In another significant blow to Al Qaeda's top leadership, a senior United States official said on Thursday that the terrorist outfit's chief of operations in Pakistan Abu Hafs al-Shahri has been killed in the country's northwest tribal region.
Facing intense pressure from the United States to act against militants thriving in its restive tribal region, Pakistani has blamed India and Afghanistan for stirring trouble in its northwestern areas and Balochistan province.Ruling Pakistan People's Party leader Rehman Malik, who functions as the interior minister and is a confidant of party chief Asif Ali Zardari, appealed to Pakistan's western allies, including the US, to stop India and Afghanistan's alleged activities.
At least 17 Taliban militants were killed on Friday in a fresh assault by Pakistani security forces on a Taliban stronghold in the volatile Orakzai tribal region, official sources said.
At least seven persons were killed and nine others injured when a passenger van was targetted with a bomb in the restive Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said.
For the most battle-hardened, specialised and successful counter-insurgency army in the world, this is an unfamiliar, first-time experience of dealing with the north east's deepest complexities, observes Shekhar Gupta.
Paramilitary Frontier Corps personnel repelled the attack in which Taliban fighters used suicide bombers, rockets and assault rifles to overwhelm the security forces check post in Jansi area of Khyber tribal region.
All those killed in the strike were members of the Haqqani network, led by Afghan warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, said local journalists.
At least 30 militants were killed and 15 others injured in the air strikes in Pandiali area of Mohmand Agency, sources close to the security forces said.
Unless the anarchy in Manipur is brought under control quickly, we are sowing the seeds of a flare up in the entire North East and the end of our dream of checking China in South East Asia, warns Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud received splinter injuries to his head and back in an American missile strike in Pakistan's lawless Waziristan tribal region that killed at least 15 militants, according to intelligence officials.Mehsud, who became the Tehrik-e-Taliban chief after the killing of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August last year, was injured in Thursday's United States' missile strike at Basalkot in Shaktoi area.
The Afghan Taliban have claimed that they killed three persons, including two Indians, and injured seven Afghan soldiers in a missile attack on a United States airbase and an Indian non-governmental organisation's office in eastern Kunar province.The claim was made by Afghan Taliban spokesman Qari Omar Haqqani, who spoke to reporters in Khar in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region on the phone on Sunday. Haqqani claimed the militants attacked the office of the Indian NGO.
At least eight foreign militants of German nationality were killed when a US drone struck a rebel compound in the restive North Waziristan tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Monday, sources said. The drone fired two missiles at the compound near a mosque three kilometres west of Mirali sub-division in North Waziristan.
A powerful bomb blast ripped through a crowded market in the restive Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and injuring over 30 others, officials said. The bomb was planted in a pick-up truck that was parked at a stand for trucks and buses at the market in Jamrud, one of the main towns of Khyber Agency. All the people sitting in the truck were killed instantly when the bomb went off, witnesses and officials said.
'If the central government does not give rights to the people of Ladakh, then it won't be good for our country.'
Backed by tanks and fighter jets, Pakistan Army launched the much-awaited major ground offensive on Friday to flush out Taliban from their stronghold of Waziristan tribal region and immediately ran into heavyresistance. Troops were locked in fierce clashes with Taliban, who were reported using heavy weapons, to hold back the army advance, officials said.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl has blamed the Raymond Davis network for the two suicide attacks on party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and said the murder attempts were a reaction to Fazl's stand taken on the Davis detention issue and drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal region.
US drones fired missiles targeting the house of a local man identified as Dilbar in Indi Khel village in Bannu, which is part of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, and killed four people including two foreigners, TV channels reported.
It was the first document to emerge from what the military described as a ''treasure trove'' of information when Zarqawi was killed, the newspaper reported.
The BJP also announced a Rs 5 meal scheme for all, named after religious guru Anukul Chandra, and setting up of a Regional Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Agartala.
A former leading Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence officer, who claimed to have been a mentor of Taliban, has been killed almost a year after he was kidnapped by militants in the Waziristan tribal region.
Militant commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad declared himself the head of the Pakistani Taliban, saying he was temporarily replacing Baitullah Mehsud, whom Washington and Islamabad have said was almost certainly killed in a drone attack.
