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| Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar captured |
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Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Confirms Baitullah’s death in US drone attack
By Mushtaq Yusufzai, Shah Nawaz & Shakirullah
PESHAWAR/GHALLANAI: A tribal Lashkar in Khwezai area of Mohmand Agency captured and handed over to security forces a top militant commander and spokesman for the defunct Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Maulvi Omar.
Omar was also deputy to Bajaur Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir Muhammad, engaged in fighting against security forces since August 6, 2008. He used to sell perfumes in a pushcart in the Inayat Killay Bazaar in Bajaur in the past. He, at one stage, studied and taught in a Madrassa.
In recent weeks, the TTP had appointed another spokesman named Azam Tariq, though Maulvi Omar insisted that he hadn’t been replaced. A senior military official told The News that the TTP spokesman during preliminary interrogation confirmed the death of Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone attack on August 5 on the house his father-in-law, Ikramuddin, in Zangara village in South Waziristan tribal region.
According to an official of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), Maulvi Omar and his two bodyguards were returning to Bajaur after a failed attempt to travel to the Orakzai Agency when armed volunteers of the local tribal Lashkar in Khwezai area in Mohmand Agency captured them.
Maulvi Omar, the official said, was scheduled to attend an important meeting of senior TTP commanders in Orakzai. After his arrest, Maulvi Omar told his interrogators that he was on his way to Orakzai Agency, but returned from the border between Khyber and Mohmand tribal regions due to strict security arrangements made by the FC and volunteers of the Lashkar.
Maulvi Omar and his two colleagues, identified as Hanifullah and Waheed Gul, were walking on foot when members of the Lashkar waylaid and seized them. They later handed them over to the Mohmand Rifles, a wing of the FC. The TTP spokesman was then shifted to Ghallanai, the headquarters of the Mohmand Agency, where he was to be produced before the media.
A large number of media people, particularly reporters of television channels reached Ghallanai for coverage of this unusual event. However, after hours of wait outside the gate of Mohmand Rifles headquarters in Ghallanai, the journalists were finally told that the event had been cancelled on the directives of senior military officials in Peshawar and Islamabad.
Maulvi Omar, whose real name is Said Muhammad, was later shifted to Peshawar in a military helicopter for further interrogation. Sources in Khwezai tribal Lashkar said the TTP letterheads signed by Baitullah Mehsud, maps, video camera and a walkie-talkie were recovered from him at the time of his arrest. It is worth mentioning here that a commander of this Lashkar, Malik Ajmal, was recently killed by the Taliban and now his brother Fayyaz had taken his place.
Military sources said he had been handed over to a joint intelligence team comprising the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials for interrogation.
An official close to the interrogation process said the TTP spokesman had confirmed the killing of Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack.However, the official added that the authorities would wait for more evidence to verify Baitullah’s death.
Since assuming the charge of central TTP spokesman, Maulvi Omar was in touch with media people even during tough times following military operations.As the TTP spokesman, he would take responsibility for each and every terrorist attack in and outside Pakistan. On the occasion, he made outlandish claims. Some of his statements can land him in serious trouble if he is tried in a court.
Besides causing damage to precious public and private properties, hundreds of people, civilians and personnel from armed forces lost their lives in countless attacks that were claimed by Maulvi Omar.
Taliban sources said he developed close contacts with Arab fighters when a large number of Arab militants fled Pakistan after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001. He was seriously injured in the first US drone attack in Damadola in Bajaur on Jan 13, 2006, where the US officials claimed al-Qaeda’s deputy leader Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri had been invited to dinner. His two daughters were reportedly married to Arab fighters, one of whom, Sheikh Usman, was killed in another US drone attack in Bajaur in October 2008.
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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‘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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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ISSN 1563-9479 
