Pakistan Timeline - 2009

Date

Incidents

January 01

At least 13 people – 10 militants and three Security Force (SF) personnel – were killed in a clash between the SFs and militants in Balochistan. The gun-battle started when the militants – reportedly members of the Bugti tribe – attacked a patrol party in Dera Bugti District. The clash continued for the entire day in the Uch, Gandoi and Zan kho areas. At least five SF personnel were also injured in the gun-battle.

A suspected United States missile strike killed at least five Taliban militants in South Waziristan Agency of the FATA. A local security official said that a US drone fired three missiles in the Karikot area of Wana in the agency - the same spot where eight suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike 10 days ago. One of the missiles struck a vehicle, killing all five passengers, another security official said, adding those killed were known Taliban militants. The other two missiles hit a hilltop house that was a known Taliban hideout, but was empty at the time of the strike, the officials said. One militant was injured in the strike, they added.

Four civilians were killed in the Bajaur Agency of FATA when Taliban militants fired rockets at local Government offices. At least four rockets landed near a court and the Government complex in Khar, the main town in Bajaur, local administration chief Israr Khan said. "The attack left four civilians dead and 16 injured," Khan added.

Three Policemen were killed and six injured in two bomb blasts in Peshawar and Bannu districts of NWFP.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior Rehman Malik said that the writ of the Government had already been established in four sub-divisions of Bajaur Agency, and Charmang and Mamoond sub-divisions would be under the complete control of the Government by the end of this month.

The Government has decided to set up a high-level body – the proposed National Commission for Counter-Terrorism – to coordinate efforts in countering the threat posed by the Taliban. A private TV channel reported that the commission – to be a constitutional body – would be headed by a ‘top-level professional’ to prepare and execute strategies, and the recently retired Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) chief Tariq Pervaiz is likely to be the first choice for the post.

Pakistan dismissed criticism that some elements in the ISI were involved in acts of terrorism and were not in control of the Government. "Pakistan’s Government and state institutions are committed to the war against terror. Therefore, vilifying Pakistan or for that matter any of its state institutions on this score is unwarranted and unacceptable. In Pakistan’s view, in the given situation, what is needed is more accurate alignment in the perception and interests of Afghanistan, Pakistan, US/NATO and countries in the region that have stakes in the struggle against terrorism," said the spokesman at the Foreign Office at an online media briefing.

According to India’s Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, less than two weeks after it was banned by the United Nations, the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) front Jama’at-ud-Da’awa (JuD) is active, CNN-IBN reported. Menon said the JuD is now operating under a new name. He also said the JuD has a new website, which is being used to collect money to fund terrorist activities. Speaking to the All India Radio, Menon rejected Pakistan’s offer of joint investigation into the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26. He said India has shared evidence with Pakistan several times, but without any results. Menon added that even the Joint-Anti Terror mechanism set up by India and Pakistan has yielded no results so far. According to PTI, India sources, JuD may be planning to rename itself as ''Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool'' (Movement for defending the honour of the Prophet) to avoid restrictions which Pakistan could be forced to impose on it because of UNSC sanctions. The indication that JuD may be thinking of changing its name reportedly came as some senior cadres of the outfit recently organised a rally in Pakistan under the banner of Tehreek-e-Hurmat-e-Rasool, sources told PTI.

January 02

Seven persons, including an Awami National Party leader and two Frontier Constabulary personnel, were killed in different parts of the Swat District.

Four militants were killed and three others injured when a CIA-operated spy plane fired two Hellfire missiles at a Government-run girls’ school in the Ladha sub-division of South Waziristan Agency, the second attack in as many days. Tribal sources told that two pilotless spy planes were seen hovering over the Mehsud-inhabited areas before the air strikes on the school and a nearby-parked car. The drone reportedly fired two Hellfire missiles, one of them hitting the building of the Government Girls’ Primary School, Maidan Naray, and the other destroying the car owned by the militants.

Taliban announced the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Shakai, Sheikhan and Mulakhel areas of Hangu District in the NWFP. The decision was made in a jirga (assembly of tribal elders) and announced in mosques during the Friday sermons, and comes days after a similar decree in the bordering Orakzai Agency.

Traffic on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway resumed after the political authorities relaxed the curfew on the fourth day of the military operation against the militants and criminals in Khyber Agency.

Leaders of the proscribed Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) have reportedly indicated that militants operating in Swat and Bajaur would quit militancy if the Government announced the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Malakand region and Bajaur Agency.

The LeT rejected a report that one of its leaders had acknowledged the group’s involvement in the multiple terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials, reported on December 31 that Pakistani authorities had obtained a confession from a senior LeT member. The suspect, identified as Zarar Shah, allegedly told investigators he had played a key role in the planning of the November attacks. "Lashkar-e-Toiba rejects the Wall Street Journal report," its spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi said in an email statement. "India has failed to furnish any evidence of Lashkar-e-Toiba’s involvement in the Mumbai attacks and America is now trying to help it out," he claimed. No evidence could be found "on the scene of the crime, and now there is an effort to manufacture evidence thousands of miles away," he added.

January 04

Five persons, including two SF personnel, were killed in separate incidents of violence in the Swat District.

Ten persons, including four Policemen, were killed and 27 others injured in two bomb blasts near the Polytechnic College in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP. Sources said an explosive device, planted by militants near the main gate of the Polytechnic College, went off at 7:07 pm, injuring four persons. Eyewitnesses said soon after the blast, Police personnel and people rushed to the spot. As a large number of Policemen and people gathered at the site, a 16-year-old suicide bomber forced his entry into the crowd and blew himself up, killing 10 persons, including four Policemen, and injuring 21 others.

A suicide bomber was killed while two people sustained injuries near a check-post in Officers’ Colony in Bannu in the NWFP. The suicide bomber blew himself up in an attempt to target a check-post but could not succeed as the bomb exploded before he could reach his target.

Three armed groups in Balochistan announced the formal end of a four-month-old unilateral cease-fire in response to the Security Forces’ continued military operation in the province. Declaring the end of the truce, the BLA spokesman Bibarg Baloch said the BLA, the Balochistan Republican Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front were disappointed by the Government’s ‘lacklustre’ response to the cease-fire. The three ‘pro-independent Balochistan’ groups announced the cease-fire in September 2008.

The Orakzai chapter of the proscribed TTP has established Sharia (Islamic law) courts and complaint centres in most parts of the agency, directing people to resolve their disputes in accordance with the Islamic laws.

A senior Taliban leader was arrested from Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. A senior Policeman confirmed Ustad Yasir was arrested, but declined to give details. Formerly a leader of Abdurrab Rasool Sayyaf’s Ittehad-e-Islami group in Afghanistan, Yasir joined the Taliban in 2001 after Sayyaf announced support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He was arrested from the NWFP in 2005 and released from Kabul’s Pul-e-Charkhi prison in exchange for kidnapped Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

January 5

Four persons, including two militants, were killed in separate incidents of violence in the Mingora city of Swat District in NWFP. Two persons, identified as Javed and Nisar, were killed in the Mingora city and their bodies thrown at the Green and Suhrab squares. The duo was identified as local militants. Meanwhile, unidentified assailants shot dead a former councillor, Muhammad Sahib, in the Aligram area of Charbagh. In another incident, some unidentified gunmen barged into a house at Watkay in Mingora and shot dead a woman.

Suspected Taliban militants in North Waziristan shot dead two Afghan nationals and a resident of the Bannu District of NWFP and hanged bodies of the Afghans from a tree on the Bannu-Miramshah Road at Naurak village. A hand-written Pashto language letter left with the bodies accused them of spying on ‘Mujahideen’ in North Waziristan for the US forces stationed in Afghanistan. The letter also termed the killing of the two Afghans and the Pakistani a "gift" to US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Richard Boucher.

Jihad will be mandatory for the Pakistani nation in case India attacks the country, said a joint communiqué issued in an All Parties’ Conference. The conference, held at Jamia Naeemia in Lahore, was attended by a number of noted religious scholars and heads of various religious and political parties, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the Tehreek-e-Insaaf, the Sunni Tehrik, the Mustafai Tehrik, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, the Minhajul Quran, the Nizam-e-Mustafa Party and the Jamaat Ahle Sunnat. The participants demanded the Government immediately convene an emergency session of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). The participants also demanded the OIC issue a declaration condemning India and expressing solidarity with the people of Palestine.

Pakistan said it was reviewing a dossier India handed over regarding the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said the Government remained committed to punishing Pakistani nationals accused of taking part in the Mumbai attacks if ‘credible’ evidence is given against them. Gilani made the comments during talks with Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, who arrived in Islamabad early on January 5.

January 6

Six bullet-ridden bodies of Security Force (SF) personnel, who had been abducted by Taliban militants a few days ago, were found in the Mingora city of Swat District. The militants brought the six persons to the College Square in Mingora in the night of January 5 and shot them dead.

Suspected militants killed four more alleged US spies in North Waziristan on the night between January 5 and January 6 and threw their bodies on main roads in various parts of the tribal region. Two of the alleged US spies were said to be Afghan nationals and the other two were identified as local tribesmen. Tribal sources said bullet-riddled bodies of the two Afghans were found on the road in Sarobi village near Spalga. Body of one tribesman was recovered from Miranshah Bazaar and the other body was found from the Razmak Road.

The Government ‘emphatically rejected’ an allegation by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh that Pakistan was involved in sponsoring terrorism in India. It said India had embarked on a ‘propaganda offensive’ and such allegations would jeopardise chances of co-operation against terrorism. According to sources, the Indian allegations were rejected during a meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani held soon after Dr Singh’s statement on January 6. Zardari urged the Indian leadership to refrain from hurling allegations about involvement of official agencies in the Mumbai attacks, because this could only escalate tension. He said Pakistan would itself take action against ‘non-state actors’ involved in the Mumbai attacks and there was no question of their extradition to India.

January 7

The Government confirmed that Mohammad Ajmal Amir alias Ajmal Kasab – the lone Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant arrested during the Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008 – is a Pakistani. "The initial investigations have confirmed that Ajmal Kasab, involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks, is a Pakistani national. Further investigations are under way," Foreign Office Spokesman Muhammad Sadiq said. Sources in the foreign ministry said security agencies analysed the information India had gathered and shared with Pakistan, and concluded in a preliminary probe that Kasab is a Pakistani. Pakistan had earlier said its National Database and Registration Authority had no record of the man. Sadiq confirmed that the Interior Ministry had given the information to the Foreign Office. But he denied Pakistan would provide official support to Ajmal Kasab. "Kasab has committed a heinous crime. He will not be provided any official support or consular access," the spokesman said.

Information Minister Sherry Rehman told Daily Times that "Ajmal Kasab is a Pakistani. Further investigations are under way." Earlier, a high-ranking Government official told Dawn that the preliminary investigation had provided enough information to conclude that the man at present in India’s custody was from a Punjab village, and perhaps belonged to a militant group that was bent upon destabilising the region by undermining the peace process.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sacked his National Security Adviser Major General (retd) Mehmud Ali Durrani for giving a statement on Mohammad Ajmal Amir alias Ajmal Kasab, the lone Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant arrested during the Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008, without taking him into confidence. Before the formal announcement, Prime Minister Gilani told Geo News on telephone that Durrani had given a statement to an Indian news channel regarding Ajmal Kasab without taking him into confidence. Gilani said that Durrani’s statement had tarnished the country’s image. "So I decided to sack him," he told Geo News.

The Taliban in Hangu District of NWFP killed three Policemen and abducted three others when they stormed a Police check-post. Officials said the Taliban attacked the Police post in Dalan area of Tal tehsil (revenue division) using heavy weapons. Three Police personnel - Taimoor, Fazal Rahim and Daulat Shah - were killed, while Mohibullah, Tariq and Akhlaq were abducted by the militants, who also set ablaze the check-post.

Three Taliban militants were killed and six others sustained injuries as jet fighters targeted their hideouts in various areas of Bajaur Agency. Six trenches and some underground bunkers built by the Taliban had also been destroyed in the operation. Fighter jets targeted Taliban hideouts in Dama Dola and Khaza Pahar areas in Mamoond, Salarzai and Chargo Kandaw sub-divisions of Bajaur.

January 8

The head of al Qaeda in Pakistan and his lieutenant were killed in the past few days, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP. They were reportedly struck by a missile fired from an unmanned drone. The men are believed to be Kenyan national Usama al-Kini, described as al Qaeda's chief of operations in Pakistan and his lieutenant Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan. "There is every reason to believe that these two top terrorist figures are dead," said an unnamed source, adding that the duo was killed "within the last week." The counterintelligence source did not say how the men died, but according to Washington Post, which first reported the story, the duo was killed in a January 1 missile attack near Karikot in South Waziristan. The militants died after being struck with 45 kilo Hellfire missile fired from a pilot-less Predator drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency, Washington Post reported.

January 9

A Bugti tribal chief and his three bodyguards were killed in a landmine explosion in the Bekar area of Dera Bugti District in Balochistan. Wadera Nawaz Masoori Bugti was on his way to a village when his vehicle hit an anti-tank landmine planted by unidentified miscreants. Consequently, Wadera Nawaz, along with three of his bodyguards, was killed on the spot, while two other people sustained injuries.

Four people are reported to have died and dozens of others injured after clashes erupted in the Hangu town and its surrounding areas of NWFP. A mourning procession from Ustarzai, Ibarhimzai, Sherkot and Chakarkot villages was heading for the Hangu city despite a curfew. Sources said militants allegedly attacked the procession with rockets from the hilltops when it reached near Bahadur Banda, prompting an exchange of fire with the mourners. Consequently, four people were killed in the clashes.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said that premier intelligence agencies of the United States and Pakistan had been working closely to investigate the multiple terrorist in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and recently the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had provided a detailed response to questions and issues raised by US investigators on behalf of their Indian counterparts. "Our ISI has given its feedback, which has been forwarded to India," he told reporters after addressing a seminar in Islamabad. He gave no details of the contents of the dossier or the response formulated by a committee, but said Pakistan would co-operate if more information was required. He said India had provided a 52-page dossier to the CIA which was passed on to Pakistan. The dossier was also handed over directly by India to Pakistan. Gilani also said Pakistan was ready to share information sharing with the CIA.

January 10

At least 17 people were killed and 30 others injured in the ongoing sectarian clashes in Hangu in the NWFP. Officials said that fighting between the rival Shia and Sunni groups had been continuing since late January 9 while army helicopter gun ships were targeting the warring parties’ positions to control the situation. The clashes erupted when people from Kohat, who were protesting against the imposition of curfew in Hangu on the eve of Ashura, were attacked by the rival sect. The two groups started targeting each other with heavy and light weapons. According to officials, clashes occurred in the Khanbari, Singhar, Paskalay, Gungano Kalay, Malik Abad and Ibrahim Zay areas of Hangu city.

The house arrest of Jama’at-ud-Da’awa (a front for the Lashkar-e-Toiba [LeT]) founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed has been extended for another 60 days, Punjab Additional Home Secretary Usman Anwar said. "His house has already been declared a sub-jail where he will spend the rest of the detention period," Anwar said, adding that the Punjab Government extended the detention on orders from the federal Government.

January 11

At least 49 Taliban militants were killed and an unspecified number of them wounded in Mohmand Agency as paramilitary troops repulsed a pre-dawn attack by about 600 militants coming from the Afghan border. The attackers – mostly foreigners, and supported by local Taliban – attacked Frontier Corps (FC) positions in Mamad Gatt at about 2am (PST). "Frontier Corps troops repulsed a massive attack by militants on one of its locations in the area," the military said in a statement, adding that "severe fighting continued through the night". Six soldiers were also killed and seven sustained injuries in the fighting.

A cease-fire between rival factions was reached in Hangu in the NWFP, after 30 persons were killed and 50 injured in sectarian clashes that broke out on January 9, according to Daily Times. However, The News put the death toll in the three days of sectarian clashes at 40. 20 houses – including that of the District Zakat committee chairman – were set ablaze in fresh clashes despite an earlier truce in the afternoon of January 11, as helicopter gunships targeted ‘miscreant’ hideouts. Sources said three local commanders, Maulvi Nadeem, Momin and Ihsanullah, were among the six militants killed in sectarian clashes in Saidan Banda and Pass Kellay.

January 12

The US State Department imposed sanctions against 13 people and three firms implicated in the nuclear proliferation network set up by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. "The Department of State announced that sanctions will be imposed on 13 individuals and three private companies for their involvement in the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation network… We believe these sanctions will help prevent future proliferation-related activities," it said in a statement.

January 13

A mortar shell - allegedly fired by the SFs - hit a house in the Gulagai area of Matta sub-division in Swat District of NWFP, killing three children and injuring a woman.

January 14

Four persons, including three soldiers, were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in the Dera Bugti District. The Baloch Republican Army claimed responsibility for the incident. The bomb, planted in the Sui Colony main bazaar, targeted a van carrying paramilitary personnel. Three soldiers and a shopkeeper died instantly.

Unidentified assailants killed four Policemen, including a Deputy Superintendent of Police, in a shootout in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. Motorcyclists ambushed a Police team on Sariab Road at around 11am, killing four Policemen. Three of the murdered Policemen belonged to Hazara community and were Shia. The outlawed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) claimed responsibility for the killings, which reportedly appear to be part of a recent series of target killing of Shias in the provincial capital that has claimed six lives in a month. "We claim the responsibility for today’s attack," Ali Haider, identifying himself as a spokesman for the group, said in telephone calls to local media, AFP reported. "It was a target killing and police officers belonging to the Hazara tribe were targeted," a senior police officer said.

January 15

The Government said that it had shut down five training camps of the outlawed Jama’at-ud-Da’awa (JuD) and Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), banned their seven publications and blocked all their websites. The authorities have reportedly detained 124 people, several leaders and officials of the organisations among them. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs, Rehman Malik, assured India that Pakistan would do its utmost to bring the people involved in the Mumbai attacks to justice. Giving details of a crackdown, Malik said that training camps had been closed down in Punjab and Pakistan occupied Kashmir. He said members of the banned groups who had been detained included their founder Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, LeT ‘operations commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Mufti Abdur Rehman, Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed and Ameer Hamza. "We have arrested a total of 124 mid-level and top leaders of JuD in response to a UN resolution — 69 from Punjab, 21 from Sindh, eight from Balochistan and 25 from the NWFP — blocked six websites associated with the organisation and closed down its five relief camps," the adviser said. He said 20 offices, 87 schools, two libraries, seven seminaries and a handful of other organisations and websites linked to the JuD had also been shut. He also said authorities had closed several relief camps of the organisation after the UN Security Council had passed the resolution. The publications banned are Mujalatud Dawa, Zarb-i-Taiba, Voice of Islam, Nanhay Mujahid, Ghazwa and Al Rabta.

January 16

A press release of the Military-run Swat Media Cell in Swat District claimed that 12 militants were killed and many others injured in a clash in the Chamtalai area of Khwazakhela sub-division. The TTP Swat chapter leader Shah Dauran also claimed killing several SF personnel in the clash. "Several troops were killed and five vehicles were destroyed in the attack," he claimed on his illegal FM radio. The SFs subsequently clamped a curfew in Khwazakhela and started shelling suspected hideouts of the militants.

Two militants and a soldier were killed and another sustained injuries in a clash in the Sandokhel area of Mohmand Agency in the FATA. Sources said SFs, backed by artillery and tanks, continued demolishing houses of militants in the Habibzai area of Safi sub-division for the second consecutive day. However, the militants opened fire on the troops in Sandokhel, which triggered a clash, leaving two militants and a soldier dead.

Owais Ahmad Ghani, the Governor of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), is reported to have informed a delegation of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in Peshawar that there are approximately 15,000 militants in the tribal belt, who have no dearth of ration, ammunition and equipment. The Governor said that a militant was normally given PKR 6,000 to PKR 8,000 per month while their leaders got PKR 20,000 to 30,000 per month.

January 17

A son of Osama bin Laden who spent years under Iranian house arrest has left Iran and is now probably operating inside Pakistan, said a senior American intelligence official, The News reported. Saad bin Laden is one of a number of senior al Qaeda operatives detained inside Iran in recent years. Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, told reporters that Saad bin Laden was probably in Pakistan. He gave no details about whether bin Laden had escaped from custody, whether his departure reflected a deal between Iran and al Qaeda or whether he was simply allowed to go by Iranian officials. McConnell’s announcement came as the Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on January 16 on Saad bin Laden and three other people believed to be al Qaeda operatives and thought to be in Iran.

January 18

At least 15 Taliban militants and a soldier were killed when clashes broke out between the Taliban and SFs in Mohmand Agency. The clashes, which broke out late on January 17, occurred as the SFs cleared a road linking Bajaur Agency with Peshawar, an unnamed official said. "Fifteen militants were killed in a successful raid by security forces on their stronghold in Darwazgai area of Mohmand Agency… One security force personnel embraced martyrdom in the encounter," he stated.

January 20

Troops backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships killed at least 38 Taliban militants in an ongoing military operation in the Mohmand Agency - raising the Taliban death toll to 60 over 24 hours. A statement said the FC had advanced and secured Darwazgai-Lakaro-Mamad Ghat Road in the operation and "militant strongholds of Habibzai and Mulakhel were destroyed." It also said that ‘leading commanders’, Umar Khitab, Qari Mumtaz, Haroon Rashid, Bilal, Yaqub, Yar Syed, Yousuf and Hamza, were among the dead. Troops have also "engaged Taliban strongholds of Krair and Chingai", it added. The Security Forces reportedly launched the crackdown in Mohmand Agency as early as the weekend, but a paramilitary official told that ‘hardcore militants’ were killed in the last 24 hours. A paramilitary official told that the FC and Mohmand Rifles, backed by warplanes, helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery, targeted suspected hideouts of militants in five villages of Lakaro and Pandyali sub-divisions, said to be stronghold of the Taliban’s Mohmand chapter. Three civilians, including the owner of a restaurant and his two sons, were killed in Danish Kol, residents said. 12 civilians were reportedly injured in the air strike and mortar attacks. According to a press release issued by the Frontier Corps headquarters in Peshawar late on January 20-night, 60 militants, including several key local commanders, were killed in the operation since the previous night. It said 22 militants had been killed on January 19 and 38 on January 20.

Taliban militants in the North Waziristan Agency shot dead six more people on charges of spying for the US forces stationed in Afghanistan. Tribal sources in agency headquarters Miranshah said that two of the six slain spies were Afghan nationals. One of them, whose bullet-riddled body was dumped near the Miranshah Bazaar, was identified as Guldar Ali, hailing from Afghanistan’s Khost province. Similarly, four more bodies were recovered from the Tehsil Road near Mirali. They were identified as Shah Madeen Khattak, a barber hailing from Karak district, 65-year-old electrician Shahi Haider Khan, teenager Nisar Ali and an Afghan citizen, whose name could not be ascertained. A handwritten letter placed near the bodies blamed all the four persons for spying for the US forces on the Mujahideen.

Four Policemen and four civilians were injured when a Police patrol van was hit by a roadside bomb on Ring Road in the Hazarkhwani area of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP.

The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti offered dialogue to the Taliban to restore peace in the troubled areas. He said the dialogue offer was still intact, asking the Taliban to come to negotiate without weapons as problems could not be solved by force.

After proscribing female education in the Swat District, the militants reportedly issued another decree, asking the local people to wear caps and stop shaving beards after January 25. The militants set January 25 as deadline for keeping beards in the Matta sub-division and also asked people to wear caps in order to implement Sharia (Islamic law) in the area. They had already stopped barbers from shaving and trimming beards in the valley while following their fresh decree all barbers reportedly displayed "shave is banned" posters at their shops.

Six Pakistanis have been arrested on suspicion of a tax fraud and are being investigated for diverting funds to terrorist groups, said the Spanish Police. Police said the six men were arrested in Barcelona on orders from Judge Baltasar Garzon, who often investigates terrorism. The Civil Guard said in a statement that the alleged fraud was carried out through telecommunications companies and officials were investigating whether any money went to ‘armed groups’. The six along with five others arrested by the Spanish Police, were suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out thefts and sending the money they raised from their criminal activities to Pakistan.

January 21

Several militants, including top commanders of the banned TTP, Mohmand chapter, were killed, as the military intensified its operation against the militants in Mohmand Agency. Sources said SFs targeted the hideouts of the militants in the Lakaro and Pindyali sub-divisions and elsewhere in the tribal agency with gunship helicopters, killing several militants and destroying their hideouts. Sources said the house of Omar Khalid, the TTP Mohmand Agency chief, was also destroyed in the aerial raids. More than 15 militants, including some important commanders, are reported to have died in the attack, while approximately 40 shops in the Qayyumabad and Askarabad bazaars on the Peshawar-Bajaur Road and 33 houses were also destroyed. Sources added that the SFs occupied the militant hideout after killing six militants in Ghaziabad area. Severe fighting and shelling was also reported from the Kamardin, Amarai Kor, Karair, Chingai, Palosai and Habibzai areas.

Seven suspected militants were arrested in a pre-dawn operation in the Bara Qadeem area of Khyber Agency in the FATA. A senior al Qaeda operative alleged to be involved in the 2005 bombings of London transport system was among the seven arrested men. Officials said the arrested men were al Qaeda militants believed to have planned attacks on trucks taking supplies to US-led forces in Afghanistan. An unnamed security official said the arrested militants included a senior al Qaeda operative allegedly wanted in connection with the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings in London. He identified the man as Zabi ul Taifi, an Arab.

The new US administration will increase non-military aid to Pakistan, but hold Islamabad accountable for security along the border region with Afghanistan, according to a US foreign policy document released soon after President Barack Obama assumed office. The document– available on the White House website – says, "Obama and [Vice President Joe] Biden will increase non-military aid to Pakistan and hold them accountable for security in the border region with Afghanistan."

January 22

21 persons, including 11 militants, were killed and an unspecified number of them injured in the ongoing military operation and fresh incidents of violence in the Swat District of NWFP. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)-run Swat Media Centre (SMC), 11 militants were killed and nine injured in Qamber and Koza Drushkhela. The SMC spokesman claimed that a militants’ hideout was destroyed in shelling at Qamber and four militants, identified as Abu Hamza, Ismail, Abdul Rauf and Qari Ghaffar, were killed. Sources added that SFs also carried out a ground assault in the Koza Drushkhela area of Matta sub-division, the stronghold of Maulana Fazlullah-led militants, and killed seven militants besides injuring three others.

The gunship helicopters attacked several suspected Taliban positions, killing seven persons, including four women and two children, in the Mohmand Agency. According to local people, a bomb hit the house of tribesman Zain Khan in Shekhan area, killing two women. Two more houses were hit in Ghunget Choher village of Lakaro sub-division, killing two women, two children and a man.

January 23

20 people, majority of them local tribesmen, were killed and several others were wounded in two different missile strikes by US drones in North and South Waziristan agencies. In the first incident, 10 persons were killed and several others injured when a US drone fired three Hellfire missiles on a Hujra (male guest house) of Khalil Dawar in Zyaraki village of North Waziristan. Sources close to the militants told The News the drone fired missiles after some guests, probably foreign militants, entered the Hujra of Khalil Dawar. They said besides Khalil, his two sons, brother Mansoor, a nephew and six other people were killed in the attack. However, a senior Government official in Miranshah said six among the dead were hardcore militants, including four Arabs and a Punjabi Taliban militant. It was the first missile attack by US spy planes in North Waziristan in 2009.

In the second incident, 10 more persons were killed in the adjoining South Waziristan Agency when a US drone fired two Hellfire missiles on the house of a local tribesman, Dil Faraz Gangikhel Wazir, in Gangikhel village, near Wana. Official and tribal sources said all those killed were local tribesmen. A Wana-based official of the political administration said the drone had probably missed the target and killed only innocent people. He said four children also lost their lives in the attack. It was the third attack by the US drones in South Waziristan in January 2009 and the first after Barack Obama became the US President.

Five members of a family, including three children, were killed when a mortar shell hit a house in the Manpetai village of Khwazakhela sub-division. A couple and their three children died and their house was destroyed in the incident.

In an IED attack in the Takhtaband area of Mingora town in Swat District, three civilians, including a woman, were killed and a soldier sustained injuries. The militants reportedly intended to target a convoy of the Security Forces but failed in their bid. The Taliban claimed responsibility and warned of more attacks.

Two SF personnel were killed in a suicide attack near Mingora town. According to a press release issued by the Swat Media Centre, a car laden with explosives blew up near the Fizagat check-post, killing two SF personnel and injuring 22 others. Troops had signaled the suspicious vehicle to stop and also fired on it, but it accelerated and hit the post.

January 24

Eight Taliban militants, including commander Noor Bakhtiar, were killed by the SFs during clashes in the Nangolai area of Kabal tehsil (revenue division) in Swat in the NWFP. The SFs also recovered a large cache of arms from the Taliban’s hideout after the operation. Troops also took control of schools in Swat following Taliban militant’s threats against their reopening. The decision was made to protect educational institutions in the district, where, according to official figures, 174 schools have been destroyed by Taliban militants during the past one and a half year.

January 25

The Taliban in Swat released a list of 43 people – including former and incumbent ministers – who they have declared ‘wanted’ and liable to punishment under the Sharia (Islamic law). The ‘wanted’ men also include former and current members of the national and provincial assemblies, District and local nazims (chief elected official of local government), officials of political parties, local elders and other influential residents of the valley. The announcement that the leaders were liable to punishment and must appear in Taliban courts was made by rebel cleric Mullah Fazlullah on his FM radio channel, locals said.

January 26

Nine people, including two children and two women, were killed and 17 others sustained injuries in different incidents of violence in various parts of the Swat District.

Six people were killed and 22 others sustained injuries when a bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded in a populated area in Dera Ismail Khan in the NWFP. Three of the victims were in a car while the other three were walking past the bicycle parked in front of the main gate of the town hall.

More than 200 protesters demonstrated against Pakistan’s appointment of an administrator to oversee the headquarters of JuD, (LeT front),. "Death to America", "Death to Israel and Jews", shouted the protesters, carrying banners and placards that read: "Cancel administrator’s appointment," "Remove the ban on the JuD" and "We condemn the UN resolution." Abu Ehsan, a former JuD administrator, while criticizing the January 25-takeover said, "This is a wrong step. First the government, under American and Indian pressure, placed a ban through the UN and now the Punjab government has... We strongly condemn this action and ask the government to review its decision." The provincial Government of Punjab has taken over the Muridke headquarters of the JuD, appointing an administrator to run the schools and medical facilities on the premises, and renaming it Punjab Welfare Institute.

The banned TTP has asked its members to stop attacks on Government installations, kidnapping for ransom, bank dacoities and car snatching across the country. A statement purportedly issued by the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud said, "All organizers and workers are directed that Mujahideen will not damage government property, commit highway robbery, bank dacoity, kidnap people for ransom or snatch vehicles from today… All such activities would be prohibited. No excuse that an activist had permission from the Ameer (Chief) to carry out such acts would be accepted... From now on, all previous permits meant for attacks on government installations and other activities would stand cancelled."

January 27

SFs killed more than 16 militants in Darra Adamkhel in the NWFP. The SFs claimed that they had besieged a large number of militants after a fierce battle which claimed the life of an army officer and injured five soldiers in Tor Chappar. The troops had reportedly been attacking the militants’ hideout in the area with artillery fire and shelling for the last four days. The Inter-Services Public Relations said in a press release from provincial capital Peshawar on January 26 that 16 militants were killed in a gun battle in Tor Chapper on January 25. However, a Taliban spokesman denied the report of the death of 16 people and said that all of them were safe and alive.

Hundreds of students protested as a Government official took over administrative control of the JuD headquarters in Muridke. The protest, organised for the second day, came as a senior official from the Punjab Government, Khaqan Babar, started his job running the schools and hospital at the JuD headquarters. About 500 students from a school in the sprawling JuD compound in Muridke gathered outside the main office and chanted slogans against the Government.

The United States will continue to carry out missile strikes against al Qaeda in Pakistan, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said. He was responding to questions on the issue and Pakistan’s complaints at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Both president Bush and President Obama have made clear that we will go after al Qaeda wherever it is and we will continue to pursue that," Gates said.

Five American CIA-operated spy planes intruded into the North Waziristan Agency and flew over various villages of the border area. Official and tribal sources said five drones, three white and two of black colour, intruded into the tribal region from across the border in Afghanistan. In the evening, the spy planes were seen hovering over various villages at a low altitude.

January 28

16 more people, including seven militants, were killed and 23 others injured in the Swat District, even as Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani vowed to establish the writ of the Government.

Around 25 projects operated by USAID in the FATA and settled areas of the NWFP have been temporarily closed over security concerns. The staff members working on several projects in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan, and North and South Waziristan agencies have been called back due to worsening security in those areas. USAID was working on a comprehensive programme to support short, medium and long-term objectives of the government of Pakistan’s FATA Sustainable Development Plan (FSDP) 2006-2015.

January 29

Four militants were killed and several others, including a Policeman, sustained injuries when suspected militants attacked a police post near Baran Bridge in Bannu in the NWFP with rockets and heavy arms.