Pakistan has once again requested the United States to provide it with drone technology, so that it can carry out operations against the Taliban and other extremist groups in the lawless tribal region along the Afghan border.
Pakistani troops fired at two United States helicopters that intruded into the restive North Waziristan tribal region, forcing them back to Afghanistan, a media report said on Monday.The gunship helicopters apparently intruded into Pakistani airspace at the border village of Lowara Mandi in North Waziristan Agency before they were fired at by Pakistani forces on Sunday night. Pakistani soldiers used 12.7 mm light machine guns at the helicopters, forcing them to fly back.
Three soldiers and a civilian were killed and 16 others were injured when a convoy of security forces was ambushed by Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, police said. Taliban fighters attacked the convoy with a remote-controlled bomb near Took Kach area, located between the Kurram tribal region and Hangu district, said Deputy Superintendent of Police Mir Chaman Khan. The convoy was on its way to Alizai area of Kurram Agency from Thall in Hangu district.
Pakistani authorities on Sunday, announced rewards for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of 11 militant commanders, including a bounty of Rs 50 million for local Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. According to an advertisement issued by the North West Frontier Province government, Maulvi Faqeer Muhammad, the Taliban deputy chief based in Bajaur tribal region, carries a reward of Rs 10.5 million.
Officials were quoted by TV news channels as saying that the drone fired one missile at the militant training centre located near Makeen in South Waziristan Agency, a stronghold of the militant commander Mehsud.
Pakistani security forces have killed over 30 militants in fresh fighting in Swat and the Waziristan tribal region, where the security forces carried out retaliatory air strikes after the Taliban launched attacks on several military bases.
A suicide bomber struck a World Food Programme distribution centre in the restive Bajaur tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 40 people and injuring 72 others.
At least 8 people died and over 20 injured in the latest round of bomb attacks in northwest Pakistan, as a US drone strike killed 5 suspected militants in South Waziristan tribal region, considered a stronghold of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.
The Taliban on Saturday claimed responsibility for a series of suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the bombing of Pearl Continental hotel in Peshawar. "We claimed responsibility for these attacks," said a telephone caller who introduced himself as Saeed Hafiz, a deputy of Hakeemullah Mehsud based in Orakzai tribal region.
At least 45 Taliban fighters and four security personnel were killed when Pakistani troops repelled an overnight attack by militants on a paramilitary camp in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, officials said on Sunday.
Moving from street to street, Pakistani troops on Sunday captured several key areas in Swat valley's main town Mingora from Taliban as their offensive to regain the control of the restive tribal region entered the decisive phase.
A man was killed when a remote-controlled bomb went off in the lawless Bajaur tribal region in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said. A group of security personnel were on a routine patrol in the Salarzai area of Bajaur Agency when they were targeted with the remote-controlled explosive device planted by the roadside. One security personnel was killed instantly, said officials of the local administration.
Srinagar Senior Superintendent of Police Rakesh Balwal, who has expertise in handling terror-related cases, has been "prematurely" repatriated to Manipur cadre where a fresh bout of violence has worsened the already tense situation.
A Cobra helicopter gunship of the Pakistani army crashed while targeting militant hideouts in the restive Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing its two-member crew. The helicopter crashed in Tirah valley of Khyber due to a technical problem, officials were quoted as saying by the TV news channels. The pilot and the gunner were both killed, they said. Troops surrounded the area and retrieved the bodies of the two crew members.
Intercepts of militant communications have indicated that 28-year-old Mehsud had died after being wounded in a drone attack in Shaktoi area of Waziristan tribal region, Malik told the media after appearing in a court in Peshawar.
Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has died due to injuries sustained in a United States' drone attack, the state-run television reported on Sunday, though the government said there was 'no verifiable information' about his death. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief had died in the home of his father-in-law due to wounds sustained in a drone strike earlier this month, PTV quoted local sources in Aurakzai tribal region as saying.
A suicide attacker blew himself up in a crowded market in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region, killing at least 12 people and injuring 24 others.
Seventeen people, including five children, were killed and over 30 others injured on Saturday when a suicide bomber attempted to target a security forces' convoy in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region. The convoy was going from Bannu to Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan Agency, when the suicide car bomber tried to attack it at a crowded bazar. The bomber detonated his explosive-laden vehicle when the security forces opened fire at him.
The Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there.
