The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has welcomed as a "good omen" the decision of the country's political parties to hold talks with it and other militant groups.
Taliban attackers' brazen assault on a school in Pakistan's Peshawar city that claimed the lives of over 150 students on Tuesday has brought back chilling memories of a similar bloodbath in Russia in 2004 when Chechen rebels stormed a school.
Posters, stickers and wall-chalking supporting Islamic State terror group have appeared some 15 kilometres from Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Lahore farmhouse, prompting authorities to launch a probe into the possible presence of the dreaded militant outfit in the city.
"We are still in a state of shock at the martyrdom of our deputy chief and there is no change in our decision of not talking to the government," Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said.
Pervez Musharraf's lawyers on Wednesday said the Pakistani Taliban had threatened them with beheading if they continued to represent the former military dictator and called for a change in the venue of his high-profile treason trial.
The death toll in the horrific suicide attack that shook Pakistan minutes after the popular flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah climbed to 61 on Monday. Security agencies have arrested about 20 suspects from the Indo-Pak border area.
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.
Hizbul Mujahideen leader Mast Gul, involved in the 1995 siege of Charar-e-Sharief shrine in Jammu and Kashmir, was behind a suicide attack on Shias in Peshawar that killed nine persons, a Pakistani Taliban commander has said.
The maiden meeting between the Pakistan government and a Taliban-nominated committee to frame a roadmap for peace talks was postponed on Tuesday, with representatives of the banned group claiming state negotiators had pulled out under "pressure".
The Pakistani Taliban have issued a fatwa against the media, declaring it a "party" to the conflict in the country, and drawn up a hit-list of journalists and publishers, a media report said on Thursday.
But tactics adopted by them are similar to terrorism!!!
The spokesman even taunted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Twitter. "After the Lahore attack, Nawaz Sharif repeated old words to give himself false assurances," he wrote.
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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.
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".
The Pakistani Taliban on Monday vowed they would again target teenage rights activist Malala Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt last year to become a frontrunner for the Nobel Peace prize.
Beyond the barbed wire and watchtowers, though, lies a story that casts more than a little doubt on whether this dream will ever be realised. Praveen Swami reports.
For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the government has established its writ in the scenic Tirah Valley in the troubled Khyber agency that had become a haven for Taliban militants.
Three militant factions, including splinter groups of the Taliban, have separately claimed responsibility for the suicide attack that took place after the popular flag-lowering ceremony at Wagah in Pakistan.
The blast was claimed by both the local affiliate of the Islamic State terror group and by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
'After General Raheel Sharif took on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, some sections of the military establishment may have felt unease as to whether the crackdown could be extended against friendlier 'non-State' actors like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.'
If the parliamentary representation of radical Islamic parties goes up dramatically in 2018, what will this do to Pakistan's army?
Taliban militants on Tuesday attacked a training camp of the Airport Security Force near Karachi international airport in Karachi, but fled after Pakistani forces repulsed the assault, a day after an all-night siege at the facility left nearly 40 people dead.
In a major setback to peace talks, the Pakistani Taliban on Wednesday refused to extend the 40-day "gift of ceasefire" but said they were committed to the process the government initiated to find a solution to the decade-long insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the blast seemed to be aimed at sabotaging the Pakistan Super League final in Lahore.
Pakistan on Monday launched a massive military operation in Punjab province in the wake of the deadly Taliban suicide bombing in Lahore, conducting raids and making several arrests.
'There has to be strikes on the ISI headquarters to raze it to the ground figuratively and otherwise,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
Pakistani authorities claimed to have foiled a plot to target Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by busting a terror network planning to launch suicide attack on his residence in Raiwind on the outskirts of Lahore.
Central Intelligence Agency chief John Brennan flew to Pakistan last week for a clandestine meeting with army chief Gen Raheel Sharif to discuss a possible military operation against militants in the country's northwest, a media report said on Monday.
Pakistani negotiators on Monday cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Taliban after the insurgents claimed they had killed 23 soldiers kidnapped by them in 2010, dealing a severe blow to the fledgling peace process.
Malala Yousufzai's book has been banned in Pakistan's private schools after the teenage activist was accused of becoming a tool of the West for writing "highly controversial" contents in her memoir.
Within 24 hours over the weekend, two major terrorist attacks by Islamist extremists occurred in different parts of the world. In Kenya, military forces are still fighting terrorists holed up in a shopping mall in Nairobi, where nearly 60 civilians already have been killed. In Pakistan, over 80 were killed in a dual suicide bomb attack following a Sunday morning church service in the northwest city of Peshawar.
Is Nasir Khan Janjua's appointment as Pakistan's national security advisor the first step in suborning the elected civilian government?
The Pakistani Taliban has announced a month-long ceasefire to facilitate the resumption of peace talks suspended by the government over the recent execution of 23 troops.
Over 300 people were also injured in the attack and many of them were in a critical condition.
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Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi condemned the attack and revealed that three of his cousin's children were inside the school when the attack took place.
The horrific attack on the Peshawar school is the terrorists's retaliation for the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan.
India must watch for signs after Peshawar that Pakistan is waking up to the dangers of Islamism, muses Ajai Shukla
Amid accusations by Pakistan that America deliberately sabotaged peace talks by killing Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, the Unites States on Sunday said the militant group has a "symbiotic relationship" with the Al Qaeda and provided "safe haven" to terrorists.
'If India does venture across the LoC, it will evoke a strong response.'
Amid efforts by the concerned governments to hold peace talks with them, the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban have said they would continue their "struggle" till "the Western inspired systems" of governance in both countries are overthrown.
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