[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that the Taliban have killed Baitullah Mehsud's father-in-law and his other family members on spying charges. Talking to the BBC Urdu Service, Rehman Malik said the Taliban had killed Baitullah Mehsud's father-in-law Ikramuddin, his son Ziauddin, brother Saeedullah and nephew Iqbal Mehsud on charges of spying for the US forces in Afghanistan.
Malik said independent and Taliban sources had not yet confirmed the death of Baitullah Mehsud's father-in-law. "I got this information from those sources who had given me the information about Baitullah's death," he said.
He claimed it was confirmed that Baitullah Mehsud had been killed. However, he said, it might be a part of the government's strategy not to confirm 100% death of Baitullah Mehsud. Maulana Ikramuddin was considered as the right hand of Baitullah and had been trying to broker a peace deal between his son-in-law and the top security officials, according to sources.
He said the government had not accepted ceasefire offer of the Taliban in North Waziristan Agency. He said in past, the Taliban had violated peace accords with the government. He said suicide bombers had planned to attack the Parliament House. He said the operation against the militants would continue even in the holy month of Ramazan. with CNN, the interior minister said that the security forces would continue their offensive against the Taliban militants during Ramazan.
Malik said the security forces have arrested three men wearing suicide vests, who were planning to attack the Parliament, an intelligence agency and other public buildings. The minister did not specify where or when the men were caught, except to say it was within the last four weeks.
The militants have said they would stop fighting during the month of Ramazan. Malik, however, said the promise was not to be trusted. "We are not interested in a ceasefire," Malik said. "They haven't kept their commitment in the past. We will continue targeted actions against the Taliban," he added.
Our Peshawar Bureau adds: Taliban sources, however, were neither denying nor confirming reports about killing of Mahsud's relatives. Some of these sources were terming it as part of the government's disinformation campaign.
A senior government official, who requested anonymity, said there were credible reports that Ikramuddin, his son Ziauddin, his brother Saeedullah and nephew Iqbal Mahsud were executed Sunday afternoon along with three or four other male family members. He said first Ikramuddin was taken into custody soon after the drone attack and then his other close relatives were apprehended.
The Taliban militants, he argued, were suspicious as to why Ikramuddin and his close family members survived the missile strike that struck his house and killed Baitullah and his second wife, whom he had married last October.
The claim couldn't be confirmed from independent sources. There was no way to find out if Ikramuddin and seven other members of his family had been killed by the Taliban militants loyal to Baitullah.
Some tribesmen doubted the story of Ikramuddin's involvement in the conspiracy to kill Baitullah as he would not sacrifice his own daughter by spying on the TTP chief and facilitating the US drone attack on his own house in Zangara village in South Waziristan Agency.