| Must be hurting if he wants to hang it up... |
Pakistan has turned down Abdullah Mehsud's offer to surrender, a senior official said on Thursday. Mehsud, a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, is wanted for the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers. The one-legged militant commander had made only a conditional offer to give himself up, said Mehmood Shah, security chief for Pakistan's tribal areas on the Afghan border. "Our terms for his surrender are that he should hand himself over to the authorities without any preconditions," Mehmood told AFP. "We will agree to his surrender offer only when he sets no conditions."
Pakistan last week offered a Rs 5 million ($83,350) reward for information leading to the capture of the former Taliban fighter. Mehsud was behind the October kidnapping of two Chinese engineers, which he used to press for an end to army operations hunting Al Qaeda-linked insurgents in South Waziristan. One of the victims died in a rescue operation. Mehsud, 29, who is also wanted for leading a bloody uprising against Pakistani troops, has been on the run ever since. According to the security chief, Mehsud had said in his offer that he "must be forgiven" for his past actions before he lays down arms. |