The Taliban have smuggled 25 militants they broke out of a prison in northwest Pakistan this week to one of the group’s strongholds in the country’s tribal region, two commanders said Wednesday. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Taliban commanders say they have managed to smuggle over two dozen militants they broke out of a prison in northwest Pakistan to one of the group’s strongholds in the country’s tribal regions. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Prison guards say they were totally overwhelmed when dozens of Taliban militants attacked their jail in northwest Pakistan, freeing over 250 prisoners. …read more
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A senior Pakistani Taliban commander has written to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage education activist shot by militants, accusing her of “smearing” them and of promoting “satanic” values, while urging her to return home.
Gunmen from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) shot Malala, now 16, in the head in her home town in Swat last October after she had campaigned for the right of girls to go to school.
She made a powerful speech to the U N on Friday in her first public appearance since the near-fatal attack, vowing to continue her struggle for education and not be silenced by the militants.
In an open letter released Wednesday, Adnan Rasheed, a former air force member turned TTP cadre, said he personally wished the attack had not happened, but accused her of running a “smearing campaign” against the militants.
“When you were attacked it was shocking for me,” Rasheed wrote in English.
“I wished it would never happened (sic) and I had advised you before.”
But he added: “Taliban believe that you were intentionally writing against them and running a smearing campaign to malign their efforts to establish Islamic system in Swat and your writings were provocative.
“… It is amazing that you are shouting for education, you and the UNO (UN) is pretending that you were shot due to education, although this is not the reason… not the education but your propaganda was the issue,” he continued.
“What you are doing now, you are using your tongue on the behest of the others.”
The letter was sent to reporters in northwest Pakistan and its authenticity confirmed to AFP by a senior Taliban cadre who is a close associate of Rasheed. It is understood Malala has not received the letter herself.
Rasheed accused Malala of seeking to promote an education system begun by British colonialists to produce “Asians in blood but English in taste”, and said students should study Islam and not the “satanic or secular curriculum”.
“I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture, join any female Islamic madrassa near your home town, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam and plight of Muslim ummah (community),” Rasheed wrote.
Malala was given life-saving treatment in Britain, where she now lives with her family.
Rasheed was sentenced to death over a 2003 attack on Pakistan’s then military ruler Pervez Musharraf, but escaped from custody in a mass jailbreak in April last year.
He said he had originally wanted to write to Malala to warn her against criticising the Taliban when she rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling life under the militants’ 2007-9 rule in Swat, in northwest Pakistan.
The Taliban have destroyed hundreds of schools across the northwest, an area on the frontline of the country’s bloody struggle against Islamist militants.
But Rasheed said the attacks were necessary because government forces used schools as hideouts and bases.
Gordon Brown, the former British prime minister turned UN special envoy for global education, who has supported Malala since she was shot, issued a caustic response to …read more
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Pakistani Taliban commanders Tuesday rejected suggestions they were sending fighters to Syria, saying some have gone there independently but the movement’s focus remained in Pakistan.
They said some militants, mainly Arabs and Central Asians, had gone to fight the forces of President Bashar al-Assad, but a senior Taliban leader dismissed reports of them setting up camps in Syria.
The lawless tribal areas of northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border have long been a magnet for militants from across the Muslim world eager to fight US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.
But since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, foreign jihadists have flocked to Syria, where disparate rebel groups are seeking his downfall.
Some media reports in recent days have claimed scores or even hundreds of Pakistani Taliban are among them and that they have set up camps in Syria.
A senior commander who sits on the shura or ruling council of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) told AFP there was no tactical shift and no decision had been made to send forces to Syria.
“There is no reality in these reports, we have far better targets in the region, NATO troops headed by the Americans are present in Afghanistan,” he said on condition of anonymity.
“We are already in a war with Pakistani troops. We support the mujahideen’s struggle in Syria but in our opinion, we have a lot more to do here in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
The TTP is an umbrella group for numerous factions trying to bring down the Pakistani state and impose sharia law. It has ties to the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
“The great evil (America) is here in Afghanistan, troops from 30 kafir (non-believer) countries are attacking innocent people in Afghanistan, so Bashar al-Assad is not that important for us,” the TTP commander said.
“Obama is the big evil, Americans are a much bigger evil for us. The Taliban shura has never discussed sending mujahideen to Syria.”
Another mid-ranking TTP commander in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district which is a hotbed of Taliban and Al-Qaeda activity, said some fighters had gone to Syria “in a personal capacity”.
