Timeline Pakistan
B 2006-2009
Return to home
2006 Jan 1, A
coalition of thousands of Islamic schools vowed to resist a Pakistani
government plan to deport their foreign students, calling the proposal
immoral.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2006 Jan 5, Pakistan said it had
taken all "appropriate action" to break up the underground nuclear
network run by its former chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
(AP, 1/5/06)
2006 Jan 7, Cross border firing at
a Pakistani village near the Afghan border killed eight people in
Saidgi village. Pakistan protested the incident to the US military.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Pakistan assailants
armed with rockets and assault rifles attacked a newly built checkpoint
near the Afghan border before dawn, killing all eight security forces.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Pakistan some 50
survivors of the Oct 8 earthquake commandeered 2 UN relief helicopters
to flee the disaster zone.
(WSJ, 1/7/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 10, A battle between
Pakistani security forces and suspected Islamic militants firing
rockets and assault rifles left 21 dead in a tribal region near the
Afghan border.
(AP, 1/10/06)
2006 Jan 11, Pakistani security
forces killed 12 suspected militants in a gunfight following the deaths
of 3 soldiers whose vehicle struck a land mine in the country's restive
southwest.
(AP, 1/11/06)
2006 Jan 13, A local lawmaker said
a US airstrike on a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan
killed at least 17 people, including women and children. The American
military said it had no reports of an attack. The provincial government
said at least four foreign terrorists died in the purported US
airstrike aimed at al-Qaida's No. 2 leader in Damadola. The strike
destroyed three houses and killed 18 people. The US missile strike in
Pakistan killed a relative of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri
and a terror suspect.
(AP, 1/17/06)(AP, 1/13/07)
2006 Jan 14, Pakistan condemned a
purported CIA airstrike on a border village, and said it was protesting
to the U.S. Embassy over the attack that killed at least 18 people.
(AP, 1/14/06)(WSJ, 1/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 19, Pakistani security
officials said Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, an al-Qaida explosives and
chemical weapons expert and a relative of the terror network's No. 2
leader, were among four top operatives believed killed in a US missile
strike last week, as authorities arrested five more militant suspects.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 21, A helicopter used by
the Red Cross for earthquake relief operations in Pakistan went missing
with seven crew members on board. The wreckage of the copter and the
bodies of the seven people on board were found in June 2006.
(AP, 1/21/07)
2006 Jan 22, Thousands of angry
Pakistanis protested against a US airstrike that killed civilians,
chanting "Long live Osama bin Laden!" as anti-American rallies in the
country entered their second week.
(AP, 1/22/06)
2006 Jan 23, The US government
cleared Pakistan from the threat of having its trade preferences
withdrawn after the country took action to clamp down on copyright
theft. The announcement coincided with a visit to Washington by
Pakistani PM Shaukat Aziz, who told the US Chamber of Commerce that his
government was serious about clamping down on copycat piracy.
(AFP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 25, A minibus struck a
land mine in southwestern Pakistan, killing six passengers and wounding
five.
(AP, 1/25/06)
2006 Jan 26, Under request from
Pakistan Interpol said it has issued international notices seeking the
arrest of former PM Benazir Bhutto and her husband on corruption
charges. Both were currently visiting the US.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 26, In southwestern
Pakistan suspected tribal militants blew up a stretch of railway track,
severing train links with rest of country.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Jan 28, In Pakistan suspected
tribal rebels have fired rockets at a major gas field, blasted a main
power line and tried to blow up a rail track in the restive
southwestern province of Baluchistan.
(AFP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 29, A Pakistani express
train with up to 600 passengers aboard derailed, killing at least three
people and injuring as many as 40.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan 31, India and Pakistan
signed an agreement to restart a second cross-border train service next
month, the latest step in peace talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan 31, NATO ended its
earthquake relief operation in Pakistan, the first big disaster mission
involving ground troops outside an alliance country.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 4, About 250 Afghan
forces fought more than 200 rebels in the area's fiercest fighting in
months. At least 19 people were killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(AP, 2/4/06)
2006 Feb 5, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb ripped through a passenger bus, killing at least 13
people and wounding 20 others.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 9, In Pakistan’s
Northwest Frontier province a suspected suicide bombing and gunfire
killed at least 29 minority Shiite Muslims and gunmen killed at least
four more people in an attack on a bus in Hangu.
(AP, 2/9/06)(SFC, 2/10/06, p.A3)
2006 Feb 10, In northwestern
Pakistan Shiites and Sunnis battled each other with rockets and
gunfire, raising the death toll of two days of Muslim sectarian
violence to 38.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 11, In Pakistan tribal
insurgents killed three soldiers and injured 10 others in two attacks
on paramilitary forces in southwestern Baluchistan province.
(AP, 2/11/06)
2006 Feb 11, Suspected US military
fire struck the tent of a nomad family on the Pakistan side of the
rugged border with Afghanistan, killing two women and injuring at least
four children.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In northwestern
Pakistan police fired tear gas and wielded batons to stop about 7,000
students protesting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from marching on
the governor's residence.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 13, In Lahore gunmen on a
motorcycle killed Ahmad Javed Khawaja (72), a Pakistani doctor who
spent six months in jail on suspicions of harboring al-Qaida suspects
and possessing illegal weapons.
(AP, 2/13/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Pakistan thousands
of protesters rampaged through Islamabad and Lahore, storming into a
diplomatic district and torching Western businesses and a provincial
assembly in Pakistan's worst violence against the Prophet Muhammad
drawings. At least two people were killed and 11 injured.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 15, More than 70,000
people joined Pakistan's biggest protest yet against Prophet Muhammad
cartoons, burning movie theaters, a KFC restaurant and a South
Korean-run bus station. Three people died and dozens were injured in
two cities.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Pakistan deported
nearly 600 Afghans who had been jailed in the southern city of Karachi
for up to six months on charges of illegal immigration.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Gunmen on a
motorcycle killed three Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver in
a remote tribal region of southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai pressed his Pakistani counterpart on to root out militants
Afghanistan claims have launched a spate of recent cross-border suicide
bombings.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 16, In Karachi, Pakistan,
some 40 thousand people shouting "God is Great!" marched and burned
effigies of the Danish prime minister in the country's fourth day of
protests over cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 17, Pakistan security
forces seized heavy weapons and munitions destined for Islamic
militants in a northwestern tribal region near Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 17, A Pakistani cleric
announced a $1 million bounty for killing a cartoonist who drew Prophet
Muhammad, as thousands joined street protests and Denmark temporarily
closed its embassy and advised its citizens to leave the country.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 18, India and Pakistan
restored train service along a line that was severed during their war
40 years ago, establishing a second rail link between the two South
Asian rivals.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 18, In southwestern
Pakistan insurgents blew up four gas pipelines and two people were
injured in landmine explosions in Baluchistan province.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 19, Pakistani security
forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off
the capital and used gunfire and tear gas to quell protests against
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/20/06)
2006 Feb 19, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf arrived in China on a visit that analysts said would
focus on anti-terrorism cooperation, trade and technological assistance.
(AFP, 2/19/06)
2006 Feb 21, In Pakistan 11
Islamic militants were sentenced to death for an assassination attempt
on a Pakistani army general that killed 10 people in 2004.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 24, In Pakistan thousands
of Muslims defied a ban on rallies in Islamabad, joining protesters
across the country in condemning the Prophet Muhammad cartoons printed
by some Western newspapers.
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb 26, In Pakistan about
25,000 people, some chanting "Death to America," rallied against the
Prophet Muhammad caricatures in Karachi, but police prevented a rally
in the eastern city of Lahore by arresting the religious ringleader and
detaining scores of supporters. Assailants fired rockets at the home of
a provincial Cabinet in Pakistan's restive southwestern Baluchistan
province, killing a guest and wounding eight other people.
(AP, 2/26/06)
2006 Feb 27, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb explosion on a railroad track derailed a passenger
train shortly after it was attacked by gunmen.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 1, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships struck a militant hide-out in a
tribal region near the Afghan border, killing 45 fighters, including a
Chechen commander linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 3/1/06)
2006 Mar 2, In Pakistan a suicide
attacker rammed a car packed with explosives into a vehicle carrying an
American diplomat in Karachi, killing the diplomat and three other
people before President Bush's visit to Pakistan. Fifty-two people were
wounded. An Uzbek national, arrested in Pakistan in July, told
interrogators that Al-Qaeda had organized the suicide attack.
(AP, 3/2/06)(AFP, 7/26/06)
2006 Mar 3, Thousands rallied
across Pakistan against cartoons of Prophet Muhammad and a planned
visit by President Bush as radical Islamic groups called a strike that
shut shops and businesses in several major cities.
(AP, 3/3/06)
2006 Mar 4, President Bush and
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf recommitted their nations to the
difficult task of hunting down terrorists still hiding here and across
the globe. Police detained former cricket star Imran Khan and arrested
dozens of his opposition party's supporters to block a rally against
President Bush. Bush praised Pakistan's fight against terrorism as
unfaltering but turned down an appeal for the same civilian nuclear
help the US intends to give India.
(AP, 3/4/06)(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Hundreds of people
lugging bags and bundles of clothes fled Miran Shah, a northwestern
Pakistan, town after a battle between pro-Taliban tribesmen and
security forces killed at least 51 people. The fighting came just days
after the army attacked a suspected al-Qaida camp in the village of
Saidgi near the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 5, Tens of thousands of
people massed in Pakistan and Turkey to protest cartoons of Islam's
Prophet, Muhammad, that have fired anger throughout the Muslim world.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 6, In comments aimed at
Afghanistan's leader, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said that the
"bad-mouthing" of his country must stop and that Pakistani officials
have caught terrorists "and will continue to do so."
(AP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 6, Pakistani authorities
clamped a curfew on a Miran Shah and negotiated with tribesmen to try
to end three days of clashes that have left more than 120 pro-Taliban
rebels dead. Thousands of residents joined an exodus out of the town.
(AFP, 3/6/06)
2006 Mar 8, Train services linking
Pakistan with neighboring Iran were suspended indefinitely following
bombings and rocket attacks on the rail in southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 10, In southwestern
Pakistan a crowded bus carrying a wedding party hit an anti-tank mine
in Baluchistan province, killing 28 people, mostly women and children.
(AFP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 10, Pakistani soldiers
backed by helicopter gunships attacked a suspected militant hideout
near Miran Shah, the volatile tribal region near the Afghan border, and
killed about 30 militants.
(AP, 3/11/06)
2006 Mar 11, In Lahore, Pakistan,
hundreds of kites filled the skies on the opening day of a traditional
spring festival, despite a ban that followed the deaths of seven people
killed by glass-coated or wire kite strings.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In northwestern
Pakistan villagers found the bodies two tribesmen shot dead by
suspected Islamic militants, with a note on one of the bodies warning
that anyone who spied for the US would meet the same fate.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 12, In Lahore, Pakistan,
skies normally alive with colorful kites to mark a spring festival were
largely empty after police arrested 1,400 people over three days to
enforce a ban imposed because of a series of fatal accidents.
(AP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 16, In southwestern
Pakistan 7 homemade bombs toppled two high-power electricity
transmission towers and disrupted power to thousands of homes for
several hours.
(AP, 3/16/06)
2006 Mar 19, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants detonated a roadside bomb near a
police van, killing seven people and wounding four others.
(AP, 3/19/06)
2006 Mar 23, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf ordered all foreign militants to leave Pakistan or be killed.
Pakistan protested the killing by Afghan soldiers of 14 people Pakistan
claims were its citizens, the latest source of tension between the
neighboring countries amid increasing violence along their rugged
border.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 24, India's PM invited
Pakistan to join his country in a "treaty of peace, security and
friendship" to end nearly six decades of tension between the
nuclear-armed nations.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships killed at least 15 suspected
Taliban sympathizers in the latest flare-up of violence near the Afghan
border.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 25, In Pakistan police
said they had arrested 57 renegade tribesmen over the last 24 hours in
connection with recent bomb and rocket attacks that have killed several
people in southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 3/25/06)
2006 Mar 26, In southwest Pakistan
rebel tribesmen set off a bomb near the home of a senior government
official and launched a separate attack on a military post, triggering
a gunbattle that left two attackers and a soldier dead.
(AP, 3/26/06)
2006 Mar 27, Gunmen loyal to rival
pro-Taliban clerics fought street battles in Pakistan's tribal belt
bordering Afghanistan, leaving at least 25 people dead.
(AFP, 3/28/06)
2006 Apr 1, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants attacked a military base in a
tribal region, killing one soldier and injuring four others.
(AP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 2, In Pakistan’s
neighboring South Waziristan the bullet-riddled body of Maulana Zahir
Shah, was found. The cleric was killed by suspected Islamic militants
over suspicion he was a spy for the US and Britain. Ten people
including five tribal police were killed and 13 injured in separate
bomb blasts in the restive southwestern Pakistani province of
Baluchistan.
(AP, 4/2/06)(AFP, 4/2/06)
2006 Apr 3, In Pakistan a roadside
bomb killed five people riding a minibus and security forces shot dead
two suspected militants in North Waziristan province.
(AP, 4/3/06)
2006 Apr 5, Pakistani security
forces and suspected Islamic militants battled for a second day near
the Afghan border, leaving four soldiers and 16 fighters dead.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Pakistan provincial
police chief Chaudhry Mohammad Yaqub said "The federal government has
declared Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA) as terrorist organization
over its involvement in sabotage and subversive activities."
(AFP, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 9, In Pakistan at least
29 women and children were suffocated or crushed to death in a stampede
at a religious gathering in southern Pakistan. More than 70 people were
injured.
(Reuters, 4/9/06)
2006 Apr 11, In Karachi, Pakistan,
a bomb exploded during evening prayers at a park, killing at least 50
people and injuring over 100. The bombing killed the entire leadership
of Sunni Tehreek, a moderate Muslim group.
(SFC, 4/12/06, p.A13)(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 12, In Karachi, Pakistan,
mobs of youths rioted for a second straight day to protest a suicide
bombing that killed at least 56 people, which a top Pakistani official
said was aimed at "eliminating" the leadership of a moderate Sunni
Muslim group.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 12, Pakistani army
helicopters struck a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan in an
attempt to kill a wanted senior al-Qaida operative. Seven suspected
militants and two children were believed killed. Mohsin Musa Matawalli
Atwah (45), an Egyptian and al-Qaida member wanted for his suspected
role in the bombings of US embassies in East Africa, was killed.
(AP, 4/13/06)(SFC, 4/14/06, p.A15)
2006 Apr 14, Commercial life
halted in several Pakistani cities in a strike called by an Islamic
party to protest this week's suicide attack that killed its top leaders
and some 50 others.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 15, Saudi Arabia's Crown
Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz began a two-day visit to Pakistan during
which he is expected to discuss a possible arms deal.
(AFP, 4/15/06)
2006 Apr 16, Suspected pro-Taliban
militants beheaded two tribesmen in a remote part of Pakistan for
allegedly working for US forces across the border in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 4/17/06)
2006 Apr 18, Noor Jehan, a
14-year-old Pakistani girl, was shot 5 times by male relatives over a
rebuffed marriage proposal and left for dead on the outskirts of
Karachi. She died at a hospital in Karachi on May 21.
(AP, 5/22/06)
2006 Apr 20, Militants ambushed a
convoy of Pakistani troops in a northwestern tribal region near the
Afghan border, killing seven soldiers and wounding 22. A suspected
foreign Islamic militant linked to al-Qaida and a security official
were killed in a gunfight at a roadblock near Afghan border.
(AP, 4/20/06)
2006 Apr 25, Pakistani attack
helicopters pounded suspected Islamic militant hideouts near the Afghan
border as clashes killed three militants and two soldiers. In
northwestern Pakistan the body of Khan Mati, a taxi driver missing
since April 17, was found. Suspected Islamic militants decapitated him
over suspicions he was a US spy and a frequent visitor to an American
military base in Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/25/06)(AP, 4/26/06)
2006 Apr 30, In Pakistan an army
spokesman said Mohammed Farooq, a senior Pakistani scientist suspected
of helping leak nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya, and North
Korea, has been released after two years in detention.
(AP, 4/30/06)
2006 May 3, In New Delhi Muslim
separatists met India's prime minister for fresh peace talks on the
future of Kashmir. Hours before the talks were due to begin, four
rebels and three security men died in gunbattles in Kashmir.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, India and Pakistan
agreed to launch a truck service and a second passenger bus route this
summer linking the parts of Kashmir held by each country.
(AP, 5/3/06)
2006 May 3, In Pakistan gunmen
attacked a police post in a remote northwestern tribal region near the
Afghan border, killing three policemen.
(AP, 5/4/06)
2006 May 7, In Pakistan an
11-year-old boy was strangled by relatives who killed him rather than
obey a tribal elders' order for them to marry one of their womenfolk to
the child.
(Reuters, 5/8/06)
2006 May 11, In southwestern
Pakistan 5 bombs ripped through a firing range at a police training
school, killing six members of an anti-terrorism unit and wounding nine.
(AP, 5/11/06)
2006 May 13, In Saroki, Pakistan
thousands of people gathered for the funeral of Amir Cheema (28), a
Pakistani student found dead in a German jail while awaiting trial for
an alleged assault over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Cheema was
found dead from suicide in his cell at the Moabit prison in Berlin on
May 3.
(AFP, 5/13/06)
2006 May 14, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants stormed a roadside security post
in a tribal region and shot dead an officer.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Officials said a
searing heatwave in central Pakistan has killed at least 84 people with
temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in the past
week.
(AFP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 14, Exiled former
Pakistan prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif met in London
and agreed to a “charter of democracy” and to join in opposition to the
rule of Pres. Musharraf.
(Econ, 5/20/06, p.46)
2006 May 16, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants ambushed a convoy of security
forces, setting off a shootout that left at least 7 militants and one
security official dead.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 17, A powerful bomb blew
up a gas pipeline in a remote town of southwestern Pakistan, killing a
7-year-old girl.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 19, In Morocco the prime
ministers of Morocco and Pakistan expressed hopes for closer bilateral
ties, especially economically, after inking several agreements during a
visit by Pakistan's Shaukat Aziz.
(AP, 5/19/06)
2006 May 21, Pakistan and Iran
officials met again in Islamabad to discuss a proposed 1,735-mile
pipeline that would deliver Iranian gas to Pakistan and India.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 23, Pakistani officials
said at least 7 people have died and thousands of others have fallen
sick after drinking contaminated water in Faisalabad, a city famous for
its textile mills. The outbreak of gastroenteritis began May 14. The
last two fatalities happened May 21.
(AP, 5/23/06)
2006 May 28, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected militants shot dead tribal elder, Malik Takhti Khan,
in a North Waziristan town while he was shopping at a weekly open-air
market.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 May 29, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamic militants fired at a car carrying Meherdil
Khan Shamankhel, a pro-government tribal elder, killing him and
wounding two other people in the vehicle.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 Jun 1, In Pakistan officials
said sewage contamination in Faisalabad's water system has caused an
outbreak of gastroenteritis, sickening more than 19,000 people and
killing nine. In southwestern Pakistan police raided a militant hideout
and arrested Habib Ullah, a leader of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
Sunni militant group, at a home in Quetta. He was the alleged
mastermind of sectarian attacks that killed more than 100 Shiite
Muslims in July, 2003, and March, 2004.
(AP, 6/1/06)(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 2, In northwestern
Pakistan 2 suicide attackers detonated an explosives-laden car amid a
military convoy on a strategic road, killing four soldiers and wounding
seven.
(AP, 6/2/06)
2006 Jun 10, Pakistani security
forces destroyed a militant hideout in a pre-dawn strike near the
Afghan border, killing at least 15 suspected militants.
(AP, 6/10/06)
2006 Jun 12, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb ripped through a roadside tea stall in Quetta, killing
five people and wounding 17.
(Reuters, 6/12/06)
2006 Jun 13, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships destroyed a camp for suspected
tribal militants in the insurgency-wracked southwestern part of the
country, killing five suspects and capturing seven others near Dera
Bugti.
(AP, 6/14/06)
2006 Jun 16, Hayatullah Khan, a
Pakistani journalist who reported on a US airstrike that killed an
al-Qaida operative, was found shot to death in a remote tribal region
six months after vanishing.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 18, Pakistani troops
battling an insurgent attack on a military post killed two suspected
militants in a northwestern tribal region.
(AP, 6/18/06)
2006 Jun 19, In Pakistan militants
in South Waziristan shot dead Nazimuddin Gangikhel, a senior Pakistani
tribesman with close ties to the US-backed Afghan government.
(AP, 6/19/06)
2006 Jun 20, Pakistani authorities
negotiated a temporary truce after at least 14 people died and 35 were
wounded in a gunbattle near Parachinar between two tribes over access
to water.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 20, A second bus service
rolled between the Indian and Pakistani zones of disputed Kashmir, a
move hailed as a boost for the peace process between the nuclear-armed
rivals.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 21, In Karachi, Pakistan,
police arrested Usman Kurd, a Sunni Muslim extremist, allegedly behind
multiple attacks that killed more than 150 people, mainly Shiite
Muslims, in southwestern Pakistan since 1999. 3 Pakistani soldiers were
killed and 3 wounded when a bomb exploded near a military convoy in the
restive tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The attack came hours after
a Pakistani military helicopter crashed into a dam shortly after
take-off from Bannu, leaving one soldier dead and three missing.
(AP, 6/21/06)(AFP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 26, In tribal-dominated
northwestern Pakistan a suicide car bomber attacked a military
checkpoint, killing six soldiers and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 6/26/06)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.40)
2006 Jun 28, Pakistani authorities
released 50 detained tribesmen in a goodwill gesture in the northern
tribal region. The releases came amid efforts to end four years of
violence between pro-Taliban militants and the Pakistani military in
the North and South Waziristan regions.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, Four Pakistani men
were hanged for gang-raping a Christian woman at gunpoint during a 1999
robbery.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, The US State
Department said it had notified the Congress of plans to sell F-16
fighter jets to Pakistan in a multibillion-dollar deal with Lockheed
Martin Corp.
(Reuters, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 30, At least eight
suspected Islamic militants trying to cross into India's portion of
disputed Kashmir from the Pakistani side were killed during a
gunbattle. Federal security forces shot dead music composer Inayatullah
Bhat (31) near his home in Srinagar. The next day at least two dozen
people were hurt as thousands of protesters hurled bricks and stones in
a violent demonstration over his killing.
(AP, 6/30/06)(AFP, 7/1/06)
2006 Apr, Anwar Kamal Marwat, a
PML-Nawaz politician in Peshawar, Pakistan, led 4,000 tribesmen in an
attack on a neighboring Pushtun tribe and killed 80 people. They
incurred a fine of $60,000.
(Econ, 7/8/06, Survey p.7)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.36)
2006 Jul 3, In northwestern
Pakistan an explosion hit a bus carrying paramilitary troops, killing
at least 6 soldiers and wounding 5 others.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 5, In southwestern
Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter gunships targeted
hideouts of tribal militants accused of blowing up gas pipelines and
attacking officials, killing 25 suspects in a 2-day operation.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 7, Pakistan's president
amended a controversial Islamic law so that women facing charges for
adultery and other minor crimes can be released on bail. The
much-awaited amendment by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to the Hudood
Ordinances allowed the release of 1,300 female prisoners.
(AP, 7/7/06)(SSFC, 7/9/06, p.A18)
2006 Jul 10, In eastern Pakistan a
passenger plane slammed into a wheat field and burst into flames
minutes after takeoff. All 45 people on board were killed.
(AP, 7/10/06)
2006 Jul 11, In northwestern
Pakistan torrential rains triggered flooding that washed away homes in
a village, killing 13 people and injuring about 300.
(AP, 7/11/06)
2006 Jul 14, In Karachi, Pakistan,
a suicide bomber killed a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric and two other
people in an attack that was likely to heighten sectarian tensions.
About 80% of Pakistan's 150 million people are Sunni; most of the rest
are Shiite.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 14, India's PM Singh said
the Bombay train bombers were "supported by elements across the border"
and that Pakistan must rein in terrorists before a peace process can
move ahead.
(AP, 7/14/06)
2006 Jul 15, In Karachi, Pakistan,
hundreds of youths set fire to a Pizza Hut, two gas stations and a
dozen vehicles after a funeral for an Islamic Shiite cleric killed in a
suicide attack.
(AP, 7/15/06)
2006 Jul 18, Pakistan welcomed a
move by Britain to ban one of the major rebel groups, the Baluchistan
Liberation Army. Islamabad outlawed the group in April. In eastern
Pakistan 3 men convicted of gang-raping a woman during a robbery in
2000 were hanged after President Musharraf rejected their plea for
mercy.
(AP, 7/18/06)(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 19, Pakistani police
mounted more raids to catch suspected Taliban fighters living in
Baluchistan province. Police said more than 200 Afghans have been
arrested in the last 3 days.
(AP, 7/19/06)
2006 Jul 20, In southwest Pakistan
300 tribal militants surrendered to authorities, where President Pervez
Musharraf says an insurgency is dying down. In a search near the former
rebel stronghold of Dera Bugti, troops seized 10 surface-to-air
missiles, 195 anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, 270 hand grenades,
205 rockets and 201 mortar shells.
(AFP, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 21, India urged Pakistan
to hand over a top Kashmiri militant as a gesture of its determination
to fight terrorism.
(Reuters, 7/21/06)
2006 Jul 28, In Quetta, Pakistan,
a bomb believed rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside a bank and
wounded 21 people, one critically.
(AP, 7/28/06)
2006 Jul, In Pakistan some 7% of
Sindh province landowners hold over 40% of the Sindh’s land.
(Econ, 7/8/06, Survey p.12)
2006 Aug 3, Pakistani Interior
Minister Aftab Sherpao and US envoy Ryan Crocker signed a memorandum of
understanding for $2.7 million in security and communications gear and
to help build more posts on the Afghan frontier.
(AFP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 4, In northern Pakistan
monsoon rains triggered fresh landslides and floods, as officials and
reports said 37 people had died over the last 4 days in weather-related
incidents.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 5, In northwestern
Pakistan a bridge collapsed amid heavy rains, killing at least 23
people.
(AP, 8/5/06)
2006 Aug 7, In northwestern
Pakistan a discarded ordnance shell exploded in a tribal village,
killing three young brothers who were playing with the explosive.
(AP, 8/7/06)
2006 Aug 11, British officials
identified 19 of the suspects accused of planning to blow up US-bound
aircraft in the biggest terrorist plot to be uncovered since 9/11,
while investigators probed their movements, background and finances. In
addition, five Pakistanis have been arrested in Pakistan as suspected
"facilitators" of the plot, as well as two Britons arrested there about
a week ago. A Pakistani intelligence official said 10 Pakistanis were
arrested in Bhawalpur district, 300 miles southwest of Islamabad, in
connection with the terror plot in Britain.
(AP, 8/11/06)(AP, 8/12/06)
2006 Aug 12, Rashid Rauf and Tayib
Rauf (22), brothers arrested in Pakistan and England, emerged as key
figures in the suspected plot to destroy US-bound aircraft during
flight. Prominent Muslims in Britain accused the government of
encouraging extremism through its foreign policy. In 2007 a court in
Rawalpindi ordered the release of Rashid Rauf, a British Muslim of
Pakistani origin, after the prosecution withdrew the case against him.
(AP, 8/12/06)(WSJ, 8/12/06, p.A1)(AP, 11/16/07)
2006 Aug 15, Pakistani forces
arrested 29 suspected Taliban militants in a raid on a private hospital
after they came from neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 23, The Afghan and
Pakistani armies agreed to conduct coordinated and simultaneous patrols
with the US alongside their volatile border. The accord was reached
during the 17th meeting of Tripartite Commission. In southern
Afghanistan 18 Taliban rebels and an Afghan soldier were killed in a
clash that erupted after the militants attacked an army post in Zabul
province.
(AP, 8/23/06)(AFP, 8/23/06)
2006 Aug 26, In Pakistan
government forces killed Nawab Akbar Bugti (79), the most prominent
leader in the rebellion by Baluch tribesmen, in a raid on his cave
hideout in the mountainous area of the southwestern provinces of
Baluchistan. A top security official said at least 16 security forces,
including four officers, were killed.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 27, Hundreds of rioters
angered by the killing of a rebel Baluch tribal leader rampaged through
Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, burning shops, banks and police
vehicles. Police arrested 450 rioters who rampaged overnight.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 28, In Quetta, Pakistan,
mobs burned shops, banks and buses in a second day of rioting over the
killing of a top tribal chief by Pakistani troops, raising fears that a
decades-old conflict in the country's volatile southwest could widen.
(AP, 8/28/06)
2006 Aug 29, In Quetta, Pakistan,
gunfire and rioting broke out for a fourth straight day after the
funeral service for a prominent tribal chief killed by Pakistani
government forces. One policeman was killed and dozens of shops
destroyed. Three factory workers were killed in a restaurant bombing in
the Baluchistan town of Hub.
(AP, 8/29/06)
2006 Aug 30, In southwestern
Pakistan protesters angry over the killing of a rebel tribal chief
blocked highways in Quetta, preventing workers from reaching the
provincial capital and forcing most shops to close. In northwestern
Pakistan militants decapitated an Islamic cleric and an Afghan refugee
accused of spying for US and Afghan authorities.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Sep 1, A strike paralyzed
Pakistan's restive Baluchistan province after the controversial burial
of a top rebel leader whose killing sparked days of deadly rioting.
Partial strikes also hit southern Sindh and central Punjab provinces.
(AFP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 3, In Pakistan Abdul
Rahim Muslim Dost and his brother, Badruz Zaman Badar Dost, published
“The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo,” an account of their 3 years in
detention at the US prison. On Sep 29 Abdul was jailed by the Pakistani
intelligence service in apparent response to criticism of the agency’s
role in the US-led war on terrorism.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.A17)
2006 Sep 3, A bomb damaged a gas
pipeline in southwestern Pakistan, cutting supplies to thousands of
homes in the region.
(AP, 9/3/06)
2006 Sep 5, Pakistan's government
and pro-Taliban militants signed an agreement in Miran Shah to ensure
"permanent peace" in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, seeking to
end five years of violent unrest in the area. Under the truce the
Pakistan army pulled back to barracks tens of thousands of troops that
had been involved in bloody operations against suspected Taliban and
al-Qaida hideouts, and militants agreed to halt attacks in Pakistan and
over the border against foreign troops in Afghanistan. Tribal elders
were supposed to police the deal. The truce ended in July 2007.
Lawmakers from a coalition of six Islamic groups threatened to vacate
their parliamentary seats if the government changes a rape law
criticized by human rights activists.
(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 9/5/06)(AP, 7/16/07)
2006 Sep 6, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf held talks on
counterterrorism in Kabul. In southern Afghanistan a NATO soldier
was killed and six others wounded after their patrol strayed into an
unmarked minefield.
(AP, 9/6/06)
2006 Sep 8, In Pakistan a bomb
killed at least five people in restive Baluchistan province. 21 other
people were wounded in the explosion near a bus station in the town of
Barkhan.
(AP, 9/8/06)
2006 Sep 10, In southwestern
Pakistan a bomb explosion outside a roadside restaurant wounded 14
people in Quetta. In northwestern Pakistan suspected Islamic militants
killed a tribal elder.
(AP, 9/10/06)(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 11, Pakistan's government
agreed to a compromise deal with hardline Islamic lawmakers over
proposed changes to a law that has long made punishing rapists almost
impossible in the country. Senator S.M. Zafar said the government had
agreed to compromise by letting rape victims choose between prosecuting
suspects under the four-witness rule, the 1979 Hudood Ordinance,
or under Pakistan's civil penal code.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 13, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai, while opening a road linking to Pakistan, said Pakistan
and Afghanistan must unite to save their people from the menace of
terrorism. Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed as many as
30 Taliban in raids on three villages in Ghazni province. In southern
Helmand province police killed 16 Taliban in a mountainous area outside
the town of Garmser. NATO announced that suicide bombings have killed
173 people in Afghanistan this year. 151 of the year's suicide attack
victims were Afghan civilians, including children.
(AP, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/13/06)
2006 Sep 16, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf and Indian PM Manmohan Singh held "historic" talks on
the disputed Kashmir region, on the sidelines of a developing-world
summit in Havana. They also agreed to restart peace talks suspended
since train bombings killed more than 200 people in Mumbai in July.
(AFP, 9/16/06)(AP, 9/16/06)
2006 Sep 22, US President George
W. Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf met at the White
House for key anti-terror talks jarred by his public critiques of US
strategy. Musharraf used the pretext of his upcoming book to dodge
questions regarding US threats to bomb Pakistan in the days following
the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
(AP, 9/22/06)(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 23, In Pakistan at least
8 people were killed and 55 injured when a bus collided with another on
the main highway near the Islamabad. According to official statistics
Pakistan has the world's third highest death rate from road accidents.
(AFP, 9/23/06)
2006 Sep 23, Indian security
officials in the western desert state of Rajasthan shot dead three
suspected militants who were trying to cross over from Pakistan.
(AP, 9/24/06)
2006 Sep 25, Pakistan's President
Pervez Musharraf’s memoir “In the Line of Fire,” was published. He
noted that the CIA has paid Pakistan millions for catching al-Qaida
fighters.
(SFC, 9/23/06, p.A3)(SFC, 9/26/06, p.A3)
2006 Sep 27, In northwestern
Pakistan drive-by gunmen killed two militants and wounded three in
another car. The militants who came under attack were believed to be
loyal to a pro-Taliban tribesman known only as Hanan, who had started a
campaign to oust Uzbek militants living in the Shakai mountain valley
region north of Wana.
(AP, 9/27/06)
2006 Sep 27, President Bush hosted
a peacemaking dinner at the White House for the bickering leaders of
Pakistan and Afghanistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Hamid Karzai.
(WSJ, 9/28/06, p.A1)(AP, 9/27/07)
2006 Sep 28, A leaked UK Ministry
of Defense (MoD) paper said Pakistan's intelligence service, ISI,
indirectly backs terrorism by supporting religious parties in the
country.
(www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=74600)
2006 Sep 29, A new report by
Amnesty International alleged that Pakistani authorities have illegally
detained innocent people on suspicion of terrorism and secretly
imprisoned them or handed them to the US for money.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep 30, Pakistan and United
States signed a letter of acceptance for a multi-billion dollar package
to supply the Pakistan Air Force with F-16 warplanes.
(AP, 10/2/06)
2006 Sep 30, President Hamid
Karzai said that he and the Pakistani president will jointly lead a
series of tribal gatherings along their countries' shared border to
quell attacks on Afghanistan by Pakistan-based Taliban rebels. A
suicide bomber detonated his explosives in a busy pedestrian alley next
to the Interior Ministry in Kabul, killing at least 12 people and
wounding more than 40.
(AP, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep 30, A.N. Roy, Mumbai's
police chief, said his team had cracked the July 11 bombing case and
found solid evidence as that “the whole attack was planned by
Pakistan's ISI and carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba and their operatives
in India." ISI or the Inter-Services Intelligence agency is Pakistan's
military spy agency while Lashkar is a frontline Islamist group
fighting against Indian rule in the disputed region of Kashmir.
Pakistan and Lashkar rejected the allegations.
(Reuters, 9/30/06)
2006 Sep, In Pakistan scores of
wives, mothers and children began protesting outside government offices
on behalf of hundreds of men arrested in secret and demanded that Pres.
Musharraf release them.
(SFC, 12/28/06, p.A17)
2006 Oct 1, Pakistani police
arrested six Afghan Taliban fighters at a private hospital in
Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 1, India said it will
give Islamabad evidence that Pakistan's spy agency planned the Mumbai
train bombings in July which killed more than 200 people.
(AP, 10/1/06)
2006 Oct 4, Afghanistan's
intelligence agency said security agents have arrested 17 people
allegedly trained in Pakistan who they believe planned to launch
suicide attacks in three Afghan provinces.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2006 Oct 5, In northwestern
Pakistan a gunbattle between rival Sunni and Shiite Muslims left at
least 13 people dead and seven wounded in a remote tribal area.
(AP, 10/6/06)
2006 Oct 6, In southwestern
Pakistan police acting on a tip raided several militant hide-outs in
Quetta and arrested 48 suspected Taliban who had arrived in small
groups from Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 8, In Pakistan on the
first anniversary of the earthquake that killed 73,000 people, the US
ambassador said the US will train 30,000 teachers and build 50 schools
in quake affected areas of Pakistan.
(AP, 10/8/06)
2006 Oct 13, Pakistan’s Interior
Minister Aftab Sherpao said security forces had arrested 8 militants
with suspected links to Al-Qaeda for an attempted rocket blitz in and
around Islamabad. Authorities also seized rockets, grenades, explosives
and hundreds of sniper rifle rounds in the arrests at undisclosed
locations.
(AFP, 10/13/06)
2006 Oct 16, Eight Pakistanis
released from US detention facilities in Afghanistan and Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, returned home.
(AP, 10/16/06)
2006 Oct 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a bomb left in a fruit cart struck a crowded market, killing
at least seven people and wounding dozens in Peshawar.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 27, Ghulam Ishaq Khan
(91), who became Pakistan's president in 1988 after the death of his
predecessor in a plane crash, died following a bout of pneumonia.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 28, In Pakistan some
5,000 pro-Taliban tribesmen held an anti-America rally in a remote
tribal region near the Afghan border, vowing to keep waging a holy war
against "infidels."
