A Masked Taliban Warrior
Aftermath of a Taliban suicide blast in Wana
A recent blast in Lahore
Maulana Fazlullah, who radicalised Swat
Taliban police flog a smuggler in Charbagh, Swat
Pak Taliban police get ready to execute US spies, June 2007
No haircut for you, says a Taliban poster on display at a barber shop in Matta Tehsil
Taliban supporters at Killi Nalai, a_village near Pak-Afghan border, JUne 2007
Sucide attack took place near a military guest in Kabal,Swat, Jan 2008
Public testing and display of weapons by Taliban is a norm in NWFP interiors
Taliban fighters seen in South Waziristan
Taliban flags on Pak side of the border with Afghanistan
Taliban suicide squad attacked a police station at Mingora on Dec 29, 2008
Hundreds of thousand have been forced to leave Swat
Villagers looking at the debris of a school blown up by Taliban on Feb 19, 2009
Car bomb blast at Police and ISI headwquarters in Lahore leaves 31 dead on May 27, 2009
Police inspecting a crater formed after a car bomb blast in Lahore, May 27, 2009
Lahore police headquarters was damaged and the adjoining ISI regional headquarters partially damaged in car bomb attack on May 27, 2009
A militant stands near the sign board of a police station after it renaming it as Taliban Station in Swat Valley on April 19, 2009
A boy looks up to the sky as displaced people line up for food at Chota Lahore Refugee Camp in Swabi, May 24, 2009.
A monument is erected at Ittehad Town, near Karachi, where Taliban from Waziristan come to take treatment
May
25
Afghan Spy Agency Accuses Pakistan Agency in Suicide Bombing: The NY TIMES, MAY 25
Filed Under WESTERN MEDIA REPORTS | Leave a Comment
By ROD NORDLAND and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
KABUL — A spokesman for Afghanistan’s intelligence agency on Monday accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of involvement in the suicide bombing here last week that killed six NATO soldiers, including four colonels.
While Saeed Ansari, the spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan’s spy agency, did not mention the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency by name, he left no doubt of what he meant.
The remarks came in a news conference announcing the arrest of seven people suspected of organizing the attack last Tuesday, in which a suicide bomber drove a minivan full of explosives into a convoy of armored S.U.V.’s. The blast killed 18 people, including a Canadian and an American colonel, 2 American lieutenant colonels and their 2 American drivers, as well as 12 Afghan civilians.
The seven were also charged with involvement in other suicide attacks in Kabul that killed an..... Read More
May
25
Two killed in Quetta blast
Filed Under PAK MEDIA REPORTS | Leave a Comment
QUETTA, May 24: Two people were killed and 16 others, women and children among them, injured when a bomb exploded in a rickshaw on the Airport road on Monday.
CCPO Shabbir Sheikh told Dawn that the bomb was detonated by remote control.
Sources said Tehrik-i-Fiqa-i-Jaffaria Pakistan Chairman Alama Sajid Naqvi had passed through the area on his way to the airport just 20 minutes before the blast.
A car of Alama Mehdi Najfi, a local leader of TFJP, and some 11 other vehicles were damaged.
However, Alama Najfi, who was returning from the airport after seeing off Alama Naqvi, escaped unhurt.
Police identified the deceased as Hameedullah, driver of the pick-up, and Baloch Khan. The bodies and the injured were taken to the civil hospital, where condition of seven children and a woman was stated to be serious.
Bomb disposal personnel said that around 15 kg of explosives was planted in the rickshaw, which was completely destroyed.
Bomb disposal personne..... Read More
May
25
Educationist gunned down in Hub
Filed Under PAK MEDIA REPORTS | Leave a Comment
By Saleem Shahid in the Dawn, May 25
QUETTA, May 24: A senior academic was gunned down in the industrial town of Hub on Monday in what appears to be a case of target killing.
Police sources said that Mohammad Ashfaq, vice principal of the Pak-German Technical Training Centre, Hub, was going to a market on his motorcycle when attackers on a motorbike opened fire at him on Hubco road.
Mr Ashfaq was critically injured and died on way to hospital. The assailants fled.
