Pakistan Timeline

2001
January 16	The SSP and its Shia rival organisation, the Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP) reportedly assured the Punjab provincial government of co-operation in the elimination of terrorism from the country.
January 28	Masked gunmen ambush a school van, killing five Sunni Muslims and wounding three others . The attack leads to violent protests, with hundreds of Sunni Muslim students pelting police with stones, setting cars on fire and vandalizing billboards
February 3	The Punjab leadership of the SSP and another Shia outfit, Sipah-e-Muhammad Pakistan (SMP) announce its willingness to overcome differences and to withdraw cases filed against each other
June 6	In a statement released from Islamabad Al-Badr chief Bakht Zameen criticises Gen. Musharraf's remarks that religious bodies were misappropriating Jihad funds.
June 20	Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf dissolves Parliament . Replacing titular President Rafi Tarar, Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf names himself President while also remaining the Chief of Army Staff
July	Musharraf meets Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in the first summit between the two neighbours in more than two years. The meeting ends without a breakthrough or even a joint statement because of differences over Kashmir.
August 20	Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) Chairman Maulana Azam Tariq say in Sahiwal, August 20, that the outfit would launch a 'court arrest' movement if the government failed to release all the detained SSP workers by August 31, 2001.
September	Musharraf stands besides the US in its fight against terrorism and supports attacks on Afghanistan. US lifts some sanctions imposed after Pakistan's nuclear tests in 1998, but retains others imposed after Musharraf's coup.
September 20	The SSP join other members of the Afghan Jehad Council on announcing a Jehad against the US forces if they used Pakistani soil to carry out military attacks on the Taliban regime.
October	India fires on Pakistani military posts in the heaviest firing along the dividing line of control in Kashmir for almost a year.
October 11	At a protest rally in Peshawar, SSP provincial chief Maulana Fazal Ahad said that the US should withdraw from Afghanistan, failing which it would "taste fatal upset just like former Soviet Union during Afghan Jihad." Jamaat-Ulema-e-lslam declares Jehad against the US and its allies.
October 12	Security force personnel killed and seven more injured in Karachi in clashes with a large group of violent demonstrators, led by the Pak-Afghan Defence Council (PADC), protesting US air raids on Afghanistan's Taliban regime. More than 70 demonstrators are arrested.
October 14	Two police personnel killed by unidentified gunmen in Karachi.
October 22	34 Pakistani HUM terrorists killed in a bombing raid by US planes on a building in Kabul.
October 23	Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, former Director General of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), founder of UmmahTamir-e-Nau (UTN) is arrested, from Islamabad along with his associate Abdul Majeed (arrested in Lahore) for their alleged links to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. Media reports say 23 terrorists, citizens of Pakistan, killed in-an unspecified date in US-led military strikes in Afghanistan.
October 26	Doctor killed and four others injured in Lahore blast.
October 27	News reports from Bajaur, North West Frontier Province, indicated that approximately 10,000 Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) cadres led by their Chief, Maulana Sufi Mohammed, cross the Pakistan-Afghan border.
October 28	A policeman and 17 Christians, including five children, are killed and nine others injured when six unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire on a church in Model Town, Bahawalpur. The SSP is suspected to be responsible for the massacre. Two Army personnel and another are killed, while 25 more are injured, in a blast inside a bus in the cantonment area in Quetta.
November 2	Four HuM terrorists and a security force personnel are injured in gunfire opened by unidentified armed-men on a reception camp of the HuM in Karachi during the night.
November 4	Five persons, including a former District Council chairman, are killed and two more injured in firing by unidentified gunmen near Mehargam, Quetta.
November 6	Federal government freezes bank accounts of the JeM and the Rabita Trust, a Lahore-based Islamic charity.
November 8	85 Pakistani cadres of HuJI killed in US air raids on the defence line at Darae Noor, Dara-i-Souf valley, in the Balkh province of Afghanistan.
November 17	Three security force personnel and a tribesman are killed in an exchange of fire near Fort Salop, in the Bara sub-division of Khyber Tribal Agency. Two more security force personnel and a tribesman are injured, too.
November 23	Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, erstwhile LeT chief, says many Lashkar terrorists are fighting alongside the Taliban militia.
November 24	Unidentified terrorists fire a rocket at a college building in Karachi, close to the US Consulate and a military training centre.
November 26	Six tribesmen of the former Asmat militia are killed in US bombing in the Adha area 5km north-east of Chaman inside Afghanistan while waiting to attack the Taliban together with men owing allegiance to the anti-Taliban ex-Governor of Kandahar.