(AP, 10/28/06)
2006 Oct 29, In eastern Pakistan a
passenger bus collided with a tanker truck carrying oil, killing 22
people and injuring 23.
(AP, 10/29/06)
2006 Oct 30, Pakistani troops
backed by helicopters raided a religious school purportedly being used
as an al-Qaida training center, killing 80 people in the country's
deadliest strike ever against suspected Islamic militants. The attack
happened about two miles from the Bajur tribal town of Damadola.
(AP, 10/30/06)
2006 Oct 31, In Pakistan an
appeals court overturned the convictions of four terror suspects in a
2002 car bombing outside the US Consulate in Karachi that killed 14
Pakistanis. Some 15,000 bearded men wearing turbans burned effigies of
US President George W. Bush and shouted "Death to Musharraf" in the
troubled Bajaur tribal region, which borders Afghanistan.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed 3 NATO soldiers. A suicide bombing
in southern Ghazni province's Taliban-dominated Ander district killed
one policeman. Polio cases were reported to be on the rise along the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
(AFP, 10/31/06)(WSJ, 11/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Oct, Iftikhar Chaudhry,
Pakistan's chief justice, decided to take up the cases of some 400 men
who had disappeared since 2001 at the hands of the military and
intelligence services. On March 9, 2007, Pres. Musharraf replaced him
on the grounds of “misuse of authority.”
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A12)
2006 Nov 2, In the southwestern
Pakistani city of Quetta a car bomb exploded near the police chief's
headquarters, killing two policemen and wounding four other people.
(AP, 11/2/06)
2006 Nov 3, In northwestern
Pakistan thousands of tribesmen protested a Pakistani airstrike that
killed 80 people at an Islamic school. The seminary was run by fugitive
cleric Liaquat Hussain, whom officials said was an associate of
al-Qaida's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Hussain was killed in the
airstrike. A strike closed shops and halted public transport in Khar,
the Bajur tribal region's main town.
(AP, 11/3/06)
2006 Nov 5, Pakistan, under
international pressure to stop militants from crossing over its border
with Afghanistan, said it was willing to fence off the frontier.
(AP, 11/5/06)
2006 Nov 8, A suicide attack at
Pakistan's main army training base killed at least 42 soldiers.
Suspicion fell on pro-Taliban militants who had vowed revenge for a
deadly helicopter attack on an Islamic school last month.
(AP, 11/8/06)
2006 Nov 9, In Pakistan's part of
Kashmir 5 high-school students who mistook a bomblet for a toy were
fatally wounded when the explosive went off as they played with it in a
field.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 10, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying a prominent pro-government tribal
elder in a volatile region near the Afghan border, killing him and
eight other people.
(AP, 11/10/06)
2006 Nov 13, Lawmakers from an
Islamic coalition ruling Pakistan's deeply conservative northwest
approved a law to set up a Taliban-style department to suppress vice.
(AP, 11/13/06)
2006 Nov 14, Nuclear-armed India
and Pakistan resumed peace talks with alleged Pakistan-sponsored
terrorism high on the agenda as a car bomb exploded in revolt-hit
Indian Kashmir, injuring 16 people.
(AP, 11/14/06)
2006 Nov 15, Pakistani lawmakers
approved a women's rights bill amending harsh Islamic laws on rape and
adultery, despite fierce opposition from hardliners who said the change
would promote "free sex."
2006 Nov 15, Pakistan's foreign
secretary said India and Pakistan have agreed on measures to combat
terrorism and prevent an accidental nuclear conflict in South Asia at
the first peace talks since a terrorist attack on Mumbai's train
network in July.
(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 16, Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf commuted a British man's death sentence, officials
said, paving the way towards his likely release after 18 years awaiting
the hangman's noose. Mirza Tahir Hussain will instead be given a life
sentence for the 1988 murder of a taxi driver, meaning the 36-year-old
could be eligible to go free because of the time he has already served
in prison. Hussain was freed the next day and left Pakistan.
(AP, 11/16/06)(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 17, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber wounded two policemen in the latest attack
targeting security forces.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 18, British PM Tony Blair
arrived in Pakistan for talks with President Pervez Musharraf on how to
defeat a resurgent Taliban, pool counter-terrorist intelligence and
tackle militancy in Pakistan's religious schools.
(AP, 11/18/06)
2006 Nov 19, In Pakistan the
decapitated body of Maulana Hashim Khan (45) was found. Militants had
beheaded the Islamic school teacher, accusing him of spying for the US
in North Waziristan.
(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 19, British PM Tony Blair
acknowledged the West had changed strategy in the fight against
terrorism, telling Pakistan's president that brokering a broad Mideast
peace deal was now as crucial as using force to battle militants.
(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 21, In Quetta, Pakistan,
police arrested 39 Afghans suspected of being Taliban fighters. An
Islamist group insisted the detainees were only students.
(AP, 11/21/06)
2006 Nov 23, Pakistan's Senate
approved a controversial bill to help rape victims, despite vehement
protests by hard-line Muslim lawmakers who claim the legislation
violates Islamic law. The bill is now set to go before President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, who is expected to sign it.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 23, Chinese President Hu
Jintao received a red carpet welcome to Pakistan on a trip aimed at
expanding economic ties with Beijing's longtime ally, including signing
a free trade agreement between the two countries.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 24, China signed a
five-year free trade pact with Pakistan, promised to continue joint
development of nuclear energy, and pledged to play a "constructive"
role in resolving disputes between Pakistan and neighboring rival India.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 24, Police said Pakistan
has handed over 240 suspected Taliban fighters to Afghan authorities
this week as a hunt for the Islamist militants continues in the
country's southwest.
(Reuters, 11/24/06)
2006 Nov 26, In eastern Pakistan a
passenger van veered off the road and plunged into a canal, killing 10
people.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Dec 1, Pakistan’s President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf signed into law an amendment to the country's
controversial rape statute to make it easier to prosecute sexual
assault cases. In northwestern Pakistan a suicide bomber struck outside
a military facility in Peshawar, killing himself but causing no other
casualties.
(AP, 12/1/06)
2006 Dec 4, In Pakistan at least
eight people were killed in torrential rains and flooding, which
blocked roads and caused widespread disruption in several cities.
(AFP, 12/4/06)
2006 Dec 5, Pakistan President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf said he is willing to give up its claim to all of
Kashmir if India agrees that the disputed Himalayan region should
become self-governing and largely autonomous. Troops shot dead three
Islamic militants in Indian Kashmir, while 19 civilians were injured
and a guerrilla was killed in a grenade blast.
(AP, 12/5/06)(AFP, 12/5/06)
2006 Dec 14, In Pakistan
government critics alleged that Pakistan was providing sanctuary to
Taliban militants and had a policy to project Pakistan's power inside
Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Pakistan a man was
killed and 10 others injured in riots that sparked during a strike by
public transport operators in Karachi.
(AFP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 16, A fire erupted in a
wedding tent in eastern Pakistan, triggering a stampede and the
collapse of a wall that killed 27 women and children.
(AP, 12/17/06)
2006 Dec 19, In southwestern
Pakistan a former anti-government tribal chief was killed and six other
men were wounded in a land mine explosion.
(AP, 12/19/06)
2006 Dec 22, India and Pakistan
started a two-day swap of detained illegal fishermen and immigrants
including children as part of attempts to improve ties between the
nuclear rivals.
(AFP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 26, Pakistan said it
would fence and mine parts of its border with Afghanistan to try to
stop Taliban rebels crossing to wage their growing rebellion.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 29, In Pakistan more than
30,000 people were crowded into two camps, one for Bugti tribesmen, the
other for Marri tribesmen, in desert terrain at Murid Bugti, about 160
miles east of the Baluchistan capital, Quetta. Over the past three
months, at least 61 Marri refugees, most of them children, died because
of the effects of malnutrition, weather and other hardships. Camp
residents said at least 15 Bugti refugees also died.
(AP, 12/29/06)
2006 Dec 30, At least 14 people
were killed and seven injured when a bus collided with an oil tanker
amid heavy morning fog in central Pakistan.
(AFP, 12/31/06)
2006 Gordon Corera authored
“Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity and the
Rise and Fall of the A.Q. Khan Network.”
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.75)
2006 Some 15 million Pushtuns
lived in Afghanistan, making up about 50% of the population. Another 28
million lived in Pakistan, mostly in the North-West Frontier Province
(NWFP), and they represented about 15% of Pakistan’s population.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.36)
2007 Jan 4, Authorities lifted a
ban on kite-flying in Pakistan’s Punjab province after the sport was
forbidden last year following a series of deaths caused by glass-coated
or metal reinforced kite strings. The ban was lifted ahead of Basant,
Feb 25, an annual festival that heralds spring.
(AP, 1/4/07)
2007 Jan 5, In Pakistan's part of
Kashmir a landslide triggered by recent heavy rains swamped a minibus
and a car on a narrow mountainous road, killing 15 people and injuring
three others.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 9, More than 100 Indian
fishermen left for home after Pakistan set them free in a goodwill
gesture to its longtime rival.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 11, NATO forces overnight
fought two large groups of suspected Taliban militants crossing the
border from Pakistan, and scores of insurgents were killed.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 13, Pranab Mukherjee,
India’s foreign minister, visited Islamabad to discuss Sir Creek and
other disputes. 2 days later Indian and Pakistani surveyors began
mapping the creek in preparation for settling their maritime border
there.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.52)
2007 Jan 14, Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton ate breakfast with soldiers from New York and Indiana at the
main US base in Afghanistan before meeting with the top American
general in Afghanistan and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. After leaving
Kabul, Clinton went to Lahore, Pakistan, where she met with the
Pakistani president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. A suicide bomber blew
himself up near a convoy of foreign construction workers and Afghan
soldiers in southern Afghanistan, wounding one civilian.
(AP, 1/14/07)
2007 Jan 15, Some 2,000 ethnic
Pashtun tribesmen rallied in this Pakistani border town near
Afghanistan to condemn the Pakistani government for new border control
measures.
(AP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 16, Pakistan's army
destroyed suspected al-Qaida hideouts in an airstrike near the Afghan
border, killing 10 people. A resident said the slain men were Afghan
laborers.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 19, Pakistan's president
discussed the "deteriorating situation" in the Middle East with his
Iranian counterpart ahead of his tour of the region.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 22, Pakistan's military
lodged a protest saying US-led forces in Afghanistan mistakenly fired
at a Pakistani border post and killed a soldier. A suicide car bomber
attacked a military convoy in northwestern Pakistan, killing himself
and at least four soldiers.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 25, In northwestern
Pakistan a car bomb exploded in the shopping district of Hangu, killing
at least two passers-by and wounding four other people.
(AP, 1/25/07)
2007 Jan 26, A Pakistani security
guard died when he blocked a suicide bomber outside the Marriott Hotel
in Islamabad. At least seven other people were wounded.
(AP, 1/26/07)(WSJ, 1/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Jan 27, Nancy Pelosi, the
speaker of the US House of Representatives, held talks with Pakistan
President Pervez Musharraf focusing on the fight against terror. A bomb
went off near a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city
of Peshawar, killing 15 people and wounding 35.
(AFP, 1/27/07)(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 28, In southern Pakistan
dozens of people sitting on the roof of a crowded passenger train were
by hit by an overhead power line. At least 15 people were killed and 40
were injured.
(AP, 1/28/07)
2007 Jan 29, In northwestern
Pakistan 2 rockets exploded near a Shiite Muslim mosque in the city of
Bannu, wounding 11 people, two seriously. A suicide bomber killed a
police officer protecting a Shiite Muslim procession. In eastern
Pakistan 2 brothers beat to death their sister and her lover with
bricks for bringing shame upon the family with their out-of-wedlock
affair. The woman had lived with her brothers in the village of Donga
Bonga, Punjab province.
(AP, 1/29/07)(AP, 1/30/07)(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Jan 30, Pakistan's PM
Musharraf appealed to the European Union to help repatriate some 3
million Afghan refugees, a move he said would help clear his country of
militants blamed for attacks in border regions. A rocket or a grenade
exploded at a Shiite procession, sparking violence in Hangu in which
two Sunni Muslims were fatally shot and 13 other people were wounded,
many of them policemen.
(AP, 1/30/07)(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Jan 31, In a northwestern
Pakistan a mortar round struck a home in Hangu, killing two men and
wounding another amid sectarian tensions.
(AP, 1/31/07)
2007 Feb 2, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf said Pakistan will erect fencing to reinforce parts of its
porous mountain border with Afghanistan, acknowledging for the first
time that some outgunned Pakistani frontier guards have allowed
militants to cross. The United States handed over eight Cobra attack
helicopters to Pakistan, which is under growing pressure to stop
Taliban guerrillas crossing into Afghanistan to fight NATO
forces.
(AP, 2/2/07)(Reuters, 2/2/07)
2007 Feb 3, In northwest Pakistan
a suspected Islamic militant rammed his explosive-laden car into a
Pakistan army convoy near Tank, killing two soldiers and wounding six
others.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2007 Feb 4, In eastern Pakistan a
passenger train crushed to death a group of six young boys as they
played on a railway track.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Feb 6, In Pakistan a suicide
attacker detonated a bomb in a parking area at the international
airport in Rawalpindi, which serves Pakistan's capital, wounding at
least two police and killing himself.
(AP, 2/6/07)
2007 Feb 12, Helmand Governor
Asadullah Wafa said at least 700 Taliban fighters have crossed from
Pakistan into Afghanistan to reinforce guerrillas attacking the key
Kajaki dam, a major source of electricity and irrigation. Several
Taliban fighters were killed in an attack targeting a senior guerrilla
leader.
(Reuters, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 13, Pakistan's ruling
party introduced a bill to outlaw forced marriages, including under an
ancient tribal custom in which women are married off in order to settle
feuds.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 16, Abdul Ghani, a
Pakistani health official in charge of a campaign to inoculate children
against polio, was killed in a bomb blast following rumors the
vaccination was a US plot to sterilize them. Police in southern
Pakistan announced they had arrested five suspected militants from the
southern city of Karachi and Rawalpindi, a garrison city near
Islamabad, and that the suspects were planning suicide attacks on
foreigners and minority Shiite Muslims. Police also arrested three
Islamic militants who were planning suicide attacks to take place at
forthcoming Shiite Muslim gatherings in Sindh province.
(AFP, 2/16/07)(AP, 2/17/07)
2007 Feb 17, In southwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber killed 15 people, including a judge, after
blowing himself up inside a courtroom in Quetta.
(AP, 2/17/07)
2007 Feb 18-2007 Feb 19, In
northern India 2 bombs exploded on a train headed from India to
Pakistan, sparking a fire that swept through two coaches and killed at
least 68 people. Most of the dead were Pakistani. Officials said the
attack was aimed at undermining the peace process between the rivals.
(AP, 2/19/07)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.47)
2007 Feb 19, In Pakistan suspected
Islamic militants killed an Afghan refugee they accused of spying for
the US and dumped his beheaded body by a road in North Waziristan.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, Pakistani authorities
shut down a zoo in Islamabad and slaughtered dozens of birds after the
deadly H5N1 flu virus was found in peacocks and geese. This marked the
fourth case of the virus detected in Pakistan this month.
(AFP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 20, Mohammad Sarwar, a
suspected Islamist zealot, shot dead Zil-e-Huma (37), social welfare
minister of the Punjab government, because he believed women should not
be in politics. Sarwar was immediately arrested.
(Reuters, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, India and Pakistan
signed a deal to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident in a show
of cooperation and defiance against terror attacks that killed 68
people from both countries.
(AP, 2/21/07)
2007 Feb 23, Pakistan successfully
test-fired a new version of its long-range nuclear-capable missile, two
days after Pakistani and Indian officials signed an agreement in New
Delhi to reduce the risk of an accidental nuclear war between them.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2007 Feb 24, The foreign ministers
of seven key Muslim nations started arriving in Pakistan for talks on a
collective push to end the turmoil in the Middle East. Three Islamic
militants died in eastern Pakistan when a powerful bomb they were
carrying on a bicycle accidentally exploded in Cheecha Watni, Punjab
province. Pakistani police arrested two men in southern Sindh province
and accused them of hacking two young women to death for allegedly
having sex outside marriage.
(AP, 2/24/07)(AFP, 2/24/07)
2007 Feb 25, Pakistan PM Shaukat
Aziz told foreign ministers from seven key Muslim states meeting in
Islamabad that a joint push by the Islamic world is needed to end the
turmoil in the Middle East.
(AFP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 25, In eastern Pakistan
at least 11 people were killed and more than 100 people injured by
sharpened kite strings, stray bullets and other accidents at the annual
two-day Basant kite-flying festival. Five of those who died were hit by
stray bullets, including a 6-year-old boy who was struck in the head.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 26, Pakistani security
forces in Quetta reportedly captured Mullah Obaidullah Akhund, the
former Taliban defense minister. US VP Cheney, accompanied by CIA
deputy director Steve Kappes, made an unannounced stop in Pakistan en
route to Afghanistan. Cheney held detailed talks with Pres. Musharraf,
including a one-on-one lunch.
(AP, 3/2/07)(www.nysun.com/article/49331)
2007 Feb 27, Pakistani officials
said police are seeking 10 men, including several tribal elders,
accused of pressuring a Pakistani woman to hand over her teenage
daughter as payment for a 16-year-old poker debt.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Mar 2, In eastern Pakistan a
bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded near a car carrying a judge,
seriously wounding him and killing at least three people in Multan.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 3, Pakistan successfully
test-fired a short-range missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 5, The bodies of two
Pakistani tribesmen, accused of being US informers, were found near the
Afghan border shot dead by suspected pro-Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 6, In northwestern
Pakistan armed tribesmen attacked suspected Uzbek militants, triggering
a battle in which 15 people were killed.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 7, In Pakistan senior
officials from India and Pakistan wrapped up the first meeting of a
joint panel on counterterrorism set up in September under a peace
process begun in 2004. They pledged to share information and help each
other prevent terrorism. In southwestern Pakistan a bomb attached to a
motorcycle exploded near a vehicle carrying pro-government tribal
elders, killing one of them and wounding 12 others.
(AP, 3/7/07)
2007 Mar 9, Pakistan's state media
reported that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf replaced Iftikhar
Chaudhry, the Islamic nation's chief justice, for "misuse of
authority." Chaudhry refused to resign and mass demonstrations for his
support soon followed.
(AP, 3/9/07)(Econ, 5/19/07, p.23)
2007 Mar 10, Pakistani security
forces killed three suspected Islamist militants in a clash in the
North Waziristan region on the Afghan border.
(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 12, In Pakistan lawyers
boycotted court proceedings, clashed with riot police, and burned an
image of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in a countrywide protest
against the ouster of the country's top judge.
(AP, 3/12/07)
2007 Mar 14, In northwestern
Pakistan 2 men and a woman were stoned and shot to death on the orders
of a tribal council that found them guilty of adultery.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 16, In Pakistan police
fired tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators and detained scores of
political activists, including an opposition party leader and a former
national president, in a bid to stifle protests at the ouster of the
country’s top judge.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 17, Authorities eased
restrictions on Pakistan's chief justice and sacked 15 police for
attacking a private news channel that had criticized the government's
handling of the judge's dismissal.
(AP, 3/17/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Pakistan the
lawyer for a man convicted of killing Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl said he will file an appeal using an al-Qaida lieutenant's
recent confession that he beheaded the reporter.
(AP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Jamaica Bob
Woolmer (58), Pakistan cricket coach, was found dead in his hotel room,
hours after Pakistan was upset by Ireland and eliminated from advancing
at the Cricket World Cup. A pathologist report found Woolmer's death
was due to "asphyxia as a result of manual strangulation." An inquest
into Woolmer's death ended with the Jamaican jury unable to reach a
ruling.
(AP, 3/21/07)(AP, 3/23/07)(AP, 3/18/08)
2007 Mar 19, In northwestern
Pakistan pro-government tribesman and Uzbek militants clashed, leaving
about 30 dead in fighting that began after an Arab was found shot to
death in the area.
(AP, 3/20/07)
2007 Mar 20, Heavy rains triggered
landslides that buried three homes in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir,
leaving 31 people dead.
(AP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 21, Thousands of
protesters urged President Pervez Musharraf to quit over his removal of
Pakistan's top judge, as the new acting chief justice flew back home
and into the eye of the storm. In northwestern Pakistan fighting
between local and Uzbek militants escalated, and the death toll from
three days of clashes rose to at least 70.
(AP, 3/21/07)(AFP, 3/21/07)
2007 Mar 22, In Pakistan lawyers
held fresh protests over the removal of the chief justice, as an
inquiry into the beating of attorneys by police at another
demonstration got under way. Pakistan successfully test-fired a
nuclear-capable cruise missile with the capability to avoid radar
detection.
(AFP, 3/22/07)(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, In Pakistan Ali
Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, the North West Frontier Province governor, said
clashes between Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants near the
Afghan border this week have left up to 160 people dead, including
about 130 Uzbek and Chechen fighters. Officials said warring tribesmen
and foreign Al-Qaeda militants have agreed to a ceasefire after four
days of bloodshed in the border region.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 24, A senior judge from
Pakistan's tiny Hindu minority was sworn in as acting chief justice
amid a judicial crisis embroiling the government of President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 26, In Pakistan
supporters of opposition parties rallied against President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's removal of Pakistan's top judge, raising the stakes in a
judicial crisis that threatens to undermine the military ruler's hold
on power. In northwestern Pakistan police challenged a group of
suspected militants at a high school in Tank after hearing that they
wanted to "motivate" students for holy war, sparking a gunbattle that
left six people dead.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 27, Residents and
officials said Pakistanis living along the Afghan border have signed a
third peace deal with the government promising not to shelter foreign
militants. In Islamabad female and male Islamic students on an
anti-vice drive abducted Aunty Shamin, an alleged brothel owner, and
locked her up at their fundamentalist seminary. A grenade attack in
Bajaur killed 5 ISI officers.
(AP, 3/27/07)(SFC, 3/29/07, p.A9)(Econ, 4/14/07,
p.43)
2007 Mar 28, In Tank, Pakistan,
hundreds of militants fired rockets, killed one security official and
kidnapped a school principal where police had slain two men accused of
recruiting students for suicide attacks.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, In Pakistan a woman
kidnapped by female seminary students and accused of running a brothel
was freed after a hard-line cleric forced her to repent in public. A
suicide bomber blew himself up among troops resting near an army base
in Kharian, killing a soldier.
(AP, 3/29/07)(AFP, 3/29/07)
2007 Mar 30, In Pakistan fighting
between local and foreign militants near the Afghan border killed 52
people.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 31, Pakistan successfully
tested a short-range, nuclear-capable missile. Avalanches struck two
villages in a remote part of northwest Pakistan, killing at least 29
people and leaving 14 others missing.
(AP, 3/31/07)(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 2, Around 5,000 tribesmen
gathered in a Pakistani border area to enlist for ongoing battles
against foreign Al-Qaeda militants.
(AP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Thousands of
flag-waving protesters rallied at Pakistan's Supreme Court to urge
President Pervez Musharraf to step down for controversially dismissing
the country's top judge.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 3, UN officials in
Afghanistan said avalanches and floods triggered by heavy rains and
spring snow melt have killed about 150 people in recent days in the
mountains of central Asia. The toll in Afghanistan reached 88 with over
50 killed in Pakistan.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 4, Heavy fighting between
Pakistani tribesmen and foreign militants allegedly linked to al-Qaida
killed 60 people near the Afghan border. About 50 of those killed in
the past 24 hours in the South Waziristan region were Uzbeks. The main
commander of the tribal militia battling the foreign militants is
Maulvi Nazir, a known Taliban sympathizer who the government says has
come over to its side. Nazir recently established Islamic courts
throughout South Waziristan, a 10,000-square-mile area with some
500,000 inhabitants.
(AP, 4/4/07)(SFC, 6/1/07, p.A9)
2007 Apr 5, In eastern Pakistan a
speeding tractor plowed into a roadside school, killing nine children
and injuring 18 others.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 6, Pakistani mullah Abdul
Aziz said he had set up a Taliban-style Islamic court at his mosque in
Islamabad and pledged "tens of thousands" of suicide attacks if the
government tries to shut it down.
(AFP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 7, In northern Pakistan
some 40 people were killed and more than 70 injured in 2 days of
sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in Kurram.
(AFP, 4/7/07)(Econ, 4/14/07, p.43)
2007 Apr 8, The body of a murdered
South African national, Kenneth Scott Andrew (26), was found in a
plastic bag on the outskirts of the northwestern Pakistani city of
Peshawar.
(AFP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 9, Pakistan’s army
announced that the Talibs had cleared foreigners from South Waziristan.
(Econ, 4/14/07, p.43)
2007 Apr 12, Pakistan’s President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf said that tribesmen have killed about 300 foreign
militants during a weekslong offensive near the Afghan border and
acknowledged for first time that they received military support.
Gunfights erupted again in villages near the Afghan border where
clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have killed at least 49 people
over the past week.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 13, Protesters burned an
effigy of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and demanded his resignation,
as thousands rallied across Pakistan during a court hearing for a top
judge removed by the government.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 15, In Pakistan some
100,000 people rallied in Karachi against a radical Islamic mosque and
seminary that launched a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign in Islamabad
last week.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, Pakistan executed
four brothers convicted of killing 13 of their relatives in a feud over
land. A video began circulating showing the grisly death of Ghulam
Nabi, a Pakistani militant accused of betraying a top Taliban official
who was killed in a December airstrike in Afghanistan. The video showed
a boy about 12 hacking off the head of Nabi.
(AP, 4/17/07)(AP, 4/21/07)
2007 Apr 19, Chanting "down with
Talibanization," hundreds of human rights activists marched through
Pakistani cities, urging the government to rein in clerics who have
launched an anti-vice campaign in the capital.
(AP, 4/19/07)
2007 Apr 24, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf arrived in Spain, part of a four-nation tour of
Europe, for talks expected to focus on Islamic radicalism and NATO's
mission in Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 27, An apparent US
missile strike killed 4 people in Saidgi, a village in the North
Waziristan of Pakistan near the Afghan border.
(www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269012,00.html)
2007 Apr 28, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide attacker detonated a bomb as Aftab Khan Sherpao, the interior
minister, finished speaking at a public meeting, killing 28 people and
wounding the official. Saud Memon (44), a suspect in the death of WSJ
reporter Daniel Pearl, was dumped, badly injured and weighing less than
80 pounds, in front of his Karachi home. He had been secretly detained
and interrogated by US and Pakistani intelligence.
(Reuters, 4/28/07)(AP, 4/29/07)(WSJ, 11/12/07, p.A3)
2007 Apr 30, The presidents of
Afghanistan and Pakistan, a meeting arranged by Turkish leaders, agreed
to share intelligence on extremist groups to bolster efforts to deny
sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in both countries.
Hundreds of British troops swept into the lush poppy fields of southern
Afghanistan, drawing hostile fire at the start of a NATO operation to
expel the Taliban from a valley stronghold.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 May 1, Thousands of laborers
rallied across Pakistan demanding better wages and living conditions to
mark May Day.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 6, Chief Justice Iftikhar
Mohammad Chaudhry, Pakistan's sacked top judge, declared the "era of
dictatorship is over" to cheers from tens of thousands as he took his
battle with President Pervez Musharraf to the eastern city of Lahore.
In northwestern Pakistan a passenger bus veered off a mountain road and
fell about 600 feet into a ravine, killing 21 people and injuring seven
others.
(AFP, 5/6/07)(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 6, In Pakistan’s North
Waziristan tribal region Islamic militants began confiscating music
cassettes from public buses and ordering shops to only sell CDs
promoting jihad in the latest push to Talibanize the lawless frontier
region.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 7, Pakistan's Supreme
Court suspended a judicial inquiry into misconduct charges against the
country's top judge that triggered weeks of nationwide protests.
(AFP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 8, NATO Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Pervez Musharraf agreed to
strengthen security along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to contain
the Taliban insurgency.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 9, Pakistan and the Czech
Republic agreed to boost diplomatic links and promote relations in
trade, health and science.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 10, The Pakistani
military said it has completed building a fence on a first section of
its border with Afghanistan, a disputed measure designed to prevent
militants from crossing the mountainous frontier.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 12, Gunbattles and
attacks killed at least 27 people and wounded dozens as Pakistan's
political crisis descended into violence between rival parties over
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's suspension of the chief justice.
(AP, 5/12/07)
2007 May 13, Pro-government and
opposition groups blamed each other for Pakistan's worst political
violence in years, as new riots broke out and the toll from street
battles in Karachi rose to 41 dead and over 150 wounded.
(AP, 5/13/07)(WSJ, 5/14/07, p.A1)
2007 May 13, A Jamaican newspaper
reported that Scotland Yard investigators have concluded that Pakistan
cricket coach Bob Woolmer died of natural causes and was not strangled
as local police have said.
(AP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 14, In Pakistan militants
opened fire on a group of US, Afghan and Pakistani military officials
meeting near the Afghan border, killing one American and a Pakistani
soldier. Karachi storefronts were shuttered and the streets of the
commercial hub emptied of cars on as residents angry over a weekend of
deadly political violence honored a general strike called amid growing
discontent over President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's ouster of the chief
justice.
(AP, 5/14/07)
2007 May 15, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber with a warning to spies for America taped to his leg attacked a
crowded restaurant in Peshawar near the Afghan border, killing at least
25 people days after a relative of the Taliban's slain commander was
arrested there.
(AP, 5/15/07)
2007 May 16, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected pro-Taliban militants firing mortars and machine
guns attacked a police checkpoint, and at least five civilians were
killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 18, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf acknowledged that Islamic militancy was increasing across
Pakistan and said tough measures were needed to counter it, as
religious students from a pro-Taliban mosque abducted four police
officers. Musharraf said that he would not allow his two primary
political opponents to come back to Pakistan before elections, slated
for this year. Dozens of gunmen ambushed a vehicle carrying 8
government officials and kidnapped them in North Waziristan. Saud Memon
(44), owner of the shed and land outside Karachi where the body of
Daniel Pearl was found, died. Memon was found lying unconscious outside
his house on April 28.
(AP, 5/19/07)(SFC, 5/19/07, p.A3)(WSJ, 5/21/07, p.A6)
2007 May 19, In Islamabad hardline
clerics holding four Pakistani police at a mosque won the release of
four extremists after a tense day-long stand-off between armed police
and baton-wielding students.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 20, In Pakistan hardline
clerics said that they had released two policemen held hostage at an
Islamabad mosque, after a deal was struck with authorities to free 4
extremists.
(AFP, 5/20/07)
2007 May 20, It was reported that
the US continued to pay Pakistan some $1 billion a year in
reimbursements for military counterterrorism efforts along the Afghan
border. Over the last 5 years Pakistan has received $5.6 billion.
Payments averaged $80 million a month.
(SSFC, 5/20/07, p.A6)
2007 May 21, In Pakistan radical
Islamist students kidnapped three policemen in Islamabad, creating a
second tense police hostage stand-off.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 22, Pakistani security
forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a militant training camp
near the Afghan border, killing at least four suspected militants.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 23, The BBC reported that
Pakistani UN peacekeepers charged with disarming Congolese militia
instead engaged in gold and weapons trafficking with militia members.
The Pakistani unit in question deployed to Mongwalu in April 2005.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 24, In Pakistan thousands
of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's opponents demonstrated in several,
the first street protests since a burst of political violence deepened
a crisis clouding his plans to stay in power.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 25, Pakistani police
busted a gang trading in kidneys and arrested eight people, including
five doctors.
(AFP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 26, In northwestern
Pakistan a roadside bomb exploded near a military convoy, killing at
least two soldiers and wounding seven others.
(AP, 5/26/07)
2007 May 28, In Pakistan a court
sentenced a same-sex couple to three years in jail on perjury charges,
prompting the defendants to ask the president for help. The case of
Shumail Raj, who was born female but had two operations to remove her
breasts and uterus 16 years ago, and Shahzina Tariq has made waves by
raising issues of homosexuality and transsexuality that are taboo in
this conservative Muslim society. Pakistani police killed four
pro-Taliban militants in a gun battle in the northwestern town of
Bannu. Hours later unidentified gunmen shot dead a military commander
on the outskirts of the northwestern town of Tank. A suicide attacker
rammed his bomb-laden vehicle into a military convoy in Pakistan,
killing two soldiers and wounding eight.
(AP, 5/28/07)(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 30, In Pakistan a court
sentenced Younis Masih (29), a Christian, to death under Pakistan's
blasphemy laws. Masih was arrested in Sep 2005 on the outskirts of the
eastern city of Lahore after residents told police he made derogatory
remarks against Islam and Muhammad. Masih has said that dozens of
Muslims had thrashed him on Sept. 10, 2005, when he asked them not to
sing loudly because his nephew had died, and his body was still lying
at home.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 May 30, Afghanistan and
Pakistan agreed to increase cooperation after meeting with Group of
Eight foreign ministers amid concerns that enmity between the neighbors
is helping the Taliban inflict mounting losses on NATO troops and
Afghan civilians.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 May 31, In northwestern
Pakistan about 100 suspected pro-Taliban militants attacked the house
of a government official before dawn, killing 13 people.
(AP, 5/31/07)
2007 Jun 2, In Pakistan tens of
thousands of demonstrators joined the biggest rally yet against the
president's suspension of the chief justice, giving the jurist a joyous
reception ahead of a speech in an opposition stronghold. Officials said
a nursing school was shut down and its Christian principal and four
Christian students suspended after Muslim pupils accused unknown people
of desecrating verses from the Quran.
(AP, 6/2/07)(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Pres. Musharraf signed
a decree giving a government regulating agency stronger powers over the
news media and the ability to rewrite regulations without recourse to
Parliament. Hundreds of demonstrators chanted slogans against President
Pervez Musharraf after the alleged blocking of three private television
news channels by the Pakistani authorities. Police arrested Attaur
Rehman and Faisal Bhatti in Kashmor, a town about 300 miles northeast
of Karachi, in association with the 2002 murder of Daniel Pearl. Police
later said the 2 men had been in custody since 2002.
(SFC, 6/7/07, p.A4)(AFP, 6/4/07)(AP, 6/5/07)(WSJ,
6/13/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 5, Pakistani police said
they have filed a preliminary complaint against about 200 journalists
for defying a ban on rallies in the capital by protesting curbs on the
media, the latest sign of government intolerance of coverage of a
political crisis.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 6, Pakistan's PM Shaukat
Aziz ordered the immediate withdrawal of complaints initiated against
about 200 journalists after they defied a ban on rallies to protest
curbs on the media.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 7, Thousands of lawyers,
journalists and opposition activists staged a sit-in protest in the
Pakistani city of Lahore, demanding President Gen. Pervez Musharraf
resign for suspending a popular Supreme Court judge and enacting
restrictions on the media.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jun 8, In Pakistan's
southwestern Baluchistan province 3 people were killed and five wounded
when a roadside bomb blasted a passing bus.
(AFP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 9, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf withdrew new curbs on media covering Pakistan's growing
political crisis, backing down after a week of nationwide protests by
journalists and opposition parties. Pakistan said it will join an
international initiative aimed at keeping nuclear materials out of the
hands of terrorists. The initiative, however, only applies to civilian
"facilities and activities."
(AP, 6/9/07)(AP, 6/10/07)
2007 Jun 12, Shahid Jamil Qureshi,
Pakistan’s minister of state for communications, resigned after police
named him as a suspect in the death of Kafila Siddiqui, a Canadian
citizen of Pakistani origin, at their shared home in Islamabad.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 14, In eastern Pakistan
thousands rallied against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, demanding
the ouster of the military ruler for suspending the country's top
judge. Gunmen opened fire on government troops in the southwestern city
of Quetta, considered a Taliban hideout, shortly after the visit of a
top US official, killing seven soldiers and two police.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 17, Thousands of
Pakistanis braved the rain in Faisalabad to cheer the country's top
judge, keeping the pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to end a
crisis over the chief justice's ouster.
(AFP, 6/17/07)
2007 Jun 18, Pakistan demanded
that Britain withdraw a knighthood awarded to author Salman Rushdie, as
a government minister said the honor gave a justification for suicide
attacks by Muslims.
(AP, 6/18/07)
2007 Jun 19, In Pakistan an
explosion killed at least 26 Taliban allies in the North Waziristan
tribal region. Security officials said it appeared to be a missile
attack from Afghanistan targeting a training camp for foreign
militants. A Pakistani military spokesman said the explosion was from a
bomb being made by the militants.
(SFC, 6/20/07, p.A3)(WSJ, 6/20/07, p.A1)
2007 Jun 21, In Pakistan thousands
rallied in support of the suspended chief justice, accusing President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf of attacking the judiciary and burning a US flag
to protest Washington's backing for the general's continued rule.
Pakistani traders announced a reward of 10 million rupees (165,000
dollars) for anyone who beheads Salman Rushdie following Britain's
decision to award the novelist a knighthood. Islamic scholars bestowed
a top honor on Osama bin Laden in response to the British accolade.
