'Gehlot made it a Modi versus Gehlot contest. It was for the first time in a northern Indian state where the prime minister had to confront a chief minister.'
A former Inter-Services Intelligence official, who was reported to have been killed by militants who abducted him, is alive and in the custody of Taliban fighters in the Waziristan tribal region, a media report said on Tuesday.
'Meiteis started feeling insecure stating that the illegal immigrant population is growing in the valley, and that the majority community would become a minority.'
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.
Contests in 13 seats would attract most attention during the Chhattisgarh assembly elections as they feature prominent leaders of the Congress and BJP.
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.
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.
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.
Asking Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the state government, to file an updated status report, the bench said, "It should have details like rehabilitation camps, law and order and recovery of arms."
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.
The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
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.
The home minister said the northeast and the Left-wing extremism-affected areas in the country are tribal-dominated regions and security is a precursor to development there.
Artworks and traditional items representing the rich heritage of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh were Prime Minister Narendra Modi's choice of presents to world leaders during the G-20 summit in Bali.
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.
No process can offer a panacea for ethnic conflict, but there are times at which a legal process could work to defuse violence, asserts Supreme Court lawyer Devvrat.
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.
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.
The Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan escaping religious persecution there.
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.
'... that they should listen to people of the soil of the North East and find a permanent solution to tribal problems.'
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.
In the coming days, unless Modi tones down the communal spiel, it will be clear that anxiety continues to drive his mind and clouds his judgment, observes Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
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.
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