December	India imposes sanctions against Pakistan, to force it to take action against two Kashmir militant groups blamed for a suicide attack on parliament in New Dehli. Pakistan retaliates with similar sanctions. India, Pakistan mass troops along common border amid mounting fears of a looming war.
December 9	Former Taliban Ambassador Mullah Zaef prevented from entering a madrassa in Islamabad.
December 10	LeT relocates headquarters to Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK, following 'government pressure'.
December 12	Jaish-e-Mohammed renamed as AI-Furqan.
December 13	19 persons injured in a bomb blast at a residential area, Abdul Hameed Colony, in Orangi Town in Karachi.
December 16	Lashkar-e-Toiba demands evidence of its involvement in the December 13-attack on India's parliament.
December 21	Interior Master Moinuddin Haider's brother murdered in a-suspected terrorist attack in Karachi.
December 23	All seven of UTN's directors are detained
December 24	State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) freezes LeT accounts. Lashkar-e-Toiba chief resigns; parent organisation Markaz rechristened.
December 26	Masood Azhar's brother among 25 JeM terrorists arrested in Bahawalpur.
December 30	Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, who has just relinquished the post of Lashkat-e-Toiba chief, arrested in Islamabad for making inflammatory speeches and inciting people
December 31	15 persons injured in a bomb blast in the Defence Housing Authority area, Karachi.
2002
January	President Musharraf bans two militant groups - Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad - and takes steps to curb religious extremism. Musharraf announces that elections will be held in October 2002 to end three years of military rule. Musharraf wins another five years in office in a referendum criticised as unconstitutional and fraught with irregularities.
January 5	Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) activists arrested in a series of raids by security agencies on January 4-5 in Sindh and Punjab
January 12	The SSP is one of the five outfits that have been proscribed by President Pervez Musharraf.
January 15	In a crackdown on bank accounts of banned organisations, the accounts State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) seizes the accounts of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan.
March 16	Five SSP cadres killed near Merik Sial in Jhang by a group of 10 unidentified assailants.
April 15	Two SSP cadres indicted by a Karachi Anti-Terrorism Court in a sectarian killing case in which 10 persons were killed and five others injured in Al-Falah Colony off Shahrea-i-Faisal.
May 5	SSP cadre killed by two unidentified gunmen in the Gulbahar area of Karachi.
May 6	Three persons––principal of a government institute, his driver and assistant, killed in an ambush in Al-Falah, Karachi.
May 7	Noted religious scholar Ghulam Murtaza Malik, his driver and a police personnel are killed in Mehran Block, Gulshan-e-Iqbal in Lahore.
May 8	Nine French nationals and five Pakistanis, including a suspected suicide bomber, are killed and 34 more injured in a bomb explosion inside a bus opposite Sheraton Hotel, Karachi. Two police personnel killed and another injured in Rawalpindi.
May 9	298 persons, primarily those with links to terrorist groups, are arrested in a countrywide crackdown following the May 8-Karachi Sheraton Hotel-suicide attack.
May 10	Dozens of activists of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) arrested in Malakand for alleged links with terrorist groups.
May 11	400 Afghan nationals arrested in the crackdown on illegal immigrants in Islamabad. United States agrees to let Pakistan try Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, JeM terrorist and prime accused in the abduction-cum-murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, before initiating any moves seeking his extradition.
May 14	Pakistan’s most wanted sectarian terrorist, Riaz Basra, also the chief of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Sunni group, killed along with three accomplices in an encounter in Mailsi, Multan.
May 15	Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed arrested from Lahore on arrival from Lahore in Islamabad.
May 16	Three persons arrested in Karachi direct the police to the spot where they claimed murdered US journalist Daniel Pearl had been buried.
May 17	Five persons were killed and more than 40 injured, including the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Pakistan, in a grenade attack on a church in Islamabad. The attack occurred during the Sunday morning service at the Protestant International Church located between the American and Russian Embassies in the heavily protected area of the Diplomatic Enclave. According to media reports, a terrorist walked into the prayer hall and hurled six grenades on worshipers and later managed to escape from the incident site. Some eye witness accounts, however, have indicated the presence of two or three terrorists. Amongst those killed were Barbara Green, wife of an American diplomat and her daughter, two Pakistanis and an Afghan. The injured belonged to different countries including the USA, Britain, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Afghanistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Iraq and Sri Lanka.
May 19	A spokesperson of a hitherto unknown organisation, Hezbullah Alami, claims responsibility for the May 8-bomb blasts in Karachi and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.
