| More detail on yesterday's story... |
Taliban leader Abdullah Mehsud blew himself up to avoid arrest after he was surrounded by security forces in a house in Zhob, Balochistan on Tuesday. Police arrested three of Mehsud’s accomplices, including his brother Abdul Rehman Mehsud. Anti-terrorist Force (ATF) commandoes raided the house of Sheikh Ayub, a district leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), before morning prayers after learning that Mehsud was inside. A gun battle ensued, and Mehsud was surrounded. “The ATF asked Abdullah Mehsud to surrender and take off his shirt when they had almost overpowered him. However, he refused to surrender and blew himself up with explosives,” said a source in Quetta. The ATF also arrested Sheikh Ayub’s younger brother, Sheikh Azam, and his son, Sheikh Sheryar. The whereabouts of Sheikh Ayub were unknown. Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told a news briefing in Islamabad that Mehsud was wanted for the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in 2004 and for “many terror attacks”. He was also an “active Taliban commander and staunch Al-Qaeda supporter,” Cheema said. He said an autopsy performed at Zhob district hospital confirmed Mehsud’s death.
| "What do you make of this, Dr Quincy?" "Hmmm... Looks like part of a kidney. The northern half, I'd say." "And this?" "Part of a testicle, I think." "And this?" "Three quarters of a head." "Could you make a diagnosis based on the available forensic evidence?" "I'd say he was deader'n a rock." |
Agencies add: A Pakistani intelligence official said Mehsud was intercepted on his way back from AfghanistanÂ’s Helmand province, where the official said he led supporters fighting alongside the Taliban against Afghan and US forces. The intelligence official said Mehsud had been in Afghanistan for more than a year and that there was no evidence he organised violence in Pakistan.