Afghanistan's Taliban have been wrongly perceived as close ideological allies of Al Qaeda and they could be persuaded to renounce the deadly global terrorist group, American scholars say.
Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan on Tuesday said slain former premier Benazir Bhutto had faced a threat from the Taliban and al-Qaeda because she had pledged to take action against the two groups but there is no similar danger to him.
The Pentagon today advised Pakistani military to take the extremists in the country "head on" and defeat them.
Top US officials are unhappy over some Inter-Services Intelligence elements continuing to support the Haqqani network to counter India's presence in the region, amid fears that Pakistani military is "unable or unwilling" to act against Taliban and Al Qaeda in the restive tribal belt.
The United Nations Security Council has split a key sanctions list on the Taliban and Al Qaeda to inspire the radical Islamic militia to join the reconciliation efforts in Afghanistan.
Concerns that Afghanistan and India became too close in the post-2001 period was one reason why Pakistan was reluctant to act against Taliban and Al Qaeda, according to a report, which recommends engagement with the militants to end the conflict in the restive nation.
Shamsi airfield, in the Baluchistan region in southern Pakistan, has become the new ground zero in the United States war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.The Times, London, reports that the Central Intelligence Agency is covertly using the Shamsi airfield, located just 30 miles from the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, to launch Predator strikes on Taliban and Al Qaeda bases on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan -- a fact repeatedly denied by US and Pak
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said Taliban and Al Qaeda are using Pakistan's tribal areas particularly north Waziristan to regroup, a problem the US is trying to address with Islamabad.
According to the reports, America's Defence Intelligence Agency was aware that Pakistan's ISI was sponsoring the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Terror group Al Qaeda is "shaping" its regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent to spread its operations into Jammu and Kashmir, Bangladesh and Myanmar, according to a UN report.
An imminent concern for India is the fact that disenchanted al-Qaeda cadres may shift their allegiance to the Islamic State and its regional affiliate Islamic State -Khorasan Province.
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.
At least six suspected militants were killed on Wednesday in a United States drone strike in Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan tribal region, amid reports that Taliban's No 2 commander in the country, Waliur Rehman, was among those dead.
India and China on Thursday held their first dialogue on Afghanistan in Beijing in a bid to evolve a joint strategy to deal with much feared possible return of Taliban and Al Qaeda after the departure of US troops next year.
Two top Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants were killed in northern Afghanistan in combat operations conducted by the country's Special Operations Unit and coalition troops, officials said on Monday.
Unlike Israeli company NSO, whose sale of Pegasus cyber tech grabbed worldwide attention, and other manufacturers of offensive-cyber products, Cellebrite operates in a grey area between security exports and civilian ones.
A Pakistani marine commando posted at the PNS Mehran naval airbase, which was attacked by terrorists on Sunday, was arrested in January for his links with militants. The marine commando had warned about an impending attack.
Nearly three-fifths of the people of Pakistan believe that India poses a greater threat to their country than those from the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a latest survey results released on Wednesday said.
Accusing Pakistan of harbouring Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, a top Afghan official on Monday said the global community is committing a blunder by embracing it as a strategic partner despite the fact that terrorism emanating from the region is affecting India, United Kingdom and others. "Unfortunately, the military-intelligence establishment of one of our neighbours still regards Afghanistan as its sphere of influence," Rangin Dadfar Spanta said.
The pre-dawn missile strike was carried out near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency that is described as a stronghold of Taliban and Al Qaeda elements.
A federal minister in Pakistan on Saturday announced a bounty of $100,000 on the head of the maker of an anti-Islam film that has sparked violent protests, shocking many people with his announcement.
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has made a special plea to Pakistan to support the country's reintegration plans. "We ask all neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to support our peace and reconciliation endeavours," Karzai told a London conference on Thursday.
The incident occurred early Tuesday morning in Datta Khel region of North Waziristan Agency, which has witnessed numerous missile strikes by US drones over the past few years.
Top US military commander has said that any links, if they exist, between Pakistan's military intelligence and militant outfits were "completely unacceptable".
The first three months of this year has experienced a sharp decline in the United States drone attacks inside Pakistan's tribal region which is home to Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, a report said.
Terrorists targetted a police van with a roadside bomb in northwest Pakistan's restive Bannu region on Thursday, killing at least two security personnel and injuring five others, a day after a suicide attack on a police station in the same area claimed 20 lives.
Hours before Washington is set to release an assessment of war in Afghanistan, topmost United States military commander has expressed "impatience" with Islamabad over its failure to clear terrorists from havens on the border with Afghanistan.
As terrorism cannot be fought piecemeal, the international community must provide 'appropriate responses,' including security enforcement and economic and developmental strategies that rapidly bring the benefits of governance and development to people in the worst-affected districts, India's UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen told the Security Council.
US embassy cables released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks reveal that teams of US special forces have been secretly working with Pakistan military in the tribal areas, the Guardian said.
America's CIA is running a 3,000-strong covert army to hunt down key leaders of Taliban and Al Qaeda in not only Afghanistan but across the border in Pakistan.
Apparently upset with their remarks over alleged link between Inter Services Intelligence, Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the Pakistani spy agency chief Lieutenant General Ahmed Shuja Pasha refused to meet visiting US Special Representative Richard Holbrooke and American military commander Admiral Mike Mullen.
The Canadian police have arrested a man on suspicion of terror activities but released him on lack of evidence, a day after terror charges were brought against three men arrested by the same police unit. The arrest comes amid a continuing probe into a group of Canadian citizens allegedly working with an international terrorist organisation on terror plots to make bombs and aid Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.
Jamiat Ulema e Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, once considered as the patron of Taliban chief Mullah Omer, is today struggling to save his life in Pakistan, as Taliban and Al Qaeda members are chasing him like shadow.
Describing the resurgence of Taliban and the Al Qaeda as 'real challenge,' India on Wednesday asked the international community to put 'effective pressure' on Pakistan to implement its commitment to deal with terror groups in its territory, failing which the region could be catapulted into spiral of violence.
An increasing number of militants of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement fighting for the separation of China's Muslim majority Xinjiang province were "fleeing to Pakistan and settling down there for future plots," a state-run newspaper reported on Monday.According to latest reports, the ETIM has been in close collaboration with the Taliban and Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden," the China Daily said in its lead story on the first anniversary of the bloody riots in Xinjiang.
US will supply sophisticated laser-guided-bomb kits, 12 American-made surveillance drones and 18 late-model F-16 fighters to boost Pakistani forces capability to strike in remote tribal areas, a development which could spark unease in New Delhi.
The US said the current "status quo" in Pakistan's restive tribal areas, which have become a safe haven for Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists, is "unacceptable" amid growing fears that Islamabad was not doing enough to battle militants holed up near the Af-Pak border.
Now that it has been revealed that Osama was hiding in Pakistan, the presence of other key Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives in that nation doesn't seem such a far-fetched possibility
The United States may mount special operations to strike Taliban and Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan and also step up drone attacks against them in the near future, according to an American intelligence think-tank.Contending that the bulk of Al Qaeda leadership is now in Pakistan and not in Afghanistan, the Stratfor, in its annual security forecast, said this could prompt "Increased cross- border US military activity -- mostly drone strikes, but also Special Forces Operations.
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.
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