"We will wait till January for our offensive since we are stronger during the snowing season," said Hakimullah, who was made chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan after his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack in August
Indian intelligence agencies and military experts, who have been watching the developments in Pakistan closely, say the military operation is a lot more complex than it seems to be and in the end, might even result in a direct threat to India.
A United States drone fired two missiles in Pakistan's northwest tribal region on Thursday night amid anti-drone protests being staged in the country.
Pakistan on Monday said its anti-Taliban operations in Swat had entered the final phase with troops having "totally dismantled" the militants' infrastructure, even as over 30 rebels and 16 soldiers were killed in fresh fighting in the unruly North West Frontier Province and Waziristan.
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.
Days after the United States Senate approved a $1.5 billion package for Pakistan, including $400 million in military assistance, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik told The Financial Times that his government has put Punjab and Sindh on high alert to avert the possibility that Taliban terrorists, fleeing the military offensive in the Swat valley and Waziristan, may seek refuge in these areas.
As the battle in lawless Waziristan intensified, the Pakistan government on Monday raised the bounties on the heads of 19 Tehrik-e-Taliban terrorists, including its chief Hakimullah Mehsud to a whopping Rs 41 crore or USD 5 million.
No one claimed responsibility for the killing of Zainuddin, who had expressed his opposition to Baitullah Mehsud in recent media interviews. Zainuddin had also declared war against the Pakistani Taliban chief and his followers.
A top Pakistani tribal leader has vowed to wipe out the feared warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who has pushed Pakistan close to collapse. 30-year-old Qari Zainuddin, the leader of Taliban tribesmen opposed to Baitullah, said he had mobilised 3,000 armed followers and will attempt to wipe out the Pakistani Taliban chief and drive his al-Qaeda supporters from the country.
Though Pakistan has announced an all out offensive, a 'mother of all battles' against the Taliban in South Waziristan, local residents see the offensive as futile as they believe many Taliban have slipped away into other neighboring areas.
Two suspected operatives of Al Qaeda have been arrested in New Delhi and Odisha and Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted a module of the terror group's Indian sub-continent wing operating out of the country.
Speculations are rife in the Pakistani media that 'Pakistan's Switzerland' -- Swat, the principal city in the troubled Waziristan region has fallen to Taliban.
A hitherto unknown pro-Taliban group called 'Ansar Wa Mohajir' has claimed responsibility for Wednesday's car bomb attack in Lahore, for which four alleged Indian nationals have reportedly been arrested by Pakistani authorities.
A United States drone fired three missiles on Saturday in Pakistan's troubled northwestern tribal region near Afghan border, killing at least 13 people, including women and children. The drone fired the missiles at the home of a tribesman in a village, located 40 kms from the headquarters of North Waziristan tribal agency, local residents said. In his new Afghan-Pakistan strategy, Obama has stressed that if the US has high-value targets in the region.
'Nobody is sure if Baitullah is dead or alive. For me, he is still alive. He can be considered dead when the national flag of Pakistan is hoisted on the buildings of all the schools in South Waziristan and students celebrate August 14 without any fear.'
After his killing, the Taliban Shura (the supreme council of the Taliban) has convened meetings to elect the new TTP chief. There are three candidates in the running -- Hakimullah Mehsud, Azmatullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman Mehsud.
Defence Secretary Mattis said he cannot certify that Islamabad has taken 'sufficient actions' against the dreaded Haqqani terror network.
Haji Omar Khan, a lieutenant of Afghan Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, was killed when two missiles slammed into a suspected militant training camp near Ladha town in South Waziristan close to the Afghan border early on Monday morning, local TV channels reported.
At least eight people were killed and six others injured when two missiles fired by a suspected US drone hit a 'madrassa' founded by a Taliban leader in Pakistan's restive tribal region. The drone fired missiles at Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani's madrassa located a few kilometres from North Waziristan Agency's main town of Miranshah, late Wednesday night.