May 22	A local leader of proscribed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) killed in Gulistan-e-Mustafa, Karachi.
May 24	Sunni Tehreek (ST) cadre killed and four others injured as unidentified gunmen open fire on an ST rally in Majeed Colony, Karachi.
June 9	Front-ranking leader of Baluchistan National Party (BNP), Mir Aslam Gichki assassinated along with an associate in Mashkey, Quetta.
June 14	10 persons, including five women, killed and 51 others injured in a car-bomb blast outside the US Consulate in Karachi.
June 16	Haqiqi Mohajir Quami Movement (MQM-H) activist killed in Karachi.
June 17	Three Shia worshippers killed in suspected sectarian attack outside a mosque in Multan. Akram Lahori, front ranking terrorist of the LeJ, and five accomplices arrested from Orangi Town, Karchi.
June 19	Hizb-ul-Mujahideen rules out ceasefire with India.
June 21	Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Hyderabad, Sindh, frames 28 charges against Omar Sheikh, front ranking JeM terrorist and prime accused in the Daniel Pearl abduction-cum-murder case.
June 24	One person killed in suspected sectarian attack in North Karachi.
June 25	Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) faction chief Amanullah Khan condemns President Musharraf's pledge to permanently end terrorist incursions into the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir.
June 26	Pakistan National Kashmir Committee chairman Abdul Qayyum Khan says presence of foreign mercenaries in Jammu and Kashmir is detrimental to ‘Kashmir struggle’.
June 27	Shia activist killed in sectarian attack in Multan. Two arrested LeJ activists, Akram Lahori and Attaur Rehman, reportedly confess to their involvement in the June 14-car-bomb blast outside the US Consulate in Karachi.
June 28	A senior official of the proscribed Shia group Tehreek-e-Jaferia Pakistan (TJP) killed in Multan in suspected sectarian attack.
July 1	Akram Lahori, LeJ chief, confesses to involvement in 38 cases of sectarian killings in Sindh.
July 2	Four suspected members of a proscribed group killed in an encounter with police in Shahdara town, near Haji Kot.
July 3	Four Al Qaeda terrorists and two security force (SF) personnel killed and two police personnel injured in an encounter near Jarma bridge in Kohat.
July 4	Maulvi Ghulam Syed Haqqani, former Taliban leader, killed in Mamond subdivision, Bajaur.
July 13	12 persons, including seven Germans, injured in a terrorist attack at an Archaeological site in Mansehra.
July 15	An Anti-Terrorism Court in Hyderabad awards death sentence to JeM terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life term to three co-accused in the Daniel Pearl abduction-cum-murder case.
July 15	MQM-A activist killed near 'Nine Zero', Azizabad, MQM-A headquarters, in Karachi.
July 16	United States says it would not push Pakistan for extraditing JeM terrorist Omar Sheikh, sentenced to death on July 15 for abducting and murdering Daniel Pearl.
July 17	Two terrorists of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Al-Aalami (HuMA) confess to the judicial magistrate in Karachi that they were involved in a conspiracy to kill President Pervez Musharraf on April 26.
July 18	12 foreigners arrested in Peshawar for links with the Al Qaeda.
July 19	Violence breaks out in Karachi following arrest of 60 MQM-A activists.
July 20	Mir Ghulam Qadir Baloch, Baluchistan National Movement (BNM) leader, shot dead in Turbat Bazaar, Quetta.
July 22	Four LeJ terrorists arrested in Vehari in connection with the October 28, 2001-Bahawalpur church attack.
July 24	20 suspected Al Qaeda terrorists arrested in Bajaur, near Pak-Afghan border. Separately, one HuMA activist arrested in connection with the June-14 car-bomb explosion near US Consulate in Karachi.
July 27	Four foreigners arrested for links with Al Qaeda by a US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team along with Pakistan Rangers in Khairpur.
July 28	Six terrorists killed in Bahawalpur encounter.
July 29	United Jehad Council (UJC) says terrorist camps in PoK are closed.
July 30	One person killed after violence erupts in Malir Town, Karachi, following the arrest of four MQM-A leaders. Lahore High Court extends detention of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar till August 15, 2002.
July 31	Federal and Provincial governments deny ordering the arrest of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed, and state that he is not in their custody.
August 1	World Bank study says approximately 15-20 per cent of madrassas (seminaries) are involved in military-related teachings and training.
