January 2

At least one Frontier Corps (FC) personnel is killed during an exchange of fire with Afghan soldiers near the border town of Saidgai in North Waziristan.

Pakistan extradites two Turks, identified as Mehmet Yilmaz and Mahmut Kaplan, suspected of links to the Al Qaeda network, who were immediately arrested and charged by the Turkish authorities in Ankara.

January 5

President Pervez Musharraf accords assent to the bill amending the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. The bill was passed by the National Assembly on October 18, 2004, and by the Upper House of Parliament on December 9, 2004.

January 7

Rocket attack destroys gas pipeline in the Sui area of Balochistan province.

Three suspected Al Qaeda terrorists, including a Yemeni national Shaikh Yousuf, are arrested from the Super Highway area in Karachi.

January 8

At least 15 people are killed, including six members of a family who were burnt alive, and 14 were injured during sectarian clashes at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) where a curfew was imposed and troops deployed to restore law and order.

January 9

Unidentified people blow up a gas pipeline again at Sui in the Balochistan province killing six people, including two FC personnel, and injuring 11 others.

An alleged conspirator in a plot to kill President Pervez Musharraf, identified as Mushtaq Ahmad, has escaped, Time magazine reported on its website.

January 10

Two more people die in continued rocket attacks by unidentified people on a gas installation in the Sui area of Balochistan province.

Three brothers are killed and their parents’ sustain injuries when an explosive device went off in their home in the Drengar area of Mastung district in Balochistan province.

January 11

At least two Defence Services Guard personnel are killed and five others sustain injuries as unidentified people attacked the Sui gas field in Balochistan province.Military authorities extend the deadline for two wanted militants in South Waziristan to surrender to January 26.

January 13

A prominent Shia scholar, Syed Agha Ziauddin Rizvi, who was wounded during the sectarian clashes on January 8 at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), succumbs to his injuries at a hospital in Rawalpindi.The Ulema (religious scholars) from different schools of thought reject the establishment of Aga Khan Education Board claiming the move was a conspiracy to secularise the country.

January 14

The Balochistan Government formally seeks Federal Government's assistance to ensure security of natural gas installations in the Sui area.

January 15

Unidentified assailants fire six rockets targeting a checkpoint of the paramilitary forces in Kohlo district, located some 160 kilometres north of Sui in Balochistan province.

January 17

Unidentified persons fir at least six rockets at a Frontier Corps (FC) camp near Mach in the Balochistan province.

January 18

In the first violation of the 14-month-old cease-fire along the LoC, Pakistani forces fire 16 mortar shells on Indian positions in Poonch sector wounding a girl.

Bodies of two suspected Uzbek terrorists were delivered to officials in the Makeen area of South Waziristan on January 18-morning by a pro-government tribal elder who claimed he killed them on January 17-night outside his home.

January 20

Foreign Secretary-designate, Condoleezza Rice, indicates that the United States is prepared to deal with Pakistan’s nuclear weapons from falling into extremist hands. Questioned by Senator John Kerry during her confirmation hearing for Secretary of State about the possibility of extremists taking control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons if President Pervez Musharraf was overthrown, she said the US was "prepared to try to deal with it."

January 23

Military regime spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, denies reports about the arrest of Uzbek terrorist, Tahir Yaldesh, and others during an alleged joint operation with US soldiers in South Waziristan a month ago.

January 24

Pakistan accuses India of violating the cease-fire at the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on January 21, but said that the two sides have also renewed their commitment to the 14-month old truce.

January 26

The Pakistan Army has set up a new military base near the Sui gas field in Balochistan province, where troops have been deployed after a series of rocket attacks disrupted fuel supplies earlier this month. The decision was announced to journalists on a trip organised by the military to Balochistan.

The Government’s deadline to wanted militants to surrender ends with no clear sign yet that Abdullah Mahsud and Baitullah Mahsud were seeking amnesty through the Jirga (council) of tribal elders belonging to South Waziristan.

January 28

Chief of the outlawed Jamiat-ul-Ansar (formerly Harkat-ul-Mujahideen [HuM]), Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, is reported to have resigned from the post due to alleged Government pressure and health reasons. "Khalil submitted his resignation at a meeting of the executive committee of the organisation and asked the committee to elect a new chief," sources told Daily Times, adding that Maulana Badar Munir from Karachi had been elected new chief of the organisation.

January 29

A tribesman and his son are shot dead in Wana, South Waziristan, for allegedly assisting the military.

January 30

Two unidentified men open fire outside a mosque in Karachi killing Maulana Haroon Qasmi, a cleric belonging to the outlawed Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP; now known as Millat-e-Islamia), and his bodyguard.

January 31

President Pervez Musharraf has, in principle, reportedly approved the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan, which envisage issues pertaining to gas royalty as also provincial autonomy and may require constitutional amendments, besides removal of concerns on the location of Frontier Constabulary check posts in Sui and some other parts of the province. This was stated by Choudhury Shujaat Hussain, President of the ruling Muslim League, at a news conference in Karachi on January 31. The former Prime Minister also said that the Government wanted an understanding with Baloch leaders, Nawab Akbar Bugti and Sardar Attaullah Mengal, on the recommendations.

February 1

The BBC Urdu Service reports that bomb explosions cut electricity to Balochistan plunging the entire province into darkness. The report said that a high-tension power supply line was blown up by bomb attacks in the Mithri Pirak area of Sibi at approximately 9:15 pm (PST).One person is killed and nine others sustained injuries during two bomb blasts in Quetta, capital of Balochistan.

February 3

A telephone tower, an electric supply tower and a railway track were blown up in continuing attacks on vital Government installations in the Balochistan province. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for some of the attacks, Reuters reported.

February 5

Suspected tribal insurgents blow up a railway track that links Pakistan with Iran in the Balochistan province, but caused no casualties.

February 6

According to Time magazine, a recent investigation has revealed that Pakistan’s A Q Khan network played a larger role in helping Iran and North Korea acquire material for a nuclear bomb. According to US intelligence officials, the magazine said, Khan sold North Korea much of the necessary material to build a nuclear bomb, including high-speed centrifuges used to enrich uranium and the equipment required to manufacture more of them.

February 7

Tribal militant leader, Baitullah Mehsud, signs a peace deal with the Government in South Waziristan as he lays down arms during a ceremony at Sararogha.

Two journalists are shot dead and another sustains injuries when armed assailants attacked their vehicle at Wana, the headquarters of South Waziristan.

Unidentified gunmen shot dead two Pakistani employees of a contractor to a Malaysian gas company at Gotki, 550 kilometers northeast of Karachi.

February 8

In the continuing attacks on vital installations, suspected insurgents targeted a paramilitary base, a telephone tower and a railway track in the Balochistan province.

Confirming South Waziristan-based tribal militant Baitullah Mahsud’s claim, the Corps Commander (Peshawar), Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, says that he did offer him Rupees 20 million to repay his debts.

February 11

Farhat Paracha, wife of Pakistani businessman Saifullah Paracha who has been held captive at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for the past 19 months by the US authorities for his suspected terrorist ties with Al Qaeda, discloses that her husband had met Osama bin Laden twice.

February 15

Three people, including the custodian of a mosque, are killed and 14 others sustain injuries in a shooting incident at Noorpur Shahan near the capital Islamabad.

February 16

Pakistan and India agree to start a bus service between Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir from April 7, 2005, with people from Kashmir, Pakistan and India to travel across the Line of Control (LoC) by an entry permit system. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri announced this in Islamabad in a joint statement with his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh after talks between the two.

