Pakistan Timeline - 2012

Date

Incidents

January 01

Fifteen militants were killed and five hideouts were destroyed when fighter jets bombed militant hideouts in Torsmat, Jabba Kellay, Akhunkot and Sama Bazaar in Upper tehsil of Orakzai Agency in FATA.  The dead included five terrorists of ‘Commander’ Ziaur Rehman group of TTP.

At least 12 militants were killed and three hostages were rescued from their custody after an encounter with SFs in the Alamgir Killay of the Karmina area in Landikotal tehsil of Khyber Agency. Khasadar Force sources said that a FC soldier was also killed and another injured during the encounter. According to official sources, TTP Tariq Afridi group ‘commander’ Qari Kamran was among the dead.

A girl, identified as Hajra Bibi, was killed and three persons, two among them members of an anti-TTP lashkar, were injured when a bomb planted by suspected militants in a sewerage line in Tarano Kalli bazaar of Bajaur Agency exploded. 

Four security personnel were killed and two others injured in a landmine explosion in Surali area, some10 kilometres from Sui town of Dera Bugti District.

One person was killed and his brother was injured when three Iranian border guards after allegedly crossing the border shot at a car at Mazan Sar Mashkail area in Washuk District.

At Least 10 people were injured in a hand grenade attack in a shop on Joint Road in Quetta. 

A local trader, identified as Muhammad Akbar Mulazai, was abducted in Surab township of Kalat District.

An unidentified decomposed body of a young man was found packed in a gunny bag within the limits of Jamshed Quarters Police Station.

The year 2011 was one of the deadliest years for the residents of Karachi. 1,354 people were reportedly killed in terrorist attacks and target killing incidents throughout the year. Target killing incidents escalated in the third quarter of 2011 and some 602 people were targeted on political or ethnic grounds. July and August remained the deadliest months of 2011 as some 552 citizens were killed, including 301 in July and 251 in August.  Some 50 people were killed in September, 44 in October, 28 in November and 31 in December.

Pakistan is unmatched in terms of the freedom it allows for the pursuit of jihad and for the spread of Islam, said JuD chief Hafiz Saeed. Saeed said that he did not believe in modern nationalism, but no other “territory” in the world matched Pakistan and it was a great blessing from Allah, adding that the non-Muslims were conspiring against Pakistan both internally and externally.

JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the future relationship between Pakistan and the US should be based on mutual respect and the country’s interests should be kept supreme.

January 2

At least 20 militants were killed in two separate operations by the Army on January 1-2 in Upper tehsil of Orakzai Agency in FATA. 

12 militants were killed and nine others got injured when jet fighters pounded their hideouts in Bilras, Bar Mella and Toor Semath area of Mamozai tehsil. Sources said that hideouts were destroyed. 

Three militants and a volunteer of Qaumi lashkar were killed during a clash in Landikotal tehsil of Khyber Agency.

Sindh University Director of Student Affairs Professor Bashir Ahmed Chanur was killed in an armed attack by unidentified assailants in the varsity’s premises in Jamshoro District. One of the assailants got injured when a security guard retaliated by firing.

Unidentified armed militants shot dead a local leader of ANP, identified as Furqan Shaha, in Hasrat Mohani Colony within Pak Colony Police precincts in Karachi, triggering indiscriminate fire that left five people injured.

Police found the body of an unidentified man from a drain in Nasir Colony, Korangi within the limits of Zaman Town Police Station.

At least four people, including two security guards, Zafar and Younus, and two passersby were injured when militants attacked a mobile company franchise near Hyderi market within the remit of North Nazimabad Police Station.

Chief of ASWJ Aurangzaib Farooqui and three others were booked in December 31, 2011 murder case of Shia leader Askari Raza on Rashid Minhas Road in Karachi, while SSP of the CID’s AEC Chaudhry Aslam also came under interrogation. 

Two men were shot dead in Goht Shadi Pert area, in the limits of Barija Levies Thana of Jhal Magsi District.

The bullet-riddled body of a missing trader identified as Wazir Khan Marri was found dumped near Eastern Bypass, a suburb of Quetta.

At least five children were injured in a land mine explosion in the Sui area of Dera Bugti District.

Two security personnel, identified as Hawaldar Hazrat Umer and Sepoy Shukat Ali, were injured in a land mine explosion in Tuba Nukani area of Dera Bugti District. 

At least four people including a medical practitioner and his brother were abducted from Chatar area of Naseerabad District on the night of December 31.

Iran shut its border with Pakistan as Pakistan authorities took three Iranians in to custody over alleged cross-border attack of January 1 that killed one Pakistani citizen in Washuk District, quoting BBC Urdu report.

Unidentified militants blew up an 8-inch diameter gas pipeline in Pirkoh area of Dera Bugti District.

A local JUI-F leader and former Nazim Haji Mohammad Azeem Khan was killed and his driver was seriously injured when unidentified assailants attacked his pickup near Naverkhel on Begukhel road in Lakki Marwat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Intelligence agencies stepped up security for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, after intercepted messages from militants revealed they were planning a suicide attack.

All Jihadi groups, in consultation with Islamic Emirate Afghanistan (shadow Taliban Government in Afghanistan), have decided to set up a committee to set aside differences in their ranks and step up support for war against western forces in Afghanistan. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Taliban Shura held at an unspecified place on January 2. A statement issued in the form of a pamphlet to the media in Waziristan after the meeting said that “All Mujahideen —local and foreigners —are informed that all jihadi forces, in consultation with Islamic Emirate Afghanistan, have unanimously decided to form a five-member commission. It will be known as Shura-i-Murakbah.”

Spokesman for the TTP Ehsanullah Ehsan confirmed that the meeting had been held and the statement dated December 31 was issued after approval by Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Omar. The sources said the committee had been formed to resolve differences among various militant factions regroup them and investigate killings on spying charges and excesses, if any, committed by the Taliban against local people.

The sources said the high command of TTP and Afghan Taliban had been trying for two months to reach an agreement on uniting different factions. The first meeting in this regard was held on November 27 in Azam Warsak near Wana in South Waziristan Agency.

Talking to Dawn on phone from an unspecified place, TTP spokesman Ehsanullah said the Mujahideen groups had reposed their confidence in the leadership of Mullah Muhammad Omar and recognised him as the leader of Afghanistan. He said the TTP would send its fighters to Afghanistan after March for waging jihad against “US-led infidel forces”.

The year 2011 witnessed a marked decline in suicide attacks in the country, Conflict Monitoring Centre (CMC) report said. CMC is a data collection NGO which taps into Interior Ministry, Health Department and ISPR resources. As a result, the number of deaths also decreased by 48% compared to the previous year. The brunt of fatalities were faced by civilians – out of 606 people killed in 2011, 358 were civilians while the Army  lost 33 of its soldiers, the Frontier Constabulary  lost 100 and the Police lost 54 personnel.  A total of 23 of the 41 attacks targeted civilians. As many as 51 suicide bombers were used in the attacks – certain hits used more than one human bomb. Only four of the recorded bomb attacks targeted the military.

NATO’s ISAF Coalition spokesman, Brigadier General Carsten Jacobsen, said that NATO wants to get relations with Pakistan back on track “as quickly as possible” to reopen its key supply route for foreign troops fighting in Afghanistan. Pakistan closed its main trading route to Afghanistan after the November 26, 2011 raid choking a major supply line for the 130,000 US-led force.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Khalid Shameem Wynne said that Pakistan's "desire" for peaceful settlement of issues must not be misconstrued as its weakness as the country has the means to give a "befitting response to any unprovoked attack of blatant aggression", adding, "Pakistan is a peace-loving country. However, our desire for peaceful settlement of issues must not be misconstrued as our weakness."

January 3

Three persons including two Levies personnel were killed and eight civilians were injured when a powerful car bomb exploded in Landi Kotal Bazaar of Khyber Agency in FATA.

One passenger was injured in a roadside bomb blast at Pir Qayum village near Sadda Town in Kurram Agency.

Militants blew up a Government primary school for boys in Gurbaz Gagezai area of Safi tehsil in Mohmand Agency. An unnamed spokesman for TTP Mohmand chapter claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two persons were killed and 19 others got injuries when a bomb planted in a motorbike at Azam Tower on Arbab Road in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, went off.

Unidentified militants blew up a tower of Sheikh Muhammadi transmission line near Rashakai, disrupting power supply to Peshawar and adjoining areas.

Unidentified militants blew up a pylon on Tarbela-Peshawar transmission line at Baba Ji Kallay in Nowshera District.

An anti-terrorism court issued non-bailable arrest warrants for 34 TNSM and Swat Taliban leaders for non-compliance with the court order to appear in a case. The case was registered against TNSM Chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and others for anti-state and anti-judiciary speeches at the Grassy Ground in Mingora, Swat in 2009. Maulana Sufi Muhammad, his three sons Hayatullah, Rizwanullah and Ziaullah and another TNSM leader Mufti Safiullah appeared in the Swat Anti-Terrorism Court headed by Syed Asim Imam in the case. However, 34 others who had delivered anti-state and anti-judiciary speeches were absent from the court.

Two alleged suicide bombers blew themselves up near Gorali locality of Gujrat town in Gujrat District of Punjab. According to Police, two alleged suicide bombers, identified as Ramzan Ali and Muhabbat Khan of Bhimber in PoK, wearing suicide jackets were heading towards their target on a motorcycle when they heard the sound of siren of the Rescue 1122 ambulance.

Unidentified militants blew up an eight-inch-diameter gas pipeline in Loti Gas Field area of Dera Bugti District in Balochistan.

Al Qaeda, the Afghan Taliban and Pakistani militants have held a series of meetings aimed at containing what could soon be open warfare between the two most powerful TTP leaders. Hakimullah Mehsud, the head of the TTP and his deputy, Wali-ur-Rehman, were at each other’s throats, the sources said.

Taliban sources said Wali-ur-Rehman had ordered his fighters to eliminate Hakimullah Mehsud because of his increasing closeness to al Qaeda and its Arab contingent. Wali-ur-Rehman also alleged that the TTP chief received money from India to kill a former Pakistan spy agency official acting as a mediator between the TTP, Afghan militants and the Pakistani Government.

The Islamabad-based PIPS annual report 2011 released shows the decrease in violence in 2011. PIPS, a think tank monitoring security situation of the country, suggested “crucial steps” should be taken to root out militancy and terrorism despite reduction in violence in 2011.

The report noted that the trend of an overall decrease in the number of violent incidents and casualties in Pakistan that was witnessed in 2010 continued in 2011.

According to the report, a total of 2,985 violent incidents—including terrorist attacks, security forces operations, ethno-political violence, inter-tribal clashes, drone attacks, and cross-border attacks—were reported in Pakistan in 2011.

January 4

SFs killed 10 militants and injured five others during an operation in the Central Kurram Agency in FATA.