Prime Minister’s Adviser on Interior Affairs Rehman Malik told the Senate that a new strategy had been worked out to combat militancy in Swat. He said the groups behind the insurgency in Swat included al Qaeda, TTP led by Maulana Fazlullah, Tanzeem-i-Islami, Tora Bora group and Qari Mushtaq group. He said that a Taliban ‘commander’, Qari Hussain Ahmed, ran a training camp for suicide bombers in Waziristan and Maulana Naamdaar had a role in bringing suicide bombers from Waziristan to Swat. He told the Senate that around 1,200 civilians had been killed and 2,000 injured in violence, while 189 military personnel had lost their lives. He said 123 Government schools and 10 private schools had been destroyed and many CD shops and barbers’ salons set ablaze.

The Darra Adamkhel unit of the TTP issued a one-week deadline to the NWFP Government to accept their demands and in case of non-compliance they would kill the kidnapped Polish geologist. A Taliban spokesman told that : "We cannot wait more as the government has taken acceptance of our demands (in return) for the release of Polish geologist Peter (Stanczak) very light. So, our Shura has decided to wait till Feb 4 evening for a positive reply from the government and in case of refusal we will kill him." The spokesman, who identified himself as Mohammad, said they had demanded from the Government complete withdrawal of SFs from tribal areas and release of their captured associates. The Polish geologist working for the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) was kidnapped from an OGDCL facility near the Jand town of Attock district in Punjab province four months ago.

January 30

Six persons were killed as the military operation in Swat continued on the sixth day. The SFs continued targeting Taliban hideouts in several areas of the Chaharbagh sub-division, including Coat and Darul Uloom. Troops reportedly advanced into the valley and consolidated their positions in Matta and Manglawar areas of the District.

Four soldiers were killed and eight injured when an Army convoy was attacked with a remote-controlled bomb in Malakand in the NWFP. Official sources told that a military convoy of the Sindh Regiment was on its way to provincial capital Peshawar from the militancy-hit Swat valley when a remote-controlled explosive device, planted by militants near a school building on Ghat Koto Road, went off, killing four soldiers and injuring eight others.

The Taliban distributed leaflets in Miranshah and Mir Ali in the North Waziristan Agency warning the Pakistan Army not to set up medical camps, open schools or hospitals in the area. The Taliban warned the army and the NGOs to stop their activities in the agency as ‘through these activities they were misleading the tribal people’. "We warn the army and NGOs to refrain from mischief and carrying out such work otherwise they will be responsible for any losses," said the leaflet in Urdu, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

A Pakistani investigation into the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 has shown they were not planned in Pakistan, the Pakistani High Commissioner to Britain told an Indian television news channel. "Pakistani territory was not used so far as the investigators have made their conclusions," Wajid Shamsul Hassan told NDTV in an interview.

January 31

10 persons were killed in fresh incidents of violence in the Swat District of NWFP. Locals said three people were killed in a clash between SF personnel and the Taliban militants in the Dherai area of Kabal revenue division. Three people were killed as helicopter gun ships targeted Taliban positions in Kabal. In the Aligrama area of Kabal, the Taliban militants attacked a SF’s convoy killing three SF personnel while another was injured in the attack.

February 1

32 persons, including three soldiers, were killed and 22 others sustained injures as the SFs intensified the operation in the Charbagh, Matta and Sangota areas of the Swat District. Locals said most of the people killed in Charbagh and Sangota during shelling were civilians, who were finding it difficult to move to safer places due to the perpetual curfew and escalating clashes.

The ISPR-run Swat Media Centre in Mingora claimed that the SFs have killed 16 militants during the last 24 hours.

February 2

The military claimed it had killed 70 Taliban militants and injured several others during its assault on a village in the Chaharbagh sub-division of Swat District. Officials said residents had already vacated the village on February 1 before troops launched the operation. They said the SFs targeted Taliban hideouts in the Alamganj and Waliabad areas of Chaharbagh, killing approximately 70 militants.

The Swat Police recovered eight bullet-ridden bodies from the region. "The bullet-ridden bodies of eight local residents were found in various areas of Swat," said an unnamed Police official. He blamed the killings on the Taliban militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah.

Trapped amidst clashes between the Taliban and SFs, residents in Swat have begun a mass exodus from the area. Thousands of civilians were fleeing the fighting in the valley. The people leaving Swat are joining thousands of villagers who have fled fighting in other restive areas, particularly Bajaur Agency. Government officials have blamed the militants for using villagers as human shields. "Thousands of people are migrating from the areas of fighting because of the military operations and the militants’ use of civilians as human shields," the Swat valley’s top administrator, Shaukat Khan Yousafzai told.

At least five militants were killed in a gun-battle with SFs in the Dasht-e-Goran area of Dera Bugti District in Balochistan. According to the local Police, a group of armed assailants opened indiscriminate fire at a vehicle of the SFs and in retaliation, at least five militants were killed by the troops.

A top United Nations (UN) official was kidnapped and his driver was killed after his vehicle was ambushed in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. John Solecki, head of the UN High Commission for Refugees office in Quetta, was going to office from his nearby residence in the Chaman Housing Society when the gunmen in a car opened fire on his vehicle. Even as the driver was seriously wounded as their vehicle crashed into a wall, the gunmen abducted Solecki, who is an American national, at gunpoint. The driver, Syed Hashim Hazara, later succumbed to his injuries in the hospital.

In Bara, headquarters of Khyber Agency, leader of the outlawed LI, Mangal Bagh, has banned shaving of beards and asked women to wear proper veils. Addressing on his private FM radio station, Mangal Bagh said: "From now on, the men are warned to grow breads according to Islam’s teachings and women should be properly veiled while leaving homes". Last week, the LI enforced Sharia (Islamic law) in the Bara tehsil (revenue division) of Khyber Agency.

February 3

Over 70 militants were killed by SFs during clashes in the Swat District in the night of February 2 and February 3. A group of Taliban militants were attacked and dispersed by troops in the Alam Ganj Waliabad area of Charbagh on February 2-night. In the evening of February 3, the militants gathered again and were reported to be planning an attack when the SFs cornered them. At least 64 militants were killed and several others were injured.

The militants surrounded the Shamozai Police post manned by about 30 personnel. Six militants and three SF personnel were killed and 10 persons, including five militants, were injured in an exchange of fire.

Suspected militants attacked a military convoy on the Mingora bypass in Swat. Troops subsequently cordoned off the area and launched an operation, killing four militants.

The BRA admitted to having killed five Punjabis in the Noshki and Mastung Districts of Balochistan, saying it was retaliation for the alleged firing by SFs on a wedding ceremony in Dera Bugti. Unidentified people riding on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire on a welding shop owned by a Punjabi, Muhammad Asif, on Aminuddin Road in Noshki District at around 7pm. Consequently, four people, including the brother of the shop owner, Muhammad Farooq, were killed on the spot. Several people were injured in the attack. According to sources, the shop had been attacked many times in the past because of its Punjabi link. Another man of Punjabi origin, identified as Haji Muhammad Jamil, was killed at the Quetta Bus Stop in Mastung District.

Supplies to the NATO troops in Afghanistan were halted temporarily when militants blew up a 110-year-old bridge on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway in the Katakashta area of Khyber Agency. Sources said explosives were planted beneath the bridge that went off early in the day, damaging the bridge partially. However, the structure collapsed later in the day when the driver of a cement-laden truck tried to cross it, the sources added.

The Spanish Police arrested 13 people on suspicion of links to organised crime and terrorism groups. A Police statement said the detainees - 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian - were suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling. Police said they were investigating whether the group might also have supplied forged documents to international terror groups.

Over 70 militants were killed by SFs during clashes in the Swat District in the night of February 2 and February 3. A group of Taliban militants were attacked and dispersed by troops in the Alam Ganj Waliabad area of Charbagh on February 2-night. In the evening of February 3, the militants gathered again and were reported to be planning an attack when the SFs cornered them. At least 64 militants were killed and several others were injured. The militants surrounded the Shamozai Police post manned by about 30 personnel. Six militants and three SF personnel were killed and 10 persons, including five militants, were injured in an exchange of fire. Suspected militants attacked a military convoy on the Mingora bypass in Swat. Troops subsequently cordoned off the area and launched an operation, killing four militants. The BRA admitted to having killed five Punjabis in the Noshki and Mastung Districts of Balochistan, saying it was retaliation for the alleged firing by SFs on a wedding ceremony in Dera Bugti. Unidentified people riding on a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire on a welding shop owned by a Punjabi, Muhammad Asif, on Aminuddin Road in Noshki District at around 7pm. Consequently, four people, including the brother of the shop owner, Muhammad Farooq, were killed on the spot. Several people were injured in the attack. According to sources, the shop had been attacked many times in the past because of its Punjabi link. Another man of Punjabi origin, identified as Haji Muhammad Jamil, was killed at the Quetta Bus Stop in Mastung District. Supplies to the NATO troops in Afghanistan were halted temporarily when militants blew up a 110-year-old bridge on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway in the Katakashta area of Khyber Agency. Sources said explosives were planted beneath the bridge that went off early in the day, damaging the bridge partially. However, the structure collapsed later in the day when the driver of a cement-laden truck tried to cross it, the sources added. The Spanish Police arrested 13 people on suspicion of links to organised crime and terrorism groups. A Police statement said the detainees - 11 Pakistanis, a Nigerian and an Indian - were suspected of belonging to an international crime gang involved in passport forgery, drug trafficking and people-smuggling. Police said they were investigating whether the group might also have supplied forged documents to international terror groups. The Jama'at-ud-Da'awa (JuD, the LeT front) released the appeal it had made to the United Nations pleading its innocence and claiming that it has no link with al Qaeda, Taliban or the Mumbai terrorist attacks. The appeal signed by JuD chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, was released on the eve of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's visit to Pakistan. The UN imposed a ban on the JuD on the request of India for its involvement in Mumbai attacks in November 2008 that claimed about 170 lives. The appeal said the UN had taken a hasty decision in proscribing the JuD, its chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and others members and termed the UN decision detrimental to the interests of Pakistan. It said that millions across the country were directly or indirectly benefiting from JuD's services particularly in the areas of health, education, water, sanitation, rehabilitation and particularly the provision of food and shelter to the homeless. Saeed requested the UN Secretary General to mobilize his good offices for the lifting of sanctions and delisting of all JuD entities. "We categorically make it clear and declare that Jamaat ud Dawa is neither an associate of Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden nor the Taliban, hence the embargo imposed is materially in contradiction to that set out in their rules and highly unjustified under the international law of human dignity and freedom," Saeed said.

February 4

Nine members of the Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam group were killed in an encounter with the Police and the Qaumi Lashkar (militia) comprising armed villagers when they allegedly attempted to kidnap the chief official of Bazidkhel union council near Peshawar, the NWFP capital. Three Policemen sustained injuries in the first incident of its kind in which the Police and villagers jointly countered the militants operating in Peshawar.

The Taliban in Swat set free 30 SF personnel in the presence of journalists in the Kotli Dadhara area of Kabal sub-division in Swat District, after securing written promise from them that they would quit their Government jobs. "The hostages have been released on humanitarian grounds, but with a condition that they will quit their jobs and never fight against the Taliban," local Taliban leaders told journalists after a meeting of the Taliban Shura (executive council). The SF personnel were abducted on February 3 when the militants overran a Police checkpoint in Shamozai area adjacent to the Lower Dir district.

A private TV channel reported that a French aid agency has suspended its operations in Swat after two of its Pakistani workers were killed.

Eight local Taliban militants were killed in a clash between two rival factions in the Orakzai Agency of FATA. Sources in the political administration said the militants were killed in fighting between Taliban commanders Gul Bahadar and Tariq's factions in Shan Khel area. They said that all of the casualties were from Bahadar's faction. The sources also claimed that a power struggle between Taliban factions was underway in Orakzai.

In Landikotal, suspected Taliban militants doused with petrol 10 containers they thought were carrying NATO supplies, and set them ablaze. With most of the containers reportedly empty and only two loaded - four were completely destroyed and the remaining was partially damaged.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced the establishment of an independent commission to probe the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. "I intend to establish an independent commission of inquiry to be headed by a distinguished person who will be appointed very shortly," he said while speaking at a dinner reception hosted by President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad. Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz would head the three-member commission. It said Indonesia's Marzuki Dar Usman will be a member of the commission, but no decision has been made on its third member, likely to belong to Sweden or Norway.

Supporting India's assessment that the Pakistan-based LeT is a security risk for the international community, the US Central Intelligence Agency believes that the terrorist group is among the top security threats for the US, Economic Times reported. The outgoing CIA chief Michael Hayden concluded that the LeT was among the top security challenges for the US. Hayden said in a television interview that al Qaeda has been increasing its links with terror organisations around the world and this was pushing the LeT to expand its scope of operation from India to Israel and America. "There was a migration in LeT thinking over the past 6, 12, 18 months, in which it began to identify the United States and Israel as much as being the main enemy as it has historically identified India… That is a troubling development. And this migration of LeT to a merge point (with al Qaeda) is probably taking place," he said.

February 5

32 persons were killed and 48 others wounded when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself amidst a crowd of Shia worshippers outside a mosque in Dera Ghazi Khan in the Punjab province. Police said the blast targeted dozens of people converging on the Al Hussainia Mosque after dark, shortly before a religious gathering. Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Police blamed sectarian extremists for the incident. "Ninety-nine percent it looks like a suicide attack… The explosion occurred just 50 feet short of the mosque. It is a terrorist attack aimed at Shias to create unrest," said Shaukat Javed, the Inspector General of Punjab Police.

Three women were killed in Swat District as Taliban continued their attack on people they consider to be pro-government. The women, Zarmina, Zarbibi and Farzana, were killed and three men were kidnapped when militants stormed their house in Dagai village and accused them of supporting security personnel manning the nearby Wenai bridge post.

A suicide attacker detonated an explosive-laden car near a Police station in the Mingora town in Swat District, injuring a dozen officers and destroying part of the building, said Dilawar Khan Bangash, the Police chief. Bangash said militants also fired three rockets before the attack and one damaged a nearby hotel.

Several banned militant groups met in Muzaffarabad, the Pakistan occupied Kashmir capital, and pledged to continue the jihad to "liberate" Kashmir from India. The meeting was organised by a previously unknown group, Tehreek-e-Azadi Jammu and Kashmir, on the eve of "Kashmir Solidarity Day". Groups affiliated to the United Jihad Council (UJC), the umbrella organisation of more than a dozen militant outfits, were in attendance including the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM). The meeting took place at Chattar, a neighbourhood that reportedly houses Government offices, top Government functionaries and political VIPs.

February 6

Army helicopter gunships killed 52 Taliban militants when they targeted hideouts in the Chapri and Feroz Khel areas along the border of Orakzai and Khyber Agencies. "Fifty-two militants were killed and a huge ammunition depot and eight vehicles were destroyed in an attack by army helicopters," Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat told Reuters.

A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a trailer carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan and injured seven persons in the Tedi Bazaar area of Jamrud sub-division. Eyewitnesses said the bomber was heading for Landikotal when the troops signaled him to stop. They said that he rammed his car into the trailer instead of stopping. Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar claimed responsibility for the attack. "It was our man who martyred himself in Jamrud… We warned the government to stop military operations in Khyber, Swat and other tribal areas, otherwise we will completely shut down the NATO supply line… We have shown that we can do that," said Omar.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared the detained nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan 'a free citizen', and disposed of his writ petition following a 'mutual agreement' between him and the federal Government which - according to the court - cannot be made public in line with a request by the petitioner and the respondent. During an in-chamber hearing, Syed Ali Zafar - representing AQ Khan - argued before the IHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Aslam that his client's detention was unjustified, as "he was not involved in nuclear proliferation." He asked the court to declare his client a free citizen 'with due state protection' in line with the terms of the mutual agreement between AQ Khan and the Government. According to the court's one-page verdict, Dr Khan's counsel voluntarily accepted the terms and conditions offered by the Government in exchange for ending the detention of the scientist.

February 7

Eight Taliban militants were killed as shelling by helicopter gun ships continued in the Bajaur Agency. The troops were targeting Taliban hideouts in the Dama Dola, Mataro Sha, Umrai and Shinkot areas of Mamoond revenue division. Residents said the troops advanced from the agency headquarters in Khar and gained control of Siddiqabad, Rehmanabad and Anayat Qalay. They said the Taliban posed no resistance during the army deployment.

Suspected terrorists shot dead two Policemen and blew up a check post, killing five more, in an attack in the Mianwali District of Punjab. The attackers first killed the two Police guards and then blew up the check post with explosives in the town bordering the restive NWFP. "Seven of our men have died in the attack that appears to be part of terrorist activity being carried out by militants across the country," Malik Tasaddaq Hayat, a senior Police official in Minawali District said.

A previously unknown separatist group claimed responsibility for abducting an American working for the UN refugee agency in Balochistan. John Solecki, head of the UNHCR office in provincial capital Quetta, was abducted on February 2, after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver. A spokesman for a group called Balochistan Liberation United Front told a local news agency they had kidnapped the man to make the United Nations pay attention to the 'plight' of the Baluchi people. "We have three demands, and if our demands are not met, then John Solecki will lose his life," a spokesman, identifying himself as Shahak Baloch, told. "We want the United Nations to secure the release of 141 women in Pakistani torture cells, provide information about more than 6,000 missing persons, and resolve the issue of Baluch independence under the Geneva Convention."

February 8

SFs killed 22 Taliban militants during a military operation in the Inayat Qilay area of Khar sub-division in Bajaur Agency.

11 civilians and three SF personnel were killed in fierce clashes between the SFs and militants in different areas of the Swat District. A group of militants loyal to Maulana Fazlullah ambushed a vehicle of the SFs in the Aligrama area of Kabal sub-division and killed three soldiers on the spot. Troops subsequently targeted suspected militant hideouts with artillery fire. Four persons were killed in heavy shelling and fire between the SFs and militants in Takhtaband area in the outskirts of Mingora city. Helicopter gunships were reportedly used to target militant positions. Three people were been killed and ten injured as mortar shells hit houses in the Shewar area of Matta sub-division. Further, a father and his son were killed and a woman was injured as mortar shell hit their house in the Sekhbanr area of Matta sub-division. In addition, the decapitated body of Habibullah was recovered in the Alam Ganj area of Khwazakhela sub-division. A motorcyclist was killed in firing in the Dherai area of Kabal.

Intelligence agencies have detained three men in Karachi over their alleged involvement with Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman alias Ajmal Kasab, the lone LeT militant arrested during the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai. A source disclosed that intelligence agencies had taken the men into custody from different areas of Karachi in connection with their alleged affiliation with Kasab.

The CIA has reportedly told President Barack Obama that British-born Pakistani terrorists, who have extensive contacts with the LeT, are the biggest threat to the US. American intelligence chiefs have told the president that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in Britain to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain, the paper said. It said intelligence chiefs believe that a British-born Pakistani extremist entering the US under a current visa waiver program for all Britons is the most likely source of another terrorist attack on the American soil. A former CIA officer who had advised Obama told that the CIA had stepped up its British operations after the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai by the LeT, which has an extensive web of supporters in Britain, and is now as big a threat to the US and Britain as al Qaeda.

Taliban militants released a videotape showing the beheading of Polish geologist Poitr Stancza and warned other kidnapped foreigners would meet the same fate if their demands were not met. Before he was killed, the seven-minute video shows the blindfolded geologist making an appeal to the Polish Government not send troops to Afghanistan. He asked the Polish Government to sever diplomatic relations with Pakistan if it did not try to seek his release. The video includes a statement by the Taliban, claiming they had other foreign nationals in their custody, including a Chinese, who would be beheaded if the Government of Pakistan did not accept their demands. Stancza was kidnapped in September 2008 when he was on a visit to his company's site in Attock in the Punjab province.

26 persons, including 11 children and a soldier, were killed while 38 others sustained injuries when mortar shells hit some houses during ongoing clashes between SFs and militants in the Qasimkhel area of Darra Adamkhel in NWFP. Sources said militants fired three rockets at the Babozai check-post, killing a soldier, Mirdad, and injuring two others. SFs also retaliated and an exchange of fire continued for sometime, during which heavy weapons were reportedly used. Reports said several shells fell at the main gate of the Government Girls Primary School Qasimkhel and nearby houses on the outskirts of Darra Adamkhel.

Nine persons, including five militants, were killed and 11 others sustained injuries in artillery shelling and incidents of violence in the Swat District. Sources told that five militants and two civilians were killed and five others sustained injuries when gunship helicopters shelled the Engaro Dherai, Takhta Band and Ogaday areas near Mingora city. An artillery shell fired by the SFs hit the house of one Fazlullah in Chuprial area, killing his two children and injuring his wife and a child.

18 FC personnel were injured in a suicide attack on the Baran Pul check-post of the Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) in the jurisdiction of Bakkakhel police station in Bannu District. Sources said a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden mini truck hit the building of the FRP check-post at Baran Pul, injuring 18 FC soldiers.

10 people were killed while an unspecified number of them were wounded during clashes between two rival religious groups in the Terra valley of Khyber Agency. The groups, Ansar-ul-Islam and Lashkar-e-Islam, were reportedly using mortar guns, small missiles, rockets and other arms in the clashes.

SFs targeted suspected hideouts of the Taliban, killing six suspected militants and injuring several others, including women, in different parts of the Bajaur Agency. Military gunship helicopters targeted suspected hideouts in the Inayat Killay, Bade Samo, Bhai Cheena and Omari villages of the Khar sub-division. An official said six militants were killed in the shelling and several others sustained injuries.

The Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) has said that a dossier of information given by India to Islamabad is 'insufficient' to make headway in a conclusive investigation into the Mumbai attacks, and called on India to provide substantial evidence. The committee met in Islamabad under Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to deliberate on the findings of an inquiry - conducted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) - into the Mumbai attacks. After a briefing on the progress of the inquiry based on the information provided by India, the DCC decided that a case should be registered and further investigations carried out. Sources told that the committee was of the unanimous view that the information provided by India was insufficient for the prosecution of the perpetrators.

SFs backed by helicopter gunships, killed 11 Taliban militants and destroyed many of their hideouts in the Bajaur Agency of FATA. The operation was launched on February 9 in the Inayat Qillay town, a suspected stronghold of the Taliban and al Qaeda-linked terrorists, after a rocket attack by the militants, military official Mustaqim Shah told. The rocket attack destroyed a shop but caused no casualties, he said. "Troops backed by helicopters retaliated with artillery and mortar fire, and destroyed several suspected locations. At least seven militants were killed," the official said. In addition, four militants were killed in an encounter with the SFs in Inayat Qilay town.

Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar said they had killed five security officials in a multi-pronged attack on Inayat Qillay. One tank was also destroyed in the attack, he claimed. Security officials, however, denied the claims.

Two US spy planes violated the Pakistani airspace and entered the limits of Landikotal sub-division of Khyber Agency. Eyewitnesses said two drones were seen hovering over Landikotal at about 7 pm, which continued flying for about half an hour.

The Swat-based Taliban leader Maulana Muhammad Alam alias Khalil has asked the people of Malakand division not to pay electricity bills. Announcing this on FM radio, Khalil said his militants would teach a lesson to those who tried to disconnect the power supply in the area. "We are demanding our rights but these are being denied. Therefore, the people of Malakand must not pay utility bills to the Government… We would either implement the Sharia [Islamic law] in Swat or embrace martyrdom," he said. He vowed to continue efforts for the Sharia enforcement and claimed that the uprising from Swat would spill over to the whole country.

US President Barack Obama asserted that his administration would not allow 'safe havens' for al Qaeda and the Taliban operating with 'impunity' in the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan. "My bottom line is that we cannot allow al Qaeda to operate. We cannot have those safe havens in that region," said Obama at his first press conference after assuming office. "You've got the Taliban and Al Qaeda operating in the FATA and these border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan… What we haven't seen is the kind of concerted effort to root out those safe havens that would ultimately make our mission successful," he added. The President also noted that "It's not acceptable for Pakistan or for us to have folks who, with impunity, will kill innocent men, women and children. And you know, I believe that the new government of Pakistan ... cares deeply about getting control of this situation, and we want to be effective partners with them on that issue."

The fighting in the Tribal Areas can drive more than 600,000 people from their homes, the UNHCR said. Spokesman Ron Redmond said the UNHCR would ramp up its relief work in the county's northwest, where security has deteriorated sharply since 2008. "Latest estimates put the number of displaced people in the region at around 450,000, but the UN believes more than 600,000 could be displaced within weeks," he told a press briefing in Geneva. "UNHCR is encouraged by the safe arrival and return of the first UN convoy of supplies to this dangerous region of Pakistan where curfews and general insecurity hamper relief efforts," Redmond said.

Five suspected militants and a soldier were killed and several persons sustained injuries in clashes and bombing by the Pakistan Air Force fighter planes in Bajaur Agency. Military sources said warplanes targeted positions of militants in Inayat Killay, Bhai Cheena and Mamond subdivision, a stronghold of the militants led by TTP deputy chief Maulvi Faqir Muhammad. Sources said the troops had also cleared major parts of Inayat Killay and Bhai Cheena towns of militants. Independent sources reported fierce fighting between the militants and SFs around Inayat Killay in which officials said five militants and a soldier were killed.

The chief of the banned outfit Ansar-ul-Islam (AI), Qazi Mehboobul Haq, claimed to have taken complete control of Bar Qambar Khel after burning several houses of the opponents at the remote Tirah Valley in Khyber Agency. Addressing on his private FM radio, he said the flag of AI was hoisted on Tortoot in the Bara sub-division, as the area of Qambarkhel came under the control of his group.

Alamzeb Khan, a Member of Provincial Assembly from the ruling Awami National Party (ANP), was killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in Momin Town in Peshawar, the NWFP capital. The blast, which also injured seven others, including the driver, the gunman and personal assistant of the legislator, occurred on the day the newly-appointed special US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, was paying a visit to the city and the adjacent Khyber Agency.

Three soldiers were killed and several others were injured during clashes between SFs and militants in the Charbagh area of Swat District.

Five attackers who targeted the Afghan Justice Ministry building amid a wave of coordinated suicide attacks had contacted Pakistan shortly before being shot dead, the Afghan intelligence chief said. Mobile phones found at the scene showed the attackers had "sent three messages to Pakistan calling for the blessings of their mastermind" as they entered the building, Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said. All five attackers were shot dead, the Defence Ministry said. The five attackers were aged between 20 and 25, Saleh added. Taliban militants wearing suicide vests stormed the Justice Ministry and another Government building in Afghanistan's capital, killing 26 persons. Eight attackers also died in the assaults, including an attacker outside a third Government building, Defence Ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi said.

The TTP threatened to destroy all educational institutions in Bajaur Agency if the Government did not withdraw SFs stationed in Government schools in the region within three days.

Austria's interior ministry said it had no evidence that the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 might have been planned in Austria, as reported in the media. "We have nothing that would justify our launching an investigation," ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said. "We have not been informed (of these claims) by either Pakistan or India and moreover, we have not received any requests for an investigation," he added. An Austrian newspaper quoted Indian media reports according to which Pakistan's investigation into the attacks had found that they were planned in Austria and Dubai. An Austrian link to the attacks was also mentioned in December 2008 following reports that the militants had used an Austrian telephone number.

Pakistan acknowledged for the first time that the Mumbai terrorist attacks were partly planned in Pakistan and that it has arrested six suspects, including the "main operator". In its first detailed response to the dossier provided by India, Pakistan said criminal cases had been registered against nine suspects on charges of "abetting, conspiracy and facilitation" of a terrorist act. However, it said more evidence is required from India, including DNA samples of Ajmal Kasab, the lone LeT militant arrested during the attack, to establish his identity. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik told the media that FIR No: 01/009 had been lodged with the Special Investigation Group in the Federal Investigation Agency against nine suspects. The Pakistani investigators have identified Hammad Amin Sadiq as the alleged 'mastermind' of the whole conspiracy. Malik said the cases against nine persons had been registered under the Anti-Terror Act and the Cyber Crime Act and they would be tried under these two sets of laws. He said six of the nine accused named in the FIR have already been arrested and being interrogated, two have been identified but not arrested so far while investigations are still under way into the possible involvement of the ninth accused. He identified those arrested as Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a LeT 'commander' who was arrested from Muzaffarabad soon after the Indian Government alleged that the LeT was responsible for the Mumbai attacks, Javed Iqbal, who was arrested from Barcelona in Spain, Hammad Amin Sadiq, believed to be the main operator belonging to southern Punjab, Zarar Shah, Mohammad Ashfaq and Abu Hamza. The name of Ajmal Kasab is reportedly not included in the FIR. He also said some of those arrested by the security agencies of Pakistan for possible involvement in the Mumbai attacks belong to the LeT.

Five persons were killed and 12 others sustained injuries during the ongoing military operation in Swat District.

The SFs claimed to have killed four militants during a clash following an attack on a check-post in the Shandai Mor area of Bajaur Agency. Military sources said the militants attacked the check-post with rocket launchers and other heavy weapons. The SFs deployed at the check-post repulsed the attack and the ensuing clashes between Taliban militants and troops left four militants dead.

Interior Adviser Rehman Malik has said that a money exchange company in Islamabad was involved in transferring money to a suspect of the Mumbai attacks in Spain. The money was transferred through Paracha International Exchange's Euro 2005 branch in Islamabad to Javed Iqbal in Barcelona. The branch was later found sealed.

A UN official expressed satisfaction with the steps taken by Pakistan in compliance with the UN's sanctions on JuD. Security Council Coordinator Richard Barrett said he had discussed the implementation of the Security Council's decision to sanction the JuD with Pakistani officials. He said he would visit Islamabad soon to make an assessment of Pakistan's actions. Earlier, he told reporters at a press conference that it was difficult to implement the sanctions completely, adding that the group was involved in charitable activities and running schools and clinics.

The banned LeT is reported to have condemned the Government for filing a case against some of the group's top operatives. "We strongly condemn the lodging of the FIR [First Information Report] against LeT," Lashkar spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi told over the telephone. The case was brought to 'win appreciation' from India and the US and to "implement India's agenda of suppressing the people's struggle for freedom in Kashmir", said Ghaznavi. The Government has lodged a FIR against eight suspects, including the presumed mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.

A close aide of Baitullah Mehsud and senior commander of the banned TTP claimed responsibility for the February 11 suicide attack on the Awami National Party (ANP) Member of Provincial Assembly, Alam Zeb Khan, in Peshawar. "We carried out this attack and will continue such attacks on ANP leaders in future," Hakeemullah Mehsud, who heads the TTP in Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber tribal regions, said in telephone calls to media offices in Peshawar.

Five persons, including a security official, were killed and several others sustained injuries in the Swat District.

The Taliban, who killed Polish national Piotr Stanczak last week, are now demanding US$200,000 for return of the body. According to sources in the Interior Ministry, the Taliban have not directly contacted the Government but conveyed to Poland through a private negotiator that they will not hand over the body until they are paid the amount. The official confirmation of the Polish engineer's killing came late on February 13-night from the Foreign Ministry after the authorities were able to verify through a number of independent sources that he was beheaded by his captors last week.

Kidnappers of an American working for the UNHCR in Pakistan released a video in which he pleaded for the UN to help secure his release. John Solecki, head of the office of the UNHCR in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, was abducted on February 2, after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver. Solecki appeared blindfolded and said his message was to the UN. "I am not feeling well. I am sick. I am in trouble. Please help to resolve the problem soon so I can gain my release," he said. The video was delivered by mail to the office of a local news agency and seen by a Reuter's reporter.

The Government has no alternative except to use force against the Taliban to end militancy in the country, President Asif Ali Zardari said while vowing to eliminate the insurgents. He was addressing a meeting jointly presided over by the president and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to review the situation in FATA and Swat. Zardari said the Taliban wanted to impose their political agenda on the people of Pakistan through use of force, adding that the Government and the people would never allow a handful of insurgents to do so.

The CIA's unmanned Predator aircraft striking terrorist targets in the FATA are flown from an airbase inside Pakistan, a senior US lawmaker said. The disclosure by Senator Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a US official had publicly commented on where the Predator aircraft patrolling Pakistan take off and land. At a hearing during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee by US Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, she said, "As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base." The CIA, however, declined to comment. A spokesman for Feinstein said her comment was based solely on previous news reports that Predators were operated from bases near Islamabad.

Two missiles fired by the suspected US drones killed 28 Taliban militants, including foreign nationals, at South Waziristan. "We lost 28 mujahideen in the missile attack… The drone fired two missiles and several 'guests' are among the dead," Taliban sources in Ladah said. Two Arab nationals, some local Taliban militants and a number of Uzbek nationals were reportedly killed in the strike.

Militants have set free a Chinese engineer they had kidnapped six months ago from Lower Dir District. Long Xiaowei, who worked for a Chinese mobile phone company, was handed over to officials in the Shamozai area of Bari Kot subdivision of Swat District in the evening of February 14 and he was immediately taken to Islamabad where the Chinese Embassy confirmed his release. Sources told in Peshawar that Xiaowei had been released on payment of a huge amount of money as ransom, but the militants' spokesman Muslim Khan said in Swat that the engineer had been freed as a goodwill gesture.