APP adds: Mr Ashfaq, who belonged to Faisalabad, had been serving in the institution for the past 23 years. He was a resident of Akhtar Mohammad road, Quetta. Police have registered a case and investigation into the case is under way. http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/front-page/educationist-gunned-down-in-hub-550..... Read More
May
25
By Abdul Sami Paracha in The Dawn, May 25
KOHAT, May 24: Militants attacked the Chanda oil and gas fields in Shakardarra late Sunday night.
They fired a rocket from the nearby mountains on the oil and gas fields and directed heavy weapons fire at the private security guards and Frontier Constabulary personnel deployed at the site. No loss of life or damage to property was reported, however. Return fire from the security personnel forced the militants to retreat.
A FIR was registered by Shakardarra police against unidentified people under section ¾ of the Explosives Act and 7 Anti-Terrorist Act. It stated that only one rocket had been fired which exploded outside the oil and gas fields.
However, Mr Mushfiq, regional chief of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited that operates the oil and gas fields, told Dawn from Islamabad that two rockets had been fired, one exploding inside the facility and the other landing close to the area.
POLICE STATION: ..... Read More
May
25
Karachi killings: edits & commentaries
Filed Under EDITORIALS | Leave a Comment
Edit in The Dawn, May 25
AS another round of targeted killings subsides in Karachi, we are left to think about the cumulative toll this violence has taken on the families of the victims. Such killings are front-page news for a few days as the media concentrates on the mounting death toll, yet it is not often that we focus on the broken, devastated lives the victims’ families have to lead after the violence abates. According to figures collated by the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee, over 90 people have lost their lives to targeted killings in Karachi since January. However, we overlook the fact that for each person killed, several family members are affected — financially and emotionally — and left to fend for themselves in an increasingly cutthroat society. Due to the growing frequency of these bouts of violence, both the media and the public are becoming more and more desensitised as the human tragedy gets lost in the swirl of figures for the dead and i..... Read More
May
25
Faisal Shahzad’s case has eroded the complacent assumption that militancy’s appeal is limited to the lower strata of society. It was believed that free education along with free board and lodging offered by the madrassas attracted students from poor backgrounds, who eventually became recruits for the militant jihad. The situation appears to be changing and that perception may no longer be the whole truth. The appeal of the militant Islamic ideology is permeating comfortable, elite circles and Faisal Shahzad is only the tip of the iceberg of a well-organised jihadi network. According to a Washington Post report, arrests made in connection with Faisal Shahzad’s case in Pakistan have revealed chilling details of educated elite professionals suspected of having terrorist links. One of them is a foreign-educated man associated with an elite catering service. During initial interrogation, all the detained men are reported to have voiced virulent anti-American sentiments. It seems that ..... Read More
May
25
A judge seeks justice: op-ed by Rahimullah Yusufzai in The News, May 25
Filed Under MEDIA COMMENTARIES | Leave a Comment
The senior-most serving judge in Pakistan’s four High Courts has been quietly seeking justice as he believes he has been wronged. Justice Shah Jehan of Peshawar High Court was hoping to become chief justice last October as he happened to be senior to all the judges in the High Court. Instead, Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan was given the job.
This was unprecedented, but the cause of the decision that led to Justice Shah Jehan’s supersession and was contrary to the constitutional convention laid down in the Al-Jihad Trust Case was never made public, or conveyed to him. He wanted to resign, but stayed on reportedly on the advice of friends and well-wishers. He then thought of seeking legal remedy by moving a writ petition in the Supreme Court. He didn’t do so as it could have caused complications, because appointment of judges and chief justices of the High Courts at the time were made on the recommendation of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Quietly, though, Jus..... Read More
May
25
A crisis of identity: op-ed by Bina Shah in Dawn, May 25
Filed Under MEDIA COMMENTARIES | Leave a Comment
LIKE all Pakistanis, I hold multiple identities: I am a citizen of Pakistan and the world; I am a Muslim, as well as an avid user of the Internet.
Normally this would not cause any conflicts within a well-integrated personality, but when a controversy like the Facebook one arises, all those identities start to fight with one another.
The result is what we have today, with the Government of Pakistan banning Facebook, YouTube and other sites, some Pakistanis very pleased with this decision, others scratching their heads and wondering what happened to their personal rights.
