New Leader Of Pakistani Taliban Could Splinter Group.

New Leader Of Pakistani Taliban Could Splinter Group.

Mullah Fazlullah, the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban 
 (AP Photo/SITE Intel Group)

WASHINGTON | 15 Nov 2013 :: The suspected U.S. drone strike that killed the leader of Pakistan’s Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban), Hakimullah Mehsud, has set off a power struggle within the militant group, and has exposed sharp divisions that analysts say could further destabilize the region as NATO combat forces leave neighboring Afghanistan in 2014.

Taliban sources and local journalists in turbulent North Waziristan and South Waziristan in Pakistan told VOA that the selection of hardline cleric Mullah Fazlullah as the new chief has left the group in disarray that may result in a splintering to smaller, difficult-to-control factions.

Fazlullah was selected by a council of Pakistani Taliban leaders after the death of its chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, November 1.  Fazlullah, who reportedly has the support of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar, became known as ‘Mullah Radio’ for his fiery anti-Western and pro-jihadist speeches on FM radio in the Swat Valley of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province between 2007 and 2009   Exploiting anti-government sentiment in his home region and using brutal tactics, Fazlullah took control of the Swat Valley and instituted harsh Islamic rule that terrorized much of the population.

But in 2009, Pakistan's army launched an operation against militants in the area. Wounded in the fighting, Fazlullah managed to escape to Afghanistan, where analysts and journalists say he remains to this day.  In 2012 he claimed responsibility for ordering the failed assassination of the teenage activist, Malala Yousufzai, for her efforts to educate girls in Swat. (Source: AP/AFP).

Bomb Kills Dozens at Market in Northwestern Pakistan.

Bomb Kills Dozens at Market in Northwestern Pakistan.

A man carried an injured a child from the site of a car bombing
 on Sunday in Peshawar, Pakistan.

PESHAWAR | Pakistan | 29 Sep 2013 :: A powerful car bomb ripped through a busy marketplace in Peshawar, the regional capital of northwestern Pakistan, early Sunday, killing at least 38 people in the third major attack in and around the city in the past week.The explosion occurred in the historic Qissa Khwani bazaar in the old quarter of the city, roughly two miles from the site of a double suicide bombing of a Christian church a week earlier that killed dozens of people.

Experts said the blast was caused by homemade explosives and artillery shells that had been hidden in a parked car. The dead included 14 members of one family who had come to Peshawar from a nearby village to distribute wedding invitations.

Rescue workers cut through the smoldering wreckage of burning vehicles and destroyed buildings in an effort to find survivors. Television stations carried graphic images of the carnage, which underscored to Pakistanis across the country the continuing threat from the Taliban and allied militant groups.

“The people behind this are not human,” said Ghulam Mohammad, who was looking for the body of a close relative at a hospital. “This is the work of animals.”

The Pakistani Taliban, however, denied that they were responsible for the latest attack. “We have nothing to do with today’s bomb blast,” said Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman. “We have made it clear several times that it is not our policy to target the general public. We condemn it and ask the government to ascertain its perpetrators.”

The attack came after a particularly bad week across Pakistan. An earthquake killed at least 300 people in a remote part of Baluchistan, the country’s largest but least populous province, and three major militant attacks in Peshawar killed at least 140 people.

Last Sunday, the suicide attack on the nearby All Saints Church killed 85 people, and a bombing on a crowded bus on Friday killed 21 government employees as they traveled home for the weekend.

“Collecting the dead and digging graves — this is unspeakable,” said the deputy city commissioner, Zaheerul Islam. “I don’t know what to say anymore.”

The attack on Sunday took place in the Qissa Khawani, or storytellers’ bazaar, which takes its name from ancient times when merchants and travelers from Central Asia stopped there to rest and share their stories. Some of the tea stalls from that time still exist.

Police officials said at least 440 pounds of explosives was used to make the bomb, which left a crater that was three feet deep. The explosion blew up storefronts, some of which caught fire, destroyed at least three shops and damaged dozens more. Traders announced three days of mourning.

