Islamabad, June 05: Several key figures connected to the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat Valley have been arrested, Pakistani authorities said.
The arrests come as Pakistan’s military has surged into the Swat Valley, in the country’s north, in an offensive against the Taliban.
Authorities arrested Amir Izat Khan and Maulana Muhammad Alam, both senior members of an organization run by Sufi Muhammad, local information ministry officials said Thursday.
Islamabad, May 30: Pakistani forces cleared a Taleban stronghold in Swat and drove militants out of a town in the northwest valley, the military said yesterday, amid worries over the return of more than two million displaced people.
The army said that it successfully cleared the Talebans stronghold at Peochar village as its cordon and search operation continued to wrest back complete control of strategic Peochar Valley.
Washington, May 28: Pakistan with about 60 nuclear warheads; primarily targeted towards India, is continuing production of fissile material for weapons and adding to its weapons production facilities and delivery vehicles, a US Congressional report has said.
The latest report by Congressional Research Service (CRS) – a research wing of the US Congress which prepares reports for Congressmen – has confirmed the recent statements and media reports that Pakistan was expanding its nuclear arsenal.
Islamabad, May 25: The Taliban left so many mutilated bodies at the crossing some hanging from trees with threatening notes that Pakistanis in the Swat Valley’s main town took to calling it “bloody intersection.”
On Sunday, the army said that spot and seven other major crossings in Mingora were secured, part of street-by-street urban fighting whose success is considered critical to flushing out the militants from the valley as a whole.
Islamabad,May 24: Gunshots pierced the air as Pakistani troops battled Taliban extremists in the Swat Valley’s main city, a trapped civilian said, while helicopter gunships pounded alleged militant hide-outs in a nearby tribal region Sunday, killing at least 18 people.
Elsewhere in the northwest, police said they had captured an important militant commander and six other Taliban fighters.
Islamabad, May 11: In a new revelation, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA of the United States and his country’s ISI together created the Taliban.
“I think it was part of your past and our past, and the ISI and CIA created them together,” Zardari told a television news channel in an interview.
In the interview, which was given on 7th May, Zardari also accused the US of supporting the military rule of Pervez Musharraf who was alleged to be taking sides of the Taliban.
Karachi, April 30 : At least four persons were killed today in fresh clashes between two ethnic groups in this southern Pakistani port city, taking the toll in two days of widespread violence to 27.
Several parts of Karachi continued to be tense as armed members of the two groups clashed with each other and burnt at least 10 shops. Four persons were killed in incidents of firing today, TV channels reported. Twenty-three people were killed in clashes yesterday.
Islamabad, April 16: Verdicts handed down under the newly-imposed Sharia laws in parts of Pakistan’s restive northwest cannot be challenged in the Supreme Court but only before special appeal courts, says a Taliban-linked radical cleric.
“The judicial system here (Malakand division of the North West Frontier Province) will be different from the rest of the country. Here, all the cases will be settled in the Qazi courts in accordance with Sharia,” The News Thursday quoted Sufi Muhammad as saying.
Islamabad, March 05: The Geo news channel – a Pakistani TV – has aired what it claims is footage of the terrorists escaping the site of Tuesday’s dastardly attack on the Sri Lankan cricket players in Lahore. The dramatic visuals show the gunmen fleeing on motorcycles and on foot.
The edited footage of Geo TV were captured on CCTV cameras in the streets around Liberty chowk and Gaddafi stadium where a group of gunmen, said to number 14 killed six policemen and injured five members of Sri Lankan cricket team.