 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Swat TTP issues list of 47 ‘wanted persons’ |
|
|
|
Monday, January 26, 2009
Indefinite curfew imposed in valley
By Delawar Jan
PESHAWAR: As the security forces imposed a round-the-clock curfew on different towns of the restive Swat Valley for an indefinite period on Sunday, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Swat chapter, issued a list of 47 ‘wanted persons’, including former and serving federal and provincial ministers, incumbent MNAs and MPAs, deputy parliamentary leader of the PML-Q in the National Assembly, district Nazim and other prominent political and social figures, asking them to appear before the Taliban court or face the music.
“The decision was taken at a Shura meeting with Maulana Fazlullah in the chair. Around 50 members of the Shura participated in the meeting and there was consensus on the names of 45-47 people declared as wanted for opposing the Taliban. All of them will have to appear before the Taliban court, otherwise they will face action,” Swat TTP spokesman Muslim Khan told The News by phone from an undisclosed location.
Muslim Khan said the announcement had already been disseminated to the people of the valley by Maulana Fazlullah through his FM radio at 10 am on Sunday. Afzal Khan Lala, who won respect and words of appreciation from the media, politicians and the Swati people for staying in his native Durushkhela village despite several attacks by the militants, tops the list. The veteran central leader of the ANP and former federal minister has survived several attacks.
Unlike other politicians and well-heeled Swatis, he has chosen to fight the terrorists instead of taking shelter in other cities. In his recent interviews with the media, Afzal Khan had made it clear that he would not leave the people of Swat alone in this hour of trial. However, the militants have not shelved the plan to assassinate the ANP leader.
NWFP Minister for Science and Technology Ayub Ashari, who is also a nephew of Afzal Khan and who had put an ad in Swat’s local newspapers last month thanking militants for pardoning him, was also among the people wanted by the militants.
The PML-Q NWFP chief and deputy parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Amir Muqam, is the lone politician on the list who doesn’t belong to the troubled valley. He is from the adjacent Shangla district.
When the operation was launched in the valley, Muqam was a federal minister and that prompted the militants to declare him their enemy. Now he has been criticising the government for continuing the same, but it did not work to keep him out of the wanted persons’ list. He had survived a suicide blast last year, in which his close relative MPA Pir Muhammad was killed.
NWFP Minister for Environment Wajid Ali Khan, MNA Muzaffarul Mulk, MPAs Dr Shamsher Ali, Dr Haidar Ali, Waqar Khan and Sher Shah Khan are also on the list. Others include district Nazim Jamal Nasir, his father and former provincial minister Shujaat Ali Khan, Tehsil Nazim Matta Abdul Jabbar Khan, UC Nazims Bandai Sher Afzal Khan, Jamshed Khan, Saifullah Khan, ex-MPAs Qaimus Khan and Irfanullah, PPP-S district president Sher Shah Khan, PPP leader Muhammad Sher Khan, ANP Matta president Muzaffar Ali Khan and ANP central joint secretary Khan Nawab. Family members of several influential people have also been asked to appear in Fazlullah’s court.
The list does not include the names of MNA Allauddin Khan and MPA Jafar Shah. Despite blaming the ANP government for resuming the military operation, due to which representatives from Swat are being targeted, the Taliban have not put the chief minister and other provincial ministers on the list.
Apart from politicians, local Khans and criminals were also marked as targets. All other people, who had opposed the militants but have now abandoned their opposition, were pardoned. Following the resumption of the military operation, the militants had threatened to take action against all the elected representatives from the Malakand division.
After the threat, the elected representatives from the valley, two among them provincial ministers, had stopped going to their homes in the volatile valley. The threat was real as the militants attacked the houses of MPA Waqar Ahmad and NWFP Minister Ayub Ashari, destroying their houses and killing their family members. The brother of another provincial minister Wajid Ali Khan was also gunned down.
The security forces in a raid on a house, something seen of late, in Ningwalai on Saturday had claimed to have killed eight militants, including a commander. Pamphlets circulated by unknown people in Mingora city taunted the “powerful and well-equipped” Army for failing to defeat a few thousands gun-carrying militants and asked the traders to shut down their shops as protest from today (Monday) till the restoration of peace and enforcement of Shariah.
Pasted on the walls of mosques, the pamphlets read, “The militants have been dragging out people from their homes and killing them. They have been bombing or torching schools during curfew at nights. Taliban have also established checkpoints where the security forces have checkposts. Taliban have been publicly whipping people but the security forces don’t take action against the militants.”
Citing the killing of Pir Samiullah, the pamphlets said the militants and Pir Samiullah fought in Matta and Gwalerai and the Pir’s body was hung from a pole but the security forces did not bother to act.
The traders have been asked to keep their shops shut from today till the restoration of peace and enforcement of Shariah. Meanwhile, the militants blew up a state-owned factory, partially destroyed earlier, in the Rahimabad area of Mingora. The militants patrolled in the main Matta Bazaar, which was followed by an incident of firing leading to the closure of shops.
