A top United Nations official has blamed Pakistan of blocking reconciliation efforts with the Taliban by arresting several top extremist commanders.Admitting that there were secret negotiations going on with the Afghan Taliban, former UN envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide criticised Pakistan for the arrests of high-profile Taliban leaders, including the second-in command Mullah Ghani Baradar, which he said has 'completely stopped a channel of secret communications with the UN'.
A prominent Sikh politician in Pakistan, who was gunned down last week, was killed by contract killers hired by his miffed Hindu rival after he failed to secure a ticket for elections, police said .
Peace talks with the Taliban, trade and security would be high on the agenda during a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in the Afghan capital Kabul.
Together with US sanctions, the new action prohibits any financial transaction of these terror leaders in member countries of the United Nations, which is likely to put pressure on Pakistan to initiate operation against the group
Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan tried to undermine the Afghan government led by ex-president Hamid Karzai for helping "India stab Pakistan in the back".
Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was killed in a United States airstrike.
Former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Taliban, a chargesheet filed by Pakistani investigators to an anti-terrorism court has said, while giving clean chit to former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf of any involvement in the case.
The Pakistan army, while changing its operational priorities has described 'internal threats' such as anti-state terrorist groups as the biggest danger to the country's security.
The court found 4 of the accused guilty and handed down the 25 year sentence.
The much anticipated peace talks between the Taliban and the United States might not happen as well, a US official said, as the Special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan left Qatar without any talks with the Afghan insurgent group.
The shocking footage of the shooting incident, which took place a few days back near the border of Orakzai tribal agency, was made available to a Pakistani media outlet on Friday.
"He (Shahzad) visited Pakistan seven times in the last few years and he met Hakimullah Mehsud and also met other people, (including) leaders of the Taliban," Rahman Malik told media persons in Pabbi town in the country's northwest.
General Sharif will meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other civil as well as military leaders during the day-long trip.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has urged the Taliban to stop suicide bombings and take the initiative of holding peace talks with the Pakistan government.
Evidence gathered by Pakistani investigators has indicated that Taliban terrorists who attacked a key airbase last month had contacts with security personnel at the facility, according to a media report on Wednesday.
If the killing of Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone attack is confirmed, it could set off a new power struggle within the Tehrik-eTaliban Pakistan, which may conclude with the naming of Qari Hussain, the chief instructor on suicide bombers, as the new Pak-Taliban chief, according to a report published in the New York Times.
Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has reportedly been killed in Pakistan, an Afghanistan private television channel has reported.
No one should be allowed to use Pakistan's territory to import or export terrorism, says Hamid Mir.
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.
Top Taliban leader Mullah Omar was sheltered by Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services intelligence after the outfit's leadership fled from Afghanistan in 2001, according to an email received by former secretary of state Hillary Clinton during her tenure.
The United Kingdom on Tuesday moved to ban Pakistan-based Tehrik-e-Taliban as a terrorist group, weeks after intelligence reports stated that the outfit was planning to carry out Mumbai-style attacks in the country and mainland Europe.The order moved in British Parliament will make the membership of Pakistani Taliban and raising funds for the organisation in the United Kingdom a criminal offence.Home Secretary Theresa May introduced the order in Parliament for its approval.
Pakistan is reportedly lobbying for new government in Kabul without Hamid Karzai as president.
A man who allegedly helped terror suspect Faisal Shahzad travel to Pakistan's tribal belt to attend bomb-making camps was arrested on Thursday.The arrested suspect has admitted to being an accomplice of Shahzad, who was arrested at New York's JFK airport for plotting a terror attack on Times Square. He also has links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.The latest arrest confirms the fears of the US administration that the Pakistani Taliban plotted the failed bomb plot.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has issued chilling threats against 10 targets in Britain, America and France to avenge the killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has cautioned the United States against any peace talks with the Taliban arguing the terrorist outfit is unlikely to change its behaviour and as reconciliation effort would be a futile exercise.
'The main leadership of the Taliban that is allied with Al-Qaeda is in Pakistan. Now, they send people across the border. They help to fund the Taliban extremists who are, you know, more associated with Al-Qaeda than indigenous groups,' Clinton told ABC News in an interview.
Utilising a new executive order signed by President Donald Trump, issued on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary, the treasury department sanctioned over two dozen individuals and entities from 11 terrorist groups, including Pakistan-based Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Karzai has steadfastly opposed direct talks between the US and the Taliban, wanting Afghan ownership of the "reconciliation process", as the reintegration of the Taliban into the mainstream is referred to.
In yet another show of its 'barbaric' justice, the Taliban blew up two alleged United States spies in a village near Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan in Pakistan.
India said perhaps the Permanent Representative of Pakistan is "not aware that Osama bin Laden was hiding in their own country in plain sight, and it is the US forces which got him inside Pakistan. Nor have they heard their Prime Minister refer to Osama bin Laden as a martyr."
Pakistan has granted some concessions to key Afghan Taliban leaders in its custody, including Mullah Omar's deputy Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, shifting them to "roomier facilities" and allowing them to make telephonic contact with their families.
Pakistan's powerful ISI is no longer considered a "friend" of Taliban in Afghanistan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has claimed.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari recently met 50 captured Taliban leaders, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in a prison to assure them that their outfit had his government's full support and that they would be freed soon, a media report in London claimed on Sunday.
The designation of the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and lumping it with the likes of other Pakistan-based terrorist outfits such as the Jaish-e-Muhammad and Lashkar-e-Tayiba, 'is a no brainer,' and will likely happen before the month is out, senior Obama administration officials told rediff.com.
Some commanders have refused to pledge allegiance to Akhundzada, according to interviews with Taliban commanders and officials.
Two days after reports emerged that he had been killed in a shootout with a rival, Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud contacted media organisations on Monday to say that he was "alive".Talking to Geo News channel, Hakimullah said no scuffle had occurred between him and Rehman.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for attacking a pro-government militants center over the bordering area of Hangu and Kurram Agency on Saturday that resulted in the deaths of 10 people, and injuring 20 others.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency has categorically denied any links with the Taliban.The Daily Times quoted ISI Director General Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha as saying that the ISI is a professional agency and does not have links with any militant outfit, including the Taliban. Pasha's remarks came during a meeting with Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta, National Security Adviser Lieutenant General James Jones and other officials.
Hakimullah Mehsud appointment would fuel suicide attacks throughout Pakistan's urban areas. During Baitullah's time he said that suicide bombers would hit twice a week in the urban areas of Pakistan.
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