A Pakistani Awakening?

Some inter­est­ing news out of the Swat Val­ley yes­ter­day: TOTANA BANDAI: When a posse of Tal­iban fight­ers entered a mosque in this vil­lage dur­ing evening prayers last week to demand the alle­giance of the con­gre­ga­tion, long-suffering locals decided they had enough. The vil­lagers, of whom a major­ity had only just returned to their homes fol­low­ing the con­clu­sion of […]

Rockets hit NW Pakistani city; militants attack - The Associated Press


BBC News
Rock­ets hit NW Pak­istani city; mil­i­tants attack
The Asso­ci­ated Press
Rocket attacks are extremely rare in Pakistan’s cities, although Tal­iban mil­i­tants often tar­get secu­rity out­posts in the coun­try­side with heavy weapons.
27 Tal­iban mil­i­tants arrested in tribal Pak­istanPress Trust of India


Pak­istan troops kill 17 mil­i­tants after brazen attackDAWN.com
Pak­istan arrests 29 mil­i­tants in north­west areaXin­hua
آكي -Sakaal Times
all 88 news articles »

Baitullah Mehsud May Be Dead

ISLAM­ABAD — If con­firmed, this would be a huge vic­tory in the fight against tak­firi mil­i­tants in Pak­istan: U.S. and Pak­istani author­i­ties were inves­ti­gat­ing whether Pak­istani Tal­iban chief Bait­ul­lah Mehsud, who has led a vio­lent cam­paign of sui­cide attacks and assas­si­na­tions against Pakistan’s gov­ern­ment, was killed in a CIA mis­sile strike. A Pak­istani offi­cial said Fri­day that reports of […]

Taliban kill Pakistan militia leader: officials - AFP


Telegraph.co.uk
Tal­iban kill Pak­istan mili­tia leader: offi­cials
AFP
PESHAWAR, Pak­istanTal­iban stormed the home of a pro-government Pak­istani mili­tia leader and killed him Wednes­day as clashes between troops and Islamists
INDIAPAK­ISTAN: Tal­iban Face Another MutinyStrat­egy Page


Pak­istan Injects Pre­ci­sion Into Air War on Tal­ibanNew York Times
Pak­istani Pledge to Rout Tal­iban In Tribal Region Is Put on HoldWash­ing­ton Post
Reuters -New York Times -New York Times
all 908 news articles »

Baitullah Mehsud Rival Gunned Down

ISLAM­ABAD — Hoo, boy, talk about Pro­pa­ganda of the Deed. Early this morn­ing, Qar’i Zain­ud­din Mehsud, who just days ago spoke out pub­licly against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pak­istan (TTP) leader, Bait­ul­lah Mehsud, was shot dead by his own body­guard. AfPax Insider had a scoop in wait, with a 14-minute inter­view with the old jihadist, who had decided that his […]

The Great Escape

I’m glad to see a lit­tle light thrown on this story. And very glad to know David and Tahir are safe. KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan jour­nal­ist who was held cap­tive by the Tal­iban for more than seven months along with a New York Times reporter revealed details on Sun­day of a night­time escape that included weeks of careful […]

Interview with the Taliban

The New York Times has a fas­ci­nat­ing story today. It’s an inter­view with a Tal­iban logis­tics tac­ti­cian the Times has been work­ing on for six months. He finally spills the beans on the Tal­iban plans for Pak­istan and Afghanistan, the strate­gies they will use and what they fear. He was clued into the Petraeus doc­trine, used to good […]

Taliban Push Back in Swat

Tal­iban forces are push­ing back in Swat after the peace deal there between the Pak­istani Army and mil­i­tants “prac­ti­cally stands dis­solved,” accord­ing to Tal­iban spokesman Mus­lim Khan. To prove it, mil­i­tants attacked a mil­i­tary con­voy, killing one sol­dier and one was injured, accord­ing to a mil­i­tary spokesman. Khan claimed credit for the attack, say­ing it was in response […]

Obama and Pakistan's Nukes

I’ve been try­ing to digest the news of Pakistan’s offen­sive against the Tal­iban and come up with some­thing smart to say, but I’m left with more ques­tions than answers on why the Pak­istani Army finally got off the couch and decided to do some­thing about the rowdy kids in its front yard. Why now? Will […]

A Downbeat Assessment on FATA and Pakistan

Yes­ter­day was an exer­cise in frus­tra­tion as far as con­nec­tiv­ity and the future of Pak­istan were con­cerned. I was at the Jamestown Foundation’s con­fer­ence, “Pakistan’s Trou­bled Fron­tier: The Future of FATA and the NWFP” with­out wire­less or cell phone cov­er­age. So my plans for live-blogging were foiled. But I wanted to post some notes and impres­sions nonetheless. […]