February 17

Three suspected foreign terrorists are killed by one of their associates near Mirali town in North Waziristan.

Director of the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, reportedly told the Senate Intelligence Committee at a hearing in Washington on February 16 that "Extremist Islamic politicians would gain greater influence" in Pakistan if President Musharraf was assassinated or replaced.

February 18

Two suspected terrorists of the outlawed Sunni group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, blow themselves up with hand grenades during an exchange of fire with the police at Ghilzai road in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

A group calling itself Sipah-e-Islam (Soldiers of Islam) claims responsibility for the February 7-killing of two journalists in South Waziristan.

February 21

The United States has disbursed a sum of $57 million to people in Pakistan who provided information on the Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, according to a senior US official.

February 25

A Shia man is killed and two Sunnis are wounded when the two rival groups clashed at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of PoK.The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approves Rupees 9.6 billion for converting 'B' Areas of Balochistan into 'A' and the raising of 6,000 additional force for the Balochistan Constabulary.

February 27

Police seize a huge arms cache and explosive material, including 43 rockets, and unearth a private jail and torture cells while arresting 20 suspects during an operation targeting the Marri camp in the outskirts of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

March 1

Three holed up terrorists of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen escape after killing both the soldiers of Rashtriya Rifles, who had been captured and disarmed by them during a gun-battle in the Matribugh village of Pulwama district on February 28.

March 2

The Karachi Police arrests Sohail Habib, a key suspect in the suicide bomb blast in front of the Sheraton Hotel on May 8, 2002, which claimed 14 lives, including 11 French engineers and the suicide bomber.

March 3

The Government offers to buy weapons at market price from the tribesmen in South Waziristan. It intended to purchase anti-aircraft guns, missiles, mortars, rocket launchers, landmines, hand-grenades, light machineguns and AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, said local administrator, Khan Bukhsh.

March 5

Troops kill two militants and arrest 11 others after a heavy exchange of fire with suspected militants in the Deogar Sidgai area of North Waziristan.

March 6

A 1000-line telephone exchange in the Dera Bugti district is set ablaze and a Frontier Corps check-post in Kohlu district is attacked by insurgents in the Balochistan province.

March 8

Unidentified gunmen are reported to have shot dead Muhammad Ayub, a local Government official, in the Danyore area of Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

March 9

The Legislative Assembly of PoK unanimously opposes travel by Pakistani and Indian nationals on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, which is scheduled to commence on April 7, 2005.

March 10

One person is reported to have died during sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni groups at Gilgit.

The Federal Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, discloses that nuclear scientist, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, had provided centrifuges to Iran. "He had given centrifuges to Iran in his individual capacity and the government of Pakistan had nothing to do with it," the minister said in Islamabad during a seminar.

March 13

A spokesperson for the Waziristan-based tribal militant, Abdullah Mehsud, claims that he "died of his wounds" sustained during a military operation in North Waziristan on March 5.

March 14

An Anti-terrorism court in Karachi convicts Dr. Akmal Waheed and his younger brother Dr. Arshad Waheed and sentences them to rigorous imprisonment totaling 18 years on charges of causing disappearance of evidence by harbouring and providing medical treatment to Al Qaeda terrorists.

March 16

According to Daily Times, Dr. Amina Wadud, who is set to become the first Muslim woman to lead a Friday prayer to a mixed congregation on March 18, has received death threats, leading to a change of venue.

March 18

A fierce gun-battle between tribal insurgents and the Frontier Corps (FC) in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan province that ended early on March 18 left up to 31 people dead, including 10 FC personnel, and more than 70 injured.

At least two passengers of the Quetta and Lahore bound Chiltan Express trains are killed and nine others sustain injuries during two separate bomb explosions in the trains at the Mach and Mushkaf areas of Balochistan province.

March 19

At least 50 people are killed and over 100 others sustain injuries during a bomb explosion at a crowded gathering near the shrine of a Shia saint at Fatehpur village in the Jhal Magsi district of Balochistan province.

March 20

Bugti tribesmen have surrounded at least 300 FC personnel and Government officials at a base in the Dera Bugti area where fears of fresh fighting between the tribesmen and troops have forced thousands of residents to flee for safety, says Balochistan Governor, Awais Ahmed Ghani, in Quetta.

March 23

Former Inspector General of Police, Sakhiullah Tareen, and four police officials are killed when unidentified men fired at his vehicle near village Jotal in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

March 25

Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt Gen Safdar Hussain, discloses in Lahore that 48 military operations have been carried out in the length and breadth of South Waziristan and that the possibility of Osama bin Laden being in one of the target areas cannot be ruled out.

March 30

Six foreigners, suspected to be Afghans and Central Asians, are arrested from Abdara in Peshawar for their alleged links to the Al Qaeda.

April 1

Allama Ghulam Hussain Najafi, Vice Principal of a leading Shia seminary Jamia-ul-Muntazir, is shot dead, while his daughter and a teenage student sustain injuries, during a terrorist attack in the Model Colony area of Lahore.

April 3

A security force personnel is reported to have died after being attacked by a tribesman who opened indiscriminate fire on him in the Makin area of South Waziristan.

April 4

Pakistan says there was no threat to the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus passengers in the territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (PoK, Pakistan occupied Kashmir). "There is no security problem in Azad Kashmir because it is the most peaceful area in the region with a very low crime rate," claimed Foreign Office spokesperson, Jalil Abbas Jillani, in Islamabad.

April 6

Maulana Mohammed Amin Qadri, Sunni Tahrik leader and a Government schoolteacher, is shot dead by unidentified gunmen in the Pirabad area of Karachi.

April 7

The trans-Line of Control bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad commences without any incident and passengers from both sides arrive safely in the two capitals. While Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, flagged off the bus from Srinagar, Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Prime Minister of PoK, did the same in Muzaffarabad.

April 8

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammed among six groups re-listed by Australia as Terrorist Organisations.

April 9

Government agrees to withdraw security forces deployed between Dera Bugti and Sui in the Balochistan province.

April 10

Malik Muhammad Javed, an official of the Pakistani Embassy in Baghdad, is reported to have been abducted on April 9-night. A man claiming to be from a militant group called Omar bin Khattab called the Pakistani Embassy in Baghdad on April 10 and said it was holding the man, Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told reporters in Islamabad.

Security forces in Peshawar arrest four Iraqi nationals for their suspected links to the Al Qaeda.

April 13

Spanish authorities have reportedly charged 11 Pakistani nationals over suspected links with Al Qaeda operatives who carried out the Madrid train bombings in March 2004 which killed nearly 200 people. One of the eleven, Shahzad Ali Gujar, is suspected of having transferred funds to Al Qaeda cadres, including Amjad Farooki, whom Pakistani security forces killed during September 2004 and who was implicated in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

The Bugti tribesmen in Balochistan province end blockade of the Dera Bugti-Sui Road and leave their trenches set up after a clash with security forces on March 17.

April 14

President Pervez Musharraf says in an interview to Reuters that he was optimistic that the Kashmir issue could be resolved and described the peace process with India as 'fairly irreversible'.

One person is killed and three others sustain injuries when a landmine blew up a jeep at Mir Ali Bazaar in the Miramshah area of North Waziristan.

April 16

Arriving in New Delhi, President Pervez Musharraf states that India and Pakistan should now seize the "unique opportunity" to resolve Kashmir and all outstanding issues. In a statement after his arrival, Musharraf said "the composite dialogue process as well as people to people contact in the last 15 months have created a huge constituency of goodwill in both the countries and led to an improved political environment."

