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.
Pakistan on Saturday accused the US of deliberately trying to sabotage its peace process with militants by carrying out the drone attack that killed Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, saying it would review the entire gamut of bilateral ties and cooperation.
At least 54 suspected militants belonging to a pro-Taliban outfit, including its spokesman, were killed on Wednesday when Pakistani fighter jets pounded their hideouts and troops clashed with the insurgents in the volatile northwest tribal region near the Afghan border.
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.
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.
"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.
The blast took place as a bomb placed inside the bus exploded when the vehicle packed with government employees reached Peshawar from Mardan.
Al-Qaeda's reclusive chief Ayman al-Zawahiri is cut off from his top commanders and keeping the outfit afloat only through loyalty as the once world's most feared terror group is steadily losing recruits and funding sources to its splinter faction -- the Islamic State.
Pakistan has ordered a probe into the killing of the eldest son of the chief of the dreaded Haqqani network that has been blamed for attacks on the Indian Embassy and American forces in Afghanistan, a report said on Friday.=
Investigators also found that the accused, Abdul Rahman, 37, was closely related to one of the persons held in connection with the 2007 GlasgowInternationalAirport attack, but failed to gather further leads in this line of inquiry.
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.
At least nine people, including six Afghan security officials, were killed and 19 others injured on Friday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a check post on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the troubled Balochistan province.
Both Messrs Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri claim to march independently, but most of Pakistan believes they are marching to the Army's tune
'There are thousand ways to pressure Pakistan to make it behave.' 'Going to the ICJ was the worst possible option,' says Colonel Anil A Athale.
A grieving Pakistan's policy shift towards the Taliban has comes at a great cost, says Shahzad Raza.
Pakistani Taliban has warned that the next few days and weeks would be "disastrous" for the country as the banned outfit vowed to "teach" the government and its security agencies a lesson over the killing of its leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike.
Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar, considered a close confidante of army chief Gen Raheel Sharif, was appointed on Monday as the new head of Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence.
'The best course for India is to wait out the implosion that is bound to take place in Pakistan sooner than later.' 'We have to ensure that the fallings debris from a collapsing State does not damage us,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
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.
'Peace talks with Pakistan are like accepting a dinner invitation from cannibals and hoping to return alive,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Is Nasir Khan Janjua's appointment as Pakistan's national security advisor the first step in suborning the elected civilian government?
The brutal Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan assault has claimed 141 lives, including 132 school children, six terrorists and three armymen.
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.
Amidst fracas over the launch of his book in Mumbai, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri has said that he is optimistic about peace between India and Pakistan and called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take forward Atal Bihari Vajpayee's work towards that end.
The Intelligence Bureau has alerted Centre about Dawood Ibrahim-led D Company's 'legal' foray into the ship breaking industry which the latter used as a disguise to carry out not just arms and narcotics smuggling but also to sneak in terrorists from across the border. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
'If India employed a strategy of a 'thousand cuts', Pakistan will wither away.'
'The biggest stumbling block will come from the traditionalists in the Pakistan army who have grown on a diet of anti-Indian propaganda and thinking on which much of their role -- both militarily and politically -- is centered upon.'
'If push comes to shove, Pakistan does have the capability to make it difficult for the US and NATO forces to make even a withdrawal of troops out of Afghanistan in orderly fashion,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
At least 21 people, including a suicide-bomber, were arrested on Monday and explosives and a suicide vest recovered from Wagah border area as all of Pakistan was put on red alert after 61 people were killed in a deadly terror attack at the Indo-Pak land border crossing.
In his latest book 'Playing to the Edge', Michael Hayden, the former CIA director said that Pasha had conceded that some of the powerful spy agency's retired members were engaged in training those involved in the heinous crime but refused to take action.
With hardline commander Mullah Fazlullah at its helm, the Pakistani Taliban has vowed to launch a wave of revenge attacks and ruled out talks with the government.
'Omar Khorsani has called repeatedly for the most barbaric of attacks. He is very adept on social media. He is, in other words, eerily similar to the ISIS leader Baghdadi.' 'The crux of the army's 'strategic asset' policy -- its policy of regarding militants as those that can help Pakistan pursue its regional interests -- is that Pakistan needs help in weakening India or in keeping its presence minimal in the region.' Michael Kugelman reveals what the world can expect next from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the terrorists responsible for the Peshawar school massacre.
'132 hearts snuffed out. 132 coffins. 264 bereft parents. And hundreds and hundreds of classmates traumatised for life...' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel mourns those unfinished lives, murdered on a cold morning in Peshawar.
Nawaz Sharif's appointment of a new army chief will influence India-Pakistan relations
'Pakistan will try to escalate covert operations through terrorism,' says Dr Shalini Chawla.
Pakistan will work to improve ties with all countries in the region, including India, by seeking the peaceful resolution of issues like Kashmir while ensuring that its soil is not used for terrorism against any other nation, President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said.
A deputy leader of Al Qaeda's branch in the Indian subcontinent, who was seen as a "rising star" in terrorist circles, died in an American drone strike in Pakistan in January that also killed an American and Italian hostage, according to a media report.
The India card is now almost obsolete. There are more pressing challenges. People of Pakistan are fed up with years of bad governance, corruption and broken promises of successive governments. However, the politicians and former generals are still provoking sentiments on what is happening on the Line of Control for petty political gains, says Shahzad Raza.
'Pakistan should evolve a common narrative. The country should have common position in combating all kinds of terrorism and not fight selectively.' 'The main motive was revenge, of course. But the Nobel Prize to Malala Yousufzai also contributed to the Taliban's anger' Bestselling Pakistani author and foreign policy expert Ahmed Rashid speaks exclusively on the Peshawar school attack with Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
Nearly 30 IM members are an active part of the terror group behind the suicide attack at Wagah, which is worrying Indian security agencies.
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