A third senior TTP cadre said those who had gone were mostly Arabs, Uzbeks and Chechens.
More than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad erupted, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai dismissed claims of the TTP setting up camps in Syria as “a publicity campaign” by some of the militants.
“But we cannot deny the fact that they are quite ambitious and want to send a clear message to the world that they are still very strong and have strong linkages with other local and international groups,” he said.
Ismail, an Arab fighter from Al-Qaeda, told AFP in northwest Pakistan that he planned to join the fight against Assad.
“I am going to Syria in the next few days, my family will stay here,” he said.
“Our mujahideen are going not only to Syria but also to Lebanon, Egypt and other Arab countries.”
Saifullah Khan Mahsud, the executive director of the FATA Research Centre …read more
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Suleman spent years targeting minority Shiite Muslims in his home country of Pakistan as a member of one of the country’s most feared militant groups. Now he is on his way to a new sectarian battleground, Syria, where he plans to join Sunni rebels battling President Bashar Assad’s regime.
It is a fight he believes will boost his reward in heaven.
The short and stocky Pakistani, who identified himself using only his first name for fear of being targeted by authorities, is one of an increasing number of militants who have left Pakistan for Syria in recent months. The fighters have contributed to a growing presence of Islamic extremists and complicated U.S. efforts to help the rebels.
Many fighters like Suleman believe they must help Syria’s Sunni majority defeat Assad’s Alawite regime — an offshoot of the Shiite sect. Radical Sunnis view Shiites as heretics.
The presence of Islamic extremists in Syria looms large over U.S. efforts to help the rebels, especially when it comes to providing weapons that could end up in the hands of America’s enemies. The extremists have also sparked infighting with more secular rebels concerned about the increasing power of the Islamists.
Most of the foreign fighters in Syria are from Arab countries, including al-Qaida militants from Iraq on the rebel side and Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon on the regime’s side. The flow of militants from Pakistan adds a new element to that mix.
Pakistani Interior Ministry spokesman Omar Hamid Khan said provincial authorities throughout Pakistan deny that militants have left the country for Syria.
But three Pakistani intelligence officials based in the tribal region that borders Afghanistan, as well as militants themselves, say the fighters leaving Pakistan for Syria include members of al-Qaida, the Pakistani Taliban and Suleman’s group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The fighters fall mainly into two categories. One includes foreign combatants from places like Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and likely the Middle East who came to Pakistan’s tribal region to fight U.S.-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan and are now heading to Syria because they view it as the most pressing battle, said the Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
This group includes members of al-Qaida who trained the Pakistani Taliban in areas such as bomb-making and are …read more
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Pakistani authorities say a suicide bomber targeting policemen has killed four people in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
Liaqat Ali Khan, the city’s police chief, says the attack aimed at one of his partol teams on Monday also wounded over 30 people. The bomber detonated his explosives as the patrol passed by.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban. The group has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years and has stepped up attacks ahead of the May 11 parliamentary election.
On Sunday, the Taliban killed 11 people in bomb attacks on a political rally and two campaign offices in the northwest. The group is seeking to disrupt the election.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
A police officer says a bomb blast has killed six supporters of a Pakistani Shiite politician at his campaign office in country’s northwest.
Mujtaba Hussain says the Sunday attack on the outskirts of Kohat city also wounded around 10 people.
He says the politician, Syed Noor Akbar, is running as an independent candidate for a national assembly seat in general elections to be held on May 11.
No one has claimed responsibility. The politician was not present at the office.
Hussain says Akbar belongs to Pakistan‘s minority Shiite Muslim sect, adding that this could have been a motive for the attack.
Pakistani Taliban in recent weeks have attacked candidates from secular, left-leaning parties, killing several people over their liberal views and support for army offensives against militants.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By Rob Quinn As investigators hunted for clues in the Boston Marathon bombing , the Pakistani Taliban denied involvement, CNN reports. “Wherever we find Americans we will kill them, but we don’t have any connection with the Boston explosion,” said a spokesman for the group, which claimed responsibility for the attempted Times Square bombing…
From: http://www.newser.com/story/166290/taliban-denies-role-in-boston-bombing.html
The Pakistani Taliban have denied any role in the bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed at least three people and injured more than 140.
The group’s spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, denied involvement in a telephone call with The Associated Press on Tuesday. He spoke from an undisclosed location.
The main focus of the Pakistani Taliban has been a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani government because of its alliance with the United States and to enforce Islamic law in the country.