April 17

During their talks in New Delhi, Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, commit themselves to increasing the frequency of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and commencing the Munabao-Khokhrapar railway link by the end of December 2005. While the Prime Minister described the talks as "very positive, fruitful and forward-looking," Gen. Musharraf said progress had been made in the discussions during which all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, came up.

April 18

India and Pakistan while underlining that the peace process between the two countries was "now irreversible," agreed to open trade across the Line of Control (LoC) by allowing trucks between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, open the trans-LoC Poonch-Rawalakot route and take steps for the meeting of divided families along the LoC. Condemning the attempts to disrupt the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged in a joint statement that they "would not allow terrorism to impede the peace process."

April 19

According to Daily Times, the Government in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) has banned a monthly magazine ‘Shahadat’ run by the terrorist group Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM). Sources said it was for the first time that a terrorist publication had been proscribed by the PoK Government during the last 15 years.

April 20

Four power supply towers of 33-KV are blown up by suspected insurgents near Hun Lake in the Barkhan district of Balochistan province.

The Peshawar Corps Commander, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, describes as 'highly irresponsible' remarks by a US General that Pakistan was planning an army operation against terrorists in North Waziristan. "It is a figment of his imagination. No operation is being launched in North Waziristan. This is highly irresponsible on his part. This is unwarranted and I condemn it," Hussain told reporters.

April 21

The second trans-LoC Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service concludes without incident. While 38 passengers from Srinagar traveled to the other side of the LoC, the number of passengers coming from Muzaffarabad, capital of the PoK was 28, including 11 new passengers.

April 23

Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and is hiding somewhere in the inaccessible Pakistan-Afghan tribal belt, says President Pervez Musharraf. "Osama is alive and I am cent per cent sure that he is hiding in the Pakistani-Afghan tribal belt," Gen. Musharraf said in an interview to the CNN.A tribesman is killed and two others sustain injuries during a bomb blast at Kaniguram village in South Waziristan.

April 24

An official of the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad, Malik Mohammad Javed, who went missing on April 9, is reportedly released by the abductors unharmed.

April 25

The United Jehad Council (UJC), an umbrella organisation of all Pakistan-based Jehadi groups, says that militant organisations will not give up their weapons till J&K is freed from Indian rule. UJC Chairman Syed Salahuddin told Daily Times on April 24 that people suggesting times had changed and the role of the gun in liberation movements after 9/11 had ended were living in a "fools’ paradise".

April 27

A Frontier Corps personnel dies during a landmine explosion in the Kahan area of Balochistan.

American instructors have been training Pakistan army commandos and helicopter pilots in night-vision flying and airborne assault tactics against the Al Qaeda operatives in North Waziristan, according to Lt. Gen. David Barno, the US commander in Afghanistan.

April 28

Two suspected terrorists blown themselves up while planting a bomb in the in the Baidara village of Swat Valley in North West Frontier Province.

The Government deports two Tanzanian nationals, identified as Moso Muhammad and Taha Yalfan, arrested more than two years ago on suspicion of having links with the Al Qaeda.

Several religious groups at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) sign a peace agreement to stop feuding with each other.

April 30

Unidentified gunmen kill a tribesman, identified as Bismillah Wazir at a bus stand in the Miranshah Bazaar area of North Waziristan, suspecting him of spying on militants.

May 1

A portion of the main railway track linking the provincial capital Quetta with the rest of the country is blown up near the Domboli area of Nasirabad district in Balochistan province.

May 2

The Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan adopts, with certain amendments, the Mushahid Hussain sub-committee report comprising eight recommendations, including payment of gas royalty within a fixed period and a financial package for the development of Sui, Gwadar and Quetta.The Government announces results of a countrywide Afghan census and disclosed that there were 3,047,225 Afghans living in Pakistan, including refugees and residents.

May 3

One person is killed and four others sustain injuries during an explosion in the border town of Chaman in Balochistan province.

Islamist terrorists in the Miranshah town of North Waziristan have reportedly ordered hotels and music shops to stop showing television and selling movies or face dire consequences. In a leaflet distributed overnight in Miranshah town and signed "from Al Qaeda group and Taliban group", the terrorists gave businesses five days to stop showing movies and television, according to Reuters.

May 4

Security forces have arrested top Al Qaeda terrorist, Abu Faraj Al Libbi, who was allegedly behind two assassination attempts against President Pervez Musharraf in 2003, says Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao in Islamabad.

A leader from the defunct Sunni group Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), Tariq Javed, is arrested in New York.

May 5

Authorities ban the display of weapons in North Waziristan while forming two committees to buy heavy weapons from the tribesmen.

May 7

Four tribesmen are killed and one was injured when a rocket they were trying to dismantle exploded in Wana, South Waziristan.T

he LeT is banned by the United Nations (UN) for its links with the Al Qaeda. The organisation, along with its front outfits, has been banned under UN Resolution 1267 under which all states are obliged to freeze the assets, prevent their entry into or transit through their territories. The LeT, according to Press Trust of India, was put on the list on May 2 with all its aliases, including Al-Mansooran, Pasban-e-Ahle-Hadit, Pasban-e-Ablehadis, Army of Pure, the Army of Pure and Righteous.

Two people are killed when a bomb exploded in their car in the Mirali sub-division of North Waziristan.

May 9

Five terrorists of the Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) are arrested from Karachi for their alleged involvement in 15 sectarian killings. "The suspects have confessed their involvement in the killing of six employees of the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission in October 2003," an unnamed police official was quoted as saying in Dawn.The United Nations names Dawood Ibrahim, underworld don and the alleged mastermind behind the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai, in the wanted list of individuals having links with the Al Qaeda.

May 16

While there is no official confirmation, some American news reports claim that Al Qaeda leader Haitham al-Yemeni was killed last week by a missile fired from an unmanned Central Intelligence Agency-operated drone in Toorikhel, a suburb of Mirali in North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.The Government announces that it will close Afghan refugee camps in North Waziristan on June 15, offering Afghan residents the choice of voluntary repatriation or relocation.

May 17

One person is killed and two schools are damaged during two separate bomb blasts in Bajaur Agency near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.A group of 58 religious scholars belonging to all schools of thought issue, in Lahore, an edict (fatwa) against suicide attacks. However, they said that the fatwa was applicable only in Pakistan.

May 19

Two police personnel are killed during an attack on their vehicle in the Bagh area of Bolan district in Balochistan.

May 20

Addressing the concluding session of a conference on Evolving South Asian Fraternity organised by the South Asian Free Media Association in Islamabad, Gen. Musharraf said there were three statements (on the Kashmir issue): the boundaries could not be redrawn; the Line of Control could not be made a permanent border; and the boundaries should be made irrelevant. "All these are conflicting statements. The solution lies in a compromise on the three," he said when asked about a possible Kashmir solution. "I think the solution lies in the third – that boundaries should be irrelevant."

May 21

Five tribesmen are killed during an attack by US helicopters in the Lawara Mandai area of North Waziristan.

May 23

Security forces in Peshawar arrest two Arabs for their alleged links with the Al Qaeda from the Charsadda area.

Pakistan formally invites the entire leadership of the secessionist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to visit the country and hoped there would be no restriction from India.

May 24

During an interview to Daily Times, President Pervez Musharraf says he would prefer some kind of "international guarantees" for the implementation of any pact reached with India on the Kashmir issue.

May 25

Six members of a family are killed and three others sustain injuries during a bomb explosion at their residence in the Bandkhel village of South Waziristan.

The United States will continue to support the ongoing India-Pakistan peace process to ensure it moves forward, said the visiting Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, Christina Rocca, during her meeting with Foreign Secretary, Riaz Mohammad Khan, in Islamabad.

