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A 14-year-old activist and blogger was shot in the head on her way back from school in Pakistan’s Swat Valley on Tuesday, the latest in a troubling string of incidents involving children in Pakistan. Malala Yousafzai was injured along with two travel companions when Taliban assailants opened fire on their vehicle in the town of Mingora. By evening, Yousafzai, who started blogging about the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education in Swat when she was 11, was in stable condition and en route to a military hospital in Peshawar.

Troops are encircling Taliban militants in their mountain base as well as the main town in the Swat Valley, a Pakistani general said on Friday. With scepticism growing about the progress of the month-old army offensive in the north-western region, the army flew a handful of reporters from foreign news organisations into Swat on Friday. An Associated Press reporter aboard the helicopter saw no cars and few people in the town of Mingora or on roads further up the valley. From the air, there was little evidence of the fierce fighting and air strikes that the military claims have already...

This is what happens when you allow a fanatical Islamic organization to fester and grow: Taliban militants have burnt down more than 200 schools in Pakistan's restive Swat valley in the last two years and made all out efforts to prevent girls from receiving education, a media report here said on Sunday. The militants told the residents in the valley that if they were good Muslims they would stop sending their daughters to schools, 'The Sunday Times' said in a report from Mingora, the capital of Swat. "Every evening (Taliban commander) Maulana Fazullah, nicknamed 'Radio Mullah', broadcast the names on...

Officials in Pakistan say they have captured from Taliban forces important neighborhoods in Mingora, the largest city in the contested Swat Valley. The New York Times reported that authorities also said that 10 Taliban militants have been killed clashes with the Pakistani army Sunday. The newspaper reported that six troops were killed and six others were injured. In all, 14 militants were arrested in Mingora in an offensive aimed at helping to gain control of the Swat Valley from the Taliban. The Times noted that until this offensive, the military fight against Taliban forces was confined to the mountainous countryside...

In Pakistan there has been a real change in the past few months - the public has had enough of the Taliban and the army has gone to war. As a result well over one million people have been forced to flee their homes. I have come to a place about an hour's drive from Peshawar, 50 miles (80km) from where there has been intense fighting. There are many people on the move here who have run away from that fighting and they have brought with them eyewitness accounts of the brutal things they have seen under the Taliban's control...

Pakistani forces have regained control over 90 percent of Buner district and increased their stranglehold over Mingora, the largest town in Swat, the military said Tuesday as the operations against the Taliban in the country’s restive northwest entered their second month. “Ninety percent area of Buner has been cleared,” an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement said. “Security forces have made considerable progress in Mingora town. House-to-house search is in progress in most of the areas,” the statement added. Cordon and search operations were also continuing in Peochar, the stronghold of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah, ISPR said. In Lower Dir,...

Pakistan said Saturday it had retaken the biggest city in the Swat Valley, Mingora, from Taliban militants after a month-long offensive. Calling it a "great accomplishment," Pakistani officials said the Taliban's stiff resistance dwindled as government troops moved into the area, CNN reported. Despite pockets of resistance just outside the city, Pakistani Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas told the U.S. broadcaster that "for all practical purposes, Mingora has been secured." Taliban militants stepped up attacks in other parts of the country as authorities clamped down on security throughout the capital, Islamabad, Friday in the wake of a string of deadly bombings...

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan says it is close to beating the Taliban in the Swat Valley, but battlefield success alone does not equal victory: Militant commanders are still on the run, local governments and police forces have been decimated and millions of residents are displaced from their homes. Even if Pakistan succeeds in eliminating insurgents in one of its most intense operations yet, the northwestern valley is just one of several militant strongholds in the U.S.-allied country — and not even the most important. Already, fighting is flaring in the semiautonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where al-Qaida and the Taliban are...

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistani troops on Saturday stormed into the main town in the Swat valley and fought street battles in a bid to wrest the capital of the northwest from Taliban control, the military said. Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said parts of Mingora had already been cleared and that 17 militants, including an important commander, had been killed. The ground assault on Mingora, a city with an estimated population of around 300,000 -- most of whom have fled -- marks the most crucial phase of the military's blistering offensive against the Taliban in the scenic valley....

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 Posted By:Catherine MoyPermalinkPakistan Creates Safe-haven for Taliban Taliban now have safe haven in Pakistan It’s tough to tell who’s a friend or foe, especially in the Middle East. Pakistan, which was (kind of) an ally during the Bush Adminstration, has now created a safe area for Taliban, the monstrous terrorists whom our troops are fighting. Here’s the story from FOX News.com: MINGORA, Pakistan — NATO warned Tuesday 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...

The Taleban have ordered the closure of all girls’ schools in the war-ravaged Swat district and warned parents and teachers of dire consequences if the ban is flouted. In an announcement made in mosques and broadcast on radio, the militant group set a deadline of January 15 for its order to be obeyed or it would blow up school buildings and attack schoolgirls. It also told women not to set foot outside their homes without being fully covered. “Female education is against Islamic teachings and spreads vulgarity in society,” Shah Dauran, leader of a group that has established control over...

Around 70 militants killed in Swat * Militants claim 40 security personnel surrounded, two ‘NATO soldiers’ held MINGORA: Up to 70 militants have been killed in the Khawzakhela area of Matta tehsil in Swat district after up to 600 pro-Taliban militants attacked security personnel near Dheri Bagh at around 4:00 am on Thursday, NWFP Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir told reporters. Clashes between security forces backed by helicopter gunships and militants near Khawzakhela continued on Thursday, with 11 civilians reported to have been injured in the crossfire. Online reported that the militants had taken control of the Khawzakhela Bazaar, while...