 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar captured |
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
‘Al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders not in Pakistan’
ISLAMABAD: Strongly reacting to some of the reports of the presence of al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in Pakistan by the US newspapers and some intelligence agencies, President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said more |
|
|
Mulla Omar in Karachi, claims WT
WASHINGTON: Mulla Muhammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled Quetta and found refuge from the potential US attacks in Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence, the Washington Times more |
|
|
Will PM intervene or will robber barons kill CCP?
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has warned that it will cease to exist and its actions will become invalid in case the government fails to re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance on or b more |
|
|
Eight militants die in US drone attack
By our correspondent
MIRAMSHAH: Eight militants were killed and two others injured when a US drone hit a house in the Michikhel area in North Waziristan on Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
Tribal sources sai more |
|
|
19 militants killed in SWA, Khyber, Bajaur clashes
By our correspondents
WANA/BARA/KHAR: Nineteen militants were killed in clashes with security forces in South Waziristan, Khyber and Bajaur tribal regions on Friday.
Tribal and officials sources said five militants were kille more |
|
|
|
Pakistan has nothing to fear from India: Singh
WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India is ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the country on the condition that it will not allow its territory to be used against its neighbour more |
|
|
|
Qureshi wants result-oriented dialogue with India
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmud Qureshi said on Friday Pakistan wanted meaningful and result-oriented bilateral negotiations with India.
Addressing a press conference at the airport here, h more |
|
|
|
Only 15 pc believe Pakistan is going right
By Gibran Peshimam
KARACHI: Pakistan’s youths are losing confidence in the future and a mere 15 per cent believe that the country is heading in the right direction, while 72 per cent feel economically worse off than a year ago. O more |
|
|
|
Mustafa Jatoi passes away
ISLAMABAD: Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi breathed his last at the St Marry Hospital in London on Friday after a protracted illness. He was 78.
He leaves behind six sons and three d more |
|
|
|
Slaughter of animals, NRO beneficiaries begins on Eid
By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will soon announce its strategy to deal with the cases which are going to reopen on Nov 28, a NAB spokesman told The News on Friday.
“The NAB chairman more |
|
|
|
WFP, Rescue 15 attacks’ mastermind arrested
By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Police on Friday arrested the mastermind behind the attacks on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Rescue 15 offices in Islamabad.
The terrorist, identified as Jamshed Ahmad more |
|
|
|
Mushahid asks Karzai not to allow use of Afghan land against Pakistan
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League-Q Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Friday asked President Hamid Karzai not to allow the use of Afghan land against Pakistan under Indian designs.
“Pakistan wa more |
|
|
|
No Indo-Pak FMs meeting: Nirupama
NEW DELHI: India on Friday said no meeting had been scheduled between foreign ministers of Pakistan and India in Port of Spain later this month on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( more |
|
|
|
US to tighten control of Afghan contracts: Gates
HALIFAX: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that the United States must tighten control of Afghan development contracts as a first step towards stemming rampant corruption.
“The reality is more |
|
|
|
China has stake in Kashmir: Mirwaiz
News Desk
HELD SRINAGAR: As he plans to visit China, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday kicked up a controversy by saying that Beijing has a “direct link” with the Kashmir issue, drawing strong obje more |
|
|
|
Clinton favours Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir
WASHINGTON: The United States is encouraging Pakistan and India to resume their dialogue to address Kashmir and other outstanding disputes but any solution must come from the two countries, Secretary of State H more |
|
|
|
Competition Commission forces PIA to fly fair
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Silent prayers of many Hajis have apparently been answered as the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has ordered PIA to refund within 60 days the excessive fares charged from the passengers, wh more |
|
|
|
Attack on policemen in Peshawar
By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: The death toll in the bomb attack on police party in Yakatoot rose to three after a sub-inspector and another cop succumbed to injuries at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Friday as the city mourned more |
|
|
|
‘Musharraf funnelling money to improve image’
ISLAMABAD: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has reportedly funnelled a large amount of money to his former aides in the country in order to improve his image, as he is planning a return to the c more |
|
|
|
Sen Lugar’s wife arrested, charged with drinking, hit-and-run
News Desk
WASHINGTON: The wife of Republican Senator Richard G Lugar was arrested in the suburb of McLean on Wednesday night after crashing into a parked car, and she was charged with drunk driving and hit-and-run, the F more |
|
|
|
briefs...
Bombers kill 23 in Afghanistan
HERAT: Bomb attacks on Friday killed 23 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai’s second term that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