At least six LI militants and a volunteer of Zakhakhel lashkar were killed in renewed clashes between LI and the Lashkar in Bazaar-Zakhakhel area of Khyber Agency. Another Zakhakhel volunteer was injured in the incident.

Militants bombed the house of Haji Muhammad Saleem, a tribal leader from Sada area of Kurram Agency injuring two of Saleem’s daughters, two other children and his brother Malik Sardar.

The Abdullah Azam Brigade (AAB) has threatened to target all public and private places and social and religious gatherings in Khyber Agency in retaliation of the military operation conducted in Karamna area in Landikotal on January 1.

Five TTP militants were killed and 13 others arrested in a clash with the Frontier FC troops in Murgha Kibzai area of Zhob District of Balochistan. A FC spokesman said SF received information about the presence of TTP militants in Murgha Kibzai area and dispatched troops there.

Unknown armed assailants shot dead DSP-Investigation, Mohammad Ibrahim, in Gilgit city of Gilgit District. 

A man, identified as Sikandar Hayat, was found dead in a market at Jutial area in Gilgit.

A former ‘commander’ of a local peace committee, Umar Gul, was killed allegedly by TTP militants in Warki village of Tank District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the night. TTP have killed at least seven peace committee heads in the past two months.

A man, identified as Mohammad Waqas, received serious injuries in an indiscriminate firing by unknown armed assailants in Gawalmandi area of Lahore.

Thousands people gathered at Data Darbar in Lahore in support of the former Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassin Malik Mumtaz Qadri, and called for his release. Supporters of various religious parties that form the Tahaffuz Namoos-i-Rasalat Mahaz (TNSM) staged protests at the Lahore Press Club, Minar-e-Pakistan and other places before gathering at the Darbar.

One speaker, Allama Muhammad Tahir Tabassum, suggested that the Government auction off the gun with which Qadri shot the Governor, “like an auction of the bats or hockey sticks of famous athletes”.

A resolution was adopted at the end of the rally asking President Asif Zardari to declare clemency for Mumtaz Qadri and punishment for Asia Bibi, the Christian woman jailed for blasphemy whose release Taseer had campaigned for.

‘Secret talks’ between Pakistan’s Security Agencies and the TTP who have reportedly splintered down into many different groups entered a decisive phase. Now both sides are hoping their negotiations will culminate in a ‘lasting’ agreement which will restore peace in the country’s lawless tribal lands.

“These are crucial times…we have to be extremely careful. A slight miscalculation can harm us in a big way,” the official, requesting anonymity, added in reference to changes in the regional war given the eventual withdrawal of the US-led international forces by 2014.

Raqeebullah said TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud was not aware of these talks and he, along with a core group following his hard-line positions on talks with the Government was aware of these negotiations. “He [Hakimullah] is out. At least people here think so,” Raqeebullah commented.

The US Ambassador-At-Large Daniel Benjamin, who will head the newly-established Bureau of Counterterrorism at the State Department said that it wants to strengthen Pakistan’s civilian capacity to counter terrorism as the South Asian nation suffered more at the hands of terrorist violence than any other country.

Over 200 containers carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan started returning to Karachi from the border town of Chaman in Qilla Abdullah District. Official sources confirmed the return of NATO containers to Karachi, and added that they were not allowed to enter Afghanistan through Chaman border gate following the November 26, 2011 attack on Salala border post that killed 26 soldiers.

Afghan Taliban's Commander Mullah Mohammad Omar put pressure on militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan to form a new grouping which pledged to stop targeting Pakistani SFs and instead focus attention on US-led troops in Afghanistan. It is reported that the Afghan Taliban and TTP formed a joint five-member ‘shura’ or council, named Shura-e-Muraqba, with other Pakistani militant outfits.

Prominent al Qaeda members also asked the Pakistani Taliban, in a pair of rare meetings, held on the request of the Afghan Taliban, to set aside their differences and step up support for the battle against US-led forces in Afghanistan, militant commanders said Monday.

January 5

TTP militants killed 15 Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan Agency in FATA to avenge, in the words of a TTP spokesman, the death of one of their ‘commanders’ in another tribal area at the hands of SFs. The bullet-ridden bodies thrown on a hill in Mir Ali sub-district were spotted by tribesmen in the morning. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told local media in Miranshah, “We have killed these personnel”. He said the killings were in retaliation for the death of Qari Kamran, an important ‘commander’ of TTP, who was killed along with 12 others on January 1 by SFs at Alamgir Killay in the Kermina area near Landikotal in Khyber Agency. "This is revenge for the killing of our comrades in Khyber by Pakistani forces. We will soon take revenge for other operations too," Ehsan added.

The 15 personnel guarding the boundary between the FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had been taken hostage on December 23, 2011 in a pre-dawn attack by TTP militants on their post in Mullazai area of Tank District (KP). 

TTP released 17 children, who mistakenly crossed the border into Afghanistan from Bajaur Agency, after three months of captivity.

A leader of the ANP and two activists of the MQM were shot dead in Karachi.

The President of the ANP, Said Ahmed Khan, was killed and one of his associates, Bashir Ahmed, was wounded in an attack at his house in the Metroville area of SITE, while one of the assailants was shot dead by a Police Constable.

Two MQM activists, identified as Habibullah and Maqsood alias Kala Guddu, were shot dead in Orangi Town by two unidentified armed assailants.

An unidentified dead body of a young man was dumped from a fast-moving car in Murad Memon Goth in Malir area.

TTP Karachi Chapter ‘commander’ Abdul Qayum and his three accomplices were arrested in Karachi along with a suicide jacket, a rocket, a BM missile, two Kalashnikovs and bullets of different types.

The construction of 22 school buildings to replace structures destroyed by militants in Swat should be completed by the end of January, Shakeel Qadir Khan, Managing Director, PDMA said.

One ASI, Ghulam Raza Bangash, was shot dead by unidentified militants in Nawan Killi area of Quetta. It is believed to be a sectarian attack.

In a separate incident, one unidentified security personnel was killed and two others injured in an accidental landmine explosion in Maro area of Dera Bugti District.

Elsewhere in the District, unidentified militants blew up the gas pipeline in Pir Koh area disrupting the gas supply from well Numbers 12 and 21.

Unidentified militants abducted a British official of the ICRC, identified as Doctor Khalil Ahmed Dale, from Chaman Housing Society in Quetta.

Hundreds of militants who surrendered in FATA areas are facing threats from active TTP militants who are pressuring them to rejoin or face reprisals, officials and former militants said. “At least 3,000 militants have laid down arms and expressed repentance over their association with Taliban in Bajaur Agency,” Haji Shafqat Gul, a member of the Bajaur peace committee, told Central Asia Online.

January 6

At least six militants were killed and 12 got injured after LI and its rival Zakhakhel tribal force exchanged gunfire to gain control of a key base in Bazaar Zakhakhel area of Landikotal in Khyber Agency of FATA.

The head of a peace committee, identified as Malik Mohammad Ali Haleemzai, remained unhurt in a blast targeting him in Sangar Khwar area of Mohmand Agency.

Militants bombed science laboratory of Government High School in Miramshah of North Waziristan Agency in FATA in the night.

A Police SI, identified as Zarnosh Khan, and Bawar Khan, the father of a militant ‘commander’ Tariq were killed when law-enforcement personnel raiding a house in Jungary village of Dubai Adda area in Mardan District came under attack of the hiding militants.

A Police sub inspector was killed during clashes between Security Forces and militants in Bakhshali area of Mardan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while eight militants were arrested.

Militants blow up a Government girls’ school in Ibrahimzai area of Charsadda District by triggering an IED.

A man, identified as Shaban, was killed and his friend Abid Khan sustained injuries in a landmine explosion in Jan Beri area of Dera Bugti District. 

Carrying out raids in different areas, Police arrested up to 50 suspects for questioning in connection to the January 5, 2011 abduction of Khalil Ahmed Dale, a British employee of ICRC from Quetta.

LEAs arrested 27 illegal Afghan nationals under foreign Act from Mian Ghundi area in Quetta.

PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif demanded an immediate end to military operations in Balochistan and said that an All Parties Conference will be convened soon in Islamabad to discuss the situation in the province and to find ways of resolving the crisis the seed of which had been sown by the regime of Pervez Musharraf.

PPP MNA Afzal Nadeem Chan said that the ISI and the MI were active in Balochistan while the civilian Government had no say in the provincial affairs.

Supporters of the People’s Aman Committee clashed with the Police on II Chundrigar Road in Karachi during a protest rally that was making its way towards Bilawal House to express their grievances.

Following the killings of political workers on January 5, several parts of Karachi fell into intense wave of tension suspending all commercial and social activities. 

A Pakistani national, identified as Irfan ul Haq (37) was sentenced to 50 months in prison for conspiring to smuggle a member of the TTP outfit into the US.

Two other Pakistani nationals Qasim Ali (32) and Zahid Yousaf (43) were sentenced respectively to 40 months and 36 months in prison in the same incident. The three were arrested in Miami in March 2011 after accepting payment and procuring a fake Pakistani passport for the TTP member. FBI Special Agent in Charge Gillies said that Haq and his co-conspirators sought to smuggle men into the US and did not care if they came here to “blow up” something as long as they got paid.

Another Pakistani national, Nadeem Akhtar (46) who lives in Maryland outside Washington was sentenced to 37 months in a US prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to illegally transfer nuclear-related materials to Pakistan from the US. Akhtar took direction from the owner of a trading company in Karachi who had business relationships with a Pakistani Government entity.

The State Bank of Pakistan directed all exchange companies to follow the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime by submitting suspicious transactions manually or electronically directly to the Financial Monitoring Unit.

A US Treasury delegation will meet senior economic managers in Islamabad on January 9 to exchange views on the problem of money-laundering and terrorists funding. 

The National Assembly was told that about five million illegal immigrants were residing in different parts of the country due to local and regional disturbances. In a written statement, the Ministry of Interior told the National Assembly that out of the five million illegal immigrants, approximately two million were Bangladeshis, 2.5 million were Afghans, and 0.5 million other nationals, including Africans, Iranians, Iraqis and Myanmarese, who had been living in the country for more than three decades.

Planning and Development Minister Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor said that peace and order in the province could not be guaranteed if blasphemy against the Holy Prophet continued.

Malik Perveiz Rafique, a Member of Punjab Assembly had demanded that the Government do more to provide security to the minorities and their worship places.

Security agencies want the TTP to abandon their strongholds of Orakzai and Khyber Agencies of FATA for a possible truce but are not keen to wrench back the control of other lawless tribal regions from the TTP.

January 7

The CID claimed to have killed an alleged TTP Balochistan Chapter ‘chief’ Syed Yasin Shah alias Asghar Baloch and arrested his accomplice, Syed Yar Shan, in a brief encounter near Rasheed Minhas Road at Sharah-e-Faisal Police limits of Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.

