The Pakistan Taliban is rapidly making inroads into the Punjab province despite contradictory claims by the Shahbaz Sharif government.
Police in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Monday that an initial probe has suggested that the banned terrorist group Islamic State is behind the suicide attack on a political convention of a hardline Islamist party that killed at least 46 people and injured over 100.
Making a distinction between some violent extremist groups and others is counterproductive, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday told Pakistan that the Taliban's safe havens along the Af-Pak border have to be eliminated or both nations would suffer "more lethal and brazen attacks".
In a major setback to Taliban, missiles fired from US drones have killed its top commander and group's deputy chief Qari Hussain Mehsud, mastermind of many suicide attacks across Pakistan, sources claimed on Friday.
A Pakistani Taliban group on Saturday banned the use of "tight or thin" clothes both for men and women in the holy month of Ramadan and warned of one month imprisonment for not fasting.
The Pakistan military believes that American and British military will withdraw from Afghanistan -- and when they do, they will need old Taliban friends such as Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Sirajuddin to minimise the influence of India in its Afghan backyard.Although Pakistan's military chiefs have been talking about an 'imminent' assault since last June, all the evidence has pointed to deep reluctance to launch a massive ground offensive.
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.
Maulana Noor Muhammad Wazir, a 'good Taliban' who always spoke against suicide attacks in Pakistan himself became a victim to suicide bombing on Monday.
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.
The Afghan government was holding secret talks with the Taliban's No 2 when he was captured in Pakistan, and the arrest infuriated president Hamid Karzai, according to one of Karzai's advisers.
The Pakistan army on Monday launched an all-out offensive using jets and tanks in the restive North Waziristan, killing nearly 184 Taliban fighters including foreigners, while six soldiers were killed in an IED blast, the first military casualties in the operation.
A 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl who spoke out against Taliban atrocities in their former stronghold of Swat was on Tuesday shot in the head and seriously injured, with the banned outfit saying they had targeted her for her "pro-West" views.
Taliban's supreme commander Mullah Mohammad Omar, now in hiding, has put pressure on his groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan to form a new grouping which has pledged to stop targetting Pakistani security forces and instead focus attention on US-led troops in Afghanistan.
The recent attacks in Pakistan's Punjab should be taken as warning shots of an impending battle which will further destabilise that country and the region.
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.
Mullah Yaqub, who was in his early 20s, was killed by Taliban who didn't want him as their leader and Pakistan, says a top Afghanistan lawmaker
In the first major military confrontation since US President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops late last year attack, thousands of American, Afghan and British troops are battling the Taliban in Helmand province of Afghanistan.
India abstained in the United Nations General Assembly on a draft resolution introduced by Pakistan and co-sponsored by China on Islamophobia, asserting that the prevalence of 'religiophobia' against Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and other faiths facing violence and discrimination must also be acknowledged rather than singling out just one religion.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq warned of "harsh response" to any military attack on its main stronghold of South Waziristan, as Pakistani fighter jets pounded their hideouts in the area where reports said an all out offensive was imminent.
'The Pakistan army is trying to mainstream the LeT.'
Karzai has steadfastly opposed direct talks between the US and the Taliban, wanting Afghan ownership of the "reconciliation process", as the reintegration of the Taliban into the mainstream is referred to.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, in an exclusive interview to rediff.com's Tahir Ali, has said that the increase in American troops will only provide the Taliban with more opportunities to attack. It has also claimed that the Pakistani Army's operations have done no damage to its strength and that it is as strong as it was earlier.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The case of Shahbaz Bhatti clearly shows that the terrorists were guided by someone from within the forces, as the killers not only knew that the minister had no security at the time they planned to attack him but they also succeeded in leaving the place undisturbed.
Parkash, a 2022 graduate of Abbottabad International Medical College, serves as the general secretary of the PPP women's wing in Buner.
In a significant climbdown, the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday said it is ready for a ceasefire and peace talks if the government stops arresting its fighters and killing them in fake police encounters.
Pakistan-based outlawed groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have supported Taliban and Al Qaida in destabilising the country, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said.
At least eight Central Intelligence Agency workers were killed in a daring suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan on Thursday.
Director General Inter-Services Public Relations Asim Bajwa told Pakistani daily Dawn that "all four suicide bombers were killed" and a clearance operation is underway.
Nearly three years after she was assassinated, investigators have concluded that former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was killed by the Pakistani Taliban in a gun-and-bomb attack in Rawalpindi. The FIA is expected to submit its report on the investigation to an anti-terrorism court on October 30. The FIA's investigation team was initially reluctant to submit the chargesheet to the court because it could not complete its probe regarding the three accused who are absconding.
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.
An American drone strike on Tuesday killed at least nine Pakistani Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province
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.
Having flown on deadly sorties during his five-month deployment, British Royal Prince Harry has confirmed that he killed Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, taking them "out of the game", much like other soldiers fighting with him.The 28-year-old, known as Captain Wales in the Army, is returning to the United Kingdom after his second deployment to the war-torn country.
The Pakistani Taliban on Monday warned all international organisations and individuals to leave the country or face violence as it was in a "state of war". Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that Pakistan had buried the desire of its people for peace in the North Waziristan tribal region and launched a military operation to make its western backers happy.
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.
Shaken by the Taliban terror attack in which 148 people, including 132 school children, were killed in Peshawar on Tuesday, Pakistan has pledged to announce a "national plan" to tackle terrorism within a week with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying "this entire region" should be cleaned of terrorism.
Extensive firing continues in the area and heavy contingents of elite force have been deployed.
The 19 August attack on the British Council compound in Kabul had the necessary SIR elements -- Surprise, Intricacy and Retribution.