But the group has threatened attacks in the U.S. as well, and claimed responsibility for a failed car bombing in New York’s Times Square in 2010.
The Times Square attacker, Faisal Shahzad, has admitted to getting training from the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s tribal region.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/Fk_I_oCj9d8/
A Pakistani police officer says a bomb blast has killed a local leader in an anti-Taliban political party in the northwestern Swat valley.
Abdullah Khan says the bomb planted near Mukarram Shah‘s car exploded Sunday in the village of Banjot. He says it appear to have been set off by remote control.
Shah comes from the secular Awami National Party, which supported military operations against militants in the region.
The ANP is among three secular-leaning political parties that the Pakistani Taliban have threatened to attack during campaigns for parliamentary elections to be held on May 11.
The three dominated Pakistan‘s last government, dissolved in preparation for the elections. The ANP also headed the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in which Swat is located.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/wdkiHeEsb3g/
Police say a bomb planted in a passenger bus has killed at least eight passengers in northwestern Pakistan.
Police official Fazal Wahid Khan says seven people were also wounded in Saturday’s bombing on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar.
He says the bus was traveling from Peshawar to a nearby town.
No one immediately claimed responsibility.
Peshawar is the provincial capital of troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Security forces have carried out several offensives against Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups there.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/HGLKGD4ZYwg/
Officials say Taliban gunmen on a motorcycle killed a candidate running in Pakistan‘s upcoming elections whose party opposed the militants.
Police officer Saqib Ismail Memon says the attackers killed Fakhurl Islam on Thursday as he was standing near his home in Hyderabad city in southern Sindh province.
Qamar Mansoor, a spokesman for the Muttahida Quami Movement party, or MQM, says Islam was running for the provincial Sindh assembly in elections on May 11.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the shooting. The Taliban have threatened to attack members of the MQM because the party has spoken out strongly against them.
____
Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/_PFCQFi3g7o/
At least 30 Pakistani soldiers and nearly 100 militants have been killed in fierce fighting in a remote, northwest valley over the past four days following a ground offensive launched by the army, military officials said Monday.
Meanwhile, Pakistan‘s top court ordered former military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf to respond to allegations that he committed treason while in power and barred him from leaving the country only weeks after he returned.
The army launched the offensive against the Pakistani Taliban and their allies in the Tirah Valley on Friday after weeks of fighting between rival militant groups forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee the rugged, mountainous area.
The valley is located in Khyber, part of Pakistan‘s semiautonomous tribal region, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants in the country. The army has launched scores of operations against the Taliban in the tribal region in recent years, but certain areas like the Tirah Valley have remained outside their control.
The Taliban have remained a serious threat and continue to launch attacks throughout the northwest and other parts of the country with frightening regularity. There is concern that the militants could step up the pace of attacks even more in coming weeks in an attempt to derail parliamentary elections scheduled for May 11.
The fighting in Tirah over the past four days has killed 30 soldiers and 97 militants, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The air force has also conducted heavy bombing during the offensive, they said.
The officials claimed that the army has successfully seized control of a large portion of the valley from the Pakistani Taliban and their ally, Lashkar-e-Islam. The claims could not be independently verified.
In recent weeks, the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam have been fighting against another militant group, Ansar-e-Islam, which is allied with pro-government tribesmen.
Over 40,000 people have been displaced from the valley since mid-March, according to a recent report by the U.N.’s humanitarian arm. Many of the displaced have sought refuge in the city of Peshawar and other parts of northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Many are in need of food, shelter, health care and clean water, said the U.N.
The Taliban have threatened to kill Musharraf, Pakistan‘s former military ruler, who returned last month after more than four years in self-imposed exile to run in the upcoming parliamentary election.
He has had a bumpy return, and the Supreme Court‘s order on Monday was in response to private petitions alleging Musharraf committed various treasonable offenses while in office, including toppling an elected government, suspending the constitution and sacking senior judges, including the chief justice.
If convicted of treason, Musharraf could be sentenced to death. The hearing where he must respond to the allegations is scheduled for Tuesday. Musharraf could appear in person, or send a lawyer.
“People want justice, rule of law and implementation of the constitution,” one of the petitioners, lawyer Chaudhry Akram, told two Supreme Court judges overseeing Monday’s hearing.
Musharraf seized power in a military coup in 1999 but was forced …read more
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Pakistani military officials say four soldiers and 14 militants were killed as the army launched a ground offensive in a restive valley in the northwest.