Unidentified militants blew up an 18-inch diameter gas pipeline in Ghot Jani Khan area under Malagzad Police Station of Jaffarabad District in Balochistan.

Militants fired rockets at the Tochi Scout camp in Miramshah town of North Waziristan Agency in FATA.

The Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC) warned of countrywide protests if the Government reopens supply routes for allied forces stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The meeting was attended by DPC Chairman and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sameeul Haq (JUI-S) chief Maulana Samee-ul-Haq, Gen (r) Hameed Gul, JI chief Syed Munwar Hassan, JuD chief Professor Saeed Ahmad, Pakistan Awami League chief Sheikh Rasheed, Pakistan Muslim League-Zia-ul-Haq leader Ijaz ul Haq, Abdul Rasheed Turabi, Jamiat Al-Hadith General Secretary Abtisam Elahi, Ghulam Mustafa Jadoon and Hafiz Abdur Rehman.

The members of the National Assembly’s special all-party committee on law and order will visit Quetta on January 10 to receive a briefing from senior officials of the provincial administration and law-enforcement agencies on the issue of sectarian killings in Balochistan.

January 8

A former activist of ST, identified ad Abdul Aziz alias Bhayya (36), was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants in an incident target killing at Tonga Stand Street, Jutt Lines within the precincts of Brigade Police Station Karachi.

According to the confessional statement of a naval officer, Mohammad Israrul Haq, who was sentenced to 15-year imprisonment on May 6, 2010, for planning a series of attacks on important naval installations, the National Defence University, and for taking hostages, the al Qaeda was planning to hold hostage senior officers at the NDU and use them to negotiate the release of detained militants, besides attacking the Naval Headquarters and targeting other important buildings of the navy.

In his statement, the accused admitted to meeting al Qaeda members in Makeen area of South Waziristan Agency and Angoor Adda, the border area of South Waziristan Agency and Afghanistan’s Paktika province, where they discussed the locations of important naval installations.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari questioned the failure of the judiciary to take action against former President General Pervez Musharraf despite Benazir Bhutto holding the ex-military ruler responsible if she is killed.

"He (Pervez Musharraf) will be responsible; he is part of the FIR. Why is the judge not taking actions against him?” said President Zardari, adding, "I ask Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry what has happened to case? The courts are not under me." Zardari said that the FIA had submitted the challans with the court and asked why four judges had been changed during the course of hearing.

A nearly two-month lull in American drone strikes in Pakistan since November 17, has helped embolden al Qaeda and several Pakistani militant factions to regroup, increase attacks on Pakistani Security Forces and threaten intensified strikes against allied forces in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported citing US and Pakistani officials.

American intelligence agency CIA has failed to eliminate more than four al Qaeda leaders in its highly costly and controversial ‘assassination by drones’ campaign inside Pakistan during 2011, revealed an annual report compiled by CMC on drone attacks.

American drones fired 242 AGM-114 Hellfire missiles during the year and destroyed 38 houses, 37 vehicles, one camp and a seminary. One such missile costs for $68000 which means the CIA spent $16.456 million or Rs 1.5 billion to kill 609 people.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Information and Culture Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the US-Taliban talks could not produce any result without the participation of all stakeholders.

The dead bodies of 10 FCB paramilitary troops were recovered from in Dabori town of Orakzai Agency in FATA. One security official said 23 soldiers were attacked late in the night on December 21 by nearly 100 heavily armed militants. The TTP claimed responsibility for the killings. TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan in a phone call to Reuters said that his men were behind the December 21, 2011 attack.

Arshad Khan who was injured in a blast targeting a local jirga on December 31 in Khugakhel area of Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency, succumbed to his injuries in a Peshawar hospital.

A passer-by, identified as Sohail, was injured when a bomb planted on the roadside exploded at Ali Masjid.

Elsewhere in Landi Kotal, unidentified assailants abducted a transporter, Niamat Wali, at gunpoint in front of his house from Kuktarhel area at around 9pm. Sources said that Niamat Wali was allegedly involved in stealing goods from NATO containers. 

Unidentified militants blew up a NATO oil supplying tanker at village Mian Khel on Shalman Road. The Afghanistan-bound oil tanker was parked at Mian Khel village when the militants detonated explosive material planted on the tanker.

Four people, including a Police Officer and a member of MQM Elders Committee, were shot dead in Karachi in separate acts of violence.  A shia man, identified as Syed Qalb-e-Abbas Rizvi, who was also the member of MQM Elders Committee succumbed to his injuries. 

Police found an unidentified bullet-riddled body of a youngster from old Truck Stand within the precincts of Kalri Police Station.

A man, identified as Asif (32), was shot dead two unknown militants near Pehalwan Goth within the jurisdiction of Gulistan-e-Jauhar Police Station while he was on his way home.  

ASI Anwar Sheikh (40) of the Foreign Security Cell deployed at the American Consulate was shot dead by unknown armed assailants at the consulate situated within Jackson Police precincts.

Different departments of the Sindh Police claimed to have arrested two target killers and an extortionist in separate raid in Karachi. CPLC and Bahadurabad Police in a joint raid claimed to have arrested an extortionist Allah Ditta from Gizri area of Defence.

SP Mazhar Mashwani of the CID, along with his team conducted a raid at Regal Chowk, Saddar and arrested two target killers namely Fahim and Shakeel, besides recovering their weapons.

Unknown motorcyclists shot dead a Mehsud tribesman, Sher Mohammad, in Jafarabad Colony in the limits of Dera Township Police Station in Dera Ismail Khan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

The dead body of a man was found near the Pehur High Level Canal in the jurisdiction of City Police Station in Topi tehsil of Swabi District. 

Hundreds of protesters closed the Kohat-Hangu highway against the killing of a prominent member of SSP. Sources said that Abdul Wahab, a cadre of SSP and Sunni Supreme Council, was abducted from the station area of Hangu on December 31, 2011.

Former Chairman of the Punjab Bar Council’s Executive Committee, Advocate Chaudhry Nasrullah Warraich, was shot dead by unidentified militants in Lahore District.

The HRCP voiced concern at the reports of a number of journalists facing threats in recent weeks and asked the authorities to ensure that threats to journalists end. A statement issued in Lahore District by HRCP said, “The HRCP is alarmed at reports of threats received by journalists on account of their work. 

Further the report stated, “HRCP wants to remind the authorities that for two years now Pakistan has held the dubious distinction of being one of the deadliest countries for journalists. HRCP reiterates that those making threats and perpetrating violence against journalists are encouraged by the fact that out of over 70 journalists killed in Pakistan in the last decade, the perpetrators have been brought to justice in only one case.”

A Melbourne-based Pakistani student, Salman Ghumman (23), was deported on security grounds after being questioned by Australian security intelligence officials over his suspect phone calls to Pakistan.

CJP Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, expressing concern over the worsening law and order situation in Balochistan, observed that the number of missing persons in the province was increasing day by day. He said that uncertainty prevailed in the province as bullet-riddled bodies were found every day.

A powerful bomb planted in a pick-up van exploded at a petrol station in Jamrud bazaar in Khyber Agency of FATA, killing 35 persons, four of them Khasadar personnel, and injuring 78 others. Khyber Agency Administrator Mutahir Zeb said it appeared that Zakhakhel tribe which had formed a lashkar against TTP militants in the area was the target. However, a TTP ‘spokesman’ who identified himself as Mohammad told by phone from an unspecified location that his organisation had not carried out the attack. 

After a lull of about 55 days, the US resumed its drone operation by killing four suspected militants in the out skirts of Miranshah in the North Waziristan Agency.

Unidentified assailants shot dead Haji Kaleem, commander of Akkakhel peace committee for Margatkhel area in Khyber Agency. 

One child was killed another two got injured when a mortar shell landed in a playground in Spin Qabar area. 

A tribesman was killed in crossfire between militants and SFs in Mian Mandi Bazaar of Mohmand Agency. 

An explosion at a market injured seven persons and caused damage as many shops in Landi Kotal of Khyber Agency.

In Akkakhel area, two women received injuries when two mortar shells fell on the houses of Khyber Khan and Ambel Khan.   

Unidentified militants blew up a Government school in the remote Haji Nadir Shah Kallay in Zakhakhel Bazaar area.

A bomb hoax at Atif Aslam concert held at the Al Hamra Cultural Complex in Lahore led to a stampede that killed three girls and injured five others. The deceased girls were identified as Maheen Naseem (17), Sara Nawaz (22) and Nimra (16).

A worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), identified as Ahmed (31), was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants in an act of target killing while two others, Nadir Bharam (25) and Imran (32), sustained injuries in the same incident at Cantt Bazaar within Shah Faisal Colony in Karachi.

CID claimed to have arrested an activist of a SNP, identified as Saifal Bugti alias Suriya over the charge of committing terrorist activities in Sindh from Quaid-e-Azam Park located in Gulshan-e-Hadeed area in Steel Town of Karachi.

Rangers conducted a raid in Hasrat Mohani Colony, Pak Colony area and arrested three suspects besides recovering three pistols from their possession.

KP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said that students are future of the country and any nation can’t compromise on its future.

KP Minister of Higher Education Qazi Muhammad Asad said that out of USD 200 billion, only one percent was allocated to the education sector per annum.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar said that there was no proposal under consideration to link transfer of civil nuclear technology with the resumption of NATO supply.

Al Qaeda continues to preach jihad in Pakistan through an Urdu monthly magazine, Hiteen. The 200-page magazine, Hiteen, is delivered by post to not only the Deobandi but also to Ahl-e-Hadith and Barelvis to convert them to al Qaeda’s point of view. Hiteen, the battlefield where Sultan Salahuddin Ayubi defeated the Crusaders, was started in June 2011, a month after Osama Bin Laden’s killing.

An editorial in the magazine says that it is not true that the mission of the ‘mujahedeen’ has been damaged with Bin Laden’s death. The mujahedeen are still fighting with their full strength.

A Judicial Commission probing the May 30, 2011 murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad submitted its report to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani with findings as well as recommendations by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) for the journalist community and financial assistance to Shahzad’s family. 

The PCNS is likely to hand over to the Government its report comprising recommendations on new terms of engagement with the US and NATO and ISAF in the war on terror and broad outlines of the country’s relations with Afghanistan and India.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who represented the Foreign Office during the committee’s deliberations, told reporters that the Government was seeking the Parliament’s wisdom and would reframe its foreign policy in accordance with the mandate given by the PCNS.

At least 14 of FC personnel, including two junior commissioned officers, were killed in an ambush in the Wakai area near Nawano check post in Turbat city of Turbat District. BLF claimed responsibility for the attack.

At least 11 militants were killed and six others got injured when jet fighters pounded their hideouts in Jabba, Toor Semath, Akhunkot, and Mir Qalamkhel localities in Mamozai tehsil in Orakzai Agency of FATA. Four hideouts were destroyed. 

