Barbaric Taliban butcher four school kids in Pakistan

September 28th, 2009 LAHORE - Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has admitted that his government's secret agreement with the Taliban had backfired. The Daily Times quoted Musharraf, as saying that the Taliban had misled his administration.

September 26th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - An editorial in one of Pakistan's leading dailies has said that the Taliban's clout gained tremendous strength during former President General Pervez Musharraf's regime, and added that Musharraf himself watched the banned outfit's terror grow. The Daily Times editorial blamed Musharraf's regime for the Taliban's expansion in the country and said that the former general kept the armed forces under his control and did nothing while people in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) were being forced to live under the barbaric rules imposed by the Taliban.

September 23rd, 2009 NEW YORK - With the Taliban's fear and their diktat slowly wearing away in the Swat Valley, women in the region have started coming out of their homes shunning their clumsy garb, but one can still feel a peculiar uneasiness among the people in the picturesque war ravaged valley. The military operation in the Swat and Malakand Divisions forced the Taliban out of the region, and women, who were the biggest sufferers during the Taliban's barbaric rule, have now started to return to their public life.

September 22nd, 2009 Girls school attacked in PakistanPESHAWAR, Pakistan — Suspected Islamist militants blew up a girls school close to the main city in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, police said. The school on the outskirts of the Peshawar was empty when the explosion took place, police officer Hamdullah Khan said.

September 1st, 2009 LAHORE - Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Bajaur Agency chief Maulvi Faqir has said that Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban had no role in the appointment of new Pakistan Taliban chief. He said the Tehreek-e-Taliban council had independently chosen and appointed Hakimullah Mehsud as Baitullah's successor.

August 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke says Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud's elimination last week was a "very big deal" in terms of security efforts in Pakistan. "The end of Baitullah Mehsud, as we all know, is a very big deal," he said Wednesday, citing reports of "disarray among his people, of other factions manoeuvring" following the apparent death of the Taliban leader in a missile strike.

July 21st, 2009 LONDON - A probe for noise pollution was ordered into a Brit Primary school after locals complained about kids' laughter. Council inspectors heard of the complaints of an "unbearable" din at playtimes, and carried out tests to see whether it exceeded World Health Organisation limits.

July 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has ruled out any negotiations with the Taliban until it lays down arms and severe all its ties with Al-Qaeda. When enquired about the statement of the Pakistan Army's spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, that the Pakistan military can bring the Taliban to the discussion table with the United States, the US Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said such a possibility can only occur when the Taliban 'repudiates al-Qaeda publicly'.

July 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban Friday claimed to have shot down a Pakistan Army helicopter in the country's lawless tribal region, a media report said. A spokesman for the Islamic militants told Sama television that the Taliban had also captured the pilot of the helicopter gunship.

June 22nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has asked the Taliban to leave the country, as Pakistan's military's offensive would not stop until every insurgent is eliminated from the nation's soil. The Daily Times quoted Malik, as saying, that Pakistan had long said 'no' to the Taliban, and now they must leave Pakistan, adding that the Taliban were neither Muslims nor Pakistanis.

June 16th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban is buying children for 500,000 to 2.5 million rupees to convert them into suicide bombers, and execute barbarous terrorist activities, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has revealed. Speaking at an award distribution ceremony, Malik said Pakistan is determined to continue the war against terrorism till the Taliban are flushed out of the country.

June 15th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan government has asked the Army to carry out an all out offensive to hunt down the Tehreek-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, and Mehsud tribes. Addressing a press conference, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Governor, Awais Ghani, said that a comprehensive military operation would be launched against Mehsud for harbouring terrorists, and killing innocent people.

April 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The United States has reiterated that there is an immediate need to dismantle the Taliban and Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan for the safety of the US and the world. Addressing the Senate, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for Middle-east and South Asia, Senator Tom Casey expressed concerns about the expanding writ of the Taliban in Pakistan.

April 27th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban has threatened to take revenge from the villagers of the Buner region who had formed 'Lashkar' to prevent them advancing further in the region. Maulana Misbahuddin Malikpuri, a Taliban operative, said the outfit would seek revenge from the residents of Shalbandi and Sultanwus villages as they had dared to form 'Lashkar' against them.

April 18th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - In yet another incident of Taliban's brutal ways of handing out punishments to people according to its own rules, the outlawed insurgents shot dead a man and a woman on charges of having illicit relations in Hangu district near the border of Orakzai Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). According to the Dawn, the masked Taliban insurgents first killed the woman aged 45 by pumping bullets in her chest, and then opened Kalashnikov fire at her and the man.