Eight persons, including six Taliban militants, were killed and four injured during an operation launched by the SFs in the Mamond sub-division of Bajaur Agency. The SFs bombed the Taliban hideouts with jet fighters and destroyed several hideouts during the operation.

The Bajaur chapter of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) demanded immediate implementation of the Sharia (Islamic law) in the Agency and in return assured the Government of its co-operation to establish a complete writ of the state, demanding the Army to stay in the region till reconstruction work was completed.

Four members of a family, including a minor, were killed in the Swat District. Sources said a shell fired by the SFs hit a house in the Hazara area of Kabal sub-division, killing four members and wounding 10 others of a family.

The Taliban of Swat announced a 10-day cease-fire after the Government and the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) reached an understanding about promulgating Sharia (Islamic law), termed 'Nizam-i-Adl Regulation', in Malakand region. "Taliban have declared a unilateral cease-fire for 10 days as a goodwill gesture. Our fighters will not attack security personnel and Government installations," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said. However, he said, the militants would hold their positions and defend themselves if attacked. He welcomed the move to enforce Sharia regulations in Malakand, but added: "We will see how sincere the Government is in their enforcement."

The NWFP Government formally announced the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) known as the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 in Malakand Division and Kohistan District. "The provincial Government in consultation with all political parties, Sufi Muhammad and Ulema with the approval of Federal Government introduced changes in the 1999 Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. Today I announce promulgation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation (Amended) 2009… The regulations will be implemented in Malakand following the return of peace and restoration of writ of the Government," NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti told a press conference after chairing a jirga (council of elders) in Peshawar. The jirga was attended by a 29-member Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) delegation from Dir, leaders and representatives of political and religious parties, members of the NWFP cabinet and senior bureaucrats. He said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 had been approved by President Asif Zardari following consultation with TNSM representatives.

"We will reciprocate the militants' 10-day armistice with a cease-fire for good," the Chief Minister said. Hoti also said troops would remain in "reactive mode" instead of "proactive mode" and would not target anyone unless threatened. He said the army should be removed only after peace has been restored. Troops would play their role in reconstruction and rehabilitation, he added. He said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 were in line with the Constitution of Pakistan as it was the amended form of the regulations proposed for Malakand in 1994 and 1999. He said the new system had been devised to provide easy and speedy justice for the people. He said both the Qazi and the police department would be held accountable for any delay. He announced that all civil cases would be resolved within six months and all criminal cases would be decided within a maximum of four months. For its implementation, Hoti said, a task force comprising the federal secretary interior, the NWFP chief secretary, the provincial presidents of the ANP and the PPP, the law and home secretaries, would be established. Sources told that the TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad would head a jirga to Swat in the next two days to discuss the restoration of peace with the residents and Taliban.

30 suspected militants were killed and three others sustained injuries in a missile strike on a refugee camp in the Kurram Agency. The three missiles believed to have been fired from a US unmanned aircraft destroyed a house used by a local Taliban commander. It was the first known drone strike in Kurram. However, political authorities have only confirmed 18 deaths from four missiles fired by two unmanned aircraft, while the local Taliban have claimed a death toll of 12. "Afghan Taliban were holding an important meeting there when the missiles were fired," an intelligence official in the area told Reuters.

SFs are reported to have killed five militants and injured several others during shelling by jetfighters in various parts of the Bajaur Agency. Five suspected militants were killed and several others injured when jetfighters of the Pakistan Air Force targeted hideouts in the Khar and Mamond sub-divisions. Several underground bunkers of the militants were also destroyed in the attack.

The BLUF, which claims to have kidnapped American UN official John Solecki, said, it had extended a 72-hour deadline for the Government to meet demands for his release. "We have decided to extend the deadline on the appeal of our honourable Baloch leaders," a BLUF spokesman told via telephone at the Quetta Press Club. "A new deadline will be announced later."

President Asif Ali Zardari will not sign documents of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 until peace is restored in Swat, Malakand, and other troubled areas, Federal Information Minister Sherry Rehman said. "The Government will monitor the situation, as security and well-being of Swat is top priority," Sherry said in a statement following an agreement between the NWFP Government and the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM).

The centre has released PKR 623 million to the NWFP and FATA administration to provide compensation to the victims of militancy, an official announcement said. President Asif Zardari is reported to have termed the victims of militancy as national heroes and advised the NWFP Government to immediately undertake payment of compensation to their families. PKR 283 million have been released for the FATA and another PKR 340 million for the NWFP Government to compensate the families of the victims of suicide bombings and acts of terror. Under the compensation programme, PKR 300,000 will be paid for every fatality and PKR 100,000 for the injured.

February 17

SFs killed six Taliban militants during their ongoing operation to target suspected hideouts in Bajaur Agency. "Six militants were killed and scores injured during shelling by gunship helicopters in Inayat Qilay, Bhaicheena and Umerey areas in Mamoond tehsil," an unnamed official said.

Five people were killed and 17 injured in a car bomb blast outside the Hujra (male guest house) of the union council chief in Bazidkhel village of Peshawar. Faheemur Rahman, the union council chief of Bazidkhel, eight kilometres south of Peshawar on Kohat Road, alleged that the Mangal Bagh-led LI was involved in this "cheap act" of terrorism. Eyewitnesses said the blast occurred in a car parked on a street near the Hujra of Rahman. The blast also destroyed two cars and damaged six buildings.

The implementation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009 in Malakand Division will not affect the Government’s policy on the war against terror, President Asif Ali Zardari said. During a meeting with the visiting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, he said the agreement between the Taliban and the NWFP Government was one part of an overall strategy for peace, a private TV channel reported.

February 18

SFs claimed killing nine Taliban militants by bombing their suspected hideouts in the Mamoond sub-division of Bajaur Agency.

A North Waziristan Agency Taliban ‘commander’ ordered the Taliban to halt sabotage activities in the settled districts of the NWFP to facilitate a religious congregation in the Bannu District of the province. Taliban commander Gul Bahadar’s spokesman, Ahmedullah Ahmadi, announced the directive in Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan. "All Taliban have been directed to stop attacks on Government installations to facilitate the congregation in Bannu District," Ahmadi said in a press statement. According to the Taliban spokesman, a unilateral cease-fire would be in place until March 5.

A TV and print media journalist was found dead hours after he was abducted in Swat. Musa Khankhel, correspondent for The News and a private TV channel, Geo News, was covering a ‘peace march’ led by Maulana Sufi Mohammed, chief of the Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) in Matta when he was kidnapped and later found dead, said Mingora-based journalists.

The TNSM chief Sufi Mohammed led hundreds of supporters and activists in a march to plead peace with the leadership of the Swat-based Taliban. Before leaving for the Matta sub-division of Swat District, Sufi and his activists staged a peace rally in Mingora town. Police and witnesses estimated that 15,000 people marched in the crowd, waving black and white flags as they paraded through the town. The TNSM spokesman said Sufi Mohammad would stay in Swat District till the complete restoration of peace in the valley and surrender by the Taliban.

More than 300,000 people in the northwest region of the country have been displaced over the last six months because of fighting between Taliban and SF, officials said. A total of 55,729 displaced families, or 337,772 individuals, have been registered by the authorities, Shaukat Tahir, a senior official from the National Disaster Management Authority, told a press conference in Islamabad. Around 70 per cent of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) were from the FATA on the border with Afghanistan, Tahir said, stressing that people were now beginning to return. He said people had left their homes because of an "ongoing operation in tribal areas". They were now returning "because roads have mostly been reopened and the military authorities have cleared the mines," he said.

The JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar and gangster Dawood Ibrahim are not in Pakistan, the Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said. Pakistan will not provide protection and refuge to any criminal, including Ibrahim, Malik told reporters on the sidelines of an official function in Lahore.

The CIA is using the Shamsi airbase in Balochistan to launch the Predator drones that attack al Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan, the London-based The Times has claimed. The CIA has been using the airfield - originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions - for at least a year. In its investigation, the newspaper is reported to have focused on the unexplained delivery of 730,000 gallons of F34 aviation fuel to Shamsi in 2008. The Defence Energy Support Centre Website reportedly shows that a civilian company was contracted to deliver the fuel, worth $3.2 million, from Pakistan Refineries near Karachi. However, the CIA and Pentagon declined to comment on the issue. Major General Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman of Pakistan, confirmed that US forces were using Shamsi. "The airfield is being used only for logistics," he said.

February 19

14 militants were killed and several others injured when SFs shelled suspected hideouts of militants in different areas of the Bajaur Agency. Official sources said that SFs targeted hideouts of militants in the Inayat Killay, Bhai Cheena and Shinkot areas of Khar sub-division with gunship helicopters and artillery.

The Swat Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah discussed with the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad the Swat peace deal in a meeting at an undisclosed location in the Matta sub-division of the Swat District. TNSM spokesman Izzat Khan Sufi and his delegation tried to convince Fazlullah and other Taliban leaders to disarm. He also said the TNSM chief told the Taliban that he too had given up his protest after the announcement that Sharia (Islamic law) would be implemented in the Malakand Division.

The militants involved in 9/11, the Mumbai attacks and unrest in Swat have common roots, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke told a meeting in Washington. In the meeting to review the Afghanistan-Pakistan situation, he said the US was troubled and confused about the development in the Swat valley. According to a TV channel, Holbrook said in an interview that progress in the Swat valley was not an encouraging trend and that the US would not like militants to get hold of any territory in Pakistan. According to another news channel, Holbrooke also said victory in Afghanistan was not achievable in purely military terms. Reducing tensions between India and Pakistan was imperative to get Pakistan more focused on the terrorism war along the border with Afghanistan, Holbrooke reportedly told a US TV channel.

The US State Department said the US was interested in seeing results of anti-terrorism efforts in Pakistan and will continue to stay in touch with Pakistani officials over the Swat peace arrangement. Deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid said: "These types of deals have happened before and (in that context) the direction of events in Swat valley are not in going in a positive way. What we do want to see is results."

February 20

32 persons were killed and 145 others injured when a suicide bomber exploded himself in the funeral procession of a slain employee of the Tehsil Municipal Administration near the busy Shubra Square in Dera Ismail Khan. Sources said the funeral procession of local Shia community leader Sher Zaman alias Shera, who was killed in firing by unidentified persons on February 19, was heading towards Kotly Imam Hussain for his Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayer) and burial when a suicide bomber ran into the mourners and blew himself up. "We cannot immediately say who could be behind the bombing but it appeared to be linked with the ongoing sectarian attacks," said Saadullah Khan, the local police station chief. Riots broke out in the city following the blast, and Police confirmed that two people were killed in the firing that followed the suicide bombing.

SFs fired mortar shells at suspected hideouts of the Taliban in various areas of the Mamoond and Khar sub-divisions of Bajaur Agency, killing four Taliban militants, including a commander, and injuring several others.

The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan said he called President Asif Ali Zardari expressed US concern over the Swat peace deal, which he said was ‘hard to understand’. Richard Holbrooke said in an interview with CNN that Zardari assured him the pact was an "interim arrangement" to stabilise the restive region. "He (Zardari) does not disagree that the people who are running Swat now are murderous thugs and militants and they pose a danger not only to Pakistan but to the United States," said Holbrooke. "I am concerned, and I know that Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton is and the president is, that this deal which is portrayed in the press as a truce does not turn into a surrender… President Zardari has assured us this is not the case," said Holbrooke.

The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said that Washington could accept a political agreement between the Afghan Government and the Taliban militants along the lines of a truce in neighbouring Pakistan. When asked if Pakistan succeeds in pacifying the militant activity in Swat, the United States would allow Afghans to make a similar type of agreement, Gates replied: "If there is a reconciliation, if insurgents are willing to put down their arms, if the reconciliation is essentially on the terms being offered by the government, then I think we would be very open to that. We have said all along that ultimately some sort of political reconciliation has to be part of the long-term solution in Afghanistan."

Top Taliban leaders from North and South Waziristan met to forge an alliance. Sources said that the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and Taliban leaders Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadar met at an undisclosed location in Waziristan and agreed to form an alliance. The three Taliban leaders have reportedly formed a 13-member committee and authorised it to make ‘all decisions’. They also agreed that they would jointly defend attacks against them, and make plans in consultation with the committee.

A breakthrough is reported to have occurred during talks between the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammed and Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, Dawn quoted a TNSM spokesman as saying. Separately, the Taliban said they would probably extend the cease-fire in Swat. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said "Hopefully, you’ll hear good news in one or two days."

February 21

Eight suspected Taliban militants were killed in firing by helicopter gunships and artillery shelling by the SFs in the Bajaur Agency of FATA.

Two suicide bombers were killed when their explosives-laden car blew up before hitting its intended target in the Lakki town of Bannu District in the NWFP.

February 22

Four militants were killed and three others sustained injuries in the ongoing military operation in different areas of Khar and Mamond sub-divisions of the Bajaur Agency. Sources said SFs shelled suspected hideouts of militants in the Inayat Kellay, Bad-e-Samor, Bhai Cheena and Shinkot areas of Khar sub-division and some areas of Mamond subdivision with gunship helicopters, artillery and mortar guns. At least four militants were killed and three others injured in the latest military action, the sources said.

The Swat Private School Management Association Chairman Ahmed Shah said all the private educational institutions would be opened on February 23, but girls would go to schools in veil.

Taliban have formed a new alliance, Shura Ittihad-ul-Mujahideen, in the North and South Waziristan as formal announcement to this effect came. Sources told that the new alliance would comprise the groups led by central chief of banned TTP, Baitullah Mahsud, and the two reportedly pro-government commanders Maulvi Nazir of South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur of North Waziristan. The three, according to sources, met at an undisclosed location and decided to resolve their differences to foil the external forces’ designs for dividing the multiple Taliban groups based in Pakistan. They formed a 13-member Shura (executive council) to run the affairs of the new alliance.

The Taliban said they would decide within days whether to call a permanent cease-fire in Swat after the Government agreed to allow Sharia (Islamic law) in the valley. Muslim Khan, spokesman for Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah, said they would review their current 10-day truce in the Swat valley when it expires. "We declared a 10-day cease-fire just after the agreement was signed and you will see an exemplary peace prevail in the valley once Sharia is enforced… In the next five or six days, our Shura [executive council] is meeting and it will decide about a permanent ceasefire," said Khan. Fazlullah said the cease-fire would be made permanent provided the militants were confident about the Government’s intentions. He was speaking after talks with the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammed, who signed the deal with the Government. Sufi held a meeting with close aides in Mingora to review the situation, his spokesman Ameer Izzat said. Fazlullah indicated that he would give up fighting in Swat but would not surrender. Fazlullah also stated that he would continue his struggle at the international level and the fight against the US till Washington was defeated. Commissioner of the Malakand Division, Syed Muhammad Javed, told the media that the cease-fire would now be permanent. "Yes, both sides will observe a permanent cease-fire," Javed said. Fazlullah also reportedly made the same announcement on the truce in his address.

February 23

The Taliban in Bajaur Agency announced a unilateral cease-fire and secretly signed a peace accord with the Government, pledging to remain peaceful. Following the signing of the accord, in which the Government reportedly announced amnesty for the Taliban, Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, Taliban commander in Bajaur and deputy leader of the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP, announced a unilateral cease-fire through his FM radio. He directed his cadres to stop fighting the Security Forces and help restore peace in Bajaur as an understanding had been reached with the Government. However, the military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said they had heard about the militants’ announcement of a truce but the Government had not yet reciprocated.

Maulana Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned TNSM, announced a 10-point peace plan for Swat in a press conference in Mingora. Sufi asked the Taliban to remove all their check-posts and not to display arms in the Swat valley. He asked the Government to withdraw troops from schools and other buildings and stop all military operations immediately. He also called on the Taliban and Government to release each others prisoners. The TNSM chief asked employees of the District administration to resume their duties, and the Government to reinstate such Frontier Corps, Police and Government officials who had been dismissed during the past few years. He also demanded immediate compensation for the people of Swat, inviting the NWFP Chief Minister to visit the valley to make an announcement in this regard.

Schools reopened in Mingora and other areas of Swat, but girls’ attendance at both the Government and private schools remained thin. The Swat District Coordination Officer Khushhal Khan said arrangements would soon be made to rebuild the schools that had been destroyed.

The military operation in Swat has been stopped and the Pakistan Army fully supports the peace deal as an instrument to find a non-military solution to the problem, the Inter-Services Public Relations Director-General Major General Athar Abbas said while addressing a seminar. "Pakistan Army ... has backed the Swat peace deal to strengthen the hands of the political government," he said, adding that the security of the state was the military’s top priority.

February 24

A Shia trader and three of his sons were shot dead in an apparent sectarian attack in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. Ghulab Shah, a hardware trader of Afghan origin, was returning home with his six sons at about 8pm when four gunmen ambushed his car on the high-security Sariab Road. Shah and three of his sons died instantly, while two of them were injured.

The Taliban in Swat declared an indefinite cease-fire in the valley. The decision was made in a meeting of the Taliban shura (executive council), Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said. Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah announced the decision in a speech that was reportedly cut short when the SFs blocked the transmission of his FM radio channel. Fazlullah asked his men to stop displaying weapons, end their armed patrols and not to attack security convoys or abduct Government officials, according to copies of the speech sent to the media. He urged the Government to restore all officials removed during the unrest in Swat. Fazlullah ordered his commanders to disband their checkpoints, which he said created "unnecessary problems" for residents. The Taliban chief also stopped all non-government organisations (NGOs) from operating in the valley until the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law). "All NGOs should leave Swat because they are creating problems for peace," Fazlullah said in the speech. But he added that emergency medical crews were exempt from the order. Fazlullah called on soldiers deployed in Swat to remain at their bases, vowing to retaliate against any troop increases.

The SFs suspended their operations in Bajaur Agency and agreed to hold fire for four days. "Security forces have decided to observe a four-day ceasefire across Bajaur," Political Agent Safirullah Khan told reporters. He described the decision as a "goodwill gesture" made at the request of tribal elders. A source said tribal leaders wanted to hold talks with Taliban in order to negotiate a permanent peace in the area. "The security forces reserve the right to retaliate if they come under attack," Khan said. The TTP leader Maulvi Faqir Muhammad had declared a unilateral truce in Bajaur late on February 23. He said in a radio broadcast that his men had vacated Inayat Killay, a Taliban stronghold outside Bajaur’s main town of Khar.

The chief of the US FBI has said that the ‘main threat of global terrorism’ is coming from the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. According to a Voice of America programme, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on February 23 that another threat could come from militants recruited on US soil. He said the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008 had raised concern about whether a similar attack could be carried out elsewhere. "This type of an attack reminds us that terrorists with large agendas and little money can use rudimentary weapons to maximise their impact," said Mueller at the Council on Foreign Relations. He said the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan posed the ‘greatest threat’ of terror attacks.

Taliban disbanded checkpoints and stopped carrying weapons in public a day after announcing an indefinite cease-fire in the Swat valley. Taliban commander Mullah Fazlullah ordered his followers to disband checkpoints in a speech on his illegal FM radio station late on February 24 and asked them not to carry weapons in public. "The Taliban have removed their checkpoints in and around Mingora," Irfan Ahmad, a resident of Swat, said. Another Swat resident, Mushtaq Khan, said checkpoints have been removed from Matta, Charbagh and Kabal, all Taliban strongholds. "We adhere to the announcement made by Mullah Fazlullah on Tuesday night… We will completely remove all checkpoints after army troops withdraw from the area," said Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan. Fazlullah announced that the Taliban would not attack army vehicles carrying rations or moving between bases. Khan also said girls could go to schools if they are properly veiled.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan announced full support to the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) if the SFs started an operation against the LI in Khyber Agency. The Bara-based TTP leader Hamza Afridi told reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location that they would support the LI in the agency if the SFs launched an operation against it. He also said the Taliban would not abandon LI chief Mangal Bagh.

The Taliban in Swat valley received PKR 480 million ($6 million) in compensation from the Government after agreeing to a cease-fire with the Security Forces. The amount was paid from a special fund of President Asif Ali Zardari, a senior security official said. "It is compensation for those who were killed during military operations and compensation for the properties destroyed by the security forces", he added. "The amount has been paid through a backchannel," he added.

SFs have vacated all checkpoints in the Swat valley as part of the ongoing efforts to restore peace and stopped checking vehicles forthwith. TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad had asked the troops to demolish all the checkpoints to ensure free movement of the people. He had also asked the Taliban to direct their fighters to stop their activities and display of weapons at public places. However, the sources said militants were still blocking the movement of SFs in Qamber and Takhtaband.

Naval Chief of Staff Admiral Nauman Bashir said he had no proof that Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman alias Kasab - the lone LeT militant arrested after the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008 - used Pakistani waters to reach India. "I do not have any proof, so I cannot confirm that claim," said Nauman while addressing a press conference in Karachi. "The Indian navy is much larger than ours, and if Ajmal Kasab had gone from here, then what were their coastguards doing and why they did not stop the terrorists?" the naval commander was quoted. Nauman declined further comment on the Mumbai attacks.

The Government of India, however, rejected the Pakistan Navy chief's claim. "The dossier handed over to Pakistan was irrefutable and solid on facts," Home Minister P. Chidambaram was quoted as saying at a press conference. The Union Minister of External Affairs, Anand Sharma, also rejected the naval chief's claim, and said Pakistan was engaging in 'multiple speak, duplicity and denial' and had 'created this confusion'.

Two missiles, fired by a US spy plane, killed 12 people and injured three others in the South Waziristan Agency. Sources said two missiles were fired by a drone at around 4:00 pm (PST) that hit a house in Ganra Haibatkhel village of Sararogha sub-division, a stronghold of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. The house was destroyed in the attack, leaving 12 people dead and three injured. The compound had underground bunkers and was in the area controlled by Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud's tribe, an unnamed official said. "It was a Taliban sanctuary," he said. Citing field informants, other intelligence officials told the Associated Press the compound was a training facility. At least four of the dead were foreigners, they said. This was the fourth missile strike by unmanned US aircraft since President Barack Obama came to power.

The SFs claimed to have forced militants out of Bajaur Agency and advanced towards strongholds of the Taliban in the region. "We think that we have secured this agency," said Major General Tariq Khan, the commander of forces fighting in Bajaur. "They have lost. They have lost their cohesion out here," Khan told reporters flown by helicopters from Islamabad.

SFs killed seven militants in an encounter in the Ghurzandi area of Lachi sub-division in Kohat District of NWFP. Sources said SFs cordoned off the Ghurzandi, Hoti Banda and Chashmi Miangan areas in an attempt to arrest the militants, who were allegedly involved in incidents of kidnapping for ransom and murder. The militants allegedly opened fire on the troops, injuring a soldier identified as Irfan Sajjad. In retaliatory action by the SFs, seven militants were killed and five others wounded.

The Taliban network can strike the financial and shipping hub of Karachi, according to a report prepared by the city''s CID Special Branch. The Taliban "could take the city hostage at any point", according to Police in the report submitted to the Sindh Government and provincial police chief. The Taliban, which has already attacked Islamabad and Rawalpindi, has established hideouts in Karachi, the report said. It said Taliban militants have "huge caches" of weapons and ammunition and could strike, possibly in a manner similar to the Mumbai attacks of November 26, 2008. Police said that the Taliban had systematically infiltrated Karachi. The Police report provides details about secret Taliban hideouts and their presence in areas like Sohrab Goth and Quaidabad. Besides living in small motels in these areas, the militants are hiding in the hills of Manghopir and Orangi town and in other low-income areas and slums, the Daily Times quoted the Police report as saying. It also quoted sources as saying that the deputy chief of the banned TTP, Hasan Mahmood, was hiding in Karachi.

The TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Mohammed warned he wanted Islamic courts set up in two weeks. He said he was not happy over the fact that there had been no tangible progress since February 16 when the NWFP Government agreed to implement the Nizam-e-Adl Regulations 2009. "The Government announced enforcement of Sharia [Islamic law] but so far no practical step has been taken and we are not satisfied… I'm not seeing any practical steps for the implementation of the peace agreement, except for ministers visiting Swat and uttering words," Sufi told reporters in Swat's main town Mingora. The cleric said he was also unhappy over a delay in an exchange of prisoners and urged both the Taliban and the Government to release people they were holding by March 10. "If the Government does not appoint Qazis [Islamic judges] by March 15, and the two sides do not release prisoners in their custody, we will set up protest camps," he said. He also said armed patrol by either side would not be allowed after March 1, and anybody who violated the truce would be charged and punished in line with the Sharia.

March 2

Six people were killed and several others, mostly students, sustained injuries in a suicide attack on a madrassa (seminary) in Kili Karbala in the Pishin District. The Jamaat-Ulema-i-Islam (Fazlur Rehman faction JUI-F) provincial chief Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani, the Balochistan Assembly Deputy Speaker Syed Matiullah Agha and provincial ministers belonging to the party were attending a ceremony at the seminary when a 15-year-old boy blew himself up in front of the stage. However, all the JUI-F leadership escaped unhurt. District Police Officer Akbar Raisani confirmed the incident saying that the blast had occurred at a girls’ madrassa in Kili Karbala, where Shirani was scheduled to address the school’s convocation. According to eyewitnesses, two men had come to the seminary for the bombing but one of them escaped immediately after the first explosion.

Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the Marriott blast that took place in Islamabad on September 20, 2008, and threatened to attack the Saudi Airlines’ offices, and important installations in Pakistan. An Interior Ministry source said that the Saudi embassy had received a message through an email in which al Qaeda had threatened to target Saudi Airlines’ offices and other important installations. According to the channel, immediately after al Qaeda’s threat, the federal Government directed the Punjab Government to beef up security.

All major terrorist networks have a safe haven in Pakistan to operate creating a big "problem" to the US war against terror, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said. "I think it''s the safe haven on the Pakistani side of the border, not just for Al-Qaeda but for the Taliban for the Hakani network, for Gulbaddin Hekmatyar and other affiliated groups that are all working together they''re separate groups, but they''re all working together, and I think as long as they have a safe haven to operate there, it’s going to be a problem for us," Gates told the MSNBC news channel in an interview. Gates, who met with Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani last week in Washington, said the Pakistan leadership now knows that what is going on in their tribal region is very dangerous for their country.

March 3

Sri Lankan cricketers narrowly escaped a terrorist attack when terrorists ambushed the bus carrying them to the Gaddafi Stadium for the third day’s play of the second Test. At least seven persons - six policemen escorting the Sri Lankans and the driver of another van in the convoy - were killed and 20 others wounded in the attack near the Liberty roundabout, 500 metres from the stadium. Seven Sri Lankan players were among the wounded. Two of them - Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavithana - were hospitalised for a few hours with bullet injuries. Doctors later reported they were out of danger. The other injured players were skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara, Ajantha Mendis, Thilina Thushara and Suranga Lokumal. All of them escaped with minor injuries. A British coach, Paul Farbrace, and a Pakistani umpire, Ahsan Raza, were also injured in the attack. Police claimed at least 12 terrorists, who appeared to be highly trained and used rocket launchers, hand-grenades and sophisticated automatic guns in the operation lasting about 30 minutes, were involved in the attack. The attackers subsequently escaped from the incident site after commandeering a car and rickshaw. Police found a large quantity of hand-grenades, rocket launchers, suicide jackets, plastic explosives, time devices, Kalashnikov rifles, pistols and walkie-talkies left at different places in a radius of a few furlongs by the attackers. Police also seized three hand-grenades, a time device and a Kalashnikov from the backyard of the house of a retired army officer and several other weapons from near the Alfatah Departmental Store in Makka Colony and other adjacent places. They also seized a car parked near the Liberty Park with a huge-quantity of grenades and Kalashnikovs.

Five Shias were killed in Quetta, capital of Balochistan, when unidentified assailants attacked members of a family in the city - taking the death toll from sectarian attacks in a single week to 12. According to Police, the assailants ambushed a van carrying the Shia family on the eastern bypass of Quetta – killing five people on the spot. The slain civilians were returning to Quetta from the Mach area when they were targeted. "It is a target killing," Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) Wazir Khan Nasar said. Although no group claimed responsibility for the incident, the killings are reported to be part of a series of sectarian attacks that started in Quetta a couple of months ago. The banned Sunni terrorist group, LeJ, has accepted responsibility for most of the recent attacks.

Four unidentified bodies presumed to be of foreign militants were recovered in the Babu Khwar Muslimabad area of Nowshera. The Cantonment Police inspector Shakeel Khan told the media that all of them had been shot dead and the bullet shells were recovered from the spot. However, there was no sign of blood near the place where the bodies were abandoned, he added. Police in the initial investigation maintained that the deceased were killed at least 72 hours before their bodies were retrieved. About the identity of the deceased, the Police said two of them seemed to be Uzbeks or Tajiks while the remaining two were said to be Afghan nationals having long locks and beards. They were said to be 25 to 30-year-old. However, the reason behind their killing was yet to be ascertained.

March 4

The NWFP Government struck a 17-point deal with the banned TNSM in the Swat valley. "A 17-point understanding was reached with a TNSM delegation … music has been banned in Swat and it has been agreed to expel prostitutes and pimps from the district," said a senior official. The Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-led the provincial Government at the talks, while Maulana Safiullah and spokesman Amir Izzat Khan represented the TNSM – with Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed also in attendance. The meeting came a day after suspected Taliban militants killed two army troops and continued taking Government officials hostage, despite having agreed to a cease-fire in the wake of the provincial Government’s February 16 accord on the implementation of Sharia (Islamic law) in Swat.

"Music and vulgar CDs will be banned shops will remain closed during prayer times and the complete implementation of sharia laws in the region will come into effect from the 16th of this month… Vulgarity would be rooted out and profiteers dealt with under the law. An anti-crime campaign will be launched and Quran classes will be started for jail inmates in the region," according to the key points of the understanding. The Malakand Commissioner’s office released to the media the 17-point understanding – which does not say if the Taliban would stop abducting Government officials and attacking Government forces. The Commissioner told the TNSM delegation that he would forward the 17 points to the Chief Secretary in Peshawar for the Government’s approval, said the officials.

The army began vacating former headquarters of Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah in Imamdheri, military sources told. In addition, witnesses said the Taliban had abandoned the Qambar check-post near Mingora on the main highway linking the district with Peshawar.

March 5

Suspected Taliban militants blew an ancient shrine of a 17th century Sufi poet - Rehman Baba - in the Akhund Baba graveyard of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. A letter delivered three days before the attack to the management of the mausoleum had warned against its promotion of ‘shrine culture’. The white-marble shrine was badly damaged when explosives planted along its pillars went off at around 5:10am. There were, however, no casualties.

The Government has accepted the demands of the BLUF in exchange for the recovery of John Solecki, head of the United Nations refugee agency in Quetta. However, no confirmation was made at the official level about the acceptance of the demands, a private TV channel quoted its sources as saying. According to the channel, seven of the 141 missing women had been identified and a high-powered committee would submit a report in a few days. Separately, according to another news channel, the Balochistan Government said in a statement that the list of 1,109 alleged missing persons provided by the BLUF was being ‘intensively’ scrutinised. According to the statement, 45 persons had already been traced, a few of whom were at their houses while a few were in judicial custody for their alleged involvement in criminal cases. The Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani has reportedly announced a top-level committee to investigate the captors’ demands. "We have set up a high-level committee, including high-ranking officials and politicians, to locate the whereabouts of the alleged missing persons listed by the BLUF," the provincial Government said in a statement.

Calling the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore an ‘eerie replica’ of the Mumbai attacks, the United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said Pakistan is facing a serious internal security threat, a private TV channel reported. Speaking at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Clinton said a broad agreement had been reached on the basic elements of a strategic review on the way forward for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Clinton said the US wanted strong relations with the people and the Government of Pakistan and stressed the need for regional approach that included Pakistan and Afghanistan for the resolution of the issue of terrorism on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

The top US diplomat in Kabul warned that Pakistan posed a bigger security challenge to America and the world than Afghanistan. "From where I sit [Pakistan] sure looks like it’s going to be a bigger problem," said Christopher Dell, currently running the US embassy in Kabul. "Pakistan is a bigger place, has a larger population, its nuclear-armed… It has certainly made radical Islam a part of its political life, and it now seems to be a deeply ingrained element of its political culture. It makes things there very hard," he said in an interview. Dell also said there were signs the rate of infiltration of insurgents across the frontier from Pakistan’s Tribal Areas had increased, possibly as a result of cease-fire deals agreed by Taliban and the Pakistani Government.

March 6

The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti said in Peshawar that only those Taliban prisoners that fall in the ‘white category’ will be released as part of the peace deal in Swat. Prisoners in the black and grey categories – who are a serious threat to national security according to police investigation manual – will not be freed, he told. "I have directed the home secretary to look into the cases of those prisoners who are in the white category. We will not free prisoners in black and grey categories," the chief minister said. Maulana Sufi Muhammad, chief of the banned TNSM, had demanded the release of all Taliban prisoners arrested during military operations in Swat.

The abductors of UNHCR official John Solecki, the BLUF, indefinitely extended the deadline set for the Government for the acceptance of their demands. A private TV channel quoted a BLUF spokesman as saying that the deadline for Solecki’s release had been extended for an indefinite period. He said Solecki was in good health and demanded the release of the missing Baloch people ‘without any further delay’.