Rafiq alias Akhlaq, head of a militant group Jundul Khyber, was killed by the cadres of AI in Bagh locality of the Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency.  The sources said that Akhlaq had abducted an associate of the rival Tariq Afridi group, a commander of TTP, and imprisoned him at his Hujra in Narkhaw area of Maidan being controlled by AI.  The TTP asked the AI that one of its fighters had been detained by Akhlaq and sought their help to get the captive released.

Persons displaced from Bara tehsil and currently sheltering in tents and rented houses have complained of prolonged curfew and closure of Bara bazaar, educational institutions and hospitals, and demanded an early end to ongoing military offensive in their area to ease their misery.

A Hujra of former Union Nazim Johar Mohammad (Advocate) was partially damaged in an explosion in Dallokhel village of Lakki Marwat District.

Paris-based global media rights group Reporters without Borders and Tribal Union of Journalists jointly held six safety-training sessions for over 90 journalists in Peshawar.

A grand Jirga of Utmankhel Qaumi Movement demanded complete educational facilities for girls at Utmankhel Tapa in Bajaur, Malakand and Mohmand agencies. 

Police found an unidentified body of a woman cut into six pieces at Shaheed-e-Millat Road within the remit of Firozabad Police Station in Karachi. 

A head constable, identified as Sher Afzal Mehsud alias Dali (35), was shot dead by unidentified armed assailants in Muzaffarabad Colony within the jurisdiction of Quaidabad Police Station while was sitting in front of his house.

A detained TTP Karachi chief, who was arrested by the CID on January 5, 2012, confessed to his involvement in the blast at the house of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister that had claimed the life of his son. Police claimed to have arrested four militants, including TTP Karachi chief Abdul Qayyum Mehsud, Muhammad Sharif, Habib Mehsud and Usman.

Unidentified militants blew up a primary school for girls at Shagai village in Razaar tehsil of Swabi District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

Three houses were damaged in Ali Abbas area when five mortar shells were fired at Hangu city from an unspecified location.

The Army warned of “serious ramifications” and “consequences” for the country over Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s allegations that the Army Chief and the ISI Director General “unconstitutionally” submitted their response in the memo scandal to the Supreme Court.

PM Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked Secretary Defence Khalid Naeem Lodhi and handed over the additional charge of secretary defence to Nargis Sethi.

In a related development, the Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani summoned an emergency meeting of the corps commanders. Dawn quoted sources as saying that the military high command had appointed Brigadier Sarfaraz Ali commander of the 111 brigade. Brigadier Sarfaraz Ali was named the new commander of the 111 Brigade, an infantry formation that is part of the X Corps and has usually been called out during past military takeovers to take over key buildings and installations in Islamabad and Rawalpindi, sources said.  

US State Department said that the conflict between the civil and military establishments in Pakistan was the country’s internal matter and it would not like to comment on it.

Pentagon said the US military Chief General Martin Dempsey had telephoned General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani but the United States neither sought nor received any assurance from the Pakistani military that it would not stage a coup.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik constituted a task force for early implementation of matters regarding Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan Package.  The Interior Secretary will head the task force, while additional secretaries of concerned ministries would be its members.

The Minister said that it was decided that the concerned ministries would prepare their suggestions to evolve a system for a more expeditious and result-oriented mechanism for implementation of the AHBP. Rehman Malik said that the Coast Guards and Frontier Constabulary would not establish any check post on RCD or Bolan Highway.

US Consul General William Martin announced USD 10 million in aid on for rehabilitation and provision of educational and health facilities in the Duregi area of Lasbela District. Martin announced the multi-million dollar aid package on behalf of the US Government, while visiting a girl’s primary school in Duregi.

The US Embassy in Pakistan said that it gave money to Sunni Ittehad Council, a Pakistani Muslim group that organized anti-Taliban rallies, but which later demonstrated in support of an extremist who killed a leading liberal politician. 

The SIC was formed in 2009 to counter extremism. It groups politicians and clerics from Pakistan's traditionalist Barelvi Muslim movement, often referred to as theological moderates in the Pakistani context. 

Two leading members of the council denied receiving any American funds. "This propaganda is being unleashed against us because we are strongly opposed to Western democracy and American policies in the region and in the world," said Sahibzada Fazal Karim, the head of the council, adding, "We are against extremism, but we support Qadri because he did a right thing".

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security Senator Mian Raza Rabbani said that the committee had proposed 35 consensus recommendations to review relations with the US, NATO and the country’s foreign policy.

At least 15 militants were killed and several others got injured while 3 terrorist hideouts destroyed in an air attack by SFs in different areas of Orakzai Agency in FATA.

At least six militants were killed and two others injured when a US drone fired two missiles at two vehicles in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency.

Five people, including four children and a woman were killed when a mortar shell fell on a house in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency.

A militant was killed and two hideouts were destroyed during a search operation by SFs in Akakhel area. Two soldiers were also injured during the crossfire.

Unidentified armed assailants shot dead two rickshaw drivers in two separate incidents in Karachi.

Police found an unidentified body of a man near Naval Flats, Lyari within the limits of Kalri Police Station.

A teenage girl, identified as Zahra (17), was killed by a stray bullet in a slum area of Shahzad Moor within the jurisdiction of Pirabad Police Station. 

A former lieutenant commander of Pakistan Navy, identified as Asghar Ali Dogar, now heading the Security Department of a private hospital who was shot and injured in Korangi area on the night of January 11 succumbed to his injuries. 

The CID of Sindh Police claimed to have arrested a militant of LeJ, identified as Riyaz Ahmed alias Riyaz Afghani alias Zahid Hussain Gilgiti from Hub River Road in Karachi and recovered two hand grenades, one repeater and two pistols from his possession.

During his interrogation, he confessed that he had given money to Usman Choto for killing of Shia leader in Karachi but Choto was arrested before committing the crime.

At least seven LI militants and three SF personnel were killed in an attack on a checkpost in Sarbanda, a suburb of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the late night. Thirteen Police and Frontier Constabulary personnel were injured.

Seven people were injured when unidentified militants blew up a CD shop by planting and triggering off an IED at a sewage line near the Ali CD Centre on Nowshera Road in Charsadda District. 

The IDPs of Khyber Agency have given a two-week deadline to the Government to meet their demands. Speaking at a press conference at Peshawar Press Club in Peshawar, the tribesmen led by PTI FATA Chapter leader Mohammad Iqbal Afridi said that supply of food items to the IDPs had been suspended for the past nine months and despite their repeated appeals no attention had been paid to the issue so far. 

The UNHCR asked the Afghan refugees residing in four camps of Lower Dir District to prepare for voluntarily repatriation to their home country by end of this year. In this regard, an office of the UNHCR called Centre for Voluntary Repatriation was inaugurated at Khiaima area of Timergara in Lower Dir.

Speaking on the occasion, the UNHCR provincial head praised Pakistan and Sudan for hosting a large number of Afghan refugees for over 30 years. He said that the refugees had to complete repatriation to their homeland by December 2012.

The Supreme Court ordered the Defence Secretary to verify claims made by military authorities while branding a Swat resident a terrorist. A four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had taken up a petition of Abdul Ghaffar Khan seeking to reclaim his ancestral farmland and gardens he had left behind while leaving as an internally displaced person when the Operation Rah-e-Rast was launched by SFs against militants in Swat.

SFs launched a search operation in Buleda tehsil of Turbat District to arrest the militants involved in the January 11, 2012 killing of 14 FC personnel in an ambush.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain said that he is ready to talk to the TTP for country’s security, peace and stability.  He said this while talking to the head of FATA Grand Alliance Malik Khan Marjan over telephone.

The MQM chief said that the tribal people living in different parts of the world were calling MQM International Secretariat. They welcomed the demand for the creation of the Qabailistan province. 

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Firdaus Ashiq Awan said that according to the report of commission investigating the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad, his killers could not be traced, but the Police and Law Enforcement Agencies have been directed to continue investigating the case. 

Talking to media outside the Parliament House, Awan said the report will be made public today and would be uploaded on website of the Ministry of Information by the afternoon of January 13.

The Commission blamed various ‘belligerents’ involved in the war on terror for his murder. But it didn’t single out any person or organisation, which could have killed him, leaving the room open for further probe. In its set of recommendations, the most important was to rein in the ISI and IB and make them accountable within their organisations and to the parliamentary committees concerned.

A trooper was injured when unidentified militants attacked FCB fort in Girni Sheikhan of Tank District. 

Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ameer Haider Khan Hoti said that the terrorist attacks against them will boost the Police and SFs’ resolve to bring about peace instead of affecting it.

Four people, including two members of MQM, were shot dead in the recent wave of recent target killings in Malir town of Karachi.

Another man, identified as Shahnawaz Baloch, was killed when in Siddique Goth area near Gul Muhammad football ground within Al-Falah Police limits.

A man, identified as Rashid (28), was shot dead at his poultry shop in Jamia Millia, Malir area. 

A Shia man, identified as Syed Mushtaq Hussain Zaidi, (50) was shot dead and another, Kamran, was injured by unidentified militants near UP Morr within the jurisdiction of New Karachi Police Station.

Two bullet-riddled bodies were found in Yak Mach and Shakar Aab areas of Chagai District.

Unidentified militants hurled a hand grenade at the residence of a Government employee, identified as Saleem Khokar, in Killi Ibraimzai area on Brewery Road in Quetta.

The ISPR, Quetta Cantonment, strongly refuted reports about a military operation in Balochistan. An ISPR spokesman said that news stories published or aired by a section of media about a military operation in Balochistan were totally baseless and a false propaganda against the Pakistan Army.

The local TTP set ablaze over a dozen computers, television sets, cellular phones and several cassettes in the Wana bazaar of South Waziristan Agency in FATA. The TTP led by Maulvi Nazeer said they had already banned using television and computers for watching movies and music and carrying cellular phones with cameras.

Four suicide bombers attacked the DPO’s office in Dera Ismail Khan District, killing four people. “Three suicide bombers detonated themselves and one was shot dead by the army,” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General of Police Akbar Hoti said. The TTP claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Police found the body of man, identified as Nasir Ali Baloch (25), from Shah Waliullah Road, Lyari within the precincts of Kalri Police Station in Karachi.

Police found a dead body of a man, identified as Rafiq (25), from a drain at Shafiq Mor within the jurisdiction of FB Industrial Area Police Station.

A Khasadar official, identified as Duny Dar, was injured in an IED explosion near Landikotal railway station in Khyber Agency of FATA.

The local political administration sent a notice to all Afghan nationals in the area, asking them to leave within the next five days or face strict legal action.

Chattar SHO Gulam Haider Manjo escaped a remote-controlled blast in Naseerabad District. Chattar DSP Deedar Hussain Magsi said that unidentified militants had planted explosives along the roadside to target the Police.

Three Iranian security personnel booked for killing a Pakistani national, Saeed, and injuring another, Ismail Gul Reki, in Mashkel tehsil of Washuk District on December 31, 2011, were acquitted by the Sessions Judge of Kharan after successful negotiations between the victims’ family and the accused.