(AP, 6/21/07)(AFP, 6/21/07)
2007 Jun 22, Pakistani police
arrested Muhammad Shahid Jamil Qureshi, a former government minister,
after a court cancelled his bail in connection with the death of a
Canadian woman.
(Reuters, 6/22/07)
2007 Jun 23, In Pakistan radical
Islamic students kidnapped nine people, including 6 Chinese women, from
an alleged brothel in Islamabad. The nine were released after about 17
hours. Collapsed houses and severed electrical cables killed at least
228 people after heavy rains and thunderstorms lashed Pakistan's
southern port city of Karachi.
(Reuters, 6/23/07)(AP, 6/24/07)
2007 Jun 26, Tropical cyclone
Yemyin lashed Pakistan's coastline with heavy rains and strong winds,
killing over 400 people. 250,000 people were left homeless. Flooding
killed more than 50 people in neighbouring Afghanistan.
(AFP, 6/26/07)(AFP, 6/27/07)(AFP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 29, In southwestern
Pakistan hungry victims of monsoon-spawned floods rioted, protesting
slow, meager aid reaching their marooned villages where many feared the
receding waters would yield numerous bodies. Pakistani police fired
tear gas to disperse a protest by some of the 1.1 million victims of a
cyclone, as fresh storms hit India and flooded villages awaiting help
in Afghanistan. The death toll rose to about 500.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jul 2, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's attempt to remove Pakistan's chief justice received a
setback when a Supreme Court judge rejected government evidence and
ordered a sweep of courts and judges' homes for spying devices.
(AP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 2, The UN and other
agencies offered aid and helicopters to Pakistan after floods unleashed
by a cyclone and days of torrential rain devastated 1.5 million people
leaving over 600 people dead.
(AFP, 7/2/07)
2007 Jul 3, Pakistani security
forces clashed with militants outside the radical Lal Masjid mosque in
Islamabad, where students have carried out a string of kidnappings of
police officers and alleged prostitutes, killing at least 9 people.
(SFC, 7/4/07, p.A5)
2007 Jul 4, In Pakistan Maulana
Abdul Aziz, one of the leaders of the radical-held Red Mosque, was
arrested while fleeing his government-besieged mosque in a woman's
burqa and high heels. He said that the nearly 1,000 followers
still inside should flee or surrender. At least 16 people, including
eight militants, have been killed and scores injured in the standoff.
(AP, 7/5/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 6, The head of a radical
mosque besieged by government forces in the heart of Pakistan's capital
rejected calls for an unconditional surrender, saying he and his
die-hard followers were ready for martyrdom.
(AP, 7/6/07)
2007 Jul 7, President Pervez
Musharraf told Islamist militants barricaded in a mosque to surrender
or die, while concern grew for hundreds of women and children inside
the besieged compound in the Pakistani capital.
(Reuters, 7/7/07)
2007 Jul 8, Pakistan's army tried
to blast through the wall of a besieged radical Islamic seminary to
help free hostages held by a cleric and his militant supporters,
leaving one commando dead.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, Pakistan’s President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave clerics more time to persuade defiant
militants to lay down their arms and surrender a mosque they have
defended against thousands of government troops.
(AP, 7/9/07)
2007 Jul 10, Pakistani troops
flushed out holdouts entrenched inside a women's religious school,
taking control of the sprawling Red Mosque room by room in fighting
that left about 50 militants and eight soldiers dead. Abdul Rashid
Ghazi, the chief cleric of the Red Mosque and brother of Abdul Aziz,
was killed as Pakistani troops flushed out entrenched militants. Umme
Hassan, the wife of Aziz and head of a seminary for female jihadists,
escaped.
(AP, 7/10/07)(Econ, 7/26/08, p.50)
2007 Jul 11, Pakistani commandos
cleared the warren-like Red Mosque complex of all its die-hard
defenders, following an assault that ended a bloody eight-day siege and
left more than 80 dead, including a pro-Taliban cleric.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber blew himself up, killing three people and wounding three more in
Miranshah. A bomb killed 5 people, including 3 police, and wounded
several others outside a religious centre in the Himalayan tourist town
of Mingora. Islamist protests broke out in several parts of Pakistan
following the army raid on the pro-Taliban Red mosque.
(AP, 7/12/07)
2007 Jul 13, In Pakistan Muslim
protesters burnt effigies of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf and
American icon "Uncle Sam" in mass rallies against this week's deadly
Red Mosque army raid.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 14, Islamic militants
launched a deadly suicide attack, detonated a roadside bomb and fired
rockets as thousands of Pakistani troops deployed to the northwestern
frontier to thwart the launch of a holy war. A suicide bomber struck in
North Waziristan, his explosives-laden vehicle killing at least 26
soldiers and wounding 29 others in a military convoy.
(AP, 7/14/07)(AP, 7/15/07)
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 15, Militants in
northwest Pakistan disavowed a peace pact with the government. Suicide
attacks and a roadside bomb together killed 44 people and wounded more
than 100.
(AP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, Pakistan held crisis
talks with tribal elders to save a peace deal with pro-Taliban
militants, amid fears of fresh violence after 3 weekend suicide attacks
left more than 70 dead.
(AFP, 7/16/07)
2007 Jul 17, A suicide bomber
killed four Pakistanis, including three soldiers, in the North
Waziristan region on the Afghan border, hours after pro-Taliban
militants vowed to launch attacks on security forces. An apparent
suicide bomber in Islamabad killed 16 people and injured 44 at a rally
where the former chief justice was scheduled to speak.
(SFC, 7/18/07, p.A13)(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 18, Marian Pearl, the
widow of journalist Daniel Pearl, filed suit in Brooklyn federal court
against Habib Bank Limited of Karachi, Pakistan, as well as over a
dozen reputed terrorists for the torture and slaying of her husband in
2002.
(SFC, 7/19/07, p.A17)
2007 Jul 19, In Pakistan 30 elders
from several tribal regions in the northwest traveled to North
Waziristan in the latest government-backed effort to persuade militants
to reverse their decision to end a peace deal. In southern Pakistan
suicide bombers hit a convoy of Chinese workers passing though the main
bazaar in Hub killing 30 people including 7 police. A suicide car
bomber detonated his explosives when guards prevented him from entering
the parade ground of the police academy in Hangu. The bomber killed six
bystanders and one policeman, and another 24 people were wounded.
(AP, 7/19/07)
2007 Jul 20, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, ruling that
his suspension by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was illegal. Clashes
broke out between Pakistani troops and militants in North Waziristan
after a suicide car bomber hit a security checkpoint, killing four
people. In northwestern Pakistan lightning and heavy rain caused
landslides that destroyed homes in two villages, killing more than 70
people.
(AP, 7/20/07)(AP, 7/21/07)
2007 Jul 22, Islamic militants
detonated bombs close to military convoys and attacked government
positions in Pakistan's restive northwestern tribal region, sparking
gunfights that left 19 insurgents dead. A 45-member delegation of
tribal elders was in North Waziristan on a government-backed mission to
try to salvage the peace accord.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 23, In North Waziristan,
Pakistan, 2 security posts came under rocket attack and an army convoy
was attacked. At least 20 militants and two soldiers were killed in
fighting.
(AP, 7/23/07)(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 24, Abdullah Mehsud, a
former Guantanamo Bay inmate who led pro-Taliban militants in Pakistan
after his release, died when he blew himself up with a grenade to avoid
arrest. He was released in March 2004 and quickly took up arms again,
leading militants in South Waziristan. The beheaded bodies of two
soldiers abducted the previous night were found in the Bajur tribal
area.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Jul 25, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected militants fired four rockets into Bannu, killing 10
people as they slammed into houses and a mosque.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Jul 26, Pakistan said it
successfully test-fired a cruise missile capable of delivering nuclear
warheads deep into India.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 27, Pakistan’s Pres.
Musharraf held secret talks in Abu Dhabi with former PM Benazir Bhutto.
In Islamabad hundreds of students clashed with security forces and a
nearby bombing killed 13 people during the reopening of the Red Mosque
for the first time since a bloody army raid to oust Islamic militants
from the complex. In Quetta gunmen opened fire on the vehicle of Raziq
Bugti, the official spokesman for a provincial government in Pakistan
on the border with Afghanistan, killing him.
(AP, 7/27/07)(AP, 7/28/07)(SSFC, 7/29/07, p.A14)
2007 Jul 29, In Pakistan some 70
pro-Taliban militants occupied the shrine of renowned Pashtun freedom
fighter Sahib Turangzai and its accompanying mosque in the town of
Lakarai in Mohmand tribal region.
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 30, In Pakistan 3
paramilitary soldiers and four civilians died in militant attacks in
the North Waziristan tribal region.
(Reuters, 7/30/07)
2007 Jul 31, In northwestern
Pakistan government troops backed by helicopter gunships repelled an
attack on a military checkpoint near Miran Shah, killing 18 Islamic
militants. A local lawmaker said the 18 people killed were tribesmen
and not militants.
(AP, 7/31/07)(SFC, 8/1/07, p.A15)(AFP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 2, An Islamic militant
and a policeman died when officers foiled a suicide bombing at a
Pakistani police school in Sargodha.
(AP, 8/2/07)
2007 Aug 4, Javed Hashmi, one of
Pakistan's top opposition leaders, was released to the raucous cheers
of supporters after four years in prison and immediately vowed to
resume his campaign against President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He left
prison a day after the Supreme Court granted him bail in his 23-year
sentence on charges of treason and inciting an army mutiny against
Musharraf. A suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at a busy bus
station in Parachinar, North West Frontier Province, killing at least
nine people and wounding 35 others. 4 soldiers and 10 militants were
killed in a checkpoint shootout.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 7, In Pakistan government
forces attacked two militant bases with helicopter gunships and
artillery in some of the army's toughest action in the lawless Afghan
border region since militant attacks began surging last month.
Low-level al-Qaida members, including Arabs and Chechens, were among 12
militant fighters killed. 2 gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire on
paramilitary forces in a town in North West Frontier Province, killing
one.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Pakistani security
forces killed three separatist militants after they were fired on while
surveying a flood-hit area in southwestern Baluchistan province.
(Reuters, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf decided against declaring a state of emergency in Pakistan
and will press ahead with plans to hold free and fair elections.
(AP, 8/9/07)
2007 Aug 9, President Bush held a
news conference in which he publicly prodded Pakistani President Pervez
Musharraf, his embattled war-on-terror partner, to hold free
presidential elections, share intelligence and take "swift action"
against terrorist leaders in his country.
(AP, 8/9/08)
2007 Aug 13, A monsoon storm
unleashed landslides and collapsed houses in a village in Pakistan's
mountainous northwest, killing 22 people.
(AP, 8/13/07)
2007 Aug 19, Pakistan army
helicopter gunships killed at least 15 al-Qaeda militants, mostly
Uzbeks, in a pre-dawn raid near the Afghan border. Intelligence
officials in Mir Ali said two women and two children also died in the
strike.
(Reuters, 8/19/07)
2007 Aug 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber detonated his explosive-laden car at a
roadside security post, killing at least three troops and wounding at
least eight others. A passenger bus plunged off a mountain road into a
river bank in northern Pakistan, killing 25 people and injuring eight.
(AP, 8/20/07)
2007 Aug 22, Suspected militants
attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan before dawn,
triggering a shootout that left three soldiers dead.
(AP, 8/22/07)
2007 Aug 23, In Pakistan a Supreme
Court ruling said former PM Nawaz Sharif, a key rival to President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf, can return to Pakistan from exile.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 24, In Pakistan six
soldiers were killed in a suicide attack and roadside bombing near
Miran Shah. Hours later the army said a month of fierce fighting near
the Afghan border has killed about 250 militants and 60 Pakistani
troops. Pro-Taliban militants kidnapped an army officer, two guards and
a government official near an army base. A Pakistani army helicopter
had fired on a vehicle near Miran Shah, the main town in the North
Waziristan tribal region, killing three suspected militants. A villager
said the slain men were not militants.
(AP, 8/24/07)(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 25, Pakistan successfully
test-fired a new air-launched cruise missile capable of carrying a
nuclear warhead.
(AP, 8/25/07)
2007 Aug 26, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber in a car killed four policemen and wounded
two in an attack in Swat.
(Reuters, 8/26/07)
2007 Aug 27, Pakistan's PM Aziz
called for reconciliation between the country's main political parties
as President Gen. Pervez Musharraf prepares to seek re-election. But he
said the government had no plans to allow two banned opposition leaders
to become premiers again. In northwest Pakistan militants and soldiers
exchanged fire, killing one militant and injuring three civilians and a
soldier in North Waziristan.
(AP, 8/28/07)(AP, 8/27/07)
2007 Aug 28, A Pakistani cabinet
minister and a ruling party MP said they had resigned to protest
President Pervez Musharraf's plan to remain army chief. Pro-Taliban
militants released 19 Pakistani soldiers who were abducted earlier this
month in the rugged tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/28/07)
2007 Aug 29, A senior official
said Pakistan’s President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former rival
Benazir Bhutto have reached an agreement regarding Musharraf's military
role, a key step toward a power-sharing deal.
(AP, 8/29/07)
2007 Aug 30, Pakistan’s President
Pervez Musharraf rejected pressure from former premier Benazir Bhutto
to make a snap decision on a power-sharing deal that would see him quit
as army chief. Pro-Taliban fighters, led by Pakistani Taliban commander
Baitullah Mehsud, captured over 200 Pakistani troops in South
Waziristan. On Nov 4 they released 211 troops. Baitullah Mehsud had
this year cobbled together the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which
became known as the Pakistani Taliban.
(AP, 8/30/07)(AP, 11/4/07)(Econ, 8/15/09, p.34)
2007 Sep 1, Former Pakistani PM
Benazir Bhutto said in London that talks on a power sharing deal with
President Pervez Musharraf had stalled but she would return to Pakistan
very soon even without an agreement. A suicide bombing killed four
Pakistani troops near the Afghan border, as tribal elders met with
Islamic militants elsewhere to seek the release of at least 120
Pakistani soldiers. In Karachi a section of a newly constructed highway
bridge came crashing down. At least 6 people were killed and 13 others
injured. Authorities suspended six officials from the state-run
National Highway Authority, which is responsible for supervising
highways in Pakistan, and the National Logistic Cell, a military-run
construction company that built the Karachi bridge.
(Reuters, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/1/07)(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 2, Pro-Taliban militants
said they had abducted scores of Pakistani soldiers, demanding the
withdrawal of troops from tribal areas near the Afghan border in
exchange for their release.
(AFP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 4, In Pakistan suicide
bombers attacked a bus filled with government workers and a commercial
area near Islamabad, killing at least 25 people and deepening the sense
of crisis in a country beset with political uncertainty and Islamic
militants.
(AP, 9/4/07)
2007 Sep 5, Militants freed six
soldiers who were among more than 100 Pakistani troops abducted over
the weekend near the Afghan border.
(AP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 7, In Pakistan lawyers
said government has reopened corruption cases against former PM Nawaz
Sharif. A court ordered the arrest of his brother in a murder case,
three days before their expected return to Pakistan to challenge its
Pres. Gen. Musharraf. In northwest Pakistan suspected Islamic militants
beheaded two women on the outskirts of Bannu after accusing them of
being prostitutes. In Mingora, a town south of Bannu, a bomb blast
destroyed 48 shops in a downtown market, 33 of them selling music and
movie CDs. Suspected militants shot dead the son and a nephew of a
pro-government tribal elder in Bajur, a tribally governed region
bordering Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Sep 8, Saudi Arabia and an
influential Lebanese politician joined calls by Pakistan for former
prime minister Nawaz Sharif to scrap plans to return to the country
next week.
(AP, 9/8/07)
2007 Sep 9, Pakistani police
manned roadblocks and rounded up supporters of former PM Nawaz Sharif
as he prepared to end seven years in exile and return to Pakistan to
lead a campaign to topple the country's US-allied military ruler.
Suspected pro-Taliban militants ambushed a military convoy in troubled
northwestern Pakistan, triggering a shootout that killed 10 militants
and wounded seven soldiers.
(AP, 9/9/07)
2007 Sep 10, Former PM Nawaz
Sharif returned to Pakistan from a seven-year exile, hoping to campaign
against the country's US-allied military ruler, but was immediately
charged with corruption and deported to Saudi Arabia hours later.
Pro-Taliban militants freed more than 260 Pakistani troops who were
kidnapped nearly two weeks ago in a restive tribal region near the
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/10/07)
2007 Sep 11, Lawyers for former PM
Nawaz Sharif filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging his
expulsion to Saudi Arabia, setting up another confrontation between the
judiciary and Pakistan's military ruler as he battles to hold onto
power. A suicide bomber killed 17 people in northwest Pakistan as
police tried to arrest him in Dera Ismail Khan. Islamic militants tried
to blow up a statue of the Buddha carved into a mountainside in the
small village of Jehanabad but did not damage the structure. The statue
was built around the 1st century, during the Gandhara era.
(AP, 9/11/07)(AFP, 9/11/07)(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 12, Allies of Pakistan's
military ruler blocked opposition leader Imran Khan from entering,
Karachi, the country's biggest city, just days after the government
sent a former prime minister back into exile. City police chief Azher
Farooqi said the former cricket star was barred because his presence
could cause unrest. Rebels armed with rocket launchers surrounded a
security post on the outskirts of the troubled city of Bannu, which
borders North Waziristan. They wounded a policeman and a soldier before
whisking away 12 paramilitary troops. Pakistani helicopter gunships and
artillery pounded pro-Taliban militant hideouts in a tribal region near
the Afghan border, killing up to 40 insurgents.
(AP, 9/12/07)(AFP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 13, In Pakistan militants
attacked a military base near the Afghan border, sparking a battle that
drew in army helicopters and left about 30 insurgents and two soldiers
dead. In fighting near Razmak, a town in South Waziristan, army forces
repelled repeated militant attacks, and tribesmen informed officials
that up to 50 rebels died in counter-strikes. Two soldiers were killed
and eight wounded. A suicide attacker penetrated Ghazi Tarbela base, a
high-security military base about 60 miles south of Islamabad, and
detonated an explosive-laden vehicle, killing 16 soldiers from an elite
counterterrorism task force.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 14, Her party said former
PM Benazir Bhutto will return to Pakistan from an eight-year exile on
Oct. 18. The government said she was free to come back but would have
to face corruption cases against her.
(AP, 9/14/07)
2007 Sep 15, Pakistan's ruling
party assured President Gen. Pervez Musharraf he will be elected to a
new five-year term, and the vote will likely take place the first week
of October. Maulana Hassan Jan, a prominent pro-Taliban cleric, was
shot and killed by assailants in a car in Peshawar. He was a senior
leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a religious party that controls the
provincial government of the Northwest Frontier province.
(AP, 9/15/07)(SSFC, 9/16/07, p.A17)
2007 Sep 16, An alliance of
Pakistani opposition parties said they would resign from national and
provincial assemblies if President Pervez Musharraf tried to seek
re-election from the sitting parliament.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Sep 17, Pakistan’s Election
Commission announced a rule change that would apparently allow
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to seek a new, five-year term while
still serving as army chief.
(AP, 9/17/07)
2007 Sep 18, A government lawyer
announced that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will step down as army
chief and restore civilian rule to Pakistan, but only after he is
re-elected president.
(AP, 9/18/07)
2007 Sep 19, In northwest Pakistan
dozens of gunmen raided a checkpoint near a stronghold of Taliban and
al-Qaida militants and abducted 7 soldiers. Authorities sent a
delegation of tribal elders to South Waziristan to seek the release of
a group of 260 soldiers abducted Aug. 30.
(AP, 9/19/07)
2007 Sep 20, Al-Qaida chief Osama
bin Laden called on Pakistanis to rebel against President Pervez
Musharraf in a new recording, saying his military's siege of a militant
mosque stronghold this year makes him an infidel.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 20, Spain’s Interior
Ministry said Spanish police and the FBI had arrested two Pakistani
nationals in a joint operation in Madrid and Barcelona on suspicion of
being involved in financing international terrorism. The men,
identified as Anar Muhammad Shan and Preces Mehmood Sandhu, were also
held on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization.
(AP, 9/21/07)
2007 Sep 21, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf appointed a new intelligence chief and promoted five other
generals in a staff shake up just days after signaling he would quit
the military if elected to a new five-year term. Outside the Supreme
Court, hundreds of flag-waving supporters of Pakistan's biggest Islamic
party held an anti-Musharraf rally as judges heard petitions
challenging his right to run for re-election. Police said At least 40
people have died after consuming poisonous alcohol in southern
Pakistan. Around 25 soldiers were released after hectic negotiations
between a government-backed tribal jirga and rebels in South Waziristan.
(AP, 9/21/07)(AP, 9/22/07)
2007 Sep 22, Pakistani police
served four leaders of a pro-democracy alliance with 30-day detention
orders and kept them under heavy guard at their parliamentary lodgings
in Islamabad before arresting and taking him to jail. In NW Pakistan a
suicide bomber blew up his car near a paramilitary convoy, wounding a
soldier. In neighbouring Bajaur tribal district authorities reported
that a soldier and two women were killed in overnight attacks by
pro-Taliban militants. Also in Bajaur an Afghan national and a local
tribesman were found shot dead outside Khar.
(AFP, 9/22/07)(AFP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 24, Pakistani police
intensified a crackdown that opposition parties say has left hundreds
of activists in custody while the Supreme Court dismissed three
challenges to the re-election bid of Pakistan's military leader.
(AP, 9/24/07)
2007 Sep 25, Pakistan’s the
attorney general said President Gen. Pervez Musharraf will stay on as
army chief if he is not re-elected president, as the Supreme Court
prepared for a ruling that could decide the fate of his bid for another
five-year term.
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 27, Pakistan's chief
justice ordered the immediate release of detained opposition members as
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf formalized his disputed candidacy for a
new five-year term.
(AP, 9/27/07)
2007 Sep 28, Pakistan's Supreme
Court removed the main obstacle to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's
bid for another 5 years in power as it dismissed legal challenges to
his candidacy.
(AP, 9/28/07)
2007 Sep 29, Riot police fired
tear gas and used batons on protesting lawyers as Pakistan's Election
Commission approved President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's candidacy for
re-election.
(AP, 9/29/07)
2007 Sep 30, Pakistan's key
opposition parties vowed to lodge a last-ditch Supreme Court challenge
aimed at stopping President Pervez Musharraf standing for re-election
on October 6. Pakistani journalists protested against police violence
against colleagues covering a protest against President Pervez
Musharraf in Islamabad a day earlier.
(AFP, 9/30/07)(Reuters, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 1, A burqa-clad woman
blew herself up and killed at least 16 people at a crowded police
checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan. It was believed to be the first
time a female suicide bomber has struck inside the country. Pakistan's
top court ordered three officials suspended over a crackdown that
wounded dozens of journalists and lawyers during protests against
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's re-election bid.
(AP, 10/1/07)(AFP, 10/1/07)
2007 Oct 2, Pakistan agreed to
grant ex-premier Benazir Bhutto an amnesty on corruption charges.
Opposition legislators resigned to undercut President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's re-election bid, but the Pakistani leader pushed ahead with
plans for an expected victory, naming Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, a former
spymaster, to head the military in his place.
(AP, 10/2/07)(AFP, 10/2/07)(Econ, 10/6/07, p.48)
2007 Oct 4, Militants holding some
230 Pakistani troops killed three of the captive soldiers before dawn
in apparent retaliation for army raids on guerrilla hide-outs near the
Afghan border.
(AP, 10/4/07)
2007 Oct 5, On the eve of
Pakistan's presidential vote the highest court ruled that no election
winner can be declared until it decides whether Pres. Gen. Musharraf is
an eligible candidate. Musharraf pushed toward an alliance with a
former premier signing an amnesty clearing her of corruption charges.
Pres. Musharraf issued a National Reconciliation Ordnance as part of a
political deal to allow former PM Benazir Bhutto to return from years
of exile to Pakistan. By 2009 over 8,000 government officials were
reported to have benefited from the decree.
(AP, 10/5/07)(SFC, 11/23/09, p.A3)
2007 Oct 6, Pakistan's Gen. Pervez
Musharraf swept the presidential election, according to unofficial
results, but the Supreme Court could still disqualify the military
leader in the vote boycotted by nearly all of Pakistan's opposition.
Opposition parties resigned from the parliaments and members of Miss
Bhutto’s party abstained from the vote.
(AP, 10/6/07)(Econ, 10/13/07, p.17)
2007 Oct 7, In northwest Pakistan
2 suspected al-Qaida fighters and a dozen villagers were among about 80
people killed in fierce fighting between soldiers and militants. The
early morning operation was launched in retaliation for overnight
attacks by extremists on two military convoys in the region that left
two soldiers dead and another 30 wounded.
(AFP, 10/7/07)(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 8, Pakistan President
Pervez Musharraf installed a loyalist and former spymaster as deputy
army chief, handpicking his successor as leader of the military in a
key step to restoring civilian rule. One of three helicopters escorting
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf crashed in Pakistan's portion of
Kashmir, killing four passengers and injuring five.
(AP, 10/8/07)
2007 Oct 9, Airstrikes hit a
village bazaar in North Waziristan tribal region, killing more than 50
militants and civilians and wounding scores more. Pakistan’s army said
fierce fighting between Islamic militants and security forces near the
Afghan border has killed as many as 250 people over four days.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 12, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court refused to suspend a corruption amnesty for former PM Benazir
Bhutto but injected uncertainty into Pakistan's turbulent politics by
saying the law was reversible.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 18,
India and Pakistan pledged to maintain a ceasefire after resuming
talks as part of their slow-moving peace process but reported no
specific progress on issues under discussion.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 18,
Benazir Bhutto made a dramatic return to Pakistan, ending eight
years of exile to reclaim a share of power with the country's US-backed
military leader. More than 150,00 jubilant supporters gathered in
Karachi to greet her amid massive security. A suicide attack killed up
to 136 people. Bhutto said there were two attackers in the deadly
bombing, and that her security guards found a third man armed with a
pistol and another with a suicide vest. Ahead of her arrival, she said,
she was warned suicide squads were dispatched to kill her.
(AP, 10/18/07)(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 19,
India and Pakistan reviewed their efforts to cut the risk of
accidents involving nuclear weapons and discussed arms and security
issues.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 20,
A bomb ripped through a bus parked at a terminal in southwestern
Pakistan, killing seven people and wounding six others.
(AP, 10/20/07)
2007 Oct 22,
The United States handed over 30 military helicopters to key ally
Pakistan to help fight extremism and provide humanitarian relief in the
region.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 24, In Pakistan a senior
official said the senior detective leading the investigation into the
suicide attack on Benazir Bhutto has withdrawn from the case after the
opposition leader accused him of involvement in the torture of her
husband in 1999. Pakistan's army said that new troops have been
deployed to Swat, a mountain valley popular with tourists until
violence flared there this summer, to quell Maulana Fazlullah, who has
called for Taliban-style rule and holy war against Pakistani
authorities.
(AP, 10/24/07)(AP, 10/25/07)
2007 Oct 25, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide car bomber hit a truck carrying Frontier
Constabulary paramilitary troops through a crowded area of Mingora,
killing 19 soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 35 people.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 26, In northwestern
Pakistan paramilitary troops battled supporters of radical cleric
Maulana Fazlullah, killing at least one in a fierce fight with heavy
weapons. Militants seized and beheaded 7 civilians and 6 security
officers after government troops launched an assault on the radical
cleric's hideout. The clashes at the hideout of Fazlullah in the
village of Imamdheri also left three rebels and two civilians dead. 16
paramilitary troops were killed when militants blew up their truck in
the Nawakili area.
(AP, 10/26/07)(AFP, 10/27/07)(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 28,
In northwestern Pakistan security forces backed by helicopter
gunships militant hideouts in the mountains of the district. Over 60
militants died in the fierce fighting.
(AP, 10/29/07)(SFC, 10/30/07, p.A8)
2007 Oct 29, Pro-Taliban militants
and security forces reached a cease-fire in a troubled district of
northwest Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct 30, In Pakistan a suicide
attacker set off a bomb at a checkpoint a quarter-mile from the
military headquarters in Rawalpindi where President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf was staying, killing 3 officers and 4 civilians.
(AP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct 31, Pakistan military
helicopter gunships strafed Islamic militant positions in the
northwestern Swat Valley as a shaky truce collapsed.
(AP, 10/31/07)
2007 Nov 1, Pakistani security
forces in the Swat region killed at least 60 militant supporters of a
pro-Taliban cleric, hours after a suicide attack on a Pakistan Air
Force bus killed eight and wounded 40. Militants said they had captured
44 members of the Frontier Corps and were holding them hostage.
(AP, 11/1/07)(SFC, 11/2/07, p.A21)
2007 Nov 2, Pakistan International
Airlines had to cancel 40 percent of its international and domestic
flights after aircraft engineers went on mass sick leave in a protest
over pay. A missile strike on a pro-Taliban militant camp in Pakistan's
tribal belt killed 10 people, as rebels in another area paraded 48 men
said to be troops captured during fierce clashes.
(AFP, 11/2/07)
2007 Nov 3, Pakistan’s President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf launched his 2nd coup and declared a state of
emergency ahead of a crucial Supreme Court decision on whether to
overturn his recent election win and amid rising Islamic militant
violence. Eight Supreme Court judges immediately rejected the
emergency, which suspended the current constitution.
(AP, 11/3/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.31)
2007 Nov 4, Pakistani police
wielding assault rifles rounded up opposition leaders and rights
activists after Gen. Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution,
ousted the top justice and deployed troops to fight what he called
rising Islamic extremism. Pro-Taliban militants set free 211 Pakistani
troops they have held captive since late August in a tribal region near
the Afghan border. In exchange Pakistan released 25 Taliban including
Sohail Zeb (22), who was sentenced to 24 years in jail a month earlier
after being arrested with 2 suicide belts.
(AP, 11/4/07)(Reuters, 11/4/07)(Econ, 11/10/07, p.34)
2007 Nov 5, Pakistani police fired
tear gas and clubbed thousands of lawyers protesting President Gen.
Pervez Musharraf's decision to impose emergency rule, as Western allies
threatened to review aid to the troubled Muslim nation. More than 1,500
people have been arrested in 48 hours, and authorities put a
stranglehold on independent media. The government said it would hold a
national election by mid-January.
(AP, 11/5/07)(Reuters, 11/5/07)
2007 Nov 6, Pakistan's deposed
chief justice called on lawyers nationwide to defy police and protest
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, while
the government debated whether to delay parliamentary elections by as
much as three months.
(AP, 11/6/07)
2007 Nov 7, Former premier Benazir
Bhutto urged Pakistanis to hold mass protests against a state of
emergency declared by President Pervez Musharraf. Police swung batons
and fired tear gas at supporters of former PM Bhutto demonstrating near
Pakistan's parliament. The Bush administration warned Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf that US patience is not "never-ending," and
that it expects him to return "soon" to the path of democracy.
(AP, 11/7/07)(AFP, 11/7/07)
2007 Nov 8, Pres. Musharaff said
Pakistan's parliamentary elections will he held by mid-February, a
month later than planned, a day after Pres. Bush urged him to hold the
vote on time. Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto denounced the pledge as
insufficient and said Musharaff should step down as army chief within a
week.
(AP, 11/8/07)
2007 Nov 9, Pakistani police
placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest, uncoiling
barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounding up
thousands of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency
rule. A suicide bombing at a government minister's home in the
northwestern city of Peshawar killed four people.
(AP, 11/9/07)
2007 Nov 10, Pakistan announced
plans to lift its state of emergency within one month and allowed
opposition leader Benazir Bhutto to leave her villa following a day
under house arrest. Police blocked opposition leader Benazir Bhutto
from visiting Pakistan's deposed chief justice. Militants abducted 8,
who were stopped at a makeshift roadblock and overpowered.
(AP, 11/10/07)(Reuters, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 10, Iranian state
television reported that Iran and Pakistan have reached a deal to build
a multi-billion-dollar pipeline to transport natural gas between the
two countries.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 11, Pakistan's military
ruler said elections would be held by January but set no time limit on
emergency rule that has suspended citizens' rights, claiming it was
essential for fighting terrorism and ensuring a free and fair vote.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Nov 12, Pakistani opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto was placed under house arrest for the second time
in four days ahead of a planned march to protest emergency rule.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2007 Nov 13, Opposition leader
Benazir Bhutto called on Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to
resign and ruled out serving under him in a future government after she
was placed under house arrest for the second time in five days.
Bhutto’s plan for a “long march” from Lahore to Islamabad was foiled by
her house arrest.
(AP, 11/13/07)(Econ, 11/17/07, p.50)
2007 Nov 14, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf said he expects to step down as army chief by the end of
November and begin a new presidential term as a civilian, warning that
Pakistan risked chaos if he gave into opposition demands to resign. In
the northwest 33 insurgents were reported killed when the military
pounded their positions with helicopter gunships and artillery.
(AP, 11/14/07)(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 15, Officials said
Pakistani troops have launched a counter-offensive against pro-Taliban
militants in the northwest, pushing them back into forests and
mountains.
(AFP, 11/15/07)
2007 Nov 16, Between 35 and 40
rebels were killed as Pakistani gunship helicopters launched fresh
attacks on pro-Taliban bunkers in the troubled northwest. The clashes
left nearly 100 militants dead as they entered a 4th day.
(AP, 11/16/07)(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, Pakistan’s army said
some 15,000 troops have massed for a major assault on Islamic militants
in a scenic northern valley, whose fall has raised concern about
Pakistan's ability to withstand rising extremism.
(AP, 11/17/07)
2007 Nov 17, US Deputy Secretary
of State John Negroponte delivered a blunt message to Pakistan's
military ruler, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, telling him emergency
rule had to be lifted and his opponents freed ahead of elections.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2007 Nov 18, President Gen. Pervez
Musharraf's government dismissed a last-ditch US call to end emergency
rule, a day after a visit by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
Security officials and state media reported that fighting between rival
Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the northwestern tribal belt has claimed at
least 90 lives.
(AP, 11/18/07)(AP, 11/18/08)
2007 Nov 19, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court, hand-picked by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, swiftly
dismissed legal challenges to his continued rule, opening the way for
him to serve another five-year term, this time solely as a civilian
president. Imran Khan, captain of Pakistan’s 1992 world championship
cricket team, began a hunger strike in prison where he was being held
for protesting against Pres. Musharraf.
(AP, 11/19/07)(SFC, 11/20/07, p.A17)
2007 Nov 20, Pakistan’s Interior
Ministry said more than 3,000 people jailed under emergency rule have
been released, the latest sign that President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was
rolling back some of the harsher measures taken against his opponents.
Over 2,000 remained jailed. The government said the army had killed 15
militants in Shangla as Pres. Musharraf left for a visit to Saudi
Arabia.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 21, Pakistan asked a key
international forum comprising Britain and its former colonies to delay
a decision on whether to suspend it from the Commonwealth. Law Minister
Afzal Hayder said the government had freed 5,634 political activists
and anti-government lawyers, including cricketer Imran Kahn. 623 people
remained in government custody. The army said security forces attacked
mountaintop positions of pro-Taliban militants in the Swat region of
northwestern Pakistan, leaving 40 fighters dead.
(AP, 11/21/07)
2007 Nov 22, Pakistan’s Supreme
Court, stacked with judges loyal to President Gen. Pervez Musharraf,
cleared the way for him to rule as a civilian president, throwing out a
final challenge to last month's election.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 22, A committee of the
53-nation Commonwealth, meeting in Uganda, suspended Pakistan from the
organization for failing to end emergency rule.
(AP, 11/22/07)
2007 Nov 24, Militants struck at
the heart of Pakistan's security establishment, killing up to 35 people
in suicide attacks on a checkpoint outside army headquarters and a bus
carrying intelligence agency employees. The attacks in Rawalpindi
coincided with the announcement that Nawaz Sharif, a former prime
minister overthrown in 1999 by the country's current military leader
Gen. Pervez Musharraf, would return from exile the next day.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 25, Pakistan’s exiled
former PM Nawaz Sharif returned home to a hero's welcome and called on
President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule before elections,
a fresh challenge to the US-backed leader. The army said that 30
pro-Taliban fighters and one Pakistani soldier died in an operation to
capture militant positions in the Swat valley.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 25, In Uganda
Commonwealth leaders called on Pakistan to remain engaged with the
group as they wrapped up a summit here that saw the suspension of
President Pervez Musharraf's country.
(AP, 11/25/07)
2007 Nov 26, Former Pakistani
prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif signed up to run in a
January election while a spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf said
he would be sworn in as a civilian on Nov 29.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, Officials said
Pakistani government troops have retaken a strategic peak from
pro-Taliban rebels in the northwest Swat valley and shut down their
radio station. Major General Waheed Arshad said 45 militants had been
killed in the past two days of clashes.
(AFP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 28, Pervez Musharraf
stepped down as Pakistan's military commander, fulfilling a key
opposition demand a day before he was to be sworn in as civilian
president. Musharraf handed over his ceremonial baton to his successor,
Gen. Ashfaq Kayani (55), who is widely expected to maintain the army's
pro-Western policies. A shell aimed at Islamic militants in northern
Pakistan killed 11 civilians, while a roadside bomb killed five
soldiers in another troubled region near the Afghan border.