The LeT rejected media reports that it was involved in an attack on a visiting Sri Lanka cricket squad in Lahore. "These media reports are false ... and baseless," said LeT spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi. "The attack on Sri Lanka’s team was an attack on Pakistan’s sovereignty and Kashmiris could never even think of that," said Ghaznavi. "The attack is the handiwork of Indian agencies to defame Pakistan and bring instability to the country," claimed Ghaznavi.

March 7

Eight persons, including five Policemen, two Frontier Corps personnel, and a civilian, were killed in a remote-controlled car bombing at Mashugagr village in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Some villagers also sustained minor injuries. Muhammad Wali, a villager, said the car was unlocked and the villagers had found the body of an old man in it. "The blast occurred when police officials walked towards the vehicle," he said. Security officials said about 40 kilogrammes of explosives were packed in the vehicle.

Five persons were killed and eight others injured when a shop in the remote Tirah area of Khyber Agency in the FATA was bombed. The sources said that five cadres of the banned Ansarul Islam (AI) outfit were killed. An AI spokesman blamed rival militant outfit, Lashkar-e-Islam, for the bomb blast.

March 8

15 Taliban militants and 14 soldiers were killed during clashes between Taliban and SFs at Aisha Corona and Banglo areas of the Mohmand Agency. Bodies of seven SF personnel were recovered from Aisha Corona. The Taliban had reportedly killed several soldiers after ambushing their convoy in the Banglo area and abducted others. Bodies of some of the abducted troops were recovered from Aisha Corona. The sources said other soldiers were still in Taliban’s custody. Military sources said that around 15 militants were killed and three were arrested during clashes that erupted when Taliban surrounded the house of pro-government tribal elder Malik Noorzada in a bid to kidnap him. Locals said the attack was an apparent reaction to a visit by the Mohmand Agency’s Political Agent and the Mohmand Rifles Commandant to Noorzada’s house on March 2. The TTP Mohmand Agency chief Umer Khalid confirmed the attack on SFs and said that several soldiers were still in the custody of Taliban and put forward three conditions for talks with the troops - exchange of prisoners, end of military check-posts in the agency and compensation for the demolished houses of the Taliban leaders and the tribesmen who supported them.

Taliban militants claimed to have shot down a US drone in the Angoor Adda area of South Waziristan. Militants loyal to Taliban commander Maulvi Mohammad Nazir said the unmanned aircraft had crashed in a jungle after the attack and soldiers took away the wreckage. But the security officials and political authorities disputed the Taliban’s claim, saying that teams dispatched to the area after the claim found no wreckage. Unconfirmed reports also said the drone had gone missing in an area near the Afghan border.

The Taliban agreed to remove all check-posts across the Swat District following the successful completion of talks between the NWFP Government, the banned TNSM and TTP. The first phase of the talks concluded successfully in provincial capital Peshawar with the three parties agreeing to continue talks, a private TV channel reported. Sources said that following the release of 12 imprisoned Taliban militants, the parties concerned had achieved consensus on all matters. On the same day, SFs removed all check-posts from Takhtaband Road in Mingora and opened it to traffic. TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat said both the SFs and the Taliban had removed their check-posts following the successful dialogue.

March 9

Taliban militants shot dead three men, including two brothers, in South Waziristan after filming them confessing to spying for the United States, officials said. "This is the first time in South Waziristan that Taliban have made confession videos. Earlier, they just used to put notes on the bodies of alleged spies," Allahbagh Khan, a local administration official told. The bullet-ridden body of local tribesman Tahir Khan was found dumped in a bazaar in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. "Khan, who was kidnapped 10 days ago, had multiple bullet wounds on his body," a security official told. A DVD found with the body showed Khan confessing to spying and passing on information that led to a series of US missile attacks in the region. A note found on the body said: "All those spying for the US will suffer the same fate," according to the official. Two more bodies of alleged US spies were found an hour later with similar notes and DVDs. One was a brother of Khan and the third man was identified as Shabbir Khan, residents and officials said.

Unidentified men on a motorbike killed two Shias in an apparent sectarian attack in Quetta. The victims were shot in their car on Kirani road, on the outskirts of the Balochistan capital. "Two men from the Shia community were shot dead by unknown gunmen riding a motorbike," a Police official said. No one claimed responsibility for the killings. The attack came a week after five Shias were killed in another drive-by shooting in Quetta.

A review board of the Lahore High Court (LHC) extended the detention of the chief of the JuD (the LeT front), Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, and three other of its top leaders for 60 days while releasing two leaders. The board, comprising Justice Mian Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chauhan and Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi, issued this order after the Home Department produced sufficient evidence against Hafiz Saeed and his associates and sought extension in their detention. The detention of Ameer Hamza, Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed, and Mufti Abdur Rehman Rehmani, has also been extended for 60 days. The board observed that the data produced before the board was sufficient for extending the period of their detention. The board further ordered the Punjab Government to provide subsistence allowance of PKR 25,000 to the families of the detenus while they would be kept at various places already declared sub-jails. In the cases of Qazi Kashif Niaz and Qari Yasin Baloch, the board opined there was no cogent evidence/material produced by the Home Department to justify extension in their detention.

The NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti signed the draft of the proposed Nizam-e-Adl (Sharia) Regulation 2009, and sent it to Governor Owais Ghani to be forwarded to the President for approval, sources in Chief Minister’s Secretariat told. The TNSM has set March 15 as the deadline for the Government to implement Sharia (Islamic law) in Malakand. NWFP Law Minister Arshad Abdullah told a press conference that the provincial Government had given final shape to the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 and President Asif Ali Zardari would sign the document in three days.

The Mamoond tribe and the authorities have signed a 28-point agreement to bring the law and order situation under control in Bajaur Agency. The agreement was signed at a jirga (council of elders) – aimed at re-establishing the writ of the Government in the agency – in agency headquarters Khar, with around 900 tribesmen, elders and clerics in attendance. Addressing the jirga, the head of the Mamoond Peace Commission, Malik Abdul Aziz, said his tribe would continue to co-operate with the Government to restore peace in the area. He said tribesmen had decided to take stern action against anti-social elements and uphold the supremacy of law. Mamond, the largest and most strategically placed tribe in Bajaur, has promised to surrender key figures of the TTP in Bajaur, lay down arms, disband militant groups and stop militant training camps. The entire TTP leadership in Bajaur comes from Mamond tribe and its leader Faqir Mohammed, who was deputy to Baitullah Mehsud, survived drone attacks in the past.

Investigators have not found any concrete evidence so far of involvement of LeT in the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3 and see the evidence of a ‘foreign hand’ behind the incident, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior.

Sri Lanka rejected reports that India might have been involved in the terrorist attack against its national cricket team in Pakistan. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said "From our point of view, there is no Indian involvement… India has helped us in our counter-terrorist efforts. I do not see a need for India to target the Sri Lankan cricket team."

March 10

SFs backed by helicopter gunships killed at least 35 Taliban militants during a two-day operation in Darra Adamkhel in the NWFP, Inter-Services Public Relations sources said. The SFs targeted the militants in Buland, Mirali and Torchena areas. Three SF personnel were reportedly wounded in the operation, the sources said, adding that several Taliban hideouts had been destroyed.

The central nervous system for the next major terrorist attack on the US soil lies in Pakistan, said senior US officials and lawmakers. Two key US officials - Director of the National Intelligence and Director of the Military Intelligence - told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan had allowed Taliban to operate freely from Quetta while the tribal areas had become a "central nervous system" for al Qaeda. US lawmakers and officials also said that the LeT has the ideological commitment to replace al Qaeda as the next major terrorist group in the world. They said the Pakistani establishment and intelligence agencies had taken some measures against the LeT recently but were not co-operating fully with the United States in dealing with this threat. The committee was also told that LeT had supporters among the Pakistanis living in the United States who could abet its efforts to carry out a terrorist attack in North America. "The central nervous system for the planning (of an attack on the US soil) would emanate from Fata," said Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, during a hearing on current and future worldwide threats to the national security of the United States. Earlier, chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee, Senator Carl Levin, said that the Afghan Taliban forces under Mullah Omar operated with impunity from Balochistan, crossing unhampered into southern Afghanistan while al Qaeda was based in FATA from which attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan itself are launched.

Lt-Gen Michael Maples, Director of US Defence Intelligence Agency, noted that while "strategic rivalry" with India drove Pakistan’s defence strategy, al Qaeda was using FATA to recruit and train operatives, plan and prepare regional and transnational attacks, disseminate propaganda and obtain equipment and supplies. General Maples warned that while Pakistan has taken important steps to safeguard its nuclear weapons, "vulnerabilities still exist".

March 11

The NWFP Senior Minister and Awami National Party leader Bashir Ahmad Bilour survived an assassination attempt that left six persons, including two suspected suicide attackers, dead in Namak Mandi in the provincial capital Peshawar.

The NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani signed the draft of Nizam-e-Adl (Sharia) Regulation 2009, for forwarding it to the president for a final approval, said official sources. The sources, however, did not confirm if the draft had been sent to the president. NWFP Law Minister Arshad Abdullah said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 was expected to be implemented in Malakand Division and Kohistan District by March 15, and would have a retrospective effect from February 16, 2009.

An explosion targeted a booster of the Pakistan Television (PTV) in Chilas, headquarters of the Diamer District in Northern Areas. There was no major damage to the installation in the explosion, said Station House Officer Amirullah. He said eight suspects had been taken into custody and investigations were underway.

Political authorities and elders of three tribes of Bajaur Agency signed a 28-point agreement to bring peace in the area. About 1,400 tribal elders of Khar, Salarzai and Atmanzai tribes signed the agreement in a grand jirga (council of elders) in Khar. The tribes also demanded the Government carry out development work in the area after restoration of peace. According to the agreement, all Taliban organisations would stand abolished and all their members would surrender to the tribes and the Government. Militants laying down their weapons would be registered in their respective tribes and the elders would furnish a surety bond for their good behaviour to the Government. It said neither parallel courts would be set up, nor the Government’s writ would be challenged; foreign elements, including Afghan nationals, would not be provided shelter, shops or houses would not be rented out to them; Government officials or SF personnel would not be targeted or abducted; Government installations, including buildings of schools, colleges and hospitals and check-posts would not be attacked. The SFs would have the freedom to move freely in the agency and if attacked, they would retaliate; people would not allow any terrorist to use their soil for sabotage activities; tribesmen would be bound to restrict cross-border movement; infiltration in or interference with the affairs of other countries. Under the agreement, interference in Government affairs would not be allowed; complete security would be provided to all foreign contractors working in the agency; Government or SFs would not tolerate any propaganda against them; no Taliban training camp would be set up and they will not be given any training.

March 12

SFs backed by helicopter gunships killed 18 Taliban militants and injured three others in the Gurgurai, Supri and Mulla Ghani Baba areas of Yakka Ghund sub-division in the Mohmand Agency.

A suspected US missile strike destroyed a Taliban training camp in Kurram Agency, killing at least 15 Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists, as well as injuring another 50, security officials said. No high-value targets were believed to have died, an unnamed official said. Another security official said most of the dead were Afghan Taliban militants. "The training centre was run by local Taliban commander Fazal Saeed and training was underway at the time of the strike," the official added.

Two civilians and a security official were injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a fort in Landi Kotal in the Khyber Agency. Khyber Rifles Commandant Colonel Furqanullah Khan Tarin told that the explosion had damaged the western boundary wall of the Charbagh Fort.

The Swat-based TTP demanded that the Police and paramilitary forces should resume their duties wearing plain clothes and not their uniforms. Sources in the TNSM told that the Taliban’s demand came after the appointment of Qazis to hear cases in accordance with Sharia (Islamic law) in Swat District. The sources said the Taliban had asked TNSM chief Sufi Muhammad to forward their demand to the Government.

29-year old Mohammed Momin Khawaja, the first Canadian tried and found guilty under Canada’s anti-terrorism law, was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison for his role in a foiled plot against British targets. The Ottawa software developer of Pakistani descent had been found to have "knowingly participated" and "knowingly facilitated" a terrorist group’s plan to attack a popular London nightclub, a shopping mall and a gas network. However, he may not have known the specific details of the plot itself, Justice Douglas Rutherford said in his 52-page decision in October 2008. At sentencing, the judge noted Khawaja showed no remorse throughout the trial and had chosen not to speak at his pre-sentencing hearing, while his family seemed oblivious to his actions, said public broadcaster CBC.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani directed the Interior Ministry and Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer to provide foolproof security to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and ensure his safety. The direction came after a meeting between PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and Prime Minister Gilani to discuss threats to Nawaz Sharif’s life. Raja also reportedly handed over an anonymous threatening letter to Gilani.

Intelligence agencies reportedly arrested three people from Kamalia in the Toba Tek Singh District for their alleged involvement in the attack on Sri Lankan cricket team at the Liberty Chowk in Lahore on March 3. A source said agencies’ officials arrested three brothers, Munir Shafi, Naeem Shafi and Shafiq Shafi, from a cloth shop and Munir Sardar and Arif Kathia from two houses. Later, the officials set free Naeem Shafi and Shafiq Shafi near Rajana.

March 13

The number of those killed in a suspected US missile strike in Kurram Agency a day earlier increased to 24. "We have handed over 24 bodies after cleaning and wrapping them in cloth," said Saidur Rehman, an official of the local charity Al-Khidmat Foundation.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead three pro-government tribesmen in the Bajaur Agency. The slain tribesmen had been kidnapped from the Hilalkhel village of Chaharmang sub-division three days earlier. Residents said that the three headless bodies had been dumped in a deserted place. The victims were pro-government tribesmen, who were involved in organising a militia against militants in the area.

March 15

Intelligence officials said that two missiles fired by suspected United States drone planes killed five people at Chota Janikhel village in the Bannu District of NWFP. The officials said the dead included two Arabs and three other people. The missiles struck a house at around 10:30pm.

Dozens of suspected Taliban militants attacked a terminal storing NATO supplies on the Ring Road in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, destroying at least 12 trucks and 20 containers. This is the first major attack on a NATO depot since February 2009. Police sources said several militants started firing at trucks and torching trailers vehicles parked at the terminal. Following an exchange of fire, the militants escaped. There were no casualties.

Police have arrested the alleged owner of a mobile SIM that was used in the March 3 terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. Police arrested the suspect, identified as Arshad Mehmoud, from Sadiqabad.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced the reinstatement of all sacked judges, including Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, after the retirement of Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar on March 21. In a brief address to the nation at 5:50am, the Prime Minister said he, in consultation with President Asif Ali Zardari, had decided the time had come to fulfill "the promises". "I announce that all judges including Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry will be reinstated on March 21," he said, adding that a notification to this effect would be issued later in the day. Gilani also said it was not possible to reinstate Chaudhry while Dogar was still in office as the Chief Justice. The Prime Minister also announced that the Government would file a review petition in Supreme Court against the decision of a three-member bench to disqualify former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif. Gilani ordered the provincial Governments to immediately lift Section 144 and to release all political workers arrested in connection with the ‘long march’. In response, Nawaz Sharif has called off the ‘long march’ to Islamabad.

March 16

15 people were killed and 25 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near a busy bus stand at Pirwadhai in Rawalpindi. Sources quoting investigators said the original target of the bomber could have been the participants of the ‘long march’, of the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif which was scheduled to pass through the area. Regional Police Officer Nasir Durrani, however, told the media that it would be premature to decide whether the bomber’s original target was the ‘long march’. "The suicide bomber blew himself up on a motorbike outside a restaurant, which was set up close to the cab stand," said Durrani.

Suspected Taliban militants torched 30 vehicles in an attack in Peshawar on a terminal for trucks carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Truck drivers at the Al-Faisal Terminal said over 50 armed men entered the compound after breaking the boundary wall firing rockets and Kalashnikovs. The militants remained in the terminal for about an hour, sprinkled trucks with oil and later set them ablaze. There were reports the attackers escaped towards Bara. This was the second such attack in two days. 20 vehicles had been burnt in an attack on a terminal in the Hazarkhwani area on March 15.

The abductors of UNHCR official John Solecki threatened to kill him in 48 hours if the Government did not free more than 1,100 Baloch prisoners allegedly in custody. Solecki, head of the UNHCR in Balochistan, was abducted at gunpoint from provincial capital Quetta on February 2. His driver was killed during the abduction. A spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation United Front called Online news agency in Quetta, saying the UN had to play its role in fulfilling the group’s demands within 48 hours.

March 17

Four militants were killed when SFs targeted the suspected hideouts of militants with gunship helicopters in different areas of the Mohmand Agency in FATA. Reports from the agency said that four militants were killed as gunship helicopters targeted positions of militants in the Had Kor area of Ambar sub-division and Dwezai area of Pandyalai sub-division. Three vehicles were also destroyed in the attack, said an official source. However, the Mohmand-based Taliban spokesman Ikramullah rejected the troops’ claim and said gunship helicopters shelled their positions in different areas but that caused no loss of life or damage to property.

March 18

Four Policemen and a Malakand University security guard were killed and three others were injured in a gunfight with militants on the premises of the campus. The Taliban later ‘arrested’ 14 militants involved in the incident in a search operation.

The NWFP Government directed judges of subordinate judiciary of the Peshawar High Court in Swat not to attend courts and restrict themselves to their houses. The order came after a warning from the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad to the judges of Swat not to attend their courts.

Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said that the February 2009 attacks on Government buildings in Kabul were planned and directed from Pakistan, saying seven Afghans had been arrested. The attackers were in telephone contact with a Pakistan-based ringleader during the simultaneous attacks on the justice ministry, prisons directorate and education ministry, agency spokesman Saeed Ansary told. The February 11 attacks, claimed by Taliban, killed 26 Afghans. Eight of the attackers were killed, three by their suicide bombs. "Seven terrorists were arrested and one was killed during the arrest operation," Ansary said, without giving any further details about the raid. The alleged ringleader, whom Ansary identified only as Harris, was based in the Waziristan tribal area on the Afghan border and was still at large there, the official said. Some of the suspects told authorities they had received military training in Waziristan, he said. "I met Harris in Waziristan and received training in using weapons," one alleged suspect said in a video recording handed to the media.

President Barack Obama and his top aides are reportedly considering expanding covert operations against the Taliban leaders in Pakistan to the Balochistan province. Two reports sent to the White House call for broadening the target area to include the region in and around Quetta, citing unnamed senior administration officials.

The Taliban threatened to kill a Canadian journalist in their custody if their demands were not met by March 30. The journalist, Khadeja Abdul Qahaar, went missing in the Jani Khel area of Bannu Frontier Region in November 2008. In a video sent to the Miranshah Press Club, Khadeja said she was seriously ill and appealed to the Canadian and Pakistani governments, and human rights and journalists’ organisations to help in her release.

March 19

The SFs in Landikotal sub-division of Khyber Agency clashed with the Taliban militants after they attacked an army camp using short-range missiles and mortars. 15 people were reportedly killed in the missile attack. The assailants targeted the military facility near the Landikotal bazaar from their hideouts in the mountains. One of the rockets missed the target and hit a warehouse close to the bazaar, killing 15 men who used to work at the warehouse and had also been using it as a makeshift residence. Following the attack, the SFs retaliated hitting the militants’ positions in the nearby mountains. A source said a madrassa (seminary) adjacent to the army camp was also hit in the missile attack.

The Darra Adamkhel-based Taliban militants, affiliated with the Baitullah Mehsud-led banned TTP, agreed to a cease-fire in Darra Adamkhel and Frontier Region Kohat till March 30. Sources said the elders of five major tribes of Darra Adamkhel, led by Noor Zaman Afridi, held a meeting with the militants’ chief, Tariq Afridi, in the Orakzai Agency in FATA and asked him to help restore peace in the region. Talking to a private FM radio channel in Darra Adamkhel, TTP Darra Adamkhel chief Tariq Afridi pledged to co-operate with the Government in maintaining peace in the area. "We assure the government and the people that even a single shot will not be fired in Darra, Kohat and Peshawar," he said.

March 20

For the first time since 9/11, Pakistan has been officially mentioned along side Afghanistan as the launch site of the attack on the twin towers. "The reason that we're in Afghanistan is precisely because 9/11 was launched from the borderlands of Afghanistan and Pakistan," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband while answering a question from BBC Radio 4 presenter John Humphrys for the ‘Today’ programme on March 20. Talking on-line from Brussels, Miliband said that what was significant about American review on Afghanistan was that it looked for the first time at the balance between Afghanistan and Pakistan "and is determined to realign America's relationship with Pakistan".

March 22

The TTP ordered all NGOs to immediately leave Swat. In an interview with IRIN, the TTP spokesman Muslim Khan said, "They come and tell us how to make lavatories in mosques and houses. I’m sure we can do it ourselves. There is no need for foreigners to tell us this... NGO is another name for ‘vulgarity and obscenity’." He also said NGOs hired women who worked with men, in the field and in offices. "That is totally unIslamic and unacceptable," he declared. When asked why the TTP was against the polio vaccination, Khan said, "The TTP is against polio vaccination because it causes infertility." "I’m 45 and have never had one drop of the vaccine and I am still alive," he said, adding that another reason the TTP was against polio vaccination was that the campaign was run by NGOs and the vaccine was imported.

Stating that the core of al Qaeda has shifted from Afghanistan to Pakistan, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Britain was about to take the war against terror "to a new level". Writing in The Observer, Brown said: "We know that there is an al Qaida core in northern Pakistan trying to organise attacks in Britain. We know also that there are a number of networks here… Al-Qaida terrorists remain intent on inflicting mass casualties without warning, including suicide bombings. They are motivated by a violent extremist ideology based on a false reading of religion and exploit modern travel and communications to spread through loose and dangerous global networks." Al Qaeda is still active in Afghanistan, but the threat has crossed the border, he said, adding: "Over two thirds of the plots threatening the UK are linked to Pakistan."

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of the headquarters of the Special Branch (SB), an intelligence agency of the Federal Capital Police, in Sitara Market in Islamabad, killing himself and a Policeman. Two Police officials were wounded in the attack. Police Constable Faisal Khan, deployed at the main gate of the headquarters, reportedly got hold of the suicide bomber when he was advancing towards the barracks. The bomber detonated the bomb, killing both of them. "The bomber wanted to hit the residential rooms of the SB personnel," an unnamed officer said. Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said the attack was carried out by one of the suicide bombers who entered the national capital just before the 'long march' earlier this month. "We had very authentic information that 15 to 20 Uzbek suicide bombers were sent [to Islamabad] by Baitullah Mehsud following a meeting of TTP," he told the media.

The Pakistani state could collapse within six months if immediate steps are not taken to remedy the situation, warned a top adviser to the US Central Command. David Kilcullen, who advises CENTCOM commander General David H. Petraeus on the war on terror, urged US policymakers to focus their attention on Pakistan as a failure there could have devastating consequences for the entire international community. In an interview with The Washington Post (Sunday Edition), Kilcullen warned that if Pakistan went out of control, it would 'dwarf' all the crises in the world today. "Pakistan hands down. No doubt," he said when asked to name the central front in the war against terror. Asked to explain why he thought Pakistan was so important, Kilcullen said: "Pakistan has 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the US Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn't control." He claimed that the Pakistani military and Police and intelligence service did not follow the civilian Government; they were essentially a rogue state within a state. "Were now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just exacerbates all these problems," he said. "The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover - that would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today."

Pakistan has informed the British Government about more than 20 Britons believed to have spent time with radical militant groups and then returned to the UK. A Sky TV report said the tracked men may have trained with extremist outfits. A dossier is likely to be handed over to British anti-terrorist teams 'soon'. The suspects - aged between 17 and 23 - have created "sufficient suspicion" for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to believe they pose a 'potential danger' to Britain. At least four are thought to have been fighting in Afghanistan, and intelligence officials say they have heard 'English accents' while listening to satellite and mobile phone chatter between the UK and the Tribal Areas.

The TNSM Maulana chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad threatened to halt his efforts for the restoration of peace if the Government did not immediately nullify all un-Islamic laws in the Malakand Division and empower Qazi courts to hear all cases. He also accused the Government of not entrusting Qazi courts with authority to hear all cases.

The Taliban warned the Government to stop expanding its mobile telephone network in Waziristan, claiming it would be used to spy on them. They circulated a pamphlet in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, telling authorities to stop the network expansion and ordering vendors to stop selling SIM cards, residents and officials said. "A Jewish, Zionist-backed company is setting up the mobile phone network in Waziristan, which would be used to spy on Taliban activities and for drone attacks," said the pamphlet.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued a list of members of banned outfits and ordered all banks to scrutinise the list before opening accounts or transferring money. An unnamed bank official said the purpose of the list was to stop the banned outfits from operating their accounts and transferring money. The SBP spokesman Syed Waseemuddin said Pakistan was bound to follow the instructions of the United Nations, which had banned several religious outfits for their alleged involvement in terrorism. He said the list, provided by the UN, was regularly updated.

The Australian Government on March 16 re-listed six groups as terrorist organisations under the Criminal Code, following advice from Australia's security agencies. The re-listing ensures that it remains an offence to associate with, train with, provide training for, receive funds from, make funds available to, direct or recruit for these organisations. The outfits that have been re-listed are: Ansar al Islam (formerly Ansar al-Sunna); Asbat al Ansar; Islamic Army of Aden; Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan; JeM; and LeJ.

Seven militants, believed to be Arab nationals, were killed and three others injured when two vehicles they were traveling in, came under attack from the US drones near Makeen area of South Waziristan Agency (SWA). Sources close to the militants in the area told by telephone that the two vehicles had just left the Makeen bazaar to drop the men at their homes in Malik Shahi village of the SWA when they came under attack from the CIA-operated drone. Makeen town is on the border with Razmak sub-division of the North Waziristan Agency. The area is in control of tribal militants affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the banned TTP. According to militant sources, the victims were junior-level Arab fighters and there was no prominent figure among them.

The United States offered up to $11 million in rewards to find and capture three al Qaeda terrorists, including TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud. The US announced a $5 million bounty for the location or arrest of Mehsud. The other two terrorists named in the list were Sirajuddin Haqqani and Abu Yahya Al-Libi.

12 persons, including a woman, were killed and 22 others sustained injuries when a teenage suicide bomber blew himself up outside a crowded restaurant in the Jandola bazaar of Tank District in NWFP. A pro-government group of Bhittani tribesmen, led by Haji Turkistan, is believed to have been the target of the suicide attacker. Eyewitnesses told from Jandola - the gateway to South Waziristan - that a young boy blew himself up outside the crowded restaurant in the bazaar. The bazaar is located in front of heavily guarded British-era fort, currently inhabited by the Frontier Corps and the Army. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. "The TTP claims responsibility for the suicide attack in Jandola," spokesman Maulvi Omar said in a telephone call from an unknown place to reporters in Bajaur. He called the suicide attack a revenge for the clashes in 2008. "Turkistan Bitani's fighters killed 35 of our people last year, and we killed his people today in the suicide attack," Omar added.

Three Sunnis were killed in an apparent sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan. Motorcycle-borne gunmen opened indiscriminate gunfire on a medical store, killing its owner and two relatives. Three other men were injured, an unnamed Police official said, adding that the victims were from the Sunni community. "The killings were linked to sectarian violence," he added.

President Asif Ali Zardari has directed the Balochistan Government to form a parliamentary committee to hold talks with the disgruntled elements in the province. Presiding over a briefing on law and order in the province, he stressed the need for expediting the reconciliation process so that the disgruntled people could be brought into the mainstream and play a proactive role in the province's development and progress. Zardari assured the meeting that the federal Government would ensure the provision of funds for strengthening and capacity-building of the law enforcement agencies of the province. He assured Balochistan that its share in the revenue generated through the exploitation of natural resources would be increased and ordered the formation of a federal parliamentary committee to look into the matter and submit recommendations.

83 persons, including 16 Security Force personnel, were killed and over 100 injured in a suicide attack on a mosque at Peshawar-Torkham Highway in the Jamrud sub-division of Khyber Agency in FATA during the Friday congregation. The huge explosion reduced the single-storey roadside mosque to rubble. Witnesses said they heard a huge explosion just as the Imam (prayer leader) concluded his Friday sermon and the people stood up for the Friday prayer. The dead included the prayer leader, his brother, four personnel of the Frontier Corps and 12 Khassadars (tribal police). The others were tribesmen belonging to the nearby villages, Pakistani and Afghan civilians traveling between Peshawar and Torkham, and drivers and conductors of trucks carrying goods to neighbouring Afghanistan. While the Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat has confirmed that it was a suicide attack, the Associated Press reported that a Government official has accused the Taliban of carrying out the bombing in revenge for a recent offensive aimed in part at protecting the major supply route for NATO and US troops in Afghanistan that passes in front of the mosque.

Germany is home to several hundred "potentially dangerous Islamists", including a hard core of around 100 people classed as dangerous, a senior Interior Ministry official said. Between 60 and 80 "jihadists" out of some 140 have returned to Germany, who had undergone training in camps in the Tribal Areas on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, State Secretary August Hanning said.

There are "indications" that elements of Pakistan's intelligence service are supporting al Qaeda and the Taliban, the United States top military officer said. "There are certainly indications that's the case," US Joints Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen told CNN when asked if elements of Pakistan's intelligence agency were backing al Qaeda and its Taliban allies. "Fundamentally that's one of the things that has to change," Mullen said.

President Asif Ali Zardari announced a PKR 46.6 billion development package for Balochistan. Out of this sum, four water storage reservoirs would be constructed at a cost of PKR 36 billion, small delay-action dams at a cost of PKR 2.5 billion, PKR 3 billion will be spent on projects in Quetta and PKR 5 billion on transmission lines. The President said in provincial capital Quetta he had recommended amendments to the Constitution for an amicable resolution of the Balochistan issue. "Evolving a package of amendments to the Constitution to resolve the Balochistan issue is the way forward," he stated. Zardari said he could announce a general amnesty in Balochistan but it could not bear the desired results because such moves made in the past several time had not been successful. "I have asked the governor and the chief minister to form a provincial parliamentary committee, which may work with the federal parliamentary committee for resolution of the problems of the province," he said.

SFs backed by helicopter gun ships killed 26 Taliban militants in the Mohmand Agency of FATA. An official statement issued by the Frontier Corps, NWFP headquarters, said the SFs pounded Taliban hideouts during a search operation in the Saapri area of Yakaghund tehsil (revenue division), killing 26 Taliban, adding that the forces had secured the area around Saapri. However, local sources said 18 Taliban militants were killed in the operation.

Three Police officials, including the District Police Officer (DPO) of Lower Dir, a former acting District Nazim and his nephew, were killed in clashes with suspected militants in Shah Bandai and Lajbok areas of the Lower Dir District. DPO Khurshid Khan, hailing from Swat Valley, was leading a Police team to fight the militants who had earlier kidnapped a bank manager and killed former acting district Nazim Alamzeb Khan. In a gunfight at Shah Bandai area, the militants killed the DPO and his two guards, Muhammad Islam and Muhammad Ajmeer, while his driver sustained injuries.

The US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to cut contacts with extremists in Afghanistan who were "an existential threat" to Pakistan, Daily Times reported. The ISI has had links with extremists "for a long time, as a hedge against what might happen in Afghanistan if we were to walk away," Gates said on "Fox News Sunday". "What we need to do is try and help the Pakistanis understand these groups are now an existential threat to them and we will be there as a steadfast ally for Pakistan," Gates said. "

Eight Police recruits and a civilian were killed when a group of 10 terrorists attacked the Police Training Centre in Manawan near Lahore with guns and grenades. SFs regained control of the facility in an operation that lasted for more than eight hours. About 93 cadets and civilians were injured. One of the attackers was arrested, another was able to flee after being hit by a bullet and three blew themselves up to avoid arrest, Punjab Police Inspector General Khawaja Khalid Farooq said. He believed the other attackers might have fled unhurt in the densely populated neighbourhood. There were about 1,000 Police personnel in the facility at the time of the attack. A Taliban operative who identified himself as Omar Farooq told by telephone that a little-known group called Fidayeen al-Islam was behind the attack and that he was speaking on their behalf. "As long as the Pakistani troops do not leave Tribal Areas, these attacks will continue," he said. Interior Adviser Rehman Malik told journalists that the terrorist attack was planned in South Waziristan. The arrested attacker belonged to the Paktika province of Afghanistan, Malik said, and preliminary interrogation revealed he is linked to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

Seven persons, including five Army soldiers, were killed and nine others sustained injuries when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a military convoy near a filling station on the Bannu-Miranshah Road. The dead also included an Assistant Engineer of Radio Pakistan Razmak station, Basharat Afridi, and a lady travelling in a passenger coach. However, military spokesman and ISPR Director-General Major General Athar Abbas said the explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device planted in a roadside car.

Operation Daraghlam (Arriving)-II was launched in Khyber Agency, the Khyber Agency Political Agent Tariq Hayat Khan said. During a news briefing, Khan said orders to shoot the Taliban militants on sight had been issued. He announced that the victims of the suicide attack at a mosque on the Peshawar-Torkham Highway in the Jamrud Sub-division on March 27 would each be given PKR 300,000. Khan said a ban had been imposed on Taliban from patrolling the area, adding that they could be behind the suicide attack.