The officials say five soldiers were also wounded in Friday’s operation in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber tribal area. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Rival militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban, have been fighting for supremacy in the valley in recent weeks, forcing thousands of civilians to flee the rugged, mountainous area.
Khyber is part of Pakistan‘s semiautonomous tribal region bordering Afghanistan, the main sanctuary for Taliban militants and their allies in the country. The army has launched many operations against the Taliban in Khyber and other parts of the tribal region.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Police and hospital officials say attackers threw a grenade at a vehicle carrying paramilitary security officers in Karachi in southern Pakistan, killing three of them and wounding three others.
Police spokesman Imran Shaukat says the attack took place near the headquarters of paramilitary forces called the Rangers in Karachi, Pakistan‘s largest city, the capital of southern Sindh province.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility, saying they targeted the Rangers for working against them.
Dr. Seemi Jamali said the bodies of the three dead officers arrived at her government hospital.
She said three security personnel and one civilian were wounded in the Tuesday attack.
Karachi has a long history of such incidents. It has also been the scene of political and sectarian violence in recent years.
A corrupt, low-level cop with a healthy dose of street smarts rises to control hundreds of illegal gambling dens in Pakistan‘s largest city. By doling out millions of dollars in illicit proceeds, he protects his empire and becomes one of the most powerful people in Karachi.
The allegations against Mohammed Waseem Ahmed — or Waseem “Beater” as he is more commonly known — emerged recently from surprise testimony by a top police commander before a crusading anti-crime Supreme Court judge. The story has given a rare and colorful glimpse into the vast underworld in Karachi, a chaotic metropolis of 18 million people on Pakistan‘s southern coast.
The sprawling city has become notorious for violence, from gangland-style killings and kidnappings to militant bombings and sectarian slayings. Further worrying authorities have been signs that the Pakistani Taliban are using the chaos to gain a greater foothold in the city.
For months, the Supreme Court‘s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has been leading special hearings on Karachi’s crime, berating the city’s top police officers for failing to act. This past week, he demanded they move in to clean up so-called “no-go” areas — entire neighborhoods where police fear to tread — according to local press reports.
Further fueling the problem is rampant police corruption, undermining efforts to combat the city’s violent gangs and extremists. Among the public, the police nationwide are seen as the country’s most crooked public sector organization, a high bar given claims of pervasive corruption throughout the government.
The allegations surrounding Ahmed further fuel questions about the overlap between Karachi’s underworld and its police forces. After the testimony to the Supreme Court earlier this year, police officials in Karachi provided The Associated Press with additional details over his reported rise.
The AP made repeated attempts to contact Ahmed, who has been removed from the force and fled to Dubai, but was not successful.
Ahmed came from a poor family in Karachi’s old city and joined the police force in the 1990s. He soon started working as a “beater,” a low-level thug who works for more senior cops to collect a cut from illegal activities in their area, such as gambling, prostitution and drug dealing, said half a dozen police officers who knew him personally at the time. They all spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Ahmed, who …read more
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A police official says a suicide bomber has blown himself up near a police van in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least two people.
The official, Zaheer Khan, says Tuesday’s attack in the district of Bannu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan also wounded at least 10 people.
He says initial reports suggest the attacker was on foot and targeted a police van near a police station.
Khan says rescuers were transporting the dead and injured to a nearby hospital.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion fell on Pakistani Taliban who often target police and security forces deployed there.
The district of Bannu is located just outside the North Waziristan tribal region where several Pakistani, Afghan and al-Qaida-linked militant groups are based.
Pakistani police say bomb has exploded in a Sunni mosque in the northwest, killing at least four people and wounding more than 25 others.
Senior police officer Imtiaz Khan says the bomb was planted in a bookshelf inside the mosque in Peshawar.
Khan says the remote-controlled bomb was detonated when noon prayers started in the mosque.
Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province, has been the site of several terrorist attacks in recent months. The city is surrounded by lawless tribal regions where al-Qaeda and Pakistani Taliban have hideouts.
The Pakistani military has carried out several operations in the area, but intermittent terrorist attacks continue.
By The Huffington Post News Editors
MIAMI — An elderly Muslim cleric was convicted Monday of funneling thousands of dollars to support the Pakistani Taliban terror organization, which is blamed for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed both Americans and Pakistanis.
The jury returned its verdict on its fifth day of deliberations after the two-month trial of Hafiz Khan, the 77-year-old imam at a downtown Miami mosque. Khan was found guilty of two conspiracy counts and two counts of providing material support to terrorists.
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