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| India-Pakistan |
| Fazlullah concedes Taliban weakened in Swat |
| 2009-09-12 |
| [The News (Pak) Top Stories] Following the arrest of his five important Shura members, the Swat Taliban head, Maulana Fazlullah, on Friday conceded that his organisation had been weakened. In a recorded message conveyed by his spokesman Salman to The News late Friday evening from an undisclosed place in Swat, he said: "The Taliban movement is presently in a state of illness. When you are ill, your activities are curtailed. That is what has happened to Taliban organisation, but it would bounce back." In his recorded message, Maulana Fazlullah spoke hurriedly in Pashto. At times, it was difficult to understand his words. It wasn't easy to tell that the voice indeed was of Maulana Fazlullah even though it generally sounded familiar. Salman, who has taken over as the spokesman for the Swat Taliban after the arrest of Muslim Khan, said the brief recording was delivered to him on Friday. Maulana Fazlullah mentioned the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) founder Baitullah Mehsud in his message and stressed that all Pakistani Taliban wished to die like him. "Like Baitullah Mehsud, all Taliban fighters want to embrace martyrdom. Getting arrested while fighting for a cause is no big deal for the Taliban," he maintained. He said the Taliban in Swat and Malakand would continue their struggle for the enforcement of real Shariah and offer every sacrifice to achieve this goal. According to Maulana Fazlullah, the Taliban possessed "Fidayee" power and those in doubt should ask Russia, the US and Nato about the Taliban prowess. The whereabouts of Maulana Fazlullah, who is the son-in-law of the detained Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) leader Maulana Sufi Muhammad, is unknown. The government has been claiming that he was wounded in an earlier military action. There have also been reports backed by government officials that he was under siege in a mountainous area in Swat and could no longer move to some other place. Maulana Fazlullah made it clear that he and his men had lost trust in the Pakistan Army after it allegedly invited his organisation for peace talks and arrested the five negotiators. He said a need may arise again for the government and the military to talk to the Taliban, but the Swat Taliban had decided once and for all not to hold any negotiations with the rulers. His message came on the day the Pakistan Army Spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas announced that Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan and commander Mahmood Khan, both carrying head-money of Rs 10 million each, had been captured along with three other Shura members Fazle Ghaffar, Abdur Rahman and Sartaj in a military operation in the suburbs of Mingora in Swat. The previous night, the Swat Taliban had alleged that their five Shura members were invited for peace talks by the military authorities in Mingora eight days ago and then taken into custody. Acting Swat Taliban spokesman, Salman, insisted that the Taliban negotiators were tricked and made prisoner after being shifted first to Peshawar and then Islamabad. He disclosed that Major Abdullah, an official of the Military Intelligence (MI), had contacted the Taliban to offer talks and that Kamal Khan, a Swat resident belonging to Deolai village and living in the US, had played the role of mediator. Meanwhile, the acting Swat Taliban spokesman, Salman, added that for three days the talks proceeded well between the five-member Taliban delegation and the military authorities. "The talks reached a stalemate when the Army officers demanded that the Taliban must surrender their commanders who sabotaged the previous peace agreements by refusing to dismantle roadside checkpoints and by sending fighters to Buner. The Taliban negotiators pinpointed violations of the peace accord by security forces and the government," he explained. Maj Gen Athar Abbas rejected reports of any peace negotiations with the Taliban. He said there could be no talks with terrorists. He added that those wanting to surrender should lay down arms before security forces or law-enforcement agencies. In reply to a question, Taliban spokesman denied that their deputy leader Maulana Shah Dauran had been killed in military operation. When told that no audio recording of Shah Dauran had been heard for some weeks now, he pointed out that audiotape of Maulana Fazlullah too had been made available after a long time for "strategic reasons". Salman accused the government of executing Taliban prisoners and said footage and other evidences would be made available to the media to substantiate the charges against security forces and the police. He claimed up to 200 prisoners, including 30 Taliban, had been executed and their bodies dumped in different parts of Swat. Security forces and the government, it may be added, have already rejected the allegations of killings of militants who were taken prisoners. The military spokesman had also rejected a report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in which allegations of extrajudicial killings were made. |
| Posted by:Fred |