Three minors and two women were among the 12 people who died in the first-ever US drone attack in Orakzai Agency of FATA. Sources said that an unmanned CIA-operated spy plane fired two Hellfire missiles on the two-storey house of a militant commander Maulvi Gul Nazeer alias Gul Mulla, in Khadeezai village, about 35 kilometers northwest of Ghiljo, Tehsil (revenue division) headquarters of the Orakzai Agency. They said the drone first fired one missile and fired another after an interval. The attack was the first of its kind in Orakzai Agency, the only tribal region out of the total seven regions of the FATA, which does not share its border with Afghanistan. Reports said the dead included four Arabs, one of them known as Kaka, reportedly a senior al Qaeda operative. The victims included two women and three children, including the wife of Gul Nazeer, his daughter-in-law, his two sons and a nephew. The children were identified as Abdullah, Abdul Latif and Mohammad Shoaib. Maulvi Gul Nazeer survived the attack. The sources said an important meeting of senior militant commanders of Baitullah Mehsud-led banned TTP was scheduled to be held at the house of Maulvi Gul Nazeer.

Three soldiers were killed and four others sustained injuries when their vehicle hit a bomb in the Safi area of Mohmand Agency. The soldiers were reportedly going to the Frontier Corps' base in Momad Gutt from Ghalanai.

Militants ambushed a Police mobile van on the Dir-Kohistan Road in Upper Dir District, killing five Police officials, including a Station House Officer and an Assistant Sub-inspector, and injuring two others. Area residents and officials said the militants fired two rockets at the van in Jitkot village in the jurisdiction of Sheringal Police station, setting the vehicle on fire. After the rocket attack, the militants, whose strength could not be ascertained, opened fire on the van. The rocket and rifle attack killed five Police officials, including two senior officers.

More than 70 Taliban militants attacked the famous Gojaro Kalay emerald mine in Shangla District and took control of the mining operations. The mine had been leased to American firm Luxury International, which had been paying Pakistan PKR 40 million a year. The company had left recently because of the security situation. The Taliban took positions around the mine after the security guards fled. They announced to take control of mining operations and offered the locals to work with them and share the profits.

SFs released 10 more Taliban militants. Sources said SFs, under the peace pact signed between the NWFP Government and the banned TNSM, freed 10 more militants. Those released were identified as Maulana Abdul Shakoor, Rohul Amin and his namesake, Amjad, Aftabuddin, Muhammad Sahib, Khan Nawab, Zakria, Fazal Akbar and Gul Akbar. The Government has released a total of 44 Taliban militants so far.

US President Barack Obama said that al Qaeda was planning to attack the US mainland from Pakistani soil and added that the US would chase and defeat the terror organisation wherever it was present in the world. Addressing a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama said the US policy was clear for both Pakistan and Afghanistan, while Afghanistan would not be allowed to become a safe haven for a -Qaeda.

The US Senate voted on April 1 to boost aid to Pakistan by $4 billion next year. As the US lawmakers continued work on a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint for the upcoming fiscal year, Senator John Kerry, a Democrat, won adoption of a $4 billion increase next year in aid to Pakistan. Earlier, the Associated Press had reported that the Obama administration plans to seek as much as $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan's military and is considering sending 10,000 more troops to battle the Taliban in Afghanistan.

A would-be suicide bomber shot himself dead before hitting his target i.e. the funeral prayers for slain Police official Fateh Rehman in the Haryan Kot area of Dargai sub-division in NWFP. Five Police personnel, including Station House Officer Fateh Rehman, were killed in a rocket and rifle attack on a Police mobile van by militants near Jitkot village in Upper Dir District on April 1. Sources said the bomber abandoned a bag full of explosives and his suicide vest and hurled two hand-grenades at the people before fleeing. However, the hand-grenades did not explode and he shot himself on the spot with a pistol. The villagers found a national identity card with the body identifying him as Irshadul Haq, son of Niaz Muhammad, of Targhao area in Bajaur Agency.

A would-be suicide bomber was killed when he tried to target the Pakistan People's Party-Sherpao (PPP-S) NWFP President Sikandar Hayat Khan Sherpao in Charsadda District. Sherpao, a member of the NWFP provincial assembly and a son of the former NWFP Chief Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, was addressing a public gathering in the Mandani area of Charsadda, at the time.

Dozens of armed Taliban militants stormed a NATO supplies container terminal in Peshawar, the NWFP capital, and torched nine vehicles and several offices. Police and locals said the terminal, located on the Ring Road in Pishtakhara Police station precincts, was attacked early in the morning, adding that the Taliban and Police exchanged heavy fire, but no casualties were reported. Police officials said there were more than 100 militants who participated in the raid.

President Asif Ali Zardari has strongly condemned the flogging of a 17-year-old girl in public in Swat and ordered an inquiry into the matter. Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said Zardari had sought a report from the NWFP Government and the local administration and called for arresting those responsible. The two-minute video reportedly shows the girl, wearing a veil, face down on the ground with two men holding her arms and feet and a third man in a black turban with a long beard whipping her. The incident occurred in the Kala Killay area of Kabal sub-division. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan acknowledged that his group was responsible for the flogging in public, "because no indoor arrangement for Islamic punishment could be made, as we are at war with the government". The provincial Government spokesman Mian Iftikhar said the flogging took place on January 3, much before the peace deal with the Taliban. "We believe there is a conspiracy to sabotage the peace process by airing a video recorded before the deal," he claimed. Muslim Khan, however, said, "this incident took place nine months ago." Muslim Khan also said the Taliban had handed out a 'lenient' punishment to the girl - suggesting she would have been stoned to death had a 'serious view' of the 'crime' been taken. Samar Minallah - who works for a Pakistani human rights organisation - distributed the video given to her by people in Swat to the Western media. "The entire village knows she is innocent," Samar told. She told The Guardian that the flogging had taken place in the last 10 days.

Eight Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel were killed, and seven others injured, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at an FC check post on the Margala Road in national capital Islamabad. The blast, which took place at 7:35pm, was followed by an exchange of fire between FC personnel and unidentified accomplices of the suicide attacker.

Seven civilians, including two schoolchildren, and a soldier were killed when a suicide attacker blew up his explosives-laden vehicle after being intercepted near a security check post and an approaching military convoy at Miranshah in the North Waziristan Agency of FATA. "Five private cars were also damaged in the suicide attack. Security forces opened fire in all directions, pre-empting a possible follow-up attack by the insurgents," said a doctor at the nearby state-run hospital. 12 schoolchildren and six soldiers were among 39 persons injured in the suicide attack.

A suspected US drone fired two missiles on an alleged Taliban hideout in the North Waziristan Agency of FATA, killing 13 people. Unnamed security officials told that the dead and injured included local and foreign Taliban militants. The officials said the family of the man who owned the attacked house was also killed.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of an Imambargah (Shia place of worship) at Chakwal in Punjab province, killing 24 people, including three children, and injuring 140 others, at a religious gathering. The target was the gathering of about 800 people, who were attending a Majlis-e-Aza (a gathering to mourn Imam Hussain) at an Imambargah in Muhallah Sarpak. The Majlis ended at 12:15 pm and the people were preparing to leave the Imambargah when a 15-year old boy, who looked to be an Afghan, stormed into the crowd and blew himself up after private security guards tried to stop him. The Inspector General of Police Shaukat Javed confirmed that the suicide attacker was a single person and said the incident was the continuity of the recent wave of terrorist attacks. He also said the suicide bomber appeared to be a 15-year-old boy whose legs and head, with damage to the face, had been found at the blast site.

Troops backed by helicopter gunships and jets killed at least 18 Taliban militants in the Mohmand Agency of FATA. "At least 18 Taliban were killed and 20 others wounded in a full-fledged military operation in Mohmand," said an unnamed security official.

Six Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were killed in a remote-controlled bomb attack targeting a Security Forces convoy in the Sohbatpur area of Quetta, capital of Balochistan. According to a private TV channel, a man who claimed to be a spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army phoned various media organisations and claimed responsibility for the attack.

Chand Bibi, the young girl who was shown being flogged by the Swat Taliban in a videotape aired on television channels, gave a statement to a Qazi (Islamic judge), denying the incident. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the NWFP Information Minister, told that she made the statement to Mohammad Riaz, the judge of the Qazi Court for Matta Tehsil (revenue division), and the Commissioner of Malakand Division, Syed Mohammad Javed, both of whom visited her village, Kala Killay, in Kabal sub-division. Quoting the Commissioner, Mian Iftikhar said Chand Bibi made it clear that she was indeed married to Adalat Khan and everyone in the village knew about it. She refuted the reports that both of them were flogged by the Taliban as punishment for maintaining illicit relations and then forcibly married. According to the information minister, the Commissioner and the Judge had visited Kala Killay to record the statements of the couple on the directive of the NWFP Chief Secretary. The Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police (NWFP) had been directed by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to appear before his court and also produce the girl who was flogged. The Chief Justice had taken suo moto notice of the case after the two-minute videotape was shown on TV channels.

After two months of captivity, the BLUF released the UNHCR Quetta head John Solecki in Khadkocha area of Mastung District. The BLUF spokesman said Solecki was released on humanitarian grounds. The Mastung District administration confirmed later in the night that they had received John Solecki and he left Mastung for provincial capital Quetta with high security. The BLUF spokesman telephoned a news agency office claiming that John Solecki was released some 50 kilometers away from Quetta. The Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, confirmed the release of Solecki. John Solecki had been abducted on February 2, 2009 while he was on his way to office in the Chaman housing scheme. His driver was killed in the kidnapping incident.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, has said that those involved in the suicide bombings are Pakistanis and that they are playing with the lives of innocent people for the sake of a few pennies. Talking to the media after the suicide attack at Chakwal, he said that "the price of a suicide bomber is from Rs 0.5 million to Rs 1.5 million while the family of the bomber gets Rs 0.5 million". He further said that Islamabad and Lahore were the worst affected cities due to the recent series of terrorist incidents.

The chief of the banned JuD (the Lashkar-e-Toiba [LeT front], Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, and its three other leaders have challenged their detention before the Lahore High Court (LHC). A petition, filed under Article 199(1)(b)(i) of the Constitution, said the petitioners in custody within the territorial jurisdiction of the court be brought before it, so that the court could see on its own that the detainees were kept under detention unlawfully. The other leaders of the banned outfit who challenged their detention included Col (retd) Nazeer Ahmad, Mufti Abdul Rehman and Ameer Hamza. The petitioner's counsel, A. K. Dogar, submitted that Hafiz Saeed had earlier been detained by the Government of Pervez Musharraf, but was released by the LHC, observing that there was no allegation on record against the petitioner or his organisation. The counsel said the LHC had also observed that the organisation had never been involved in any terrorist activity in Pakistan and no FIR had ever been registered against it or any of the persons under arrest. He added that there was no finding of any blood-shed, terrorism or destruction of property anywhere in the country. He said the JuD was an independent organisation which had no connection with the LeT.

The Taliban on April 5 vowed that they would carry out two suicide attacks per week in Pakistan. Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's deputy Hakimullah told Associated Press that the Taliban had carried out the April 4 suicide attack against a paramilitary camp in Islamabad and vowed more assaults unless the US shelved drone attacks in the FATA. He also said Pakistani troops should withdraw from parts of the northwest. "The Islamabad attack was in retaliation for a drone attack in Orakzai," said Hakimullah.

April 06

The TTP in Bajaur Agency declared amnesty for all anti-Taliban tribal elders and appealed to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in refugee camps to return to the tribal region. The TTP also said political parties were creating hurdles in the return of IDPs. In a telephonic conversation with reporters, the TTP central spokesman Maulvi Umer said the Taliban remained committed to a cease-fire they had declared in February 2009 to improve law and order in the agency. Umer said some political parties were inciting the IDPs to demand enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in Bajaur after Swat and were using them for vested interests.

The top leadership of the Taliban is hiding in Balochistan province, Admiral Mike Mullen, the US Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said. He said this while talking informally, along with Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, to a select group of invitees at US Ambassador Anne Patterson’s house in the US embassy in Islamabad. Asked if the US was winning or losing the war in Afghanistan, Admiral Mullen said that since the US was not winning, it could be said that it was losing it. Admiral Mullen also said that the US was targeting Baitullah Mehsud now because he had established strategic links with al Qaeda in the past year or so and was facilitating al Qaeda’s attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

April 07

21 people, including 16 Taliban militants, were killed in an overnight clash when local volunteers and Police personnel tried to enter the Gokand Valley to flush out militants who had infiltrated into Buner area on April 4 from the neighbouring Swat District. Three policemen and two Lashkar (militia) volunteers were among the dead. When the combined force attempted to enter the area via Rajagaly Kandow from the Pir Baba side and dislodge the militants, Taliban militants took position and reportedly refused to go back. Sources said that the militants had sent 16 bodies and taken 13 of their wounded colleagues to Swat via Kalil Kandow.

Expressing satisfaction over the truce in the Malakand Division, the NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the Government’s writ had been restored in about 70 per cent of Swat area after the February 16 peace deal. "This is a suitable recipe for bringing peace and we shall apply it wherever it is needed once it proves successful in Malakand Division," Mian Iftikhar told a press conference in Peshawar. Briefing journalists after the 10th meeting of the provincial cabinet, the minister said militants had agreed to lay down arms after the enforcement of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in Malakand. The minister, however, admitted that situation in parts of Swat was not ideal, but there was no reason to call it disappointing. He claimed that schools and colleges had been reopened, businesses had been resumed and the people were happy.

The top leadership of Afghan Taliban is hiding in Pakistan and controlling the covert war against US-led forces in Afghanistan, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said. "The Taliban leadership is in Pakistan and the Taliban militants are fighting in Afghanistan," said Holbrooke, accompanied by US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. Talking to reporters in Islamabad, he said the US knew from various sources that the Taliban shura (executive council) was hiding in Balochistan and that had serious implications for the new US strategy for the region. He also said the issue had been discussed with the Pakistani leadership. Further, Admiral Mullen said Baitullah Mehsud was a direct threat to the US and his men were crossing into Afghanistan to fight against the NATO and ISAF forces.

April 08

Four suspected militants were killed and five others injured in a drone attack in the Gangikhel village of South Waziristan Agency (SWA). The village is located 10 kilometers south of Wana, headquarters of the SWA, locals said. An unnamed senior official said the drone fired two missiles at a vehicle parked by the Taliban in the village graveyard. The official also said the Taliban had fitted heavy weapons on the vehicle to target the CIA-operated spy plane which, he said, was seen hovering over Wana and the adjoining villages at an extremely low altitude. Militant sources confirmed the killing of their four colleagues in the attack. They said three among the slain militants belonged to the Punjab and one was affiliated to a group of pro-government militant commander Maulvi Nazeer.

12 persons, including 10 Pakistanis, were arrested on suspicion of having links with al Qaeda in a series of raids in northwest England, the Police said. Reports said those arrested included two students who were surrounded by armed Police at John Moores University in Liverpool. Ten of the men were reportedly from Pakistan and in Britain on student visas.

Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Nazeer Ahmed said in an interview with al Qaeda’s media arm, Al-Sahab, that the Taliban would soon capture Islamabad. Pakistani Taliban factions had united and would take their war to the capital, he said. "The day is not far when Islamabad will be in the hands of the Mujahideen," he declared. He accused the Pakistan Army of sending spies to facilitate US drone strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban, and said Pakistani authorities were misleading the public by saying it was the United States carrying out the attacks. "All these attacks that have happened and are still happening are the work of Pakistan," he said, according to a transcript of the interview posted on Al-Sahab’s website. Mullah Nazeer Ahmed also blamed the Pakistani military’s ISI agency for sowing divisions between factions, saying the ISI was the Taliban’s main enemy.

The United States has assured Pakistan it will not carry out drone attacks in Balochistan, President Asif Ali Zardari said in an interview with Dunya TV. "Not only the people of Pakistan, but also the government is concerned over the drone attacks," Zardari said. He said the US had incorporated several of Pakistan’s suggestions in its new policy for Afghanistan, but the two countries disagreed on the drone strikes. However, he said Washington "has assured us it will not carry out drone attacks in Balochistan".

April 09

The mysterious killing of three leading Baloch nationalist leaders - who were allegedly arrested by intelligence agencies on April 3 - have sparked a wave of protests and violence across Balochistan that has so far killed one Police official. Police found the decomposing bodies of the three Baloch leaders - Ghulam Mohammad Baloch and Lala Munir of the Balochistan National Movement and Sher Muhammad Baloch of the Baloch Republican Party - in the Pidrak area of Turbat District on April 8-evening. The Baloch leaders were allegedly arrested by the intelligence agencies from the office of Kachkol Ali Baloch, a former leader of the opposition in the Balochistan Assembly. According to local sources, the Baloch leaders had been shot in the head. Violence and protests broke out across Balochistan soon after the news of the leaders’ killing broke out. Reuters reported that two people had been killed in the violence.

Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the TNSM chief, concluded his "peace camp" in Swat, in protest against the delay in the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. "But the peace deal with the provincial government is intact," Sufi Muhammad told a press conference in Mingora before moving out of the District. "If something unpleasant happens after our peace camp has been wrapped up, President Asif Zardari will be held responsible," Sufi read a written statement in Pushto. He alleged the federal Government was not sincere. TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan said Sufi Muhammad left for Amandara town in Malakand where he will chair a shura (executive council) meeting. "The ball is now in the president’s court," he told. However, the Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed said the federal Government would sign the regulation soon.

The Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said peace in the country is only possible through the imposition of Sharia (Islamic law). Talking to Daily Times, he joined Sufi Muhammad in condemning the president for not signing the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. "We support Sufi Muhammad’s stance against the federal government… If clashes between Taliban and the security forces resume, the president will be responsible," he said.

April 10

The Taliban beheaded two men they accused of spying for the United States in North Waziristan. The beheaded body of Shahid Mehsud was found along the Miranshah-Razmak Road in Dundin area, 40 kilometers south of Miranshah, while the body of Gul Mir Jan was found along the Datta Khel-Miranshah Road in Degaan area, 20 kilometers west of Miranshah. Notes found near the bodies warned that anybody found involved in spying for the US would meet the same fate.

The Taliban extended the cease-fire in Darra Adam Khel for 10 more days. The Taliban announced the extension during a jirga with five local tribes at an undisclosed location. The Taliban also authorised local elders to hold talks with the Government.

Taliban militants triggered a bomb blast in the Chamkani area, outside provincial capital Peshawar, destroying six tankers supplying fuel to the NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan. Around 35 tankers were parked at the incident site, when militants placed a bomb under one of the vehicles loaded with diesel, petrol and aviation fuel, Police official Asmatullah Khan told. The blast triggered a fire which spread to another five tankers, he said.

The Taliban announced the enforcement of Sharia (Islamic law) in the Bajaur Agency of FATA and stopped women from going outside without male relatives, banned shaving of beard and warned the people against availing assistance from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP). The announcement was made by Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, Taliban chief in the agency, in his 40-minute speech delivered through his group’s illegal FM radio channel. Faqir, who is deputy leader of the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP, addressed the tribesmen on the FM radio on weekly basis. He said he and his men would spare no efforts to strictly implement the Islamic laws in the region. In this regard, the Taliban has reportedly prepared a special armed force named "Action Group" to ensure the enforcement of Sharia and punish the violators. Faqir said shaving of beards and walking of men without having cap on their heads were practices of the Jews and their followers, which, he warned, the Taliban would not allow in Bajaur. Faqir said he would not allow the BISP to operate and "mislead" simple women of the tribal region. He said work on preparation of lists of people supporting the BISP and other NGOs had already been initiated. Faqir threatened that the Action Group would soon produce such people before their Sharia Court. In addition, he strictly warned women against coming out of their homes and acquiring Computerised National Identity Cards, which is reportedly mandatory for getting monetary benefits from the BISP. The militant commander said if the people were found guilty of supporting the BISP or getting its monetary benefits, the violators would be punished according to Sharia in which minimum fine would not be less than PKR 10,000.

April 11

Gunmen shot dead eight persons in separate incidents in Balochistan, amid protests over the killing of three local leaders, Police said. Gunmen on a motorbike shot dead a Police official in Quetta, senior Police officer Rana Khalid told. In another drive-by shooting, gunmen killed one person and wounded another, he said. "Both incidents could be linked to a three-day strike being observed in the province" since the bodies of three separatist politicians were found on April 9, he said. Police also recovered dead bodies of six employees at a coalmine in Margat. "The victims who were abducted on Friday, were killed before dawn on Saturday," local Police officer Jaffar Hussain said. "They were shot dead," he said. Meerak Baloch, spokesman for the BLA, claimed responsibility for the Margat killings in a phone call, saying those targeted were people from Punjab and the NWFP.

April 12

A security guard was killed and three others injured when armed men stormed into three terminals storing NATO supplies in the limits of Yakatoot Police Station in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. A Police official said that around 200 suspected Taliban militants, who attacked the Aasim and Amanullah Terminal on Ring Road, also set ablaze 12 vehicles. He said a guard, Arif, had succumbed to his injuries, while three others were injured.

President Asif Ali Zardari referred the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, 2009 to the Prime Minister with the advice that he may consider placing it before parliament for debate.

The TNSM and the Swat Taliban warned parliamentarians against opposing the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation in the National Assembly. "Even holy prophets had no authority to make religious laws or amend them, then how can the National Assembly do it?" TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan told The News. "If members of the National Assembly opposed the judicial system of the Shariat-e-Muhammadi, they will enter the category of non-Muslims and Pakistan will become Darul Harb," he warned. Explaining Darul Harb, he said when the rulers of a country opposed the Sharia (Islamic law), they did not remain Muslims anymore. "So a country with non-Muslims as its rulers becomes Darul Harb," he said and added that it made Jihad mandatory on rulers. Muslim Khan, the spokesman for the Swat militants, warned that those opposing the Nizam-e-Adl would be declared Murtad or apostate. "Then, he or she should contest election on minority seat, if he or she remains alive," he said.

April 13

Three Taliban militants from the Mullah Nazir group were killed in clashes with SFs in South Waziristan– marking the first intense clashes with the group since April 2007.

The Federal Government in Islamabad presented the peace accord to lawmakers for approval. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had said the deal would be presented in the National Assembly to reach a consensus on the subject.

Pakistan’s Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said that information provided by Indian authorities regarding Mumbai terrorist attacks on November 26, 2008 is incomplete and Islamabad has asked New Delhi to provide the missing information for the successful prosecution of the culprits. "We had sent 32 questions to India on the Mumbai attacks and India sent its response on March 13... We sent it to the investigation team for evaluation. Based on the reservations shown by the Pakistani investigators, we have written to the Indian high commissioner and gave him a briefing on what is missing and what is not provided," Malik told a press conference. "Pakistan has asked India to provide an attested copy of the judicial statement of Ajmal Kasab," he said. "We have sought a copy of statement of ATS chief investigator Karkre on the Samjotha Express incident, we have asked Indian authorities to provide details of the SIM cards, the GPRS system, the credentials of those Indian arrested in connection with the attacks, the report on Kasab’s DNA and a copy of charge sheet against the culprits," Malik said. The interior adviser said the DNA reports of Kasab and another suspect, Ismail, were identical. He also said another suspected facilitator of the attacks, Shahid Jamil Riaz, had been arrested.

April 14

The death toll in the week-long unrest in Balochistan has increased to 20 as another person succumbed to injuries in a local hospital in the provincial capital Quetta. 22-year old Asfandyar Khan Pashtun, a MBA student in the Balochistan University, was shot dead unidentified assailants while standing outside a house of his relatives in the Jinnah town on April 11. Meanwhile, some armed men shot dead a man on Sariab road. The victim was identified as Zahoor, an employee of the Civil Defence department.

President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation for Swat, after the National Assembly passed a resolution in favour of the draft regulation. "Yes, the president has signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation before leaving for Dubai on a two-day visit," said presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar. Earlier on April 13, the National Assembly unanimously passed a resolution recommending the President sign the regulation to be imposed in the Malakand Division in accordance with a peace agreement between the NWFP Government and the TNSM. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement had expressed its reservations over the resolution but abstained from voting to allow it to be passed unanimously. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the National Assembly that the issue had been brought before the House to build a broad national consensus and establish the supremacy of Parliament.

Sharia (Islamic law) courts formally started functioning in Swat after the enforcement of the Sharia justice system. These courts had started functioning in six Tehsils (revenue divisions) of Swat, including Bari Kot, Kabal, Matta, Khwazakhela, Bahrain and Babozai, from March 12, 2009 but owing to delay in signing of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation by the president, their powers were very limited. However, after approval of the regulation, these courts will have full powers.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) signed an international accord aimed at blocking financial aid to terrorists. A private TV channel reported that the SBP Governor Salim Raza signed the agreement at a ceremony in Karachi. He said the agreement would also help contain money laundering. He said the budget of a special department established to block donations to terrorists had been increased. Raza, however, said the SBP did not have the capability required to stop ‘suspicious transactions’.

The White House said the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation accord signed by the NWFP Government with the TNSM to introduce Sharia in Malakand Division and the Kohistan District of NWFP was against human rights and democracy. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama’s administration believed that "solutions involving security in Pakistan don’t include less democracy and less human-rights. The signing of that denoting strict Islamic law in Swat valley goes against both those principles". He also said "We are disappointed that parliament did not take into account legitimate concerns around civil and human rights."

Afghanistan warned that the peace deal with Swat Taliban for imposing Islamic law might have "dire consequences" for the region and could harm Pakistan-Afghanistan ties. The criticism came after President Asif Ali Zardari signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation. "We do not interfere in Pakistan’s internal affairs," President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman said. However, there were concerns that "dealing with terrorists and handing over parts of one country to terrorists could have dire consequences in the long term", he said.

April 15

18 persons, including nine Policemen, were killed and five others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the Harichand Police Post in Charsadda District. The NWFP Inspector General of Police, Malik Naveed, said Police wanted to stop the suicide bomber’s speeding car and fired at it, but it had reached close to them by the time the explosives went off. The blast also left a crater about three metres wide, damaged windows in nearby buildings and severed power cables, plunging the area into darkness.

An accused in the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 26, 2008 recorded his statement before the Special Judicial Magistrate Ahmed Masood Janjua and confessed that he was involved in the attack. The court sent the accused to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on 14-day judicial remand and directed the Special Investigation Cell to produce him again on April 28. The accused, Shahid Jamil Riaz alias Muhammad Riaz from Nazir Colony in Bahawalpur in the Punjab province, recorded his statement under section 164 and confessed that he and other four accused, Hamad Ameen Sadiq, Zarar Shah, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Hamza alias Abu Alqa, were involved in the Mumbai attacks. However, the court refused to provide information about his confessional statement to the media. The Federal Investigation Agency sources told that Shahid Jamil Riaz belongs to the LeT and has confessed that he, along with other four accused, provided all kinds of transportation facilities, accommodation, internet and other facilities to those who carried out Mumbai attacks.

The NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani signed the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, formally enforcing Sharia in Malakand Division and Kohistan District. "Today, it is an historic day," he told reporters in provincial capital Peshawar after signing the law two days after President Asif Ali Zardari approved it following a nod from the National Assembly.

The Sikh community living in the Orakzai Agency of FATA conceded to the Taliban demand to pay them jizia – tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic rule – and paid PKR 20 million to Taliban in return for ‘protection’. Officials told that the Taliban also released Sikh leader Sardar Saiwang Singh and vacated the community’s houses after the Sikhs accepted the Taliban demand. The officials said the Taliban announced that the Sikhs were now free to live anywhere in Orakzai. They also announced protection for the Sikh community, saying that no one would harm them after they paid jizia. Sikhs who had left the agency would now return to their houses and resume their business in the agency, the officials said.

The Taliban will not lay down their arms in NWFP as part of the peace deal that included the introduction of Sharia (Islamic law) but will take their "struggle" to new areas, a spokesman of the group said. "Sharia doesn’t permit us to lay down arms… If a government, either in Pakistan or Afghanistan, continues anti-Muslim policies, it’s out of the question that Taliban lay down their arms," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan said by telephone. "When we achieve our goal at one place, there are other areas where we need to struggle for it," he said. Khan also said militants would go to Afghanistan to fight US-led forces if the Afghan Taliban called for help. "Our struggle is for a cause and that’s to enforce Allah’s rule on Allah’s land. We will send mujahideen to Afghanistan if they demand them," he said.

A three-member Supreme Court bench granted bail to former Lal Masjid chief cleric Abdul Aziz in the last of over two dozen cases against him. Aziz – who was arrested during the Lal Masjid operation as he tried to sneak out of the mosque dressed in an all-covering burqa (veil) – will be freed within two or three days, according to his lawyer Shaukat Siddiqui. The bench, consisting of Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Zahid Hussain – observed that Aziz deserved bail because there was insufficient material on record against him in the Occupation of Children’s Library case.

Al Qaeda and other militant groups within its territory pose "an ever more serious threat to Pakistan’s very existence", General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), has said. In an interview with Philadelphia Inquirer, he said US President Barack Obama had made Afghanistan and Pakistan the focus of his foreign policy because of the presence of al Qaeda in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. To questions on why troops were being increased in Afghanistan if the real threat were in Pakistan, he said: "You have to ensure that Afghanistan doesn’t become once again a place where Al Qaeda establishes safe havens." If Taliban ideologues regain control of Afghanistan, it would further destabilise Pakistan, he added.

April 16

The Government released Maulana Abdul Aziz, former chief cleric of the Lal Masjid, from a sub-jail in Rawalpindi after the Supreme Court granted him bail in the last case related to the Children’s Library. The Supreme Court had on April 15 granted him bail, but the details of his surety bond, worth PKR 200,000, had yet to be worked out. Maulana Abdul Aziz lauded the decision of the Supreme Court and said he would continue to spread the message of Islam.

April 17

The National Assembly was informed that there were 1,842 terrorist attacks from January 2008 to March 2009 that killed at least 1,395 people. Replying to two identical questions by Members of National Assembly Marvi Memon and Nighat Parveen, the Interior Ministry told the Lower House that Balochistan was the worst-hit by terrorism – with a total of 1,122 terrorist attacks that killed 436 people, followed by NWFP with 692 attacks that killed 732 people, Punjab with 12 attacks that killed 119 people, Sindh with nine attacks that killed 21 people and Islamabad with seven attacks that killed 87 people. Replying to a supplementary question, Mujtaba Kharral said no inquiry report had been submitted to Parliament, but promised that the Government would soon table inquiry reports on all incidents.

April 18

27 SF personnel were killed and 55 others injured in a suicide attack on a security check post in the Doaba area of Hangu District in NWFP, hospital sources said. Locals told that the attack on the checkpoint, about 45 kilometres southwest of Hangu, took place at around 4:15pm (PST) when SF personnel were visiting the area for the inspection. Two Police vehicles were passing by the check post when the suicide bomber driving a double-cabin pickup rammed the vehicle into the structure, they said. The explosion destroyed the check post, adjacent building housing troops and Police, and eight SF’s vehicles.

Four people were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast in the Tirah Shalobar area of Bara tehsil (revenue division) of Khyber Agency in FATA. Sources in the area told that the dead included Sadiq – a shura (executive council) member of militant outfit Ansarul Islam (AI) – and an aide. The men were on their way to Tirah Larbagh when the explosive device – planted on the side of the road – went off. The men were injured by the explosion and died later.

April 19

Fighter planes and gunship helicopters targeted suspected hideouts of militants in different areas of the Orakzai Agency, killing 16 militants, while 10 others, including a soldier and two teachers, sustained injuries. Sources said militants had occupied a rest house, a women’s community centre, the Government Primary School in Ghiljo sub-division and the Government High School in Dabori area. The militants had been using these places as their bases, which came under severe air attack by the Pakistan Air Force fighter planes and gunship helicopters. Suspected hideouts of militants in the Khadizai and Mamuzai areas of Ghiljo were also heavily bombed. Security Forces claimed that 16 militants were killed in the daylong shelling, while eight persons, including a soldier, two teachers and some civilians, sustained injuries.

Eight persons were killed and two others sustained injuries when a suspected US spy plane fired missiles at two houses in the Ziyari Noor area near Rustam Adda in South Waziristan Agency. Sources said the US drones continued hovering over the area for hours and one of them fired missiles at the houses of Daim Khan Wazir and Wali Khan Wazir at 10:00 am, leaving eight civilians dead and two others injured. The houses were completely destroyed in the attack and three vehicles parked inside were also damaged.

Interior Adviser Rehman Malik has said six suspects have so far been arrested in connection with the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Talking to the media in Lahore, Rehman said Pakistan had asked New Delhi to provide it the chargesheets against the lone arrested LeT militant Ajmal Kasab and his confession before the court.

