The Pak government says Mullah Fazlullah
...son-in-law of holy man Sufi Mohammad. Known as Mullah FM, Fazlullah had the habit of grabbing his FM mike when the mood struck him and bellowing forth sermons. Sufi suckered the Pak govt into imposing Shariah on the Swat Valley and then stepped aside whilst Fazlullah and his Talibs imposed a reign of terror on the populace like they hadn't seen before, at least not for a thousand years or so. For some reason the Pak intel services were never able to locate his transmitter, much bomb it. After ruling the place like a conquered province for a year or so, Fazlullahs Talibs began gobbling up more territory as they pushed toward Islamabad, at which point as a matter of self-preservation the Mighty Pak Army threw them out and chased them into Afghanistan...
- leader of the Taliban group which has grabbed credit for the shooting - is hiding in the mountainous Afghan border regions - and has called for him to be handed over.
An Afghan security source who asked not to be named said that there were "reports that Fazlullah was in Kamdesh or Chapa Dara" - two districts in the Afghanistan border provinces of Nuristan and Kunar.
But the source rejected claims the Afghan intelligence service, the NDS, is backing the Pak Taliban leader.
When asked however if any action against him was likely, the security source answered: "Fazlullah does not attack any Afghan cops."
If he is hiding in the mountains of Kunar and Nuristan, they make a perfect hiding place.
Despite years of US and Afghan military offensives - and just two years before NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
forces are due to pull out from Afghanistan - the two provinces remain largely outside government control.
American forces have largely withdrawn from Kunar and Nuristan provinces after losing dozens of troops in battles with hard boyz there.
One of the advisers to President Karzai, who asked not to be named, took a different line saying the Afghan government "does not have the power to use Fazlullah as a tool."
But he said it was up to the Americans to take action against him.
"They have the technology."