Bilawal Bhutto's political inheritance is his biggest asset as well as the biggest liability as he tries to make his mark in Pakistan politics. Challenging the Taliban militants is part of that strategy, though it matches with his political ideology. Shahzad Raza profiles the son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.
Hizbul Mujahideen leader Mast Gul, involved in the 1995 siege of Charar-e-Sharief shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, was behind a suicide attack on Shias in Peshawar that killed nine persons, a Pakistani Taliban commander has said.
India strongly condemned the 'barbaric' terror attack by the Taliban on a school in Pakistan that killed 141 people, mostly children, as United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council called for perpetrators of the blood-curdling attack to be brought to justice.
Amid growing perception that he is batting for the Pakistani Taliban, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has said he is neither anti-US nor anti-India but was against "their policies".
A grieving Pakistan's policy shift towards the Taliban has comes at a great cost, says Shahzad Raza.
Pakistan police have arrested a Taliban militant allegedly involved in the killing of former Minister for Minorities' Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, who was shot dead for speaking against the blasphemy laws.
A senior Taliban commander and his accomplice have been arrested for an attack at a base camp of Nanga Parbat that killed 10 foreign climbers and their Pakistani guide, officials said on Thursday.
Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had expressed doubts about a claim by the regime of his former boss Pervez Musharraf that Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by the Pakistani Taliban, a United Nations investigator has said.
No one should be allowed to use Pakistan's territory to import or export terrorism, says Hamid Mir.
Within 24 hours over the weekend, two major terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists occurred in different parts of the world. In Kenya, military forces are still fighting terrorists holed up in a shopping mall in Nairobi, where nearly 60 civilians already have been killed. In Pakistan, over 80 were killed in a dual suicide bomb attack following a Sunday morning church service in the northwest city of Peshawar.
Slamming Pakistan for not taking action against the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, a United States report on counter-terrorism on Wednesday said India remained severely affected by and vulnerable to terrorism, including from Pakistan-based groups.
The drone fired three missiles on a compound believed to be owned by the Haqqani network of Afghan Taliban in the village of Darga Mandi in Ghulam Khan Tehsil late last night.
British two-time world champion Amir Khan arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday to fulfill his promise of helping the victims who were attacked by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists in a school in Peshawar.
The US State Department, in its Congressional mandated annual Country Reports on Terrorism for the year 2018, on Friday said even though the Pakistani government voiced support for political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban, it did not restrict the terror group and the Haqqani Network from operating in Pakistan-based safe havens and threatening the US and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
The horrific attack on the Peshawar school is the terrorists's retaliation for the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan.
Pakistan on Saturday accused the US of deliberately trying to sabotage its peace process with militants by carrying out the drone attack that killed Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, saying it would review the entire gamut of bilateral ties and cooperation.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in the lawless North Waziristan Agency killing at least 15 militants, official sources on Thursday said, as peace talks with the Taliban remained in limbo.
These are obviously not 'organic' desertions but brought about under intense military pressure, post the 9/5 arrests. It seemed as if the party was being dismantled the same way it was brought into power!, notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
In a blunt message to Pakistan, the United States has said that continued existence of terror safe havens in the country and its inability to take action against them affects their bilateral ties including security assistance.
Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who has been replaced as ISI chief, will remain in the forefront of Pakistani initiatives in Afghanistan as also in the peace talks with the Tehrik e Taliban, Pakistan. He will also get a year plus to serve in a corps command, remaining in the race for selection as the next army chief when General Bajwa retires in November 2022, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
At least eight persons, including three Haqqani network commanders, were killed on Thursday in a rare United States drone strike outside Pakistan's tribal belt, just a day after a top official said the US had agreed to halt such attacks during negotiations with militants.
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.
The Pentagon has praised India's significant contribution in the peaceful development of Afghanistan, aimed at securing a stable region and facilitating economic corridors into Central Asia.
'Against the backdrop of difficult administrative, political and economic problems, Imran's temperament and staying power will be the subject of intense expectation and public scrutiny,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan Desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Three militant factions, including splinter groups of the Taliban, have separately claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that took place after the popular flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah in Pakistan.
If the parliamentary representation of radical Islamic parties goes up dramatically in 2018, what will this do to Pakistan's army?
The press briefing seemed a deliberate decision to let the army convey its angst to Imran directly, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RAW, India's external intelligence agency.
The death toll in the horrific suicide attack that shook Pakistan minutes after the popular flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah climbed to 61 on Monday. Security agencies have arrested about 20 suspects from the Indo-Pak border area.
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.
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.
'A collapsing Pakistan may well unleash its nuclear weapons as the last throw of the dice. With a nuclear arsenal of over 50 bombs, even a regional nuclear exchange can devastate the world.'
Prime Minister Modi is visiting Palestine, UAE and Oman from February 9 to February 12.
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Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi condemned the attack and revealed that three of his cousin's children were inside the school when the attack took place.
Trump said that the US will defeat its enemies with the full force of American might.
Pakistan on Friday released the sketch of an Uzbek national it claimed was the mastermind of last month's deadly attack on Karachi airport, days after the military said he was killed in North Waziristan during an ongoing operation.
That al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani militant network and Pakistan's military and intelligence establishment are working in tandem with each other has been established with a recent statement by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the operational commander of the Haqqanis. Amir Mir reports.
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.
Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan flew to Pakistan last week for a clandestine meeting with army chief Gen Raheel Sharif to discuss a possible military operation against militants in the country's northwest, a media report said on Monday.
India must watch for signs after Peshawar that Pakistan is waking up to the dangers of Islamism, muses Ajai Shukla
Pervez Musharraf's lawyers on Wednesday said the Pakistani Taliban had threatened them with beheading if they continued to represent the former military dictator and called for a change in the venue of his high-profile treason trial.
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