The violence also came at a time of intense political debate over whether the government should hold peace talks with Taliban insurgents in a bid to end the bloodshed.

The opposition leader Imran Khan, whose party runs the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, advocates peace talks and putting a halt to military operations in the tribal regions.(Courtesy:The New York Times)

Blasts kill Pakistan Army officers.

Blasts kill Pakistan Army officers.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa | K-P | 15 Sep 2013 ::  chief minister Pervez Khattak approved the withdrawal of Pakistan Army from Swat and Malakand on Saturday,once controlled by the banned militants,as the process of pulling out troops from Shangla and Buner districts would start next month.

Pakistan army troops had been ordered into the valley in 2009 by the then democratic government after militants had attempted to take over. After the successful completion of their operation and talks with the militants, it was decided that army personnel will be called off from the area.In the initial stage, security forces will be withdrawn from Buner and Shangla districts in the province starting mid-October.

Pervez Khattak said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had honoured its pledge of establishing the writ of the government.

An official communique issued from the CM House statedthat provincial Chief Minister Pervaiz Khattak announced thewithdrawal of army from Malakand division in Nowshera.

Khattak said that withdrawal of army from these two districts would be followed by a phase-wise withdrawal from Upper Dir, Lower Dir and Swat where "the writ of the government has been consolidated".

The announcement comes in the backdrop of federal government preparing to start peace talks with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the light of decisions of an all-party conference.

The army was called out by the then government in 2007 to assist the administration in parts of Malakand division to quell militancy in the mountainous region.

The division comprises Swat, Buner, Shangla, Upper Dir,Lower Dir, Chitral and Malakand districts.When several militant groups, led by Mullah Fazlullah,established a parallel administration in Swat, Buner and other adjoining districts and started brutalities, the army launched an operation in May 2009. The Air Force assisted the army.(Courtesy:Samay Live)

Bomb wounds 11 at Pakistan girls school.

Bomb wounds 11 at Pakistan girls school.

School attack: A bomb wounded 11 people,
mostly children, when it exploded outside a
 Pakistani girls' school, a doctor said. Photo:
AFP

AFP | 06 Sep 2013 :: A bomb has gone off outside a Pakistani girls' school, wounding 11 people, mostly children, a doctor says.

The bomb exploded at the end of the school day on Thursday as pupils walked into a street lined with fabric shops in the north-western town of Bannu, which has been a flashpoint for Islamist militancy.

Doctor Omar Zeb said that 11 people had been brought to the local hospital – seven primary schoolgirls and four other people who had been in the street.

Police official Azad Khan said at least four girls, two boys and a man had been wounded. Three of them are seriously hurt.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Islamist militants often attack girls' schools, usually when the buildings are empty in the evening or during the holidays.

Last October the Taliban shot schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai in the head in the

north-western Swat valley.

She has largely recovered and now lives in England, where she is enrolled at a private school and has become a global icon for children campaigning for the right to an education.

In a separate incident, unidentified gunmen on a motorbike fired at a NATO supply truck on Thursday in the north-western city of Peshawar and wounded two people, police said.

The attack took place near Karkhano market on the edge of Peshawar and close to the Khyber tribal district where Islamist militants are active.

"Two people were wounded in firing on a NATO truck which was carrying military vehicles from Afghanistan to the Pakistani port city of Karachi," local police official Daud Khan said.

The Khyber district straddles the NATO supply line used by US-led troops to evacuate military equipment ahead of their 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Pakistani troops have been fighting for years against homegrown insurgents in the tribal belt, which Washington considers the main hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.(Courtesy:The Age)

Pakistani Taliban free over 175 inmates in DI Khan jailbreak.

Pakistani Taliban free over 175 inmates in DI Khan jailbreak.

Nearly 400 prisoners including militants escaped
 on Aril 15, 2012 from Bannu Jail after an attack by
 insurgents armed with guns, grenades and
 rockets. – File photo

PESHAWAR | 30 Jul 2013 ::  Dozens of heavily-armed Pakistani Taliban insurgents freed nearly 175 inmates, including 35 ‘high-profile militants’, during a brazen overnight attack on the central jail in Dera Ismail Khan, officials said Tuesday.

