The Pakistan Army on Tuesday claimed that its forces waging a tough ground offensive in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region have captured most of the towns and populated centres from the Taliban.
Pakistani forces fought pitched battles with Taliban fighters in their bid to wrest their hub of Sararogha in South Waziristan killing 34 militants to raise the terrorist death toll to 227, but lost 11 soldiers as insurgents opened new fronts in the lawless region.
Pakistan's military operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan will be taken to its logical conclusion despite a wave of attacks by the militants as 'failure is not an option,' Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.
Pakistani jets and artillery pounded Taliban bases for the second day on Sunday killing 60 militants in the lawless Waziristan region as ground forces continued their push into the strongholds of the Taliban and captured two key towns from them despite stiff resistance.
Faisal Shahzad, son of a retired Pakistani Air Vice Marshal, has admitted to attending a terrorist training camp in restive Waziristan before his failed bid to explode a car bomb at the Times Square in New York.
In continuing wave of violence in northwest Pakistan, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle, packed with 50 kg of explosives, when he was flagged at a checkpoint at Pishtakhara Chowk, the main entry point to Peshawar from the troubled Khyber tribal region.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded Taliban strongholds in the volatile South Waziristan tribal region on Friday as the death toll from the series of US drone attacks in the region rose to 13. The warplanes hit targets in preparation for a full scale military operation which Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar said would take off as soon as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud was spotted.
The large number of missiles fired seemed to indicate an important militant was targeted. The identities of those killed could not immediately be ascertained.
Over 400 militants attacked the Sararogha fort at midnight and later captured it, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters. He said 40 to 50 militants and seven Frontier Corps personnel were killed in the fighting.
The United States has said that it is pleased with the success of Pakistan army against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Southern Waziristan and reiterated that it would continue to support such efforts to combat terrorism.
The Pakistan political leadership may be calling for 'peace talks' with India, but the country's military continues to spread propaganda by dropping pamphlets in North Waziristan that link the Taliban with India's external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing.
Managing the senior generals has proven to be quite a headache for General Asim Munir, even as he and his team of loyal henchmen labour hard to dispel the sense of unhappiness among the public about the army's overbearing presence and interference in matters 'civilian', notes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has not ruled out the possibility of an American ground offensive in North Waziristan, but told parliamentarians at a briefing that Washington will have to think many times before launching such an attack.
The horrific attack on the Peshawar school is the terrorists's retaliation for the Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan.
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.
Pakistani fighter jets pounded militant hideouts in the lawless North Waziristan Agency killing at least 15 militants, official sources on Thursday said, as peace talks with the Taliban remained in limbo.
According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the army, the terrorists attacked the security post in Dera Ismail Khan's Daraban area bordering the South Waziristan tribal district in the early morning hours.
Two commandos of the special forces were also killed in the rescue operation that was launched after negotiations between the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants to end the hostage crisis failed.
Aware of simmering dissensions within the top echelons of the army, Munir has moved slowly in reshuffling senior generals, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W, India's external intelligence agency.
At least two policemen were killed and many others injured when Pakistani Taliban militants seized a counter-terrorism centre and took some people hostage in the Bannu district of Pakistan's troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
On January 30, a suicide bombing at a mosque in the Peshawar Police Lines area claimed the lives of at least 101 people
The military establishment is in no mood to forgive or forget Imran's anti-military utterances, observes Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RAW, India's external intelligence agency.
Pakistan, in recent months, has been increasingly frustrated by the Taliban government's reluctance to eliminate the terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday chose Lt Gen Asim Munir as the new Army chief to replace incumbent General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
The timing of these transfers, while being projected as routine, is significant in both strategic and political terms, asserts Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
At least 48 militants were killed on Tuesday in airstrikes by Pakistani fighter jets in the country's troubled northwestern tribal region.
A US drone strike on Thursday killed at least 7 militants including a commander of the dreaded Haqqani network in northwestern Pakistan's restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
At least 30 terrorists were killed on Tuesday when Pakistani fighter jets carried out air strikes on militant hideouts in Shawal valley, a mountainous area in North Waziristan sharing boundary with South Waziristan, and other areas of the restive northwest tribal region.
There were reports of lobbying within the Pakistan army for the ISI DG's post, which falls vacant in June, reveals Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
A key Pakistani Taliban commander involved in an assassination attempt on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf has been arrested in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region, sources said on Wednesday.
The Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent says a series of drone attacks have killed nearly 50 of its members, including deputy head Ustad Ahmad Farooq and Qari Imran, the group's central council member and in charge of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
At least 6 militants, including foreigners, were killed and 3 others injured on Tuesday in a United States drone attack in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region.
Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed, who has been replaced as ISI chief, will remain in the forefront of Pakistani initiatives in Afghanistan as also in the peace talks with the Tehrik e Taliban, Pakistan. He will also get a year plus to serve in a corps command, remaining in the race for selection as the next army chief when General Bajwa retires in November 2022, explains Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing.
In a surprise military shake-up, the Pakistan Army on Wednesday announced that the powerful spy agency ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed has been appointed as Peshawar Corps Commander -- a crucial position in view of the Taliban's takeover of neighbouring Afghanistan.
Umer Farooq, believed to be in charge of Al Qaeda's operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, in a US drone attack in in the Khar Tangi area of Datta Khel district of Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan region, a day after the chief of the terror group's global operations was also killed in a Pakistani military operation.
United States drones targeted a compound and a vehicle in the restive North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan on Sunday, killing six militants, officials said.
India is apprehensive about the Taliban's return as it would mean loss of access to Baluch rebels and help to the restive tribals of Waziristan. This would be a setback to the Indian strategy of returning the compliments of death by a thousand cuts to Pakistan, notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A key facility run by Afghan militant group Haqqani network for training the suicide bombers has been unearthed in Pakistan's troubled North Waziristan tribal region.
Twenty suspected militants were killed in two United States drone strikes in the restive South Waziristan tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Monday.
At least 16 people were killed and over 30 injured in bomb attacks and violence in restive Balochistan while three soldiers died in north Waziristan region, when Taliban terrorists struck at a Pakistan Independence Day parade.
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