(AP, 11/28/07)(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 29, Pakistan’s Pervez
Musharraf embarked on a new five-year term as a civilian president,
promising to lift a state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore the
constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic
opponents and foreign backers.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Nov 30, Former Pakistani
prime minister Benazir Bhutto published her manifesto for a January
election, promising jobs for the poor if victorious but keeping open
the option of boycotting the vote.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 1, In northwestern
Pakistan former PM Benazir Bhutto launched her election campaign, a day
after unveiling her party's platform despite calls from other
opposition groups to boycott the Jan. 8 vote.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 3, Opposition leader
Nawaz Sharif risks disqualification from Pakistan's crucial
parliamentary elections after an official rejected his nomination
papers. Sharif was said to be ineligible because of a conviction on
charges related to the 1999 coup, in which Musharraf ousted his
government. A bomb exploded inside an Islamic school in southwestern
Pakistan, killing six students and wounding four others.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 4, Former PM Nawaz Sharif
said that Pakistan's major opposition parties will demand the end of
emergency rule and the release of former Supreme Court judges as a
condition for their participation in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 12/4/07)
2007 Dec 6, Thousands of lawyers
boycotted courts across Pakistan while police blocked former PM Nawaz
Sharif and his supporters from marching to the heavily guarded home of
the deposed Supreme Court chief justice.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 8, In Naseerabad,
Pakistan, gunmen killed three people in an attack on a party office of
opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the first reported deaths apparently
linked to the current election campaign. Pakistan's army claimed it has
cleared almost all militants from embattled northwestern Swat valley
after killing 290 rebels and arresting another 143 in recent weeks.
(AP, 12/8/07)(AFP, 12/8/07)
2007 Dec 9, In Pakistan former PM
Nawaz Sharif's opposition party decided to run in next month's
parliamentary elections, a move could clear the way for other members
of Pakistan's largest opposition coalition to participate. A suicide
bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost near Imam
Dheri, the headquarters of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah,
killing 8 people. The military there has been battling Islamic
militants loyal to the fugitive cleric.
(AP, 12/9/07)
2007 Dec 10, A suicide car bomber
struck near a bus carrying children of Pakistani air force employees to
school at a northern army base. At least five children were wounded.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 11, Pakistan's military
vowed a strong response to any international attempt to seize its
atomic arsenal as the army successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable
cruise missile.
(AP, 12/11/07)
2007 Dec 12, Pakistani troops
killed 20 militants in an ongoing offensive against supporters of a
pro-Taliban cleric in the restive northwestern valley of Swat.
Residents said troops shot dead one person and wounded two others for
violating curfew restrictions in the town of Fizaghat.
(AFP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, In southwest Pakistan
twin suicide bombers blew themselves up close to a military checkpoint
in Quetta, killing five soldiers and wounding 22 people.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 15, President Pervez
Musharraf lifted a six-week-old state of emergency and said in a
nationally televised address that he imposed it as a last resort to
save Pakistan from destruction from an unspecified conspiracy. In
northwest Pakistan a suicide bomber on a bicycle killed at least 2
soldiers and 3 civilians at a checkpoint near the gate of an army
school.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, Rashid Rauf, a
British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners,
escaped after appearing before a judge at a court in Islamabad. Rauf,
who is of Pakistani origin, was arrested in August 2006 on a tip from
British investigators.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 15, Pakistan's Health
Ministry issuing a statement saying six people had initially tested
positive for the virus last month, while the WHO said eight had been
reported. International health experts were dispatched to Pakistan to
help investigate the cause of South Asia's first outbreak of bird flu
in people and determine if the virus could have been transmitted
through human contact.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 17, In Pakistan the
Election Commission rejected former PM Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against
the rejection of his nomination for next month's parliamentary
elections. Police used batons and fired tear gas in a clash with
protesters who hurled rocks and bricks at them in Islamabad. A suicide
bomber blew himself up among a group of Pakistani army recruits
returning from a soccer game in northwestern Pakistan, killing nine of
them. The attacker struck near an army communications center in Kohat,
about 30 miles from the city of Peshawar.
(AFP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/17/07)(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 19, In southern Pakistan
an express train crowded with holiday travelers derailed, killing 40
people and leaving hundreds of terrified survivors to claw their way
out of the wreckage in total darkness. A trailer truck hit a rickshaw
crowded with children going to school in eastern Pakistan, leaving 14
people dead.
(AP, 12/19/07)(AP, 12/20/07)
2007 Dec 21, In Pakistan a suicide
attacker detonated a bomb packed with ball bearings and nails amid
hundreds of worshippers at the residential compound of a former top
security official for President Pervez Musharraf, killing 56 people in
Sherpao, a village 25 miles northeast of the city of Peshawar.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AFP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 22, In northwestern
Pakistan clashes started, four days after the Shiite Turi and Sunnite
Mengal tribes signed a ceasefire agreement following weeks of fighting
which left more than 100 people dead. The rival tribes were using heavy
weapons and by Dec 30 the death toll had reached 63.
(AFP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 23, A suicide bomber
killed four Pakistani soldiers and five civilians in an attack on a
military convoy in the northwest Swat Valley.
(Reuters, 12/23/07)
2007 Dec 24, The New York Times
reported that more than five billion dollars in US aid to Pakistan has
often never reached the military units it was intended for to fight
Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was instead diverted to other programs.
(AP, 12/24/07)
2007 Dec 26, Pakistan's Pres.
Pervez Musharraf and Afghan Pres. Hamid Karzai vowed to boost
intelligence cooperation to meet the menace of terrorism that was
destroying both countries.
(Reuters, 12/26/07)
2007 Dec 27, Pakistan’s opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack in
Rawalpindi that also killed at least 20 others at the end of a campaign
rally. Doctors reported that Bhutto died from a bullet wound.
Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif announced his party was boycotting next
month's elections following the assassination. He demanded that
President Pervez Musharraf resign immediately. Within hours Sindhis
began to rampage. After the 1st frenzy over 50 people were killed and
damages were later estimated at $200 million. In February, 2008, her
book “Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West,” was published.
In it she alleged that Qari Saifullah Akhtar was involved in an October
bombing in Karachi that killed some 150 people.
(AP, 12/27/07)(SFC, 12/31/07, p.A3)(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.22)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.93)(AP, 8/6/08)
2007 Dec 28, In Pakistan hundreds
of thousands of mourners, weeping and chanting for justice, thronged
the mausoleum of Pakistan's most famous political dynasty in a raw
outpouring of grief for Benazir Bhutto. The government blamed al-Qaida
and the Taliban for the assassination of the opposition leader, who was
buried alongside her father. Furious supporters rampaged through
several cities in violence that left at least 23 dead. The government
said that Benazir Bhutto was not killed by gunshots or shrapnel as
originally claimed but by a skull fracture suffered when her head
slammed against her car during a suicide attack. A transcript released
by the Pakistani government of a purported conversation between
militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, who is referred to as Emir Sahib, and
another man identified as a Maulvi Sahib, or Mr. Cleric. The government
alleges the intercepted conversation proves al-Qaida was behind the
assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 12/28/07)(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 29, In Pakistan an
Islamic militant group said it had no link to Benazir Bhutto's killing
and the opposition leader's aides accused the government of a cover-up,
disputing the official account of her death. The government said mass
rioting has killed 38 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in
damage.
(AP, 12/29/07)
2007 Dec 30, Bilawal Zardari (19),
Benazir Bhutto's son, was chosen to succeed her as chairman of her
opposition party, while her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, will serve as
co-chairman, extending Pakistan's most famous political dynasty to
another generation. Zardari, who became investment minister in Bhutto's
second government, was nicknamed "Mr. 10 Percent" for allegedly
skimming off commissions on government contracts. 3 days of unrest left
more than 40 dead and tens of millions of dollars in damage. In eastern
Pakistan 2 suspected suicide bombers died when they prematurely
detonated their bomb near the residence of a senior leader of the
ruling party.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2007 Dec 31, A newly released
video of Benazir Bhutto's assassination and an inconclusive medical
report raised new doubts about the official explanation of her death
and were likely to intensify calls for an independent, international
investigation.
(AP, 12/31/07)
2007 Dec, Abu Obaidah al-Masri,
al-Qaida’s chief operational planner, was reported in 2008 to have died
of hepatitis at about this time in Pakistan’s tribal area.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A3)
2007 In Pakistan the population
numbered about 160 million with over 100 million under 25.
(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.1)
2007 Catherine Collins and Douglas
Frantz authored ”The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who
Sold the World’s Most Dangerous Secrets… and How We Could Have Stopped
Him,” in which they covered Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan (b.1935), founder of
Pakistan’s nuclear program.
(SSFC, 12/16/07, p.M4)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.79)
2007 Ayesha Siddiqa authored
“Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy.”
(Econ, 6/23/07, p.94)
2008 Jan 1, Pakistan's election
commission said that unrest following the killing of Benazir Bhutto
would almost certainly force the postponement of Jan. 8 elections,
despite opposition threats of street protests if the poll is delayed.
Militants abducted four Pakistani paramilitary soldiers in a tribal
area. Pakistani troops killed 25 militants close to the Afghan border
in fighting following the abduction of four soldiers.
(AP, 1/1/08)(AFP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 2, Authorities said
Pakistan's elections will be delayed six weeks until Feb. 18 because of
unrest following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Opponents
condemned the postponement but said they would take part in the vote
anyway. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that he had requested
a team of investigators from Britain's Scotland Yard to assist in the
investigation into the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 6, In northwest Pakistan
suspected Islamic militants in 2 attacks fatally shot 8 tribal leaders
involved in efforts to broker a cease-fire between security forces and
insurgents.
(AP, 1/7/08)(SFC, 1/8/08, p.A14)
2008 Jan 10, In eastern Pakistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up among police deployed outside a court in
Lahore, killing at least 25 people, including 21 policemen, and
wounding more than 70. Pakistani troops killed more than 50 Taliban
militants after fighting off an attack overnight on a military fort
near the town of Ladha in rugged South Waziristan.
(AP, 1/10/08)(WSJ, 1/11/08, p.A1)(AFP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 12, In Pakistan security
forces arrested 59 insurgents after they attacked police with rockets
near the town of Ladha in South Waziristan.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 14, Pakistani security
forces killed 23 Taliban fighters and lost seven of their own men
during clashes, while a Taliban spokesman said 17 troopers were
captured. A bomb killed 10 people in Karachi as Pres. Musharraf was
visiting, sparking violent protests. Six British detectives left
Pakistan bound for London with evidence collected from their
investigation into the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader
Benazir Bhutto.
(Reuters, 1/14/08)(AP, 1/14/08)(AFP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 15, In Pakistan some 200
Islamic militants overran the Sararogha Fort close to the Afghan border
breaking through the walls with rockets. The battle killed seven
soldiers and left 20 missing. The military said 50 attackers died.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, In Pakistan a
suspected Sunni extremist opened fire in a Shiite mosque, in the
northwestern city of Peshawar, and then blew himself up, killing 9
people and wounding at least 20 on the eve of the Ashoura religious
festival. Helicopter gunships opened fire on two suspect cars near a
third fort in South Waziristan, killing eight militants. A teenager
(15) who said he was part of a team of assassins sent to kill former PM
Benazir Bhutto was arrested near the Afghan border. The teen was also
involved in a plot to attack Shiites during an Ashoura festival.
(AP, 1/17/08)(AFP, 1/18/08)(AP, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 18, In South Waziristan,
Pakistan, “security forces used artillery, mortars and small-arms fire
to engage the miscreants. Reportedly, 50-60 miscreants were killed and
(the) rest of them dispersed.” Militants ambushed a convoy moving from
the main town of Wana, in the Chaghmalai area of South Waziristan,
prompting a fierce-one hour gunbattle. Between 20 and 30 rebels were
killed. Security forces captured 40 militants in the Chaghmalai area. 2
Sunni extremists on death row for a 2004 attack on a procession that
killed 42 Shiites escaped from their cell in southwest Baluchistan
province.
(AFP, 1/18/08)(AP, 1/18/08)(Reuters, 1/19/08)
2008 Jan 20, Pakistan villagers
said army helicopter gunships launched strikes in an area regarded as a
stronghold of a Taliban commander linked with the assassination of
opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 1/20/08)
2008 Jan 21, President Pervez
Musharraf in Brussels pledged to hold free elections as he began a
European trip aimed at bolstering outside support, but urged the West
not to hold Pakistan to unrealistic rights standards.
(Reuters, 1/21/08)
2008 Jan 22, An influential group
of retired officers from Pakistan's powerful military urged President
Pervez Musharraf to immediately step down, saying his resignation would
promote democracy and help combat religious militancy. Islamic
militants in Pakistan attacked a fort near the Afghan border, one of
two clashes with government forces that left seven troops and 37
fighters dead. In Europe, President Pervez Musharraf said border
attacks were "pinpricks" that his government must manage.
(AP, 1/22/08)(AP, 1/23/08)
2008 Jan 24, Pakistani troops
backed by tanks and gunships cleared militant hideouts near the Afghan
border in a major offensive that left ten soldiers and 40 rebels dead.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 25, Pakistani troops
battled Islamic militants during a search for several hijacked trucks
full of ammunition, with up to 30 rebels and two soldiers killed.
Militants said only a few fighters were killed along with 6 Pakistani
soldiers.
(AFP, 1/25/08)(SFC, 1/26/08, p.A6)
2008 Jan 27, In northwest Pakistan
security forces retook the Kohat Tunnel, which was captured a day
earlier, and killed at least 24 militants.
(SFC, 1/28/08, p.A12)
2008 Jan 28, In London
demonstrators staged noisy protests as Pakistan's President Pervez
Musharraf held talks with PM Gordon Brown, amid criticism over human
rights and concern over elections.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 28, Pakistani authorities
found the body of Keith Ryan (37), a US immigration and customs
enforcement attache, with a bullet wound in his head at his home in
Islamabad and were investigating a suspected case of suicide. A US
missile from a Predator drone destroyed a suspected militant hideout in
Torkhali village in North Waziristan, killing 12 people inside. Later
reports said there were seven Arabs and six Central Asians killed. Abu
Laith al-Libi, a top al-Qaida commander, was among the dead.
(Reuters, 1/28/08)(Reuters, 1/31/08)(AP, 1/31/08)
2008 Jan 29, Pakistan’s President
Pervez Musharraf returned home after a weeklong trip to Europe.
Security forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic militants holed up at a
house in Karachi, with 3 militants and two policemen dead. A fourth
militant, who was wounded in the shootout, died later in the day.
Hundreds of students in Miran Shah protested Pakistan's support for the
US-led war on terror.
(AFP, 1/29/08)(AP, 1/29/08)(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Jan 30, In Pakistan 3
suspected militants allegedly planning suicide attacks died when a bomb
detonated early in Miran Shah.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Jan 31, Thousands of
Pakistani lawyers burned effigies of President Pervez Musharraf during
nationwide protests to press for the release of the country's deposed
chief justice. Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and two others
wounded when a bomb exploded near their convoy in Wana in South
Waziristan.
(AFP, 1/31/08)(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 1, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber attacked a military checkpoint in North Waziristan, killing five
government soldiers about two miles from the scene of a US missile
attack that had killed a top al-Qaida commander.
(AP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 2, A police raid in
Pakistan's northwest triggered a shootout that killed two officers and
three militants and led the insurgents to use women and children as
human shields.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 4, India and Pakistan
signed an agreement to exchange security information, opening up a new
channel of communication between the two nuclear-armed rivals.
(AFP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 4, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber on a motorbike rammed into a minibus carrying security
personnel, detonating a blast that killed at least six people and
wounded more than 30 in the latest attack in the Pakistani garrison
city of Rawalpindi.
(AP, 2/4/08)
2008 Feb 6, A coalition of Taliban
militants in northwestern Pakistan declared an "indefinite" cease-fire
in fighting against security forces. The government said it was
preparing for peace talks. A Pakistani army helicopter crashed in the
same region, killing three generals and five other soldiers. Gunmen on
a motorbike shot dead a ethnic Pashtun politician in the southern
Pakistani port city of Karachi, raising tensions ahead of elections
later this month.
(AP, 2/6/08)(AFP, 2/6/08)
2008 Feb 7, Pakistani police
arrested two suspects in the suicide attack that killed opposition
leader Benazir Bhutto. A team from Scotland Yard returned to Pakistan
to report the conclusions of their probe into the assassination. 3 men
were killed and 13 others wounded when a bomb exploded in southwestern
Baluchistan province.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 8, Scotland Yard released
a report saying that Pakistan's opposition leader Benazir Bhutto died
as a result of a suicide bomb blast, not a gunshot. The findings
supported the Pakistani government's version of the events.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Feb 9, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber struck at an election rally in Peshawar,
killing 27 people and wounding more than 25.
(AP, 2/9/08)(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 11, Pakistani security
forces critically wounded Mansoor Dadullah, a top figure in the Taliban
militia, among six militants captured after a firefight near the
border. Nisar Ali Khan, an independent candidate running in next week's
parliamentary elections, was killed along with seven supporters in a
suicide attack in North Waziristan. Pakistani lawyers began a
nationwide boycott of the courts to pressure the president to reinstate
senior judges he sacked under a state of emergency more than three
months ago. Pakistani envoy, Tariq Azizuddin, was heading to the Afghan
capital Kabul with his driver when they disappeared in the lawless
Khyber tribal district. Azizuddin was released on May 17. 2 technicians
from the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission were abducted by masked men
in the country's northwest.
(AP, 2/11/08)(AFP, 2/12/08)(AP, 5/17/08)
2008 Feb 12, In Pakistan new army
chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ordered the withdrawal of military
officers from the government’s civil departments.
(SFC, 2/13/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 13, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb exploded as a crowd was leaving a political rally in the
Swat Valley, killing one man and wounding a candidate for next week's
elections.
(AP, 2/13/08)
2008 Feb 16, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber rammed a car packed with explosives into an
independent parliament candidate's election office, killing at least 40
people and wounding more than 90 days before a crucial vote. A second
car bombing near a checkpoint killed two civilians and wounded eight
security personnel.
(AP, 2/16/08)(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 17, In southwest Pakistan
a military pickup truck struck a land mine that killed four troops and
wounded two others. The Baluch Republican Army, a little known rebel
group, claimed responsibility for the attack.
(AP, 2/17/08)
2008 Feb 18, Pakistanis voted for
a new parliament in elections shadowed by fears of violence and
questions about the political survival of President Pervez Musharraf.
(AP, 2/18/08)
2008 Feb 19, Pakistan's ruling
party conceded defeat after opposition parties routed allies of
President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 22, In Pakistan roadside
bomb exploded as a wedding party was passing nearby in the volatile
northwest, killing at least 10 people and wounding four others.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 25, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber hit a car carrying Lt. Gen. Mushtaq Ahmed Baig, the army's
surgeon general, in Rawalpindi, killing him along with at least seven
other people. Gunmen opened fire and hurled grenades at the office of a
British-run aid group in northwest Pakistan, killing at least four
local staff and wounding 10 others.
(AP, 2/25/08)(AFP, 2/25/08)
2008 Feb 28, In Pakistan a predawn
explosion killed up to 12 suspected militants in South Waziristan. A US
drone was suspected.
(SFC, 2/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Feb 29, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed at least 44 people and injured up to 90 in Peshawar. In
the Swat Valley a police officer was killed in the northwestern Lakki
Marwat district in a bomb blast along with three others. Later in the
day during funeral ceremonies a suicide bomber rammed his car into a
security vehicle, killing a civilian, a security official and injuring
21 others.
(AFP, 3/1/08)
2008 Feb, A Pakistani military
assault into the Mehsud territory of South Waziristan was unaccountably
called off after it killed over 1,000 Mehsud and Uzbek fighters.
(Econ, 10/17/09, p.36)
2008 Feb, Turkey and Pakistan
signed agreements to produce cluster bomb munitions.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.80)
2008 Mar 1, In Pakistan police
formally charged top Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud with
plotting the murder of Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 3/1/08)
2008 Mar 2, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up at a large meeting called by
tribal elders pushing for peace, killing at least 40 people and
injuring more than 100 in Darra Adam Khel in North West Frontier
Province about 25 miles south of Peshawar.
(AP, 3/2/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Pakistan 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up at a prestigious naval college in the
eastern city of Lahore, killing at least five people and injuring 19.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 5, In Pakistan a court
quashed corruption cases against Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of slain
former PM Benazir Bhutto. In the North West Frontier (NWFP) the Awami
National Party (ANP) signed a provincial power sharing agreement with
the Pakistan People’s Party.
(AP, 3/5/08)(Econ, 3/22/08, p.46)
2008 Mar 6, A massive power outage
struck Pakistan's largest city of Karachi and left the entire city of
more than 15 million people without electricity.
(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 9, Former Pakistani PM
Nawaz Sharif said he would join the late Benazir Bhutto's party in a
coalition, raising the prospect of a government hostile to President
Pervez Musharraf. Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif declared they would
work together in what came to be called the Murree declaration.
(Reuters, 3/9/08)(Econ, 3/15/08, p.52)
2008 Mar 11, In Lahore, Pakistan,
massive suicide bombs ripped through a seven-story police headquarters
and a business, killing 27 people and wounding more than 200 others in
attacks that deepened the security crisis. The wounded included 32
girls who were hit by flying debris at a school near the police
building.
(AP, 3/11/08)(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 12, US-led forces in
Afghanistan fired a missile into Pakistan that killed 4 women and 2
boys. Pakistan lodged a protest the next day with coalition forces in
Afghanistan.
(AP, 3/13/08)(SFC, 3/14/08, p.A17)
2008 Mar 13, In Pakistan more than
1,000 tribesmen protested against the killing of eight civilians by
Pakistani forces this week in the lawless Bajaur tribal region.
(AP, 3/13/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Pakistan a bomb
struck an Italian restaurant crowded with foreigners, killing a Turkish
aid worker and wounding at least 12 other people.
(AP, 3/16/08)
2008 Mar 16, In Pakistan a drone
dropped 7 missiles on a compound outside Wana in South Waziristan,
killing at least 20 people.
(AP, 3/16/08)(SFC, 3/17/08, p.A9)
2008 Mar 19, Legislators elected
Pakistan's first female speaker of parliament, seating Fehmida Mirza, a
follower and lookalike of assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto.
(AP, 3/19/08)
2008 Mar 20, A suicide car bomb
killed five Pakistani soldiers and wounded nine others near the Afghan
border.
(AP, 3/20/08)
2008 Mar 21, Pakistani troops shut
down three FM radio stations and arrested eight employees after the
stations aired a speech by a pro-Taliban cleric.
(AP, 3/21/08)
2008 Mar 23, In Pakistan 25 trucks
carrying fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan were destroyed in a
possible bomb attack near the Torkham customs post. At least 50 people
were injured.
(SFC, 3/24/08, p.A12)
2008 Mar 24, Pakistan's National
Assembly elected as prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a top official
in assassinated former PM Benazir Bhutto's party. Gilani ordered the
release of all judges detained after President Pervez Musharraf imposed
emergency rule last year.
(Reuters, 3/24/08)(AFP, 3/24/08)
2008 Mar 27, Suspected militants
attacked an ambulance in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border
killing at least six people, including two paramilitary soldiers. A
gunman on a motorcycle has fatally shot two anti-terrorism officials in
the southern city of Karachi.
(AP, 3/27/08)(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Mar 29, Afghan, US and
Pakistani officers opened the first of six joint military intelligence
centers along the Afghan-Pakistan border, an effort to cut down on
militants' movement in a region of rising terrorist activity.
(AP, 3/29/08)
2008 Apr 8, In Pakistan a gas leak
sparked an explosion and fire at a nuclear plant that is believed to
produce enriched plutonium for the country’s atomic weapons program.
Two workers were killed.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 9, In Pakistan a street
fight between pro- and anti-government attorneys broke out in Karachi
leaving 7 people dead.
(SFC, 4/10/08, p.A9)
2008 Apr 10, In Pakistan Ahmad
Shah, a Taliban commander also known as Mullah Ismail, was killed in a
shootout with security forces near Peshawar. He was blamed for
the deadliest attack on US troops since they entered Afghanistan in
2001.
(AP, 4/18/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Multan, Pakistan,
a crowd protesting power cuts rioted in the home city of the new prime
minister, ransacking the office of the state electricity company,
torching a bank and leaving at least 13 people injured. The protest was
organized by a textile industry association, which had set April 13 as
a deadline for the electricity company to reduce power outages, known
locally as load-shedding.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 16, In Pakistan runners
carried the Olympic flame around the outside of a sports stadium, an
invitation-only event in front of an elite, sparse crowd with heavy
security to deter any anti-China protesters or terrorist attacks.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 19,
Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in
February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television saying he
was being held by the Taliban and urged Islamabad to meet their demands.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Pakistan gunmen
riding a motorcycle killed three paramilitary soldiers in an ambush in
the town of Hub.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 21,
A prison official says Pakistan has ordered the release of Sufi
Muhammad, a pro-Taliban leader who sent thousands of fighters against
the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 23, Officials and a rebel
spokesman said Pakistan's new government has drafted a peace agreement
with Taliban militants in its troubled tribal belt bordering
Afghanistan. A militant letter attributed to Baitullah Mehsud, a
Pakistani Al-Qaeda warlord accused of ordering Benazir Bhutto's
assassination, told followers to halt attacks amid peace talks with the
government.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 4/24/08)
2008 Apr 25, In northwestern
Pakistan a car bomb killed three people, despite calls from Taliban
leaders asking Islamic militants to refrain from attacks amid efforts
by the new government to reach peace deals in the region.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 Apr 27, Suspected Taliban
militants attacked the Mujahideen Day parade attended by the Afghan
president, unleashing automatic weapons fire that sent foreign
dignitaries and senior members of the government fleeing for cover. 3
people, including a lawmaker, were killed and 8 were wounded. Pres.
Karzai later appeared on television saying several suspects in the
attack had been arrested. The Afghan government later accused the
Pakistani intelligence service of organizing the plot to assassinate
Pres. Karzai. Taliban militants attacked an Australian patrol with
automatic rifles and rocket propelled grenades in southern Afghanistan,
and the ensuing battle left one of the commandos dead and four others
wounded.
(AP, 4/27/08)(Econ, 5/3/08, p.50)(SFC, 6/26/08,
p.A10)
2008 Apr 28, Baitullah Mehsud, a
Pakistani Taliban commander, pulled out of a peace deal with the
government after it refused to withdraw the army from tribal lands on
the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 4/28/08)
2008 May 3, In southern Pakistan
thousands of Islamists rallied to condemn an anti-Koran film by a Dutch
lawmaker and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers.
(AFP, 5/3/08)
2008 May 6, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber riding a rickshaw attacked a police checkpoint and
gunmen fired on officers guarding a bank, killing five people and
testing the new government's fledgling peace process.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 9, In northwest Pakistan
suspected Islamic militants killed a policeman and injured two other
police officers in a rocket attack.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2008 May 10, In northwest Pakistan
gunmen killed a Shiite Muslim shop owner and two of his customers in an
apparent sectarian attack in Dera Ismail Khan.
(AP, 5/10/08)
2008 May 12, The Commonwealth
re-admitted Pakistan as a full member after a six-month suspension
triggered by a clampdown by President Pervez Musharraf.
(AFP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, Former prime minister
Nawaz Sharif pulled his party out of Pakistan's six-week-old coalition
government, plunging the volatile Muslim nation back into political
uncertainty.
(AP, 5/12/08)
2008 May 12, The Canadian Federal
Court said that Pakistan appears to have received a $500,000 bounty
from the United States for the capture of Abdullah Khadr, a Canadian
wanted on charges of working with al Qaeda against US forces in
Afghanistan. Khadr was arrested in Pakistan in 2004 and sent back to
Canada in 2005.
(Reuters, 5/13/08)
2008 May 14, In Pakistan a number
of foreign militants were killed when 2 missiles hit a house in the
village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal region. The US missile strike
killed al-Qaida operative Abu Suleiman al Jaziery and at least 14
others. Some of the dead were civilians. Authorities freed militants
and started to pull troops from a tribal region in a bid to make peace
with Islamic fighters. Suspected Islamic militants soon killed a
Pakistani soldier in revenge for the US missile strike near the Afghan
border.
(Reuters, 5/15/08)(WSJ, 5/15/08, p.A1)(AP,
5/16/08)(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.A14)
2008 May 16, Pakistan's ambassador
to Afghanistan was freed unharmed three months after he vanished in a
tribal area in the border region. Tariq Azizuddin had disappeared Feb.
11 along with his driver and bodyguard as they drove from Peshawar
toward the border.
(AP, 5/17/08)(SSFC, 5/18/08, p.A9)
2008 May 18, Pakistani Taliban
carried out a suicide attack in the northwestern city of Mardan. 13
people were killed there in revenge for an earlier suspected US missile
strike on a rebel hideout at Damadola.
(AFP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 21, Pakistan's government
promised to "gradually" pull out troops from the northwestern valley of
Swat after signing a peace agreement with Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 5/21/08)
2008 May 21, India and Pakistan
signed a pact in Islamabad granting consular access to prisoners in
each other's jails but reported no significant progress in negotiations
on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, In Pakistan
unidentified gunmen shot dead Muhammad Ibrahim (44), a reporter for
Urdu-language Express newspaper, after he interviewed a spokesman for
Taliban militants in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
(AFP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 24, Top Pakistani Taliban
warlord Baitullah Mehsud said jihad, or holy war, would continue in
Afghanistan, despite peace negotiations between the militants and
Islamabad. Separate roadside bomb attacks in Pakistan's volatile
northwest killed three people, including a local police chief.
(AFP, 5/24/08)
2008 May 25, In Pakistan officials
said heavy rains have killed at least 10 people in the northwest,
including six children who died when part of their mud house collapsed.
(AP, 5/25/08)
2008 May 26, In northwest Pakistan
gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying Shiite Muslims, killing four people
before fleeing in what appeared to be a sectarian attack,
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 28, Former PM Nawaz
Sharif said Pakistan's ruling coalition has agreed to expel US-backed
President Pervez Musharraf from power.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 Jun 2, In Pakistan a huge car
bomb exploded outside the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killed 8 people
and wounded dozens more. Danish security said that al-Qaida or an
al-Qaida-related group likely was behind the attack. Evidence indicated
that a suicide bomber drove the car.
(AP, 6/2/08)(SFC, 6/4/08, p.A6)
2008 Jun 4, Officials said
Pakistan’s PM Yousuf Raza Gilani has moved suspend peace negotiations
with tribal groups along the border with Afghanistan, until they agree
to new conditions including the cessation of all activities in
Afghanistan. In northwest Pakistan a bomb explosion ripped through a
video shop in a business center, killing 3 people and wounding 3.
(WSJ, 6/5/08, p.A8)(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 5, Pakistani authorities
arrested three suspected suicide bombers and seized more than a ton of
explosives in a suspected terror plot near Islamabad.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 12, Thousands of
Pakistani lawyers and activists gathered for a "long march" from Lahore
to Islamabad to demand the restoration of judges sacked by Pres. Pervez
Musharraf.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 14, Pakistan's main
ruling party said it will reinstate judges ousted by President Pervez
Musharraf only after it has overcome legal obstacles following a
massive rally calling for their restoration.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai threatened to send Afghan troops across the border to
fight militants in Pakistan, a forceful warning to insurgents and the
Pakistani government that his country is fed up with cross-border
attacks.
(AP, 6/15/08)
2008 Jun 16, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded at a Shiite mosque in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail
Khan, killing four worshippers.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 17, In northwestern
Pakistan gunmen killed four Shiite Muslims.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 21, In Afghanistan 5
foreign troops including a Polish national were slain in bombings,
extending a series of daily attacks that have lifted the death toll for
foreign forces this year to more than 100. In separate incidents
attackers detonated bombs and opened fire on vehicles carrying Afghan
troops in Zabul and Kunar provinces, killing five soldiers and wounding
three. Rockets fired from Pakistan hit a village in eastern Afghanistan
killing a woman and three children, one of three cross-border attacks
around the same late evening time. A total of 27 rockets were fired
from Pakistan to the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost. Afghan
troops responded by firing 19 artillery rounds from Khost and nine
rounds from Paktika which landed in Pakistan.
(AP, 6/21/08)(Reuters, 6/22/08)
2008 Jun 21, Sean Langan (43),
British freelance television journalist, was released by kidnappers
along the Afghan-Pakistan border after being held for 3 months. Langan
has spent the last few years making films about Afghanistan, Iraq and
Zimbabwe, and his documentary "Fighting the Taliban" was short-listed
for a Bafta this year.
(AFP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 22, Suspected Taliban
rebels kidnapped 17 tribal policemen near Pakistan's Khyber pass, the
latest incident on the main supply route for international forces in
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 23, A Pakistani court
disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from contesting a
by-election for a seat in the National Assembly later this week.
(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 25, In northwest Pakistan
the bullet-riddled bodies of at least 22 captives were found along the
Tank-Jandola road. Militants loyal to Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud
had taken captives from a rival, pro-government faction, headed by
Turkistan Bitani in fighting that began on June 23.
(AP, 6/25/08)
2008 Jun 27, A gang of Pakistani
militants in the Bajur region executed two Afghan prisoners in front of
thousands of cheering supporters, beheading Jan Wali (36) and shooting
the other after accusing them of aiding a US missile strike.
Celebratory gunfire then killed two bystanders and wounded six.
(AP, 6/28/08)(SFC, 6/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Jun 28, Pakistani forces
bombarded suspected militant hideouts with mortar shells as the
government launched a major offensive against Taliban fighters near
Peshawar, the main city in the country's volatile northwest.
(Reuters, 6/28/08)
2008 Jun 29, Pakistan's government
claimed that it had saved the northwestern city of Peshawar from
militants, as troops pushed forward on the second day of a major
offensive against the rebels.
(AFP, 6/29/08)
2008 Jun 30, In Pakistan an
explosion killed six people at the house of Militant chief Haji Namdar
in the northwestern Khyber tribal district, on the third day of a
government offensive. Richard Boucher, the US Assistant Secretary of
State for South and Central Asia, flew into Islamabad for talks with PM
Yousuf Raza Gilani and other senior officials.
(AFP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jul 1, Pakistani forces
destroyed a major militant compound in the Khyber tribal region. The
site served as key headquarters for the banned Lashkar-e-Islam.
(SFC, 7/2/08, p.A3)
2008 Jul 4, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded on a busy street in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a
4-year old girl and wounding 11 other people.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 5, Pakistan's Foreign
Ministry insisted that its nuclear proliferation case was closed, a day
after the disgraced architect of its atomic program claimed the army
under President Pervez Musharraf helped spread the technology to North
Korea in 2000. A government official said Pakistani security forces
have eased an operation against insurgents in a tribal region near the
border with Afghanistan as local elders try to negotiate peace with a
militant leader.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 6, In Pakistan a
two-story apartment building collapsed in the port city of Karachi,
killing eight people, including a toddler. A suicide attacker detonated
explosives near a police station in Islamabad, killing at least 15
people and wounding dozens.
(AP, 7/6/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Pakistan a total of
seven small blasts left 43 people wounded in the commercial capital of
Karachi.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 8, In northwest Pakistan
unknown assailants fired on a vehicle carrying tribal police forces,
killing four and wounding seven.
(AP, 7/808)
2008 Jul 9, Tribal elders and
Pakistani authorities struck a deal aimed at bringing peace to a
militant-infested northwest region where a paramilitary offensive has
tried to flush out insurgents. Police captured Rafiuddin, an aide to
top commander Baitullah Mehsud, along with four associates they
traveled in a vehicle through the town of Hangu in the South Waziristan
region.
(AP, 7/9/08)(AP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Pakistan six
mortar rounds appeared to have targeted a military post in Angore Adda
in South Waziristan, seriously wounding six Pakistani troops, lightly
wounding two other troops and also injuring two civilians in a nearby
market.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, NATO said a recent
border clash that wounded several Pakistani and Afghan security
personnel was sparked by insurgents in Afghanistan who fired at targets
in both countries, apparently to stoke cross-border tensions.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 12, In northwestern
Pakistan at least 13 paramilitary forces and three militants were
killed in an ambush and shootout when militants attacked a Frontier
Constabulary convoy in the Zargari area of Hangu district. Provincial
police in Hangu arrested half a dozen Taliban including Rafiuddin, a
lieutenant of Baitullah Mehsud. The militants in response captured
29-49 hostages.
(AP, 7/13/08)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 16, In southwestern
Pakistan a roadside bomb wounded seven security personnel and two
passers-by. In the northwest a military operation began to expel
insurgents from Zargari. 10 militants were killed and five troops
wounded.
(AP, 7/16/08)(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 17, Violent protests
erupted at Pakistan's main stock market as growing economic and
political uncertainty pushed Pakistani shares to a new 18-month low.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 18, In northwestern
Pakistan, at least 10 Taliban died in fierce fighting between two rival
militant groups. The Taliban threatened to begin executing hostages
captured on July 12 unless the government releases their comrades.
