Dubious
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When you read titles like these... I am like 
And who the hell is Sajna...I can list a number of Bollywood songs with Sajna...Bara aya Islam ko defend kernay ja nach akaylay mein!
Three Pakistan Militant Groups Ally to Resist Government’s Military Campaign
Splinter group rejoins Pakistani Taliban and a powerful warlord enters the fold
Pakistani police officials display an arrested militant to the media at Chamkani Police Station in Peshawar on Thursday. PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS
By
SAEED SHAH in Karachi and SAFDAR DAWAR in Peshawar, Pakistan
March 12, 2015 5:08 p.m. ET
Three militant groups in Pakistan say they have joined forces, potentially giving that country’s Taliban insurgents more heft to resist a military campaign by the government and stepping up the general threat from extremist organizations.
A joint statement on Thursday said a splinter group from Mohmand, in the country’s tribal areas, had rejoined the main Pakistani Taliban faction, while Mangal Bagh, a warlord in the Khyber region who wasn’t previously part of the Taliban, had now allied himself and his followers with it.
“We warn the Pakistani infidel system, its agents and this apostate army that we will not let their plans succeed under any circumstances,” the statement said.
Pakistani security officials declined to comment.
This undated image provided the SITE Intel Group in 2013 shows the reputed leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Mullah Fazlullah. The group was one of three Pakistani extremist organizations announcing an alliance on Thursday. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The convergence comes as the governments of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are making tentative efforts to bring the Afghan Taliban into peace talks. In recent months, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have dramatically improved, leading to action by Afghan forces against the Pakistani Taliban presence in their country.
The three militant groups, which have links to al Qaeda, hold sway over territory on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, further complicating military measures against them.
Together, the three groups have influence over a chunk of the tribal areas—Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber regions—as well as a presence in the bordering eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.
The three factions would now be under a united command, to be run by a committee for now. The groups didn’t name the overall head in their statement.
The only major militant faction now still outside of the Pakistani Taliban is the group led by a commander known as Sajna, who is based in Waziristan and has many fighters from the powerful Mehsud tribe under him.
The Pakistani Taliban are nominally loyal to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the elusive leader of the Afghan Taliban, but the Pakistani militants operate independently. The main Pakistani Taliban faction is led by a militant going by the name of Mullah Fazlullah, who the Pakistani government says is based in eastern Afghanistan.
“The Pakistan army is going after them like never before, so uniting is a question of survival for them,” said Saifullah Mahsud, executive director of the FATA Research Center, a think tank in Islamabad. “With the groups uniting, the threat [from extremists] increases.”
The announcement comes as Islamic State, the militant group that holds large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, makes inroads into Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some Pakistani Taliban leaders have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and officials in Islamabad and Kabul worry more militants might make the switch if the Afghan Taliban conclude a peace settlement with the Afghan government.
The Pakistani Taliban splinter group from Mohmand is a particularly hard-line faction, which had opposed the peace talks held by the Pakistani government with the Pakistani Taliban in early 2014. It also has influence in Bajaur, another key tribal area.
Pakistani Rangers training in Karachi this past November. The military is conducting a campaign against the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s tribal regions. Three of those militant groups said on Thursday that they have joined forces. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
The warlord Mr. Bagh brings significant manpower to the militants’ table, along with a network located on the edge of Peshawar, the most significant city in Pakistan’s northwest. And the main land route for transporting supplies in and out of Afghanistan passes through the Khyber region, where his group operates.
In June, the army unleashed a major offensive that is still under way against the Pakistani Taliban base in North Waziristan, part of the tribal areas along the Afghan border. An operation was later launched in Khyber.
The Pakistani Taliban, responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks against security forces and civilians in the country, have been on the defensive since then. The group claimed responsibility for a massacre at a school in Peshawar in December that left more than 130 children dead.
Three Pakistan Militant Groups Ally to Resist Government’s Military Campaign - WSJ
And who the hell is Sajna...I can list a number of Bollywood songs with Sajna...Bara aya Islam ko defend kernay ja nach akaylay mein!