August 2	Reports say US authorities have placed six Pakistanis on the list of suspected terrorists, businesses and organisations suspected of supporting terrorism. Lawyer representing LeT chief Hafiz Saeed petitions to the Lahore High Court seeking his client’s release, saying that the government had detained him illegally.
August 3	Government decides to join the International Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, that came into force on January 12, 1998, and sign the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Convention on Combating International Terrorism.
August 4	Peshawar tribal council turns-in Al Qaeda collaborator to authorities. Osama bin Laden not responsible for 9/11 attacks says President Musharraf.
August 5	Six persons killed and four others injured in terrorist attack on Christian missionary school in Jhika Gali, Murree. 36 activists of SSP and TJP arrested in Gujranwala.
August 6	Three suspects in the August 5-Murree School attack blow themselves up in Khapadar, PoK. MQM-A activist killed in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Karachi. A local–level leader and central council member of the JuI is killed and two others injured in Quetta. National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Director Brigadier Bartar Hasan Naqvi injured in Quetta.
August 7	Hitherto unknown terrorist organisation, Al-Intiqam, claims responsibility for the August 5-Murree Christian school attack.
August 8	16 missiles recovered in Akakhel village, Khyber Agency.
August 9	Three women and a terrorist are killed, and 24 others injured as terrorists attack John C. Heinrich Memorial chapel in the Mission Hospital at Taxila.
August 14	Bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Omar could be dead, says President Musharraf in an interview to Russian daily Izvestia. 27 terrorists arrested in Punjab province.
August 15	Karachi court orders release of three Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Al-Aalmi terrorists.
August 16	Suspected JeM terrorist killed in Sahiwal-seminary blast.
August 17	58 prisoners of Pakistani origin registered at Guantanamo Base in Cuba, says Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider.
August 18	A youth is killed and three women injured in an explosion at Skardu. Five Somalis arrested near the Afghan border for suspected links with Al Qaeda.
August 21	14 terrorists accused in the attack on foreign tourists at Archaeological site in Mansehra, on July 13, are released after an interrogation team finds them innocent.
August 23	MQM-H chairman Afaq Ahmed and secretary general Amir Khan survive assassination attempt in Karachi.
August 26	Government rules out allowing US troops to carry out operations against the Al Qaeda or Taliban terrorists, who might have escaped from Afghanistan into Pakistan’s border areas.
August 27	13 Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) terrorists arrested in Peshawar.
September 5	Prayer leader killed by two unidentified assailants in North Nazimabad, Karachi.
September 8	Four LeJ terrorists killed in an encounter in Kehror Pucca area, Lodhran district.
September 9	Five Harkat-ul-Mujahideen-al-Aalmi (HuMA) terrorists arrested in Karachi for plotting to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf.
September 11	Two suspected Al Qaeda terrorists killed and seven security force personnel injured in an encounter in the Defence Housing Authority locality, Karachi.
September 12	Italian police announce arrests of 15 Pakistani Al Qaeda suspects.
September 13	Reports indicate that Ramzi Binalshibh, prime suspect in 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, is spotted and detained.
September 15	One person is killed and five others, including a girl, injured in a bomb explosion in a Karachi-bound bus at Pathan Colony, in Hyderabad, Sindh.
September 16	Government hands over 9/11 suspect and key Al Qaeda terrorist Ramzi Binalshibh and four others to US custody. All of them are flown out of the country. A woman is killed and a child injured in Miranshah, Peshawar, in a toy-bomb explosion.
September 17	An MQM-A activist is killed in Karachi.
September 18	Eight terrorists of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen Al-Alami (HuMA) are arrested from different places in Karachi.
September 21	Five HuMA terrorists are arrested in Karachi.
September 22	Five Al Qaeda suspects are arrested in Peshawar and Mianwali.
September 25	Seven persons are killed and three others injured in a terrorist attack on a Christian welfare organisation's office––the Idara Amn-O-Insaaf (Institute for Peace and Justice). An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar grants bail to 11 HuM terrorists.
September 26	A former MQM-A activist is killed in Karachi.
September 29	Two Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) terrorists commit suicide to avoid arrest in Jhang.
October 4	A grenade attack is launched on a Christian hospital in Bannu.
October 5	Sahiwal police arrest four SMP terrorists in Qutab Shana village, in Multan district.
October 6	The Altaf faction of the MQM alleges that the rival Haqiqi faction had killed one of its activists in Karachi.
October 8	Police in Peshawar arrest three local residents and two Afghans from the Shamshato refugee camp on charges of providing shelter to Al Qaeda suspects.