May 27

At least 25 people, including a suspected suicide bomber, are killed and approximately 100 others sustain injuries during a powerful explosion at the Bari Imam shrine of the Shia sect located in vicinity of the diplomatic enclave in capital Islamabad.

May 29

Former federal minister and Senator, Malik Faridullah Khan Wazir, is assassinated along with two other tribal elders by four suspected terrorists in the Jandola area of South Waziristan.

May 30

Six people, including two of the three assailants, among them a suicide bomber, are killed and 19 persons sustain injuries during an explosion in the courtyard of a Shia mosque at Gulshan-e-Iqbal in Karachi.

May 31

Four employees of a US fast-food franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken are burnt alive and two others froze to death in the outlet’s refrigeration unit in Karachi during a riot that followed a suicide attack on a Shia mosque in Karachi.

Five women die and six persons, including two children, sustain injuries during a land mine blast in the Chamalung area of Loralai district in Balochistan province.Suspected Al Qaeda-linked terrorists shot dead two tribesmen in the Mir Ali tribal area near the Afghanistan border for allegedly spying for the United States.

An activist of the Sunni Tehrik is killed and three others are wounded during a sectarian clash between Sunnis and Shias in Karachi.

June 1

According to an Associated Press report, three suspected terrorists shot dead a tribal leader, identified as Malik Sahkhi Marjan, at Alwara Mandi in North Waziristan.

June 2

Leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) from Jammu and Kashmir arrive in Muzaffarabad, capital of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

One Frontier Corps personnel is killed and another sustains injuries during an attack by suspected Baloch insurgents in the Mangochar area of Kalat district in Balochistan province.

June 3

One person is killed and ten others, including two children, are wounded in an explosion at Aiman Abad, some 15 kilometers from Gujranwala in the Punjab province.Leaders of the Hurriyat Conference address the PoK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad.

June 7

President Musharraf met the APHC leaders at the Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad and reportedly stated that a permanent settlement of the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute is only possible if it takes into account wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

June 9

Police have arrested two sisters, Arifa and Habiba, said to be aged between 18 and 20, from a hideout in Swat early this week for allegedly plotting sectarian suicide attacks, a security official stated.

Investigators said they were trained by their uncle, a senior member of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, who was sentenced to death last week for killing 45 people in two suicide attacks in Karachi in 2004.

June 13

The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman, Yasin Malik, discloses in Islamabad that the Pakistani Information Minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, had in the past set up a militant camp near Rawalpindi where around 3,500 Jihadis were trained in guerrilla warfare.

June 16

A Pakistani and two Frenchmen are given three-to-five-year prison sentences by a Paris court which found them guilty of aiding convicted "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid, who attempted to blow up a Paris-Miami flight on December 22, 2001 in the United States.

June 19

The United States Ambassador to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, suggests that Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar has been hiding in Pakistan and criticised Islamabad’s failure to act against Taliban leaders. In an interview with Aina Television, Khalilzad said that a Pakistani TV channel had interviewed a senior Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, at a time when Pakistani officials claimed they did not know the whereabouts of Taliban leaders.

June 20

According to Daily Times, Afghan intelligence officials have foiled a plot to assassinate the former US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and arrested three Pakistanis armed with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles.Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao rejects a claim of Zalmay Khalilzad that Mullah Omar and some other Taliban leaders were in Pakistan. "If Mr. Khalilzad had information that top Taliban leaders were hiding in Pakistan then why did he not share it with the Pakistan government at that time," the minister said in Islamabad.

June 21

The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen rejects calls for a cease-fire in the Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir and instead told militants to prepare for Jehad. Syed Salahuddin, ‘supreme commander’ of the Hizb, also dismissed the ongoing peace process between India and Pakistan as "a waste of time".

June 23

Four people are killed when unidentified assailants ambushed a truck near Sararogha in South Waziristan.

Mufti Atiqur Rahman, a cleric at the Jamia Binoria Mosque and Madrassa at SITE Town in Karachi, is shot dead and his son and a man accompanying them were wounded in an attack near the Sindh Secretariat.Interior Minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, says that the Al Qaeda had established a strong nexus with outlawed extremist groups in Pakistan. "There is a nexus of Al Qaeda and extremist elements in Pakistan. Whenever they feel hurt, they react.

But it will not decrease our resolve against terrorism," he told Daily Times in an interview.

June 24

India rejects the Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed's application to travel by the Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus.Maulana Irshadul Haq, who was wounded during an attack in which a leading cleric of the Binoria Mosque and Madrassa Mufti Atiqur Rehman was killed, died on June 24.

The PoK Prime Minister, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, questions the representative character of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference saying it did not cover all regions of Jammu and Kashmir.

June 26

Suspected Al Qaeda-linked militants issue death threats to 28 tribal elders, prayer leaders and social workers accused of spying for the Government. Photocopies of a note handwritten in Pashtu were reportedly circulated at Mir Ali village in North Waziristan.

June 27

Electronic items worth millions of rupees are destroyed when a time-bomb explodes at an electronics market in the Miranshah Bazaar of North Waziristan. However, no loss of life or injuries was reported.

June 29

Five Pakistanis suspected of planning terrorist attacks in the south of Afghanistan are arrested while traveling by bus to the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

July 5

Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iraq, Yunus Khan, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt in Baghdad when assailants in two cars fired at his vehicle a kilometer away from his residence in the capital’s central Mansur district.

July 6

Six terrorists, including a foreigner, are arrested after an armed clash in which one soldier dies and four others sustain injuries in the Meeradeen area of North Waziristan.The troops arrest two Afghan women, identified as Lal Mina and Bibi Hawa, at the Torkhum border post and recover eight Kalashnikovs from their possession.

July 9

Unidentified men abduct and later shot dead Maulana Shamsuddin, a cleric in the Orangi Town area of Karachi.

July 10

Jihadi groups have reportedly decided to launch operations against the Government for its pro–US stance. Sources told Daily Times that intelligence reports given to the Interior Ministry said cadres of defunct Jihadi groups, including the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen al-Alami (HuMA), Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islami (HuJI), Harkat-ul-Ansar (HuA), Khuddam-ul-Islam, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan were planning to target American, British and Iranian diplomats and other foreign dignitaries in Pakistan.

July 11

Terrorist training camps in Pakistan have reportedly resumed functioning after a year-long hiatus and the old and new recruits are flocking to them notwithstanding the official ban, according to the Karachi-based Herald. Citing an example of the camps being reopened, the magazine in its cover story, said one of Pakistan’s oldest training camps at Mansehra in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) is bustling with activity after a year-long closure, as old and new cadres converged on it to resume their training.

July 12

The British Police says that at least three of the bombers who carried out the July 7 terrorist attacks in London are believed to be British males of Pakistani origin who lived in West Yorkshire in Leeds.

July 13

Three children are reported to have died and three persons sustained injuries when a bomb exploded in a house in the Jhal Magsi area of Balochistan province.

July 14

US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan kill at least 24 terrorists and destroy two vehicles in a missile attack in the Lawara Mandi area of North Waziristan.

July 15

According to The News, Shahzad Tanweer, who bombed an underground subway train at Aldgate in London, had gone to a Madrassa in December 2004 to become a Hafiz (someone who has memorized the Holy Koran).Declaring Pakistan's firm commitment to combating extremism and terrorism, President Musharraf directs the law-enforcement agencies to launch a countrywide drive against collection of donations, display of arms, holding of gatherings by banned outfits and remove all hate material from markets by December 2005. Speaking to Pakistan's top police officers in Rawalpindi, Gen. Musharraf claimed that the Government would not tolerate extremism and will continue to combat terrorism with unflinching determination and force.