The US special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, warned that no other place in the world today faced a more dangerous situation than Pakistan. In an interview to CNN, Holbrooke said Pakistan also faced a "very difficult economic situation" and needed immediate help. "This is a really dangerous situation in Pakistan today and we are focussed on this very heavily," said Holbrooke. Asked if the terrorist threat could cause Pakistan to collapse, the US envoy said that President Asif Ali Zardari and other Pakistani leaders too conceded that it was a very dangerous situation. "Swat is not in the tribal areas. It is only 100 miles from Islamabad … it is like East Hampton and Manhattan … people from Islamabad went to Swat for holidays … it is really an extraordinary situation." Ambassador Holbrooke termed the current situation in Pakistan as ‘very perilous’ and claimed that the militants operating from Swat and FATA had already increased their reach to Punjab. "There can be more terrorist attacks in cities like Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi," he warned. He opined the Swat truce always seemed like a confused deal to him. The Pakistani military, he said, felt that it was ‘stretched thin’ and that’s why it concluded this deal. Holbrooke pointed out that if the Pakistani military wanted to persuade the militants to lay down their arms by concluding this deal, it did not succeed in doing so. The chief spokesman for the Swat Taliban "publicly renounced the part of the deal that requires the militants to lay down arms", he said, adding "You cannot deal with these people by giving away territory. They are now getting closer and closer to Islamabad and Punjab."

The TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad declared that the country’s superior courts were un-Islamic and could not hear appeals against decisions of the newly set up Qazi (Islamic) courts. "There is no room for democracy in Islam," said Sufi while addressing a gathering in the Mingora town of Swat District. Western democracy was a "system of infidels" and had divided the clerics and the people of Pakistan into factions, he said, and the Supreme Court and the high courts were strengthening the system. The TNSM chief told the Government to withdraw all judges from Malakand Division – including from Kohistan District – within four days and set up a Darul Qaza to hear appeals against the decisions of qazi courts. He also demanded the appointment of Qazis at the district and tehsil (revenue division) levels throughout the Division. "The government will be responsible for all the consequences if our demands are not implemented," he warned.

A two-day-old ceasefire in South Waziristan collapsed as the Taliban attacked bases of SFs hours after a drone attack targeted suspected Taliban hideouts. Three persons, including a woman and a child, were also killed in crossfire between the Taliban and SFs, said locals. The Taliban attacked at least four security check-posts. The SFs also reportedly shelled and launched air strikes against Taliban positions in Wana, killing eight suspected Taliban militants, said officials.

Helicopter gunships and jets targeted Taliban positions in the Orakzai Agency, killing at least 11 militants and injuring five others. The military operation against militants has reportedly been expanded to the Mamozai, Maidan, Jabba, Samma and Buda Khel areas. SFs launched operations on April 19 after the TTP claimed responsibility for the April 18 suicide attack in Doaba in which at least 23 soldiers and five civilians were killed. The SFs are reported to have missed an important target, the house of local TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, during the air raid in Dabori.

The TTP and TNSM announced to ban political parties and politics in the Bajaur Agency after talks. Both the outfits also banned the assembly of more than three people at a place. The ban was enforced following a jirga (council of elders), after four persons were killed in a clash between the activists of the both the outfits.

The Northern Areas Legislative Assembly Deputy Speaker, Syed Asad Zaidi, was killed on the Park Link Road in Gilgit when unidentified gunmen ambushed his official vehicle. A senior Police official said one person died on the spot, while the Deputy Speaker and another man sustained critical injuries. They were shifted to the DHQ Hospital where he succumbed to injuries.

The TTP spokesman Muslim Khan has said Sharia (Islamic law) would not be restricted to the Malakand Division in Swat District, and that the Taliban will not lay down weapons unconditionally. Asked whether the Taliban would extend Sharia to other areas of Pakistan, Khan said: "Sure, because [the holy] Quran is not only for Malakand division. It is for all humanity, for all Muslims and we will go for the implementation of Sharia in other parts of Pakistan as well." He also said Taliban would not lay down their weapons unconditionally. "We are Pakhtuns and every Pakhtun has a gun. We have no tanks, no helicopters or jets," he said. Muslim Khan said the Taliban would keep their weapons if the qazi courts allowed them to. He said nobody had asked American forces to keep their weapons on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean or to surrender, but everyone had been asking the Taliban to lay down their arms. About international criticism that the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 is a parallel system of Government, the Taliban spokesman said: "We don't care about the reaction of the government in Pakistan or abroad."

Osama Bin Laden's top lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahiri has criticised Pakistan's Government for its attempts to make deals with the Taliban along its border with Afghanistan. In an audio recording on a jihadi Website, Ayman al-Zawahiri accused US President Barack Obama of encouraging Pakistan's Government to make such deals, calling the strategy "a delusion". "Obama is cheating you; the problem will not end there. It will escalate," AP quoted him as saying.

The Taliban in Swat have said they are not bound to honour the peace accord between the Government and TNSM Maulana Sufi Muhammad. They said the NWFP Government had signed the deal with the TNSM, and not with the Taliban. Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan in a telephone interview with the CNN demanded the imposition of the Taliban's model of Sharia (Islamic law) throughout Pakistan and beyond, "even in America". He also denounced any Pakistanis who disagreed with his interpretation of Islam, calling them "non-Muslims". He also called for the imposition of jiziya, a tax to be levied on all non-Muslims in Pakistan. In an Associated Press interview, he said Osama bin Laden was welcome in Swat. "Yes, we will help them and protect them," he stated. Muslim Khan counted the LeT, the JeM, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban of Afghanistan among his allies. "If we need, we can call them and if they need, they can call us," he said.

The TTP is reported to have warned lawyers in the Shangla District of NWFP of serious consequences if they continued to appear in un-Islamic courts (civil and district courts) from April 22. "Lawyers are warned through this notice not to appear before civil and district courts," a member of the Shangla District Bar Association quoted the letter as saying.

The Interior Adviser Rehman Malik warned of stern action if the TNSM violated the peace agreement it had made with the NWFP Government. He said that the Nizam-e-Adl was invoked in 1994, under which a session judge was named Qazi. "No one should create the ambiguity that any Maulvi (cleric) will hold the charge of a judge," he said. Malik also ruled out lifting the ban on the TNSM.

Taliban militants from Swat took control of Buner and started patrolling bazaars, villages and towns in the District. The militants, who had sneaked into Gokand valley of Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past five days. They have robbed Government and NGO offices of vehicles, computers, printers, generators, edible oil containers, and food and nutrition packets. Sources said that leading political figures, businessmen, NGO officials and Khawaneen (feudal lords), who had played a role in setting up a Lashkar (militia) to stop the Taliban from entering Buner, had been forced to move to other areas. The Taliban have extended their control to almost all tehsils (revenue divisions) of the District and law-enforcement personnel remained confined to Police stations and camps. The Taliban, equipped with advanced weapons, were reported to be advancing towards border areas of Swabi, Malakand and Mardan, the hometown of NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti. The militants have reportedly set up check-posts and camp bases in Kangar Gali village, along the Malakand border Naway Dhand village, along the Mardan border and Tootalai village, along the Swabi border. Officials of the Frontier Corps camp in Jorh had asked people to vacate their homes in view of threats of an attack.

The Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009 was challenged in the Supreme Court and the court was asked to stop its enforcement as it trespassed the jurisdiction of the apex court and breached the fundamental rights of security of a person guaranteed by the Constitution. The petition was filed by Shahid Orakzai under the Article 184(3) of the Constitution, making the Secretary of Law and the NWFP Governor as respondents. He prayed to the court to take immediate steps for the reinforcement of the Article 9 of the Constitution that says: "No person shall be deprived of life or liberty except in accordance with law." The petitioner stated that under the regulation, the new forum called 'Darul-Qaza' will seemingly exercise the appellate jurisdiction of the apex court. "Under what authority the governor of the NWFP transplanted the jurisdiction of the apex court?" the petitioner questioned. He said in the eyes of the Constitution, the writers of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation were not to be taken as Muslims until they acknowledged the Qur'anic rules and amended the flawed regulation.

The Netherlands' national intelligence agency is reported to have stated that a growing number of West Europeans are attending terror training camps in the border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The General Intelligence and Security Service chief Gerard Bouman said Al Qaeda is boosting its capacity to carry out attacks by increasing co-operation with other extremist groups. He also said there is still a real threat of attacks in the region.

The Taliban have said they will not leave Buner District until the Nizam-e-Adl was implemented in Malakand Division. "The Taliban will leave Buner after enforcement of the Nizam-e-Adl," the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP from Swat. "The government writ is not being challenged" in Buner and the Taliban were not creating problems for the administration there, he claimed. "We went into Buner because the administration there had totally failed to provide justice to the people and resolve the problems being faced by them," he added.

The Government informed the Senate that Russia and India were supporting the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in its secession bid, saying the same outfit had kidnapped the UNHCR official John Solecki from Quetta. Making a policy statement at the end of the five-day debate on the killing of there Baloch leaders and the deteriorating law and order in Balochistan, Adviser to Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, claimed they had proof of foreign involvement in the province. While talking to the media later, Malik called on India to stop its interference in Balochistan, dubbing it an open enemy of Pakistan. He noted that the proposal of reviving the 'Sardari system' in the province was being considered. He added the FC had been put under the chief minister and all the 36 FC check-posts had been removed. Malik also revealed that the BLA chief Brahamdagh Khan Bugti lived close to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's presidential palace in Kabul and enjoyed local support. He added thousands of Baloch students had got training in Russia and were present in Balochistan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she believed the Pakistani Government was abdicating to the Taliban and other militants. In a testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, she warned that nuclear-armed Pakistan was becoming a "mortal threat" to the world. "I think that the Pakistani government is basically abdicating to the Taliban and to the extremists," Clinton said. According to her, "Pakistan poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world… And I want to take this occasion ... to state unequivocally that not only do the Pakistani government officials, but the Pakistani people and the Pakistani Diaspora ... need to speak out forcefully against a policy that is ceding more and more territory to the insurgents." "(We) cannot underscore the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances now within hours of Islamabad that are being made by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state," Clinton said.

46 militants have been killed and 26 injured in the four-day military operation in the Orakzai Agency, tribal and official sources said. The sources said jet fighters and gunship helicopters targeted the militants' hideouts in Balozai area of the Kalaya Tehsil (revenue division) at 2:00 pm, killing five militants and a civilian. A number of hideouts and bunkers of the militants were reportedly destroyed on Shawazar mountain. Several Government and private installations were also damaged during the shelling by the jet fighters and gunship helicopters on April 22. The Inter-Services Public Relations media cell said the SFs had killed 11 militants in the Orakzai Agency after striking militants' hideouts in the Chapri, Ferozkhel, Khwajakhizar and Bizoti areas. It further said that the SFs in operations on April 21 and 22 killed 27 militants in Ghiljo Tehsil.

Nine members of a family, including two women and seven children, were killed when a house in the Storikhel area of Khyber Agency was allegedly attacked by jet fighters and gunship helicopters. Sources said jet fighters and gunship helicopters, which were busy in the operations against militants in the neighbouring Orakzai Agency, fired two missiles at a house owned by Gul Zarin, Shah Zarin and Niaz Amin in Storikhel, killing two women and seven children.

The SFs claimed to have killed eight militants and destroyed their ammunition depot during operation in different parts of the Kohat region. SFs said that they launched a major operation against militants in the Jammu, Jawaki, and Bulai Khand areas and helicopter gunships killed eight militants during shelling in the mountains of Darra Adamkhel. In addition, the ground troops and helicopters targeted a huge ammunition storage facility of militants in Bulai Khand.

The Taliban spokesman in Darra Adamkhel claimed to have killed 35 SF personnel during a clash in Kohat. The spokesman, Mohammad, told by telephone that the Government took their cease-fire decision as their weakness whereas they had announced a unilateral truce keeping in view the sufferings of the tribesmen.

Six tankers supplying fuel to the NATO forces in Afghanistan were set ablaze and a guard sustained injuries after suspected Taliban militants opened fire on them. A Chamkani Police official told that five militants equipped with sophisticated weapons and rocket launchers entered the Pakistan Oil Tanker terminal at Jhagra Chowk at around 3 am and opened fire on the tankers parked there. He said the guard, Razam Khan, sustained injuries and six tankers were charred. He said at least three blasts were also heard, but the cause was not certain yet.

President Asif Ali Zardari vowed not to allow anybody to challenge the Government's writ or run a parallel Government in any part of the country, and said the Government is aware of the problems emanating from extremism and terrorism. The pledge came during talks with the US President's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, who had called the president over the telephone.

Eight Frontier Constabulary platoons were rushed to Buner to protect vital state installations in the northwestern town now virtually under Taliban control, while the Taliban entered the adjacent Shangla District. Local residents and Police in the Poran tehsil (revenue division) of Shangla said around 30 armed Taliban militants arrived in the town. "They entered the tehsil in cars and are still in the area," a Police official said. The Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas claimed the situation in Buner was not as dire as some have portrayed. He told that Taliban were in control of less than 25 percent of the District, mostly its north. "We are fully aware of the situation," Abbas said.

The Taliban announced its withdrawal from the Buner District in NWFP after a meeting between the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and key Government officials. "All the Taliban who have come from [outside Buner] will go back," Amir Izzat Khan, a spokesman of Sufi Muhammad, told. However, sources close to the Taliban said that the "local Taliban will stay in Buner". It was not clear if those who stay will surrender weapons. Witnesses in the Poran sub-division of Shangla District also reported a Taliban withdrawal. The Malakand Commissioner Syed Muhammad Javed told the withdrawal was a result of the peace talks with Sufi.

The Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, rejected the notion that the peace deal through Sufi Mohammed amounted to giving any "concession" to the armed Islamists, and declared that not only the Army had the resolve to take on the militants but, according to him, "victory against terror and militancy will be achieved at all costs". Speaking at a meeting of top military commanders at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, the army chief acknowledged that doubts were being voiced about the intent and capability of the army to defeat the militants. But, he added, the army "never has and never will hesitate to sacrifice, whatever it may take, to ensure safety and well-being of the people and country's territorial integrity". He described the recent peace deal with Maulana Fazlullah's Swat-based militants as an "operational pause" that was meant to give the "reconciliatory forces" a chance, but declared that it "must not be taken for a concession to militants".

The banned LeT is planning to create further unrest, the commander of US forces in the Middle East said. "We should observe that the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba ... are trying to do more damage and they're trying to carry out additional attacks," General David Petraeus told US lawmakers. Petraeus said the US expected that "extremists that are trying to cause that kind of tension and also to take (Pakistan's) focus off of the internal extremist threat would indeed strive to do that."

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an interview broadcast that he was "extremely concerned" that Pakistan could be overtaken. "We're certainly moving closer to the tipping point where Pakistan could be overtaken by extremists", Admiral Mike Mullen said in the interview with NBC Television. Mullen said he hoped the arrival soon of an additional 17,000 American combat troops in Afghanistan will stabilise things there and in Pakistan.

There is no evidence that India is supporting violence in Pakistan, the US Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said. "If the Indians were supporting those miscreants in Pakistan that would be extraordinarily bad, really dangerous, but they are not doing so. There is no evidence that Indians are support miscreants in western parts of Pakistan or in Balochistan," he said in an interview with a private TV channel. He also said India was the second largest country in the world and one of the most important. "If we are interested in helping Pakistan, we will have to talk to its neighbours, which include China, India and Afghanistan," he added. He said India had given about $1 billion assistance to Afghanistan, and it should not be a cause of concern for Pakistan. "Pakistan does not need to worry about India in Afghanistan, but it has to be worried about miscreants and militants in its western parts," he added.

12 children were killed and four others injured when girls of a local primary school in the in the Luquman Banda area of Lower Dir District in NWFP had found the toy bomb and were playing with it when it exploded. The dead girls were aged between four and 12 years. Seven of the 12 dead children were from the same family. A woman and three children were injured.

Five militants and a FC soldier were killed 25 in an alleged armed clash and a landmine explosion in the Dera Bugti area of Balochistan. The spokesman for the Baloch Republican Army, Sirbaz Baloch, claimed that five militants had been killed while SFs lost 19 troopers. He said 25 others were injured in clashes and the landmine explosion. Officials, however, said that no armed clash occurred between the SFs and militants in the area. They said that six soldiers were injured in a landmine explosion in the Marvi area.

26 Taliban militants, including an important commander, and a trooper were killed after Security Forces launched an operation in the Maidan area of Lower Dir. "At least 26 bodies of Taliban were found from Lal Qila. The FC [Frontier Corps] has taken control of Lal Qila," said the SFs, after the Government decided to establish the writ of the state in areas bordering Swat. An Inter-Services Public Relations statement said, "On the request of the provincial government and the people of Dir, the Frontier Corps launched the operation early on Sunday against suspected Taliban positions in Islampura and Lal Qila in Lower Dir. An exchange of fire took place in Kala Dag and scores of Taliban were killed." It said that a soldier was also killed and four others were injured.

A spokesman for the TTP, Dir chapter, said the military operation in Dir was unjustified and against the Swat peace deal. Talking to a private TV channel, Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the TTP spokesman for Dir, said the Taliban would retaliate to the SFs with full force. The government, he said, has no intention to ensure the implementation of the Swat peace deal. We have not violated the deal and, therefore, the operation is unjustified, he claimed, adding the Taliban would attack those who had ordered operation against them in Dir. In addition, the TNSM spokesman Izatt Khan said the operation by SFs in Lower Dir is a 'violation' of the Swat peace deal. Talking to a private TV channel, the spokesman claimed that the house and a seminary owned by TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad had also been damaged in the operation.

Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said the Government has no option but to take action against the Taliban. Malik said citizens "cannot bear such unwanted elements in the country that compel the government to take action against them". In Islamabad, the Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the Government's peace deal with the Taliban in Swat is 'intact' despite the launch of a military operation in Lower Dir. Babar said the operation did not void the pact. Lower Dir is part of the Malakand Division, which is covered by the agreement.

Five members of a family, including three women, were killed and four children sustained injuries when an explosive device went off inside a vehicle in the Smalkhel area of Datakhel sub-division in the North Waziristan Agency. Sources said the family members of Faizullah were on their way home in the vehicle when the explosion occurred, killing two women, driver Islahuddin and a boy on the spot and injuring a woman and four children. While the injured children admitted to the Miranshah Hospital, the wounded woman succumbed to her injuries en route to hospital. The vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast. It was unclear whether the family was carrying the explosive device or someone had placed it in the vehicle.

The ISPR Director General, Major General Athar Abbas has said that certain splinter groups are not even under the control of the TNSM or the TTP, and "these are the groups creating problems,". Abbas, however, told a foreign television channel that the Government was confident of implementing the Swat peace deal. He rubbished as baseless reports that the Taliban could also enter Islamabad. "It is impossible for a group of 200 Taliban, who have come to Buner from Swat, to storm Islamabad despite its close proximity to Buner district. No doubt, Buner is situated within a radius of 100 miles of the federal capital ... [but] the threat cannot be measured in terms of distance, rather it has to be measured in terms of counter capabilities," he said, adding that it would be ridiculous to say that the Taliban were a threat to Islamabad. He claimed that there were no more than 50 Taliban militants in Buner District. "They were recruited by the Swat Taliban, who left them behind after ... they left Buner," he added. He also said the Security Forces would flush out those left in Buner if they created further problems.

Banned terrorist groups in Pakistan's Punjab province are gaining strength after joining hands on a new platform called the Muslim United Army (MUA). LeT, JeM and LeJ have a common cause under the banner of MUA and their activities are also in line with those of the Taliban, according to a report drawn up by the CID. The report also said militancy has been rapidly taking roots in Punjab province, especially in the five districts of Muzaffarghar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Rahim Yar Khan and Bhakkar. "As several members of the three banned groups have taken part in the Afghan war, they have developed a nexus with the Taliban," a senior CID officer said. "In the suicide bombings of the Naval War College and Federal Investigation Agency office in Lahore and the terrorist attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and police training school in Manawan, the facilitators of the perpetrators were from these organisations operating in Punjab," the officer said. Police officials also believe the three groups had joined hands primarily to target the security forces.

Frontier Corps (FC) personnel killed 26 Taliban militants, including key commanders, as Operation Toar Tander-I (Black Thunderstorm-I) continued in the Maidan area of Lower Dir of NWFP for the second day. "Forty (Taliban), including commanders Maulana Shahid and Qari Quraish, have been killed in the last two days of operation," the FC said in a press statement. Officials said the SFs were gaining ground against the Taliban and their hideouts in Kalkot, Islam Dara and Hoshyari Dara were targeted. "After a stiff encounter with the [Taliban], the Frontier Corps soldiers regained control of Lal Qila and flushed them out from Maidan valley," the FC statement added. Paramilitary troops and helicopter gunships bombed suspected Taliban bases during the operation, an unnamed military official told. "Eight security officials were also killed in two days of operation," another military official said. The operation was launched on April 26 after the Taliban militants attacked SFs and Government officials and closed roads for the movement of government and FC convoys.

The NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar warned the Taliban of military action if they did not leave Buner district. "Leave Buner or face action," the minister said while addressing a news conference in Timergara where new Malakand Commissioner Fazal Rahim Khattak was also present. The minister said the provincial Government has received reports of presence of "foreign militants" in Buner, where some of the Taliban had been speaking languages the locals could not understand. The foreigners are likely Uzbeks, Chechens or Arabs. The minister said there was no military operation going on in Lower Dir, adding that the clashes there were "retaliation to the attack by miscreants on the security forces". The armed forces were present in Malakand division "only to maintain peace and harmony".

The TNSM has suspended talks with the NWFP Government to protest against the military action in Dir, the TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan told in Mingora city. "We, however, still adhere to the February deal," he told, referring to the accord that sought Taliban disarmament in return for the imposition of sharia law in Malakand division. "We will not hold any talks until the operation ends," he told Associated Press. "The agreements with the Pakistan government are worthless because Pakistani rulers are acting to please Americans," Muslim Khan, spokesman for Taliban in Swat valley said. A Taliban spokesman identified as Umar said to Associated Press that the Taliban would agree to talks about the situation in Dir, but only if the military operation is halted. "We were living peacefully in Dir," Umar added further.

A survey conducted by Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) with the help of the British High Commission in Islamabad reports that 56 percent respondents described Afghanistan's Taliban as "Islamic heroes fighting western occupation". A paltry 12.1 percent called them "a terrorist group". More than 54 percent respondents said they were "dissatisfied with life" in FATA in general. The number of satisfied people stood at 18.15 percent, according to the survey, and 17.5 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Some 73.25 percent tribesmen referred to provision of justice as "the most important service" that the Government should provide in their areas followed by 64.6 percent voting for education, 52.1 percent for health and 47 percent for tackling terrorism. Just 2.95 percent respondents referred to the United States as a "very favourable" country, compared with 66.2 percent who called it "very unfavourable".

April 28

The Inter-Services Public Relations Director General, Major General Athar Abbas, told a news conference in Rawalpindi that the military operation in the Lower Dir District of NWFP, which started on April 26, had been completed. "The operation in Dir has successfully been completed, during which 70 to 75 militants were killed," he said. Ten personnel of the Security Forces were also killed during the operation. He said over 300 militants had started entering Lower Dir on April 2 and 3. Despite warning from the Government officials, they did not stop their unlawful activities, he added. "They were involved in kidnapping for ransom, killing police and other security officials and other unlawful acts," he said. He also said no foreign militant was found during the Dir operation.

The NWFP Government is all set to establish the Darul Qaza appeals court in Malakand and appoint Qazis in the area, Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said, inviting the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad for talks to implement the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation 2009.

The TNSM warned of a ‘storm’ across Pakistan if the Malakand peace deal collapses. "The peace accord has weakened and is shaky," Sufi Muhammad’s son Rizwanullah Farooq said from Swat. "If it breaks, there will be a storm in the whole country."

April 29

Troops took control of the main Daggar town, headquarters of the Buner District after being dropped by helicopter behind Taliban lines, killing over 50 Taliban militants in two days of fighting, the military said. Troops were operating on three axis – Ambaila, Malandar and Karakar – military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters in Rawalpindi. "Two high-value targets — Maulvi Shahid and Qari Quresh — are among the 50 militants killed so far in Buner when gunship helicopters targeted militants’ positions during the operation launched on Tuesday afternoon," Abbas stated. "The security forces are facing stiff resistance, particularly around Ambaila heights," a key gateway to the mountainous region where the Taliban detonated three roadside bombs, he said. One soldier had been killed in the operation and three were injured. "The airborne forces have linked up to police and Frontier Constabulary in Daggar," the spokesman said. The Army spokesman informed the media that Daggar has been cleared of the militants while Sultanwala, Nawagai and Pir Baba Ziarat are still in the militants’ control. The military estimated some 500 militants were in the Buner Valley and that it might take a week to clear them out.

Six people were killed and two injured when two missiles were fired by a suspected US drone at Kani Garam village in South Waziristan. "Six people were killed when a moving vehicle was hit by one [of the] missiles fired by a US spy plane," tribesmen told. They said that all of those killed were locals. Four people had also been injured in the strike. A local administration official and intelligence officials confirmed the missile strike.

Four militants were killed and two others sustained injuries in artillery shelling by the SFs in the Khwaizai Baizai area of Mohmand Agency in FATA. SFs are reported to have targeted suspected locations of the militants in different areas early in the morning, killing four militants and wounding two others. The troops also seized a pickup truck in the area and recovered rockets, mortar shells and explosives.

Three children were killed and their mother injured when they stepped on a landmine at a village near the border of Dera Bugti District. Police said the landmine had been planted in Goth Metha Bugti in the Sobatpur area. A Police officer said the woman and her children were on their way to a dispensary.

The Taliban in Swat have announced that they will ‘reform’ the banking system and journalism in the areas they control, shifting the focus from barbers and CD shops. Taliban spokesman Haji Muslim Khan said Taliban’s next target would be the banking system "where un-Islamic affairs are being carried out". He said the Taliban would penalise the media with the Sharia (Islamic law) punishment for telling lies. The Taliban would take action against the people "who are trying to conceal facts by publishing and broadcasting false reports". He admitted that Taliban had issued posters warning the media in Swat.

April 30

The ISPR Director-General Major General Athar Abbas said that 24 militants had been killed so far in the military operation in Buner and SFs had cleared the District headquarters Daggar of the militants. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said due to the successful operation, launched jointly by the FC and Pakistan Army, life was returning to normalcy in Lower Dir. He also said the number of casualties might increase in Buner and Lower Dir. Abbas added that the militants were still holding positions at Sultanwas and Pir Baba.

The Taliban in Orakzai Agency of FATA have banished 50 Sikh families from the agency for not paying Jizia, a tax levied on non-Muslims living under Islamic law. According to a private TV channel, Taliban militants occupied houses and shops of the Sikhs and auctioned their valuables for PKR 0.8 million in the Qasim Khel and Feroz Khel areas. The Taliban had demanded PKR 12 million from the Sikh community but they had only paid PKR 6.7 million to the Taliban, the channel said.

Pakistan’s top military leaders resolved to support the Government in showing "zero tolerance" towards militancy in the Malakand Division of NWFP in a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC). "While examining the prevailing situation in Malakand division, the JCSC expressed satisfaction over the progress of operations in Lower Dir, Buner and adjoining areas and resolved to extend maximum support to the government in stamping out any spillover of militancy in these areas with zero tolerance," an ISPR spokesman said after the meeting.

The ISPR Director-General Major General Athar Abbas dismissed a report in The New York Times that claimed that Pakistan had agreed to move 6,000 troops from its Indian border to its western border with Afghanistan. "The story is not correct," he said.

May 1

SFs have killed approximately 60 Taliban militants in the Buner District of NWFP over the last 24 hours as helicopter gunships continued shelling suspected hideouts, with almost 400 militants putting up a fierce resistance to the military operations. According to the ISPR spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, "Nearly 55 to 60 Taliban have been killed over the last 24 hours in the Buner operation." He informed the media that two Frontier Corps personnel had also been killed and eight injured in the operation, which entered its fourth day on May 1. Abbas said the troops were killed when a suicide bomber blew up a booby-trapped house. The military spokesman said the resistance the Taliban had put up and their weapons – assault rifles, anti-aircraft missiles and mortars – showed they had come to Buner with the intention to stay. He said locals had confirmed that foreigners were also present in Buner and fighting the SFs along with the Taliban. Abbas said the SFs had foiled Taliban plans to target the troops in suicide attacks. He claimed that one would-be suicide bomber had also been arrested, after he attempted to blow himself up. He also said ground troops backed by helicopter gunships destroyed nine suicide vehicles and six vehicles of ‘fleeing Taliban’. Three suicide motorcyclists were shot dead by ground troops advancing on narrow mountain tracks, he added.

Representatives of the NWFP Government and the TNSM failed to reach agreement on the appointment of Qazis in the Malakand Division as talks resumed between the two sides. In addition, the provincial Government turned down the plea of TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad to halt the military operation in the Lower Dir and Buner Districts.

Commander of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, has told American officials that the next two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani Government will survive. "The Pakistanis have run out of excuses" and are "finally getting serious" about combating the threat from Taliban and al Qaeda extremists operating out of northwest Pakistan, the general added. But Petraeus also said that "we’ve heard it all before" from the Pakistanis and he is looking to see concrete action by the Government to destroy the Taliban in the next two weeks before determining the United States’ next course of action.

May 2

Taliban militants attacked a security post in the Mohmand Agency of FATA, triggering a battle that left 16 Taliban militants and two soldiers dead. About 100 Taliban militants attacked the Spinal Tangi post before dawn, the army said in a statement. "Sixteen militants were killed in retaliatory fire. Two security forces personnel embraced shahadat (martyrdom)," it added. Three troops were also wounded.

Five Taliban militants, including two key commanders, were killed in fighting with the SFs in the Charbagh tehsil ((revenue division) of Swat District. Sources said the troops also seized a car prepared for a suicide attack and arrested three armed Taliban militants.

May 3

Brigadier Fayyaz Mehmood Qamar, who is in-charge of military operations in the Buner District of NWFP, said the operations will be completed within a week. Briefing the media in District headquarters Daggar, he said SFs killed 27 suicide attackers, bringing the death toll of militants to 80. Three SF personnel were also killed in the operation, he added. The Brigadier said SFs faced stiff resistance while entering into Buner, as the presence of militants at the Ambela hills was very thick and suicide bombers, riding on motorcycles and vehicles, were out to target the troops. Militants were still present in Pir Baba and Suleman Bakhsh and a plan had been chalked out to launch operation in this area, he said. The SFs have not initiated any land offensive so far and the entire operation was conducted with the help of artillery and gunship helicopters, he said. Brig Fayyaz also said local militants were very few in strength while Uzbek insurgents were present in large numbers, putting up a stiff resistance. Further, the District Coordination Officer disclosed that about 30-35 suicide bombers were still present in the area.

An Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press release stated that consolidation of positions was carried out in Daggar and the surrounding areas. The press release said the dead included a militant commander, Khalil alias Alam Buneri, a main leader of the TTP. SFs also successfully evacuated 20 girls, who were trapped in the Daggar Girls College.

238 Policemen along with 126 soldiers of the Army and 67 personnel of the paramilitary FC have been killed in 1,240 terrorist attacks in the NWFP since January 2004, according to official statistics. In addition, 526 Policemen, 204 FC personnel and 324 soldiers were wounded in these attacks that also killed 806 civilians and injured 1993 others till April 15, 2009. Among those either killed or wounded during these attacks were a number of senior officers of the Frontier Police, the FC and the Army. The senior most of them was Deputy Inspector General Malik Mohammad Saad, who was heading the Peshawar Capital City Police when hit by a suicide bomber on January 27, 2007.

The banned TNSM – which had promised to ensure peace in Swat District in return for the establishment of Sharia (Islamic courts) –rejected the Darul Qaza appellate court set up by the NWFP Government. Ameer Izzat Khan, the chief spokesman for TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad, said the Government had acted unilaterally in establishing the Darul Qaza and had violated the peace agreement. He said it had been decided in a May 1 meeting between the provincial Government and TNSM in Timergara that the former would first announce an end to the operations in Malakand following which the Taliban would declare a cease-fire.

Reports indicated that the Swat peace deal stands dissolved and the militants present in Swat, Matta, Kabal and Sangla as well as their commanders have asked for permission to fight everywhere. "Our peace agreement with the NWFP government practically stands dissolved," confirmed Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the Swat chapter of the banned TTP. SFs are attacking us and our fighters are also retaliating, he said. The TTP Swat spokesman vowed that their fighters would now attack SFs and Government figures everywhere. He alleged the rulers were obeying every directive of US President Barack Obama. When asked about the dissolution of the Swat peace agreement, ANP spokesperson Senator Zahid Khan said they had signed the accord with the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad and not with the Swat Taliban. He said the Taliban had been violating the accord time and again. However, the TNSM spokesman Ameer Izzat Khan said he did not know about the scrapping of the agreement but if the operation continued in the region, the situation would return to the one that prevailed before the pact. He claimed the general public in Swat was now opposed to the Government.

May 4

A suicide car bomber killed four SF personnel and wounded eight persons in the outskirts of Peshawar, the NWFP capital. Police sources said the attacker rammed his car into a vehicle carrying SF personnel.

The Swat peace agreement crumbled as Taliban militants took over Mingora, the district headquarters of Swat in the NWFP, taking positions atop Government and private buildings and patrolling the deserted streets. "The city is in complete control of the Taliban, who say they are taking positions to guard the local population," Mingora residents said. Local residents said both the Security Forces and the Taliban militants set up checkposts on roads leading to Mingora and soldiers were seen on high alert in Kabal. Military authorities had announced curfew in the city from 7pm to 6am and had warned the violators of stern action.