At least nine people, including four policemen and five militants, were killed in the attack and the following shootout, said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Shaukat Yousufzai.

KP chief minister Pervaiz Khattak termed the brazen attack a failure on the part of the intelligence agencies, and has vowed to punish those found guilty of negligence.

Khattak confirmed the number of escaped prisoners, including the 35 hardcore militants. Earlier unconfirmed intelligence reports had suggested at least 45 high profile militants were being held at the jail.

Earlier unconfirmed intelligence reports had suggested that 247 prisoners, including 6 women, had gone missing after the attack. Six of the fugitives were later arrested from Daraban Road, sources had said.

The heavily armed militants had attacked the prison from different sides around midnight. Armed with guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and bombs, the militants dressed in police uniforms bombarded the prison before escaping with scores of inmates after a three-hour shootout.

According to police, the gunmen launched their attack with a series of heavy explosions before firing rocket propelled grenades and machine guns.

The attack began with a huge explosion and several smaller blasts before security forces engaged the attackers. An intelligence official said the militants shouted “God is great” and “Long live the Taliban”.

Military troops were eventually called in which conducted a six-hour long operation to take back control of the prison.

A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, Shahidullah Shahid, accepted responsibility for the attack. Speaking to Dawn.com, he claimed around 100 militants attacked the prison including a number of suicide bombers.(Courtesy:Dawn)Read More>>>

Fifteen militants, four soldiers killed in Khyber operation.

Fifteen militants, four soldiers killed in Khyber operation.

KHYBER | AP | 20 Jul 2013 :: Fifteen militants were killed and scores of others were injured in Operation Khyber - II which commenced on July 19 and completed on the 20th as security forces cleared key militant transit points. Four soldiers also died during the gunbattles, officials said.

Military sources told Dawn.com that the operation launched in the Kharmatung area, between Frontier Region Kohat and Khyber tribal region’s Bara, had been completed and most of the key areas which served as passage points for insurgents had been cleared.

Sources said Surgar and Shergahr heights were being combed after the clearance of Kharmatung and scores of insurgent hideouts had been secured while two militant bases had been destroyed.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) moreover confirmed that four soldiers had died during the clearing operation as security forces made headway in most of these areas.

Khyber is among Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border, rife with homegrown insurgents and home to religious extremist organisations including the Al Qaeda.

The remote Tirah valley holds strategic significance for militant groups. On one side, it shares a border with Afghanistan. On the other it leads to the plains of Bara, which connect the agency to the outskirts of Peshawar.

Khyber also links several agencies to each other, serving as a north-south route within Fata. The region has been long fought over by a mix of militant organisations, including the TTP, the Ansarul Islam and Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islam.(Courtesy:Dawn)

Militants attack Nato containers in Khyber; six killed.

HAZIR SHAH SHERAZI

Photo from June 10, 2013 shows

 a burnt truck carrying Nato 

supply containers.—Photo by

 Zahir Shah Sherazi

PESHAWAR|10|June|2013:: Six people were killed when militants attacked three Nato containers in Shagai area of Jamrud tehsil of the Khyber tribal region on Monday.

Security forces were engaged in a firefight with the militants who attacked the containers and set them on fire.

As a result, six people, including the drivers of the containers were killed.

Assistant Political Agent Jehangir Azam Wazir told Dawn.Com that about 15 militants armed with heavy weapons and rockets attacked the Nato trucks carrying military hardware near Shah Gai mountains.

“The attack was so sudden and quick that they first fired rockets on the vehicles and then bombed them, destroying the vehicles and the military hardware they were carrying,” he said.

He confirmed the death toll. “Six people have died in the attack. Three were drivers and cleaners who were burnt in the vehicles while three others who had been shot down were shifted to the Jamrud hospital."

Khyber is among Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal districts near the Afghan border, rife with homegrown insurgents and home to a number of militant organisations.

The tribal region also links several agencies to each other, serving as a north-south route within Fata.

Moreover, the bulk of supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan is shipped through the Khyber region, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through central Asia.(Courtesy:dawn)