October 9	A letter purportedly written by Osama bin Laden on the eve of the general elections exhorts Pakistanis to struggle for the removal of the military regime and the establishment of an Islamic government.
October 11	General elections are held across the country.
October 12	No party secures a clear majority in the general elections. Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) emerges as the single largest party winning 76 of the 272 seats. The Right-wing Muttahhida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan wins 53 seats.
October 16	Three-parcel bomb explosions cause injuries to eight police personnel and a civilian in Karachi
October 21	Government announces pull back of troops from the International Border (IB) with India.
October 22	Government makes formal request to the USA to set free 57 Pakistanis detained at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
October 23	Seven persons are injured in bomb blast in Rawalpindi.
October 25	Unidentified persons kill an MQM-A cadre in Pak Colony, Karachi.
October 29	An SSP activist is killed within the precincts of Clifton police station in Karachi.
October 30	Maulana Azam Tariq, SSP chief, is released after 11 months in detention at a prison in Rawalpindi.
October 31	Hafiz Saeed, LeT chief, is set free but later put under house arrest in Lahore.
November 1	Unidentified terrorists kill two police personnel in Quetta. A Shia doctor is killed by unidentified assailant in the Upper Mall locality, Lahore.
November 5	Three Pakistanis are arrested in California for attempting to supply US-made Stinger missiles to the Al Qaeda.
November 8	Ummah Tamir-e-Nau is among nine groups placed on US terrorism blacklist for visas.
November 11	17 Pakistani Taliban cadres held as prisoners in Afghanistan for fighting alongside the former Taliban militia are released in Kabul.
November 14	Pakistani terrorist Mir Aimal Kasi, convicted for the 1993-killing of two Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employees in front of the agency's headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, is executed at the Virginia state prison.
November 15	Two persons are killed and nine more injured in a bomb explosion inside a passenger bus in Hyderabad, Sindh.
November 17	Four unidentified assailants kill an Afghan Taliban, the chief priest at a Karachi mosque, within the mosque compound. Federal government amends anti-terrorism law allowing police to detain terror suspects for up to one year without charges.
November 18	Lahore High Court declares detention of LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed as unlawful and orders his immediate release, if not required in any other case.
November 19	LeT chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is released from house arrest as following an order by Punjab Home Secretary Brigadier Ijaz Shah to remove police presence around his Johar Town-residence in Lahore. Lahore-based doctor Amir Aziz, arrested on October 21 for alleged links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, is released.
November 21	Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam candidate Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali elected as the 16th Prime Minister of Pakistan.
November 22	An MQM-H activist is killed by two unidentified assailants outside his residence in Landhi, Karachi. Al Omar Mujahideen ‘supreme commander’ Mushtaq Zargar arrested in Islamabad.
November 24	One person is killed and six vehicles are set afire in MQM violence in Karachi. United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Pakistani law enforcement agencies arrest three Al Qaeda suspects from Satellite Town in Quetta.
November 29	Canadian government designates the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen as terrorist groups. Six Pakistanis are among the 12 persons arrested for questioning in Kenya in connection with the November-28 terrorist attacks in Mombassa in which 16 persons were killed.
December 2	65 MQM-H activists are arrested in separate raids in Karachi.
December 4	Three persons are killed in a bomb blast at the Macedonian Honorary Consul General’s office in Karachi.
December 7	Four members of a family are killed and seven more injured in a landmine explosion in Shahkas village, 25km west of Peshawar.
December 8	An MQM-H cadre is abducted from Gulistan-e-Jauhar area in Karachi and later killed by unidentified assailants.
December 14	A three-member Review Board of Lahore High Court orders the release of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Maulana Masood Azhar. Police arrest three terrorists in Karachi and foil a plot to kill US diplomats in a suicide attack.
December 15	An MQM-A activist is killed by unidentified assailants within the precincts of Liaquatabad police station in Karachi.
December 19	Lashkar-e-Jhangvi chief Ramzi and six others are killed in an explosion at a house in Allahwala Town, Korangi area, Karachi. US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrests leading a medical practitioner and eight members of his family from their residence alongside GT Road in Manawan, Lahore.
December 21	Two persons are killed and seven others, including two security force personnel, are injured in a bomb explosion in a bus in Hyderabad, Sindh.
December 24	11 persons are injured in a bomb explosion at Peerwadahi Bus Stand, Rawalpindi.
December 25	Three women are killed and 15 persons injured in grenade attack on the United Presbyterian Church near Sialkot, Punjab province. Lahore High Court stops immediate extradition of three Al Qaeda suspects arrested in a raid involving US agents on December 19.