The Taliban have made about 2,000 civilians in Buner of NWFP hostage and are using them as human shield, the chief military spokesman said. The ISPR Director General Major General Athar Abbas told the state-run Pakistan TV that the Taliban had made the civilians hostage in Peer Baba and Sultan Was areas and were not allowing them to leave.

Calling the Pakistani Government and Army "enemies of Muslims", the Swat Taliban vowed to march forward till death. "Either we’ll be martyred or we’ll march forward," said Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan. He also said elements in the military and the Government were trying to sabotage the peace process to please the United States.

The spokesman for TNSM has said establishing peace was the responsibility of the government and not the TNSM. Talking to reporters in Batkhela, he said the TNSM would only be responsible for peace if Sharia was enforced in the Malakand division. According to the channel, he called for an end to the military action against the Taliban in parts of the division and said peace could not be restored by force and could only come through "the enforcement of sharia". He said the NWFP Government had not consulted the TNSM on the appointment of qazis.

The NWFP Government will not tolerate any violation of the Swat peace agreement any longer, provincial Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said. Talking to reporters, he said the Government had demonstrated full sincerity in the promulgation of the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation and had announced the establishment of Darul Qaza to fulfil the demands of Sufi Muhammad and the Taliban for peace in Malakand. However he warned of stern action and "the use of the second option" against anyone who would challenge the writ of the state. The minister asked the Taliban to lay down weapons and support the government in its peace initiatives, and told them the government would not tolerate any violation of the agreement in future after the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl.

May 5

During clashes between the SFs and militants in the Swat District, at least 18 persons, including three militants and two SF personnel, were killed and 20 others sustained injuries. Sources said clashes were going on in Mingora city, Khwazakhela, Barikot and Shamozai areas, while heavy shelling was witnessed in Qambar area. The shelling and firing continued overnight in which scores of houses were destroyed. Militants also attacked the DIG of Police’s office, Commissioner Office, Police station and museum in Saidu Sharif and captured the DIG office.

While talking to reporters, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed militants were in control of ‘90 per cent’ of the valley and said their actions were in response to "Army violations of the peace deal." The NWFP Government, however, accused the Taliban of not honouring their commitments under the peace deal despite the announcement of Darul Qaza in the Malakand Division.

Seven people, including two children and a Frontier Corps soldier, were killed and 48 others sustained injuries an explosives-laden car rammed into a pick-up near a check-post on the Bara road near Peshawar. The Bara Qadeem check-post was manned by the Police and Frontier Constabulary. Eyewitnesses said the car on a suicide mission was following a Frontier Corps pick-up from Bara and hit it when it slowed down near the check-post. The pick-up was carrying students to a school in Peshawar.

15 Taliban militants and two SF personnel were killed in a Taliban attack on the Spinki Tangi check-post in Mohmand Agency, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. It also said six of the troops had gone missing after the Taliban attacked the check-post around 3:30am. The SFs retaliated by targeting Taliban hideouts in the Baizai and Safi sub-divisions of Mohmand Agency. However, no casualties were reported.

A review board of the Lahore High Court has extended for 60 days the detention of JuD (the Lashkar-e-Toiba [LeT] front) chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and Col (retd) Nazir Ahmed, while releasing two outfit leaders Mufti Abdur Rehman and Ameer Hamza. The board comprising Justice Mian Muhammad Najam-uz-Zaman, Justice Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi and Justice Fazal-e-Miran Chohan turned down the home department’ request to extend the detention of Mufti and Hamza after feeling dissatisfied with the material produced against them. They would be released on May 6 (today) after the expiry of their detention period. In the case of Hafiz Saeed and Nazir Ahmed, the board extended their detention citing security concerns.

The Federal Investigation Agency in Rawalpindi submitted a charge-sheet against five men accused of being involved in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. The court will frame chares against the accused on May 12. Anti-Terrorism Court-II Judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahot, who has been conducting the trial of the accused Shahid Jameel Riaz a resident of Bahawalpur, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi of Islamabad, Abdul Wajid alias Zarar Shah of Sheikhupura, Mazhar Iqbal alias Abu al-Qama, a resident of Islamabad, and Hammad Amin Saddiq of Karachi in Adial Jail, distributed the copies of the charge-sheet among the accused who would formally be indicted on the next date of hearing.

The United States Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke said the Swat peace deal was dead. Appearing before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Holbrooke claimed that President Asif Ali Zardari had already told the US that the agreement would not work. He said Zardari was opposed to the deal and had only signed it under pressure. Holbrooke suggested that the US might set benchmarks for its aid to Pakistan in various areas, adding that such conditions must not worsen the existing trust-deficit that was plaguing relations between Washington and Islamabad. He also said security assistance to Pakistan must be linked to results and the country must demonstrate its commitment to defeat al Qaeda and other terrorists on its soil.

May 6

In a bid to recapture the Government buildings seized by the Taliban in Swat, SFs targeted militants’ strongholds with gunship helicopters and artillery, killing 60 militants. In the daylong fighting across the District, 40 civilians and two FC soldiers were also killed.

The Taliban have planted countless landmines and explosive devices around the populated areas of Swat to stop the people from leaving their homes and for using women and children as human shields against the military operation, a federal cabinet meeting was told. However, sources close to the Taliban denied mining of the area.

Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan told Al Jazeera that they are in control of "90 percent" of the Swat valley. Blaming the breakdown of the Swat peace deal on the Pakistani military, Khan said the peace accord with the Government in Swat was over.

22 militants were killed after the paramilitary forces raided Elahi village in the Buner District. "The FC conducted a raid in the village of Elahi, located west of Daggar, killing 22 militants," the FC said in a statement. "Reportedly, 50 militants were looting the villagers and on receiving this information, a force was sent to control them. After a stiff encounter, 22 militants were killed and the rest of them ran away," the FC stated. The death toll, however, could not be independently confirmed due to the ongoing military operation.

Suspected Baloch insurgents killed three SF personnel and injured three others when they attacked their van in the Thali area of Karmo Wadh town close to Sibi District.

May 07

Jet fighters and helicopter gunships targeted Taliban hideouts and centres in various parts of the Swat and Lower Dir Districts, killing 60 Taliban militants. "We have carried out air strikes on known centres of militants killing around 60 [Taliban] in Swat and Lower Dir," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told.

The SF killed a son of the TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad in a clash with the Taliban in Lower Dir District, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. During an exchange of fire, 10 militants, including Kifayatullah – son of Sufi Muhammad – was killed, it said. The TNSM spokesman Amir Izzat Khan said the 43-year-old was killed in helicopter gunship firing in Maidan area. "In an attempt to eliminate and flush out [Taliban] from the area, FC [Frontier Corps] launched an attack in early morning today… During exchange of fire, 10 [Taliban] were killed including Kifayatullah, son of Sufi Muhammad," the ISPR said.

Five members of a local armed Lashkar (militia) were killed and six others injured when militants opened fire at them in the Siyalo Talab area of Hangu District in NWFP.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered the armed forces to launch an operation against the militants and terrorists so as to flush them out completely from Swat and Malakand in order to ensure security, restore honour and dignity of the homeland and for the protection of the people. "The government will not bow before the militants and terrorists but will force them to lay down their weapons and will not compromise with them," he said in his 20-minute televised address to the nation.

President Asif Ali Zardari said in Washington that military operations against extremists would last until "normalcy" returns to the troubled Swat Valley. "It is going to carry on until life in Swat comes back to normalcy," Zardari said in reply to a question at a press conference along with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar.

Army chief General Kayani has said the army would employ all resources to ensure a decisive ascendancy over militants. Chairing the corps commanders’ conference at General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, he said the army was fully aware of the gravity of the internal threat. Gen Kayani told the conference the army had developed full-scale facilities to focus on low-intensity conflict-related operations. According to a press release of the Inter-Services Public Relations, the Army chief said: "The present security situation requires that all elements of national power should work in close harmony to fight the menace of terrorism and extremism."

May 8

SFs killed more than 140 Taliban militants as the military operation continued in the Swat valley of NWFP. 13 of them were killed in a major gun battle at Matta Police station. Seven soldiers were also killed as the SFs took control of Khawazakhela and Chamtalai, ISPR Director General Maj Gen Athar Abbas said in a media briefing. He said military had launched a "full-scale operation" in Swat and the Taliban militants were on the run. He said the Taliban militants were trying to block an exodus of civilians through coercion, taking hostages, bombings and blocking roads with trees. According to Reuters, he said there were 4,000 to 5,000 Taliban militants in Swat, including Uzbeks and Tajiks.

Four people were killed and several others injured when a rocket fired from an unidentified location hit an Afghan refugee camp in the Jangal Khel area of Darra Adamkhel in NWFP.

According to security sources, an operation had been launched against the Taliban militants in the Shen Dhand, Tor Chappar, Sunni Khel, Bosti Khel and Akhorwal areas of Darra Adamkhel.

More than one million people left their homes in the violence-hit Malakand region after a Taliban surge and a military response, NWFP Environment Minister Wajid Ali Khan said in a press briefing. "We appeal for international help to cope with the rising number of internally displaced persons," the provincial minister told a news briefing. "We need huge funds to provide [essentials] at the camps," he further said, adding, "The funds provided by the federal Government are insufficient... We need billion of dollars."

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on a comprehensive "action plan" to flush out terrorism, organised crimes and drug trafficking and plan to form a joint border SF, a private TV channel reported. The plan will be put before the federal cabinet’s of both countries for formal approval, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said in a press conference with his Afghan counterpart Muhammad Hanif Atmar. "The safety and defence of the two countries are inter-linked," the minister said, adding, that Islamabad and Kabul now "fully realise the need of working shoulder-to-shoulder to provide peace and security to their people". The two countries agreed to help each other by sharing real-time information and improving border control management. They will also hand over to each other criminals and "other anti-state elements". The interior minister said Pakistan would provide facilities for training of Afghan law-enforcement agencies’ personnel.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said that Pakistan will be able to root out violent extremism with the help of sustained international support. "I can assure the world on behalf of the people of Pakistan that we are up to the task. Just help us. Get us the capability and we can defeat the common enemy for a better tomorrow for our children and the coming generations," he said. According to a private TV channel, Zardari said in an interview with a US newspaper that Pakistan could not remove its troops from the Pakistan-India border to deploy them on its western borders. He said Pakistan had already deployed a significant number of troops on the western border. He added that the drone attacks would be more effective if the US provided the technology to Pakistan.

May 9

SFs killed 55 Taliban militants in various areas of Swat in NWFP, while 14 Taliban were killed in Lower Dir District after gunship helicopters targeted Maidan area. "We have hit certain militant positions in Mingora with helicopter gunships," said military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. "The Taliban were harassing the civil population and intensely involved in various activities of looting and arson in the city of Mingora and, in an early morning attack, helicopters engaged militant hideouts and reportedly left 15 militants dead," Abbas added.

SFs also targeted suspected Taliban positions at Rama Kandhao ridge in Matta tehsil (revenue division) and destroyed the main headquarters of the Taliban there, a military statement added. "Reportedly, 30 to 40 militants have been killed," it added. Indiscriminate mortar fire by the Taliban militants in Mingora had caused civilian casualties, it said but no details were provided. A Taliban source confirmed heavy bombardment of the Taliban positions by jet planes and helicopters.

Four missiles fired by a suspected US drone killed an unspecified number of Taliban militants at South Waziristan in FATA. Officials claimed that 10 Taliban militants had been killed, while a deputy Taliban commander said five were killed. However, tribesmen claimed they had counted 25 dead bodies.

Five suspected terrorists were killed and a Policeman injured during an encounter at Baghbanan Road in Peshawar, capital of the NWFP. Three of the dead have been identified as Arab Shah, Abdul Akbar and Musarrat Shah, all residents of Afghanistan.

A day earlier, General Petraeus, head of the US Central Command, is reported to have stated that Pakistan has become the nerve centre of Al Qaeda’s global operations. "It is the headquarters of the Al Qaeda senior leadership," said the general. A ring of Tunisian suicide bombers arrested recently in Iraq appeared to have received their directions from Pakistan as well, he said.

May 10

SFs said they had killed up to 200 Taliban militants in 24 hours during the on-going operation in Swat even as they secured the Shangla top and important towns and ridges in the Dir and Buner Districts. Troops engaged the Taliban in their Peochar headquarters and at hideouts in Kanju, Mingora, Banai Baba, Namal, Qambar, Fizagath, Tiligram and Chamtalai, the Inter-Services Public Relations said in an update. The Inter-Services Public Relations claimed that 140-150 militants were killed in an attack on the Banai Baba training camp in Shangla and 50-60 militants were killed in different areas of Swat valley.

The SFs secured Shangla top advancing up to Biladram town, encountering improvised roadside bombs and fierce Taliban resistance on Chamtalai bridge. The troops resumed operation from Point 2245 and Point 2266 heights captured on May 9, and advanced up to Shalwal Kandao, where one soldier was killed. The SFs also destroyed a Taliban training camp at Banai Baba in Shangla, where up to 150 militants were confirmed dead.

The Taliban’s indiscriminate mortar fire and roadside bombs planted in populated areas killed an unspecified number of civilians. The Taliban also blew up two schools at Barikot and Maniar, and killed a local prayer leader, Zahid Khan, at Nishat Chowk.

In Dir, troops secured Kala Dag and advanced up to Haya Sarai and continued to secure positions on Gulabad heights.

Three civilians were killed in strafing by gunship helicopters and a paramilitary soldier was shot dead by militants in the Malakand Agency.

Reports from Timergara indicated that SFs have secured areas from Kaladag to Hayaserai and killed five militants in an operation in the Maidan area of Lower Dir District. Other sources put the number of militants’ casualties at 10. Major Qilla, considered to be one of the strongholds and defence line of militants, was also captured.

26 Taliban militants were killed in a three-hour encounter that followed a Taliban attack on a frontier Corps (FC) camp in the Ambar valley of Mohmand Agency and 18 militants were killed when troops retaliated to an attack on their convoy in South Waziristan. In Mohmand, about 150 heavily armed militants launched a midnight attack on an FC camp in the Had area. Four FC soldiers were also injured during the ensuing encounter. In South Waziristan, the Taliban attacked a security convoy in Spin area south of Tanai. An officer, Captain Muneeb, also died in the attack.

President Asif Ali Zardari has announced that his Government would take over all Madaris (religious schools) as part of Madaris reforms and separate the students from extremists and they would be imparted modern education along with religious education. He said in Washington that the Government has resolved to bring reforms in the Madaris systems whereby the academic courses will be made rather advanced while it will bring them under the Government system.

The next few weeks would be pivotal for Pakistan’s future, a top US general warned. In an interview with Fox News, General David Petraeus, head of the US Central Command, said "The next few weeks would be very important and, to a degree, pivotal in the future for Pakistan." He also pointed to Pakistan’s intensifying offensive against the Taliban in Swat as a sign its political leaders, people and military were united against the militants. "The actions of the Pakistani Taliban seem to have galvanised all of Pakistan," he said. "Certainly the next few weeks will be very important in this effort to roll back, if you will, this existential threat — a true threat to Pakistan’s very existence that has been posed by the Pakistani Taliban," he added.

SFs claimed to have killed 52 militants in the Swat District during the last 24 hours, while 31 persons, including three civilians, were killed in Lower Dir District. Three soldiers were also killed and 14 others wounded in Swat. In addition, seven bodies, including one of a prayer leader at a mosque, were found in different towns of Swat valley.

11 people were killed and 13 others injured in a suicide attack on a camp of the FC in the Spina Thana area of Darra Adamkhel in NWFP. The banned TTP, Darra Adamkhel chapter, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying more suicide attacks would be carried out if the military operation was not stopped in Swat and other parts of the country. Spina Thana is located between Matani village of Peshawar and the gun-manufacturing town of Darra Adamkhel.

A Taliban commander close to Baitullah Mehsud was among six people found dead from various areas of South Waziristan - two months after the men went missing. The bullet-riddled body of commander Tikka Khan Burki - the Taliban chief for Salayrogha area in upper Kaniguram region - was found in Karwanmanza area of Ladah sub-division.

The SFs have killed 700 Taliban militants in four days of military operations in the Swat District, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said. 20 SF personnel had also been killed, and nineteen others injured. "The operation will continue until the last Talib... We haven't given them a chance. They are on the run. They were not expecting such an offensive," Malik said.

The military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said that "We have prepared for house-to-house fighting but if the militants leave Mingora, then we will avoid it." He said the SFs were heading towards Mingora from two directions and they would link up before assailing the city in force.

In Mardan, an NWFP Government official said 100,000 displaced people were expected to join the 252,000 already there.

Reports from Mingora and Peshawar quoting Frontier Corps sources said the SFs killed 13 militants in the Torwarsak area of Buner District while there were reports about the killing of 37 Taliban militants in an assault in the Gulabad area of Dir Lower District and four others in Swat. Six bodies were found in parts of Swat Valley while a person was shot dead in Kanju. The SFs said four militants were killed in a clash triggered by Taliban's firing at Mamdherai. Further, six beheaded bodies of unidentified persons were recovered from Suhrab Khan Chowk, Peopleís Chowk, Rahimabad, Landikas and Green Chowk. Arshad Kanju, resident of Kanju, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen.

Fierce clashes between militants and the SFs were reported from Gulabad and Chakdara towns of Dir Lower. Sources said 37 militants were killed in an attack on Government Degree College Gulabad, which was occupied by militants. Sources said that 17 bodies were recovered from the building, damaged in clashes. One soldier was also reported to have been killed in the clashes. Nine militants, including a commander, were arrested in Chakdara and Gulabad.

The Pakistan Army dropped helicopter-borne troops, including commandos, in the stronghold of militants' chief Maulana Fazlullah to conduct a search operation, while SFs made significant achievements in the operation named as Rah-e-Haq 4. "The troops have landed in the Peochar Valley in the north of Swat to accomplish the task assigned to them," military spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said at a press briefing in Islamabad.

General Abbas said SFs in Swat, Shangla, Dir Lower and Buner Districts had achieved considerable successes and, so far, 751 militants and 29 SF personnel had been killed in the ongoing operation while 77 soldiers sustained injuries. "The operation was progressing smoothly, the militants were on the run and the criminal elements, which had earlier joined the Taliban militants in Swat, were deserting them along with new recruits," he added.

12 people were killed in a US drone attack in South Waziristan Agency near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Tribal sources said six, or possibly more, missiles were fired at three to four houses at Sunrai Zyara Leeta border village at 8 am. One of the houses was destroyed and others were damaged. An unnamed senior Government official claimed the targeted compounds were being used by local militants as a training and transit camp to launch attacks in Afghanistan. He conceded there was no Government presence in the area. He also had no information about the identity of those killed and injured.

A charge-sheet submitted by Police in an anti-terrorism court says that the Lashkar-e-Toiba assassinated former Commander of the Special Services Group, General Aamir Faisal Alvi, to avenge the role he played in the fight against militants in FATA. According to the chargesheet prepared by Islamabad's Koral Police against Major (retd) Haroon Ashiq, a resident of Pakistan occupied Kashmir, Mohammad Nawaz Khan of Peshawar, and Ashfaq Ahmed of Okara in Punjab, the murder was ordered by Ilyas Kashmiri of the LeT who provided funds and weapons.

More than half a million people have fled fighting between the military and Taliban in Malakand and registered with authorities in the last 10 days, the UN refugee agency said. "As of late yesterday (Monday), a total of 501,496 displaced people from the new influx have now been formally registered ... since May 2," the UNHCR said in a statement.

The Mardan Commissioner Khalid Umerzai said 432,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have been registered in Mardan and nearby areas so far, and that 55,000 IDPs were residing in the camps in Mardan. Talking to Dunya News, he said 884 new tents had been pitched on May 11 while 1,600 more had been set up by the afternoon of May 12.

11 militants and four SF personnel were killed in clashes in the Swat District as troops dropped from the helicopters gained a toehold in Peuchar, the Taliban headquarters. In addition, five beheaded bodies were found in and around the Mingora city. Further, there were reports of 24 casualties, including 18 militants, in Lower Dir District. The Swat Media Centre (SMC) said 11 militants, including 'commander' Naseebur Rahman, were killed in the ongoing military operation against Maulana Fazlullah-led militants in Swat. The SMC said four soldiers were also killed and 12 others sustained injuries during operations in the last 24 hours. The military on May 12 said that SFs had suffered 29 casualties and inflicted 751 casualties in operations in Swat, Buner and Dir Lower.

Normalcy is reportedly returning to Buner district where people have started harvesting their crops, the SMC said, adding that shops had also been opened. It said that steps were being taken to clear the Sultanwas area.

Yahya Mustafa Kamran alias Hijrat, an Afghan national and Taliban commander based in the Jamrud sub-division of Khyber Agency, was killed along with four other militants in an encounter with the SF personnel near Peshawar, capital of NWFP, about three days ago. He had been arrested three months ago by Pakistani security agencies for leading a series of attacks on NATO supplies. He was associated with the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP and was one of his loyal commanders. Baitullah had appointed him commander for the strategic Peshawar-Torkham Road, and tasked him to disrupt and destroy the NATO supply line to neighbouring Afghanistan.

Security agencies have arrested three key accused of the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore. A private TV channel reported that the arrested suspects were members of the banned Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and hail from southern Punjab. Two of the arrested men were directly involved in the attack on the Sri Lankan players while the third provided logistic support to the attackers in the city, the channel's sources said. The channel also said the assailants had received training in a militant camp at Wana in South Waziristan.

The US military has begun flying Predator drones in Pakistan and given Pakistani officers significant control over targets, flight routes and decisions to launch attacks, US officials said. Officials said the project has been started recently to bolster Pakistan's ability and willingness to disrupt the militant groups active in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Under the new partnership, US military drones will be allowed under the direction of Pakistani military officials, working with American counterparts at a command centre in Jalalabad. US officials indicated the programme is aimed at getting Pakistan "more directly and deeply engaged" in the Predator programme. "This is about building trust... This is about giving them capabilities they do not ... have to help them defeat this ... extreme element ... in their country," said a senior US military official.

The JuD, the front for LeT, designated by the United Nations Security Council as a terrorist outfit in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, has resurfaced as a charity organisation providing food and other relief to the thousands of people fleeing the fighting in Swat District. Eyewitnesses said that the JuD is active in Mardan where most of the refugee camps are located. They are distributing food and medical care. One eyewitness who visited the area on May 9 said JuD workers were organised under a charity organisation called Falah-i-Insaniyat. They had set themselves up at a roundabout in Mardan town called College Chowk, where they were collecting food donations for the displaced. Despite the Government crackdown on the group after the U.N. designation, the canopied stall was openly flying the black-and-white flags of the JuD, with the insignia of the sword and the Kalma, the Islamic doctrine of faith. The organisation has also set up a relief distribution centre at a village called Rustam, on the outskirts of Buner.

A Taliban spokesman issued a series of threats and ultimatums against officials and demanded that all national and provincial assembly members from the Malakand Division in NWFP must resign within three days. "Otherwise, we will arrest all their families… We will destroy all their buildings," Muslim Khan threatened in a telephone interview with CNN. He issued a separate directive aimed at prompting a public show of support for the militants from Islamist political parties. "All these parties must help the Taliban… They must give a press conference to show the people that we need sharia in the Malakand division," he said.

The number of people who have fled from fighting in the Swat District of NWFP and registered with authorities in the last 11 days has increased to more than 670,000, the UN refugee agency said. "The new figure of registered people since May 2 for the new influx is 670,906. That breaks down to 79,842 in the camps and 591,064 out of camps," the UNHCR) spokeswoman Ariane Rummery said. Those who were not sheltering in camps might be renting homes, staying with friends or relatives, or camping out elsewhere, Rummery said. The total number of those displaced by the latest fighting between the Pakistani military and the Taliban was likely to be higher, she added. The May 13 number was up from the 501,496 people who had registered as of late May 12.

60 Taliban militants and nine soldiers were killed during the ongoing military operation in Swat District. Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas confirmed 54 Taliban deaths in a daily briefing, and said the military was taking "extra-ordinary measures to avoid collateral damage". He said the army destroyed at least 15 Taliban hideouts in the Ramotai Loe area of Shangla District. Abbas said SFs in Barikot removed roadside bombs and eliminated the remaining Taliban resistance to clear areas up to Udigram, six kilometers short of Mingora, the main town in Swat. While 13 militants were killed in the Tursak suburb of Mingora, three of the, including a key commander, were killed during clashes in Udigram. Further, Frontier Corps sources said 30 Taliban militants were killed in Kalpani and 20 more were killed in the Hayasarae area of Lower Dir District when troops destroyed the house of a local administration official that the Taliban had occupied. In addition, intense fighting was reported from Shalpalam and Sultanwas, the Taliban stronghold in Buner District.

The Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, visited Swat valley and vowed to flush out militancy from the area. Gen Kayani visited Swat and met field commanders and troops taking part in the operation. Appreciating the high morale of the troops, he reiterated the Army's resolve to flush out militancy from Swat and defeat the militants.

Nine militants were killed and 12 others arrested in a search operation carried out by the SFs in the Mulakhel area of Darra Adamkhel in NWFP, which was launched after the militants blew up a school in Akhorwal area. Sources said unidentified militants had planted explosive devices in the Government High School for Boys at Akhorwal, which went off at 5:00 am, destroying four rooms of the school. Consequently, SFs launched a search operation in the Mulakhel, Sanikhel, Akhorwal and Bustikhel areas, killing nine militants were killed and arresting 12 others.

SFs killed five militants in the North Waziristan Agency after a military convoy was targeted with an IED in the Pir Killay area, in which three soldiers were killed and four others sustained injuries. Sources said the SFs convoy was on its way to Bannu in NWFP from Miranshah when it was attacked with the IED, leaving three soldiers dead and four others injured. The vehicle was completely destroyed in the explosion. The troops retaliated by resorting to artillery shelling at the militants' positions from the Miranshah Tochi Fort, killing five militants.

Parliamentarians belonging to the FATA rejected the TTP ultimatum to step down as legislators within three days. These legislators contended that they would pay no heed to such warnings and continue serving people of their respective constituencies. "We are elected representatives of people, who have voted us to the legislative bodies so that we could serve them and contribute to the nation-building. Such threats have no value," said Sajid Hussain Toori, who hails from Parachinar in the Kurram Agency. Toori is part of a 10-member independent group of legislators, headed by Munir Khan Orakzai. Abbas Afridi, who is a Senator from FATA, also rejected the ultimatum. Another Senator Haji Khan Afridi, who is from Khyber Agency, said that on such warnings or demands, he would never resign.

More than 834,000 civilians have fled the recent military operation in the NWFP, the UN refugee agency chief said. The figure was an increase of more than 163,000 people registered since May 13, as families piled onto trucks and tractors, or streamed on foot out of the affected Districts to hastily set up camps. "Some 834,000 internally displaced persons have been registered so far. This is a massive, massive displacement in today's world," said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres.

While asking the internally displaced people (IDPs) to help identify the fleeing militants, SFs claimed to have killed 55 militants in the Swat and Buner Districts during the ongoing military operation against the Taliban. SFs conceded three casualties besides injuries to 11 soldiers. The SFs also claimed to have gained success in their actions in different areas of the valley, but the areas were not specified. The ISPR said SFs had credible reports that the Taliban militants had shaved off their beards and trimmed hair to escape action. It said these militants were fleeing the Swat Valley in the guise of civilians. It asked the people to help identify the fleeing militants to SFs.

Three soldiers were killed and four others sustained injuries when their convoy came under a bomb attack near Miranshah in North Waziristan. Troops besieged Pir Kala, about 10km north of Miranshah, and fired on suspected militants' positions. Helicopter gunships were called in to support ground forces. According to local people, militants fired back and the ensuing exchange of fire continued for over three hours. Officials said the military convoy was going to Bannu in NWFP when it was hit by the bomb detonated by remote control.

Three militants, including a local Taliban 'commander', were killed in a bomb blast in the Sheikhan area of the Khwezai subdivision of Mohmand Agency. SFs, however, claimed that they had killed the three by targeting suspected hideouts with heavy weapons late on May 14-night.

Authorities have ordered a fresh crackdown on a charity linked to the JuD following reports that dozens of its volunteers were at the centre of relief operations for the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in NWFP. The move to act against the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation came after The Independent newspaper reported that JuD volunteers were providing first aid and emergency assistance to the IDPs. A senior official, however, said on May 14 that the Government was aware of reports of the charity's re-emergence and was ready to act. "The Interior Ministry has directed that no banned organisation will be allowed to resume activities under the garb of humanitarian work," he said.

In the second week of a full-scale military operation, the Government offered talks with the Taliban if they lay down their arms. The offer, which came at the end of a five-day debate of special National Assembly session on the situation in the Malakand Division of the NWFP was made on behalf of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan who, however, made it clear the military would not be withdrawn from the area before a "sustainable system of governance" was put in place there. Awan said, "Yes the door for dialogue is open, it is still open." Making what he called an "offer on behalf of the leader of the house" (or prime minister), the minister gave what he called a legal formula for a dialogue: "Remove your masks, come in the open, put the guns down … only then talks can be successful. There is no other way for talks."

The military leadership told the national political leadership that there was no chance of moving the armed forces from Pakistan's border with India for their deployment at the western borders. In a five-hour-long in-camera briefing to the national leadership at the Prime Minister's House in Islamabad, the military leadership clearly said that no guarantee from the international community could be accepted. According to sources, on the query of PML-N Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif about the situation at the eastern borders, the military leadership told the political leadership that the United States had asked for the deployment of forces at the Afghanistan border by moving them from the Indian border and was even ready to give guarantees that India would not make any misadventure against Pakistan. But Pakistan rejected the proposal and made it clear that on the issue of national security, it did not trust any kind of international guarantees.

47 Taliban militants were killed in various areas of Malkand Division in the NWFP during the last 24 hours, said the ISPR spokesman Major General Athar Abbas. Claiming significant achievements in the ongoing military operation against Taliban militants in the Malakand division he confirmed the presence of hardcore foreign militants fighting alongside the Taliban against Security Forces, adding, some 'key' foreign intelligence agencies were also involved in the insurgency. He also said that there were around 4,000 fighters in Swat, at least 10 percent of whom were not locals.

At least 11 people, including two women and two children, were killed and 31 others were wounded when a powerful car bomb ripped through a congested locality in Peshawar, the NWFP capital. Superintendent of Police (City) Ijaz Abid told that the explosion was caused by a timed bomb in a car parked in the Kashkal area of the city. He said the apparent target of the blast was a nearby internet café. The bomb went off at around 2:20pm and destroyed 17 cars and around a dozen shops.

25 people were killed in a suspected US drone missile attack on a seminary and a nearby vehicle in North Waziristan. Sources said that US drones fired two missiles in Mir Ali sub-division of the North Waziristan - with one missile hitting the Anwarul Uloom Islamia seminary and the other a vehicle. "It was a drone strike on a compound where militants were staying," said an unnamed security official. Other intelligence officials put the death toll as high as 28, saying the dead were mostly local militants who had been preparing to leave for Afghanistan to carry out attacks. The officials added, however, that the bodies of most of those killed were burnt beyond recognition.

Nine Taliban militants were killed and another 13 injured when the SFs attacked Taliban hideouts in the Upper Orakzai Agency. Political administration sources said that SFs targeted Taliban hideouts in Dabori, headquarters of Upper Orakzai, using helicopter gun ships. Locals said all the dead were local Taliban militants and that no key commander was killed in the attack. Local Taliban, however, denied that any of their men were killed in the attack on their hideouts in the agency.

As troops closed in on militants in the Matta sub-division on Swat District, SFs said they had killed 25 militants in the Arkot and Peuchar areas during the last 24 hours. One officer was killed while seven soldiers sustained injuries during the fighting.

A statement from the ISPR said the troops were expanding their foothold in Peuchar, the area which served as the headquarters of Maulana Fazlullah and his fighters. The troops attacked a militant location in the area and secured an important position in the area. Fierce fighting took place for the control of the militant position, which resulted in casualties on either side. The ISPR said during the operation one officer was killed and two soldiers sustained injuries. The militants engaged SFs with rocket launchers and 12-7mm machine guns and in the retaliatory action, troops killed around 20 militants. In the Arkot and Nazarabad areas of Matta, the troops destroyed a compound of the militants from where the SFs faced resistance during their advance. The compound was surrounded and cleared from militants while five militants were killed during the operation. Following fierce fighting, SFs were successful in securing the area between Kanju and Nawan Kallay (Ayub Bridge) and from Ballogram to Takhta Band Bypass. The militants were reportedly putting up resistance on the outskirts of Mingora, the District headquarters of Swat, where intense clashes were reported.

SFs launched an operation against militants in Dir Upper District as warplanes dropped bombs in five villages of the remote Doog Darra area to target suspected hideouts of the militants allegedly led by an Afghan commander. Sources said the strikes killed a child and a woman and injured several people but there was no word about the militants' casualties. Dir Upper became the sixth district of the Malakand Division out of the seven where SFs have launched military action against the Taliban. Chitral is the lone district where there is no military operation at the moment.