Three Pakistan Militant Groups Ally to Resist Government’s Military Campaign
Splinter group rejoins Pakistani Taliban and a powerful warlord enters the fold
Pakistani police officials display an arrested militant to the media at Chamkani Police Station in Peshawar on Thursday. PHOTO: ZUMA PRESS
By
SAEED SHAH in Karachi and SAFDAR DAWAR in Peshawar, Pakistan
March 12, 2015 5:08 p.m. ET
Three militant groups in Pakistan say they have joined forces, potentially giving that country’s Taliban insurgents more heft to resist a military campaign by the government and stepping up the general threat from extremist organizations.
A joint statement on Thursday said a splinter group from Mohmand, in the country’s tribal areas, had rejoined the main Pakistani Taliban faction, while Mangal Bagh, a warlord in the Khyber region who wasn’t previously part of the Taliban, had now allied himself and his followers with it.
“We warn the Pakistani infidel system, its agents and this apostate army that we will not let their plans succeed under any circumstances,” the statement said.
Pakistani security officials declined to comment.
This undated image provided the SITE Intel Group in 2013 shows the reputed leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Mullah Fazlullah. The group was one of three Pakistani extremist organizations announcing an alliance on Thursday. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The convergence comes as the governments of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are making tentative efforts to bring the Afghan Taliban into peace talks. In recent months, relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have dramatically improved, leading to action by Afghan forces against the Pakistani Taliban presence in their country.
The three militant groups, which have links to al Qaeda, hold sway over territory on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, further complicating military measures against them.
Together, the three groups have influence over a chunk of the tribal areas—Mohmand, Bajaur and Khyber regions—as well as a presence in the bordering eastern Afghan provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.
The three factions would now be under a united command, to be run by a committee for now. The groups didn’t name the overall head in their statement.
The only major militant faction now still outside of the Pakistani Taliban is the group led by a commander known as Sajna, who is based in Waziristan and has many fighters from the powerful Mehsud tribe under him.
The Pakistani Taliban are nominally loyal to Mullah Mohammad Omar, the elusive leader of the Afghan Taliban, but the Pakistani militants operate independently. The main Pakistani Taliban faction is led by a militant going by the name of Mullah Fazlullah, who the Pakistani government says is based in eastern Afghanistan.
“The Pakistan army is going after them like never before, so uniting is a question of survival for them,” said Saifullah Mahsud, executive director of the FATA Research Center, a think tank in Islamabad. “With the groups uniting, the threat [from extremists] increases.”
The announcement comes as Islamic State, the militant group that holds large swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, makes inroads into Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some Pakistani Taliban leaders have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, and officials in Islamabad and Kabul worry more militants might make the switch if the Afghan Taliban conclude a peace settlement with the Afghan government.
The Pakistani Taliban splinter group from Mohmand is a particularly hard-line faction, which had opposed the peace talks held by the Pakistani government with the Pakistani Taliban in early 2014. It also has influence in Bajaur, another key tribal area.
Pakistani Rangers training in Karachi this past November. The military is conducting a campaign against the Pakistani Taliban in the country’s tribal regions. Three of those militant groups said on Thursday that they have joined forces. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
The warlord Mr. Bagh brings significant manpower to the militants’ table, along with a network located on the edge of Peshawar, the most significant city in Pakistan’s northwest. And the main land route for transporting supplies in and out of Afghanistan passes through the Khyber region, where his group operates.
In June, the army unleashed a major offensive that is still under way against the Pakistani Taliban base in North Waziristan, part of the tribal areas along the Afghan border. An operation was later launched in Khyber.
The Pakistani Taliban, responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks against security forces and civilians in the country, have been on the defensive since then. The group claimed responsibility for a massacre at a school in Peshawar in December that left more than 130 children dead.
Three Pakistan Militant Groups Ally to Resist Government’s Military Campaign - WSJ