Officials of the Anti-Extremism Cell claimed to have foiled a terror plot to attack the main Chehlum procession, and arrested a TTP ‘commander’, Mohammad Daud, who was involved in a number of terrorist cases in Ittehad Town in Karachi.

The Police also recovered 50 kilograms of explosives, four suicide jackets, one light machinegun, a rocket launcher, two rockets, 10 hand grenades, two Kalashnikovs, two TT pistols, 1,000 bullets, a 20-foot detonating cord, and five detonators. He said the plan to target the shrine had been made in Waziristan and that he had been given PKR 20,000 by a TTP commander there to complete the job.

CID team raided a place along the National Highway near Abbot Factory and arrested two alleged TTP militants namely Azeem Ahmad Sheikh alias Anees and Zubair Alam alias Munna.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that he was once again inviting militants for talks, but they would have to lay down their arms and renounce violence first.

Pakistan will start repaying the USD 7.6 billion IMF loan in February 2012, with the first tranche of USD 1.2 billion that has been allocated in the budget 2011-12.

The DCC rejected a US military investigation into the deadly NATO air strikes on Pakistani border posts of Mohammad Agency. A meeting of the committee, chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, asked the military command to share its rejoinder with the American side.

Chief of the rightwing JuD Hafiz Mohammad Saeed expressed support for the contacts between the US and Afghan Taliban and urged the Government to open a dialogue with Pakistani militants.

At least 18 people, belonging to the Shia sect, were killed while 30 others were wounded when a bomb exploded near a procession marking Arbain or the chehlum (40th day) of Hazrat Imam Hussain’s martyrdom in Khanpur city of Rahim Yar Khan District. 

In a sectarian killing incident, a security guard, identified as Musa Khan, was shot dead by unidentified armed militants in Jam colony Imambargah in Quetta.

Four members of a family hailing from Punjab province were abducted from Loralai area in Barkan District by unidentified armed militants, who intercepted their vehicle Chori Bridge while they were on their way to Quetta.

Four militants, involved in attack on Riaz Shaheed Police Post in Sarbanda, the suburb of Peshawar, in the night of January 12, were arrested during a search operation in the area.

An Afghan girl (9), identified as Haleem, carrying 50 bullets and an Afghan man, identified as Gul Mohammad (25) were arrested by Security Force deployed at the main procession of Hazrat Imam Hussain’s Chehlum in Kashmiri Bazaar in Lahore District.

When Police contacted on the address in Chakwal, they could not trace the family of the girl. Afterwards, the Police arrested the girl’s uncle from Dhoke Hassu in Rawalpindi District.

The leader of TTP, Hakimullah Mehsud, was believed to have been killed by a US drone strike on January 12, Pakistan intelligence officials said. The officials said they intercepted wireless radio chatter between TTP cadres detailing how Hakimullah Mehsud was killed while travelling in a convoy to a meeting in the North Waziristan Agency region near the Afghan border.

The TTP said Hakimullah was still alive, but their denial was far less assertive than one issued in 2010 after media reports said he had been killed in a drone strike.

The US urged Pakistan to “really lead and conduct a dialogue that takes the Balochistan issue forward”. “The US is deeply concerned about the ongoing violence in Balochistan, especially targeted killings, disappearances and other human rights abuses,” said State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

At least 10 militants were killed in an armed clash with SFs in the Bahlol area of Kohlu District. Official sources said that militants attacked personnel of the FC in an area close to Chamalang when they were setting up a check-post. The FC retaliated, killing 10 militants.

The dead body of a man, identified as Wazir Khan Marri (35), was recovered from Liari tehsil of Lasbela District.

Police found an unidentified dead body dumped in a gunny bag in Chetkhan area of Panjgur District.

The main pipeline supplying gas to Sindh was blown up in the Gopang area of Pat Feeder in Sui tehsil of Dera Bugti District. The spokesman of Baloch Republican Army (BRA), Sarbaz Baloch calling media from an unspecified location claimed responsibility for the blast.

Police found the dead body of a teenager boy, identified as Shahzaib Baloch (17), from Mawatch Goth within the jurisdiction of Mauripur Police Station in Karachi.

One Policeman, identified as Ghulam Mohammad (27), hailing from Gilgit-Baltistan, was shot dead in a sectarian attack in Alamgir Market near Bara Maidan within the limits of North Nazimabad Police Station.

The death toll of January 15, 2012 bomb attack on a chehlum (40^th day of Imam Hussain’s martyrdom) procession at Darbar-e-Hussain Imambargah in Khanpur city of Rahim Yar Khan District rose to 21, while another bomb weighing two kilogrammes was found in the same area.

The private security personnel claimed to have arrested one suspect. They said that they found the man with two remote controls in his pocket.

Shahzain Bugti, a grandson of slain Akbar clan chieftain and former Chief Minister of Balochistan, Nawab Akbar Bugti, announced head money for former Army dictator and President Pervez Musharraf. Akbar Bugti, along with his comrades, was killed on his way from the Bugti Hills to Marri Hills in a military operation in Kohlu District of Balochistan on August 26, 2006. The operation was allegedly ordered by Musharraf.

Inspector General of Frontier Corps Major General Nadir Zeb rejected having any type of contact with TTP and said that SFs were determined to restore peace in the tribal areas. Addressing the passing-out parade of the 16^th batch of 155 new FC recruits at Landi Kotal Army camp, he said that SFs would require more time to uproot the menace of terrorism in FATA.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar said that law and order situation in the province and FATA is far better than that of years ago.

Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the United States talks with the Afghan Taliban won’t be result-oriented unless Pakistan and Afghanistan are included in the quest for peace. He said for lasting peace in the region the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan would require concerted efforts to evolve a common peace strategy.

As many as 14,362 people, including 150 women, have “disappeared” in Balochistan since 2001 and 370 mutilated bodies have been found in different parts of the province so far, Qadeer Baloch, Vice President of Voice for Baloch Missing Persons said. Sitting in a camp in front of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, since January 1, 2012 to protest against the “disappearances” of Baloch people, Qadeer said about 250,000 people from Marri and Dera Bugti areas had migrated to other provinces and even to Afghanistan since their lives were in danger.

Speaking at a News Conference on International Human Rights Day at the KPC, HRCP Chairperson Zohra Yusuf had said the establishment saw the problem of Balochistan as a “security issue” but it would not be fair to say it wanted to get rid of Balochistan.

The Supreme Court rejected a report filed by the Balochistan Chief Secretary on the security situation in the province. The court said the report was “not satisfactory” because no steps had been taken to improve the security situation. A three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, also directed the Balochistan Advocate General to submit reports from the IB and CID on the law and order situation in Balochistan in the last three months on January 20.

Police found an unidentified seven-day-old dead body of a young man from the Lyari Expressway area within the limits of Shershah Police Station in Karachi. Police said the victim appeared to be Baloch and had several torture marks and had received a bullet in his head. 

Police found another unidentified dead body of a man bearing torture marks from Khayaban-e-Qasim area within the limits of Darakhshan Police Station. A Police Officer said that the victim appeared to be Punjabi.

A senior tribal reporter, Mukarram Khan Atif, correspondent for Washington-based Pashto language Deewa Radio and a reporter for a private TV channel, was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in Shabqadar area of Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

SFs foiled an attempt to smuggle arms from Darra Adamkhel to Peshawar and arrested two carriers at Spina Thana checkpost in Kohat. Official sources said that the SFs stopped a Suzuki car (9040-Karachi) at Spina Thana and upon search found 40 pistols and hundreds of cartridges in it.

A bullet-riddled body of a man, identified as Munir Ahmed, was found near Sorap Dam area of Panjgur District. Ahmad had been missing for the last six days. 

Another dead body that was found on January 16 from Chetkhan area of the same District was identified as that of Muhammad Azeem Sasoli, a resident of Surab area of Kalat District.

Unknown assailants again blew up an 18 inch diameter high pressure gas pipeline in Pat Feeder in Sui area of Dera Bugti District, suspending the gas supply to Quetta and other Districts. BRA reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

One person, Muhammad Dost, sustained injury in a remote-controlled blast in Khyber Sadu Khel area of Landikotal in Khyber Agency of FATA in the evening.

Annoyed with the silence of the Government and others over the US drone intrusions, gun-toting tribesmen took things in their hands and fired at the drones that appeared over North Waziristan Agency.

A Pakistani ATC conducting the trail of seven men charged with involvement in the November 26, 2008 Mumbai attacks (also known as 26/11) adjourned proceedings till January 28, 2012 after the main accused, LeT commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, sought time to appoint a new lawyer.

In a call to her Pakistani counterpart this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated the Obama administration’s counter-terrorism “red line”. The US reserved the right to attack anyone who it determined posed a direct threat to US national security, anywhere in the world. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar responded in kind, telling Mrs. Clinton that Pakistan’s red line was the violation of its sovereignty.

At least three LI militants were killed when they clashed with volunteers of Akkakhel peace committee in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency in FATA. Three slain LI militants were from Shalobar, Zakhakhel and Malikdinkhel area.

Unknown armed militants shot dead a youth, identified as Sardar Muhammad, at Killi Kashmirabad area near Sariab Police Station in Quetta.

TTP claimed responsibility for the killing of a senior tribal reporter, Mukarram Khan Atif, correspondent for Washington-based Pashto language Deewa Radio and a reporter for a private TV channel, in Shabqadar area of Charsadda District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on January 17. TTP's spokesmen Ehsanullah Ehsan and Mukarram Khurasani told reporters that the group killed Mukarram Khan Atif because he 'broadcast anti-Taliban' reports and they said they will kill other American radio journalists.

Intelligence agencies and SFs denied the custody of Mohammad Hasnain, a missing official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Communication and Works (C&W) Department.

Ghulam Nabi Khan, counsel for the missing official, accused intelligence agencies and SFs of taking away many people and said the number of missing persons was the highest in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the Upper House that former President Pervez Musharraf would be arrested upon his return to Pakistan in the September 2006 Akbar Bugti murder case.

He told the House that a complainant was needed to make the Federal Government register a case against Musharraf under Article 6 of the Constitution. The Interior Minister asked the PML-N to come forward as it was affected the most by the October 12, 1999, coup.

A Sub-Inspector, Asghar Ali Tarar (50), was shot dead by unidentified armed militants while he was sitting in his car in Orangi Town within the precincts of Mominabad Police Station in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh.

The victim had played a pivotal role in Karachi Operation during 1992-96. SSP CID Chaudhry Aslam said that more than 300 Policemen involved in Karachi Operation had been killed in the recent years, adding, that Tarar was working against the militants of banned outfits besides performing on and off tasks for the Special Branch (Orangi Town). 

Police found an unidentified dead body of a strangulated man from Zafar Town, within the limits of Shah Latif Police Station. Police said the victim appeared to be Pakhtoon. 

