Mullah Fazlullah, the militant commander who ordered the assassination of teenage activist Malala Yusufzai, was today named by the Pakistani Taliban as its new chief to replace Hakimullah Mehsud, killed in a US drone strike last week.
Taliban has come under tremendous pressure following Pakistan's military action against the militant group in Swat valley and adjoining areas, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday.
Blaming the Pakistan government for the killing of its chief Hakimullah Mehsud, Taliban has warned that it "will soon start targeting" the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership for its alleged support to the United States in the region.
Residents also reported, heavy artillery, tanks and ground troops in hundreds moving towards Buner as forces sought to drive the Taliban back into the Swat Valley. The army estimates there are 400-500 Taliban militants hiding in Buner.
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.
At least 22 Taliban militants were killed and scores wounded as Pakistani war planes kept up their relentless strikes on the bases of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in restive Waziristan, while police shot dead five other radicals in Karachi on Saturday.
"The operation will continue till the last Taliban militant is eliminated," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told media persons at the Islamabad airport on his return from the US. Malik's remarks come as Pakistani army and fighter jets resumed their pounding of Taliban positions after a nine hour pause ordered to lead the trapped civilians reach safer areas.
Taliban chief Mullah Omar is dead, the Afghan government announced tonight, "confirming" reports about the one-eyed extremist leader who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1996 and 2001.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
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.
'We already have Indian Islamic extremist groups working in India, and secondly, if Pakistan slides even further, India will be sharing a border with the Taliban,' says Ahmed Rashid, perhaps the world's foremost expert on the Taliban.
There have been conflicting reports about whether Taliban's supreme council was consulted or not on the election
A United States drone crashed in the restive South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on Sunday, with the Taliban claiming that its militants had shot down the unmanned spy plane.
The United States has said that Taliban is not an enemy of America, a move seen as the latest effort of the Obama administration to send an olive branch to the terrorist outfit that ruled Afghanistan before 9/11.
The police also said that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is behind the suicide attack that injured over 100 people in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
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.
Some commanders have refused to pledge allegiance to Akhundzada, according to interviews with Taliban commanders and officials.
Mullah Naqibullah, the commander of Taliban's militia in Kandahar and his close colleague Mullah Abdul Qayum were reportedly among those arrested.
The army said that three terrorists were "neutralised while entering the base while the remaining three terrorists have been cornered/isolated due to timely and effective response by the troops".
Acknowledging the killing of its leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the Afghan Taliban have announced Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as his successor.
This will be probably for the first time since the 9/11 attacks that the representative of a duly elected Afghan government and the Taliban would be meeting face-to-face for peace talks.
A confidential Spanish defence ministry report has alleged Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped arm the Taliban in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government, media reports said. The confidential report, obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station's Web site, also alleges the Inter Services Intelligence helped the Taliban procure roadside bombs.
