A former aide of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has accused him of plotting the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in 2007.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban strongholds in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Friday as the death toll from the series of US drone attacks in the region rose to 13. The warplanes hit targets in preparation for a full scale military operation which Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said would take off as soon as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud was spotted.
A top local Taliban leader has dismissed contentions by Pakistani officials that India is helping militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Claiming that 'thousands of our well-armed militants are ready to fight alongside the army if any war is imposed on Pakistan', chief of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, told The News daily by phone from an undisclosed location. Hundreds of would-be bombers had been 'given suicide jackets and explosive-laden vehicles for protection of the border in case of any aggression by the Indian forces', he said.
Security expert B Raman writes on the alarming rise of Taliban in Pakistan.
The prime suspect in the terror attack on a police academy near Lahore has revealed that all his accomplices were Afghans and information provided by him, a Pakistani Taliban operative, has led to the arrest of some "local facilitators", the investigators said on Tuesday.
The Pakistan government on Monday agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province, including the Swat valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, which has been the scene of a raging Taliban insurgency.
In the second major strike in the last four days, American drones on Monday targeted a Taliban hideout in Pakistan's restive Kurram tribal region, killing at least 15 people and wounding several others. The drone fired two missiles at the hideout, where a meeting of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan was being held, TV channels reported. There was no official word on the incident. This was the first such attack in Kurram Agency.
Taliban forces in Pakistan have announced a ten-day ceasefire in the restive north western Swat valley, as peace talks between a senior cleric and local authorities are believed to have struck a deal to enforce Shariah laws in some parts of the region.The announcement of the truce came a day after a Chinese engineer, abducted by the Taliban six months back, was set free in Swat as a 'goodwill gesture'.
Ten people were killed on Monday when militants attacked the home of a provincial legislator's brother in Pakistan's restive north-western Swat valley even as the government banned the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Taliban militants fired a rocket at the home of the brother of Awami National Party legislator Waqar Ahmed Khan in Kabal sub-district, killing his brother, two nephews and seven security guards.
Pakistani Taliban has warned that boys and girls of its suicide squad will launch "massive" strikes across the country, including the commercial hub of Karachi, if military operation in Swat and other tribal areas are not halted immediately.
"We continue to urge our partners in Pakistan to go after all terrorist networks operating in their country. We stand ready to help them," said Adam Szubin, Acting Under Secretary on Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
Pakistani police and counter-terrorism forces on Monday raided a house near Lahore, killing four Taliban militants and seizing a large cache of arms as they claimed to have averted a "major terror attack".
Hardening its stance, the Pakistani Taliban have announced the boycott of negotiations on Friday with the North West Frontier Province government unless it releases all its detained members under a deal signed last month.
Yasin was also responsible for the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
'By annoying the Arabs and cozying up to Iran, Pakistan may end up losing Arab economic support, annoying the Americans and increase Shia-Sunni tensions domestically,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd) points out.
"Pakistan should not be compared to the rest of the Muslim world... we actually compare ourselves to India. If India can have a democratic process, if they can have 450 million people going to the polls and then have free and fair elections, so can we," he said.
'A six month extension, if not extended further, would make General Bajwa a lame duck chief, altering the balance of his equations with the senior peer group of lieutenant generals,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
With the maulana fully committed and PML (N) cadres prepared to court arrest, this would be the first time where both Punjabis and Pakhtuns would be standing up against the Pakistan army, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday responsibility for the assasination of a prominent Sikh politician who was shot dead by motorcycle-borne gunmen near his home in Pakistan's restive northwest.
Pakistan's law minister Zahid Hamid on Monday quit as the government "surrendered" to hardline religious groups, who called off their violent protests in Islamabad that had left six people dead and hundreds injured.
Opposition leader and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan has been booked for forcing police to release his party workers arrested in violation of Section 144 in Islamabad, officials said on Monday.
IS-Khorasan was sanctioned for its links with Al Qaeda and involvement in several deadly attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan that killed over 150 people.
The former Pakistan cricket captain said the polls should be conducted under the supervision of an independent Election Commission.
A ceremony to launch Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai's book was scrapped after the government of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province said it could not provide security for the event.
Khan said he would go to London on June 2 and assemble a team of lawyers to file a case against Hussain for his alleged role in 'instigating' the violence.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The horrific attack on the Peshawar school is the terrorists's retaliation for the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan.
At least 23 people were killed and 55 others injured on Sunday when a powerful bomb ripped through a crowded used clothes market in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The fact came to light once again after two militants affiliated to pro-Pakistan groups surrendered before the Army soon after landing in Srinagar from the neighbouring country.
Pak group's "anti-US" play raises NGO's hackles
In a major relief for cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, Pakistan's Supreme Court today withdrew the contempt of court notice against him. A three-member bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali discharged the notice after hearing the arguments of Attorney General Munir A Malik in the case who said that it is not the matter of disobedience.
Mulk, 67, is likely to be sworn in on Friday, June 1.
Khan was detained at his home in Islamabad as he prepared to take out a march from Rawalpindi to Islamabad to protest against against US President Bush's visit
The Indian Mujhaideen does not want to be an India centric outfit anymore and is keen on joining forces with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Vicky Najappa/Rediff.com reports
The suspension of US aid to Pakistan, which was announced by President Donald Trump in January 2018, remained in effect throughout 2019, the State Department said.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
TTP chief said the blast was in retaliation for killing LeJ chief Chotu, along with three others in an encounter.
Imran said Sita White had asked him and his wife, Jemima, ten days before her death if the couple would be the girl's guardians.
Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed were named on Monday in the Summit declaration of the BRICS countries.
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