The Pakistani Taliban have sacked their official spokesman for issuing threats to Afghan Taliban, signalling internal fissures within the ranks of the terror outfit.
Angered by the coverage of its attempt to assassinate teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai, the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has drawn up plans to target Pakistani and international media organisations across the country.
Hakimullah Mehsud-led Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan believes that since all decisions of the Pakistani government are influenced by the army, his organization will only talk with negotiators who represent the military and not the government. Tahir Ali reports
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has held both India and Pakistan responsible for the 'unrest in Kashmir' and has vowed to liberate and establish Islamic Shariah there.
Talks between Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and the Pakistan government are at standstill position, as both the parties blame each other for 'non-serious' attitude during the much-awaited peace negotiation.
Against the backdrop of a spate of attacks on election meetings and campaign offices ahead of the landmark May 11 polls, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud has said his group is focussed on ending the country's democratic system.
With a little more than a month to go for Pakistan's general election, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud has described democracy as a system of 'kafirs' (non-believers) and vowed to wage jihad to implement Islamic law in the country. In a video message issued on
During a secret meeting held at Asad Khel village in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region, Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud allocated Rs 25 million for attacks targeting the PAF base in Lahore and offices of the ISI, Military Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and Counter-Terrorism Department.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's chief Hakimullah Mehsud has severely criticised the Pakistani justice system and its 'pro-American policies'. In a recently released video, he also vowed that the TTP will continue its struggle until Islamic Shariah is implemented in the country.
Conflicting accounts emerged on Wednesday of a possible nascent peace process between Pakistani authorities and the Taliban, with a militant spokesman confirming preliminary peace talks while denying the announcement of a ceasefire.
Pakistani news website thenews.com.pk reported that a clash broke out between the groups led by Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman. The meeting was convened to appoint a sucessor to slain Taliban commander Beitullah Mehsud.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Hakimullah Mehsud has warned that his fighters were planning orchestrated attacks against the government and the military to wrest control of areas that they had lost in the country's northwest.
The offer of peace talks came at a time when the Pakistani military operations in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the Pak-Afghan border had had little impact on the operational capabilities of the Tehrik-e-Taliban. Amir Mir reports.
Over a year after US and Pakistani authorities claimed to have killed Mehsud in a drone strike in North Waziristan, the Pakistan Taliban chief made an appearance in a video footage showing the killing of former Inter-Services Intelligence officer Colonel Sultan Ameer Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam on Saturday.
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.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud received splinter injuries to his head and back in an American missile strike in Pakistan's lawless Waziristan tribal region that killed at least 15 militants, according to intelligence officials.Mehsud, who became the Tehrik-e-Taliban chief after the killing of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August last year, was injured in Thursday's United States' missile strike at Basalkot in Shaktoi area.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, led by Hakimullah Mehsud, has intensified its assaults on Pakistani security forces in South Waziristan.
Calling it the "mother of all operations", Pakistan has started a massive offensive against militants in the restive South Waziristan Agency (SWA). Named operation Rah-e-Najaat (The Path to Salvation), the initiative started last Saturday -- plans to flush out Hakimullah Mehsud led Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The dreaded outfit, on its part, has claimed that it will fight "till the last drop of their blood".
New Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud surfaced on Monday and vowed to strike United States and Pakistani interests -- to avenge the killing of his slain leader Baitullah Mehsud and American drone attacks on the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. His appearance in front of a select group of reporters in the South Waziristan tribal area ended speculation over his reported death in a contest for leadership of the Pakistan Taliban, sparked by Baitullah's killing.
Faisal Shahzad, the man behind the failed Times Square bombing plot, is seen in a new video footage along with Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, with the two shaking hands and hugging each other. After his arrest, the Pakistani American had claimed that he had met Mehsud and a host of other radical leaders, but investigators had then said they were yet to verify his claims. The video that has emerged shows a man who appears to be Shahzad shaking hands with Mehsud.
Intercepts of militant communications have indicated that 28-year-old Mehsud had died after being wounded in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of Waziristan tribal region, Malik told the media after appearing in a court in Peshawar.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud on Saturday issued a new audio recording saying he was alive and well, dismissing reports that he was killed in a United States' drone attack in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The recording was provided by the Taliban to the media in northwest Pakistan a day after another audio message -- in which Mehsud said he was alive but did not mention Thursday's drone strike in Waziristan tribal region -- triggered reports of his death.
Even as the army battles Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's militants headed by Hakimullah Mehsud, the government has decided to adopt another approach to end the spate of terror strikes on its soil. As part of this strategy, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has urged religious scholars to issue fatwas against the Taliban militants, by terming them as kafirs (non-believers).
'There are no links between India and the Taliban. Even if India supports militancy, it is not foolish enough to leave evidence.'
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has claimed that controversial American security firm Blackwater was behind the deadly bomb attack on a market in Peshawar that killed 105 people on Wednesday. In an interview with BBC Urdu, he claimed that Blackwater and 'Pakistani agencies' were involved in attacks in public places, in an attempt to discredit the militants. Reports in the Pakistani media have claimed that Blackwater has established a presence in the country.
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'.
Pakistan military used warplanes and attack helicopters to dislodge Taliban militants blocking its bid to overrun their strong bases as 13 militants were killed in continuing heavy fighting for the key towns of Kotkai, Makeen and Ladha in the country's lawless tribal belt.
Faced by an impending offensive by the Pakistan military on its stronghold of Waziristan, the Pakistani Taliban have curtailed infighting amongst them only by coming up with a leadership power-sharing formula. Under the formula, 28-year-old Hakimullah Mehsud has been chosen as chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, while his rival claimant Wali-ur Rehman would continue to control the organisation's affairs as he did in Baitullah's time, The News reported.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
Pakistani Taliban chief has ordered militants to hit the leaders of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's ruling party after the government lifted a moratorium on death penalty and set up military courts to try terrorists.
Pakistani authorities have arrested the main facilitator of the gruesome attack on Bacha Khan University that killed 21 people, mostly students, while he was trying to slip across the border to Afghanistan, a media report said on Wednesday.
Mullah Fazlullah, the militant commander who ordered the assassination of teenage activist Malala Yusufzai, was today named by the Pakistani Taliban as its new chief to replace Hakimullah Mehsud, killed in a US drone strike last week.
An American drone strike on Tuesday killed at least nine Pakistani Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province
Less than two days after the Taliban announced the launch of their official website hosting videos, a magazine, and its leaders' interviews and statements, it was taken down on Monday.
The grieving mourners included members of Sabri's family, friends and fans. They threw rose petals over an ambulance carrying his coffin and later followed the vehicle to the graveyard, where he was buried near the grave of his father Ghulam Farid Sabri, a leading qawwal of his time.
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".
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