July 16

Eighteen people are killed and four persons sustain injuries at Waziri Kot near Miranshah in North Waziristan in an incident in which troops targeted a vehicle moving in a dry stream. The Inter-Services Public Relations confirmed in a press release that some women and young people were among the dead.

July 17

A cleric, Maulana Abdullah Ahmed Madni, is killed and his father, Mufti Muhammad Ahmed Madni, sustained injuries when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in the Buffer Zone area of Karachi.

July 18

In a suspected sectarian incident, two unidentified assailants shot dead the owner of a school, Syed Tahir Reza Rizvi, and injured his wife in Quetta.

A key aide of the Taliban chief Mullah Muhammad Omar and four other Taliban cadres are arrested from Akora Khattak in the NWFP.In a suspected sectarian incident, unidentified assailants attacked a Rawalpindi-bound passenger bus coming from Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir near Chilas Farm on the Karakoram Highway, killing five persons and injuring 15 others.

The Information and Media Development Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad claims in Rawalpindi that no Pakistani was involved in the July 5-bomb blasts in London.

July 19

Security agencies are reported to have arrested at least 120 clerics and students of Madrassas during a country-wide crackdown.The Election Commission says that members and activists of militant organisations will not be eligible to contest the forthcoming local council elections.

July 20

On the second day of a country-wide crackdown, security agencies arrested more than 200 suspected Islamist extremists, including a British Muslim believed to be wanted in connection with the London bombings.

In the continuing sectarian violence at Gilgit, unidentified gunmen shot dead three more people in separate incidents.

July 21

President Musharraf says that Pakistan supported the UK in the fight against terrorism and announced that a special cell would ensure registration of Madrassas in the country by December 2005. Addressing the nation, he said the UK and Pakistan needed to take 'serious measures' urgently to eradicate the menace of terrorism rather than blaming each other for London bombings. Gen Musharraf declared that no banned outfit would be allowed to operate in the country under any name and strict action would be taken against violators. He said that possession and display of unauthorized arms was strictly prohibited. He warned that strict action would be taken against those involved in printing, publication and distribution of hate material, including newspapers, magazines, handbills and pamphlets, and audio and video material.

At least two members of a Tablighi Jamaat (fraternity of traveling Muslim preachers), Salahuddin and Muhammad Rahman, are killed and four persons sustain injuries when some unidentified people hurled a hand grenade at them in a mosque in the Khapyanga village of Kurram Agency in the NWFP.

July 22

Unidentified gunmen assassinate nine tribesmen, including two leading pro-government tribal elders, in different parts of South Waziristan.

Countrywide protests are observed in response to the call of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal against raids on offices of religious parties and Madrassas and arrest of religious scholars and students.

President Musharraf says in Islamabad that Osama bin Laden is probably still alive but, added, 'if he were in Pakistan, agents from other countries would not be allowed to capture him'.

July 24

A suspected terrorist is killed and four persons, including a woman, are wounded in a bomb explosion at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

July 26

One of the accused in the Daniel Pearl murder case, Syed Mohammad Hashim, carrying a head-money of Rupees one million announced by the Sindh Government, is arrested from Chand ka Qila bypass when he was on board a wagon.

July 27

Tribal militant leader Baitullah Mehsud announces in South Waziristan that they would pursue Government targets afresh after accusing the military authorities of not abiding to a peace agreement.

July 28

All Madrassas that fail to register by December 2005 will be shut down, said Lt Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi, the Education Minister.

A suspected terrorist is killed and three others, including a foreigner, are arrested after troops raided a house near a Madrassa at Miranshah in North Waziristan.

July 29

President Musharraf said in Rawalpindi that all the estimated 1,400 foreign nationals studying in the country's Madrassas would have to leave the institutions. "All foreigners are to be removed from Pakistan's more than 10,000 religious schools," Gen Musharraf said, adding that and no new visas would be issued to non-Pakistanis wishing to study in a Madrassa.

August 1

President Pervez Musharraf has said that Britain is regarded as a safe haven by Islamist extremists because it has failed to crack down on them despite urging other countries to do so, according to The Sunday Times.

MMA leader and Leader of the Opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, is detained and deported from the United Arab Emirates for being allegedly blacklisted and a suspect extremist element.

August 4

Five security force personnel, including an Army officer, are reported to have died and two SF personnel sustained injuries in a bomb blast in the Ghalnamai area of North Waziristan.

The Supreme Court rules that several clauses of the Hisba Bill relating to the powers of an ombudsman, who is to be appointed under the law, contrary to the Constitution. The court advised the North West Frontier Province Governor not to assent to the law which was passed by the provincial Assembly on July 14, 2005, by a 68-43 vote.

August 5

A Maryland resident, Mahmud Faruq Brent alias Mahmud Al Mutazzim, was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, and charged with conspiring to aid terrorism by training to become a Jihadi fighter in camps in Pakistan, said a report in New York Times.

August 7

The Federal Interior Minister, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao, said that 1,405 foreign students of 56 different countries studying in the Madrassas of Pakistan would be deported to their countries of origin shortly.

Two police constables, Munawar Ali Shaikh and Ghulam Muhammad Kharal, are killed when armed men opened fire on a Sui Gas police picket near Pir Goth in the Larkana area of Balochistan province.

August 8

One person was killed and another went missing in suspected sectarian violence at Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

August 10

Four persons are reported to have died when the vehicle of a tribal elder supporting the ongoing military operations against terrorists hit a landmine in the Taza Ghondai area of South Waziristan.Two persons were killed and a girl sustained injuries during a bomb explosion in the Paharpur area of Dera Ismail Khan district in NWFP.

August 12

At least two children of a family are killed and two others sustain injuries when a landmine exploded in the Batai Uthman Khel area of Bajour in NWFP.

August 16

President Pervez Musharraf promulgates an ordinance amending the Societies Registration Act, 1860, requiring the 11,882 seminaries in the country to get registered with the Government.

August 17

The Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao confirms the arrest of a senior Taliban leader Muhammad Yasir.

August 20

A soldier, Islamuddin Sheikh aka Abdus Salam Saddiqi, accused of plotting to kill President Pervez Musharraf is executed inside the New Central Jail in Multan.

August 22

Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yusuf escapes unhurt after seven rockets were fired at the camp of Frontier Constabulary near Kohlu.

August 24

In an interview to the Japanese news agency Kyodo, President Pervez Musharraf confirmed that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan provided centrifuge machines and their designs to North Korea, but said these transfers did not help North Korea acquire a nuclear weapons capability.

August 26

Five people have been sentenced to death for their involvement in a 2003 attempt to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf in which 18 persons were killed. Military spokesperson, Major-General Shaukat Sultan said in Islamabad that a low-ranking member of the military and four civilians were given the sentence a few days ago, but would not say which court heard the case. The soldier was named as Naik Arshad Mahmood and the civilians were identified as Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Akhlas Ahmed.

August 27

Two soldiers are killed and another sustained injuries when an army truck was blown up in the Shawal area of North Waziristan.

August 30

The Tanzimul Madaris Ahle Sunnat (Barelvi school), one of the apex bodies of Madrassas (seminaries), rejects registration of seminaries under the amended law and said it would not cooperate in the process unless their reservations about changes made in the law were removed.

August 31

One person is killed and two others sustained injuries during a bomb blast in the Mastung district of Balochistan province.

September 2

A pro-government tribal elder, identified as Mehboob, is shot dead by armed assailants at Spinkai Raghzai Bazaar in the Laddha area of South Waziristan.Two Frontier Constabulary personnel are killed by unidentified assailants in the lower Nalter Valley, 40 kilometers from Gilgit.

