The activation of diplomatic channels is likely to yield better results than a simmering hostility, recommends Ajai Shukla.
"The 'red bag' belonged to one of the hijackers, it contained explosives, and possibly, real passports, too.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the army, the terrorists attacked the security post in Dera Ismail Khan's Daraban area bordering the South Waziristan tribal district in the early morning hours.
A top Taliban militant leader has been sacked as the deputy commander of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, amid speculation of a deepening rift in the terror group over the peace talks with the government.
No one claimed responsibility for the killing of Zainuddin, who had expressed his opposition to Baitullah Mehsud in recent media interviews. Zainuddin had also declared war against the Pakistani Taliban chief and his followers.
The Taliban had promised an 'inclusive' government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup, but there is no Hazara member in the cabinet.
Pakistani Taliban has vowed to bring back Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a US-trained Pakistani neuroscientist accused of firing at US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan in 2008 as she tried to escape from their custody by force. Dr Aafia was handed a 86-year sentence by a federal court in Manhattan, US, on September 23.
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.
"We will wait till January for our offensive since we are stronger during the snowing season," said Hakimullah, who was made chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan after his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in August
The 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team cites a UN Member State as saying that Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), a Deobandi group ideologically closer to the Taliban "maintains eight training camps in Nangarhar, three of which are directly under Taliban control."
The Pakistani Taliban on Thursday lauded the action of Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American arrested for a botched car bombing in New York, but said he had no links to the banned militant group.
A video purportedly released by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing in Times Square in New York City, a Washington-based intelligence group said.
Dreaded Islamic State militant group has appointed a breakaway Taliban commander as its chief in Khurasan, a historic name used by militants for an area covering Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.
"Our role (in the Afghan peace process) will remain that of a facilitator and not a leader... allowing the Taliban to open an office in Pakistan will be contrary to our principled position," Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was quoted as saying by an unnamed aide.
Darul Uloom Haqqania madrassa, one of Pakistan's largest and oldest seminaries and dubbed as a 'university of jihad' by its critics for helping sow violence across the region for decades, has educated more Taliban leaders than any school in the world and its alumni now hold key positions in Afghanistan, according to a media report.
The arrest of four militants, including two young suicide bombers, in Karachi has once again highlighted the dangerous trend of how the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan is using local maulvis and handlers to poison the mind of innocent youngsters and send them to the tribal Waziristan mountainous region to become suicide bombers.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has rejected offer of a ceasefire by the Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban's spokesman outlined conditions for a ceasefire, which said the country must stop its involvement in the war pitting Afghan insurgents against the Kabul government and refocus on a 'war of revenge' against India.
Pakistan has said it will not back off from military offensive against militants in North Waziristan in the aftermath of the terror attack at a school in Peshawar that left 141 people, mostly children, dead.
Top Taliban commander Usman Punjabi has been killed during in-fighting within militant groups at the North Waziristan Agency in Pakistan.Talking to rediff.com via phone from North Waziristan's Shakir Dawar, a local tribesman said, "Fighting erupted among two groups of the Punjabi Taliban. Usman Punjabi, along with three companions, and two persons from the rival group were killed on the spot." Punjabi was an active member of the Punjabi Taliban.
Almost 70 Pakistani VIPs, including the current and former chief ministers of North West Frontier Province, leaders of political parties, senior police officials and heads of paramilitary forces, are on the hit list of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, it has emerged.
Even though the Taliban has managed to capture Afghanistan and form a government, an internal rift between the faction has started emerging, according to media reports.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
Despite dependence on the ISI for years of sustenance, Taliban leaders may harbour resentment over the ISI's excessive control, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
Three people were killed and seven others injured.
US-led NATO forces are facing a tough time in Afghanistan after Pakistan blockaded the main supply route and the Taliban stepped up attacks on vehicles and oil-tankers carrying essentials with nearly 60 trucks being destroyed in last three days.
Three Taliban militants have been given a death sentence by a Pakistani court for attacking trucks carrying critical supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan in 2010.
The Indian side expressed readiness to provide extensive humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, Mujahid was quoted as saying by Afghanistan's Tolo News.
Blinken said the US will continue to act against those who threaten the country, its people and its allies.
The US intends first to cripple the Afghan government financially through sanctions, freezing of assets, denial of access to international banking, etc, and then proceed to do pretty much what it wants to do with scant regard for Afghanistan's sovereignty, predicts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The visit comes two days after Pakistan officials shared with the Chinese embassy the preliminary findings of their investigation into the attack.
'What has the impact of 40 years of warfare in Afghanistan been on us?' 'Afghanistan is marginal to India's future.'
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack on an elite Pakistani army training centre at Mardan in the country's northwest region.The suicide bomber unleashed his lethal payload in the midst of a parade, killing 27 soldiers and wounding 40 others. TTP spokesperson Ihsanullah Ihsan said, "We proudly claim responsibility for the Mardan attack; we sent the Fidayeen (suicide bomber) and he successfully carried out the attack."
India is worried about Pakistan getting the Taliban to ignite trouble in Kashmir, observes Ramesh Menon.
India needs to shed its policy of lethargy and inhibitions to engage the Taliban with an intent to maintain its influence in Afghanistan. This would not just put a spanner in Pakistani designs, but also incentivise the Taliban not to be the puppets of GHQ, Rawalpindi, asserts Colonel Nikhil Apte (retd), who served on the Af-Pak desk at the Military Operations Directorate.
Pakistani Taliban's Sindh unit, which had penetrated into various departments of the provincial government, was involved in a foiled terror attack at a Naval dockyard in Karachi in the country's financial capital.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has warned of intensifying attacks on security forces in Bajaur region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas if does not stop the offensive against extremists in the region.
There is growing acceptance of the idea in the international community that engaging the Taliban government is a far better approach than ostracising it, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
ISI chief Faiz Hameed coerced the Taliban to announce an interim government guaranteed to preserve Pakistan's control over the levers of power in Kabul, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Women petition the Taliban. Talibs patrol Kabul's streets. Afghans flee into Pakistan.
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