ISLAMABAD: The innocuous sounding MOU on the ultimate signing of a Transit Agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan, recently inked between the two countries in Washington, is guaranteed to sire major controversies in the coming days, as it is being perceived as a US dictate to Pakistan to allow a direct land link between Delhi and Kabul. It’s an immensely beneficial concession that India has desired since the 40’s but was never allowed by Pakistan due to trade and military strategic reasons. But all that is set to change, and to …

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has made it clear the operation against militants would continue till logical end, adding that, 700 militants have been killed so far in security forces operation in Malakand division. Talking to media men upon his arrival from Washington at Benazir Bhutto International Airport, he said, 20 security forces soldiers were also killed in the operation, which will continue till the elimination of the Taliban.
Malik said Pakistan made an aid appeal to the international community for the displaced of the Swat operation. He said 296,000 …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AFP) — The United States said Monday that it would provide 4.9 million dollars in emergency aid for families displaced by the current anti-Taliban offensive in northwest Pakistan. UN officials say more than 360,000 people have been uprooted after ground and air operations began over a week ago against Taliban strongholds in the scenic valley of Swat and adjoining areas.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said more than 700 militants had been killed in the fighting.
“The people of the United States are providing 4.9 million dollars in immediate emergency assistance …

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Wednesday pledged a “lasting commitment” by the U.S. to the democratic governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan after an unusual three-way meeting that ended with promises but no concrete agreements. Flanked by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama told reporters that both men “fully appreciate the seriousness of the threat we face” from Islamic extremists. He didn’t invite either visitor to speak, however, and both appeared ill at ease.
Only 24 hours earlier, special envoy Richard Holbrooke told Congress that the U.S. …

USA tops the list of bogus “experts” on terrorism followed by UK, Israel and India. These notorious intelligence outfits create tensions in the world by generating terror strategies. Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington think tank is infested with such post-paid terror mongers in suits. Pentagon-CIA and other regional indigence underdogs supply fabricated news and reports about “Islamic fundamentalist terrorists” for suitable analysis and quick delivery to Third world. The “western Frankenstein monsters’ are bent upon destroying the Islamc world and kill Muslims. They also provide counselling to the Global …

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the U.S. Central Command says Taliban militants are a “true threat” to the existence of Pakistan. But Gen. David Petraeus (peh-TRAY’-uhs) says he is confident that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is safe from militants. Petraeus also is claiming that Taliban brutality in northwestern Pakistan has “galvanized” the entire country, including its military, behind the recently launched offensive against the militant organization.
Pakistan says it has 175,000 forces fighting into the rugged and mountainous region to defeat Taliban fighters who had taken over after been driven out …

Her name was Sahin and in a matter of hours her world had been broken. As fighting raged in their hometown of Mingora – fighter jets screaming overhead and mortar fire pounding – she and her husband tried to escape with their 10 children. Amid the chaos, her husband was killed by an artillery shell. There was hardly time to bury him in the courtyard of a neighbour’s house before Sahin was forced to think of the children and of somehow leading them to safety by herself. They walked for …

ISLAMABAD, May 9 (Xinhua) — Up to ten persons were killed in suspected U.S. drone attack in Pakistan’s tribal region on Saturday, private TV channel Geo reported.
Suspected U.S. drones fired four missiles at a house and a Madrassa at Sararogha area of South Waziristan, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, said the report.
Local people pulled eight bodies out of the rubble. Seven others were injured and two of them later died of wounds in hospital.
Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan have seen missile attacks conducted by suspected U.S. drones based in Afghanistan. …

With Pakistan launching what the country’s Daily Times calls an “all-out war” against the Taliban, more than 500,000 people have fled the fighting in the northwest, bringing to more than a million those displaced since August, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. After apparently giving the Taliban enough rope to hang themselves, by offering a peace deal in the Swat valley which the government said they then reneged upon, the government for now seems to have won enough popular backing to launch its offensive.
But to succeed in defeating the …

MINGORA, Pakistan (UPI) — The Pakistan military said it implemented a full-scale offensive in the Swat Valley Friday in an attempt to drive out Taliban militants. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 140 militants and seven Pakistani security force troops had been killed in the region, and that army helicopters began targeting Taliban positions, The New York Times said.
Abbas said nearly 4,000 militants estimated to be in the Swat Valley were fleeing the military offensive.
“They are on the run and trying to block the exodus of innocent civilians by …