Claiming that 'thousands of our well-armed militants are ready to fight alongside the army if any war is imposed on Pakistan', chief of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, told The News daily by phone from an undisclosed location. Hundreds of would-be bombers had been 'given suicide jackets and explosive-laden vehicles for protection of the border in case of any aggression by the Indian forces', he said.
Security expert B Raman writes on the alarming rise of Taliban in Pakistan.
"We continue to urge our partners in Pakistan to go after all terrorist networks operating in their country. We stand ready to help them," said Adam Szubin, Acting Under Secretary on Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
Khadim Hussain Rizvi is now gone. But the mass appeal of fundamentalism among Pakistan's burgeoning, young, illiterate, unemployed and angry population isn't, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The prime suspect in the terror attack on a police academy near Lahore has revealed that all his accomplices were Afghans and information provided by him, a Pakistani Taliban operative, has led to the arrest of some "local facilitators", the investigators said on Tuesday.
Yasin was also responsible for the 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.
Pakistani police and counter-terrorism forces on Monday raided a house near Lahore, killing four Taliban militants and seizing a large cache of arms as they claimed to have averted a "major terror attack".
The Pakistan government on Monday agreed to enforce Islamic law in large areas of its restive North West Frontier Province, including the Swat valley, in a concession to buy peace in the region, which has been the scene of a raging Taliban insurgency.
In the second major strike in the last four days, American drones on Monday targeted a Taliban hideout in Pakistan's restive Kurram tribal region, killing at least 15 people and wounding several others. The drone fired two missiles at the hideout, where a meeting of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan was being held, TV channels reported. There was no official word on the incident. This was the first such attack in Kurram Agency.
Taliban forces in Pakistan have announced a ten-day ceasefire in the restive north western Swat valley, as peace talks between a senior cleric and local authorities are believed to have struck a deal to enforce Shariah laws in some parts of the region.The announcement of the truce came a day after a Chinese engineer, abducted by the Taliban six months back, was set free in Swat as a 'goodwill gesture'.
IS-Khorasan was sanctioned for its links with Al Qaeda and involvement in several deadly attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan that killed over 150 people.
Ten people were killed on Monday when militants attacked the home of a provincial legislator's brother in Pakistan's restive north-western Swat valley even as the government banned the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Taliban militants fired a rocket at the home of the brother of Awami National Party legislator Waqar Ahmed Khan in Kabal sub-district, killing his brother, two nephews and seven security guards.
Pakistani Taliban has warned that boys and girls of its suicide squad will launch "massive" strikes across the country, including the commercial hub of Karachi, if military operation in Swat and other tribal areas are not halted immediately.
Hardening its stance, the Pakistani Taliban have announced the boycott of negotiations on Friday with the North West Frontier Province government unless it releases all its detained members under a deal signed last month.
Pakistan's law minister Zahid Hamid on Monday quit as the government "surrendered" to hardline religious groups, who called off their violent protests in Islamabad that had left six people dead and hundreds injured.
The Pakistani Taliban on Saturday responsibility for the assasination of a prominent Sikh politician who was shot dead by motorcycle-borne gunmen near his home in Pakistan's restive northwest.
"Pakistan should not be compared to the rest of the Muslim world... we actually compare ourselves to India. If India can have a democratic process, if they can have 450 million people going to the polls and then have free and fair elections, so can we," he said.
Opposition leader and Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan has been booked for forcing police to release his party workers arrested in violation of Section 144 in Islamabad, officials said on Monday.
The former Pakistan cricket captain said the polls should be conducted under the supervision of an independent Election Commission.
The suspension of US aid to Pakistan, which was announced by President Donald Trump in January 2018, remained in effect throughout 2019, the State Department said.
Mulk, 67, is likely to be sworn in on Friday, June 1.
A ceremony to launch Pakistani teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai's book was scrapped after the government of the restive Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province said it could not provide security for the event.
At least 23 people were killed and 55 others injured on Sunday when a powerful bomb ripped through a crowded used clothes market in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
The horrific attack on the Peshawar school is the terrorists's retaliation for the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan.
Khan said he would go to London on June 2 and assemble a team of lawyers to file a case against Hussain for his alleged role in 'instigating' the violence.
In a major relief for cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, Pakistan's Supreme Court today withdrew the contempt of court notice against him. A three-member bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali discharged the notice after hearing the arguments of Attorney General Munir A Malik in the case who said that it is not the matter of disobedience.
The fact came to light once again after two militants affiliated to pro-Pakistan groups surrendered before the Army soon after landing in Srinagar from the neighbouring country.
Pak group's "anti-US" play raises NGO's hackles
Khan was detained at his home in Islamabad as he prepared to take out a march from Rawalpindi to Islamabad to protest against against US President Bush's visit
The Indian Mujhaideen does not want to be an India centric outfit anymore and is keen on joining forces with the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Vicky Najappa/Rediff.com reports
The US on Tuesday designated Maulana Fazlullah, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, as a global terrorist and slapped sanction against him.
TTP chief said the blast was in retaliation for killing LeJ chief Chotu, along with three others in an encounter.
Pakistan-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed were named on Monday in the Summit declaration of the BRICS countries.
Prime Minister Modi is visiting Palestine, UAE and Oman from February 9 to February 12.
Pakistan's powerful army chief General Raheel Sharif has asked the United States to target the hideouts of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan terrorists and their chief Mullah Fazlullah in Afghanistan.
British two-time world champion Amir Khan arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday to fulfill his promise of helping the victims who were attacked by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorists in a school in Peshawar.
Imran said Sita White had asked him and his wife, Jemima, ten days before her death if the couple would be the girl's guardians.
'With Taliban rule in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the unemployed jihadis will certainly turn their gaze to India and Kashmir.' 'Despite this imminent danger to national security, defence preparedness does not find a mention in the ongoing electoral campaign,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Tightening its noose around the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the United States has added its affiliates, including the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, to its list of designated terror organisations and slapped sanctions against two Pakistan-based LeT leaders.
Pakistan's Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province government has announced a bounty worth Rs 10 million for information leading to the arrest or killing of Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, the mastermind of the Peshawar school massacre that left 150 people dead, mostly students.
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