(AP, 7/19/08)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A5)
2008 Jul 19, In Pakistan
paramilitary forces stumbled on 2 training camps near Dera Bugti in
Baluchistan province. 6 troops and an unknown number of ethnic Baluch
insurgents died in fighting that began when militants fired on
patrolling security forces.
(WSJ, 7/22/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 19, Mullah Rahim, the
most senior Taliban leader in Afghanistan's Helmand province, gave
himself up to Pakistani officials.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 20, In Pakistan five
militants died in a failed assault on the Tora Warai military fort near
Hangu. The army said security forces had killed 15 militants and
detained 60 others, in the first major action against insurgents under
Pakistan's new government.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 21, A Pakistani court
barred the disgraced architect of Pakistan's atomic weapons program
from speaking about nuclear proliferation, less than three weeks after
he implicated the army in the sharing of nuclear technology with North
Korea. Intelligence officials in Quetta said at least 30 insurgents,
including three rebel commanders, had been killed. Suspected Islamic
militants shot dead a pro-government tribal chief and wounded three
other people in an attack on the outskirts of Khar near Pakistan's
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 7/21/08)(AFP, 7/21/08)
2008 Jul 21, Pakistan’s Geo TV
broadcasted a recent interview with Mustafa Abu al-Yazeed, a senior
al-Qaida leader. He urged Pakistanis to help Afghans fight US-led
coalition forces and condemned President Pervez Musharraf for arresting
Arab and Afghan fighters and handing them over to Washington.
(AP, 7/22/08)
2008 Jul 23, An international
rights group pressed Pakistan's new government to quickly investigate
the disappearance of hundreds of people allegedly rounded up by
security agencies as part of the anti-terror campaign.
(AP, 7/23/08)
2008 Jul 24, The US confirmed that
it planned to shift 230 million dollars in aid to Pakistan from
counter-terrorism programs to upgrading the country's F-16 fighter jets.
(AFP, 7/24/08)
2008 Jul 25, In northwestern
Pakistan militants blew up a girls school and 10 shops in 2 separate
areas of the Swat valley. There were no casualties.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Jul 26, In Pakistan 3
soldiers and at least 12 suspected insurgents were killed in fighting
after the militants ambushed a convoy in the Dera Bugti district of
Baluchistan province.
(AP, 7/27/08)
2008 Jul 28, Pres. Bush met with
Pakistan’s new PM Yousaf Raza Gilani at the White House and they agreed
to battle terrorists in Pakistan.
(SFC, 7/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 28, A suspected US
missile strike on a Pakistani madrasa killed six people, including
foreigners. Pakistani security officials said Al-Qaeda chemical weapons
expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar (54) was believed to have been killed
in the US missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal district. The
Egyptian, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri, had a
five-million-US-dollar bounty on his head and allegedly ran terrorist
training camps in Afghanistan. In Kohat a bomb rigged to a bicycle
killed a teenage boy and wounded 12 policemen. Pakistani Taliban
militants shot dead three intelligence officials near Mingora, the main
town in Swat. The Taliban later confirmed that al-Masri had been killed
along with 3 other commanders.
(Reuters, 7/28/08)(AFP, 7/28/08)(AP, 7/28/08)(AFP,
7/29/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Jul 29, Pakistani Taliban
militants killed 3 soldiers, including an army captain, and kidnapped
30 security forces from a police station in the northwestern Swat
Valley.
(AFP, 7/29/08)(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 29, Indian and Pakistani
soldiers traded fire across the heavily armed Kashmir frontier for more
than 12 hours overnight and into the day in what the Indian army called
the worst violation of a 2003 cease-fire agreement between the
nuclear-armed neighbors.
(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Jul 30, The NY Times reported
that a top Central Intelligence Agency official has traveled to
Islamabad and confronted senior officials with evidence of ties between
Pakistan's spy agency and militants operating in that country's tribal
areas.
(Reuters, 7/30/08)
2008 Jul 30, In Pakistan fierce
fighting erupted in the restive Swat valley, killing 25 militants and
four soldiers and undermining the government's strategy of offering
peace deals to pro-Taliban insurgents. Sher Ali, an insurgent commander
known as Mullah Toor, was killed in the fighting.
(AP, 7/30/08)(WSJ, 7/31/08, p.A12)
2008 Jul 31, A mortar shell hit a
house in the Swat valley where Pakistani security forces are battling
Islamic militants, killing a family of seven. Another 10 civilians died
in fighting in the region. Militants torched a nearby girls school.
(AP, 7/31/08)(SFC, 8/1/08, p.A10)
2008 Jul 29, The US Senate’s
Foreign Relations Committee voted to triple America’s non-military
assistance to Pakistan to $1.5 billion a year.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.39)
2008 Aug 1, In northwestern
Pakistan about 35 militants kidnapped 2 policemen on the outskirts of
Khar.
(AP, 8/1/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded at a bridge, killing at least nine security forces in the Swat
valley, where Pakistani troops are battling Islamic militants.
(AP, 8/2/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Pakistan 22
climbers, mostly foreigners, reached the summit of K-2, the world's
second-highest mountain, but an ice avalanche struck them during their
descent. At least 11 of the mountaineers were killed.
(AP, 8/3/08)(AFP, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 2, In Sri Lanka a two-day
summit of leaders of the 15th South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC), opened amid extraordinary security. Leaders of
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, The Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan
and Sri Lanka attended the summit. Government troops captured
rebel-held Vellankulam village in Mannar, the last rebel stronghold in
the area. Fresh fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger
separatists killed 14 rebels and two soldiers across the embattled
northern region.
(AP, 8/2/08)(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Sri Lanka the South
Asian summit ended. Tensions between India and Pakistan overshadowed
the summit, but the two nuclear-armed rivals vowed to work together and
save a tenuous peace process. A draft summit declaration called for
collective action to combat "all forms of terrorist violence" that was
threatening their "peace, stability and security." The leaders also
agreed to implement a regional trade pact, signed in 1995 but never
fully implemented.
(AFP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 4, In Pakistan a
remote-controlled bomb explosion struck a military convoy and wounded
eight soldiers in South Waziristan. Militants torched four girls'
schools, a health office and a forestry office. A senior officer said
that over the past week 94 Islamist militants were killed and 14
soldiers lost in fighting in the northwestern Swat valley. At least 25
civilians and eight policemen were also killed in the fighting.
Brigadier Zia Bodla said the army planned a major operation against the
insurgents.
(Reuters, 8/4/08)
2008 Aug 5, Officials in Pakistan
said floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains have destroyed thousands
of homes and caused at least 27 deaths in the last 24 hours.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 5, Aafia Siddiqui, a
Pakistani woman once identified as a possible al-Qaida associate, was
extradited from Afghanistan and arraigned in New York on charges that
she tried to kill US agents and military officers. Siddiqui was
educated at Brandeis and MIT and fled to Pakistan after 9/11 because of
anti-Muslim sentiment. She and her children dropped out of sight in
March 2003, after 9/11 mastermind Khalid sheikh Mohammed mentioned her
name during an interrogation. She was arrested by Afghan police on July
17, who found recipes for explosives and descriptions of New York
landmarks in her handbag. Siddiqui is the wife of Ammar al-Baluchi, a
nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was believed to be the chief
planner of the Sep 11, 2001, attacks.
(SFC, 8/6/08, p.A3)(WSJ, 8/6/08, p.A7)(SSFC,
8/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 6, Pakistani Pres. Pervez
Musharraf abruptly canceled then reinstated his trip to the Olympic
Games as local media reported that the ruling coalition had agreed on
steps to remove him. 9 militants including Ali Bakht, a top-ranking
militant, were killed and many injured during a search and cordon
operation conducted by security forces in the Kabal district of the
Swat valley. Two insurgents died when the explosive device they were
planting in a female educational institution exploded prematurely in
Kabal sub-district. 3 civilians died in the various parts of the Swat
district when stray mortar rounds hit their houses. An attack on a
Pakistani military checkpost by some 200 pro-Taliban militants
triggered intense fighting that killed 25 insurgents and two
paramilitary soldiers near the Afghan border.
(AFP, 8/6/08)(http://tinyurl.com/6bwtwo)(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, Pakistan's ruling
coalition announced plans to seek the impeachment of Pres. Pervez
Musharraf, alleging the US-backed former general had "eroded the trust
of the nation" during his eight years in power. Musharraf cancelled his
trip to the Olympics in Beijing.
(AP, 8/7/08)(SFC, 8/8/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 8, In Pakistan at least
seven Pakistani troops and 30 militants were reported killed in two
days of clashes at Loisam and its surrounding areas in the Bajaur
tribal district. Insurgents stormed a police post in Buner and killed 8
police officers.
(AFP, 8/8/08)(SSFC, 8/10/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 10, Pakistani forces
bombed dozens of houses in Bajur, a tribal region near the Afghan
border, amid reports that days of clashes have killed at least 100
insurgents and nine paramilitary troops. Pakistani forces pulled out of
Bajur after 3 days of fighting. A Taliban spokesman said as many as 100
Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed. Officials acknowledged that
55 were missing.
(AP, 8/10/08)(SSFC, 8/11/08, p.A11)
2008 Aug 11, Pakistani forces
trained gunfire and dropped bombs on Islamic militants in and around
the main town of a tribal region next to the Afghan border, forcing
thousands of residents to flee. The bodies of two men beheaded by
militants were found about 12 miles north of Khar along with a note
accusing them of spying for US and Pakistani authorities. In Peshawar
an explosion killed one man and wounded another apparently as they were
planting a bomb near a private clinic.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 12, A roadside bomb
destroyed an air force truck on a bridge in Pakistan's volatile
northwest and killed up to 14 people. The Taliban claimed
responsibility for the attack, calling it "an open war" and retaliation
for recent military operations in the region. A suspected American
missile strike targeting an alleged militant gathering point killed at
least nine people, including foreigners near Angore Adda in the South
Waziristan. Two intelligence officials said between 22 and 25 people
died, including Arabs, Turkmen and Pakistani militants.
(AP, 8/12/08)(AP, 8/13/08)(SFC, 8/14/08, p.A2)
2008 Aug 13, In Lahore, Pakistan,
a bomber struck outside a mosque just before midnight as Pakistanis
poured into the streets to celebrate the nation's 61st anniversary of
its independence from Britain. 8 people were killed and 18 wounded.
(AP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 14, Pakistan's PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani said in an Independence Day speech that the country must
defeat extremism to survive. Officials said some 135,000 residents have
fled a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan to escape clashes
between troops and Taliban militants that have left scores dead.
(AP, 8/14/08)(AFP, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 15, Coalition government
officials said Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf is ready to resign
rather than face impeachment, but is seeking immunity from prosecution
and agreement on a safe place to live. President Pervez Musharraf's
spokesman rejected reports that the embattled Pakistani leader was set
to resign. Pakistan's interior ministry chief said that over 460
Islamic militants and 22 soldiers have been killed in more than a week
of fighting in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 8/15/08)(AFP, 8/15/08)(AP, 8/15/08)
2008 Aug 16, A top ruling party
official gave Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf a two-day deadline
to quit or face impeachment proceedings.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Aug 18, Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf announced that he will resign, just days ahead of
impeachment in parliament over attempts by the US-backed leader to
impose authoritarian rule on his turbulent nation.
(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Aug 19, Pakistan's ruling
coalition met to discuss a replacement for President Pervez Musharraf.
A suicide bomber killed 23 people at a hospital in a northwestern town
in the first attack since Musharraf stepped down. 5 soldiers and 13
Taliban militants died in clashes in a tribal area bordering
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 20, Pakistan’s security
officials said missiles fired from Afghanistan hit a militant hideout
in Pakistan's tribal belt, killing at least eight people including some
foreign extremists.
(AFP, 8/20/08)
2008 Aug 21, In Pakistan 2 suicide
bombers blew themselves up outside the country’s main defense industry
complex in Wah, killing at least 67 people with 102 wounded.
(Reuters, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pakistani troops
pounded Islamic militants in the volatile northwest, killing 37 in
retaliation for suicide attacks that have put pressure on the new
government to counter a growing extremist threat. 2 soldiers were
killed. A civilian and her four children were killed when security
forces fired a mortar that accidentally hit a home in Khar, near the
Afghan border. A car packed with explosives rammed into a police
station in Swat, a former tourist destination, killing six officers and
injuring several others. A roadside bomb in the nearby village of Bari
Kot killed one civilian and injured four.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 24, Pakistan rejected a
ceasefire offered by Taliban militants in the tribal belt near the
Afghan border as troops in the last 24 hours killed seven rebel
fighters. Officials said that Taliban militants in the area had slit
the throat of a 35-year-old man after accusing him of spying for US
troops across the border in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/24/08)
2008 Aug 25, Former PM Nawaz
Sharif said he is withdrawing his party from Pakistan's ruling
coalition because it has failed to restore judges ousted by
ex-President Pervez Musharraf. Pakistan banned the Taliban, toughening
its stance after the Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for
deadly suicide bombings against one of its most sensitive military
installations. 8 people were killed in a pre-dawn rocket-and-bomb
strike on the home of provincial lawmaker Waqar Ahmed Khan in Swat. A
Geneva prosecutor dropped money laundering charges against Asif Ali
Zardari, head of the Pakistan People’s Party.
(AP, 8/25/08)(SFC, 8/26/08, p.A15)
2008 Aug 26, In Pakistan an
explosion on the outskirts of Islamabad killed at least seven people
and wounded 20. Around midnight 75-100 militants attacked the Tiarza
Fort. The attack was repulsed with 11 militants killed.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 27, In Pakistan security
forces clashed with militants across the wild tribal belt, trading fire
with insurgents in a health center and repelling a major assault on an
outpost in a region known as an al-Qaida safe haven. Officials claimed
as many as 49 insurgents died as the fighting spread from the Swat
Valley and Bajur to South Waziristan.
(AP, 8/27/08)(SFC, 8/28/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 27, In
Indian-administered Kashmir police traded fire with militants allegedly
holding 8 people hostage, including 6 children, in a building in Jammu.
3 soldiers and 3 civilians died in the violence. The militants had
illegally crossed into Indian Kashmir from Pakistan a day earlier.
(AP, 8/27/08)(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 28, A bomb near the city
of Bannu blew a bus carrying Pakistani police and government workers
off a high bridge, killing at least 11, as fighting between security
forces and extremists flared across the country's northwest.
(AP, 8/28/08)(WSJ, 8/29/08, p.A10)
2008 Aug 29, Fighter jets bombed
Taliban hide-outs in Pakistan's Swat Valley while troops pushed into
militant territory on the ground, killing at least 40 insurgents in a
24-hour siege.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 30, In Pakistan a blast
ripped through a home in Wana, a main town in the South Waziristan
tribal region, killing at least five militants.
(AP, 8/30/08)
2008 Aug 31, Pakistan said it will
suspend its military operations against insurgents in a tribal region
along the Afghan border in honor of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Pakistani Taliban said they will continue attacks during Ramadan. A
missile fired from an unmanned aircraft hit a house in the North
Waziristan tribal area, killing six people including a woman and a
young girl.
(AP, 8/31/08)(Reuters, 8/31/08)(AFP, 8/31/08)
2008 Aug, Inflation in Pakistan
was running at an annual rate of 25%.
(Econ, 8/16/08, p.46)
2008 Sep 1, Pakistani officials
said that their forces had killed some 560 Pakistani and foreign
fighters and thwarted a push to make Bajur into a militant fortress.
Pakistan’s government opened an investigation into the killings of five
women who tried to choose their own husbands, after a provincial
lawmaker defended their deaths as a "centuries-old tradition."
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 2, Pakistani Taliban
militants said they had kidnapped two Chinese telecoms engineers and
their entourage and would soon issue a list of demands. The engineers
went missing along with their local driver and a security guard four
days ago near the Afghan border where they had been checking an
installation.
(AFP, 9/2/08)
2008 Sep 3, Pakistan's government
says a cross-border raid involving US-led or NATO forces killed several
civilians. Women and children were among at least 20 people reportedly
killed in the attack in Musa Nika village in South Waziristan near the
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/3/08)(SFC, 9/4/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 4, Pakistan’s Parliament
passed resolutions condemning an American-led attack in Pakistani
territory after the government summoned the US ambassador to protest
the unusually bold raid that officials say killed at least 15 people.
Four Islamist militants were killed and five wounded in a missile
attack by a suspected US drone in the village of Char Khel in North
Waziristan near Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/4/08)(Reuters, 9/4/08)
2008 Sep 5, Pakistan's Supreme
Court reinstated three judges ousted by Pervez Musharraf, cementing
political divisions in the country a day before it elects a new
president. An explosion possibly caused by a missile strike killed five
suspected foreign militants near the Afghan border in North Waziristan.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 6, Asif Ali Zardari, the
widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, became Pakistan's new
president after winning a landslide election victory in separate votes
in the federal and provincial assemblies. Overnight clashes left 24
people killed after residents of a village in the volatile northwest
foiled a militant kidnap attempt, then were attacked. An
explosives-packed pickup truck blew up at a police checkpoint on the
outskirts of Peshawar, killing 37 people.
(AP, 9/6/08)(AP, 9/7/08)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.55)
2008 Sep 7, Pakistan’s reserves in
the 1st week of September fell to $5.5 billion, enough to cover just
two months of imports. Reserves as of last November were about $14
billion.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.48)
2008 Sep 8, In Pakistan missiles
fired from 2 US drone aircraft hit a seminary and houses associated
with a Taliban commander in North Waziristan, killing at least 21
people, including both militants, women and children. Neither
Jalaluddin Haqqani nor his son, Sirajuddin, were present, but four
mid-level Al-Qaeda operatives were among the dead.
(AP, 9/8/08)(SFC, 9/9/08, p.A9)(WSJ, 9/9/08,
p.A16)(AFP, 9/10/08)
2008 Sep 9, Asif Ali Zardari. the
widower of assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, took
office as the country's new president, facing immediate pressure to
crack down on Islamic militants and address daunting economic problems.
Zardari and Afghan Pres. Karzai hosted a joint news conference and
declared that they stand together against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
(AP, 9/9/08)(SFC, 9/10/08, p.A7)
2008 Sep 11, Pakistan's PM Yousaf
Raza Gilani backed a harsh rebuke of the US by Gen. Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani, the Muslim nation's military chief. This was in response to
news that President Bush during the summer had secretly approved US
military raids inside Pakistan against alleged terrorist targets.
(AP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 12, In Pakistan a US
Predator drone fired 2 missiles at a home in the village of Tolkhel,
North Waziristan, killing at least 12 people.
(SFC, 9/13/08, p.A3)
2008 Sep 13, At least 24 Islamic
militants were killed in fierce fighting with Pakistani government
troops hunting Taliban fighters across Bajaur near the Afghan border.
(AGFP, 9/13/08)
2008 Sep 14, Pakistani security
forces killed 16 suspected militants and wounded 25 on in the Bajur
tribal region, the latest round of a military offensive with no end in
sight.
(AP, 9/14/08)
2008 Sep 15, Pakistani troops
backed by helicopter gunships and fighter jets killed 15 suspected
militants as security forces advanced on Taliban strongholds near the
Afghan border.
(AP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 16, Pakistan's military
has ordered its forces to open fire if US troops launch another air or
ground raid across the Afghan border. Security forces backed by air
support again pounded suspected militant hideouts in a northwest
Pakistan tribal region, killing eight alleged insurgents.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 17, A CIA missile
strike in South Waziristan killed 6 people as US Adm. Mike Mullen
assured Pakistan’s leaders that the US respects Pakistan’s sovereignty.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 18, In northwest Pakistan
militants briefly seized 300 boys at a school. The incident ended with
the deaths of 2 suicide bombers. No children were harmed.
(SFC, 9/19/08, p.A6)
2008 Sep 19, In Quetta, Pakistan,
a bomb exploded at a religious school run by a pro-Taliban Islamist
party, killing five people and wounding 10 more. A witness claimed it
was caused by a suicide bomber intercepted at the main gate. Unknown
gunmen riding a motorbike opened fire on a police patrol vehicle in
Quetta, killing one officer and wounding one policeman and a passer-by.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 20, President Asif Ali
Zardari said Pakistan will not tolerate any infringement of its
territory in the name of the fight against militants. He also called
for an end to the president's powers to dissolve the assembly and
dismiss the government, and pledged to tackle Pakistan's economic
problems. A suicide bomber and a roadside bomb struck two military
convoys in Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan killing four
soldiers and four civilians.
(Reuters, 9/20/08)(AFP, 9/20/08)
2008 Sep 20, A suspected car bomb
caused a huge explosion at the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in
Islamabad. The death toll soon grew to 54 with some 270 injured,
including the Czech ambassador and 3 Americans. The next day Pakistan
blamed Al-Qaeda linked Taliban militants for the massive suicide truck
bombing.
(AP, 9/20/08)(AFP, 9/21/08)(AP, 9/21/08)(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 21, Pakistani troops and
tribesmen opened fire on two US helicopters that crossed into the
country from neighboring Afghanistan. The helicopters did not return
fire and re-entered Afghan airspace without landing.
(www.wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1479095)
2008 Sep 22, In Pakistan gunmen
kidnapped Abdul Khaliq Farahi, Afghanistan's ambassador-designate, and
killed his driver in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 9/21/08)
2008 Sep 23, Pakistani officials
said security forces, backed by helicopter gunships and artillery, have
killed more than 60 insurgents in the northwest tribal regions in
offensives aimed at denying al-Qaida and Taliban militants safe havens.
(AP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 24, The Pakistani army
said it found the wreckage of a suspected US spy plane near the Afghan
border, but denied claims that it had been shot down. A suicide bomber
killed an 11-year-old girl and wounded 11 troops in the frontier city
of Quetta. Security forces killed 20 militants in the Bajur border
region.
(AP, 9/24/08)
2008 Sep 25, A joint statement
said India's PM Singh met with Pakistan's Pres. Zardari at the UN in
New York and they agreed to boost a faltering peace process between the
nuclear-armed neighbors.
(AP, 9/25/08)
2008 Sep 26, Pakistan said that
its troops had killed 1,000 Islamist militants in a month-long
offensive in the Bajaur region in which 27 soldiers died. Five top
Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders were among those killed. Police raided
a militant hideout in Karachi, triggering a shootout during which three
suicide bombers blew themselves up. The body of a man held in handcuffs
was found in the rubble. The prisoner in the rubble was identified as a
wealthy supplier of fuel and goods to US and NATO forces in
Afghanistan. A bomb blast caused a train to derail in eastern Punjab
province, killing 6 people including 3 children.
(AP, 9/26/08)(AFP, 9/26/08)
2008 Sep 28, In Pakistan suspected
militants seized a Polish engineer and killed his Pakistani driver,
guard and assistant in the northwestern city of Attock. A government
official in Bajur said militants attacked security forces in three
places overnight. He said the troops repulsed each attack, killing 11
fighters.
(AP, 9/28/08)
2008 Sep 29, Pakistan appointed
Lieutenant General Ahmed Shujaa Pasha as new head of its powerful
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, amid US accusations that the
military spy organization secretly backs Taliban rebels on the Afghan
border.
(AFP, 9/30/08)
2008 Sep 30, A late night missile
strike by a suspected US drone killed at least six people in a
Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 2, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber blew himself up near the house of politician Asfandyar
Wali Khan, who was receiving guests to mark the end of the Islamic
fasting month at his home in Charsadda, killing at least four people.
(AP, 10/2/08)
2008 Oct 3, US missiles hit a
house in Mohammadkhel near the Afghan border. Two Pakistani
intelligence officials, citing reports from field agents and
informants, said 14 Taliban militants and 8 Arabs died in the attack
about 28 miles west of Miran Shah. 2 people wounded in the attack died
later bringing the toll to 24.
(AP, 10/4/08)(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 3, NATO launched an
airstrike near the Afghan border with Pakistan. A jet fighter bombed
two houses in different parts of Datta Khel. Intelligence officials in
the region said 2 women and one child were killed and 5 men wounded. A
militant attack on a US patrol in eastern Kunar province killed an
Afghan civilian and wounded four others.
(Reuters, 10/3/08)(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 5, In Pakistan a
three-day ultimatum from the government for Afghans living illegally in
Bajur to leave was due to expire today. But of an estimated 80,000
Afghans, only about 15,000 had left.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 6, A suicide bomber
attacked legislator Rasheed Akbar Niwani’s house in eastern Pakistan,
killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 50. Officials said
Pakistani authorities have begun expelling Afghan refugees from the
Bajaur tribal region that has become the main battleground between
troops and fighters linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda.
(AP, 10/6/08)(Reuters, 10/6/08)(SFC, 10/7/08, p.A8)
2008 Oct 7, Afghan refugees flowed
over the border from Pakistan’s Bajur battle zone after officials
accused them of links with Taliban militants and ordered them out.
(AP, 10/7/08)
2008 Oct 9, Pakistani fighter jets
and helicopter gunships destroyed a Taliban militant facility in the
Swat Valley, killing 20 militants. Separately, five civilians,
including women and children, were killed when a shell hit a house in
the Matta district of Swat during clashes between troops and
insurgents. Bombings targeting police killed 10 people and wounded 14
in the volatile northwest and the capital. Suspected US missile strikes
hit Tappi village in North Waziristan, killing at least 9 people and a
house in the village of Dande Darpa Khel.
(AFP, 10/9/08)(SFC, 10/10/08, p.A17)
2008 Oct 10, A suicide bomber
drove his car into an anti-Taliban tribal council meeting in northwest
Pakistan, killing at least 30 people, the second suicide bombing in as
many days. The bomber blew himself up when around 500 members of Alizai
tribe were gathered to draw up a strategy as part of government-backed
efforts to drive out militants from tribal areas. Angry Pakistani
tribesmen traded fire with Taliban militants and demolished their
houses in a northwestern tribal region following the car suicide
attack.
(AP, 10/10/08)(Reuters, 10/11/08)
2008 Oct 11, US missile strikes in
Pakistan's northwest killed five people, but none was believed to be a
foreign al-Qaida fighter.
(AP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 12, Pakistani helicopter
gunships bombed a meeting of Islamic militants linked to Al-Qaeda near
the border with Afghanistan. Among the dead were two Taliban commanders
and 12 potential suicide bombers. More than 24 extremists with links to
Al-Qaeda were killed near the Afghan border in the Bajaur tribal region.
(AFP, 10/12/08)
2008 Oct 13, In Pakistan ten
Islamic extremists died in a gunbattle with soldiers in the
Khawazakhela district of the Swat valley during an ongoing military
operation against fighters loyal to local cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
Security forces fired mortar and artillery rounds at militants in the
Charmang area of the Bajur region overnight, killing nine insurgents.
Pro-government tribesmen exchanged fire with militants in the Nawa and
Kotkai areas of Bajur. Thirteen militants and two pro-government
tribesmen were killed.
(AFP, 10/13/08)(AP, 10/13/08)
2008 Oct 15, Pakistani President
Asif Ali Zardari reached trade deals with China, raising hopes that
Beijing would help his country through difficult economic and
diplomatic times.
(AP, 10/15/08)
2008 Oct 16, The Pakistani rupee
dropped to more than 82 to the dollar, continuing a slide that has seen
it lose more than 30% of its value this year. A suspected US missile
strike killed a purported foreign militant in South Waziristan, a
tribal area considered a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida. A suicide
bombing in the Swat Valley left four security personnel dead. In Bajur
7 militants were killed by plane and helicopter gunship attacks.
(AP, 10/16/08)(SFC, 10/17/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 17, In northwest Pakistan
troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded militant
positions, killing 60 fighters and wounding many others near the town
of Matta in the Swat Valley.
(AP, 10/18/08)
2008 Oct 18, Pakistan said that
China will help it build two more nuclear power plants, offsetting
Pakistani frustration over a recent nuclear deal between archrival
India and the US. Pakistani fighter jets bombed a militant camp and
munition storage facility in the northwest, killing at least 20
insurgents and causing extensive damage. In nearby Bajur district seven
more insurgents were killed when jets bombed their positions. 3
militants were killed in other parts of Bajur when they tried to attack
security posts.
(AP, 10/18/08)(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 19, Pakistan’s government
said it may have to accept politically unpopular IMF assistance to ward
off a possible economic meltdown if wealthy nations turn it down.
(AP, 10/19/08)
2008 Oct 20, Pakistani forces
killed up to 35 militants near the Afghan border, as the region's
provincial chief called for "peaceful dialogue" in a meeting with a US
State Department official.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 21, Taliban militants
ambushed a convoy of security forces in Pakistan's northwestern Swat
valley, sparking clashes that left at least five personnel and six
rebels dead.
(AFP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 21, In Kashmir trucks
laden with fruit, honey, garments and spices crossed the heavily armed
frontier as India and Pakistan opened a trade route between the two
sides of the divided region for the first time in six decades.
(AP, 10/21/08)
2008 Oct 22, Pakistani lawmakers
passed a resolution calling for an urgent review of the government's
national security strategy, saying that dialogue with Islamic militants
should be given the "highest priority." The International Monetary Fund
moved to bail out cash-strapped Pakistan in the Fund's first bid to
shore up an Asian economy following global financial turmoil as the
fiscal deficit hit 10% of GDP. An air strike at a militant compound in
northwestern Bajaur tribal district killed 33 rebels.
(AP, 10/22/08)(AFP, 10/22/08)(AFP, 10/23/08)(Econ,
10/25/08, p.54)
2008 Oct 23, In Pakistan suspected
US spy drones fired missiles into a school set up by a top Taliban
commander in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing 11 people.
Residents said that all of the victims were local tribesmen, adding
that locals had fired at two suspected US drones hovering above.
(AFP, 10/23/08)
2008 Oct 25, Pakistan's army
captured Loi Sam a key militant stronghold in the Bajur region near the
Afghan border, a breakthrough in a bloody push against the Taliban and
al-Qaida. The offensive launched in early August has claimed the lives
of some 1,500 suspected militant, 73 soldiers and 95 civilians.
(AP, 10/25/08)(SSFC, 10/26/08, p.A20)
2008 Oct 26, Pakistan troops
killed 11 Taliban militants in separate clashes in a tribal region. 15
people including 10 Taliban militants died in a gunbattle with locals
in the restive Swat valley. Locals thwarted a Taliban attempt to seize
militia chief Pir Samiullah. Hundreds of Taliban returned and seized 3
militia members, beheading one of them. Unknown gunmen shot dead the
brother of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. A US missile
strike in the South Waziristan area killed Haji Omar Khan, a lieutenant
of veteran Afghan Taliban chieftain and former anti-Soviet fighter
Jalaluddin Haqqani, along with at least 15 other people.
(AP, 10/26/08)(AFP, 10/27/08)(WSJ, 10/27/08, p.A14)
2008 Oct 28, Afghan and Pakistani
leaders vowed to seek dialogue with Taliban insurgents, saying the
"door is now open" for reconciliation.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 28, Pakistani President
Asif Ali Zardari announced government awards for US Democratic vice
presidential nominee Joe Biden and Republican Senator Richard Lugar.
Biden and Lugar in July introduced a bipartisan US aid plan which calls
for $1.5 billion per year in non-military spending to support economic
development in Pakistan.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 29, Pakistan registered
"a strong protest" with Washington's ambassador to Islamabad over a
number of missile attacks by US drones inside its territory. Gunmen
killed three Shiite Muslims in a sectarian attack in northwestern
Pakistan.
(AP, 10/29/08)
2008 Oct 29, In southwestern
Pakistan a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck before dawn, killing at
least 215 people and turning mud and timber homes into rubble. An
estimated 15,000 people were left homeless, and rescuers were digging
for survivors in a remote valley in Baluchistan province. Officials
later feared the death toll would pass 300.
(AP, 10/29/08)(AP, 10/30/08)(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Oct 31, A suspected US drone
aircraft fired missiles into a house in Mir Ali town in Pakistan's
North Waziristan region on the Afghan border. Al-Qaida member Abu Kasha
Iraqi was among those killed. Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the US
as al-Qaida’s propaganda chief, was among 3 people killed when a
missile hit their truck. A second house was hit, killing 12 including
suspected foreign militants in Kari Kot in South Waziristan. 29 people
were reported killed in the 2 attacks. A suicide bomber attacked the
convoy of a regional police chief, killing 3 police officers and 5
civilians in Mardan in the North West Frontier Province.
(AP, 10/31/08)(AFP, 11/1/08)(SFC, 11/1/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 31, Gunmen in Peshawar,
Pakistan, kidnapped Zia ul-Haq Ahadi, the brother of Afghanistan's
finance minister, while he was walking to his mother's home after
praying at a mosque. Ahadi, a businessman who lives in Afghanistan, was
in Peshawar to visit his mother.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 2, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber detonated his vehicle at a checkpoint at Zalai Fort in South
Waziristan killing 8 troops.
(SFC, 11/3/08, p.A11)
2008 Nov 3, General David
Petraeus, the US commander running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
held talks with Pakistani leaders who told him to stop US strikes on
militants in Pakistani territory.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 5, A Pakistani army air
strike overnight destroyed a suspected militant training facility in
the Bajur tribal area near the Afghan border. 15 insurgents were
killed. The dead included a Pakistani militant commander named Wali
Rehman, who was known to shelter foreign militants linked to al-Qaida.
(AP, 11/5/08)(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 6, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber attacked a gathering of anti-militant tribesmen, killing nine
and wounding 45 in the Batmalai area of the Bajur tribal region, where
the military has clashed with insurgents for months.
(AP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 7, In Pakistan suspected
US drones fired missiles into Kam Sam, on the border between North and
South Waziristan, killing 13 militants, including 4-5 foreigners. This
was the latest in a series of strikes that has infuriated Pakistan.
(Reuters, 11/7/08)(SFC, 11/7/08, p.A8)
2008 Nov 8, In Pakistan police
found the bullet-ridden bodies of the two men in the North Waziristan
tribal region after a tip from residents. Militants claimed they were
spies for the United States and dumped their bodies with a warning in a
Pakistani border region at the center of a campaign of suspected
American missile strikes. Fighting reported elsewhere in Pakistan's
volatile northwest left 29 militants and three Pakistani soldiers dead.
Security forces fatally shot a local journalist in the Swat Valley
area. Mohammad Shoaib, worked for the Azadi newspaper and apparently
did not stop his vehicle when signaled to do so.
(AP, 11/8/08)(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 9, Pakistani airstrikes
pounded suspected insurgent hide-outs in the Bajur tribal region
bordering Afghanistan, killing 13 alleged militants. A
remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle killed a passer-by and
wounded five others in a market in Sui town in southwest Baluchistan
province.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 10, Militants in
northwest Pakistan hijacked 13 trucks carrying supplies for Western
forces in Afghanistan as they passed through the Khyber Pass.
(Reuters, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 11, Pakistan’s military
said at least 11 Taliban militants were killed and two soldiers wounded
in gunfights with troops in the northwestern Swat valley, rocked by a
violent campaign to introduce Islamic law. A suicide bomber blew
himself up outside the Peshawar Sports Complex, hosting athletes from
around the country, killing at least two people.
(AP, 11/11/08)
2008 Nov 12, In Pakistan Stephen
Vance, a US development worker, and his driver were shot dead in
Peshawar, where a wave of violence has been blamed on militants linked
to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. 3 security forces died when a suicide
bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle at the gate of government
school for boys in the northwestern village of Subhan Khwar, 22 miles
north of Peshawar.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 13, Pakistan announced
that China had offered it a $500 million aid package.
(WSJ, 11/14/08, p.A10)
2008 Nov 13, In northwestern
Pakistan gunmen kidnapped Hashmatullah Atharzadeh, an Iranian diplomat,
and killed his local guard. Peshawar's police chief Suleman Shah said
the spate of killings and abductions was in reaction to the military
operations against insurgents in the adjoining tribal belt.
(AFP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Pakistan a
Japanese and an Afghan journalist were shot in the frontier city of
Peshawar, the third attack on foreigners in three days. Motoki
Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was wounded in the leg.
Abdul Sami Yousafzai, was more seriously hurt. Missiles apparently
fired by US unmanned aircraft in North Waziristan killed at least 12
people, including 9 militants.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 15, An official said
Pakistan has agreed to borrow $7.6 billion from the International
Monetary Fund to avoid adding an economic crisis to its struggle
against Islamic militants. Helicopter gunships, backed by artillery,
began pounding suspected insurgent hideouts in Mohmand tribal area.
(AP, 11/15/08)(AP, 11/16/08)
2008 Nov 16, Pakistan temporarily
barred oil tankers and container trucks from a key passageway to
Afghanistan, threatening a critical supply route for US and NATO troops
and raising more fears about security in the militant-plagued border
region. NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan fired 20 artillery rounds at
insurgents inside Pakistan in an attack the alliance said was
coordinated with the government in Islamabad.
(AP, 11/16/08)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 17, Pakistan sent armed
troops to escort trucks along a key supply route for US and NATO forces
in Afghanistan. In northwest Pakistan a suicide car bomber attacked an
army post, killing at least 3 people. Violence elsewhere in the region
left at least five suspected militants dead. Taliban militants attacked
Pakistani tribal leaders in the Bajur region near the Afghan border,
triggering a gunbattle and a blast that killed seven people.