In the last year since the Indian embassy in Kabul was bombed on July 7, allegedly by the Sirajuddin Haqqani faction of the Taliban based in Pakistan's North Waziristan province, India has well and truly joined in United States president Barack Obama's 'AfPak strategy' that is aimed at jointly looking at Afghanistan and Pakistan as the expanded theatre of war against the Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The Bush administration apparently has no problem with the new Pakistani government's peace deal with militant groups in that country's North West Frontier Province, including Waziristan that have been sympathetic and allied with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It has even given the tentative agreement its cautious blessings.
14 people, including three women, were killed and 20 others injured in missile strikes by suspected unmanned US drones on a seminary linked to top Taliban Commander Jalaluddin Haqqani in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region on Monday.
The Pentagon today advised Pakistani military to take the extremists in the country "head on" and defeat them.
Two missiles were fired at a house in the Khushali Torikhel area near Mir Ali town at around midnight, TV channels reported. Among the five persons who died were foreign militants, the reports said.
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.
Citing official sources, Dawn News channel said that at least 10 soldiers were killed and a dozen others injured in the attack, which occurred at a spot 12 kilometres from Miranshah.
Taliban militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, accused by the Pakistan government of being involved in the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, is set to dispatch a delegation to meet Pakistan People's Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari to condole the death of the former premier, a news report has said. "The delegation, comprising prominent tribal elders and religious scholars from South Waziristan, will deliver a written condolence letter from Mehsud to Asif Zardari," it said.
A top Member of Parliament in the UK has asked if the government knew about the US missile strike in Pakistan which killed an on-the-run militant from the UK.
Four persons were killed and five others injured today in a missile strike by a suspected US drone in Pakistan's south Waziristan tribal region, a stronghold of the local Taliban led by Baitullah Mehsud.
Boxer Amir Khan will donate a pair of 30,000 pounds ($47,007) shorts to the Peshawar school in Pakistan where 132 children were killed by Taliban gunmen earlier this week.
Pakistan army retaliated to the deadly Taliban attack at Peshawar school by killing 5 militants in massive airstrikes in the Khyber tribal region where the suicide bombers were reportedly trained.
Stating that the Al Qaida was able to establish an unprecedented safe haven along the Pakistan-Afghan border in the past 18 months, the Central Intelligence Agency chief has warned that the situation there presented a clear danger to the two nations, as also to the United States. General Micheal Hayden termed the 2006 peace deal between Pakistan government and the pro-Taliban tribals in North Waziristan as absolutely disastrous.
The deal was agreed between the government and more than 280 tribal elders and terrorists in North Waziristan last month, The Daily Telegraph reported, quoting a government official in Peshawar.
Senior Al Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi was killed along with other militant fighters in a United States missile strike in Pakistan, a website linked to radical Islamic groups has reported.
Fifteen-year-old Aitezaz Shah, who was arrested from Dera Ismail Khan town of the North West Frontier Province, identified the bomber as a man named Bilal who belonged to the South Waziristan tribal region, Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said.A team of investigators has gone to South Waziristan to meet Bilal's family to get more information about him. Reports said that the investigators had shown a photograph of the suspected bomber to Aitezaz Shah, who identified him.
Over 150 pro-Taliban militants and 45 soldiers have been killed in three days of fierce fighting in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, However, the army on Tuesday ruled out the possibility of declaring a ceasefire to put an end to the violence. Approximately 13 security personnel have also been reported missing in the last two days. Local reports also claimed that 50 civilians had died in the clashes but these were denied by the army.
Over 60 pro-Taliban militants and 20 soldiers were killed in fierce clashes between security forces and rebels in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region; where over 50 Pakistani troops were reported missing on Monday. Military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said army authorities had lost contact with two groups comprising over 50 security personnel. Local residents alleged that several civilians were killed and injured in the attacks
Pakistani security forces on Sunday attacked militant hide-outs in the country's restive tribal region near the Afghan border. In the ensuing clashes, 20 ultras and two soldiers were killed. The forces participating in the operation in the Mirali area of North Waziristan tribal agency were backed by helicopter gunships and artillery. Two soldiers were also killed and six more injured in the ongoing operation.
Officials said unidentified men attacked a security check-post on Friday night near Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan, injuring security personnel.
Mehsud blew himself up with a hand grenade when troops surrounded his hideout around 0830 hrs at Zhob, 300 km north of Balochistan provincial capital Quetta.
