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Posts published in “Talibanisation”

15 militants killed in Tirah air strikes

BARA: Fifteen militants were killed and several others sustained injuries in air strikes by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter aircraft in various areas of Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Tuesday, official sources said. The sources said the fighter aircraft and helicopters bombed the sanctuaries of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) in Wacha Wona, Surkas, Seekhkot and other mountainous areas in the Kukikhel tribal territory. They said five foreigners, including Uzbeks and…

Decisive battle: edit in Daily Times, March 15, 2015

The military operation against militants in the restive tribal areas seems to have entered the decisive phase as the army and air force jointly continue striking the hideouts of the terrorists. The other day, the Pakistan Air Force fighter jets pounded areas in the Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency and killed 48 militants. The army has stood resolute against the enemy and intensified its offensive against all militant groups without the discrimination of good or…

Militants’ pact: EDITORIAL in Dawn, March 15th, 2015

CLAIMS that a breakaway faction of the banned TTP, the Jamaatul Ahrar, led by Omar Khalid Khorasani, has rejoined the original umbrella organisation, the TTP led by Mullah Fazlullah, and that a third militant outfit, Mangal Bagh’s Lashkar-i-Islam, has also joined forces have come as no surprise. The new pact formalises what had been an informal working arrangement in place for a while, including the sharing of suicide bombers for each others’ operations. Neither is…

S Waziristan homecoming: 2,500 families return tomorrow

BANNU / PESHAWAR: About 2,500 families displaced from South Waziristan almost five years ago will return to their homes in the first phase of the repatriation process starting from March 16 (tomorrow). Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan announced the process of phased repatriation on Monday at a media briefing at the Governor House along with Peshawar Corps Commander Lieutenant General Hidayatur Rehman. Thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been living in makeshift camps…

Fazlullah’s arrest warrants reissued in Karachi airport attack case

Karachi- The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) today postponed the hearing of the Karachi airport attack case and reissued the arrest warrants of at least nine criminals, including Mullah Fazlullah and Shahidullah Shahid. According to the details, at least three criminals, Sarmad Siddique, Nadeem and Asif Zaheer were arrested earlier. The ATC has forwarded the cases against these criminals regarding possession of illegal weapons to the Sessions Court. They are also accused of having assisted the militants…

‘Militant network in Lower Dir dismantled’: report in The News, March 14, 2015

TIMERGARA: A senior military official Friday said that the network of militants in Lower Dir district has been dismantled and several terrorists including those involved in the killing of the brother of a provincial lawmaker had been arrested. Talking to journalists, Commandant Dir Scouts Colonel Nasr Umar Hayat Lalika said the security forces had arrested almost all the wanted men involved in terrorist activities in Lower Dir.Colonel Lalika said the militants involved in the attack…

48 militants killed in air strikes in Tirah Valley: by Munir Khan Afridi in The News, March 14, 2015

BARA: Forty-eight militants were killed and several others sustained injuries when Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter aircraft blitzed their hideouts in the Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency on Friday, official sources said. The sources said the fighter aircraft targeted the hideouts of proscribed militant organisations, Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) led by Mangal Bagh and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in Kukikhel and other areas ofwere killed and several others were injured in the attack. It added that several hideouts…

Terror revists Lahore, 70 killed, 90 injured

Taliban gun men on Friday May 28, targeted two mosques of minority Ahmadis in Lahore and killed seventy people. At least 90 people were injured. The last major attack on Pakistan’s cultural capital took place in March when a double suicide bombing killed dozens. This was for the first time Ahmadis were attacked. Hitherto, militants were targeting Shia Muslims. Ahmadis consider themselves Muslim and follow all Islamic rituals. But they were declared non-Muslims in Pakistan…

Violence on campus: op-ed by Huma Yusuf in the Dawn, Apr 25

BY now Pakistanis are accustomed to ‘non-state actors’ — nebulous creatures that are blamed for the nation’s ills and help the government defer the burden of accountability. In a nod to these elements, we learnt this month that the violence and intolerance that permeate this country’s campuses are the work of ‘non-student elements’. This coinage comes from the Punjab University (PU), which re-opened recently as a 19-day faculty boycott came to an end. The faculty…

Evolving Campus Politics in Pakistan

By Nadeem F. Paracha in the Dawn blogs In 1947 the only established student organisation in the newly created country of Pakistan was the Muslim Students Federation (MSF), the student-wing of the Muslim League. The Muslim League began to disintegrate as Pakistan’s first ruling party. Consequently, the MSF too started to reflect the fragmentary nature of its mother party. In 1950, a group of students in Karachi formed a progressive student organisation called the Democratic…

The secret war – and the hidden lair of the Taliban

By Patrick Cockburn in The Independent, Apr 16 The Pakistani army has fought successfully to control mountainous frontier areas once ruled by the Pakistani Taliban, but it remains reluctant to attack the cross-border safe havens of the Afghan Taliban despite American pressure. Pakistani soldiers in Bajaur district on the Afghan frontier are eager to demonstrate what they have already achieved, showing off captured tunnels dug into the hillside by the local Taliban to protect their…