(AP, 11/17/08)(AP, 11/18/08)(WSJ, 11/18/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 18, Pakistani security
forces in the Kabal area of the Swat valley killed seven militants. In
another incident in the valley's Kanju area, insurgents ambushed an
army convoy, killing a soldier.
(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 19, In Pakistan gunmen
shot and killed Ameer Faisal Alvi, a retired Pakistani army general,
and his driver on the outskirts of capital, Islamabad. Alvi had led
military operations against insurgents in the tribal regions. A
suspected American missile bombarded a village in Bannu district, deep
inside Pakistani territory, marking what appears to be the first time
the US has struck beyond the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. Six
alleged militants were killed including Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a
senior member of Osama bin Laden's terror network.
(AP, 11/19/08)(AFP, 11/19/08)
2008 Nov 20, In Pakistan a
militant Taliban group warned of reprisals if there was another US
drone attack, as the government condemned the latest missile strike in
its territory. A suicide bomber killed at least four people when he
blew himself up at a mosque northwest of Khar, the main town in the
troubled Bajaur tribal region. Pakistani jets and artillery killed 17
people, including up to four Uzbek commanders, as they pounded
suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda hideouts in Bajaur overnight and into
the morning. Pakistani jets also killed 20 militants in attacks on
militant centers in the northwestern Swat valley. A suicide bomber
attacked a mosque in the border region where government-backed
anti-militant tribesman were praying, killing 8, including the head of
the group.
(AFP, 11/20/08)(AP, 11/21/08)
2008 Nov 21, In northwestern
Pakistan a bomb killed eight mourners at the funeral of Shiite cleric
Allama Nazir Shah Naqvi, who was fatally shot earlier in the day.
(AP, 11/21/08)(SFC, 11/22/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 22, In northwest Pakistan
British-born Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006
transatlantic airplane bombing plot, was killed in a US missile attack.
He had been in custody under the Security of Pakistan Act when he
escaped in December 2007 from Pakistani police custody, although all
charges relating to terrorism had been dropped. Also among the five
killed in the early morning incident was Egyptian Abu Zubair al-Misri,
another wanted Al-Qaeda operative.
(AFP, 11/22/08)
2008 Nov 24, In Pakistan
government forces killed 15 militants in the Swat valley. An official
said a two-week operation to secure the frontier city of Peshawar,
which sits on a key supply route for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan,
killed 25 suspected militants.
(AP, 11/24/08)(SFC, 11/25/08, p.A13)
2008 Nov 24, Pakistan, the
front-line country in the battle against Islamist terrorism, won final
approval for a $7.6 billion loan from the IMF to help stave off a
possible economic meltdown.
(AP, 11/25/08)
2008 Nov 25, Pakistan said its
Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has shut down a unit
that spied on domestic politicians.
(SFC, 11/26/08, p.A3)
2008 Nov 28, In Pakistan a suicide
car bomber killed seven people in the northwestern town of Bannu.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Nov 29, Pakistan's foreign
minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a press conference that Pakistan
will take action against any group within its borders if it was
involved in the Mumbai attacks. A suspected US missile strike killed at
least two people near Miran Shah in northwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 11/29/08)
2008 Nov 29, In India a 60-hour
terror rampage that killed at least 173 people across Mumbai, India's
financial capital, ended when commandos killed the last three gunmen
inside the 565-room Taj Mahal hotel while it was engulfed in flames. A
group called Deccan Mujahideen, which alludes to a region in southern
India traditionally ruled by Muslim kings, claimed responsibility for
the attack. Officials said they believed that just 10 gunmen had taken
part in the attack. Nine were killed and one was captured. The 10th
gunman was later identified as Mohammad Ajmal Amir Imam from Faridkot
village in Pakistan. 19 foreigners were killed including 6 Americans.
(AP, 11/29/08)(WSJ, 11/29/08, p.A1)(AP,
12/1/08)(WSJ, 12/5/08, p.A1)(SFC, 12/10/08, p.A9)(Econ, 12/6/08,
p.57)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks)
2008 Nov 30, Six Pakistani
security officers and two suspected militants were killed in new
violence close to the Afghan border. Fighting in the past two
days between ethnic and political gangs that left 16 people dead in
Karachi.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, Militants in
northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and US
forces in Afghanistan, killing two people and destroying a dozen
vehicles. A suicide attack on a security checkpoint in the Swat
Valley killed 8 people and wounded 40.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 1, India has formally
demanded that Pakistan take "strong action" against the people behind
the Mumbai attacks. An Indian police official said the only gunman
captured alive after the attacks claimed to belong to Lashkar-e-Taiba,
a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region
of Kashmir and one long seen as a creation of the Pakistani
intelligence service.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 2, India demanded
Pakistan hand over 20 of its most wanted fugitives as a sign of good
faith, while both sides tried to cool tensions over the Mumbai attacks
before a visit by Washington's top diplomat. India named Yusuf
Muzammil, the senior leader of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, as the
mastermind of the attacks in Mumbai. A bomb exploded in a train coach
in India's insurgency-hit northeast, killing at least three people and
injuring another 29.
(AP, 12/2/08)(WSJ, 12/3/08, p.A1)
2008 Dec 3, Pakistani airstrikes
killed 30 suspected militants in 2 area of the Mohmand border region. A
suicide attack on a convoy in the same region killed 3 soldiers and a
civilian.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A13)
2008 Dec 5, In Pakistan a car bomb
devastated a busy street in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing
30 people and injuring about a hundred.
(AP, 12/5/08)(AP, 12/6/08)(Econ, 12/13/08, p.50)
2008 Dec 5, The leaders of
Pakistan and Afghanistan met for Turkish-sponsored talks aimed at
reducing tensions over militant attacks along the countries' lawless
border.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 7, Gunmen blasted their
way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more than 160
vehicles, including 790 Humvees, destined for US-led troops in
Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply
line. The losses possibly exceeded $10 million.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 7, Pakistani security
forces overran a militant camp on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad,
Pakistani Kashmir's main city, and seized Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, an
alleged mastermind of the attacks that shook Mumbai last month. Zarar
Shah, another top operational commander, and 10 others were seized at
the camp run by the banned group Laskhar-e-Taiba.
(AP, 12/8/08)(WSJ, 12/9/08, p.A10)
2008 Dec 8, In Pakistan armed
militants launched a second raid in as many days on NATO depots,
torching nearly 100 more vehicles destined for the alliance's forces in
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 9, Pakistan arrested some
40 people in raids that targeted Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Northwest
Frontier Province and Punjab.
(WSJ, 12/10/08, p.A9)
2008 Dec 9, India police released
the names of nine suspected Islamic militants killed during their
attack on Mumbai, bolstering India's charges that all of them came from
Pakistan. A speeding bus caught fire in northern Uttar Pradesh state,
killing at least 20 Hindu pilgrims.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 11, Pakistan ordered the
closure Jemaat-u-Dawa, a charity linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the
militant group suspected in the Mumbai attacks, a day after the outfit
was declared a front for terrorists by the United Nations. A suspected
US strike killed six people on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border,
a lawless region believed to be a stronghold of al-Qaida.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 12, Pakistan stage
overnight raids, shut offices and arrested scores of activists of
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), an Islamic charity associated with
Lashkar-e-Taiba, as international pressure mounted for firm action
against militants blamed for the Mumbai attacks. Maulana Masood Azhar,
head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group, blamed with Lashkar-e-Taiba for a
2001 attack on India's parliament, was also detained.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 13, In northwest Pakistan
militants attacked a terminal used by vehicles ferrying supplies to US
and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Elsewhere in the northwest clashes
involving security forces, tribesmen and insurgents killed 8 people,
including two children. Authorities found the bodies of 2 Afghan men in
Miran Shah. A letter found nearby alleged the men gave information that
aided the US in launching missile strikes in the militant-plagued
region.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 15, A Pakistani
transporters association said truckers are refusing to haul supplies to
NATO and US forces in Afghanistan because of mounting attacks along the
main route.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 19, Militants in Pakistan
launched rockets at two trucks returning from delivering fuel to US-led
forces in Afghanistan, killing three people along a critical and
increasingly dangerous supply route. 3 people died in Rawalpindi when a
building collapsed after it was ravaged by a fire for several hours.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 21, Pakistani fighter
jets attacked suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda positions in a lawless
tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, killing four militants.
Police found 2 bullet-ridden bodies of Afghan nationals in an abandoned
village in North Waziristan, who allegedly acted as spies for US forces.
(AFP, 12/21/08)(AP, 12/21/08)
2008 Dec 21, India arrested 3
suspected Islamic militants, including a Pakistani soldier, for
allegedly planning a suicide attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The
suspects were members of Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of more than a dozen
groups fighting since 1989 to oust India from Kashmir.
(SFC, 12/24/08, p.A5)
2008 Dec 22, In Pakistan suspected
US drones fired at least two missiles into South Waziristan region on
the Afghan border, killing seven people.
(Reuters, 12/22/08)
2008 Dec 24, In Pakistan a
bomb-rigged truck with government plates exploded in Lahore, killing
one person in a heavily guarded neighborhood home to many government
officials.
(AP, 12/24/08)
2008 Dec 26, Pakistan began moving
thousands of troops to the Indian border, sharply raising tensions
triggered by the Mumbai terror attacks.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 28, In northwest Pakistan
36 people were killed and 15 hurt in a suspected suicide car bomb
attack in Shalbandi, in the Swat valley, where villagers 4 months
earlier had killed 6 Taliban fighters.
(AFP, 12/28/08)(SFC, 12/29/08, p.A11)
2008 Dec 30, Pakistan closed the
main route used to ferry supplies to US and allied troops in
Afghanistan after launching a fresh offensive against militants in the
area.
(AP, 12/30/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Pakistan tanks,
artillery and helicopter gunships continued their attacks in the Khyber
Pass. Over the last two days, security forces destroyed 19 suspected
militant compounds and arrested 28 Pakistanis. Government troops
reportedly killed three militants in the operation to secure the major
supply route to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Dec 31, A senior Pakistani
government official said Zarar Shah, a militant arrested in Pakistan,
has confessed involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks and is giving
investigators details of the plot. Shah and another suspect,
Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, were said to be cooperating with investigators.
(AP, 12/31/08)
2008 Shuja Nawaz authored “Crossed
Swords: Pakistan, its Army and the Wars Within.”
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.100)
2009 Jan 1, In northwest Pakistan
a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft destroyed a vehicle,
killing at least three foreign militants. The US drone killed 2
Al-Qaida leaders from Kenya, Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim
Swedan. Pakistani authorities arrested Ustad Mohammed Yasir, a former
Taliban spokesman, during a raid on his relatives' house in Peshawar
near the Afghan border. Yasir had been previously arrested by Pakistan
in 2005 and sent to Afghanistan where he was released in 2007 in
exchange for a kidnapped Italian journalist.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AP, 1/3/09)(WSJ, 1/10/09, p.A6)
2009 Jan 2, Pakistan reopened the
main supply route for US and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan after
blocking it for three days during a military operation against
militants who have been attacking convoys.
(AP, 1/2/09)
2009 Jan 3, In southwest Pakistan
two paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in a landmine
explosion in Dera Bugti, Baluchistan province. Sarbaz Khan, a spokesman
for the Baluch Republican Army, later claimed responsibility of the
attack.
(AFP, 1/3/09)
2009 Jan 4, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber attacked police as they rushed to treat civilians
injured by an earlier explosion, killing seven people and wounding at
least 25 others. During a raid elsewhere in northwest Pakistan, the
army discovered a van packed with 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of
explosives. Six suspected militants were arrested in the raid on a
house in the Khyber tribal region.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 5, In Pakistan three
bullet-riddled bodies were found along a road some 16 miles east of
Miran Shah. Police said suspected Taliban militants had executed a
Pakistani construction contractor and two Afghan men they accused of
spying for the US.
(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 5, India handed to
Pakistan what it said was evidence linking the country to the Islamic
militants who attacked Mumbai in November.
(AFP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 7, Pakistan’s PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani fired national security advisor Mahmood Ali Durrani after
he gave media interviews on national security issues without consulting
Gilani. The move came hours after Durrani and other top officials told
reporters that the sole surviving Mumbai attacker was a Pakistani
citizen.
(AP, 1/8/09)
2009 Jan 8, In Pakistan a fire
swept through a slum in Karachi, killing 38 people, many of them
children.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 9, Pakistan’s PM Gilani
said his intelligence agency has given India information about the
Mumbai attacks, as US Vice President-elect Joe Biden arrived in
Pakistan for talks with the country's top leaders. A series of blasts
have gone off near a theater in the eastern city of Lahore, but there
has been no immediate word on casualties.
(AP, 1/9/09)
2009 Jan 10, In northwestern
Pakistan at least 40 people were killed over the last 24 hours in
clashes between Sunnis and Shiites in villages of the Hangu district.
(AP, 1/10/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 11, In northwestern
Pakistan security forces repulsed an attack by 600 fighters, most of
whom had crossed the border from Afghanistan, leaving at least 40
militants and 6 soldiers dead and scores of others wounded.
(AP, 1/11/09)(SFC, 1/12/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 12, In Pakistan the
bodies of two men killed by Taliban militants for allegedly spying for
the US were found in the North Waziristan tribal region to the south of
Mohmand. The two were abducted a week ago as they attempted to flee
with their families. Trucks and other vehicles blocked the main
Quetta-Chaman highway, forcing about 100 trucks carrying NATO supplies
to park.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 12, The US slapped
sanctions on people and firms linked to Pakistani scientist Abdul
Qadeer Khan’s black market nuclear network.
(WSJ, 1/13/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 14, Pakistan reopened a
supply route for NATO and US forces in Afghanistan after tribesmen
ended a three-day blockade. Thousands of people protested in Quetta
after four police officers were shot dead in what an official said was
a sectarian attack against Shiites.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 15, Pakistani officials
said 71 people have been arrested in a crackdown on groups allegedly
linked to the Mumbai attacks, while adding that the information India
has handed over needs work before it can be used as evidence in court.
Pakistan also said security forces had closed five training camps run
by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group blamed for the Mumbai attack, and
arrested the entire top, middle and lower-level leadership and those of
a related charity. Security forces killed and injured a large number of
militants in the Swat valley in the country's northwest. Four local
militant commanders died in the clash.
(AP, 1/15/09)(Reuters, 1/15/09)(AP, 1/16/09)(WSJ,
1/16/09, p.A5)
2009 Jan 17, Pakistani security
forces, backed by artillery and tanks, killed 14 Taliban insurgents in
heavy fighting in the Mohmand region on the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 18, Pakistan’s
information minister said the government will push to quickly reopen
girls' schools destroyed by Islamic militants in the northwest Swat
valley.
(AP, 1/18/09)
2009 Jan 19, Militant attacks
killed a Pakistani soldier near the crucial supply route to US and NATO
forces in Afghanistan. Suspected Taliban militants bombed five schools
in a nearby valley in their growing campaign against girls' education.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 20, Pakistani police said
suspected Taliban militants killed six alleged US spies in a lawless
region of northwest Pakistan where American missile attacks have
reportedly killed several al-Qaida leaders in recent months. A bomb
wounded five police officers in Peshawar, the capital of North West
Frontier Province. An industry official said bus drivers in northwest
Pakistan have begun removing audio and video equipment from their
vehicles after Taliban militants threatened suicide attacks against
those who played music or movies for their passengers.
(AP, 1/20/09)(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 20, In Spain 6 people of
Pakistani origin were arrested on suspicion of "fraud" in Barcelona.
They were suspected of financing terrorist activities by carrying out
thefts and sending money raised from criminal activities to Pakistan.
(AFP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, In Pakistan a Saudi
called Zabi ul Taifi was among seven Al-Qaida suspects caught when
government forces mounted a raid near the northwestern city of Peshawar.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 22, Pres. Obama named
George Mitchell as envoy to the Mideast and Richard Holbrook as envoy
to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(WSJ, 1/23/09, p.A1)
2009 Jan 23, In Pakistan 2
suspected US missile attacks killed 14 people just east of the Afghan
border. At least five victims were identified as foreign militants. A
suicide attack and a roadside bomb killed two soldiers and three
civilians in the Swat Valley.
(AP, 1/23/09)
2009 Jan 24, Pakistan urged
President Barack Obama to halt US missile strikes on al-Qaida
strongholds near the Afghan border, saying that civilians were killed
the previous day in the first attacks since Obama's inauguration.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 25, Indian police shot
dead two suspected militants from Pakistan in a pre-dawn car chase near
New Delhi.
(AP, 1/25/09)
2009 Jan 26, In northwest Pakistan
a bomb rigged to a bicycle exploded on a major road in Dera Ismail
Khan, killing at least five people and wounding 20 in the latest attack
to rattle the volatile region. In the southwest gunmen shot dead the
leader of a small Shiite political party in Quetta, triggering violent
protests. Several hundred people torched vehicles and a bank. Elsewhere
in the northwest a man whom militants accused of spying for America was
found shot dead in Datta Khel village in North Waziristan.
(AP, 1/26/09)
2009 Jan 27, Pakistani tribal
elders urged the government to stop military operations against Taliban
militants in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and to start peace
talks.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 29, Pakistani police
arrested three men who they alleged carried out a deadly 2006 bombing
in Pakistan on the orders of India's intelligence agency.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, A roadside bomb hit a
Pakistani army convoy near a Taliban stronghold in the Swat valley,
killing three soldiers and wounding another six.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Jan 31, In Pakistan two
motorcyclists lobbed a hand grenade at a police patrol in Baluchistan's
Khuzdar district, but hit bystanders instead, killing one person and
wounding 5 others.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Pakistan at least
16 suspected militants, one soldier and 19 civilians were killed in
clashes over the last 24 hours in the northwestern Swat Valley, as the
military escalated its offensive against insurgents in the one-time
tourist haven. In the southwest a bomb rigged to a motorcycle
exploded in a market, wounding at least 10 people.
(AP, 2/1/09)(WSJ, 2/2/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 2, In southwestern
Pakistan gunmen seized John Solecki, head of the UN refugee office in
the city of Quetta, as he traveled to work. On April 4 Solecki was
released unharmed.
(AP, 2/2/09)(SSFC, 4/5/09, p.A7)
2009 Feb 3, Islamist militants
blew up a bridge in northwestern Pakistan, cutting a major supply line
for Western troops in Afghanistan in the latest in a series of attacks
on the Khyber Pass by insurgents seeking to hamper the US-led mission
against the Taliban.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 4, In Pakistan assailants
overnight torched 10 returning trucks stranded by the bombing of a key
bridge on the main supply route for US forces in Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 5, In central Pakistan a
suicide bomber blew himself up near a Shiite mosque in the town of Dera
Ghazi Khan, killing 24 people.
(AFP, 2/5/09)(SFC, 2/6/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 6, A Pakistani court
freed nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. He had admitted to selling
weapon technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.
(WSJ, 2/7/09, p.A1)
2009 Feb 8, Pakistani Taliban
militants released a graphic video showing the beheading of a Polish
engineer whom they said was killed because Islamabad refused to free
detained insurgents. Piotr Stanczak had been seized in the volatile
northwest on September 28.
(AFP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 10, Pakistan called for a
new strategy of dialogue to combat militancy and urged Washington to
reconsider military action on its territory in its first talks with US
envoy Richard Holbrooke.
(AFP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 11, In northwest Pakistan
provincial lawmaker Alam Zeb Khan was killed and seven other people
wounded after a bicycle bombing in Peshawar, as US envoy Richard
Holbrooke visited the city.
(AFP, 2/11/09)
2009 Feb 12, Pakistan’s government
said for the first time that last November's attack on Mumbai was
launched and partly planned from Pakistan, and that it was holding in
custody a ringleader and five other suspects.
(Reuters, 2/12/09)(SFC, 2/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Feb 14, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a
militant hide-out, killing 27 local and foreign insurgents. Two
officials said dozens of followers of Pakistan's top Taliban leader,
Baitullah Mehsud, were staying in the housing compound when it was hit.
(AP, 2/14/09)
2009 Feb 15, The Taliban announced
a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley after freeing a Chinese
hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted
American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained
missing.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 16, Pakistan’s government
agreed to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive across
much the northwest in concessions aimed at pacifying the Taliban
insurgency spreading from the border region to the country's interior.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, NATO warned that
Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after it
struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive in
the former tourist haven of Swat.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 18, In Pakistan a
pro-Taliban cleric vowed to restore calm to the troubled Swat valley,
leading thousands of men in a march for peace after securing a
controversial deal to enforce sharia law. Gunmen killed a television
reporter hours after he covered the peace march in the Swat Valley.
(AFP, 2/18/09)(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a slain Shiite Muslim
leader, killing 28 people and triggering deadly rioting.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, A Pakistani official
said that the Taliban and the Pakistani government had agreed to a
"permanent cease-fire" in the restive northwest Swat Valley. A roadside
bomb apparently targeted an oil tanker headed to NATO troops in
Afghanistan. The remote-controlled bomb killed one person and wounded
two others near the Landi Kotal area. The Taliban had been engineering
a class revolt for years by exploiting fissures between a small group
of wealthy landlords and their landless tenants.
(AP, 2/21/09)(WSJ, 4/16/09, p.A4)
2009 Feb 22, In Pakistan a top
official said the local government the North West Frontier Province
will distribute 30,000 rifles to villagers to help security forces
fight the growing strength of Taliban and al-Qaida militants.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Feb 23, Pakistani
paramilitary forces killed 10 Taliban militants in a tribal area
bordering Afghanistan and destroyed more than a dozen vehicles and a
main communications system.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, Taliban militants
extended a cease-fire in northwestern Pakistan's Swat valley, granting
more time for peace talks with the government that the US worries could
create a haven for insurgents in the nuclear-armed country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 25, Pakistan's Supreme
Court barred main opposition leader and former premier Nawaz Sharif
from holding office and contesting elections, sparking political
turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation. The court also turfed his younger
brother, Shahbaz Sharif, out of Punjab’s provincial parliament and his
post as its chief minister.
(AFP, 2/25/09)(Econ, 2/28/09, p.47)
2009 Feb 26, In Pakistan thousands
of supporters of former Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif protested, a day
after a court ruling to exclude him and his brother from elected office
raised fears of renewed political turmoil.
(Reuters, 2/26/09)
2009 Feb 27, In Pakistan police
fought running battles with supporters of former PM Nawaz Sharif near
Islamabad as protests against a court order barring him from elected
office continued for a third day.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Feb 28, Pakistani officers
said troops have defeated Taliban militants in the Bajur region near
the Afghan border and are close to victory in the tribal region of
Mohmand after a grinding offensive.
(AP, 2/28/09)
2009 Mar 1, In northwest Pakistan
at least eight people were killed in two suspected US missile strikes
in South Waziristan near to the border with Afghanistan.
(AFP, 3/1/09)
2009 Mar 2, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed at least five people and wounded seven others at a
religious school in southwestern Kili Karbala village in Pishin
district.
(AFP, 3/2/09)
2009 Mar 3, In Pakistan at least a
dozen men ambushed Sri Lanka's cricket team with rifles, grenades and
rocket launchers as they drove to the stadium ahead of a match in
Lahore, killing 6 policemen and a driver. The attackers melted away
into the city. None were killed or captured.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 5, Pakistani officials
said that they have identified the gunmen who ambushed the Sri Lankan
cricket team in Lahore on March 3, leaving 8 people dead. Police
detained over 2 dozen men and most of them belonged to Jaish-e-Mohammed
and Lashkar-e-Mohammed, groups linked to Al-Qaida and designated as
terrorist organizations by the US.
(WSJ, 3/6/09, p.A9)
2009 Mar 7, In Pakistan Taliban
militants reportedly shot down a suspected drone aircraft in a tribal
area bordering Afghanistan. In the northwest a bomb-laden car exploded
as police tried to pull a body from it, killing 7 police and a
bystander. A roadside bombing in Darra Adam Khel killed 3 civilians. A
suicide bomber in the Khyber tribal region killed 4 people.
(AFP, 3/7/09)(AP, 3/7/09)(SSFC, 3/8/09, p.A10)
2009 Mar 8, Iran, Afghanistan and
Pakistan carried out their first joint counter narcotics operation.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 9, Pakistan's top
security official warned opposition leader Nawaz Sharif that his recent
anti-government speeches amounted to treason, ratcheting up tensions in
the country ahead of planned protest rallies this week. A tribe in the
northwestern Bajur region, where the military has fought insurgents,
agreed to stop sheltering foreign fighters and hand over local Taliban
leaders. A tribal elder said some militants could be pardoned and freed.
(AP, 3/9/09)(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 10, Pakistani security
forces claimed to have killed 35 militants in fresh fighting in the
northwest, on the Afghanistan border. Gunmen torched a truck in
Baluchistan province carrying supplies for NATO forces in neighboring
Afghanistan, leaving its driver and a helper wounded.
(AP, 3/10/09)(AFP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 11, Pakistan arrested
hundreds of opposition activists and banned protests in two regions
ahead of a planned rally outside the parliament that could weaken the
already shaky rule of the country's US-allied government.
(AP, 3/11/09)
2009 Mar 12, Pakistani police
clashed with black-suited lawyers and opposition activists after the
launch of a cross-country protest rally in defiance of government
attempts to stop it. Paramilitary forces backed by jets and helicopter
gunships killed 18 militants in a restive Pakistani tribal region
bordering Afghanistan. A suspected US missile strike in northwest
Pakistan killed at least 24 people, most of them Taliban militants.
(Reuters, 3/12/09)(AFP, 3/12/09)(AFP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 13, Pakistani officials
appealed to the opposition to join talks aimed at resolving the
country's political crisis, even as police stepped up a crackdown on
activists trying to reach the capital for a planned anti-government
protest.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 15, Pakistan's
opposition leader Nawaz Sharif defied house arrest to lead
anti-government protests that briefly turned violent before becoming a
jubilant show of force against the country's pro-Western president.
Suspected militants attacked a transport terminal in northwestern
Pakistan used to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan before dawn and
torched dozens of containers and military vehicles. A suspected US
missile strike killed two Arabs and three other people in northwest
Pakistan.
(AP, 3/15/09)
2009 Mar 16, In Pakistan the
Zardari government relented in a major confrontation with the
opposition, agreeing to reinstate Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the fired
Supreme Court chief justice, whose fate had sparked street fights and
raised fears of political instability. The government said Chaudhry
would be sworn back in on March 21. PM Yousuf Raza Gilani's
announcement also promised the restoration of a handful of other judges
who had remained off the bench since former President Pervez Musharraf
sacked them in 2007. Up to 50 militants attacked a terminal for trucks
carrying supplies to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, in the second
such assault in northwest Pakistan in two days. A suicide bomber blew
up at a busy bus terminal near Islamabad, killing at least nine people
and wounding 18 more.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 17, In Pakistan Islamic
courts started work in the Swat valley under a controversial deal that
the government hopes will end two years of bitter fighting.
(AFP, 3/18/09)
2009 Mar 19, In Pakistan suspected
Taliban militants fired a rocket that killed 8 people on a supply rout
to Afghanistan.
(WSJ, 3/20/09, p.A1)
2009 Mar 22, In Pakistan Iftikhar
Mohammed Chaudhry, the chief justice whose ouster spurred waves of
protests that led to a president's downfall, returned to work, while
the ruling party and opposition resolved to cooperate despite their own
clash over his reinstatement.
(AP, 3/22/09)
2009 Mar 23, Pakistani troops
destroyed two militant hideouts in the troubled southwestern province
of Baluchistan, where a UN official was kidnapped last month. A suicide
bomber blew himself up at a police station housing Pakistan’s terrorism
intelligence offices, killing himself and one officer.
(AFP, 3/23/09)(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 25, In Pakistan a
suspected US missile attack killed 8 militants, including 4 foreigners,
in the stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, Pakistan's top Taliban
commander. The New York Times carried a report on its Web site saying
ISI operatives provide money, military supplies and strategic planning
guidance to Taliban commanders, with proof of the ties coming from
electronic surveillance and trusted informants. The US State Department
announced a $5 million bounty for Baitullah Mehsud.
(AP, 3/25/09)(AP, 3/26/09)(SFC, 3/26/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 26, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed as many as 11 people at a restaurant near Tank, in South
Waziristan, in an attack targeting opponents of the Taliban.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 26, The UN's top
human-rights body approved a proposal by Muslims nations urging passage
of laws around the world to protect religion from criticism. The
resolution was sponsored by Pakistan, Belarus and Venezuela.
(AP, 3/26/09)(Econ, 4/4/09, p.17)
2009 Mar 27, Pakistan President
Asif Ali Zardari called for a US change of policy and voiced opposition
to missile strikes. A suicide bomber demolished a mosque packed with
hundreds of worshippers attending prayers near Jamrud in the Khyber
Pass, killing at least 50 people and injuring over 100 more.
(AFP, 3/27/09)(AP, 3/27/09)(SFC, 3/28/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 28, Pakistani security
forces killed 26 militants during an operation in a restive tribal
region bordering Afghanistan. Helicopter gunships went into action in
Mohmand, one of seven lawless tribal districts in northwest Pakistan
where Taliban militants have been active. Dozens of suspected militants
fired rockets at a transport terminal in Peshawar, damaging a dozen
shipping containers.
(AFP, 3/28/09)(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 29, In northwest Pakistan
militants fired rockets at police chasing them after a kidnapping,
killing a senior police official and five other people in the Balambat
area of Lower Dir. Elsewhere in the region militants kidnapped 11
police officers in the Khyber tribal area that is home to a major US
military supply route.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Mar 30, In Lahore, Pakistan,
a group of gunmen attacked the Manawan Police Training School and
rampaged through it for hours, throwing grenades, seizing hostages and
killing 7 police and 2 civilians before being overpowered by Pakistani
security forces in armored vehicles and helicopters. Six militants were
arrested and 8 others died in the 8-hour battle. A suicide car bombing
killed four soldiers in Bannu district.
(AP, 3/30/09)(AFP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 31, Baitullah Mehsud, the
commander of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the
March 30 deadly assault on a Pakistani police academy and said the
group was planning a terrorist attack on the White House that would
"amaze" the world. A spokesman from Fedayeen al-Islam, a little-known
militant group linked to the Pakistani Taliban, also claimed credit for
the attack and a similar ambush-style attack against the Sri Lankan
cricket team earlier this month in Lahore.
(AFP, 3/31/09)
2009 Apr 1, In Pakistan a
suspected US drone fired two missiles at an alleged hide-out connected
to a Taliban leader who has threatened to attack Washington, killing 14
people and wounding several others in a remote area of the Orakzai
tribal region. Militants fired rockets and guns at a police van,
killing five officers and wounding two in Upper Dir, on the Afghan
border.
(AP, 4/1/09)(SFC, 4/2/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 2, Pakistani authorities
ordered an investigation into a video showing a man flogging a
screaming woman in the country's northwest where the government
recently agreed to introduce Islamic law to end a rebellion by Taliban
militants. President Asif Ali Zardari was yet to sign the bill
introducing Islamic law in the Swat Valley. A would-be suicide bomber
shot himself dead when mourners confronted him at the funeral of a
Pakistani police officer recently killed by militants.
(AP, 4/2/09)(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 4, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US drone fired two missiles at an alleged militant
hide-out in North Waziristan, leaving 13 people dead including women
and children. A suicide bomber killed 8 people in Islamabad. At least
62 illegal migrants were found suffocated to death inside a shipping
container found near the border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/4/09)(SSFC, 4/5/09, p.A7)
2009 Apr 5, In Pakistan a suicide
bombing at a crowded Shiite mosque in Chakwal city in Punjab province
killed 24-26 people. A senior Pakistani Taliban commander promised two
more attacks per week in the country if the US does not stop missile
strikes on Pakistani territory.
(AP, 4/5/09)(AP, 4/6/09)(Econ, 4/11/09, p.39)
2009 Apr 7, In southern Pakistan
police arrested five men alleged to be planning suicide attacks on the
city of Karachi.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 7, Saudi authorities
beheaded 3 Pakistanis convicted of killing a fellow Pakistani during a
jewelry heist. This brought to 20 the number of beheadings in the
kingdom this year.
(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Apr 8, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike on a car near Wana, South
Waziristan, killed two alleged militants and a civilian, a day after
the US-allied country reiterated its opposition to such attacks to
visiting American officials. Residents in Buner tried to push out a
group of Taliban militants who had ventured into their territory from
their stronghold in the Swat Valley and killed five people.
(AP, 4/8/09)
2009 Apr 8, British police
arrested 12 suspects in a major anti-terror operation. 11 of the 12
were Pakistani nationals. One 18-year-old was soon handed over to the
UK border agency for questioning about his immigration status. All the
suspects were released after 2 weeks.
(AP, 4/9/09)(AP, 4/11/09)(AP, 4/22/09)
2009 Apr 9, In Pakistan the
remains 3 politicians were discovered in Baluchistan province, six days
after they were reportedly abducted by armed men. They were identified
as the head of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP), Ghulam Mohammad
Baloch, his deputy Lala Munir Baloch, and Sher Mohammad, deputy
secretary general of the Baluchistan Republican Party (BRP). Baloch
played "an active role" in seeking the April 4 release of John Solecki,
the UN refugee agency staffer. Rioting students set fire to two banks
in another southwestern town. One policeman was killed and several
others injured during the violent protests.
(AP, 4/10/09)(AFP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 10, In southwest Pakistan
four people were wounded in a bomb blast, where businesses closed for a
second day to protest against the murder of 3 separatist politicians.
(AFP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 11, In southwestern
Pakistan gunmen shot dead 8 people in separate incidents in the
province of Baluchistan, amid protests over the killing of 3 local
leaders this week, police.
(AFP, 4/11/09)
2009 Apr 12, In northwestern
Pakistan about 150 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons
attacked a transport terminal that lies along a key supply route used
by US and NATO troops, wounding three guards and torching eight cement
trucks.
(AP, 4/12/09)
2009 Apr 13, Pakistan’s Pres. Asif
Ali Zardari signed a bill imposing Islamic law in the Swat Valley.
Pakistan's Maritime Security Agency arrested 20 Indian fishermen and
seized their four boats for illegally trawling in its waters in the
Arabian Sea. Authorities estimated that more than 100 Pakistani
fishermen languished in Indian jails while Indian authorities say
nearly 500 Indian fishermen were in Pakistani prisons. Rehman Malik,
Pakistan’s top civilian security official, said authorities in Karachi
have arrested a Shahid Jamil Riaz, a 5th suspect in the November 2008
siege of Mumbai.
(WSJ, 4/14/09, p.A1)(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 14, Afghanistan warned
that Pakistan's deal to allow Taliban to impose Islamic law in part of
the country may have "dire consequences" for the region and could harm
ties between the neighbors.
(AFP, 4/14/09)
2009 Apr 15, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bombing killed six officers.
(WSJ, 4/16/09, p.A1)
2009 Apr 16, In Pakistan Maulana
Abdul Azi, the deposed chief cleric of Islamabad's radical Red Mosque,
was freed on bail, nearly two years after he was captured during a
bloody siege. An international human rights group urged Pakistan to
reverse its decision to enforce Islamic law in a northwestern valley in
a peace pact with the Taliban, saying the deal threatens women and
takes the region back to the "Dark Ages."
(AFP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, Japan promised to
pledge up to $1 billion in aid for cash-strapped Pakistan at a donors
conference as allies pressed the country for commitments to fight an
Islamist insurgency and implement economic reforms.
(Reuters, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 17, In Pakistan Maulana
Abdul Aziz, the newly released leader of the radical Red Mosque, called
for the enforcement of Islamic law across the militancy-plagued country
during his defiant return to his prayer hall, where at least 100 died
when Pakistani troops stormed the complex in 2007.
(AP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 17, Pakistan was stripped
of its 2011 World Cup matches by the International Cricket Council.
Growing security concerns cast the country firmly into the sporting
wilderness.
(AFP, 4/17/09)
2009 Apr 17, Thirty-one
international donors, led by the US and Japan, pledged $5.3 billion to
stabilize Pakistan's troubled economy and fight the spread of terrorism
in the Islamic nation and neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/17/09)(Econ, 4/25/09, p.81)
2009 Apr 18, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military
checkpoint near the Orakzai tribal region, killing at least 27 people.
(AP, 4/18/09)(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A6)
2009 Apr 19, In Pakistan a
suspected US missile attack aimed at Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels on the
outskirts of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan district along the
border with Afghanistan, killed at least three militants. Pakistan
helicopter gunships raided suspected militant hideouts near Ghiljo in
the semi-autonomous tribal district of Orakzai near the Afghan border
killing 20 insurgents and destroying their positions.
(AFP, 4/19/09)(AFP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 20, Pakistan's central
bank lowered the discount interest rate by one percentage point,
acknowledging that the economy in the poverty-stricken, nuclear-armed
nation was showing resilience. Pakistani security forces shelled and
launched airstrikes against Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal
region overnight, killing 4 civilians and 8 suspected militants.
