LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) – Suicide bombers attacked a mosque and a religious school within minutes Friday in two Pakistani cities, leaving one of the country’s most prominent anti-Taliban clerics dead in what authorities called a targeted killing.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for either blast, but relatives of Sarfraz Naeemi said he had received death threats [...]
ISLAMABAD (AP) – Militants ambushed a military convoy in Pakistan’s volatile northwest on Saturday, killing two detained aides of a senior cleric with close ties to the Taliban in the Swat Valley, the army said.
It was not clear if the attack was an attempt to rescue the prisoners or assassinate them before then could provide [...]
ISLAMABAD (AP) – The Pakistani military lifted curfews Monday in seven areas in the Swat Valley in a further sign of confidence that its offensive against the Taliban is making progress, while militants killed two soldiers in a nearby tribal region that could be the next front in the army’s campaign.
Elsewhere in the volatile northwest [...]
ISLAMABAD (AP) – The Taliban have fled the Pakistani army’s advance on the main town in the Swat Valley, delivering the military a strategic prize in its offensive against militants in the country’s northwest, commanders said.
Taliban fighters had dug themselves into bunkers built into hotels and government buildings in Mingora, and initially offered stiff resistance [...]
ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistan’s top court Tuesday lifted an election ban on opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, giving the former prime minister a major political boost by allowing him to run for office.
The ruling means Sharif, the country’s most popular politician according to polls, is free to contest national elections in 2013 and become elected to [...]
ISLAMABAD (AP) – Pakistani security forces have entered the main town in a northwestern valley where Taliban fighters are holed up, engaging the militants in fierce street fights, the army’s top spokesman said Saturday.
Capturing the town of Mingora is critical to Pakistani efforts to regain the Swat Valley and prevent it from being a safe [...]
By ABDUL SATTAR
Associated Press Writer
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) – Gunmen kidnapped an American U.N. worker and killed his driver in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, underscoring the security threat in a country wracked by al-Qaida violence and rising criminality.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry called the abduction a “dastardly terrorist act,” but it was not clear who seized John Solecki, [...]
Terming Pakistan’s action against terrorism as an ‘eyewash’, India on Monday said the civilian government there was “not strong enough” to act against terror on its own.
“What they are doing right now is not enough. It looks like an eyewash. I think the civilian power centre in Pakistan is not strong enough to act on [...]
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Foreign Secretary David Miliband has left Islamabad after holding talks with Pakistan’s army chief during a visit aimed at defusing tensions with India after the Mumbai attacks, according to officials.
Relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours have deteriorated dramatically since the November attacks in which 174 people died, including nine gunmen.
Miliband held talks Saturday [...]
By BABAR DOGAR
Associated Press Writer
LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) – Pakistan has extended the house arrest of the head of a charity alleged to be a front for the militant groupblamed in the Mumbai attacks, an official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a founder of the now-banned militant group Jamaat-ud-Dawa, will remain detained for [...]
