Top ’suicide bomb specialist’ Taliban commander nabbed in Swat

September 21st, 2009 PESHAWAR - The fearsome militant commander, Sher Mohammad Qasab, who was arrested critically injured during Swat operation, has succumbed to his injuries. Swat media centre said that the militant commander was nabbed in critically injured condition four days ago from Charbagh area.

September 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - A senior commander of the banned militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has been apprehended in northwest Pakistan's Swat region, media reports said Monday. According to sources, Nasim alias Abu Faraj, who masterminded many suicide attacks in the country, was arrested in an operation by Pakistani security forces, GEO News reported.

September 20th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani Taliban commander Sher Mohammad Qasab, who carried a Rs.10 million bounty and was arrested from the Swat Valley, has died, authorities said Sunday. Qasab was critically injured during the Swat operation and he succumbed to his injuries, Geo TV reported.

September 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan security forces have arrested one of the most wanted and dreaded Taliban commanders, Sher Mohammad Qasab, along with 16 other extremists from the Swat Valley. Qasab, who is said to have been running a slaughter house, was nabbed after a fierce gun battle between the Taliban and troops.

September 15th, 2009 PESHAWAR - North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain has said that Swat Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah would be nabbed dead or alive soon as the security forces have tightened the noose around him. Hussain claimed that troops have surrounded the region where Fazlullah is believed to be hiding.

September 4th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - The Pakistan Army is determined chase the Taliban till the very end, and would continue its offensive against the extremists until they are rooted out from the country, Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani has said. Speaking at a function after inaugurating a rehabilitation centre for young Taliban recruits, General Kayani said 'Operation Rah-e-Rast', being carried out in the Swat and the Malakand Divisions, has broken the back of extremists.

August 24th, 2009 WANA - A commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Monday said his organisation will select a new chief in the next five days according to the instruction of their leader Baitullah Mehsud, a media report said. Waliur Rehman, commander of the group in South Waziristan, said: We have thousands of suicide attackers, who can destroy their (government) targets anywhere.

August 15th, 2009 PESHAWAR - At least five security personnel were killed and four others including a civilian,were injured in a suicide car bomb attack at a checkpoint in Swat valley on Saturday. "A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a military checkpost in Waliabad village, killing at least three soldiers," The Nation quoted a senior security official, as saying.

July 29th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - At least one person was killed and three others wounded in a car bomb blast in North West Frontier Frontier Province's Dera Ismail Khan on Wednesday. Officials said the car was parked inside a parking lot of the district courts, and a remote control device was used to trigger off the blast.

July 21st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistani security forces have killed at least 114 Taliban militants in two separate operation in Lower Dir and Swat regions, while three army officials have also lost their lives, a private TV channel has claimed. During the operation, troops managed to destroyed many bunkers and hideouts in Lower Dir, after they targeted the headquarters.

July 2nd, 2009 RAWALPINDI - At least six persons were killed and over 15 injured in a suicide bomb attack here on Thursday. The attack which took place in the Chur Chowk area of the city was earlier referred to as a bomb blast, but later senior police officials confirmed that it was a suicide attack.

July 1st, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Militants killed 18 of their own wounded men whom they could not take along while retreating from an area in the restive Swat valley, the Pakistani army has said. "We have received information that during the clearance of Biha valley, 18 wounded terrorists who could not be taken to safety were slaughtered by their own men on the orders of their commanders," Dawn quoted the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) as saying Tuesday.

June 2nd, 2009 KABUL - Six people were killed Tuesday in a suicide bomb attack in Afghanistan's northeastern Bagram district, while a senior Taliban commander was killed in a separate incident in the country's southern Helmand province, officials said. In the latest incident, a suicide bomber blew up a civilian car in Bagram district Tuesday, 50 km north of Kabul, killing all six people in the vehicle, the interior ministry said in a statement.

May 11th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Three security personnel were killed and five others injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into a check post in northwestern Pakistan, TV reports said Saturday. The incident took place in the Khawazakhela area of Swat.

May 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Stung by a military operation launched against the Taliban in Pakistan's troubled northwest, the militants Saturday threatened to kill President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. 'We will eliminate not just them but also their families,' a Taliban commander in Swat was quoted as saying.