(AFP, 4/20/09)(AP, 4/20/09)
2009 Apr 23, Pakistani
paramilitary forces rushing to protect government buildings and bridges
in the Taliban-infiltrated district of Buner, just 60 miles from the
capital, were met with gunfire that killed one police officer. Gunmen
opened fire on a security convoy that included some of the Frontier
Constabulary killing an escorting police officer and wounding another
in the Totalai area. Dozens of militants armed with guns and gasoline
bombs attacked a truck terminal near Peshawar, burning five tanker
trucks carrying fuel to NATO troops in Afghanistan. The Pakistani army
killed at least 11 militants on the third day of an operation against
insurgents in the northwest's Orakzai tribal region.
(AP, 4/23/09)
2009 Apr 24, In Pakistan Taliban
militants who had seized Buner district, just 60 miles from the
capital, began pulling out after the government warned it would use
force to evict them.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 25, In northwest Pakistan
at least four children were killed in a bomb explosion outside a girls'
primary school in Luqman Banda village of Lower Dir town.
(AFP, 4/25/09)
2009 Apr 26, Pakistan sent
helicopter gunships and troops to attack Taliban militants in a
district covered by a peace deal after strong US pressure on the
nuclear-armed nation to confront insurgents advancing in its northwest.
(AP, 4/26/09)
2009 Apr 27, In Pakistan Taliban
militants declared their peace deal with the Pakistani government
"worthless" after authorities deployed helicopters and artillery
against hide-outs of Islamist guerrillas seeking to extend their grip
along the Afghan border. Paramilitary troops killed 20 suspected
militants, and a total of 46 have died since the operation began. A
remote-controlled bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing an
officer and a passer-by while wounding five other police in the
northwest Lakki Marwat area.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 28, Pakistani jets and
attack helicopters bombed Taliban positions in the Buner district near
the capital, in an expansion of an offensive against militants
seemingly emboldened by a much-criticized peace deal. Militants seized
three police stations in the north of Buner and kidnapped 70 police and
paramilitary troops.
(AP, 4/28/09)(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 29, Pakistani airstrikes
killed dozens of Taliban fighters in a fierce struggle to drive them
from the Buner district, within 60 miles (100 kilometers) of Islamabad.
Troops faced an estimated 450-500 militants in Buner and forecast that
the operation to drive them out would take about a week. Gun attacks in
the mega-city of Karachi killed at least 34 people and threatened to
ignite ethnic tension. 2 Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) activists were
gunned down by unknown shooters, sparking street violence.
(AP, 4/29/09)(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Pakistan troops
sent to repel a Taliban advance toward the Pakistani capital killed 14
suspected militants. Troops ousted militants from the Ambela Pass
leading over the mountains into Buner and were inching toward the
north. Militants, who have kidnapped dozens of lightly armed police and
paramilitary troops, had burned a police station farther north and
sealed off the town of Sultanwas.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 1, In Pakistan the battle
between security forces and Taliban militants left 55-60 militants dead
over the last 24 hours in Buner district near the capital even as the
government pressed with a much-criticized peace plan in the region.
Based on combined tolls released by the military, nearly 200 militants
have been killed in Operation Black Thunder since tanks, fighter jets
and helicopter gunships swung into action in Buner and neighboring
Lower Dir.
(AFP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 1, Libyan leader Moamer
Kadhafi held talks with visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari
on the situation in Pakistan and ways of bolstering ties between the
two nations. Pakistan and Libya signed a string of agreements to
bolster economic ties on the sidelines of Zardari’s visit. The
countries also decided to bolster ties in the fields of banking,
health, education, public works and construction.
(AFP, 5/1/09)(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Pakistan scores of
militants attacked the Spinal Tangi security post near the Afghan
border, triggering a battle that left 18 combatants dead and cast doubt
on claims by Pakistan's army to have regained control of a critical
region. A Taliban commander in the Khyber region, just west of
Peshawar, surrendered after authorities put pressure on his tribe.
Iftikhar Khan Afridi was aligned with Baitullah Mehsud, the top
Pakistani Taliban commander. The Taliban beheaded two government
officials in the northwestern Swat Valley in revenge for the killing of
two insurgent commanders by security forces.
(AP, 5/2/09)(Reuters, 5/3/09)
2009 May 3, In Pakistan the
bullet-ridden body of Fazal Haq (28), kidnapped two months ago, was
found dumped by the side of a road in Naurak village, 15 km (nine
miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North
Waziristan tribal region. He had been accused of spying for the United
States. Militants beheaded 2 government officials in Swat, in revenge
for the killing of two Taliban commanders in dir and Buner.
(AFP, 5/3/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.45)
2009 May 4, In Pakistan clashes in
a northwestern region covered by an increasingly fragile peace pact
killed seven militants and one soldier. The Taliban ambushed an army
convoy in Swat and armed Taliban appeared on the streets of Mingora.
(AP, 5/4/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.45)
2009 May 5, In Pakistan fighting
between Taliban militants and troops in a northwestern valley triggered
an exodus the government said could see 500,000 people flee and
signaled the end of a peace deal in the area widely criticized as a
surrender to the extremists.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 6, Pakistani helicopter
gunships and ground troops attacked the Taliban in the Swat valley.
Pakistan said it killed more than 80 militants in heavy bombardments in
an upsurge of fighting that has caused tens of thousands to flee and
threatened to torpedo a northwest peace deal. There were also reports
of civilian casualties in fighting in Swat.
(AFP, 5/6/09)(AP, 5/7/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.45)
2009 May 7, In Pakistan attack
helicopters and war planes pounded suspected Taliban hideouts as the
government vowed a decisive victory in the northwest. Thousands of
terrified Pakistanis dodged Taliban roadblocks to flee the Swat valley
being shelled by the government, streaming into makeshift camps and
crowding hospitals as the army bombarded the extremists who have taken
over much of the area.
(AP, 5/7/09)(AFP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 8, Pakistani jets
screamed over Mingora, a Taliban-controlled town, and bombed suspected
militant positions as hundreds of thousands fled in terror and other
trapped residents appealed for a pause in the fighting so they could
escape. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said that 140 militants had been killed
in the last 24 hours, adding to around 150 already reported slain. He
did give any figures for civilian deaths, but witness and local media
say that noncombatants have been killed.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 9, Pakistani civilians
cowered in hospital beds and refugees looted UN supplies, all of them
desperate for relief from the fighting that has engulfed a northwestern
valley as troops and warplanes struggled to drive out Taliban
militants. The army said it killed as many as 55 more Taliban fighters
in Swat. A suspected US missile strike killed nine people, mostly
foreigners, in another militant stronghold near the Afghan border.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 10, In Pakistan thousands
of fearful civilians many on foot or donkey-pulled carts, streamed out
of the Swat valley as authorities briefly lifted a curfew. The army
said 50 to 60 militants died in various parts of the valley. Two
soldiers also died in the latest fighting. The army said 12,000 to
15,000 troops in Swat face 4,000 to 5,000 militants, including small
numbers of foreigners and hardened fighters from the South Waziristan
tribal region. The Taliban executed Zahid Khan, imam of the main mosque
in Mingora, because he had objected to their stockpiling arms and
laying landmines.
(AP, 5/10/09)(Econ, 5/16/09, p.45)
2009 May 11, Pakistani warplanes
bombed suspected militant positions in a stronghold close to the
capital, pressing ahead with a fierce offensive that has driven
hundreds of thousands from their homes, many into crowded refugee
camps. 52 Islamist fighters were reported killed. The government
claimed 700 insurgents had died over the last 4 days and that the
Taliban were on the run.
(AP, 5/11/09)(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A2)
2009 May 12, In Pakistan
helicopter-borne soldiers swooped into a Taliban stronghold in a remote
corner of Swat, as the UN urged help for hundreds of thousands of
people displaced by the fighting. A suspected US drone attack killed up
to eight people in South Waziristan, a remote tribal area near the
Afghan border.
(Reuters, 5/12/09)(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 12, In Pakistan a
suspected US drone attack killed up to eight people in South
Waziristan, a remote tribal area near the Afghan border.
(AP, 5/12/09)
2009 May 13, In Pakistan troops
secured footholds in Swat valley overrun by the Taliban, killing 11
militants and discovering 5 headless corpses near Mingora, the region's
main town. Dozens of assailants stormed a transport depot handling
supplies for NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan and torched eight
trucks before escaping.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Pakistan said
artillery batteries shelled suspected hideouts in Swat and the
neighboring district of Lower Dir, with the military claiming to have
killed 54 militants in the last 24 hours. Nine soldiers were reported
killed. Residents said that armed Taliban have mined roads and dug
trenches around up to 200,000 civilians encircled by Pakistani troops.
(AFP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, Pakistani forces
killed 55 Taliban in the northwestern valley of Swat, and lifted a
curfew to allow thousands more civilians to flee before troops assail
the Taliban-held main town of Mingora. Militants had mounted a
counterattack, and three soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in various
clashes over the previous 24 hours.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 16, In Pakistan a
suspected US drone aircraft fired missiles at militants in the North
Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region. Pakistani intelligence agents
said the militants were preparing to cross into Afghanistan to fight
there and among the 28 dead were two Arabs. A car packed with mortar
bombs blew up in the city of Peshawar, killing 11 people including four
children passing in a school bus.
(Reuters, 5/16/09)
2009 May 17, In Pakistan an army
statement said 25 militants and a soldier had died in the previous 24
hours in the Swat valley, and that security forces had surrounded and
entered Matta and Kanju, two key towns in the area. Britain's Sunday
Times reported that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said military
action would follow in the tribal belt.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 18, Pakistani jets and
helicopters bombarded militant targets in Swat, where troops entered
strategic towns in a pincer thrust towards the Taliban-held capital of
the northwest valley.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 20, Pakistani troops
killed 80 militants and drove the Taliban from a major urban
stronghold, as US military planes brought aid for refugees fleeing
fierce fighting across the northwest. Government forces cleared
Sultanwas, the main Taliban-held town in Buner, overnight following
intense clashes. Residents of Kalam gathered quickly to fight off the
Taliban. They captured eight militants during a shootout and were
expecting another attack.
(AP, 5/20/09)(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 21, Pakistan said five
soldiers and an unspecified number of "miscreants-terrorists" were
killed in battles in several parts of the Swat valley during the
previous 24 hours. Seven militants were captured.
(AP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 22, In Pakistan a bomb
exploded at a congested marketplace in the northwestern city of
Peshawar, killing at least 5 people wounding dozens. Troops encircled
Taliban militants in their mountain base as well as the main town in
the Swat Valley, as the UN appealed for $543 million to ease the
suffering of nearly 2 million refugees from the fighting.
(AFP, 5/22/09)(AP, 5/22/09)(SFC, 5/23/09, p.A2)
2009 May 23, Pakistani security
forces entered Mingora, the main town in a northwestern Taliban
stronghold, engaging in fierce street battles as they tried to wrench
the Swat Valley from militants. 17 suspected militants were killed in
the past 24 hours of the operation. Matta, another major town in the
valley, has been cleared of militants, but some 1,500 to 2,000
insurgents remain in the valley. Gunmen in southwestern Baluchistan
province kidnapped a French tourist, snatching him from a group of
compatriots.
(AP, 5/23/09)(AFP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 24, Pakistani troops
battling the Taliban captured several points in the Swat Valley's main
town, including a spot nicknamed "bloody intersection" because
militants routinely dumped the mutilated bodies of their victims there.
Five suspected militants were killed in various parts of Mingora while
14 others were arrested. Overall in the valley, 10 militants were
killed in the past 24 hours while three security troops died. Elsewhere
in the northwest, helicopter gunships pounded alleged militant
hide-outs in a tribal region, killing at least 18 people. Police said
they had captured Qari Ihsanullah, an important militant commander and
six other Taliban fighters.
(AP, 5/24/09)
2009 May 25, Pakistan's military
said it was facing "stiff resistance" as it battled to wrest Swat
valley out of Taliban hands, in an offensive that has scattered 2.38
million terrified civilians.
(AFP, 5/25/09)
2009 May 26, Pakistan's supreme
court overturned a ban on former premier Nawaz Sharif from holding
office, allowing the popular opposition leader to contest elections.
Military commanders said troops fighting street-by-street with Taliban
militants have regained control of more than half of the largest town
in the Swat valley, and many insurgents were now fleeing the
battlefield.
(AFP, 5/26/09)(AP, 5/26/09)
2009 May 27, In Pakistan suspected
suicide attackers detonated a car bomb that destroyed a police building
and sheared walls off a nearby office of the top intelligence service
in Lahore. About 30 people were killed and some 300 wounded. Troops
backed by helicopter gunships killed 10 suspected militants and
captured a cache of weapons in raids on Siplapai town in South
Waziristan.
(AP, 5/27/09)(AFP, 5/27/09)(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 May 28, In Pakistan two new
blasts ripped through the Qissa Khawani market in Peshawar, killing at
least 13 people.
(AP, 5/28/09)(SFC, 5/29/09, p.A2)
2009 May 30, A Pakistani army
spokesman said troops have retaken Mingora, the largest town in the
Swat Valley from the Taliban, though they were still meeting pockets of
resistance from fighters on the outskirts of the town. 25 militants and
seven soldiers were killed in clashes in South Waziristan near the
Afghan border, a bolt-hole for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants
south of the current army bombardment.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 May 31, Pakistan’s military
relaxed a curfew in most parts of the northwest including Mingora to
allow people trapped on the roads to return home or leave the region.
Taliban militants attacked a school in Hangu town south of Peshawar,
killing one administrator and kidnapping three other people. In North
Waziristan, a former government doctor and an Afghan national were
killed by suspected militants.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 1, Pakistan's army said
it lifted curfews in several parts of the Swat Valley as it hunted
Taliban militants in the region, while insurgents killed two soldiers
in a tribal region that could be the next front in the northwest
military offensive. Armed Taliban ambushed a convoy of some 30 vehicles
carrying students home for the summer. Many of the buses managed to get
away. 71 students and nine staff from an army-run college were rescued
the next morning as militants moved them from North Waziristan to South
Waziristan. A handful of students remained unaccounted for.
(AP, 6/1/09)(AFP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 2, A Pakistani court
ordered the release of Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the founder of banned
Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, because there was
insufficient evidence to link him to last year's deadly Mumbai attacks.
India immediately condemned the ruling. Pakistan's military said that
troops were fighting inside the Taliban stronghold of Charbagh, 20km
from the Swat valley's main town Mingora. The military said it had
killed 21 militants in the past 24 hours of its offensive, while three
soldiers died. Gunmen in Peshawar stormed a factory owned by a senior
minister of North West Frontier Province, kidnapping eight workers and
killing a guard who resisted.
(AP, 6/2/09)(AFP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 3, Osama bin Laden
threatened Americans in a new audio tape, saying President Barack Obama
inflamed hatred toward the US by ordering Pakistan to crack down on
militants in Swat Valley and block Islamic law in the area.
(AP, 6/3/09)
2009 Jun 5, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber killed 38 people and wounded 40 attending prayers at a
mosque in the Haya Gai area of Upper Dir, as the country's leaders
urged visiting US envoy Holbrooke for more aid to stave off Taliban-led
militancy. 4 soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in South
Waziristan.
(AP, 6/5/09)(AP, 6/6/09)
2009 Jun 6, Pakistan said that two
close aides of a pro-Taliban cleric died when a makeshift bomb ripped
through a military convoy transporting them for interrogation. The dead
aides of Sufi Mohammad, who negotiated a peace deal in the northwest
between Taliban rebels and the Pakistani government, were arrested on
June 4 along with three Afghan nationals. 2 policemen were killed late
in the day when a suicide bomber walked up to a police emergency
helpline center, in an Islamabad residential district home to many
government officials, and detonated explosives strapped to his body.
Villagers in the northwest attacked Taliban militants killing 11 of
them in revenge for a bomb attack on a mosque that killed about 40
people a day earlier.
(AFP, 6/6/09)(AFP, 6/7/09)(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 7, In Pakistan a top
government official and residents said villagers in the northwest have
attacked Taliban militants killing seven of them in revenge for a bomb
attack on a mosque that killed about 40 people 2 days earlier.
(AP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 9, In Pakistan the
military started shelling Taliban hide-outs in the Bannu district in
the northwest. The shelling began after a deadline given to tribal
leaders in the region to hand over militant suspects by the end of June
8 had expired. At least nine people were killed when three attackers
shot their way through a security checkpost and rammed an
explosives-laden truck into Peshawar's five-star Pearl Continental.
(AP, 6/9/09)(AFP, 6/10/09)(AFP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 10, Pakistan launched a
new operation against Taliban fighters in the northwest.
(Reuters, 6/10/09)
2009 Jun 11, Pakistan's army said
it had killed 66 Taliban as fighting spilled into a tribal area and
known bolthole for the militant group blamed for a deadly bombing at a
luxury hotel. One person was killed and 35 injured when a bomb hidden
in a toilet exploded on a train in southwestern Baluchistan province.
On a road to Peshawar, gunmen attacked the car of northwest provincial
minister for prisons Mian Nisar Gul. The official was wounded, while
two of his bodyguards and one of the assailants were killed. In the
northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan one person was killed and 30
wounded in two separate hand grenade attacks in crowded bazaars.
(AP, 6/11/09)
2009 Jun 12, Pakistan’s military
said at least 39 Taliban militants and 10 soldiers were killed in
fierce fighting over the last 24 hours in the northwest Swat valley.
Two back-to-back suicide attacks on mosques in the eastern city of
Lahore and northwestern garrison town of Nowshera killed six people
including vocal anti-Taliban religious scholar Sarfraz Naeemi.
(AFP, 6/12/09)(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 12, In New Jersey an
Indictment was unsealed today against three individuals who allegedly
hacked into the telephone systems of large corporations and entities in
the US and abroad and sold information about the compromised telephone
systems to Pakistani nationals residing in Italy. Italian law
enforcement conducted searches of approximately 10 locations in four
regions of Italy and arrested the financiers of the hacking activity.
Those financiers allegedly used the information to transmit over 12
million minutes of telephone calls valued at more than $55 million over
the hacked networks of victim corporations in the US alone.
(SFC, 6/16/09,
p.A2)(http://newark.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/2009/nk061209.htm)
2009 Jun 13, Pakistan unveiled a
deficit national budget, proposing an increase in defense expenditure
to help fight Taliban militants while boosting agriculture and
industrial output and reducing poverty. Pakistani troops reportedly
killed 41 militants overnight in their offensive against the Taliban in
the northwest. Jets bombed insurgent hideouts in response to two
suicide attacks the previous day. 30 suspected militants were killed in
strikes in South Waziristan.
(AFP, 6/13/09)(AFP, 6/14/09)
2009 Jun 14, Pakistan said it
would resort to force against Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South
Waziristan. Militants remotely-detonated explosives hidden in a
rickshaw, causing chaos at a busy market in Dera Ismail Khan town, with
9 people killed and dozens injured. Jet planes bombed hideouts in the
tribal area of Bajaur. Up to 44 suspected militants killed in the
onslaught. A US drone attack targeting a militant vehicle killed at
least three people, including Uzbek and Arab militants, in the Mardar
Algad area of South Waziristan.
(AFP, 6/14/09)(AFP, 6/15/09)(SFC, 6/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Jun 15, Pakistani forces
pounded militants in tribal areas, after vowing an all-out assault on a
Taliban chief in the lawless Afghan border region known to be an
Al-Qaeda and rebel hideout.
(AFP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, Pakistan's military
said it is in the early stages of an operation targeting the country's
Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a key stronghold of al-Qaida and
other militants.
(AP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 16, Indian PM Manmohan
Singh met with Pakistan's president for the first time since last
year's deadly terrorist attacks on Mumbai, and told him Pakistan must
prevent its territory from being used to launch such attacks. The
leaders of South Asia's nuclear-armed neighbors met on the sidelines of
summits in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg.
(AP, 6/16/09)
2009 Jun 17, In northwest Pakistan
tribesman seeking to avenge a deadly mosque bombing killed six Taliban.
22 suspected rebels were killed in the Swat Valley over the last 24
hours in an ongoing military offensive.
(AFP, 6/17/09)(SFC, 6/18/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 18, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected US missile strikes pounded the hide-outs of Taliban
commander Malang Wazir, killing at least eight people.
(AP, 6/18/09)
2009 Jun 19, Pakistani fighter
jets bombed Taliban militant hideouts in the northwest tribal belt, as
the death toll from a suspected US missile strike a day earlier rose to
13.
(AFP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jun 19, New York Times
reporter David S. Rohde (41) escaped from kidnappers in Pakistan after
more than seven months in captivity and was flown to Bagram Air Base in
Afghanistan the next day.
(AP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 20, Pakistani warplanes
resumed strikes against militant hideouts in South Waziristan. There
was heavy fighting in the villages of Barwand and Madijan and about 50
militants were killed, the first confirmed militant casualties of the
offensive in South Waziristan. A citizens' militia trying to drive out
the Taliban killed seven militants in a two-hour clash in the troubled
northwest. Another militant was wounded in the fighting night near the
village of Patrak. The military killed seven militants and arrested 16
others in Malakand, which includes Upper and Lower Dir, Buner and Swat
districts.
(AP, 6/20/09)(AP, 6/21/09)(AFP, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 21, Pakistani forces used
aircraft and artillery as they stepped up an assault aimed at
eliminating Pakistani Taliban commander Baituallah Mehsud.
(Reuters, 6/21/09)
2009 Jun 22, Pakistan's army said
they were in the final phase of a campaign to crush militants in Swat
valley, as clashes intensified with Taliban fighters in the northwest
tribal belt. Militants near the Afghan border launched attacks on three
Pakistani military bases and fighter jets responded with airstrikes
that killed at least 21 people, mostly insurgents. 3 women and 3
children died when the house of a local tribal leader was hit in the
Razmak area. A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a
police checkpoint in the Bagram district bordering Swat, killing two
people.
(AFP, 6/22/09)(AP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jun 23, In Pakistan 3
unmanned drones fired missiles at the funeral procession for suspected
militants killed in South Waziristan by a similar strike earlier in the
day. As many as 50-80 people were reported killed. Taliban faction
leader Qari Zainuddin was fatally shot in Dera Ismail Khan, reportedly
by one of his own guards. He was seen as the chief rival to Baitullah
Mehsud, the militant group's Pakistani head.
(AP, 6/23/09)(AP, 6/24/09)(AP, 6/25/09)(SFC,
6/25/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 23, An Indian court
issued arrest warrants for 22 Pakistani nationals accused of
masterminding last year's deadly Mumbai terrorist attacks, including
the founder of an Islamist militant group recently freed by a Pakistani
court.
(AP, 6/23/09)
2009 Jun 25, Pakistan's PM Gilani
told Washington's visiting top security adviser that the US must halt
drone attacks on its soil, after they killed dozens of people in the
northwest.
(AFP, 6/25/09)
2009 Jun 27, In Pakistan at least
12 militants were killed and more than a dozen wounded when government
forces attacked suspected bases of Mehsud and his Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) in South Waziristan. Two Pakistani fighter jets pounded
Taliban militant hideouts in Makeen and Laddah, killing 10 Taliban and
injuring 15 others. Overnight, police killed five suspected militants
with links to Mehsud who were said to be plotting terrorist attacks on
the port city of Karachi. Militants fired six rockets at a security
camp and a paramilitary fort in Wana, the main town of South
Waziristan. Security forces in retaliation shelled the militants,
killing two and wounding three others. A resident said the shelling
also killed two civilians and wounded three others. Insurgents fired
rockets at Pakistani forces at a South Waziristan paramilitary Frontier
Corps camp, killing an officer and injuring three soldiers.
(AFP, 6/27/09)(AFP, 6/28/09)
2009 Jun 28, The Pakistani
government offered a $615,000 reward for information leading to the
capture or death of Baitullah Mehsud. Fighter jets bombarded militant
hideouts in Samm village of Laddha town in South Waziristan, killing 8
rebels. An ambush by rival Taliban under Gul Bahadur killed 23 soldiers
in North Waziristan. 10 suspected militants were also killed in the
attack. A stray mortar shell hit a mosque during prayers in Azam Warsak
in South Waziristan, killing 3 tribesmen and wounding 7.
(AP, 6/28/09)(AP, 6/29/09)(SFC, 6/29/09, p.A2)(Econ,
7/25/09, p.38)
2009 Jun 29, Pakistani security
forces launched an early morning raid on a suspected militant hideout
in Tank, a small city near South Waziristan, killing two suspected
militants and arresting nine others. 21 militants reportedly died in
overnight clashes with an anti-Taliban militia in Kurram tribal region.
Violence over the 24 hours claimed nearly 70 lives in the northwest
region bordering Afghanistan.
(AP, 6/29/09)(SFC, 6/30/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 30, Pakistan’s military
said that 18 militants and three soldiers had been killed in the
previous 24 hours. It also said militants had killed 18 of their
wounded comrades in Swat. A militant faction allied with Mehsud in
North Waziristan, another militant hotbed on the Afghan border, said it
was ending a pact with the government because of US drone aircraft
attacks and the presence of government forces in their area.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 1, In northwestern
Pakistan tribesmen attacked Taliban hide-outs, killing 28 militants and
suffering seven fatalities themselves. The intensifying battles
prompted them to ask for army troops to help. A new opinion poll was
released saying 81 percent of Pakistanis view the fundamentalist Muslim
militants as a critical threat to the country.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 2, In Rawalpindi,
Pakistan, a suicide bomber targeted employees of a nuclear facility
left 29 people wounded. Near Peshawar, the main city in the northwest,
a roadside bomb killed two policemen and wounded five more. Maulvi
Nazir, a powerful militant chieftain in the frontier region of South
Waziristan, declared a cease-fire against security forces.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 3, In Pakistan US
missiles slammed into the hideout of Taliban commander Noor Wali,
allied to warlord Baitullah Mehsud in the tribal belt in South
Waziristan. Another missile strike hit an insurgent communications
center in Kokat Khel. The strikes reportedly killed a total of 17
people. Pakistani warplanes bombed suspected militant hide-outs,
killing at least four insurgents and wounding seven others. The
Pakistani military said at least 13 militants and four local tribesmen
were killed over the last 24 hours in the districts of Swat and Dir. A
Pakistani helicopter crash killed 26 security personnel on the
mountainous border of the Orakzai and Khyber ethnic Pashtun tribal
regions. The Taliban claimed responsibility, but a senior security
official said the military MI-17 helicopter had crashed due to a
technical fault. Ehsan, alias Abu Jandal, a mid-level Taliban
commander, was killed in Qambar area.
(AFP, 7/3/09)(AP, 7/3/09)(AFP, 7/4/09)(SFC, 7/4/09,
p.A3)(AFP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 4, Pakistani warplanes
and helicopter gunships pounded Taliban positions in the country's
volatile northwest, killing at least 12 suspected insurgents. Clashes
between tribesmen and Taliban fighters left 16 people dead in the
remote Mohmand region. Army helicopters attacked a militant position in
the area the previous day’s helicopter crash and struck a militant
bunker on a peak. 10 bodies were reported found lying there.
(AP, 7/4/09)(Reuters, 7/4/09)
2009 Jul 5, Pakistani fighter jets
targeted suspected Taliban hide-outs in a tribal region near
Afghanistan, killing as many as six people in North Waziristan. Gunship
helicopters shelled militant hideouts at Mangaltan area of Charbagh
town. At least ten militants were killed in the shelling. At least
three militants were killed and many injured in shelling in the Orakzai
region. Elsewhere in the northwest, two bomb explosions killed two
people and wounded 15 more in Upper Dir district.
(AP, 7/5/09)(AFP, 7/5/09)
2009 Jul 7, In Pakistan a US
missile strike pulverized a compound in a stronghold of Taliban warlord
Baitullah Mehsud, killing 16 foreign and local militants in South
Waziristan. Two paramilitary soldiers were killed and nine security
personnel wounded in three bomb attacks in North and South Waziristan.
The military said that four militants were killed, including a brother
of Ibn-e-Amin, one of the most-wanted Taliban commanders in the Swat
valley.
(AFP, 7/7/09)
2009 Jul 8, In Pakistan a US drone
fired 6 missiles and killed 10 suspected militants at a training camp
about 35 kilometers northeast of Wana. At least 35 suspected militants
were killed in a second US missile strike targeting insurgents in the
northwest tribal belt.
(AFP, 7/8/09)(SFC, 7/9/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 9, Pakistan’s government
announced a plan to allow some 2 million people who fled the offensive
to return home next week, saying the region was now secure and
essential services restored. A landmine killed five paramilitary
soldiers and wounded four others in the insurgency-plagued province of
Baluchistan. Dozens of militants overran a police post and killed four
officers in the northwest city of Khar.
(AFP, 7/9/09)(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 10, In Pakistan clashes
between security forces and militants left at least 20 people dead in a
northwest region that the army claimed to have cleared of insurgents
earlier this year.
(AP, 7/10/09)
2009 Jul 11, In central Pakistan
police killed one suspected militant and seized a truckload of
automatic weapons and explosives after a five-hour shootout at a
religious school in Dera Ghazi Khan, Punjab province. A clash with
militants in South Waziristan killed a soldier. Gunmen killed 5
police officers and a forestry official responding to reports of a dead
body in Mansehra.
(AP, 7/11/09)(AP, 7/12/09)(SFC, 7/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 12, Pakistani fighter
jets pounded suspected militant hide-outs in the South Waziristan
tribal region as part of ongoing operations against Pakistani Taliban
chief Baitullah Mehsud. At least 8 militants were killed. A military
statement described continued reports of unrest in the Swat valley,
including a remote-controlled bomb that wounded 7 tribal police
officers in the past 24 hours.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 13, Pakistan began
sending home about two million people displaced two months ago by the
army's assault on Taliban militants in the Swat valley. An explosion in
Punjab province destroyed a house used as a religious seminary, killing
at least nine people, seven of them children, and leaving many others
in critical condition.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 14, In Pakistan fighting
overnight in the lawless tribal belt killed 23 Taliban militants. An
attack in the Khyber region destroyed an oil tanker supplying NATO
forces based across the border in Afghanistan and left 2 civilians
dead. Troops killed 13 militants in the latest clashes in the Swat
Valley, underscoring the region's fragile security even as refugees
displaced by fighting return home.
(AFP, 7/14/09)(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 15, In northwest Pakistan
a roadside bomb exploded at a police checkpoint, killing a paramilitary
soldier and a police officer and wounding six policemen in the Bannu
area.
(AP, 7/15/09)
2009 Jul 16, The leaders of India
and Pakistan, following rare talks in Egypt, vowed to cooperate in the
fight against terror in the wake of the devastating Mumbai attacks.
(AFP, 7/16/09)
2009 Jul 16, In northwestern
Pakistan gunmen killed UN employee Zill-e-Usman (59) and a guard during
a failed kidnap attempt at a refugee camp near Peshawar, a blow to
humanitarian efforts to help civilians displaced by army offensives
against the Taliban.
(AP, 7/16/09)(SFC, 7/17/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, In Pakistan a missile
believed to have been fired by a US drone killed five militants in
North Waziristan, a tribal region known as a haven for Taliban and al
Qaeda fighters. Militants destroyed two NATO fuel tankers in separate
roadside bomb attacks in the Khyber tribal region, one of the two land
routes for supplies going to Afghanistan.
(Reuters, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 18, Pakistani government
warplanes flattened a suspected Taliban hide-out in the northwest,
killing nine associates of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
(AP, 7/18/09)
2009 Jul 19, In Pakistan at
least 26 people died in heavy overnight rains in Karachi.
(AP, 7/19/09)
2009 Jul 20, Pakistani said
clashes between security forces and militants have left 20 people dead
in the northwest over the past 24 hours.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Jul 20, In India Ajmal Kasab
(21), the lone surviving gunman in the Nov 26, 2008, Mumbai attacks,
pleaded guilty and gave a detailed account of the plot, his training in
Pakistan and his role in the rampage that killed 171 people dead and
paralyzed the city for three days.
(AP, 7/20/09)(SFC, 7/21/09, p.A3)
2009 Jul 21, Pakistan’s military
said 3 days of clashes between security forces and militants in the
northwest left more than 56 militants and six soldiers dead. Pakistani
fighter jets destroyed two suspected militant hide-outs in South
Waziristan, killing six men believed to be associates of Taliban
commander Baitullah Mehsud.
(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 22, Pakistan urged the US
to share intelligence from spy flights and arm its soldiers against
militants accused by Washington of plotting attacks from the Afghan
border.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 23, In Pakistan the
Taliban denied claims that Maulana Fazlullah, architect of a brutal
uprising in Pakistan's Swat valley, was wounded and threatened to
unleash renewed holy war. Pakistan said on July 8 it had "credible"
information that Fazlullah was injured during a blistering offensive
designed to crush Taliban militants. Two policemen were killed and
three others wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a checkpoint in
Shangla district. A bomb hidden in a supposed gift of a tape recorder
killed another policeman at a checkpoint outside the town of Karak,
which borders the Taliban-infested North Waziristan tribal district.
(AFP, 7/23/09)
2009 Jul 23, US counter-terrorism
officials said that Saad bin Laden (27), the 2nd-eldest son of Al-Qaida
leader Osama bin Laden, was apparently killed in a US missile strike
inside Pakistan this year.
(SFC, 7/24/09, p.A4)
2009 Jul 24, In Pakistan 10
militants were killed in Buner district and 29 were arrested elsewhere
in the region. Troops killed four militants in Swat and destroyed a
training camp and a militants' cave. In Upper Dir jets pounded a
suspected Taliban base, killing at least four militants.
(AFP, 7/24/09)(AFP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 25, In Pakistan a remote
controlled bomb killed two Pakistani soldiers in the tribal Bajaur
district. Troops retaliated killing three suspected Taliban militants.
(AP, 7/25/09)
2009 Jul 26, In Pakistan Moulana
Sufi Mohammad, the radical Islamic cleric who brokered a peace deal
with the Taliban in Swat, was arrested in the restive northwest. Sufi
Mohammad is the father-in-law of Moulana Fazllulah, the leader of the
Taliban in Swat and head of a banned Pakistani Islamist rebel group
called Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM).
(AP, 7/26/09)
2009 Jul 27, In Pakistan North
West Frontier Province Senior Minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour said
security forces had rescued dozens of children aged 6 to 15 who the
Taliban were allegedly training as suicide bombers.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 28, In Pakistan the
decapitated body of a Pakistani police constable was discovered in the
Swat town of Sangota. The find was a sign that Taliban militants have
not given up the fight for the northwestern valley, despite the nearly
three-month-old army offensive there. A suicide car bomber rammed his
vehicle into a checkpoint in North Waziristan tribal region, causing an
explosion that killed 2 police and wounded 5 other security officials.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 28, Richard Holbrooke,
the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in Brussels that
Taliban militants are receiving more funding from sympathizers abroad
than from Afghanistan's illegal drug trade. NATO military officials in
Afghanistan have estimated that the Taliban raise between $60-$100
million a year from the trade in illegal narcotics.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 28, In Pakistan the
decapitated body of a Pakistani police constable was discovered in the
Swat town of Sangota. The find was a sign that Taliban militants have
not given up the fight for the northwestern valley, despite the nearly
three-month-old army offensive there. A suicide car bomber rammed his
vehicle into a checkpoint in North Waziristan tribal region, causing an
explosion that killed 2 police and wounded 5 other security officials.
(AP, 7/28/09)
2009 Jul 29, In northwestern
Pakistan a bomb ripped through the parking area at a court in Dera
Ismail Khan, killing two men guarding a Shiite Muslim lawyer. Troops
waging an offensive elsewhere in the region killed at least four
suspected Taliban fighters over the last 24 hours.
(AP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 29, In Tajikistan the
Pakistani and Tajik presidents pledged to step up efforts to fight
Islamist militants at a regional summit amid concerns about the spread
of violence from neighboring Afghanistan.
(AFP, 7/29/09)
2009 Jul 31, Pakistan's Supreme
Court ruled that former Pres. Pervez Musharraf's imposition of
emergency rule in 2007 was unconstitutional.
(AP, 7/31/09)
2009 Aug 1, In Pakistan an angry
mob of Muslims killed six Christians and wounded dozens after burning
40 houses and a church over the alleged desecration of the Koran in
Gojra village, Punjab province. Two men wounded by gunfire died in the
hospital overnight. A building collapsed in Karachi killing at least 21
people.
(AFP, 8/1/09)(AP, 8/2/09)(SSFC, 8/2/09, p.A6)
2009 Aug 2, In Pakistan two
policemen were shot and killed by men who fled from a checkpoint in the
northwestern city of Peshawar. The military said that four militants
were killed and another 27, including a suspected local commander, were
arrested in several search-and-clearance operations in Swat and nearby
areas.
(AP, 8/2/09)
2009 Aug 5, In Pakistan the 2nd
wife of Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack
targeting her husband at a home in the tribal belt near the Afghan
border. Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was also killed in the US
missile strike in South Waziristan. He had led a violent campaign of
suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani government.
News of his death was not made public until 2 days later.
(AFP, 8/5/09)(AP, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 6, In northern Pakistan a
bus veered off a narrow mountain road and plunged into a river, leaving
about 34 people, including 26 soldiers, missing and presumed dead.
Sardar Rustam Jamali, the excise and taxation minister in the western
province of Baluchistan, was killed when robbers tried to steal his car
in an eastern neighborhood of the city.
