Baitullah spurns Omar's advice

PESHAWAR - Baitullah Mehsud, chief of Taliban militants, has turned a deaf ear to the request of Taliban supreme leader Mullah Muhammad Omar Akhund of halting terrorist acts in Pakistan and focusing all of his activities against the United States-led allies inside Afghanistan. Mullah Omar is our Ameer but like Afghanistan, they are determined to continue resistance in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud told the high-ranking delegation of Taliban who met him recently in Waziristan region. According to the highly-placed reliable sources, the 11-member Taliban delegation handed over the message of Mullah Omar to Baitullah Mehsud. The Taliban delegates also exchanged views with Baitullah Mehsud on the current situation of the region. In particular the two sides discussed in depth 'damaging image of Taliban in Pakistan'. In this respect, the Afghan Taliban leaders suggested to Baitullah Mehsud to review his policies, as it was very harmful to the future of Taliban movement. After departure of the 11-member Taliban delegation, the leading Al-Qaeda and Afghan commanders also held a detailed meeting with Baitullah Mehsud. The detailed talks concluded late Thursday night, wherein Baitullah Mehsud rejected outright the requests for halting activities in Pakistan. According to the sources, the leading Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders who met Baitullah Mehsud besides others included Abu Yahya Al Laibi, Abdul Haq Turikistani chief of Hizbe Islami Turkistan (a party of Chinese and Central Asian militants), Siraj Ud Din Haqqani, Abdul Hakeem Sharaee and Mir Ahmad Jan Hashemi. The Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders had made similar requests to Baitullah Mehsud of halting violence and terrorist acts in Pakistan and slipping across the border in Afghanistan for similar activities. But Baitullah Mehsud had declined the requests and said that he would continue such steps. Refusal on the part of Baitullah Mehsud has also put at stake the future of Taliban tehrik both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now it has become very hard for the leading Afghan Taliban leaders and members of Haqqani Network as in case they follow Baitullah, they could lose association of Mullah Omar, otherwise they could lose their hideouts and compounds in the tribal belt. Though Siraj Ud Din Haqqani is still engaged in efforts to convince Baitullah Mehsud to accede to the requests of Mullah Omar yet there are reports of Mullah Omars final decree against Baitullah Mehsud. Baitullah Mehsud is likely to be declared rebel and in such a case Taliban militants all over Pakistan will be asked to isolate Baitullah Mehsud. The government has already established rival groups of Taliban headed by Malik Turikistan Betani and Zain Ud Din Mehsud in the area. On the other hand only a religious political force is struggling to rescue and support Baitullah Mehsud at this crucial stage. The leaders and stalwarts of such a political force are being used as mediators and brokers in finalizing the deals and heals of kidnapping acts for ransom. The leaders and stalwarts of such a political force are also requesting the media persons in Peshawar to go and have an interview of Baitullah Mehsud. Reliable sources maintained that Taliban leaders from Afghanistan and their like-minded colleagues were planning to constitute teams for denouncing Baitullah Mehsud and his associates. The teams would visit all the important cities and towns where they would denounce terrorism, particularly suicide attacks and targeting the security forces and political activists. AFP adds: Fighter jets on Friday bombed Taliban militant hideouts in the northwest tribal belt, officials said. Warplanes also hit targets in South Waziristan, apparently in preparation for a full-scale military onslaught into the hostile peaks to track down and eliminate Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his network. Jet fighters on Friday started bombing suspected locations of Taliban militants in South Waziristan, said an intelligence official in Wana, who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media. A security official in the area told AFP that two militant compounds, three religious schools and a suspected training camp under the command of Mehsud were targeted in Sarwakai and Barwand villages near the Afghan border. Paramilitary forces, meanwhile, engaged militants in a firefight at Tanai Fort about 20 kilometres east of Wana, the official said. The military said in a statement Friday that they had secured a number of villages in the tribal district of Mohmand and seized weapons. Meanwhile, according to an American news agency, jet fighters flattened at least three suspected Taliban training facilities in South Waziristan, killing or wounding several insurgents, two senior intelligence officials said. The Taliban also opened fire on troops elsewhere in the mountainous area, starting a gunbattle that lasted hours, said an intelligence official, without giving any further details. The fight marked the first ground fighting since the military started softening up the area with artillery several days ago in preparation for an expected offensive. Other ground troops were moving into position around strongholds of Mehsud, said Nematullah Khan, a local government official in South Waziristan. Troops have entered in Mehsuds areas, Khan told the news agency on Friday. Asked whether the jets, artillery and advancement of ground troops meant a full-scale operation had started, Khan said: No, not exactly. These are attempts to soften targets before hitting them hard. Fridays bombing runs were launched in response to reports of dozens of militants in the Zor Sorvakai, Madijan and Katkai areas, which are considered to be Mehsuds strongholds, said the intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media. They said it was unclear how many insurgents were killed or wounded in the attacks. The troop deployment in many areas of South Waziristan had been completed, and soldiers were moving toward strategic areas where large numbers of Taliban fighters were believed to be entrenched, they said. One of the officials said the military was blocking all roads that the militants could use to flee. Meanwhile, militants attacked a convoy of security forces in Chaharmang area In Bajaur in which a Major and a securityman were killed and three others injured, reported a private TV channel, quoting its sources.

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