Taliban has come under tremendous pressure following Pakistan's military action against the militant group in Swat valley and adjoining areas, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday.
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.
Blaming the Pakistan government for the killing of its chief Hakimullah Mehsud, Taliban has warned that it "will soon start targeting" the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership for its alleged support to the United States in the region.
Residents also reported, heavy artillery, tanks and ground troops in hundreds moving towards Buner as forces sought to drive the Taliban back into the Swat Valley. The army estimates there are 400-500 Taliban militants hiding in Buner.
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.
Parkash, a 2022 graduate of Abbottabad International Medical College, serves as the general secretary of the PPP women's wing in Buner.
"The operation will continue till the last Taliban militant is eliminated," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told media persons at the Islamabad airport on his return from the US. Malik's remarks come as Pakistani army and fighter jets resumed their pounding of Taliban positions after a nine hour pause ordered to lead the trapped civilians reach safer areas.
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.
Taliban chief Mullah Omar is dead, the Afghan government announced tonight, "confirming" reports about the one-eyed extremist leader who ruled the country with an iron fist between 1996 and 2001.
'We already have Indian Islamic extremist groups working in India, and secondly, if Pakistan slides even further, India will be sharing a border with the Taliban,' says Ahmed Rashid, perhaps the world's foremost expert on the Taliban.
The much anticipated peace talks between the Taliban and the United States might not happen as well, a US official said, as the Special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan left Qatar without any talks with the Afghan insurgent group.
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
A United States drone crashed in the restive South Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on Sunday, with the Taliban claiming that its militants had shot down the unmanned spy plane.
There have been conflicting reports about whether Taliban's supreme council was consulted or not on the election
The United States has said that Taliban is not an enemy of America, a move seen as the latest effort of the Obama administration to send an olive branch to the terrorist outfit that ruled Afghanistan before 9/11.
Almost all mosques in villages in Buner district are being used by the Taliban to recruit local residents for their cause of enforcing Sharia or Islamic law in the Malakand division, which includes Swat, and the rest of the country, media reports said on Monday.
Mullah Naqibullah, the commander of Taliban's militia in Kandahar and his close colleague Mullah Abdul Qayum were reportedly among those arrested.
Some commanders have refused to pledge allegiance to Akhundzada, according to interviews with Taliban commanders and officials.
Acknowledging the killing of its leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, the Afghan Taliban have announced Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada as his successor.
A confidential Spanish defence ministry report has alleged Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped arm the Taliban in 2005 for assassination plots against the Afghan government, media reports said. The confidential report, obtained by Cadena Ser radio and posted on the station's Web site, also alleges the Inter Services Intelligence helped the Taliban procure roadside bombs.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was among six militants killed in a US drone strike on Friday in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region.
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.
