ISLAMABAD- Pakistani Taliban have reportedly confirmed the arrest by security forces of their senior commander, Adnan Rashid, who had convicted of trying to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf and was also one of the many inmates escaped from a prison in 2012.
Reports earlier suggested that Rashid was arrested by the Pakistan Army in Shakai area of South Waziristan this week. He was reportedly injured in an earlier strike in North Waziristan and was arrested after fleeing the ongoing airstrikes in the region. The army has not yet confirmed the arrest however section of the Pakistani media has reported the arrest.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has now confirmed that Adnan Rashid and said a rival faction has was behind the “conspiracy” of the arrest.
The TTP accused Mullah Nazir group in South Waziristan of passing the information to the security forces which eventually led to arrest of Rashid. The Mullah Nazir group is considered pro-government. The group’s leader Mullah Nazir was killed in a US drone attack last year.
The sources said that Rashid was shifted to an undisclosed location through a helicopter. The TTP has distributed a pamphlet in parts of South Waziristan, saying they would take revenge of the arrest of their leader.
If officially confirmed it would the biggest success of the Pakistani forces since they have launched major operation against the local and foreign militants in North Waziristan.
Adnan Rashid, a former employee of Pakistan Air Force, was awarded death penalty for his role in the assassination attempt on the life of Pervez Musharraf, in 2003. However he was freed along with nearly 400 people in a Taliban jailbreak in 2012. He was behind a jail attack in August last year, in which the Taliban freed 175 prisoners including 35 senior militants.
Rashid has featured regularly in videos released by the Taliban and in a last year video he was seen training Taliban fighters to attack Musharraf, before openly threatening him on camera.
Rashid wrote a letter to Malala Yousafzai, a school girl, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, saying that he wished that the attack had not happened, but told her that she was targeted because she speaks against the Taliban.