(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 7, In Pakistan a deadly
shooting reportedly took place at a meeting of top Taliban commanders
Hakimullah Mehsud (28), a deputy to Baitullah Mehsud and the warlord's
main spokesman, and Wali-ur Rehman, a senior commander in Mehsud's
umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement. They had convened
to discuss the choice of a successor to Baitullah Mehsud. Both
commanders later phoned international media organizations to prove they
were alive.
(AFP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.34)
2009 Aug 8, In Pakistan a gunfight
between militants and supporters of a pro-government tribal elder
killed 6 militants and 2 tribesmen in the Mohmand tribal region near
the Afghan border.
(AFP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 8, India’s army said its
troops killed three Islamic militants along the de facto Kashmir
border, thwarting the seventh attempt by rebels to infiltrate from
Pakistan in a week.
(AFP, 8/8/09)
2009 Aug 9, In Pakistan two
civilians and a policeman were killed when militants ambushed a police
convoy in the northwestern town of Bannu. Two Pakistani soldiers were
killed and four were wounded near Naurak village in the troubled North
Waziristan tribal district when a remote-control bomb targeting a
military convoy exploded. At least eight dead bodies of suspected
Taliban militants were found in different areas of the northwestern
Swat valley.
(AFP, 8/9/09)
2009 Aug 10, In Pakistan attack
helicopters and artillery pounded militant hideouts following clashes
between rebels and security forces in North Waziristan. 3 militants
were reported killed.
(AFP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Pakistan police
officials in Islamabad confirmed that they had registered a criminal
case against former Pres. Pervez Musharraf for detaining 60 Supreme
Court judges and their families following emergency rule in 2007.
(SFC, 8/12/09, p.A3)
2009 Aug 11, In Pakistan at least
10 militants were killed in a suspected US drone strike in South
Waziristan region, the same area where Pakistani Taliban leader
Baitullah Mehsud is said to have been killed last week.
(Reuters, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 12, In northwestern
Pakistan's tribal belt clashes between Taliban militants and followers
of pro-government Turkistan Bitani left at least 70 fighters dead.
(AP, 8/12/09)(SFC, 8/13/09, p.A2)
2009 Aug 13, In northwest Pakistan
helicopter gunships pummeled the bases of Taliban commander Hakimullah
Mehsud, killing at least 12 insurgents as government forces ratcheted
up pressure on the militants following their top leader's reported
death. 2 intelligence officials said a suicide bomber killed
pro-government lashkar leader Malik Khadeen, who was instrumental in
fighting Uzbek militants operating with the Taliban in South
Waziristan. In the Bajur tribal area authorities found the bodies of
two anti-Taliban lashkar leaders near a security checkpoint. The two
lashkar commanders, Malik Sehar Gul and Malik Jalindhar, had been
kidnapped the night before.
(AP, 8/13/09)
2009 Aug 14, Pakistan lifted a ban
on political activities in its tribal regions, granting the areas close
to Afghan border parliamentary representation for the first time in the
hopes it would reduce the grip of the Taliban there. 3 bomb explosions
killed a man and wounded 18 other people in Baluchistan, an
impoverished but oil-rich province where Baluch nationalist groups have
been fighting for more autonomy for decades.
(AP, 8/14/09)
2009 Aug 15, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a checkpoint in the
northwestern Swat Valley, killing at least five people in a reminder
that extremists can still strike despite the military's retaking of the
area. Air strikes by government fighter jets killed 16 militants and
destroyed several Taliban hideouts in tribal South Waziristan.
(AP, 8/15/09)(AFP, 8/17/09)
2009 Aug 16, In Pakistan seven
suspected Taliban militants were killed during a gunfight with soldiers
in Kabal village, about 20 kilometers northwest of Mingora in the Swat
Valley. Police arrested militant commander Qari Saifullah, a close
Mehsud aide, as he was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad.
(AP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 17, In northwest Pakistan
a bomb blast claimed by Taliban militants killed seven people including
children, as 31 insurgents were reported dead in a fresh wave of
unrest. Overnight in Swat's main town Mingora, a suicide bomber blew
himself up, wounding four soldiers as they tried to arrest him.
Security forces captured Maulvi Umar, the Pakistani Taliban's top
spokesman, and he acknowledged the death of the group's leader in a
recent US missile strike.
(AFP, 8/17/09)(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 18, Pakistani government
and UN officials said flash floods have killed at least 27 people in
the northwest, and that more than 80,000 have seen their homes or crops
destroyed.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 20, Pakistan's military
said that about 60 militants had surrendered to authorities in
northwest Swat valley, where the government claims to have eliminated
Taliban extremists. Baluchistan authorities found the bodies of 10
policemen in a remote mountain pass. Earlier this week, the separatist
Baluch Republican Army called local media organizations and said it had
killed the remaining 10 of 25 police officers kidnapped last month.
(AP, 8/20/09)(AP, 8/21/09)
2009 Aug 21, Leading Pakistani
Taliban commander Hakimullah Mehsud was appointed the new head of the
militant group. Hakimullah (28), the military chief of Baitullah's
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistani Taliban Movement, commanded 3
tribal regions and has a reputation as Baitullah's most ruthless
deputy. A US drone fired a missile into a suspected militant hide-out
in North Waziristan, killing 12 people in an attempt to take out Siraj
Haqqani, a jihadist commander accused of attacks on Western troops in
Afghanistan. Haqqani, a prime suspect in suicide blasts in Kabul, held
close ties to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency and
controlled a swathe of territory in North Waziristan and eastern
Afghanistan.
(AP, 8/22/09)(AP, 8/21/09)(SFC, 8/22/09, p.A2)(Econ,
10/17/09, p.36)
2009 Aug 22, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber blew himself up to evade capture during a raid in Kanju town in
the troubled northwestern Swat Valley. Local media said two security
officials were killed and two others were wounded.
(AP, 8/22/09)
2009 Aug 23, In Pakistan a suicide
bombing on the outskirts in the northwestern city of Peshawar killed
three people and wounded 15 others. Police in Karachi arrested seven
members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi movement in a raid. The
al-Qaida-linked movement is blamed for two failed assassination
attempts against former President Pervez Musharraf and the beheading of
Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
(AP, 8/23/09)(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 24, In the eastern
Pakistani city of Sargodha, police arrested six militants in two raids.
They were said to be linked to Mehsud's Taliban and had planned to
launch strikes next week on at least two places of worship. Among the
six was Zaid Mustafa, said to have recruited potential suicide bombers
for training in Afghanistan and who is suspected of providing
logistics, explosives and other support for terror attacks in Lahore,
Karachi or Rawalpindi. Gunmen shot dead an Afghan television journalist
and severely wounded his colleague in northwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Aug 25, An international
forum in Turkey sought to boost aid and investment in Pakistan as a way
to support its democratic institutions and curb violence there.
(AP, 8/25/09)
2009 Aug 27, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed at least 19 security officers at the Torkham security
checkpoint, one of the main border crossings for convoys ferrying NATO
supplies into Afghanistan. A suspected US drone fired two missiles at a
militant hide-out in northwest Pakistan, killing at least six people
and wounding nine.
(AP, 8/27/09)(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Aug 28, A Pakistani court
ordered the government to lift any remaining restrictions on Abdul
Qadeer Khan, a scientist alleged to have spread nuclear technology to
Iran, North Korea and Libya.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Pakistan
helicopter gunships destroyed a training camp for suicide bombers in
the Swat Valley, killing six Taliban fighters, as scattered violence
killed 12 others in the region recently retaken by the army. 12
suspected foreign militants were arrested in Dera Ghazi Khan on the
edge of the South Waziristan tribal area, after they allegedly sneaked
into the country from Iran.
(AP, 8/29/09)
2009 Aug 28, Mehdi-Muhammed
Ghezali, a Swedish national and former Guantanamo detainee, was
arrested on the outskirts of Dera Ghazi Khan in southern Pakistani town
along with a group of foreigners, including 7 Turks and 3 other Swedes,
who lacked proper immigration stamps. They were allegedly trying to
join al-Qaida in the lawless tribal areas.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Aug 28, PM Gordon Brown said
Britain will commit 665 million pounds ($1.08 billion) in aid to help
Pakistan stabilize its violent border areas and tackle the underlying
causes of extremism.
(AP, 8/28/09)
2009 Aug 30, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed at least 15 police recruits in the Swat Valley in the
deadliest attack since the army regained control over the northwestern
valley from the Taliban. After the blast, security forces pursuing
Taliban suspects killed 18 militants in a gunbattle just outside
Mingora.
(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Aug 30, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed 17 police recruits in the Swat Valley in the deadliest
attack since the army regained control over the northwestern valley
from the Taliban. After the blast, security forces pursuing Taliban
suspects killed 18 militants in a gunbattle just outside Mingora.
(AP, 8/30/09)(AP, 8/31/09)
2009 Aug 31, The Pakistani army
said it killed at least 45 Taliban militants over the last 24 hours in
scattered gunbattles across the northwestern Swat Valley.
(AP, 8/31/09)
2009 Sep 1, Pakistani government
forces destroyed four militant bases and killed 40 insurgents of
Lashkar-e-Islam in a new offensive near the Khyber Pass, the main route
for supplies to US and NATO troops in Afghanistan. 43 militants were
arrested.
(AP, 9/1/09)
2009 Sep 2, In Pakistan government
forces killed three suspected militants, captured 35 others and
destroyed six of their bases on the second day of its new offensive
near Pakistan's famed Khyber Pass. Suspected militants opened fire on a
vehicle carrying the religious affairs minister, wounding him and
killing his driver in a brazen attack in the heart of Islamabad. Hamid
Saeed Kazmi had been critical of Muslim extremists blamed for scores of
attacks in Pakistan over the last 2½ years.
(AP, 9/2/09)
2009 Sep 2, Liberia's Defense
Minister Brownie Samukai said police had arrested six Pakistani men
earlier in the week who tried to enter Liberia on fake US passports
with possible intent to carry out terrorism.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 4, Pakistan said
paramilitary troops have killed five suspected militants and arrested
24 in an ongoing operation in the northwestern Khyber tribal region.
(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 5, Pakistan officials
said troops killed 43 alleged militants in an operation in the Khyber
tribal region while airstrikes left several more dead in the stronghold
of the new Taliban chief elsewhere in the northwest. Government fighter
jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant hide-outs in three
villages of the Orakzai tribal region, the stronghold of new Pakistani
Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud. The tortured body of Akhtar Ali (28),
operator of an electrical repair shop, was dumped on the doorstep of
the family home in Mingora. He had been kidnapped on Sep 1. His death
was believed to have resulted from a case of mistaken identity.
(AP, 9/5/09)(Econ, 10/3/09, p.49)
2009 Sep 6, Pakistani military
destroyed two training centers and 17 militant homes. 2 people
kidnapped by militants were recovered. Troops killed 33 militants
during the latest action to pacify the Khyber Pass. Thousands of
civilians were reported fleeing the latest military operation in the
northwestern Khyber tribal region. 3 policemen were found fatally shot,
each by a single bullet to the head, west of Islamabad.
(AP, 9/6/09)(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 7, Five Pakistani
soldiers were killed in a land mine blast in the Taliban bastion of
South Waziristan. A suspected US missile strike killed 5 people at
Machi Khel village in North Waziristan close to the Afghan border.
Al-Qaida operations chief Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani national, was
later believed to be among the dead.
(AP, 9/7/09)(SFC, 9/8/09, p.A2)(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 8, In northwest Pakistan
Taliban militants attacked a group of boys on their way to school,
killing four and wounding three in Orakzai ethnic Pashtun tribal
region, because they were minority Shi'ite Muslims. Taliban militants
are from the majority Sunni community and attack Shi'ites as part of
their strategy to fight the government. Tribesmen retaliated after the
attack and killed at least two militants and wounded several.
Government aircraft attacked militants in a village, 30 km (20 miles)
east of Kalaya, killing six of them and destroying four hideouts.
Gunmen kidnapped a Greek man after killing a police guard in the
northern Chitral region on the Afghan border.
(Reuters, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 11, The Pakistani
Military said it had arrested the Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan
and commanders Mahmood Khan, Fazle Ghaffar, Abdul Rehman and Sartaj Ali
in the suburbs of Mingora, striking its first direct blow against the
leadership of the insurgency in the one-time tourist resort.
(AP, 9/11/09)
2009 Sep 12, In Pakistan
paramilitary troops destroyed three militant hide-outs and killed 22
insurgents. Officials said hundreds of tribal police in the
northwestern Khyber region have quit their jobs because of militant
threats.
(AP, 9/12/09)
2009 Sep 13, In Pakistan a bomb
blast killed 3 paramilitary troops in the Mandiknas area of the Khyber
region. A suicide bomber was killed as he tried to attack a security
post in the Swat Valley.
(SFC, 9/14/09, p.A2)
2009 Sep 14, In Pakistan at least
18 women and girls were killed in a stampede which broke out as charity
workers were handing out free flour to the poor in a crowded
neighborhood of Pakistan's financial capital Karachi.
(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 14, In Pakistan a US
missile slammed into a car at dawn, killing up to five militants in the
remote tribal belt near the Afghan border in the third attack in a
week. Nazimuddin, alias Yahyo, a top Uzbek militant, was believed to be
among the dead. Burqa-clad assailants armed with Kalashnikov rifles and
hand grenades attempted to attack an oil terminal in Karachi, but were
thwarted by a security guard who was gunned down as the suspects
escaped. Police later found a large cache of rocket-propelled grenades
(RPGs), explosives, suicide vests, burqas and other items apparently
dumped by the suspects near a sewer in the area. Fighter jets pounded
suspected militant hide-outs and killed five insurgents in the Salarzai
area of the northwest Bajur tribal region.
(AP, 9/15/09)(AFP, 9/14/09)(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 17, Pakistan's military
killed 10 insurgents and said it had arrested Sher Muhammad Qasab, a
militant commander accused of beheading troops in the northwestern Swat
Valley.
(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 17, In
Pakistan-controlled Kashmir a speeding bus, whose driver apparently was
eager to break his daylong Ramadan fast, spun out of control and
plunged off a mountainous road, killing 25 people and injuring 30
others.
(AP, 9/17/09)(AP, 9/17/09)
2009 Sep 18, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide car bomb destroyed a 2-story hotel at a market in Usterzai, a
small mainly Shiite town, killing over 30 people and trapping victims
under smashed shops as families bought supplies for a major religious
festival.
(AFP, 9/18/09)(SFC, 9/19/09, p.A4)(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 20, In Pakistan Sher
Muhammad Qasab, a feared Taliban commander known for beheading
opponents, died in custody from wounds sustained during a fierce
firefight with Pakistani security forces last week. The military said
security forces killed eight militants in search operations throughout
Swat over the last 24 hours and that 23 insurgents were apprehended and
another 22 surrendered. One of the militants killed was a Taliban
commander identified as Chamtu Khan.
(AP, 9/20/09)
2009 Sep 21, In northwestern
Pakistan police officers foiled a plan to assassinate a regional
education minister when they took on four militants in a gunbattle that
ended with a teenage suicide bomber blowing himself up.
(AP, 9/21/09)
2009 Sep 22, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Islamist militants blew up an empty girls school on
the outskirts of the Peshawar.
(AP, 9/22/09)
2009 Sep 24, In northwestern
Pakistan militants ambushed a convoy of prominent anti-Taliban tribal
elders, spraying their cars with gunfire and killing nine people.
Tribesmen killed two militants in the gunbattle. In a separate attack
militants killed two members of another anti-Taliban committee in the
Swat Valley to the northeast. Soldiers killed at least six militants in
the nearby Malakand region after insurgents ambushed a vehicle carrying
Pakistani troops near an Afghan refugee camp. 10 suspects were arrested
in operations over the past 24 hours and 15 militants surrendered to
security forces. A suspected US missile strike killed 4 people near the
town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.
(AP, 9/24/09)(SFC, 9/25/09, p.A7)
2009 Sep 26, In northwestern
Pakistan 2 suicide car bombs killed 22 people and wounded about 150
others in separate attacks in Bannu and Peshawar, just days after the
Taliban warned suicide strikes were coming if the military pressed
forward with an offensive. A third bomb injured 4 in the region.
(AP, 9/26/09)(AP, 9/27/09)
2009 Sep 28, In Pakistan a suicide
car bomber killed five people including a prominent tribal elder in
Baka Khel, which lies close to Waziristan. One Pakistani soldier was
killed and seven others critically wounded in a militant rocket attack
on an army camp in the northwest. Hundreds of civilians fled the
Taliban and al-Qaida's main stronghold in the northwest.
(AP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 29, In northwest Pakistan
two suspected US missile strikes killed 13 militants. The first attack
killed six militants and wounded six others in South Waziristan. A 2nd
missile hit a house owned by a known Afghan militant in North
Waziristan killing 7 insurgents. Kalimullah Mehsud, the brother of the
new head of the Pakistani Taliban, was said to be among several
militants to die in one of the drone strikes.
(AP, 9/29/09)(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Sep 30, In Pakistan a
suspected US missile attack killed 6 alleged militants just over the
border from Afghanistan, the 3rd such strike on the al-Qaida and
Taliban stronghold in 24 hours.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 2, Pakistan's
paramilitary forces said that they had killed 27 more militants,
including two commanders, in Khyber.
(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 3, In northwestern
Pakistan suspected Taliban militants fatally shot tribal elder Malik
Abdul Majeed as he traveled to discuss anti-militancy efforts with
government authorities. The dead body of a man accused of spying for
the US turned up in the Bajur tribal region. Helicopter gunships
pounded militants hide-outs in Charmang town in Bajur, killing five
insurgents. Security forces killed three militants in the Swat Valley
and arrested 16 others.
(AP, 10/3/09)(AP, 10/4/09)
2009 Oct 4, In Pakistan security
forces and special police battled militants in a firefight that killed
six of the insurgents, including two commanders, Noorul Amin and
Fazl-e-Rabbi. Police in Peshawar arrested Hukam Khan, a militant who
was involved in attacking and looting convoys taking supplies to US and
NATO forces in Afghanistan and recovered a substantial quantity of
stolen goods. Hakimullah Mehsud, the new leader of the Taliban in
Pakistan, met with reporters in the country's tribal areas for the
first time since winning control of the militants. Mehsud vowed to
strike back at Pakistan and the US for the increasing number of drone
attacks in the tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/4/09)(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 5, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the UN food
agency's headquarters in Islamabad, killing five people a day after the
new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults.
(AP, 10/5/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Pakistan a massive
suicide car bomb ripped through a packed market in Peshawar, killing 53
people, including 9 children, and injured over 100. The government
vowed to launch a new offensive in Waziristan in the wake of the
massive bombing.
(AFP, 10/9/09)(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 10, In Pakistan 5
militants took hostages after they and about four other assailants
attacked the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, killing six soldiers,
including a brigadier and a lieutenant colonel.
(AP, 10/11/09)
2009 Oct 11, Pakistani commandos
freed dozens of hostages held by militants at the army's own
headquarters in Rawalpindi, ending a bloody, 22-hour drama that
embarrassed the nation's military as it plans a new offensive against
al-Qaida and the Taliban. The standoff killed 23 people including 9
militants and 14 others. 42 hostages were freed. The military launched
two airstrikes on suspected militant targets in South Waziristan,
ending a five day lull in attacks there and killing at least five
militants.
(AP, 10/11/09)(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 12, In Pakistan a teenage
suicide car bombing targeting troops killed 45 people, including 6
security people, in northwest Shangla district as the Taliban
pledged to mobilize fighters across the country for more strikes.
(AP, 10/12/09)(Econ, 10/17/09, p.34)
2009 Oct 13, Pakistani jets bombed
militant targets in the main insurgent stronghold along the Afghan
border ahead of an expected ground offensive there. Helicopter gunship
attacks killed 26 insurgents in Bajur. Terrorists fired 31 rockets" at
a convoy of security forces in South Waziristan.
(AP, 10/13/09)
2009 Oct 14, Pakistani jets
pounded suspected militant hide-outs along the Afghan border. Officials
said some 200,000 civilians have fled South Waziristan in anticipation
of an expected military offensive. Estimates of the population there
hover around 500,000.
(AP, 10/14/09)
2009 Oct 15, In Pakistan teams of
gunmen launched coordinated attacks on three law enforcement facilities
in the eastern city of Lahore killing 18 people including 11
insurgents. A car bombs hit northwest Kohat killing 11 people,
including 3 police officers and 8 civilians. Another car bomb in
Peshawar killed 10 people, mostly women and children. A total of 39
people were killed in the escalating wave of anti-government violence.
A suspected US missile strike killed 4 alleged militants.
(AP, 10/15/09)(SFC, 10/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 16, In northwestern
Pakistan 3 suicide attackers, including a woman, attacked a police
station in Peshawar city, killing 13 people, including 3 police
officers, 2 women and 2 children. Army airstrikes killed a dozen
suspected militants in South Waziristan ahead of an expected ground
offensive.
(AP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 16, President Barack
Obama signed a 7.5 billion dollar aid package for Pakistan after the US
Congress acted to placate critics in the strife-torn nation who warned
it violated Pakistani sovereignty.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 17, More than 30,000
Pakistani soldiers launched a ground offensive against al-Qaida and the
Taliban's main stronghold along the Afghan border, in the country's
toughest test yet against a strengthening insurgency. The operation was
expected to last around two months. At least 11 suspected insurgents
were killed in jet bombings, while a bomb hit a security convoy,
killing one soldier and wounding three others. 4 soldiers were killed
and 12 wounded in exchanges of fire elsewhere in the region. The plan
was to capture and hold an area where an estimated 10,000 insurgents
were headquartered and reinforced with about 1,500 foreign fighters,
most of them of Central Asian origin.
(AP, 10/17/09)
2009 Oct 18, Pakistan pounded
Taliban bases from the air and bore down on their leader's hometown,
intensifying a major offensive against the Islamists and claiming to
have killed 60 militants in operation Rah-e-Nijat. Five soldiers
were reported killed. Ammunition supplies deep in the mountains are
thought to be sufficient to keep the militants fighting for several
months without outside supply lines.
(AFP, 10/18/09)
2009 Oct 19, Pakistani officials
said deals have been struck to keep 2 powerful, anti-US tribal chiefs
from joining the battle against the government. Army troops fought
militants on 3 fronts and fighter jets bombed insurgent positions near
the Afghan border as Pakistan pressed ahead with an assault on the
country's main Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold. The offensive focused
on eliminating Taliban militants linked to the Mehsud tribe, who
controlled about half of South Waziristan and were blamed for 80% of
the suicide attacks that have battered Pakistan over the last three
years. Police said they had arrested Akhtar Zaman, a man identified as
the head of the Pakistani Taliban, in the southern city of Karachi
along with three other alleged militants in connection with a foiled
attempt to attack an oil terminal last month.
(AP, 10/19/09)(SFC, 10/20/09, p.A3)
2009 Oct 20, In Pakistan 2 suicide
attackers bombed an Islamic university in Islamabad, killing 6 people
and wounding 18 as the army pressed ahead with a critical offensive on
a Taliban stronghold near Afghanistan. Firefights raged in the areas
around Kaskai and Shisanwam, and 4 more soldiers were killed, bringing
the army's death toll over four days to 13.
(AP, 10/20/09)(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 21, Pakistani soldiers
fought for control of Kotkai, the Taliban chief's hometown, pressing
forward with a major offensive targeting an insurgent stronghold along
the Afghan border. Suspected US missiles killed two militants in a
neighboring region, a potentially troubling strike because it hit
territory controlled by another militant faction the army has coaxed
into neutrality during its offensive. The army's death toll so far rose
to 16, while 15 more militants were slain, bringing their overall death
toll to 105.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 22, In Pakistan suspected
militants on a motorbike shot and killed a senior army officer and a
soldier in Islamabad, striking at security forces as the military wages
a major anti-Taliban offensive in the northwest. An army statement
reported two more soldiers were killed, bringing the army's death toll
to 18, while 24 more militants were slain, bringing their death toll to
129.
(AP, 10/22/09)
2009 Oct 23, In northwest Pakistan
a suicide bomber killed 8 people in Kamra, near the Pakistan
Aeronautical Complex. An anti-tank mine killed 16 wedding guests in the
tribal belt. Most of the dead were women and children. A car bomb
exploded outside a restaurant in the northwestern city of Peshawar,
wounding 15.
(AP, 10/23/09)(AFP, 10/23/09)
2009 Oct 24, Pakistani soldiers
captured Kotkai, the strategically located hometown of Taliban chief
Hakimullah Mehsud after fierce fighting. It was the army's first major
prize as it pushes deeper into a militant stronghold along the Afghan
border. The army said that three more soldiers had died, putting the
army's death toll at 23, and 21 more militants had been killed, putting
their overall death toll at 163. A suspected US missile killed 22
people elsewhere in the northwest, but apparently missed a top Taliban
figure. 6 soldiers died in an army helicopter crash in the Bajur tribal
region.
(AP, 10/24/09)(AP, 10/25/09)
2009 Oct 25, In northeastern
Pakistan a suicide bomber killed a police officer on a highway near
Jhelum city, about 60 miles south of Islamabad. The man taken into
custody told police they had planned to detonate the bomb in Lahore. A
minister for education was fatally attacked by gunmen in Quetta, the
capital of southwestern Baluchistan province. A nationalist group, the
Baluchistan United Liberation Front, claimed responsibility. Taliban
militants attacked a security post in Hangu district northwest of South
Waziristan, killing one soldier.
(AP, 10/25/09)(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 26, In Pakistan a fight
to secure Ghalai village, on the road from Kotkai to Sararogha, left
six soldiers and 10 militants dead, bringing to 197 the number of
militants and to 30 the number of troops killed so far.
(AP, 10/26/09)
2009 Oct 26, Pakistani police
arrested 11 Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers for illegally entering
the country, amid tensions over a suicide attack on Oct 18 that Tehran
alleges was carried out by militants backed by Pakistani intelligence
officials. The 11 officers were released the next day.
(AP, 10/26/09)(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 27, Pakistan's army
pushed deeper into a Taliban sanctuary close to the Afghan border,
claiming to have killed 42 militants in the latest stage of an
offensive against extremists blamed for relentless attacks in recent
weeks. Authorities announced the arrest of the alleged mastermind
behind two recent bombings in the main northwest city of Peshawar.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Oct 28, In northwestern
Pakistan a car bomb tore through a busy market in Peshawar, killing 105
people, mostly women and children. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton visited the country and pledged American support for its
campaign against Islamist militants.
(AP, 10/28/09)(AP, 10/29/09)
2009 Oct 29, The Pakistani army
said troops were closing in on Kanigurram, described as an important
base of Uzbek militants and an Tehreek-e-Taliban operational centre,
saying that 11 militants and one soldier were killed.
(AP, 10/29/09)
2009 Oct 30, Pakistani forces said
they are closing in on a major Taliban base inside the militant
stronghold of South Waziristan, and announced it had killed 14
militants in a day of fighting. A total of 289 militants and 34
government soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to a
tally of army figures. Six more militants have been arrested.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Oct 31, Pakistani soldiers
closed in on two major Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, as
government jets pounded insurgent hide-outs and the prime minister said
the country had no choice but to defeat the militants. Pakistani jets
bombed three hide-outs of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in the
Orkazai tribal region, killing at least 8 militants and wounding
several others. Another airstrike, about 40 miles (70km) from the first
and near the Afghan border, killed 7 militants in the Kurram tribal
region. The army said government soldiers had killed a total of 33
militants over the past 24 hours, discovered a factory for making
roadside bombs and seized a handful of weapons. 7 paramilitary soldiers
driving through the Khyber tribal area were killed in a roadside bomb
planted by suspected Taliban militants. In Karachi police arrested 3
suspected militants and seized 30 kilograms (65 pounds) of explosives
and other weaponry.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 1, In Pakistan military
jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant positions in and around
Makeen. Government forces have laid siege to Sararogha, captured all
the important features and ridges overlooking the town and cleared half
of Kaniguram, a hub of Uzbek militants. 9 militants and two soldiers
were killed in fighting, taking the militants' death toll to 331 in 16
days of fighting.
(Reuters, 11/1/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber killed 35 people outside a bank in Rawalpindi, as the UN said
spreading violence has forced it to start pulling out some expatriate
staff and suspend long-term development work in areas along the Afghan
border. Hours after the first blast, another suicide bomber struck in
Lahore, exploding a car at a police checkpoint as officers went to
search it. At least 7 policemen were injured and two were in critical
condition. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the army had captured the town of
Kaniguram, one of the Taliban's bases, and killed 12 more militants in
the past 24 hours of the offensive.
(AP, 11/2/09)
2009 Nov 3, In Pakistan a
passenger train smashed into a cargo train on the edge of Karachi
killing 16 people, including women and children. The army announced
that 21 militants had been killed in the past 24 hours in South
Waziristan and that government forces were continuing to press into
Taliban territory. Militant leader Hakimullah Mehsud spoke to his
followers in a speech broadcast over a wireless radio network. Of those
who do run away, he warned, "Such people will go to hell."
(AFP, 11/3/09)(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 4, Pakistani soldiers
battled Taliban fighters in the streets of Ladha, a key militant
stronghold, as government forces pressed ahead with their offensive in
the tribal region of South Waziristan. The military said fighting over
the past day left 10 militants dead in Ladha and 30 dead across the
region. A group of militants ambushed a van as it traveled near Khar,
the main town in the Bajur tribal region, killing two female teachers
and wounding two other passengers.
(AP, 11/4/09)
2009 Nov 5, Pakistani security
forces arrested three Iranians suspected of planning a suicide attack
in Iran's southeastern region last month which killed 42 people.
Militants blew up a girls' school in the Khyber tribal region, but no
one was injured. Missiles believed fired by US drones killed two
alleged militants in a northwestern tribal region.
(AP, 11/5/09)
2009 Nov 6, The Pakistani army
entered Makeen, the last of three militant strongholds targeted by a
major offensive in the northwest, as gunmen wounded a senior army
officer and a solder in Islamabad. Police shot and killed two would-be
suicide bombers in Balakot. The two men opened fire on police when
their car was intercepted at a checkpoint in the North West Frontier
Province.
(AP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 7, Pakistan's military
said it had killed 12 Taliban militants as government troops pressed a
major offensive in the South Waziristan tribal area bordering
Afghanistan. Two teachers and a student were injured when suspected
militants hurled a hand grenade at a girls' school in Quetta, the
capital southwestern Baluchistan province.
(AFP, 11/7/09)
2009 Nov 8, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded market in
Adazai, 10 miles south of Peshawar, killing anti-Taliban Mayor Abdul
Malik, who had formed a militia to fight the militants, and 11 other
people. The latest fighting in the Taliban heartland killed 20
militants and wounded eight soldiers.
(AP, 11/8/09)
2009 Nov 9, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen
at an intersection on the main road that circles Peshawar, killing 3
people. A roadside bomb killed two paramilitary troops and wounded a
third in Salarzai town in the Bajur tribal region. Militants shot and
killed a senior police officer in the main town of Khar as he was
leaving his office. Fighter jets pounded militant hide-outs in three
villages in the Kurram tribal region, killing eight suspected fighters.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 10, In Pakistan a suicide
car bomb ripped through a packed shopping street in Charsadda, a small
market town, killing 26 people in the third militant attack in
northwest in as many days. The military said that troops had uncovered
a private Taliban jail, destroying a network of rebel caves, bunkers
and towers while nine militants were killed during the last 24 hours of
operations.
(AFP, 11/10/09)(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 11, In Pakistan a
roadside bomb killed nine security officers close to the Afghan border.
Some 12 hours earlier, dozens of militants armed with automatic weapons
and rocket launchers attacked a security outpost in the same Mohmand
region, killing two soldiers and wounding three others. The army
responded by shelling militant positions there, killing 10 suspected
fighters.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 12, In Pakistan stiff
Taliban resistance killed at least 17 government soldiers in the
military's deadliest day since launching its offensive in South
Waziristan. At least 15 soldiers were killed in clashes, while a
roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Sararogha area further east.
Gunmen shot dead Abu Al-Hasan Jaffry, a Pakistani spokesman for the
Iranian consulate, at point blank range as he set off for work in
Peshawar. The army said that 22 militants were killed in South
Waziristan, which would bring to 524 the number reported dead since the
fight began.
(AFP, 11/12/09)
2009 Nov 13, In Pakistan an early
morning attack killed 10 people and devastated much of the northwestern
headquarters of Pakistan's spy agency in Peshawar city. About an hour
later, a second suicide car bomber attacked a police station farther
south, killing six people. The military reported the loss of 12
soldiers over the last 24 hours, one of its largest single-day losses
since the campaign in South Waziristan began. Attackers fired rockets
at a group of tankers near the southwestern city of Quetta that were
delivering fuel to US and NATO troops. One driver was killed and five
tankers were torched.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 14, In Pakistan a suicide
bomber blew up his explosives-filled car at a police checkpoint in the
northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing himself and at least
12 people. In the northwestern Swat valley, troops killed 13 insurgents
in two separate gunfights.
(AFP, 11/14/09)(SSFC, 11/15/09, p.A8)
2009 Nov 15, In northwestern
Pakistan militants killed anti-Taliban elder Malik Sher Zaman in the
Bajur tribal region. Several hours later, more than a dozen militants
opened fire on the house of an anti-Taliban mayor outside the main
northwestern city of Peshawar, but security guards repelled the attack,
killing three of the assailants. The attacks were seen as part of an
escalating campaign to weaken the country's resolve to fight Islamic
extremism.
(AP, 11/15/09)
2009 Nov 16, In northwestern
Pakistan a pickup truck laden with explosives blew up outside a police
station, killing four people in an area that has become the focal point
for militant retaliation against an army offensive along the nearby
Afghan border.
(AP, 11/16/09)
2009 Nov 17, Pakistan said that
troops waging a major ground and air offensive against the Taliban have
captured most towns once under rebel control in a key district on the
Afghan border. The military said overall, 550 militants and 70 soldiers
have been killed since the army launched the offensive on October 17.
In southwestern Baluchistan province. A bomb targeting a police chief's
vehicle in Quetta killed one person and injured six others. Three
militants and one Pakistani soldier were killed in fighting in the
Bajur tribal region.
(AFP, 11/17/09)(AP, 11/17/09)(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 19, In northwestern
Pakistan a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a courthouse in
Peshawar, killing 19 people. The bomb explosion occurred hours after
missiles fired from a suspected US drone killed three suspected
militants in Shana Khuwara village in North Waziristan. 5 Pakistani
troops and six militants were killed in a gunbattle at a security
outpost to the north in the Bajur tribal region.
(AP, 11/19/09)(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike killed at least eight militants,
the second attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents
who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region.
Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed when
militants ambushed their convoy in the North Waziristan area of Shawal.
Two police officers were killed and four others wounded when a
remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle in Peshawar.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 20, In northwestern
Pakistan a suspected US missile strike killed at least eight militants,
the second attack this week in an area believed to hold many insurgents
who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region.
Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed when
militants ambushed their convoy in the North Waziristan area of Shawal.
Two police officers were killed and four others wounded when a
remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle in Peshawar.
(AP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 21, Italian police
arrested a Pakistani father and son accused of helping fund and
providing logistical support for last year's terrorist attacks in
Mumbai, India. The day before the attacks began on Nov. 26 they
allegedly sent money using a stolen identity to a US company to
activate Internet phone accounts used by the attackers and their
handlers.
(AP, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 21, In Pakistani Kashmir
3 suspected Taliban militants blew themselves up as police chased them.
(Reuters, 11/21/09)
2009 Nov 22, Pakistan's army
fought Islamist militants for control of a northwestern district.
Fighting in Shahukhel in Hangu district close to the Afghan border
killed 12 militants.
(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 23, Pakistan's army
fought Islamist militants for control of a northwestern district,
killing 18 of them. It was the second day of fighting in Shahukhel in
Hangu district close to the Afghan border.
(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 25, Pakistan charged
seven men in last year's Mumbai terror attacks, its first indictments
in a case watched closely by India and the United States to see if
Islamabad makes good on promises to punish those responsible.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, In Pakistan 15
Taliban fighters were killed in operations over the past 24 hours in
South Waziristan. Shahfur Khan, a key anti-Taliban tribal leader, was
assassinated in a roadside bombing in northwestern Pakistan. Elsewhere,
authorities found the bullet-riddled body of Ameer Saiyed, another
tribal elder, who was seized from his home a day earlier in an attack
that also left his son dead.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 28, Pakistan’s President
Asif Ali Zardari gave up control of the country's nuclear arsenal in a
bid to fend off mounting pressures threatening to weaken his rule
further and complicate the war on the Taliban. Zardari announced that
control of the National Command Authority, which analysts and lawyers
confirmed was responsible for nuclear weapons, had shifted to PM Yousuf
Raza Gilani.
(AFP, 11/28/09)
2009 Nicholas Schmidle authored
“To Live Or To Perish Forever: Two Tumultuous Years in Pakistan,”
covering his experiences in Pakistan from 2006-2008.
(www.globecorner.com/t/t50/25106.php)
2009 The world Muslim population
was estimated at 1.57 billion, or about 23% of the global population of
6.8 billion, including 203 million in Indonesia, 174 million in
Pakistan and 160 million in India.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.62)
Pakistan
to
2005
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Subject = Pakistan
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