Four civilians were killed when a mortar shell landed on a house in Maidan area of Dir Lower District, where SFs have been engaged in operation against the militants.

Pakistan will soon extend its war on the Taliban to the Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan, President Asif Zardari said. "We're going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with army operations… Swat is just the start. [There's] a larger war to fight," he told The Sunday Times in an interview. He said Pakistan would need billions of pounds in military assistance and aid for up to 1.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), on account of the operation. "We need much, much more than the $1 billion [military aid] we've been getting, which is nothing," Zardari said. "We've got 150,000 troops in [the Tribal Areas] - just the movement of that number would cost $1 billion," he added.

The NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said that the number of registered internally displaced persons (IDPs) - at relief camps and elsewhere - from Swat, Buner and Lower Dir Districts has risen to over 1.5 million, while the total number of IDPs is now estimated to be over 2 million. Addressing the media in provincial capital Peshawar, he said that 150,000 IDPs from various troubled areas had been registered over the last 24 hours.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that more than 1,000 Taliban militants had been killed in the military's three-week offensive in Swat District. "More than 1,000 Taliban, including two commanders, have been killed while their training centres and bases have been destroyed," Malik told a press conference in Mardan. The minister also called on the Taliban to lay down their weapons. "The army offensive will continue until the Taliban are flushed out ... the Taliban are on the run, they will be eliminated at any cost," he said after visiting a camp for the internally displaced persons (IDPs). Malik said Security Forces (SFs) were hunting for Taliban leaders in Swat. "Those leaders, those commanders, who are controlling the Taliban, obviously we're going to hit them. We're not going to spare them… You'll hear good news soon," he said. Malik said Dir and Buner districts are under complete Government control and the IDPs from these areas could return home.

The Amy claimed that hundreds of foreign nationals were among the militants battling SFs in Swat. "These are militants from countries bordering Afghanistan," military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas informed a press briefing in Islamabad, but did not name the countries. He said that about 4,000 militants were fighting in Swat and 10 per cent of them (about 400) were foreign militants. He said that infiltration from countries bordering Afghanistan was also taking place. Gen Abbas said 23 foreign militants had been killed since the operation began, adding that some "hostile agencies" were providing resources to militants.

May 18

27 militants were killed as the SFs started a ground offensive in the Swat District. Three important commanders, including Okasha, Malanga and Riaz, were among 27 militants killed during the operation that has now been named as Rah-e-Rast, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas informed the media. He said Mamdherai Markaz was targeted by the SFs and 10 to 15 terrorists hiding inside were killed. He also said three SF personnel, including an officer, were also killed and 17 others injured during the fighting. Abbas stated that the SFs were engaged with militants inside Kanju town to clear the area and an operation was underway in Takhtaband area, where seven combatants were killed in a close encounter. According to him, SFs had also expanded their foothold in Peuchar and killed 12 militants in the area. The troops also attacked and secured the Dumber training centre, which was being used by militants as their logistics base.

Several persons, including women and children, were killed and a number of others sustained injuries when families fleeing the military operation in Swat District’s Matta town were shelled while crossing a mountainous path to reach Karo Darra in Dir Upper District. Eyewitnesses, who escaped the attack or were able to reach Wari town of Dir Upper in injured condition, said they were targeted by gunship helicopters. However, Police officials said they might have been hit by a stray shell. Local people said they saw some 12 to 14 bodies on a mountain on the Swat side but could not go near to retrieve them or help the injured for fear of another aerial attack.

An AP report stated that the TTP Swat chapter spokesman Muslim Khan has said the Taliban would resist the SFs until the "last breath". "We will fight until the last breath for the enforcement of Islamic law," Muslim Khan told in a brief phone call from an undisclosed location on May 17.

SFs killed five militants, including an important commander in the Mulakhel area, and arrested six others in an injured condition. Sources said the militants, equipped with heavy weapons and explosives, were traveling in five vehicles towards a camp of the SFs located beside the Friendship Tunnel. They said the militants wanted to attack the camp located near the tunnel. However, when flagged down at the checkpoint in the Mulakhel area, the militants opened fire on the SF personnel. In the retaliatory action, the troops killed five militants and wounded six others who were subsequently arrested. The slain militants included ‘commander’ Bilal Afridi, who planned and executed attacks on the SFs in Darra Adamkhel. The four others were identified as Umar, Majeed alias Hussaini, Saifullah and Munkaray.

According to official figures, as many as 1,059 persons, including SF personnel and civilians, were killed in 671 terrorist incidents, which also included suicide attacks, in the NWFP from 2008 till March 25, 2009. During 2008, a total 524 incidents, including 30 suicide attacks, were reported. In these attacks 146 Policemen, 32 FC personnel, 76 Army/SF officials and 595 civilians were killed while 1,962 were injured. In the first four months of 2009, as many as 140 incidents of terrorism and seven suicide attacks were carried out. These incidents claimed 26 lives of Police officials, nine of FC personnel, 12 of Army/SFs and 126 civilian, while 771 people were injured. The office of the Additional Inspector General of Police (Investigation) NWFP revealed that Police foiled 94 terrorist attacks in 2008 and five in 2009. They recovered 52,408 kilograms of explosive materials, 23 suicide jackets, 729 hand grenades/dynamites, detonators and anti-tank mines and 134 rocket launchers, bombs, missiles and mortar missile shells.

May 19

A Major and three soldiers were killed in the ongoing military operation in Swat District as SFs killed 16 more Taliban militants in fierce street battles in 24 hours. With the area surrounded by the SFs, Major Abid was hit in an exchange of fire with the Taliban inside Matta. "Operation Rah-e-Rast is making headway as planned, and in last 24 hours, 16 Taliban were killed ... an officer and three soldiers also died," said the Inter-Services Public Relations in a statement.

The military is reported to have stated that approximately 15,000 troops are confronting about 4,000 well-armed militants in Swat. Authorities said more than 1,030 Taliban militants and at least 53 troops have been killed in a three-pronged onslaught launched in the districts of Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8.

An operation to clear Sultanwas in Buner District is reportedly in progress and troops are conducting cordon and search operations in the area.

Reports from Chakdara indicated that three civilians, including two children, were killed and several others sustained injuries when jetfighters allegedly bombed houses in Kithiarai and other areas of Adenzai in Dir Lower District. Residents said jetfighters hit a house owned by one Yar Mulla, killing his wife and two children. Three persons were also injured in the attack in the area. In Landi Shagi area of Ouch, gunship helicopters carried out shelling in which, according to the residents, four persons, including a woman, were injured.

SFs claimed to have killed 13 militants and arrested five foreign combatants in an encounter near Khapakh check-post in the Halimzai sub-division of Mohmand Agency. A spokesman for the Mohmand Rifles Media Centre said SFs arrested five Burqa (veil)-clad foreign militants when they were trying to infiltrate into Afghanistan via the Pakistan-Afghanistan route. Following their arrest, the spokesman said local militants attacked the Khapakh security checkpoint with sophisticated weapons from all sides. He said SFs repulsed the attack and killed 13 militants in the ensuing three-hour encounter. He claimed that after the clash, the militants swiftly took away the bodies of their companions. However, the body of one of the alleged militants was recovered from the area. "Three of the arrested militants belong to Saudi Arabia and one each to Libya and Afghanistan," the spokesman added. Following the clash, SFs imposed a curfew and launched a search operation in the area. The sources said three local suspected militants, whose names could not be ascertained, were arrested during the search operation.

The TTP Mohmand Agency spokesman Akramullah confirmed that the TTP Khyber Agency chief Hijratullah was killed by SFs a few months ago. The spokesman told the BBC that SFs had killed Hijratullah following his arrest. He claimed that Hijratullah and his associate, Arbistan, had been tortured to death along with three others, denying reports that they had been killed in a Police encounter.

Nawabzada Aali S. Bugti was elected chief of the Bugti tribe to succeed his late grandfather Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. A ceremony was held in Sui to formally inaugurate Aali Bugti as the tribe’s chief and Amirhan Faqir, the custodian of the shrine of Pir Suri, helped him don the traditional turban and handed over the tribal sword to him. Aali Bugti is son of Nawabzada Saleem Akbar Bugti, who died of heart attack when Nawab Bugti was alive. He was with Nawab Akbar Bugti when the latter left his home to lead his tribesmen to the mountains when the military launched an operation in the area and disappeared after Nawab Bugti’s death on August 26, 2006. He returned to Sui three weeks ago, along with his younger brother. After the ceremony, Aali Bugti paid tribute to his grandfather for sacrificing his life and pledged to uphold Baloch traditions and rights of the Baloch people.

May 20

SFs have completely secured the Sultanwas area of Buner District, overcoming tough resistance and killing 80 militants, Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Athar Abbas said in Islamabad. "Since Tuesday morning to the completion of operation before dawn, 80 militants have been killed," Abbas told a press briefing. However, he said there was no independent confirmation of the casualties due to the ground situation in the area. Sultanwas was the main stronghold of the militants in Buner, where they had made concrete underground bunkers and ammunition dumps.

The military spokesman said 1,057 militants and 58 SF personnel had been killed in the Swat, Dir and Buner Districts since April 27. He said the foreign nationals arrested so far included Afghans, Uzbeks and Arabs. "The strategy is to kill the maximum number of terrorists. The militant leaders are paying $50 to 60 per day to the fighters," he said.

SFs claimed to have killed over 200 militants during the ongoing military operation in the Maidan area of Lower Dir District since the launch of the offensive. Operational Commander Brigadier Amal Zada, in charge of the ongoing military operation in Lower Dir, told reporters in District headquarters Timergara that over 200 Taliban militants had been killed so far, while 14 Security Force personnel were also killed and 30 others injured. He said a large number of militants had left the area in the guise of internally displaced persons. He, however, said they had cordoned off the militant infested areas and established checkpoints in Hayaserai and Lal Qila areas of Maidan.

The Government has directed law-enforcement agencies to arrest seven "highly trained militants and Al Qaeda masterminds in Iraq" who - according to reports by intelligence agencies - have entered Pakistan. According to an official document BBC Urdu claimed it had received, those who have entered Pakistan are planning to train ‘like-minded people’ and target key Government officials, including President Asif Ali Zardari, the chief ministers of the four provinces and intelligence agencies’ officers and commanders. The group could also target embassies of non-Muslim and pro-US Muslim countries in Islamabad. The intelligence report also said that Al Qaeda commanders met in Afghanistan’s Paktia province on May 3 and decided they would continue supporting the TTP.

May 21

19 people, including 11 suspected militants and three SF personnel, were killed in the ongoing military operation and a roadside blast in the Maidan area of Dir Lower District in NWFP. Sources said two SF personnel, identified as Captain Omarzeb and Lance Naik Shahzad Alam, were killed and two others sustained injuries when a military convoy was attacked with a remote-controlled bomb in the Shahi Koto area of Maidan. Consequent to the blast, SFs opened fire, killing four persons and injuring two children. Further, one trooper, Mehboob, was killed during the search operation in the Kumbar area. Four militants were also killed in the search operation.

During clashes in the Nanbati and Kalpani areas, seven militants were killed, while a soldier sustained injuries. In addition, a man was shot dead in Chakdara for violating curfew. Residents of the area reportedly said there was a curfew in the area for the last eight days.

SFs said that ‘a number of Taliban’ – including an important commander – and five soldiers were killed in 24 hours in Swat, in the latest update on the military operations. "An important ... [Taliban] commander, Abu Tariq, was killed and seven Taliban were apprehended… A number of Taliban were killed, while five soldiers also died in Kanju and Takhtaband area," said the Inter-Services Public Relations. The SFs have cleared a number of Taliban hideouts in Peochar valley, and are conducting search and destroy operations that have resulted in several battles between the Taliban and the troops. The SFs have reportedly secured and cleared the area up to Shahid Khapa, and are strengthening their positions around Takhtaband Bridge, Barikot, Gokdara and Udigram areas. The SFs also attacked Banai Baba Ziarat on May 20 and secured the highest point in the area.

Four civilians and five SF personnel were killed and 25 injured in a suicide attack near a Frontier Corps (FC) fort in the Jandola area of Tank. According to a private TV channel, an explosives-laden truck rammed into the FC camp damaging several nearby shops and the fort.

The top US military officer said he is concerned that the US troop build-up to oust insurgents from Afghanistan could further destabilise neighbouring Pakistan. However, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm Mike Mullen, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the military planning is under way to try to avoid that. Mullen said he believes the upcoming increase of 21,000 US forces in Afghanistan "is about right" for the new strategy of trying to quell the insurgency and speed up training of Afghan Security Forces.

May 22

17 militants and three SF personnel were killed and ten SF personnel sustained injuries during fighting in various areas of Swat District. According to an official announcement, troops are consolidating their positions and expanding their control over the valley. The SFs are reported to have secured militants’ strongholds in Takhtaband village and Qambar. During an encounter between the two sides, eight militants and one soldier were killed and six SF personnel were wounded.

In the Shangla District, troops took control of Baini Baba Ziarat, Nazarabad, Uchraisar, and Wanai Ridge. During clashes between the Taliban and SFs, three militants and an Army officer were killed.

A powerful car bomb exploded near the Tasveer Mahal Cinema hall in the busy Kabuli Chowk area of Peshawar, capital of the NWFP, killing at least 10 people and injuring over 65 others. Besides destroying the front elevation of the Tasveer Mahal Cinema, the powerful explosion also damaged another nearby movie hall, dozens of music centres and shops as well as several vehicles. The blast also disconnected power supply to the area hampering rescue efforts. Windowpanes of buildings in the adjoining Qissa Khwani, Khyber Bazaar, Mohallah Jhangi, Shoba Bazaar and Namakmandi areas were damaged due to the impact of the explosion. The Capital City Police Officer, Safwat Ghayyur, while admitting a security lapse, said 40-50 kilograms of explosives were used in the blast.

May 23

17 Taliban militants, including a ‘commander’, were killed by troops at Mingora in Swat, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. He said the troops had secured a part of the city from the Circuit House to Makan Bagh. Battles to secure Nawan Killi have begun and a link up between forces coming from Fiza Ghat to Whataki Chowk and Ayub Bridge to Nawan Killi has been completed. Intense clashes were reported from Nishat Chowk in Mingora. On the Qambar Ridge overlooking Mingora, three caves with large quantities of ammunition and rations were discovered during a search and destroy operation. Gen Abbas said there were about 1,500 ‘hardcore militants’ still fighting in Swat, and that the army would try to complete the operation in eight weeks.

May 24

Fighter jets and helicopter gunships targeted Taliban hideouts in the Orakzai Agency of FATA, with the AP news agency reporting at least 18 people killed in the offensive. AP quoted a Government official as saying that the targets were strongholds of Hakeemullah Mehsud, a deputy to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Hundreds have reportedly fled the area amid the fighting.

Troops have secured several important areas in Mingora, including a crossing infamous for beheadings carried out by the Taliban, said SFs as the military killed 10 more militants in various areas of Swat District. The Inter-Services Public Relations said 10 militants and three soldiers were killed in gun-battles in various areas of Swat, while 14 militants were also arrested. Five of the militants were killed in Malam Jabba when the SFs were tipped off about their presence in the area. The troops secured various important areas in Mingora – including Wattakai Chowk, Nawakilli Chowk, Nishat Chowk, Sirafe Chowk, Gulshan Chowk, Green Chowk, Haji Baba Chowk and Sohrab Chowk – in the 24 hours preceding the latest ISPR update on the operation. Green Chowk is infamous for beheadings carried out by the Taliban. The military said troops defused four IED during the operation in Mingora. Further, after surrounding Peochar valley, troops entered Peochar village and seized a huge cache of arms from Taliban hideouts and overtook a factory manufacturing bombs and IEDs.

The SFs claimed to have secured the training centre and logistic base of militants in the Malam Jabba area of Swat Valley. SFs also killed four militants during operations in the Fizagat and Peuchar areas and arrested eight others. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), SFs faced stiff resistance from the militants in Malam Jabba. However, it said the troops secured Malam Jabba, believed to be one of the strongholds of the militants in the valley. Located on main line of communication that links the Swat Valley with Mansehra, the area with thick forest was being used as a training centre and logistic base by the militants. SFs also secured Fizagat, a few kilometers north of Mingora city, and the area up to Watakai. During the operation, two militants were killed and six soldiers were wounded in an encounter.

The Taliban chief in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, has asked his men to stop battling the SFs in Mingora, a stronghold of the militants. "Maulana Fazlullah has directed all his mujahideen to stop resistance in Mingora and its surroundings to avoid hardships to the people and losses to the civilian population," said Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan. "Most of our mujahideen have already left Mingora," he said by telephone from an unspecified location. He accused the military of killing civilians during its operations in the Lower Dir, Buner and Swat Districts. The Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas, however, said the militants "have started using ploys to escape. They are now remembering the civilians whom they used to behead and decapitate."

Unidentified gunmen shot dead three Shia labourers in a drive-by shooting in Dera Ismail Khan. The assailants, riding a motorcycle, opened fire on a group of workers at a construction site, local Police chief Muhammad Iqbal said. "Three of the workers died on the spot and one was injured. The victims were all Shias," he told. The slain civilians were identified as Muhammad Nawaz, Jahangir and Mumtaz Hussain.

SFs have gained control of half of Mingora city and killed 29 militants in various areas of Swat Valley during the last 24 hours besides arresting 14 others, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Athar Abbas said. "Six soldiers also laid down their lives and 11 others sustained injuries," he told reporters at a press briefing in Islamabad. "More than half of Mingora is under the army's control. We have plugged all escape routes for militants," said Abbas, adding that pockets of "hardcore militants" remained. The military spokesman said the operation was progressing well despite stiff resistance by the militants. He said street fights and house-to-house search was going on in Mingora city. Athar said 18 militants were killed in Mingora during an encounter and seven others were arrested when they were trying to escape towards Buner District. He said four IEDs were also defused in the area.

About Buner, he said 90 percent area of the District had been cleared although some terrorists are present at Pir Baba. During search at check-posts, four militants have been arrested, he said. He added that in the night of May 25, about 100 to 120 militants attacked the Kalpani post in Dir Lower District from three directions and the attack was repulsed and militants suffered heavy casualties. Eight bodies have been recovered in close vicinity of the check-post. Two SF personnel were also killed in the incident and three others were wounded.

Several militants and five civilians were killed and 10 others injured in shelling by the military gunship helicopters in Shangla District. Sources said the SFs, backed by gunship helicopters, targeted the militant-infested areas of Jabar, Amnavi and Achar. The sources added these areas were heavily shelled and SFs on the ground continued search and cordon operations. There were reports that several militants and five civilians were killed in the shelling.

Three Policemen and a suspected militant were killed and an ASI sustained injuries in a pre-dawn encounter with local and foreign militants in the Malikyar village of Haripur District of NWFP. This was the first major case involving militants in Haripur District. The suspected militants were believed to have attacked the Police party in a bid to secure the release of five women, who had been put under house arrest after the Police arrested a foreigner, Abdullah, from there last week. Some hand grenades, Kalashnikovs, computers and CDs having footages of the Taliban, were also recovered in the raid.

The Taliban said they wanted to return to the peace deal with the NWFP Government, similar to the one that collapsed in April 2009 and triggered the military operation in Swat and Malakand, CNN said. The TNSM chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad claimed the Taliban in Swat District were willing to disarm if the Government implemented Sharia (Islamic law) in the region, his spokesman said.

SFs launched a military operation against the Baitullah Mehsud-led militants in South Waziristan, reportedly killing seven militants. However, the military spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, denied the operation in South Waziristan and said SFs had just consolidated their positions in the region.

The UN is considering asking Pakistan to pause its offensive against the Taliban in order to provide aid to those trapped in the conflict, a top UN official has said. Thousands of civilians are trapped in areas where aid workers say aerial bombardment by the military and landmines planted by the Taliban have forced people to remain in their homes with little food and water, communications or medicines and no power. "We are ... very concerned about those still trapped inside the conflict zone," Manuel Bessler, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Pakistan, told AlertNet. He also said, "A humanitarian pause is a subject of discussion and with the very good liaison we have with the armed forces, it is obviously something that we would not shy away from asking for." Around 200,000 civilians are trapped in Swat and tens of thousands in Buner and Lower Dir Districts.

The UNHCR said that almost 126,000 people were being displaced daily, and most of them were taking care of themselves instead of relying on international aid.

Suicide bombers detonated a vehicle loaded with 100 kilograms of explosives near offices of the capital city police officer (CCPO) and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Lahore- killing at least 27 persons and injuring 326 others, in addition to destroying a two-storey building of the Rescue 15 police service, according to Police. An ISI colonel and 15 Police officials were among those killed. Witnesses said the attack started midmorning when two gunmen stepped out of a white van - which had pulled up in a narrow street separating the police and ISI buildings - cautioned civilians to take cover, and started firing at SF personnel deployed down the street. The gunmen also hurled a grenade at the SFs personnel. As the firing continued, the driver managed to cross the concrete barrier, but could not get further and was forced to blow up the vehicle there. Superintendent of Police Sohail Sukhera said a threefold security cordon prevented the attackers from getting to the offices CCPO and ISI offices. He said the terrorist in the vehicle was shot - which prompted him to blow up the vehicle about a hundred feet away from the intended target, in front of the Rescue 15 building.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the blast was in reaction to the military operation in the Malakand Division of NWFP. Addressing journalists in Karachi, Malik said the attack appeared to be a suicide blast, but did not divulge further details. He said "terrorists have arrived here" after being defeated in FATA. He said that TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud had threatened to carry out attacks if the military offensive was not stopped.

15 Taliban militants were killed and several injured by SFs shelling in South Waziristan Agency. According to a private TV channel, the SFs shelled Taliban hideouts in Sarokai area, killing 15 militants and injuring several others.

SFs said they would clear Mingora town in Swat District of the Taliban within two to three days, as 12 more militants were killed in the ongoing military operation. Mingora Force Commander Brigadier Tahir Hamid told the media that SFs had secured 70 percent of Mingora city. He said the army was chasing the Taliban through the streets.

Troops claimed to have killed 10 militants in the Maidan area of Lower Dir District. Militants' hideouts in Zaimdara, Shagai, Dabako, Babagam and other place of upper Maidan reportedly came under shelling. A local source said that the Taliban militants were fleeing Maidan and only a few hardcore militants were offering resistance. He said the militants who had come from Waziristan were not seen patrolling the area for over a week. "They have either been killed in the operation or have returned to Waziristan," he added.

The NWFP Government has received reports that TTP Swat chief Maulana Fazlullah has been killed in the military operation in Swat, provincial Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said. He told the media in capital Peshawar that several key militant commanders' deaths had already been confirmed. The NWFP government has also decided to place head money on the Taliban leadership, he added.

A senior official of the country's premier defence nuclear establishment has said that a large force of nearly 10,000 people is in place to ensure security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and western fears about the safety of the weapons are unfounded. Air Commodore Khalid Banuri, who is Director of Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs at the Strategic Plans Division, said that Pakistan's 'command and control structure' for the weapons was better than that of many other nuclear states, and many countries and their experts had officially acknowledged this. In an interview with Dawn News, Air Commodore Banuri described as "preposterous" western media reports that Pakistan's nuclear weapons might fall into wrong hands - terrorists or other non-state actors. "The intent clearly appears to be mala fide," he said, adding "It does not make sense for anyone to continue to harp on this despite having understanding of how Pakistan does its work." He said: "We have taken stringent measures which are legislative, institutional, procedural and administrative. We have ensured all aspects of nuclear capability." Elaborating, he said that a large force of highly trained and professional people - in fact over 10,000 people were looking after the security of the nuclear assets.

Terrorists attacked Peshawar, capital of the NWFP, and its environs as eight people were killed and over 68 sustained injuries. Two separate blasts took place in the Qissa Khwani bazaar while three Policemen were killed and nine others injured in a suicide attack on a Police vehicle at the Sra Khawra security post on the Kohat road. Two suspected militants were killed and two others arrested in an encounter between the Police and alleged terrorists who had taken shelter in a building located behind Qissa Khwani bazaar soon after the two blasts.

A Policeman and two passers-by were killed and 13 people wounded when a suicide attacker exploded an auto-rickshaw near a Police checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan.

SFs entered Bahrain, while seven more militants were killed and four others, including an important commander, were arrested during the last 24 hours in the ongoing operation in Swat Valley, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. Four soldiers were also killed while 12 others sustained injuries in clashes between SFs and militants in different areas of the valley.

A report has indicated that the Taliban in Swat pay mercenaries for killing Police and army troops, a suspected Afghan terrorist arrested by local Police told the media, adding that he was paid PKR 20,000 to kill a Policeman. "I beheaded five policemen in Sitara Chowk," Ghaniur Rehman told reporters after SFs arrested him from Malukabad area of the city a day earlier. The suspected Afghan terrorist said he received training at a Taliban training facility in the Charbagh area.

At least five persons, including a woman, were killed when unidentified attackers opened indiscriminate fire on a customer service centre in Quetta, capital of Balochistan. The assailants, who were riding a motorcycle, attacked the service centre on Kalat Street, Jail Road at around 11pm.

More than 20 suspected militants and their financiers were arrested during separate operations in the Jamrud and Bara areas of Khyber Agency in FATA.

Hakimullah Mehsud, a spokesman for the TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud, claiming responsibility for the bomb-and-gun attack in Lahore that killed 27 persons and injured 326 others, warned of more violence in response to the military operation in Swat and surrounding areas. Speaking to the media from an undisclosed location, the Taliban commander said "I appeal to [people] of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Multan to vacate their cities as there will be more such massive attacks, more dangerous than this and we will target government buildings and places". Referring to the blast site in Lahore, he added, "We [have been] looking for this target for a long time".

SFs have taken control of Bahrain and cleared Peochar village in the Swat District, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said as SFs killed 28 Taliban militants, including commander Khush Mir Khan a.k.a. Abu Huzaifa. "The security forces have successfully secured Bahrain," said the ISPR in a statement, adding that the army had also arrested seven Taliban militants from various areas of Swat. Some of the heaviest recent fighting is reported to have taken place in Bahrain. In a cordon-and-search operation, the SFs cleared the Taliban stronghold of Peochar village. "The army destroyed Taliban hideouts, including a madrassa, and seized 12 UN-registered vehicles," said the ISPR, adding that four tunnels storing rations stolen from NGOs were also discovered and a 'huge cache of arms' confiscated.

During a search operation in the Kalpani area of Lower Dir District, the army killed six Taliban commanders, identified as Qadir, Noor Hameed, Aftab, Yousaf, Iftikhar and Iftikhar.

The SFs also defused five improvised explosive devices during a search operation around Daggar in Buner District. The army is reported to have killed 13 Taliban militants hiding in a compound during a gun-battle.

1,300 militants and 90 SF personnel have been killed so far during the ongoing operation. Official sources said the troops were moving towards Kalam and would soon enter the area. Troops are also reportedly ensuring that the militants do not return to the areas cleared of them.

Pakistan hiked a reward for Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban chief in Swat valley, wanted dead or alive, to PKR 50 million, 10 times more than an original bounty. "The federal government has announced 50 million rupees," an Interior Ministry spokesman told. "The five million rupees head money was announced by the provincial government in the NWFP," he added. The Interior Ministry also published a list of "miscreant-terrorists" from the Taliban leadership in Swat and District capital Mingora, offering PKR 50 million for Fazlullah and PKR 10 million each for 15 of his aides.

The number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) has crossed the three million mark, according to the NWFP Government. Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said at a press conference in provincial capital Peshawar that the number of IDPs now stood at 3.4 million - 2.8 million of them from Malakand Division alone. He said the provincial Government was determined to provide all possible facilities to the displaced people and a substantial number of lady doctors had been deputed to look after them.

Military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas has said that "many of the Taliban's arms are coming across the border from Afghanistan ... the US should stop worrying about Pakistan's nukes and start worrying about the weapons lost in Afghanistan". A private TV channel reported on May 29 that the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General said the current conflict in Swat was intricately linked to the situation in Afghanistan. He estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent of the Taliban in the Swat valley and its adjacent areas were foreign fighters. He also said Mingora could be secured in 48 hours, but it may be "much, much longer" before the area was totally pacified. He also said that there was "no plan, date or time for the launch of an offensive in South Waziristan".

SFs have cleared Mingora city in the NWFP of the Taliban and destroyed the stronghold of the militant commanders, ISPR Director General Major General Athar Abbas said. Addressing a joint press conference with Information Minister Qamar Zaman Qaira, he said 25 Taliban militants were killed during the last 24 hours, including commanders, Abu Saeed Misbahud Din and Sultan Khan. He said SFs have successfully secured Nawagai and Najigram, and seized a large cache of arms and ammunition. He also said that the training centre of known Taliban commanders Lal Din, Said Jalil and Mian Said Liaq have been destroyed in Peochar, adding, five 100-foot-long tunnels have also been demolished. Responding to questions, he said 1,217 Taliban militants were killed and 79 arrested since the start of the military offensive on April 26. In the same period, 81 SF personnel were also killed while 250 others sustained injuries, he added.

Two Taliban militants and a soldier were killed in a clash between Security Forces and militants in South Waziristan.

The TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud has ordered his followers to carry out bombings in small villages of Swat and FATA and establish hideouts in other areas of the country, a private TV channel reported. In letters to various Taliban commanders in Lower Dir, Swat and Buner, Mehsud said the bombings in the villages would help conduct suicide missions in cities later. He said the army had reached every nook and corner of Swat, therefore, the Taliban must find new hideouts.

25 militants, including a senior commander of the Baitullah Mehsud-led TTP, Miraj Burki, and six soldiers were killed and several others wounded in clashes between the militants and SFs in South Waziristan Agency. Other reports said 13 soldiers were killed and over two dozens injured. Fierce fighting between the two sides has reportedly forced thousands of tribal families to leave their homes in the Mehsud-inhabited areas.

Three soldiers, including a Lieutenant, were killed and some others injured in an ambush on a military convoy by the Taliban near Tiarza. The convoy was heading towards Tiarza from Shakai when it was attacked.

SFs entered the Kalam Valley and took control of Mingora city, while 12 militants were killed during the last 24 hours in the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast, the ISPR said. Eight SF personnel were also killed and six others sustained injuries, it added. Mingora city is now reportedly in control of the SFs who are manning every square, street and building and keeping a vigil on every passing vehicle and people. The troops advancing on the north of Mingora entered Kalam Valley at 10:00 am. The ISPR said troops had secured Mankial, some 14 kilometers from Bahrain, and continued consolidation of their positions in Bahrain, Kuz Laikot and Kidam.

The military operation in Swat District will be completed in two to three days, Secretary of Defence Syed Athar Ali said. Speaking at a security summit in Singapore and talking to Reuters later for an interview, Ali said the military operation in Swat had "met almost complete success", with only 5 percent to 10 percent of the job remaining. "Hopefully within the next two to three days these pockets of resistance will be cleared," Ali told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual meeting of defence ministers, officials and experts.

Security Forces launched an operation in the Yakh Tanghi Top area Alpuri in Shangla District, killing several Taliban militants and destroying their hideouts and a base. Artillery units based in Shangla Top attacked several hideouts of militants who had sneaked into the area from the Swat and Buner Districts. Official sources said that a Government rest-house in Yakh Tanghi built by the former ruler of Swat and being used by militants as their base was hit by shells, leaving several militants dead.

Videos made by the Taliban in Swat have reportedly shown teenage boys being groomed as suicide bombers. Militants went from house to house in May demanding a man or boy from each family. The recruits were encouraged to volunteer for suicide missions. A Taliban spokesman has said the recent suicide attacks in Lahore and Peshawar were revenge for the army's assault in the NWFP. Films obtained by Sunday Telegraph show boys of 14 or 15 recording farewell messages before climbing into vehicles filled with explosives.

The NWFP Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, has confirmed the death and arrest of the second and third-tier leadership of the militants during the military operation in Malakand Division and hoped their top leadership would also be neutralized soon. About the Internally Displaced Persons, the minister said some 19,838 families or 116,391 individuals had been registered at camps, while 380,543 families or 2,805,073 people were living outside the camps in Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Charsadda and Peshawar Districts.

SFs claimed to have killed 37 militants in the Swat Valley and the Buner District during the ongoing military operation against Taliban. In addition, troops launched an operation in the Charbagh area of the valley to clear it of the militants, while curfew was lifted from Kalam town after talks between SFs and local elders. The Frontier Corps sources said SFs engaged the militants in their hideouts in Pacha Killay, Tongo Pull, Jawar and Gul Killay. 19 militants were killed during an exchange of fire between the SFs and Taliban, the sources claimed. The ISPR said 18 militants were killed and 12 others were arrested during the ongoing Operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat Valley. The ISPR said normalcy was returning to Mingora. The ISPR also said food items and medicines were being supplied to the city, while hospital staff and technicians had already been flown in.

SFs carried out a search and destroy operation in the Dambar Kandao area of Peuchar and destroyed a training centre of the militants. A newly-constructed, 50-foot-long tunnel in the area was destroyed, along with a huge cache of arms an