13 worrying facts about Pakistan and terrorism

Terrorism Timeline: Pakistan and the Global War on Terror

Pakistan plays a key and highly conflicted--role in the global war on terror. The country is a U.S. ally in the war, but is often accused of supporting Taliban and Al Qaeda presence in its northern provinces. Pakistan also has nuclear ambitions. This timeline of Pakistan's role in the war tells the story of Pakistan's complex relationship to terrorism and the war on terror since 2001.

Some high profile criminals/terrorists residing and/or allegedly spotted in Pakistan:

• Maulana Masood Azhar
• Hafiz Saeed
• Akram Lahori
• Tiger Memon
• Dawood Ibrahim
• Quetta Shura
• Illyas Kashmiri

Pakistan's New Generation of Terrorists

Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups based on their soil that largely focused their efforts in Afghanistan and India. But with Pakistan joining the United States as an ally in its "war on terrorism" since 9/11, experts say Islamabad has seen harsh blowback on its policy of backing militants operating abroad. Leadership elements of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, along with other terrorist groups, have made Pakistan's tribal areas (the semi-autonomous region along the Afghan border) their home and now work closely with a wide variety of Pakistani militant groups. On May 1, 2011, al-Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed by a U.S. raid in Abbottabad, a military town not far from Islamabad, raising questions about the Pakistani government and intelligence services' knowledge of his whereabouts.