One Maaz Farooqui, an activist of the Islami Jama’at-e-Talaba (IJT), a student wing of the Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI), who had been missing since December 18, 2011, returned home safely. Maaz was let go near Abdullah College in North Nazimabad area.

The militant outfit MQM-H is expected to come into a coalition with any political or religious party in the next general election. Chairman MQM-H Afaq Ahmed stated this while talking to journalists after a meeting with former Sindh Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza.

Abdullah Khorasani, a militant who acted as a senior operations organiser for al Qaeda was targeted and killed in one of the two US drone strikes launched on January 10 on a compound near the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan Agency of FATA, an unnamed US official said.

Six persons, among them a Police official, were injured when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up to avoid arrest in Akora Khattak area of Nowshera District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

An explosion occurred near the building of the PPL in Sui area of Dera Bugti District causing no damage. "Unknown men had planted explosive material near the building of PPL and exploded it with remote control", the Police said.

FC IG Ubaidullah Khan Khattak said that incidents of abductions in Balochistan had increased at an alarming rate and had become a source of generating funds for militants.

Responding to a query about the links between TTP and Baloch militants, he said there is no link between the two. He said foreign elements were involved in destabilizing Balochistan in order to advance their vested interests using local people as tools. 

Two Europeans, identified as Giovanni and Bernd, working with the Welthungerhilfe, a German International Non-Governmental Organisation for food rehabilitation, were abducted from Western Fort Colony of Qasim Bela area in Multan District while returning from Kot Addu tehsil of Muzaffargarh District.

Police claimed to have arrested 14 suspects for their alleged involvement in the March 3, 2009 attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team and other terrorism-related activities in Lahore District during the year 2011.

Peace talks between Government and al Qaeda-linked TTP militants have made little progress, a Senior Security Official told Reuters. The official said the group, seen as the biggest security threat to the strategic US ally, had flatly rejected a demand that it works through tribal elders to reach a deal whereby fighters approach authorities and lay down their arms.

The JuD said that the cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan will attend its Difa-e-Pakistan (Defence of Pakistan) rally to be held in Multan District of Punjab Province on January 29, 2012. JuD leaders said the Difa-e-Pakistan gathering would also be attended by JeI chief Munawar Hassan and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed and leaders of other religious and political parties. 

The movement was launched shortly after a cross-border November 26, 2011, NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. During rallies and meetings organised as part of the movement, leaders of the JuD and other extremist groups have mainly targeted the US and India.   

US President Barack Obama wants the United States and Pakistan to continue to work together for achieving their common goals of defeating terrorism and building a stable and peaceful Pakistan, says the White House. A brief statement, issued by the White House, said Obama conveyed this message to Pakistan’s new Ambassador Sherry Rehman.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar warned Washington against pushing Islamabad to go after terrorist groups or bringing them to the Afghan peace process. “Now that the re-evaluation process is underway as we speak, so till the time that that re-evaluation process is not completed, we cannot start the reengagement,” Minister Khar said in an interview with Reuters

Pakistan expects to reopen supply routes to NATO forces in Afghanistan, halted after a NATO cross-border air attack killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November 26, 2011, but will impose tariffs, a senior security official under the condition of anonymity said.

The Pentagon says the US is paying six times more than before to send war supplies to troops in Afghanistan through alternate routes since Pakistan’s punitive decision in November, 2011 to close border crossings to NATO convoys.

Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan said that the cases of missing persons was a major issue of fundamental rights and because of their efforts around 700 such persons had been shifted to internment centres so far.

Four militants, two each from both sides, were killed when cadres of LI clashed with the TTP militants in Tirah valley of Khyber Agency in FATA.

Unidentified assailants shot dead an official of Frontier Corps in Malikdinkhel area of Bara tehsil. 

Seven SF personnel were injured when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb in Baz Garha area of Bara.

Three volunteers of a tribal peace committee were injured in a bomb blast in Tirah Valley.

Militants blew up a government primary school for boys at Bacha Mayna in Landikotal near the Torkham border at around 8:30pm.

Three people, including a MQM activist, were killed in different acts of violence in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. Unidentified assailants, riding a motorcycle, shot and injured Arif Baig (26) and Tahir (28), near Qatar Hospital within the limits of Orangi Town Police Station.

Police found dead body of a man near Crown Cinema within the limits of Kalri Police Station.

Police found another dead body of a man from Gulistan-e-Jauhar within the precincts of Shahrah-e-Faisal Police Station.

Unidentified militants shot dead an elder from Mohmand Agency of FATA at Bakhshi Pul area on the outskirts of Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Unidentified militants blew up a 16-inch diameter gas pipeline near Pir Koh area in Dera Bugti District of Balochistan.

Police registered a case against 15 persons for their alleged involvement in the January 15 bomb blast at a chehlum procession of Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS) in Khanpur.

A Pakistani judicial review board ended the house arrest of Malik Ishaq who was detained in 2011 after his group was blamed for a string of attacks on the minority Shia community.

The Government is establishing two de-radicalisation centres to ensure psychological and economic rehabilitation of those people of the FATA who renounce militancy. These centres are being set up in Sikandaro area of Bajaur Agency in FATA and Government Degree College in Tank town of Tank District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which is adjacent to the militancy-infested South Waziristan Agency.

The Government nominated focal persons in three Districts of Kohat division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for ensuring quick response to acts of terrorism and decided to devise a strategy for the repatriation of illegal Afghan refugees.

A little known Tehreek-e-Taliban Islami Pakistan group militants shot dead two alleged kidnappers, Israfeel and Ghulam Nabi, in Touda Chenna area of Kurram Agency in FATA.

An Army official, Lieutenant Atta Muhammad, was killed when a landmine planted by militants on a dirt track exploded in Talai area of Kurram Agency.

Four Levies Force personnel received injuries when their vehicle was targeted with a remote controlled bomb near Mian Mandi Bazaar in Haleemzai tehsil of Mohmand Agency. The spokesperson for TTP Mohmand Agency chapter chief, Mukarram Khurassin, talked to local journalists by telephone and claimed responsibility for the attack.

A security man, Bashirullah, was injured when one of the vehicles taking paramilitary forces from Alizai to the garrison town of Thall was hit by a bomb near the Chappari check-post of Kurram Agency. Officials said about 240 militants have been killed so far.

SFs arrested 35 persons in the wake of January 20’s bombing of a school in Torkham of Landikotal.

TTP released a video showing them killing 15 FC personnel who were abducted in a raid on December 23 in FATA. 15 soldiers stood blindfolded, handcuffed to each other on a barren hilltop as one of their bearded TTP captors held an AK-47 rifle and spoke with fury about revenge. TTP militants on January 5 killed 15 FC personnel in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan Agency in FATA.

Around 390 families from Khyber Agency took refuge in Jalozai internally displaced persons camp as an intensified crackdown on militants has triggered displacements from Shalobar tribal area.

A large number of families left Qamberabad, Surkas and other villages inhabited by Shalobar tribe in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency. People began leaving their houses after hearing that the Government has decided to extend IDP status to members of the Shalobar tribe in view of intensified crackdown.

A firm run by the Pakistani military will collect a fee of USD 1,000 for every container truck passing through the country under new conditions for the reopening of NATO supply routes, a media report said.

There is no proposal from the FBR to impose a transit fee on ISAF and NATO containers but the Government is considering a proposal to allow the NLC to charge a fee for transportation charges and for providing No Objection Certificates, revealed the sources privy to the development.

Balochistan Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi, expressing concern over the worsening law and order situation in the province, said that it was the responsibility of the provincial Government to improve security to the satisfaction of the people.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry warned that he would not tolerate any violation of the orders of the apex court. “Any violation of the orders of Supreme Court would be taken seriously and would entail strict action.”

Addressing members of the bar and bench after administering oath to the newly elected office bearers of the Karachi Bar Association here on Saturday, the Chief Justice especially referred to the target killing of lawyers in Karachi and said this was “really very frustrating.”

The death of a senior al Qaeda leader in a US drone strike in the out skirts of Miranshah in the North Waziristan Agency of FATA on January 10, the first strike in almost two months, signaled that the US-Pakistan intelligence partnership is still in operation despite political tensions. 

Two militants were killed in a bomb blast in Zakakhel Banjwal area of Khyber Agency in FATA.

One ASI, identified as Habibullah, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Zarghoonabad area of Quetta. 

A main gas pipeline was blown up in Mullguzar area of Jaffarabad District disrupting the gas supply to several areas in Sindh. BRA claimed responsibility for the attack.

SFs recovered and deactivated an explosive device planted by unidentified militants outside the Pakistan Petroleum Limited office in Sui area of Dera Bugti District.

The FC paramilitary troops impounded 12 containers of the of the Afghan Transit Trade near the Chaman border in Qilla Abdullah District carrying fuel for the NATO-led forces stationed in Afghanistan.

The Police foiled a terror bid by arresting a suspected terrorist and recovering weapons from a house during a raid in Basyakhel area of Bannu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Three German nationals were taken into custody for their alleged involvement in ‘suspicious activities’ from a house located in University Town of Peshawar. The suspects, who were interviewed after reports they were living in the house on the Park Lane Street illegally, failed to produce documents validating their stay in Pakistan.

A donors’ conference will be held next month to raise the required USD 200 million funds for quick rehabilitation of internally displaced persons of FATA. A handout issued said that during a presentation on FATA Disaster Management Authority, held at Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar was told that so far 145,338 displaced families out of total 298,715 had been sent back to their permanent dwellings.

The leaders of the Pakistan Defense Council, comprising of 44 politico-religious parties of the country gathered at Liaquat Bagh in Rawalpindi in a rally against what they called the anti-Pakistan forces.

“The current standoff between state institutions is the result of a sin that we committed 10 years ago by allowing our territory to be used against Afghan Muslims, and until we repent for that grave mistake, we will never be able to overcome these issues,” Saeed said, adding, “This is America’s war and we only want to fight Pakistan’s war.”

At least five militants were killed when US drone fired two missiles on a house and a vehicle at Mohammad Khel and Degan village in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan Agency in FATA. Intelligence officials said the dead militants were from Turkmenistan, but their exact identities were not immediately known.

Unidentified militants shot dead a person, identified as Haji Noor Mohammad while was going home after offering Maghrib (evening) prayers in Eesakkhe village mosque in Lakki Marwat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 

Unidentified militants killed one Sahibzada Daud Ahmad, near Kotka Parade in Naurang town. 

At least one Policeman was killed while another was injured when unidentified militants opened fire on them in Par Hoti area of Mardan District. 

Four Policemen were injured in a roadside bomb blast targeting the Police in Ajab Bagh area of Nowshera District.

The elders of Dallokhel area in Lakki Marwat District and local leaders of JUI-F said that they would continue to cooperate with LEAs and SFs for restoration of durable peace in the area.