It is precisely because we’re not well-integrated, as people and as a nation, that this has happened: as much as we like to claim we are sophisticated in our outlook, we aren’t really comfortable with our multiple identities, and so when a complex situation such as the Facebook controversy arises, we turn our backs on complexity, because it makes us feel insecure, and opt for the most simplistic p..... Read More
May
24
Getting real on terrorism: op-ed by Shahzad Chaudhry in The Daily Times, May 24
Filed Under MEDIA COMMENTARIES | Leave a Comment
All sane minds seem to have reached a singular conclusion: there is no end to the persisting insurgency in the border regions of Pakistan and in Afghanistan through military means alone. It will need a parallel negotiating strategy with groups that have, to date, been labelled barbaric and medieval. The military will buy time and space, but is never good at reintegration and reconciliation — the mantra now for sometime in Afghanistan. No matter how we define them, the Pashtuns form the bulk of this warring lot: around 15 million in Afghanistan, while around four million constitute the seven agencies of FATA. Not all may have taken up arms, yet each may empathise and share the general sense of alienation that this nine-year-long war has inflicted on these mostly hapless people — only a few of their kin wayward. Common suffering gives birth to shared emotion. It seems improbable that around 20 million people can be exterminated by military action; hence, the need to change tack and s..... Read More
May
24
Our political-military decay: op-ed by Ahmed Quraishi in The News, May 24
Filed Under MEDIA COMMENTARIES | Leave a Comment
The writer works for Geo television.
Pakistan’s political and military leaders are taking the Pakistani ship down, fast. From big-picture issues like the Strategic Dialogue with the United States, which apparently is the army’s domain, to small-ticket items like customs clearance at Pakistani ports, run under the politicians, the picture looks grim.
In eight years of war in Afghanistan, Pakistan has been relegated from confronting a worthy adversary like India to fighting internal insurgencies that feed on Afghan chaos. Soon Pakistan may lose the ability to influence anything beyond its borders. An example came over the weekend, when the Turkish prime minister called his Pakistani counterpart to brief him about Turkish efforts to resolve Iran’s nuclear crisis. Mr Erdogan was being nice. The joke is that Mr Gilani simply nodded through the conversation. Pakistani rulers don’t have time left for such pursuits when Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar and Lahore are embroiled..... Read More
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About Us
This is a unique portal. It deals exclusively about Talibanisation that is spreading across Pakistan. Updated round the clock, the portal provides latest news, analysis and commentaries sourced from various newspapers of Pakistan, United States and Great Britain. 
Deserted village of Mandana in South Wazirstan
Govt school blasted with explosives at Saidu Sharif, Swat Valley on 17 Jan 2009
Marriott Hotel, Islamabad set ablaze on Sep 21, 2008
Warehouse of World Food Programme was set on fire at Kanju, Swat, Oct 21, 2008.jpg
Pak boyswalk past a sign, which reads Madrasa Islamia al-Arabia in S Waziristan, May 24, 2008
Supporters of Sufi Muhammad marched through Mingora streets after he signed the Swat deal
Taliban Militants have Pak women in their ranks as this Pix shows
Terrorists in a dare devil mood driving along the highway
A pro-Taliban protest, a common sight in Pakistan
Children walking on the debris of their school. Taliban blasted this and three other schools in Swat on Feb 19, 2009
Taliban is forcing the closure of girl schools.If it has its way even religious schools will be out of reach for Swat girls
Taliban is the master of highways and roads in Swat as this picture shows
Supporters of Maulana Sufi Mohammad stage victory march in Mingora after the Swat deal was signed
A car bomb destroyed an Internet Cafe and tore through a bus carrying handicapped children in Peshawar on May 16, 2009
A vehicle is burnt during sectarian clashes in Karachi on April 29, 2009
NATO oil supply tankers went up in flames after an explosion near Peshawar in April 2009
A huge truck bomb set ablaze Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Sept 21, 2008
Refugees leaving Buner May 19, 2009.
Gunmen attacked Ahmadis place of worshiop in Karachi, Oct 2005
Scene after a bomb blast at Qissa Khawani bazaar in Peshawar, May 28, 2009
People leaving troubled region in Lower Dir on April 27, 2009