Pakistan-India bilateral relations remained frozen for the fourth year over the vexed Kashmir issue but analysts hope the strained ties could be repaired if Nawaz Sharif becomes the prime minister for a record fourth time in the general elections in February in the absence of his main challenger Imran Khan who is in jail in multiple cases.
While agreeing to negotiations, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has demanded that the government make leaders of three rightwing political parties guarantors and also called for the release of six Taliban detainees before the start of talks.
Will Gen Kayani's increasingly conservative soldiers fight the Waziri militants, who have long been lauded as a sword arm of Pakistan, asks Ajai Shukla.
The Pakistan government has banned 25 religious and other organisations, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawah, the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashker-e-Tayiba, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party took an unassailable lead over its rivals in landmark general elections that witnessed a huge turnout despite Taliban threats and bomb attacks.
Despite differences almost all the militant factions agree that fighting inside Kashmir is the holiest jihad, reports Tahir Ali in Islamabad
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The Pakistani Taliban have contended that those opposed to referring to dead militants as martyrs are like persons who do not want cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar to be praised because he is an Indian.
The Pakistan army will deploy about 50,000 troops across the country to secure the general election process on May 11, which is facing a 'massive terrorist threat' from the Taliban and other terrorist groups.
The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has welcomed as a "good omen" the decision of the country's political parties to hold talks with it and other militant groups.
A rebel commander who was recently removed from the post of deputy chief of the Pakistani Taliban has said that the Pakistan government suspended negotiations with local militants because of pressure from the United States.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, led by Hakimullah Mehsud, has intensified its assaults on Pakistani security forces in South Waziristan.
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.
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.
'All Pakistan army chiefs follow a consistent line as far as India is concerned.'
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.
WWhat Pakistan faces in the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is virulent insurgency and terrorism, fuelled by its association with Al Qaeda
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Following the death of top Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan members, a comparatively weakened Pakistani Taliban are ready to hold peace talks with a government that is increasingly seen at odds with the United States. Amir Mir reports from Islamabad.
The explosion took place at 4 pm at the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl workers' convention in Khar, the capital of Bajaur tribal district.
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 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.
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.
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.
The drone fired two missiles at Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's base at Khadezai village in a remote mountainous area of Aurakzai tribal agency, witnesses said. Local residents and witnesses told TV channels that at least 12 militants were killed and more than 15 others injured in the strike.
The Pakistani police are on the look out for two youths suspected of shooting 15-year-old education activist Malala Yousufzai, and the prime suspect who drove them to the scene, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
The chief minister-designate of the militancy-hit Pakistani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Friday said his party had "no enmity" with the Taliban and was ready to hold talks with the militants.
Terrorists from the Taliban and other banned groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad carried out the assault on the Pakistan army headquarters with the intention of taking hostages who could be swapped for over 100 arrested militants, a military spokesman said on Monday.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's Shura (the supreme council) has decided that Hakimullah Mehsud will not directly meet the media as it would help spy agencies locate him.
The two commanders identified only as Iqbal and Gul Muhammad, both hailing from Faisalabad were arrested earlier this week by law enforcement agencies.
TTP chief said the blast was in retaliation for killing LeJ chief Chotu, along with three others in an encounter.
"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 Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has written a letter to the sister of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani convicted for attempted murder by an American court, promising to carry out a 'memorable attack against the United States".The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief "threatened a memorable response against the United States" in the letter he wrote to Fouzia Siddiqui nearly two months ago, Dawn News channel reported.
Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was reportedly killed in a United States drone strike in January, has vowed to attack the US in a new video dated early April."The time is very near when our fidayeen will attack the American states in the major cities," SITE quoted the Taliban leader as saying.Mehsud was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in South Waziristan in January. Pakistani intel officials and the US administration have never confirmed his death.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has died due to injuries sustained in a United States' drone attack, the state-run television reported on Sunday, though the government said there was 'no verifiable information' about his death. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief had died in the home of his father-in-law due to wounds sustained in a drone strike earlier this month, PTV quoted local sources in Aurakzai tribal region as saying.
B Raman on the situation in Pakistan after the death of Baitullah.
The fighting broke out between Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman during a meeting of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan 'shura' or council to choose Baitullah's successor following the outfit chief's reported death in a US drone attack, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Saturday night.
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