A FC team arrested four suspect persons and recovered a large quantity of arms from Gulistan area in Qila Abdullah District of Balochistan. Two-hundred grenades, 45 rockets, three rocket launchers, three submachine guns and thousands of rounds were seized during the raid.

Kot Addu Police claimed to have arrested four suspected persons in connection with the abduction of two European aid workers from Western Fort Colony of Qasim Bela area in Multan District on January 19, 2012. Punjab Police IG Javed Iqbal said the aid workers, were being held for ransom.

Tehran closed Zero Point, the trade gate between Pakistan and Iran, in the bordering town of Taftan in Chagai District of Balochistan province.

Pakistan’s fledgling democratic Government, under increasing pressure from the military, appeased extremist groups, ignored army abuses, and failed to hold those responsible for serious abuses accountable in 2011, said Human Rights Watch in its World Report 2012. Targeted killings and other attacks on civilians by the TTP and sectarian and ethnic militant groups, as well as killings of journalists, were commonplace during the year, it said. 

The Rights group said security deteriorated dramatically throughout the country as the result of suicide bombings by the TTP and affiliated groups, which targeted civilians and public spaces, including marketplaces and religious processions.

Relations between Pakistan and the US deteriorated markedly in 2011. Factors fuelling the diplomatic crisis included the killing of two men by a CIA contractor at a Lahore traffic junction the withholding of USD 800 million in military aid to Pakistan Pakistan’s alleged support for militants from the “Haqqani Network” the alleged harboring by Pakistan of Osama bin Laden and his killing by the US and the November 26, 2011 Mohmand Agency strike by NATO that killed 24 Pakistani troops.

The Senate passed a unanimous resolution asking the Government to arrest former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on his return from abroad and try him for committing treason.

The Senate, through the resolution, said that General Musharraf held the Constitution in abeyance twice and brought the judiciary into disrepute. It said that General Musharraf removed, ridiculed and arrested judges of the superior judiciary.

A 24 pages document released by ISPR, the military’s public affairs wing, revealed that a direct intervention by Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and warning of an enhanced response had finally brought NATO’s air strikes on Volcano and Boldak posts in Mohmand Agency of FATA on November 26 2011 to a halt.

General Kayani talked to ODRP (Office of the Defense Representative Pakistan) Chief L.G. Keen at the US Embassy and warned that if the fire did not stop immediately he would order an enhanced level of response, beyond the one which was already being given by the Pakistani military until that time in the shape of small arms and mortar fire.

The document, which outlined the first formal reaction to the attack by the GHQ, rejected the US investigation report on the Salala incident which claimed the lives of 24 Pakistani soldiers. “Pakistan does not agree with several portions and findings of the investigation report as these are factually not correct,” it said.

The US Defense Department said that the November 26 NATO air strikes were not ‘unprovoked’, rejecting a Pakistani report which said NATO and ISAF had attacked its troops without provocation.

The Defense Secretary failed to submit a report in the Supreme Court regarding the alleged occupation of the property of a citizen in Swat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by SFs. The court directed the District Officer (revenue) to retrieve the occupied property and submit a report on January 27, 2012. The court also maintained that no authority would interfere in the process of retrieving the occupied land.

Federal Law Minister Mir Maula Bakhsh Chandio claimed that the political and other crises in the country are man-made and artificial. Talking to reporters, he recalled the misrule of military dictators, saying that pro-establishment forces had never created any crisis to embarrass any military dictator, nor did those Governments face artificial problems “created for vested interests”.

Commenting on Balochistan, Chandio said violence was not a solution to any problem. “The PPP leadership apologized and wants to bring the Baloch people into the mainstream. The Government is ready to hold talks and negotiations with the Baloch leadership. However, violence from either side has remained a hindrance in addressing their grievances,” he added.

Seven militants and two soldiers were killed during a clash in Jogi area of the Central tehsil in Kurram Agency of FATA. Two soldiers were also injured.  According to officials, the clash erupted when troops fired back on militants who had attacked a check post in Jogi area, killing Salman Khan and Assad Khan. Military and paramilitary troops launched operation in the area about a month ago and reported to have killed over 250 militants.

A Khasadar, identified as Murtaza Khan, was killed and two persons were injured when a bomb, buried under the debris of a destroyed school, went off in Sheikhmal Khel area of Landi Kotal tehsil in Khyber Agency.

Officials of the Education Department said that number of schools destroyed in Khyber Agency had reached 57. Out of these schools 32 were targeted in Bara, 22 in Landi Kotal and four in Jamrud, depriving 16,000 children of education only in Bara tehsil. 

A CD shop was destroyed completely when explosive went off in a market in Dagai village of Landi Kotal. Two other adjacent shops were also damaged. Nobody was hurt in the incident. 

Unidentified assailants shot dead two cadres, identified as Muhammad Ali alias Mama, (33), and Muhammad Nauman, (22), belonging to ASWJ, near Pan Mandi Jodia Bazaar within the precincts of Risala Police Station in Karachi. The Police claimed that it was a sectarian killing.

A bystander, identified as Ishaq, was killed in Memon Society when unidentified assailants restored to firing to protest target killings of the ASWJ activists. 

Police found an unidentified torture-marked dead body of a person from the Nigar Cinema area of Lea Market within the jurisdiction of Kharadar Police Station. An officer said that the victim appeared to be of Katchi descent.

A vehicle carrying workers of PAEC partially damaged in a roadside blast on Lakki-Mianwali Road near Chowkijand in Lakki Marwat District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Rawalpindi Police claimed to have arrested two suspected militants, identified as Usman Liaquat alias Shah Gee and Saqib Ali Shah alias Hamza, during a raid of a hideout of an alleged militant in the Wah Cantt area and seized two Kalashnikov rifles and eight magazines, 200 rounds and four hand grenades from them. 

Police accused militants for the abduction of a German aid worker and his Italian colleague at gunpoint on January 19 from Multan District, and a Kenyan aid worker abducted on January 22, from Khairpur District of Sindh.

LEAs neutralised a potential terrorism bid by defusing an anti-tank landmine in Shambey area near Gwadar Town in Gwadar District. Local Police said unidentified militants had planted the landmine along the road to target vehicles traveling by which was detected and defused by a team of LEAs.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's media adviser Farahnaz Ispahani alleged that she ran away from the country over fears that the ISI might abduct her to force her husband, former Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani, to sign a confession and implicate the President in the Memo Gate scandal.

Lamb, a foreign correspondent for The Sunday Times, who filed story on Pakistan from Washington, is banned from entering Pakistan after being deported from the country in 2001. She wrote that Haqqani's life was in danger and his wife Ispahani had fled to Washington amid fears that "ISI might kidnap her to force her husband to sign a confession and implicate the President."

The Afghan Taliban shared with Pakistan the ‘functional blueprint” of their formal talks with US officials in the Gulf state of Qatar, an Afghan leader said. It is possibly the first time that the Afghan Taliban has shared details of what they will be discussing with US negotiators, even though they haven’t divulged what had been previously discussed.

The USAID will continue its support for economic and social development of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. This assurance was given by Andrew Sisson, the USAID’s Mission Director in Pakistan, while speaking at a ceremony at Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

HRCP expressed alarm at reports that another person, identified as Abdul Saboor’s, who had been detained for suspected involvement in the 2009 GHQ attack was found dead in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Twenty two militants and six soldiers were killed during a clash when SFs captured a TTP stronghold in the Jogi area of Central tehsil of Kurram Agency in FATA. According to sources, the clash broke out when security personnel launched a search operation in the Jogi area. Officials said that around 50 TTP militants attacked troops during a search operation in Jogi village.

Militants attacked a SFs’ checkpost with rockets, small and heavy weapons in Haleemzai tehsil of Mohmand Agency. However, no casualty was reported. The checkpost manned by Levies personnel came under attack at 2:00am. TTP claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Barrister Masood Kausar has said that peace will be maintained in Kurram Agency at all costs. He urged the tribesmen, relevant authorities and parties to the peace agreement to watch the situation for a quick response to any eventuality.

An Inspector of the FIA, Walayat Hussain, Quetta television artiste Abid Hussain Nazish and Mohammad Anwar Hussain, an accounts officer at the Balochistan Accountant General’s Office, were shot dead by unidentified armed assailants in a sectarian attack in Quetta. Police said it appeared to be a case of targeted sectarian killings because the victims were Shia who belonged to the Hazara tribe.  

A man was killed and another sustained injuries in an incident of firing in Chattar area of Naseerabad District. According to sources, the victim, identified as Wali Muhammad, was on his way to work along with his friend Ranjhan when unidentified assailants opened fire on them.

Police recovered a bullet-riddled body dumped in the desert area of Hub town in Lasbela District. Later, the deceased was identified as Muhammad Imran.

Senior journalists during a conference held at the Quetta press club expressed that Balochistan is the second most dangerous place after Afghanistan for journalists as they are under serious threats to their lives.

A fresh wave of sectarian violence in the city has claimed the lives of four persons, including three lawyers. In the first incident, unidentified assailants shot dead three members of the Shia Lawyers’ Forum on Maulana Din Muhammad Wafai Road of Karachi.

A member of the Tableeghi Jamaat was shot dead near Hashmi Masjid in of Orangi Town. DSP Tariq Malik said the deceased, identified as Mehtab, was attacked when he was on his way home from a mosque.

Overruling an office objection, the Supreme Court accepted on January 25 a petition by a woman whose three sons had been picked up by intelligence personnel for their alleged role in the October 2009 attacks on the Army GHQ and the ISI’s Hamza Camp in Rawalpindi. She alleged that her sons and eight other people had been kept in illegal confinement since May 29, 2010, and four of them, including Abdus Saboor, died in mysterious circumstances.

Militants killed six soldiers, including a non-commissioned officer, in an attack on a check post of the FC at Kachhi canal area in Dera Bugti District.  BRA claimed responsibility for the attack and said its men had taken away an FC man, along with weapons that included four G-3 rifles, one light machine gun and other small weapons.

Iranian SFs killed eight traders and injured others on Zaran hills, an area between Chabahar District of Iran and Gwadar District of Balochistan. Six cattle traders from the Pakistani side of Balochistan were returning home after delivering cows to their customers in Iranian Balochistan when they were chased and fired upon by Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards of Iran). All six died on the spot. Four other travellers from Bahu Kalat and Dashtiyari sub-districts of Iran also came under fire. Two of them were killed while as many injured in the attack.

One soldier was killed and another injured when a group of militants stormed a FCB checkpost near Baran dam in FR Bannu. The attack killed FCB soldier Saleem Afridi and injured another Owalyar Khan. 

An unidentified person was shot dead at Jinnah Road of Street No 1 within the limits of Shershah Police Station in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh. SHO Shahid Jabbar said the victim appeared to be Baloch speaking.  

