Amid a spirited argument between Pakistan and Afghanistan on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, former US president Bill Clinton on Thursday said the Al Qaeda leader is "probably" in the restive Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan.
Did Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence 'give up' its spies as pawns to launch an offensive against the Taliban militia in the country's North Waziristan region?
The Pakistan army killed at least 120 suspected terrorists in the North Waziristan tribal region during the Zarb-e-Azb operation.
Tahir Ali's exclusive account for rediff.com from South Waziristan where the Pakistan Army and the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan are engaged in a 'decisive war'.
After repeatedly expressing suspicion over Indian role in the South Waziristan insurgency, Pakistan has finally admitted that it has found "no concrete evidence" to establish the Indian angle.
Hours after a suspected Taliban suicide bomber detonated his vehicle in Peshawar killing 49 people, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said the government had no option but to strike back on the militant stronghold of south Wazirstan."We have no other option but to carry out an operation in south Wazirstan," the interior minister told a private television channel after the attack.
'There are no links between India and the Taliban. Even if India supports militancy, it is not foolish enough to leave evidence.'
The terrorists who attacked a key Pakistan Air Force base had been trained in the Waziristan tribal region where plans for the raid could be traced, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
The 'Shura' or council of a Taliban faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur yesterday warned parents not to send their children to five schools near the cantonment in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency.
Pakistan, probably for the first time, has admitted that the failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad had links in South Waziristan, the strong hold of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Having steered clear of North Waziristan for years, Pakistan army is contemplating an offensive into the restive area fearing that it may have become a "witches brew of jihadi groups".
The advance on Mehsud tribal positions began on Saturday morning after a go-ahead was given by the government for starting an offensive on Taliban stronghold at a meeting attended by the top political and military leadership.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, also known as 'Taliban Khan' has announced taking a peace caravan to Waziristan in late September. But the Taliban factions there are divided over the rally. Tahir Ali reports.
According to local Urdu TV channel Geo News, the US pilotless plane attacked a suspected house in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, Pakistan's restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Notwithstanding United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's clarifications that there was not sufficient evidence to prove India's involvement in terror activities inside Pakistan's territory, Pakistan Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that Islamabad has found 'concrete evidence' regarding New Delhi's role in fanning insurgency in South Waziristan, where the military is engaged in an intense battle with the Taliban.
As militants escape the north Waziristan hideout following Islamabad's decision to take on the Taliban in the region, they are becoming easy pray for US drones, reports Tahir Ali.
Assistant Political Agent Azmat Jamal and his two associates were killed when the suspected militants ambushed their vehicle in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan Agency, officials of the political administration told the media.
Although there are still no signs of a military offensive in North Waziristan by the Pakistan army, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has said that it is all set to combat the upcoming military operation in the region that according to the outfit, would be launched in the last week of August.
Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has dispelled reports of joint operations with the US against militants in North Waziristan, saying Pakistan alone would decide the timing of any offensive in the tribal region according to its military requirements.
"We continually review our strategy with respect to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. So it is something that is occupying quite a bit of our time at the State Department, DOD, as well as the White House," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
The deal with the tribesmen in Waziristan only empowered the local Taliban.
At least 60 militants were killed on Wednesday in precision bombing by air force jets on Taliban targets in Pakistan's restive tribal region on the Afghan border, military officials said.
There has neither been an agreement between Pakistan and the United States for a military offensive in North Waziristan, nor has any final decision been taken on the operation, Pakistan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar has said.
The Pakistan Army on Tuesday claimed that its forces waging a tough ground offensive in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region have captured most of the towns and populated centres from the Taliban.
Pakistani forces fought pitched battles with Taliban fighters in their bid to wrest their hub of Sararogha in South Waziristan killing 34 militants to raise the terrorist death toll to 227, but lost 11 soldiers as insurgents opened new fronts in the lawless region.
Pakistan's military operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan will be taken to its logical conclusion despite a wave of attacks by the militants as 'failure is not an option,' Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.
Pakistani jets and artillery pounded Taliban bases for the second day on Sunday killing 60 militants in the lawless Waziristan region as ground forces continued their push into the strongholds of the Taliban and captured two key towns from them despite stiff resistance.
Faisal Shahzad, son of a retired Pakistani Air Vice Marshal, has admitted to attending a terrorist training camp in restive Waziristan before his failed bid to explode a car bomb at the Times Square in New York.
In continuing wave of violence in northwest Pakistan, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle, packed with 50 kg of explosives, when he was flagged at a checkpoint at Pishtakhara Chowk, the main entry point to Peshawar from the troubled Khyber tribal region.
A senior Afghan interim government official on Monday confirmed that strikes in the Afghanistan provinces of Paktika and Khost along the Pakistan border have taken place.
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.
The large number of missiles fired seemed to indicate an important militant was targeted. The identities of those killed could not immediately be ascertained.
Over 400 militants attacked the Sararogha fort at midnight and later captured it, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters. He said 40 to 50 militants and seven Frontier Corps personnel were killed in the fighting.
The United States has said that it is pleased with the success of Pakistan army against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Southern Waziristan and reiterated that it would continue to support such efforts to combat terrorism.
The Pakistan political leadership may be calling for 'peace talks' with India, but the country's military continues to spread propaganda by dropping pamphlets in North Waziristan that link the Taliban with India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has not ruled out the possibility of an American ground offensive in North Waziristan, but told parliamentarians at a briefing that Washington will have to think many times before launching such an attack.
The horrific attack on the Peshawar school is the terrorists's retaliation for the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan.
Managing the senior generals has proven to be quite a headache for General Asim Munir, even as he and his team of loyal henchmen labour hard to dispel the sense of unhappiness among the public about the army's overbearing presence and interference in matters 'civilian', notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
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.
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.
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