Tag: Taliban

NEW YORK - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said it was "no secret that we have not always seen eye-to-eye with Pakistan." Pressure from the Pakistani side will help push the Taliban (Afghan) towards the negotiating table and away from al Qaeda," she said in her speech at the Asia Society.
She also warned Pakistan that it risked major instability and hampering the war effort in Afghanistan unless it implemented broad reforms and stops fomenting anti-American

ISLAMABAD - Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban warned the government on Tuesday that it would punish any move to release the US consulate employee accused of murdering two Pakistanis, in a case that has further strained ties with Washington. Davis, the US consular employee jailed in Lahore for shooting two Pakistanis last month, says he acted in self defence during an armed robbery.
"If (Pakistani) rulers hand him over to America then we will target these rulers. If Pakistani

KANDAHAR - Fifteen police and an intelligence agent were killed Saturday in a string of devastating attacks in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar which were claimed by the Taliban. The attacks, which played out over several hours and left 45 people injured, involved several suicide bombers armed with guns and grenades firing on the main police headquarters after occupying a wedding hall opposite.
Three car bombs were also detonated near the police office and a further three

PESHAWAR - More than 160 Taliban militants have established a state within state in the Central Jail Peshawar, one of the major prisons of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In these circumstances, the presence of notorious extremists has deprived the death cells' inmates of joining their loved ones for sometime in according with decision of the Chief Justice of Pakistan and the Judicial Committee.
The Judicial Committee, with the CJP in the chair, in its meeting on September 4 last year

WASHINGTON - US authorities on Wednesday ordered sanctions on two Afghan nationals said to be part of the financial network that supports Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Haqqani network. The US Treasury named as Specially Designated Global Terrorists Said Jan Abd Al-Salam and Khalil Al-Rahman Haqqani, a move that freezes any assets they hold in US jurisdictions that prohibiting Americans from transactions with them.
Al-Salam was designated for acting for or on behalf of Al Qaeda

LONDON - Afghan Taliban leaders would be willing to break with al Qaeda to end the war in Afghanistan, but US policy is creating younger, more radicalised fighters less open to a peace deal, a report released on Monday said. The report, by Kandahar-based researchers Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, said the Taliban could be willing to ensure Afghanistan was not used as a base for terrorism.
US policy, however, including attempts to fragment the Taliban, "are changing

PESHAWAR - Militants fired rockets and bullets on a police patrol van in Balyamina area of District Hangu on Monday, killing at least two policemen including a sub inspector. The ambush left seven policemen injured. The District Police Officer Abdul Rashid Khan told Pakistan Today that militants hiding in mountains fired five rockets on the police when they were passing through a road linking Samana and Orakzai Agency.
The rockets were followed by firing with sophisticated

PESHAWAR - Scores of militants attacked a security checkpost in Mohmand Agency early on Wednesday, killing at least three security personnel. In retaliation, the forces reportedly gunned down 15 assailants while injuring eight others. The officials said a group of more than 70 militants attacked a Frontier Corps checkpost at Anargee in Baizai Tehsil of Mohmand Agency during the wee hours of Wednesday.
Three troops were killed and four others injured in the sever assault.

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR - A former ISI official known as the "godfather" of the Afghan Taliban, Col (r) Sultan Amir Tarar - commonly known as Col Imam, died of a heart attack in the custody of North Waziristan based militants linked with the Taliban, nearly 10 months after his abduction.
Sources said the Taliban had confirmed his death but claimed that Imam had died in Khost province of Afghanistan. "His body is being brought to Shawal Valley in North Waziristan and may be handed over

HANGU - Taliban militants killed four alleged robbers, calling them members of a criminal gang, Hangu police said on Tuesday.
According to police, the bodies were recovered from Sarkadana area and the Taliban claimed the responsibility for the killings. Police official said that a letter was found near the bodies stating that the men were killed because they belong to a gang of abductors. Taliban also warned local people against attending their funereal prayers.

KANDAHAR - A Taliban suicide bomber on Friday assassinated a police commander and killed 16 others at a public bath in southern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border, the deadliest attack in months.
The militia claimed responsibility for the attack. Policemen, who are generally less well protected than soldiers, are common targets in the Taliban's nine-year insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government. The bombing underscored the perilous security in parts of the

ISLAMABAD - The Afghan High Council for Peace, a body formed by Kabul to reconcile with the Taliban, on Wednesday asked Pakistan to use its "good office" for the success of ongoing negotiations between the Karzai government and the Taliban.
"The request for Pakistan's help for the facilitation of peace talks between the Taliban and Karzai government was made here at a crucial meeting between the 25-member delegation of the High Council for Peace in Afghanistan led by former

ISLAMABAD - A delegation of Afghan Peace Council will arrive in Islamabad on Tuesday on a two-day visit to hold talks with Pakistani leadership and furnish a formal request for Islamabad's help for the success of ongoing 'reconciliation process' with the Taliban.
Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani will lead the delegation of Afghan Peace Council, which is visiting Pakistan on the invitation of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. The 70-member council was formed by the

TIME - For Pakistan's military commanders, it was a brutal warning that the gains they had made against militants over the past two years risk erosion. On Christmas Day, Pakistan's first female suicide bomber killed 47 refugees near a World Food Program (WFP) distribution point in Bajaur, the northernmost of Pakistan's seven tribal areas along the Afghan border. The WFP operations were forced to shut down. On Wednesday, Bajaur was hit again, as militants carried out their 100th

PESHAWAR - Security forces on Wednesday targeted militants' hideouts in Kurram agency near Afghan border killing seven Taliban.
A Frontier Constabulary source told APP that the forces launched the attack in Chinarak area in Kurram Agency, killing seven militants and injuring many others.
The forces also destroyed three hideouts of militants, including an ammunition depot.

PESHAWAR - The Taliban warned on Monday to decide the fate of 23 abducted Mehsud tribesmen, who were kidnapped around two weeks ago from Razmak, North Waziristan, for greeting Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Azam Tariq told reporters over telephone that the internally-displaced Mehsud tribesmen were in TTP's custody. The tribesmen had moved to North Waziristan from South Waziristan after the military launched an offensive in

PESHAWAR - Security forces on Saturday claimed killing more than 16 Taliban on the second consecutive day of military operation in Baizai and Alingar areas of Mohmand Agency.
Meanwhile, Taliban have also attacked another security forces' checkpost in agency's Badmani area, in which they claimed killing a number of security forces' personnel. Official said the security forces succeeded in destroying several Taliban compounds with the help of helicopter gunships.
The clashes