Tag: Taliban

ISLAMABAD - The arrest of Nasiruddin Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, the most influential militant commander and head of insurgent group, the Haqqani network, is being dubbed as the deadliest blow to the Taliban by the diplomatic circles.
"The Afghan and coalition forces are very happy over the development as Nasiruddin Haqqani, also known as Dr Khan, is not only the son of the most influential Taliban commander but also one of the two or three main leaders of the most lethal

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama's Afghan troop surge has made progress in curbing the Taliban and severely weakening Al Qaeda, but US gains are not yet durable and sustainable, a new policy review said on Thursday.
The long-awaited assessment says that some aspects of the high-stakes strategy are working well, after a year of record bloodshed, but many of the advances in the nine-year war remain fragile and reversible.
The report, which Obama is set to unveil today

KANDAHAR: The Taliban hoped on Tuesday that the death of Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, would prompt the withdrawal of American troops. Holbrooke's death in Washington after suffering a torn aorta "could have a didactic effect on the American strategists, teaching them many things to learn", a spokesman for the Afghan insurgents said in a statement emailed to AFP.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan calls on the American powers that be to

GARDEZ: Unidentified gunmen kidnapped 18 Afghan deminers on Thursday in southeastern Khost province, the provincial police chief said, the second abduction of a mine clearing team this month.
The group from the Kabul-based Mine Detection Centre were travelling in Musa Khel district when they were stopped by a group of gunmen and then seized, said Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai. "They had gone to the area on the request of the elders to clear mines from their village," Ishaqzai told

ISLAMABAD: Investigators probing the recent spate of suicide bombings in Mohmand Agency, Darra Adam Khel and other Tribal Areas believe that these attacks are part of a Taliban strategy to reclaim the ground they lost to security forces after the successful military operations.
The investigators also anticipate more such assaults in the days to come as part of the strategy recently devised by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), patronised Al Qaeda. Officials privy to the

PESHAWAR: Maulana Wali Ullah Kabalgrami, teacher of Tehrik Taliban Swat chief Maulana Fazal Ullah, died after a prolonged illness in a hospital here on Wednesday.
Maulana Kabalgrami had been in the custody of the security forces for the last one and a half year. He had been associated with the banned Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi Buner since long and was one of the close aides of Maulana Soofi Muhammad.
The body of Maulana Kabalgrami was handed over to his relatives.

CAMP LEATHERNECK: Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday hailed US Marines for reversing Taliban gains in one of the toughest Afghan battlefields as he toured the south ahead of a key war review.
He struck an upbeat note, with an imminent White House report likely to credit an extra 30,000 American troops with bolstering security while stressing that the nine-year insurgency is far from defeated.
"The Marines, since arriving a year ago last summer, have really been in

KARACHI: More than 300 suspects, including suspected Taliban leaders, were arrested in Manghopir, Karachi in a search operation on Tuesday, sources told Pakistan Today.
The crackdown was carried out after the Sindh government received information about possible terror attacks in Karachi during Muharram. On a tip-off, law enforcement agencies raided Manghopir and its surroundings areas.
Rangers and police personnel cordoned off the area and launched a search operation in

PESHAWAR: The body of ANP activist was found from a roadside in Tappi area near Mirali town on Monday. The political worker hailed from North Waziristan Agency. The reports reveal the mutilated body of Fazal Hamid Dawar was sighted at Tappi.
Later it was moved to his native village Khaddi, seven kilometers away from Tappi. Fazal Hamid Dawar had been abducted by Taliban some two months ago and they were demanding release of arrested militants for his release. The locals suspect

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, according to a US diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide," said the document, an assessment from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dated December 30, 2009. "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al

LONDON: British intelligence agents were responsible for promoting an impostor who they believed was a senior Taliban commander key to the Afghan peace process, according to reports on Friday.
Agents paid the man several hundred thousand dollars, convinced he was a top militant with the authority to negotiate with US and Afghan officials on behalf of the insurgents, The Times and the Washington Post reported, citing Afghan officials.
It is now believed that the man whom they

KABUL: The New York Times said on Tuesday that a man it had described as a "Taliban leader" who had taken part in "secret peace talks" with the Afghan government was in fact an impostor.
The newspaper said the man had held three meetings with NATO and Afghan officials but that US officials had confirmed on Monday "they had given up hope" he was the leader identified as Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour. "The fake Taliban leader even met with President Hamid Karzai, having been

ISLAMABAD: The NATO's Afghan exit strategy unveiled in Lisbon is aimed at reviving the peace negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban that came to a halt recently after the latter refused to continue with the talks in the absence of clear-cut "US plan for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan".
The exit plan endorsed by NATO leaders on Saturday after their summit meeting will see the 150,000-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan begin transferring parts of the

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday urged the Taliban to join talks to bring peace to the war-torn country, despite the insurgents' leadership ruling out negotiations.
"On this holy day of Eidul Azha I once again call on those compatriots who are unhappy, I request them to join the peace efforts," Karzai said in a statement to mark the festival.
Karzai has previously appealed to the Taliban to come to the negotiating table and low-level commanders are said to

ISLAMABAD: Following the gruesome bomb blast at the CID building in Karachi on Thursday, security has been further tightened around Zardari House, located in the heart of metropolis in sector F-8/3 following Taliban warnings of attacking the premises.
Well-placed sources said the entire street had been declared a "Red Zone" and no one would be allowed to enter the premises without methodical checking. It was also learnt that following the Taliban threats, all kinds of political

PESHAWAR: University teaching staff in northwest Pakistan have gone on strike indefinitely to protest against the Taliban's kidnapping of a prominent academic.
Taliban kidnapped Ajmal Khan, vice chancellor of Islamia College University,
in September from Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province.
"Academic staff in all government and private universities in KPK have gone on strike from today," Shuja Muhammad Khan, the provincial president

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE, the main facilitators of US-backed Karzai-Taliban peace talks, fear that the reconciliation process in Afghanistan is heading for a breakdown due to Obama administration's failure to extend certain guarantees to the Taliban, including a clearly laid down timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
These three key players in the Afghan conflict have now been trying for months for some sort of a breakthrough in the ongoing