to be enforced in other parts of Pakistan, Taliban spokesman said.
Many feel that a humanitarian crisis is imminent as Pakistan is facing its worst refugee crisis since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
Almost all mosques in villages in Buner district are being used by the Taliban to recruit local residents for their cause of enforcing Sharia or Islamic law in the Malakand division, which includes Swat, and the rest of the country, media reports said on Monday.
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.
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".
The attacker drove the vehicle into the police station at Charbagh, located about 10 km from Mingora, the main town of Swat district, on Saturday morning. Saturday's bombing was the third suicide attack in Pakistan since Tuesday, when 78 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a hospital at Dera Ismail Khan city in the same province.
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.
The suicide attacker detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a check post near the army camp at Kabal town in the Swat valley. Three soldiers at the check post received minor injuries.
Police said the blast occurred near the venue of an election rally in Mingora, the headquarters of Swat district.
The blast damaged a petrol pump, several shops and some cars. A witness said the convoy was apparently hit by a suicide bomber who was in a jeep.
Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships fought pitched battles on Friday with pro-Taliban militants in the north-western Swat Valley, where at least 80 militants including a top rebel commander have been killed since Thursday night.
If we really want to prove that we are all like Malala, then we have to stand up for our rights like Malala did, says senior Pakistan journalist Hamid Mir
Pakistani Taliban militants based in Afghanistan have threatened fresh attacks in Pakistan that will target anyone supporting the United States and promoting American interests in the region.
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'
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.
Marvi Sirmed takes up issues that are considered 'oversensitive' in Pakistan. That's enough reason for her to be on the hit-list of extremists, writes Tahir Ali
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.
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'.
As 2012 draws to a close, rediff.com takes a look at the international personalities who hit headlines around the world.
The Pakistani police are on the look out for two youths suspected of shooting 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousufzai, and the prime suspect who drove them to the scene, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday virtually accused the Asif Ali Zardari-led Pakistan government of surrendering to terrorists.Mincing no words over the Barack Obama administration's anger over the Zardari government's striking a deal with the Taliban in Swat Valley, Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists."
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.
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