September 5

Three officials of the political administration are shot dead and one Khasadar (personnel of the Levy force) and two other persons are wounded in the Miranshah town of North Waziristan.Armed men kill one person and injured two others in the Gilgit town of Northern Areas.

September 8

Two persons are killed and another sustained injuries during sectarian violence in the Gilgit city of Northern Areas. Mufti Mohammad Sabir, a terrorist affiliated to the HuJI, is arrested for allegedly planting explosives in a car that was used for the May 8, 2002-suicide attack which killed nine French naval technicians and five Pakistanis outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.

September 9

A woman bystander is killed and her son sustained injuries in a firing incident involving a vehicle that refused to stop at a military checkpoint in North Waziristan.

September 13

Terrorists are reported to have killed three people accused of being spies for the United States by slitting their throats. Their bodies were found on September 12 in a drain in the town of Tappi, 16 kilometers east of Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan.

September 14

In a sectarian incident, unidentified assailants shot dead a Shia man, Ejazul Hasan, in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

Addressing the 60^th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Pervez Musharraf said that Pakistan was pursuing a composite dialogue with India in the spirit of conflict resolution. "We want the dialogue process to be result-oriented and initiate a new era of peace and cooperation in South Asia… Our nations must not remain trapped, by hate and history, in a cycle of confrontation and conflict," the president told the annual conference.

Seven Al-Qaeda militants of Afghan origin are arrested and a huge cache of weapons is recovered from the "biggest Al Qaeda base in North Waziristan" at Miranshah. Peshawar Corps Commander Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain said in Peshawar that the base located inside a Madrassa.

September 18

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a 50-year-old schoolteacher, identified as Taj Ali, at Wana in South Waziristan.

A military court has reportedly imprisoned three military officers and ordered the dismissal of three others for having links with the Al Qaeda. Col. Khalid Abbasi, Major Adil Qudoos, Col. Abdul Ghaffar, Major Attaullah, Capt Dr Usman Zafar and Major Rohail Faraz were tried by a military court in Panu Aqil Cantonment in August 2005 after they were arrested and then interrogated at Attock Fort. The military court sentenced Major Qudoos to 10 years in prison, Col. Khalid Abbasi to six months and Col. Abdul Ghaffar to three years. Major Attaullah, Major Faraz and Capt Zafar were dismissed.

September 20

A soldier and a tribal elder are killed and eight people sustain injuries in two separate bomb blasts in the remote Shakai valley in South Waziristan.

September 21

Presenting its interim report in the Senate, the Parliamentary Committee on Balochistan said the Frontier Constabulary and Coast Guard should be withdrawn from interior Balochistan, and proposed a number of other measures to improve the economic and social conditions of the province.

September 22

Six persons are killed and over 36 persons sustain injuries in two separate bomb blasts in Lahore. The first bomb, a home-made time-device strapped to a bicycle, detonated about 10.40 am (PST) outside the public toilets located near Minar-e-Pakistan in the precincts of Lorry Adda police station. A vendor, Ghulam Yasin, died and 15 persons sustained injuries. Within an hour, another 'cycle bomb' exploded near a cigarette shop along the Ferozepur Road in Ichhra police limits, killing four people on the spot. Another injured person succumbed to his injuries later.

September 23

Two passengers are killed and two more sustain injuries when unidentified gunmen opened fire at a van in Gilgit in the Northern Areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Representatives of Madrassas in a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz announced to register their institutions with the Government by December 31. Speaking on behalf of the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris-Deenia, a confederacy of seminaries, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman said the matter has been amicably settled and there would be no problem in the registration.

September 25

The "safest place" for Osama bin Laden to seek sanctuary is the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border, President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview with Time magazine. Gen. Musharraf said Pakistani authorities a year ago "had some identification of a rough area where he was, through technical means, but then we lost him… That is how intelligence works. You can get to a person immediately, or you can just lose him immediately." "I think the safest place would be on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, because this line we are not including in each others areas, so therefore you can easily switch sides," added the President.

September 26

The Frontier Corps seize six US-made Stinger missiles and a large cache of arms and ammunition dumped in a compound in the Mohammad Gath area of Mohmand Agency in North West Frontier Province.

September 29

Security forces are reported to have arrested Asif Choto, chief of the banned Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), near Islamabad over the weekend. Choto, a ‘most wanted terrorist’, carried a head money of Rupees 25 million.

At least 40 terrorists and five soldiers were reportedly killed in clashes between troops and the former in the Khatey Kali area of North Waziristan. The clashes erupted after troops laid a siege to houses in the area after receiving information about the presence of foreign terrorists in the area.

Unidentified gunmen ambush a police vehicle in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, killing four police personnel and a civilian.

September 30

Federal Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao discloses the deaths of 11 soldiers during two days of fighting in North Waziristan even as helicopter gun-ships continued to bomb villages to flush out terrorists who have been offering stiff resistance to the troops.

October 2

Three soldiers are reported to have died and six others sustain injuries in separate rocket attacks on military posts in North Waziristan.

October 3

Security forces are reported to have killed six terrorists in an encounter that ensued after a group of at least 30 terrorists attacked a military post at Zara Mela in North Waziristan.

Supply of gas from Sui Southern Gas Company to five districts of Balochistan province, including capital Quetta, was disrupted when suspected Baloch insurgents blew up a portion of the main pipeline near Kolpur.

October 4

At least six people, including three Pakistanis and a woman, are reported to have died and 14 others wounded in a powerful bomb blast at Spin Buldak on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

October 6

Three members of a family are killed and two others sustain injuries in an exchange of rocket fire between tribal militants and security forces in the Datakhel area of North Waziristan.

October 7

Eight persons are killed and 19 others were injured when unidentified assailants opened fire in an Ahmadiyya place of worship at Mong village near Mandi Bahauddin in the Punjab province.

October 9

Three soldiers are killed when a military vehicle ran over a landmine near Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan.

October 13

Four civilians, including two women, and two personnel of the Rangers are killed and 25 persons were wounded in incidents of sectarian violence in the Gilgit town of Northern Areas.

The death toll in the October 13 violence in Gilgit increases to 12 after six more bodies, including that of a woman, were found in different areas of the city.

Six suspected Uzbek terrorists are killed and two others are arrested in the Laddha sub-division of South Waziristan.

The office of Intersas, an Italian non-governmental organisation in the Bajaur Agency of NWFP, is damaged in a bomb blast.

October 18

Two tribal women are killed in a missile attack in the Siddiqabad locality of Bajaur Agency in NWFP.

Addressing a press conference in Muzaffarabad, the earthquake-hit capital of PoK, President Pervez Musharraf stated that the Government would allow Kashmiris from across the Line of Control to help in relief work. "We have decided this to enable the people to have linkages with their brethren across the LoC," he disclosed.

October 19

A pro-government tribal chief, Malik Mashad Khan, who had been abducted by suspected militants from Wana in South Waziristan a day earlier, was reportedly found dead.

October 20

President Pervez Musharraf says that banned religious groups will not be allowed to conduct relief efforts in the earthquake-affected areas of Pakistan. In an interview with CNN, Gen. Musharraf stated that he had ensured that organisations working in the earthquake-hit areas were not ones outlawed by the Government.

October 23

Unidentified terrorists are reported to have shot at three off-duty Pakistani soldiers at Mir Ali in North Waziristan killing one of them and injuring the others.

