The officials said the freed Taliban leaders include Sheikh Abdur Rahim and Mawlawi Abdur Rashid, who had served as the insurgent group's governors of Kunar and Nimroz provinces respectively during the Taliban administration before it was deposed by the US-led forces in 2001.
'From what evidence has come up, General Bajwa somehow managed to tell the Americans that I was anti-American.' 'And so, it [the plan to oust me] wasn't imported from there. It was exported from here to there.'
Imran Khan knows Pakistan is holding a strong hand and doesn't have to flaunt it while claiming victory. But Pakistan has learned from the experience of the 1990s -- high risk of going out on a limb, asserts Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A senior police officer said that rescue work had been completed at the site and the injured had been taken to hospital.
Two Sikhs, abducted by Taliban, have been rescued by security forces in the restive Khyber tribal region in northwest Pakistan, a week after two members of the community were beheaded by the militants, a military spokesman said on Monday.The two abducted Sikhs--Surjeet Singh and Gurvinder Singh--are safe, a spokesman said.
Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, a former defence minister in the Taliban's Majlis-e-Shura or executive council, was recently arrested along with two Afghan nationals by intelligence agencies in Lahore, the Daily Times reported.
Five Pakistani soldiers and at least 27 militants, including some foreigners, were killed On Sunday in clashes and air strikes in the restive northwestern tribal belt, where the military has launched a major offensive against the Taliban.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban leader freed from a Pakistani jail on the request of the US less than three years ago, has emerged as an "undisputed victor" of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, according to a British media report.
Australian foreign minister Marise Payne and defence minister Peter Dutton will visit India from September 10 to 12 to take part in the dialogue with their Indian counterparts.
After two decades, the SCO appears to be at a cross-roads with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
Terror group Al Qaeda is "shaping" its regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent to spread its operations into Jammu and Kashmir, Bangladesh and Myanmar, according to a UN report.
'Afghan people will not accept a governing structure that excludes women and minorities'
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.
A 32-year-old man chargesheeted in the deadly terror attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district five years ago has died of a heart attack in the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, officials said.
WWhat Pakistan faces in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is virulent insurgency and terrorism, fuelled by its association with Al Qaeda
India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim was in Pakistan but has been chased out of the country, claimed Pakistan's former foreign secretary and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's special envoy to India, Shahryar Khan.
It's intriguing that the prime minister now wants his American partner to help protect the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. That's conceding to the Americans a pre-eminence India has always contested, resented and feared, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
All things taken into consideration, the Taliban statement on Kashmir portends trouble ahead. The Taliban is notorious for doublespeak and when it says there is no link between the Kashmir issue and the Afghan settlement, the opposite must be taken into account as well, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Jalaluddin Haqqani was closely tied to Al Qaeda leaders and had played a key role in supporting the terror group in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Top Taliban commander Nasiruddin Haqqani, a key fundraiser of his outfit, has been arrested by Pakistani security agencies apparently in response to United States demands for action against militant networks in the restive North Waziristan tribal region.
With hardline commander Mullah Fazlullah at its helm, the Pakistani Taliban has vowed to launch a wave of revenge attacks and ruled out talks with the government.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
China is a big country with a huge economy and capacity. They can play a big role in rebuilding, reconstruction of Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.
'Ajit Doval said, "They are threatening us now".'
Samajwadi Party member of Parliament Shafiqur Rehman Barq has been booked for sedition following his recent remarks allegedly defending the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan and equating it with India's own freedom struggle, police said on Wednesday.
Pakistani authorities and the local Taliban have agreed to a ceasefire in the troubled Swat valley following peace talks between militants and religious hardliners, a top official said on Saturday. Syed Mohammad Javed, the commissioner for Malakand division which includes Swat, told reporters that the security forces and the Taliban would observe the truce. He made the announcement after meeting Maulana Sufi Mohammad, a hardline cleric who is negotiating with the militants.
India has sent a team to Kabul to oversee the delivery of India's humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and hold discussions with the Taliban over the aid provided by New Delhi.
The US has the distinction of destroying a flawed but functioning State thrice since 1979. Pakistan has been their constant accomplice, explains Shekhar Gupta.
"The Taliban want an Islamic country. These people want to make a Hindu Rashtra," the lyricist said without naming the RSS.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Seven Pakistani security personnel were on Monday killed when Taliban militants ambushed their vehicle near a strategic tunnel in the troubled North West Frontier Province.
At least 17 Taliban militants were killed on Friday in a fresh assault by Pakistani security forces on a Taliban stronghold in the volatile Orakzai tribal region, official sources said.
Referring to the argument made by the US that F-16 sustenance package is to fight terrorism, Jaishankar had said everybody knows where and against whom F-16 fighter jets are used.
Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, on Wednesday arrived in Islamabad, his first visit to the country, as part of efforts by the two sides to reset their ties in the wake of the Taliban's takeover of Kabul.
'No one in this administration, not the President nor anyone on the national security team, would suggest that the Taliban are respected and valued members of the global community'
Sixteen militants were killed in two United States drone strikes within last 24 hours in Pakistan's restive tribal region, ending a five-month hiatus.
Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that India was waging a proxy war against his nation trough terrorism.
"Ambassador Mittal raised India's concern that Afghanistan's soil should not be used for anti-Indian activities and terrorism in any manner," it added.
Taliban militants on Tuesday attacked a training camp of the Airport Security Force near Karachi international airport in Karachi, but fled after Pakistani forces repulsed the assault, a day after an all-night siege at the facility left nearly 40 people dead.
Players from Afghanistan's female youth soccer teams have arrived in Pakistan and will seek political asylum in third countries amid concern over the status of female athletes under the new Taliban government in Kabul.
