German ‘mujahideen villages’ in Pakistan’s tribal region

October 11th, 2009 HAMBURG/KABUL - German military pistols are being sold on the black market in Afghanistan and Pakistan, German NDR radio reported Sunday. Weapons belonging to a German shipment of 10,000 pistols intended for the Afghan police and army were reportedly being illegally traded.

October 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's new Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has met journalists, ending speculation about his death, and vowed to avenge drone attacks and the killing of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud. Hakimullah Mehsud met reporters Sunday in the country's tribal area for the first time since gaining control over the militant outfit, Dawn reported Monday.

September 5th, 2009 KUNDUZ - The top NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, travelled to the northern province of Kunduz Saturday to visit the site of a deadly NATO airstrike, where villagers claimed that "scores" of civilians were killed. Teams from the Afghan government, NATO military and the UN are investigating the incident, in which trucks hijacked by the Taliban were hit in a US jet strike ordered by the local German command of the NATO-led force.

August 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - : Expressing concern over Al-Qaeda's expanding activities in the region, US President Barack Obama has said the outlawed outfit and its allies have moved their bases to Pakistan's remote tribal areas. Obama said Washington's decision to revamp its AFPAK strategy was based on credible information that the Al-Qaeda has shifted its base to Pakistan's lawless tribal region.

July 5th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Nine members of Lashkar (a tribal volunteer force) and three militants were killed in a clash in northwest Pakistan, a media report said Sunday. A group of armed militants attacked members of the Qaumi Lashkar in Pamp Pokha area of Ambar tehsil late on Friday night when they were returning to their base, official sources said.

July 1st, 2009 PESHAWAR - More than 3000 people have been killed in extremist violence in Pakistan's tribal areas so far, a report released by the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) secretariat has revealed. The report, which lays out the monetary and human losses due to terrorism, also revealed that over two billion dollars have been lost in the tribal areas due to extremist activities.

June 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A fresh wave of sectarian clashes fuelled by Islamist militancy in Pakistan's troubled north-western region near Afghanistan killed at least 33 people over the weekend, a media report said Sunday. The clashes broke between Sunni and Shiites Muslims in the Kurram tribal district last week after insurgents infiltrated the area to flee a military offensive against the Taliban fighters elsewhere in the volatile region.

June 25th, 2009 DHAKA - Some key members of banned Islamist militant organisation Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) are now in Pakistan for military training. The Daily Star quoted a senior official of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) as, saying that at least two militants wanted by his organisation had fled to Pakistan and were staying there.Both of them could be actively assisting the Taliban who are currently fighting the Pakistan security forces," he added.

June 23rd, 2009 BERLIN - Three German soldiers died in a gunfight in the northern Afghanistan region of Kunduz Tuesday, Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said. The three soldiers were taking evasive action with their armoured vehicle when they were involved in a fatal accident, sources told DPA.

June 20th, 2009 LAHORE - Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) MPA from Rahimyar Khan, Makhdoom Syed Ahmed Mehmood, has said that the provincial government needs to quickly build schools, hospitals and roads in South Punjab or it will become the next region in Pakistan to be wracked by insurgency. "The situation in my area has become very bad.

June 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces early Tuesday recovered dozens of cadets and staff of a military-run college who had been kidnapped by Islamist insurgents in the volatile tribal region near Afghanistan the previous day, the military said. The hostages were rescued after "a fierce fight" in the Garyum area, located some 20 km east of the Razmak town in North Waziristan district, a hotbed of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

May 28th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - About 10,000 security personnel are guarding Pakistans nuclear arsenal and Western fears about the safety of the weapons are unfounded, a senior official has said. Air Commodore Khalid Banuri, director of arms control and disarmament affairs at the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), said that Pakistans command and control structure for the weapons was better than that of many other nuclear-armed states, and many countries had officially acknowledged this, DawnNews reported Thursday.

May 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban and al-Qaeda have shifted their base from Afghanistan to the mountainous tribal region of Pakistan and have successfully turned the region into their safe havens post 9/11, a top US official has said. Talking to reporters at the State Department, the acting US Coordinator of Counter-terrorism, Ronald Schlicher, said the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan are proving a perfect base for Al-Qaeda.

April 20th, 2009 LANDIKOTAL - The Jamaat-e-Islami has threatened to disrupt supplies to the NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan, if the United States continues with drone attacks in Pakistan's Tribal Areas. The warning was issued at a JeI public meeting, during which the participants took out a rally against drone strikes, the military operation in FATA, and the country's cooperation with the US in its war on terror.

April 18th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Taliban in the Bajaur region of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) has asked the tribal elders, who had opposed their activities, to seek pardon and give undertakings that they would speak against Taliban's act in future. "Those elders who approach Taliban will be granted clemency.