October 24

A soldier is killed and 11 others sustain injuries when a bomb blast hit their truck near Laddah fort, 40 kilometers northeast of South Waziristan’s main town of Wana.

October 26

A Shia teacher, Murid Abbas, is killed on his way to school in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

President Pervez Musharraf acknowledges that extremist religious groups had stepped into an administrative vacuum, providing relief and humanitarian assistance in the earthquake-affected areas of Pakistan, but said the Government must outdo them. Gen. Musharraf told Financial Times that Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Al-Rashid Trust (ART), organisations that are not officially outlawed but are on a watch list, were doing good and he would make sure they did not "draw people towards extremism or militancy."

October 27

A soldier is reported to have died and 11 others sustained injuries after a bomb blast targeted a military vehicle near Kot Langarkhel village in South Waziristan.

October 29

Pakistan and India agree to open foot crossings at five points across the Line of Control from November 7 to facilitate earthquake relief operations. A joint press statement issued at the end of the talks in Islamabad announced that the five crossing points across the LoC are: Nauseri-Tithwal; Chakoti-Uri; Hajipur-Uri; Rawalakot-Poonch and Tattapani-Mendhar.

October 31

President Pervez Musharraf offers full co-operation to India in investigating the October 29-terrorist attacks in New Delhi and said Pakistan was willing to go as far as conducting joint investigations. The president made this offer first at his Press Conference in Islamabad and later during his 10-minute telephonic conversation with the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

November 1

The US military said that one of its Chinook helicopters delivering aid to earthquake victims was believed to have come under fire in PoK. "A United States Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter flying in the vicinity of Chakothi delivering relief aid to earthquake victims is believed to have been fired upon by a rocket-propelled grenade today around 1:45 pm", the US military said in a statement issued by the embassy in Islamabad.

A bomb exploded at village Nigahi in the Jhang district of Punjab province, killing 11-year-old Mujahid Hussain and injuring two women and a man.

SFs have killed a foreign Al Qaeda suspect and arrested another in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province. Security agencies are reportedly trying to establish if one of the men is a wanted Syrian national, Mustafa Setmariam Nasar alias Abu Musab Al Suri, who has a bounty of $5 million. Nasar is an Al Qaeda trainer at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and an expert in using poisons and chemicals. He is allegedly also linked to the Madrid and London bombings.

November 3

Intelligence agencies have warned the Government that banned Jihadi outfits are planning to make another assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf. According to intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) and Jamiat-ul-Furqan (formerly Jaish-e-Mohammed) are trying to "cultivate" a relative of the president who is not on good terms with him or against his policies. The report says if this scheme fails, the terrorist groups, which have so far been unable to penetrate the tight security around Gen Musharraf, could target close relatives or friends of the president.

November 5

Six foreign Al Qaeda suspects, including a woman, are killed when a bomb they were making exploded near Miranshah in North Waziristan.

November 7

Three suspected terrorists are killed when a bomb exploded in a house in the Malikabad area of Turbat district in Balochistan province.

November 8

A senior Taliban ‘commander’ and former governor of Afghanistan’s three Northern provinces, Mullah Abdul Manan Hanafi, and his aide are killed in the outskirts of Peshawar. Hanafi served as Governor of the Badghis, Samangan and Sara-i-Pul provinces during the Taliban rule.

The Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani promulgates the Societies Registration (Balochistan Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2005 in the province with immediate effect. Under the Ordinance, all Madrassas (seminaries) shall not operate without getting themselves registered. All seminaries, according to the Ordinance, shall submit an annual report of its educational activities to the Registrar. Every Madrassa is to carry out an audit of its accounts and submit a copy of its report to the Registrar. Under the law, no seminary shall teach or make public any literature, which promotes militancy or spreads sectarianism or religious hatred.

November 10

At least six people are killed and six others sustain injuries in a landmine explosion in Brabcha village of Balochistan province, which lies close to Afghanistan’s Hilmand province.

November 11

Allah Khan alias Allahgai, who was an active member of the pro-government Amn (Peace) Committee that backed military operations last year against tribal and foreign militants in Wana, is shot dead in his village, Oucha Khwara, near Kaloosha in the Azam Warsak area in South Waziristan. Khan was the 74^th pro-government tribal elder to be killed in South Waziristan.

November 12

The head of Afghanistan’s reconciliation commission, Sibghatullah Mojaddadi, has reportedly accused forces in Pakistan of propping up an insurgency being waged in the name of loyalists of the Taliban regime ousted four years ago.

November 14

Pakistan continues to be a sanctuary and training ground for terrorists, a report on the status of recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission on terrorist attacks in the US has said, asking Washington to put pressure on Islamabad to counter terrorism.

November 15

At least three people are killed and 20 others, including two South African women, sustain injuries in a powerful car bomb explosion in front of the KFC restaurant in Karachi. The bomb was planted in a car parked outside the PIDC House. Chakar Azam, a spokesperson for the Balochistan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Many vehicles are damaged when a rocket hit the camp site of a Chinese construction company in the Tallar area of Gwadar district in Balochistan. The Chinese company is constructing a road to link Gwadar with the Turbat area of Makran.

November 16

The Karachi police have arrested six suspects, including one police personnel, identified as Muhammad Usman, a low-cadre official posted in the Anti-Car Lifting Cell in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, and the alleged mastermind of the bombing after establishing links of the blast to the BLA in Balochistan.

November 18

An anti-terrorism court in Karachi indicts five activists of the outlawed Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi for killing a police constable and an under trial prisoner during an attack on a prisoners’ van.

November 21

Five soldiers of the Frontier Corps are wounded when a bomb planted near a petrol pump explodes in the Mirali Bazaar of North Waziristan.

November 22

The Frontier Corps seizes 26 rocket launchers, 15 Kalashnikovs, six rifles and 158 mortar bombs, two land mines, 116 detonators, 56 grenades, 27 rocket shells, one pistol and over 30,000 rounds of different calibre from the Mungochar area of Kalat district in Balochistan province.

November 27

Leaders of the 53-nation Commonwealth warn President Pervez Musharraf that retaining his role as leader of the Army "is incompatible with the basic principles of democracy".

Pakistan denies the Indian National Security Adviser’s allegations, implicating Pakistan in the killing of an Indian driver in Afghanistan on Novemberember 23 and said Pakistan was opposed to any act of terrorism.

November 28

An Anti-Terrorist Court in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province, sentences five people to death for killing five army personnel and another man near Khuzdar on August 1, 2004.

Tribal clerics hand over 35 suspected militants to the political authorities in North Waziristan after signing a peace agreement in Miranshah. The suspects are wanted in connection with militant activities in and around North Waziristan. Under the agreement, the tribal group has promised not to harbour foreign militants and agreed to take action against those involved in anti-state activities.

November 30

Three foreign terrorists of Middle Eastern origin are among five people killed when a fortified house came under a missile attack at Asoray village in the Mirali sub-division of North Waziristan.

The European Union has added Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), the Pakistan-based outfit, to its list of terrorist organisations.

December 1

Al Qaeda ‘operational commander’ Hamza Rabia, believed to be of Syrian origin, is among the five persons killed in the missile attack on a mud-house in Asoray village, to the east of North Waziristan’s regional headquarters, Miranshah.

President Pervez Musharraf promulgates the Societies Registration (second amendment) Ordinance-2005 making it mandatory for every Madrassa (religious seminary) in the federal capital Islamabad to carry out audit of its accounts, prepare annual educational activity report. It also prohibits seminaries from promoting militancy, sectarianism and religious hatred, a document issued by the law ministry said.

Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a Shia cleric, Allama Badar-ud-Din, as he left his home to go to a mosque in Dera Murad Jamali, some 240 kilometers south of Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

An unidentified terrorist is killed and another arrested after they shot dead an Army soldier in the Shakai area of South Waziristan.

Two gunmen open fire inside a bakery in Karachi killing a Sunni cleric, identified as Qari Habibur Rehman, before escaping on a motorcycle.

Intelligence agencies have uncovered a plot by two banned Sunni groups, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), to kill Shia members of the Legislative Council of the Northern Areas.

Four Frontier Corps personnel, Umar Khattak, Akhtar Zaman Bhittani, Shahzad Mahsud and Mahtab Mahsud, are abducted from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan.

A total of around 8,200 Madrassas are now registered with the Government, including approximately 2,200 Madrassas (seminaries) registered from August to November 2005. President Pervez Musharraf had announced following the London bombings of July 7 that all seminaries in Pakistan would have to register with the Government by December 31, 2005.

Security agencies have secured information that activists of the Jamaat-ul-Furqan (JuF), a local collaborator of the Al Qaeda, can target foreign teams, especially the Americans and the British, when they start returning back to their countries after undertaking necessary relief work in areas affected by the recent earthquake.

Seminaries are illegally running more than 90 FM radio stations to broadcast their teachings in various districts of the NWFP. The channels have not been allocated frequencies by the Frequency Allocation Board but they are using frequencies allocated for security agencies to circumvent the issue.

At least 17 persons, four Taliban cadres and 13 bandits, are killed and four others are injured in clashes involving local Taliban cadre and bandits in North Waziristan.

Meanwhile, a bomb blast on December 6-night caused slight damage to a private school in Karikot near Wana.

The Lahore Police arrests five suspected terrorists belonging to the BLA for carrying out bomb blasts in Punjab and Karachi.

The Government detects existence of five to six camps, known as Ferari camps, in the Balochistan province where people are being trained to carry out terrorist activities. During the past year, 261 bomb blasts occurred in Balochistan and 167 rockets were fired, says a report.

At least 12 people are killed and 50 others sustain injuries in a powerful bomb explosion at Jandola Bazaar in the Tank tribal area of South Waziristan.

In Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, locals discover and subsequently handed over to the authorities bodies of two FC personnel, identified as Omar Ali Khattak and Akhtar Zaman Bhittani, who along with two other soldiers were abducted from the Wana Bazaar on December 7.

The death toll in the December 7 clashes between Taliban cadres and bandits rises to 21 as militants continued to target members of a group that locals said was involved in extortion.

Taliban cadres kill two Afghan refugees, members of the so-called Hakim group that had reportedly attacked the Taliban on December 6-7, allegedly extortionists, and hung their decapitated bodies upside down on pylons in North Waziristan.

Police seizes an anti-aircraft gun along with 350 rounds and arrested a man, identified as Ghousuddin, from a house near the airport in Quetta, capital of Balochistan province.

The Government and the Ittehad Tanzeematul Madaris Deeniya, an alliance of five education boards that control around 14,000 seminaries, have reached an agreement that allows foreign students studying in Pakistani Madrassas to stay till they complete their studies.

The Jamhoori Watan Party chief Nawab Akbar Bugti and National Party chief Sardar Attaullah Mengal have said the Government is planning a military operation in the Balochistan province.

The Ditta Khel, Deerhati Khel, Dil Khel and Peerian Degal tribes have signed an unconditional agreement with Political Agent, Syed Zaheer-al-Islam, in Miranshah not to harbour foreigners and pledged full cooperation in maintaining law and order in South Waziristan. The political administration have also issued notices for the arrest of 66 wanted people and ordered all Afghan refugees to leave the area within 24 hours.

Militants have begun to open recruiting offices in North and South Waziristan to recruit fighters against the Pakistan Army and US forces in Afghanistan, indicates a report appearing in an American newspaper. It quotes observers as saying that the area is slipping back into the hands of Al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

US Ambassador to Pakistan, Ryan C. Crocker, says that it should be a matter of concern for the Pakistan Government that banned groups like the Jamaat-ud-Daawa are involved in earthquake relief work.

At least three people, including a child, are killed and six persons sustain injuries when approximately 12 rockets struck their homes at Dera Bugti in the Balochistan province.

Unidentified men have shot dead Syed Ejaz Hussain Kazmi, a local hotelier.

Commander of the NATO Forces in Pakistan, Air Commodore Andrew George Walton, has said that the NATO forces are not in Pakistan to chase Al Qaeda, but to provide aid and support after the October 2005 earthquake.

Suspected Baloch insurgents fire at least eight rockets on a paramilitary camp at Kohlu in the Balochistan province where President Pervez Musharraf was to address the tribal elders and lay the foundation of a garrison. BLA has claimed responsibility for the attack

A helicopter carrying the Frontier Corps Inspector General (IG) Major General Shujaat Zameer Dar is attacked in Kohlu, injuring the IG and his deputy, DIG Brigadier Salim Nawaz.

President Pervez Musharraf denies the presence of US soldiers or secret jails in Pakistan, saying that no accord has been made to establish such jails in the country in collaboration with the US. “There is no presence of US soldiers or secret jails on our soil. No agreement has been signed to set up secret jails in the country in collaboration with the US,” he said in an interview with Saudi newspaper Al-Watan.

According to Dawn, paramilitary forces continued their operation in different areas of the Kohlu district of Balochistan province, destroying more ‘hideouts and camps of outlaws’, while the Frontier Corps (FC) camp in the Kohlu township came under rocket attacks. The Marri tribesmen and the four-party Baloch Alliance claimed that over 50 people had been killed and around 100 injured in helicopter attacks and air strikes in different areas over the past two days. The Anjuman Ittehad Marri claimed that 70 people, including women and children, had died and 150 injured in bombings by aircraft and helicopter gun-ships.

The Balochistan Students Organisation claims that 70 people had been killed and hundreds injured so far due to the firing of gunship helicopters in Kohlu district of Balochistan.

Three men sitting in a barber’s shop in Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan, were killed when four unidentified assailants indiscriminately fired at them.

Approximately 2,400 Madrassas had been registered under the new ordinance till December 20 while seminaries affiliated with the Ittehad-e-Tanzeemat-e-Madaris-e-Deenia (ITMD) are still reluctant to register even though the ITMD has recognised the new Societies Registration (Amended) Act of 1860, according to Daily Times.

Seven people were killed in a gunfight in North Waziristan, as seminary students, calling themselves the Taliban, raided homes searching for rivals, residents and a representative of the students said.

A nephew of a pro-government tribal elder, Ahmad Shah Mahsud, is shot dead by unidentified gunmen at a market in the Tank area of South Waziristan.

Insurgents are reported to have detonated a bomb outside a police station, blew up a railway track and ambushed a military convoy with rockets in Balochistan province while the main transmission line supplying power to the province was damaged after another bomb planted at a pylon exploded in Dera Ghazi Khan’s tribal area.

In the ongoing military operations in Balochistan province, SFs continued to target camps of suspected insurgents in the Kohlu and Dera Bugti areas. Officials claimed that out of 13, six camps had been dismantled in Kohlu since the launch of the operations on December 18, according to The News.

The Foreign Office rejected an Indian statement about events in Balochistan as "unwarranted and baseless". India often shows an unacceptable proclivity to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbours, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said after the Indian Ministry of External Affairs released a statement expressing concern about the "spiraling violence" in Balochistan. Such a tendency is contrary to efforts aimed at building an environment of trust, peace and stability in South Asia, she said.

paramilitary solider is shot dead by suspected terrorists in the Mirali town of North Waziristan.