The CID of Sindh Police claimed to have arrested three alleged target killers and recovered weapons from their possession near the Capri Cinema within the limits of Soldier Bazaar Police Station. The three target killers had affiliation with a political party and were identified as, Sher Alam Mehsud alias Langra, Shaheen Mehsud alias Salman, and Gul Khan Afghani.

Pakistan Military Academy wall was damaged in rocket attack in Abbottabad town of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. DCO Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah said that no casualty took place.

After two months into Pakistan's blockade of NATO supplies crossing into Afghanistan, thousands of trucks are crowding the port in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh, where drivers, fed up with waiting, are starting to desert.

"They had no more money in the end so they left one helper with their vehicle for security and care, and went back to their families," All Pakistan Oil Tankers Association Vice Chairman Muhammad Saleh Afridi said, adding, that more than a thousand trucks were stranded in Karachi. There are about 5,000 containers and military vehicles, according to a count provided by the authorities in early January this year.

The US has termed as "untrue" sentiments inside Pakistan that it was being sidelined by the Barrack Obama Administration in peace talks with the Afghan Taliban. "Absolutely untrue", State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, when asked there was a feeling inside Pakistan that they are being sidelined in these talks with Afghan Taliban.

Despite the killings of Osama bin Laden and radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, al Qaeda remains a “real threat to the United States” US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said in a TV interview late on January 25.

Even if the militants do not lay their weapons, they should accept the writ of the Government, said ANP President Asfandyar Wali Khan during a party address.

A security official was killed and another injured when militants opened fire on them near Uch gas field, a boarding area between Jaffarabad District and Dera Bugti District of Balochistan. The deceased was identified as Haider Zaman and the injured as Muhammad Sharif. The BRA claimed responsibility for the attack.

A Police constable, identified as Yousuf Ali (45), was shot dead near Kausar Medico, within the precincts of Arambagh Police Station in Karachi while going on his duty.

The Supreme Court directed the ISI and the Military Intelligence to submit reports on senseless and indiscriminate killings in Balochistan. The order was issued by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain and Justice Tariq Parvez during the hearing of a petition about the breakdown of law and order in the province.

Under Article 9 of the Constitution (security of person), it was the prime duty of the Provincial as well as the Federal Governments to protect the life and property of people, the order said, deploring the Law-Enforcement Agencies seemed to be helpless.

A huge crowd comprising mostly of youngsters with majority of them in a uniform dress code from different seminaries across Sindh gathered at the first major show of political prowess of the JUI-F at Bagh-e-Quaid on M.A Jinnah Road in Karachi.

Holding black and white party flags, the supporters had a variety of slogans but common thoughts to share. “We don’t want any secular and liberal party to rule Pakistan,” said Haseebullah, a second-year student of Dars-i-Nizami, who accompanied his more than 500 seminary students from Korangi town at the rally. “People have witnessed those who are allied with the United States,” said Shiraz Khan, in his mid-20s, and enrolled with a Clifton seminary.

Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Barrister Masood Kausar has appointed chairman and two members of the FCR Tribunal. A notification issued by the law and order Department of FATA Secretariat in Peshawar said that the Governor had appointed Shah Wali Khan as chairman of the tribunal whereas Advocate Pir Fida Mohammad and Akbar Khan had been appointed its members.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa witnessed a decline in the number of bomb blasts in 2011 compared to 2010, a Peshawar City Police study said. Yet this is hardly a cause to rejoice, as the death toll from the attacks was actually higher than the previous year. According to a comparative study by the capital city police, a total of 34 bomb blasts took place in the province in 2011, killing 400 civilians and 134 police officials, while 37 blasts were witnessed in 2010 which killed 411 civilians and 99 security personnel.

Former President General Pervez Musharraf will definitely be arrested if he returns to the country, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.  “In fact, there had been murder charges against him, and there had even been some very grave charges against him, and the Supreme Court had already given a verdict against him,” Gilani was quoted as saying at the Global Economic Forum in Davos.

A former trustee of Aal-Aba Imambargah, identified as Jaffar Mohsin Rizvi (60), was shot dead in the Gulberg area of Karachi. SHO Raja Tariq said that there was a possibility the incident was linked to the recent wave of sectarian killings in Karachi. 

An activist of the MQM, Muhammad Aslam alias Achra, was killed while three other party workers, Tahir, Azeem and Ali, sustained severe bullet wounds in a drive-by shooting in Ram Swami Area within the jurisdiction of Garden Police Station.                                            

An unidentified young man was shot dead near Mehmand Hotel, Lyari within the limits of Baghdadi Police Station. The victim appeared to be Mianwali. 

Police found an unidentified 10-day-old dead body of a man from a drain at Singer Chowrangi within the limits of Awami Colony Police Station. 

Tension gripped the city after two assailants hurled a hand grenade at Green Hardware Shop near Dak Khana Chowrangi in Liaquatabad area, leaving five persons wounded.

A Policeman, identified as Jehangir, was killed when heavily armed militants fired at him on Grid Road, in Dera Ismail Khan District. One of the suspected militants was killed in retaliation. The remaining militants, who had reportedly hid in Qurtaba School, managed to flee.

A house was partially damaged in an IED explosion in Meri Colony of Kohat District. No loss of life was, however, reported.

Two soldiers were killed in a roadside blast in the Jogi area of Kurram Agency in FATA. Official sources said that a convoy of Security Forces was on its way to its camp when a roadside bomb exploded, killing two soldiers on the spot.

The six Pakistanis killed by Iranian border guards on January 26, 2012 were alleged to be “drug traffickers” who crossed over from Pakistan. The six were shot dead after they allegedly crossed the border and opened fire the report said quoting the Iranian Sistan-Balochistan province border Police.

Pakistan's Ambassador in Washington Sherry Rehman reached out to Pakistani-Americans to seek their support towards better Pakistan-US relations, which she underscored, must be based on "mutual respect, interests and shared values”.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta acknowledged publicly for the first time that a Pakistani doctor provided key information to the US in advance of the Navy SEAL’s assault on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad on May 1, 2011. Panetta acknowledged that Dr Shakeel Afridi had in fact been working for the US intelligence, collecting DNA to verify the 9/11 mastermind’s presence.

Three tribal volunteers including a ‘commander’ of a pro-government peace lashkar were killed when unidentified armed militants attacked their check post in Lop area of the Sui tehsil of Dera Bugti District. A spokesman of BRA, Sarbaz Baloch, claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Two unidentified bullet-riddled dead bodies of a woman and a man were found in Dera Bugti District.

A driver was killed and eight passengers received injuries when SFs opened firing on a vehicle when driver did not stop the vehicle for checking at a checkpoint in Alam Goder area of Bara tehsil in Khyber Agency of FATA. 

A soldier was killed and another received fatal injuries in a landmine explosion in Kari Wam area of Frontier Region Tank. 

A roadside bomb blast killed one security official in Jandola tehsil of South Waziristan Agency. 

A landmine blast killed Frontier Corps trooper, Irfanullah, in Jawakai areas in the FR Kohat. The SFs exchanged fire with militants, hiding in the mountains along gun manufacturing Darra Adamkhel town, on the second day of operation. 

A volunteer of Aman lashkar was also killed by terrorists in the same area.  

Two security personnel were injured in a mortar shell attack in the Jogi area of Kurram Agency. 

The tribesmen extended full support to SFs during operation against militants in Mohmand Agency, said Brigadier Aftab Ahmad.  Addressing a jirga at Ghalanai, he said that a quota will be specified for Mohmand tribe to encourage youth of the area to join Army. He said that a cadet college would be established in the area.

Two activists of ST, identified as Sohail Ahmed and Saleem Qadri, were shot dead in an incident of sectarian killing near their party’s office in Usmanabad area within the precincts of Garden Police Station in Karachi.  

Baldia Police found a dead body of a man, identified as Saleem Akhter, from Saeedabad area. 

One MQM-H cadre, identified as Atif, was injured in an exchange of fire that took place outside the residence of Chairman Afaq Ahmed at Landhi. MQM-H Chairman Afaq Ahmed had called a workers meeting at his residence when some armed assailants of a rival organisation opened indiscriminate fire and also abducted 18 to 20 workers of the MQM-H.

A chief of the Dera Ismail Khan chapter of Pakistan TTP, Imran Gandapur, of was shot dead during an operation with Police on Grid Station Road in Dera Ismail Khan District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Imran Gandapur a former Policeman, involved in the killing of Mian Iftikhar Hussain’s son, Mian Arshad Iftikhar.

SFs arrested two militants, identified as Umer Afridi alias Ameer Saib and Jalal Khan alias Bahadar Khan of Khyber Agency, during a search operation in Jalozai camp of Nowshera District.

Police beefed security and started through checking of vehicles and pedestrians in the District, especially in the hilly area of Ziarat Kaka Sahib. The Police were trying to block entry of militants into Nowshera as SFs had launched operation in FR Kohat, sources said.

An industrialist abducted along with his driver from Alipur Road near Kachi Kothi in Nawab Town in Lahore District on January 28, 2012 was recovered by Police from Lahore-Islamabad Motorway, known as the Lillah interchange.  The Lahore, Jhelum, Chakwal and Motorway Police undertook the search and found an injured and tortured Syed Feroze Hassan abandoned near Sardi village.

The proscribed Sunni Tehreek, known as a religious organisation, announced that it was converting itself into a political party to be called Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST). The announcement was made by the head of the Tehreek, Maulana Sarwat Ejaz Quaderi, who was addressing the “Pakistan Bachao Janisaran-e-Mustafa Conference”, held at Nishtar Park in Soldier Bazaar of Karachi.

The Afghanistan and Pakistan Governments are seeking peace talks with the Afghan Taliban in Saudi Arabia separate from US-brokered talks with the militants in Qatar, officials said.

But Afghan and Taliban officials indicated in response to a BBC report about plans for talks in Saudi Arabia that both Kabul and Islamabad were looking for their own talks with the militants. Asked for his response to the BBC report, Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said, “Of course we support any steps towards the Afghan peace process.”

Afghanistan Ambassador in Islamabad, Omar Daudza said that Pakistan FM Hina Rabbani Khar will visit Kabul and call on Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and will also hold talks with her Afghanistan counterpart Doctor Zalmay Rassoul to pave the way for the restoration of joint peace and reconciliation efforts. 

The relations between the two neighbors were severely strained following the September 20, 2011 assassination of former Afghan President, and Chairman of Afghan High Peace Council, Burhanuddin Rabbani.

During a public meeting at Multan Sports Ground in Multan District the leaders of the Pakistan Defense Council warned the Government against reopening of the NATO supply routes, threatening strikes and sit-ins if the rulers compromised on the issue.

Thousands of traders and activists from religious parties gathered near the Holy Family Hospital at Satellite Town in Rawalpindi District on January 29 to call on the Government to stop ‘unconstitutional’ activities of the Ahmadiyya community. The protest, arranged by Traders’ Associations, was attended by activists of JuD, JeI and the ASWJ. Members of the SSP were also in attendance.