The militants awarded 25 lashes to an alleged drug peddler, Ayub, in the Parri area of Kabal.Meanwhile, the offices of local newspapers, daily Azadi and Khabarkar, came under attack from the security forces in Mingora the other night.
The Editor-in-Chief of the papers, Mumtaz Sadiq, told The News that the employees narrowly escaped. Mumtaz said that he had lodged a protest with the military officials, who assured him of an inquiry into the incident.
APP adds: The security forces late on Sunday imposed round-the-clock curfew for an indefinite period in different areas of the restive valley.A press release of the Swat Media Centre (SMC) said curfew had been imposed in Bara Bandai, Koza Bandai, Ningolai, Chota Kalam and Shakardara for an indefinite period.
Any person or vehicle found violating the curfew would be shot at sight, the press release said. People have been requested to fully observe the curfew orders and avoid any movement outside their homes.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
CJ says good governance being compromised
By Sohail Khan
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that good governance is being compromised as it is believed that the administration of justice is the sole duty of courts or the legal fratern more |
|
|
Hakimullah dies of wounds in Multan?
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Reports about the death of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud once again started circulating on Tuesday and this time it was being reported that the militant commander had succumb more |
|
|
MNAs seek solution to Sindh-Punjab water rift
ISLAMABAD: Members of the National Assembly on Tuesday urged for the resolution of the water crisis between Punjab and Sindh, failing which would lead to serious repercussions for the country.
Yousuf Tal more |
|
|
Good governance hinges on change in national behaviour: PM
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that change in the collective behaviour of the nation is necessary for the promotion of good governance. He said that his government believed in streng more |
|
|
NIC made mandatory to get sugar from USC outlets
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on Tuesday made it mandatory to produce national identity cards to get a pack of 2kg sugar from the USC outlets.
The ECC met here unde more |
|
|
|
Three provinces to hold LG polls in four months
By Hanif Khalid & Asim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: A high level meeting here on Tuesday at the Aiwan-e-Sadr decided that the chief ministers of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan would hold local government elections in four months.
President Asif Al more |
|
|
|
Senators condemn attack on Sh Rashid
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Senators on Tuesday strongly condemned the murder attempt on Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members advised Sheikh Rashid to stop more |
|
|
|
PIA obliges religiously; latest being religious minister
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), facing a mind-boggling loss of about Rs70billion, has quietly upgraded two seats of Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi and his wife fr more |
|
|
|
A brigadier without brigade has a history of thrashing
By Umar Cheema
ISLAMABAD: The basher-brigadier of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), who assaulted his professor colleague late Thursday, has a long list of such incidents on his credit as his resume is sprin more |
|
|
|
PAC settles drought money misuse
By Rauf Klasra
ISLAMABAD: A special committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probing misuse of drought funds worth million of rupees on Tuesday conveniently settled majority of charges against deputy auditor general o more |
|
|
|
NA-55 by-polls
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has urged all the political parties, including the PML-N, to withdraw from the NA-55 by-polls in favour of Sheikh Rashid.
“ more |
|
|
|
Point scoring be avoided in Rashid attack case: Shahbaz
By our correspondent
LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif said the Rawalpindi incident on Monday had grieved every Pakistani.
He said a joint investigation team comprising federal and provincial agencies including I more |
|
|
|
SC moved against delay in judges’ appointment
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was moved on Tuesday against the government’s delay in the appointment of judges in the apex court and was prayed for directing the government to perform its constitutional duty by more |
|
|
|
‘74 killed in Bajaur operation’
By Hasbanullah Khan
KHAR: Security forces claimed to have killed 74 militants and injured 54 others and wrested the strategically important hilltops and areas from the insurgents during the weeklong military operation in the Mamon more |
|
|
|
Afghan unrest kills US, French soldiers
KABUL: A US and French soldiers were killed in attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said.
The US service member was killed in an improvised bomb blast in southern Afghanis more |
|
|
|
Army called in for today’s Lakki by-election
By our correspondent
PESHAWAR: The government has requisitioned the services of the Pakistan Army to augment the police and civil security forces for conducting the NWFP Assembly by-election on PF-75 Lakki Marwat for which polling more |
|
|
|
Meeting discusses political issues
ISLAMABAD: A meeting held here at the presidency on Tuesday and presided over jointly by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani discussed political and development issues in the N more |
|
|
|
Rashid accuses PML-N of promoting criminal culture
ISLAMABAD: Head of Awami Muslim League, Sheikh Rashid, on Tuesday criticised the PML-N-led Punjab government for promoting criminal culture in Rawalpindi and the province.
Talking to a private TV channel more |
|
|
|
Briefs...
Over 64 dead in Afghan avalanches
KABUL: At least 24 bodies have been recovered and 40 other people are feared dead after avalanches swept vehicles into a ravine and trapped cars in a mountain pass overn more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
