http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=124103&d=29&m=6&y=2009
Monday 29 June 2009 (06 Rajab 1430)
Rs.50m bounty on Mehsud's head
Azhar Masood | Arab News
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yesterday offered a Rs.50 million reward for
information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Baitullah Mehsud, a top
leader of the Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP).
Mehsud set up the TTP umbrella group of militants in 2007 and has
steadily extended his influence into North Waziristan and Bajaur districts and
nearby cities of Tank and Dera Ismail Khan.
Two national Urdu-language newspapers and local papers in the northwest
city of Peshawar carried an advert offering the 50-million-rupee ($615,300)
reward for Mehsud, and other amounts for 10 of his senior militants.
"The government has announced a cash reward for anybody providing
authentic information leading to the capture of these (11), dead or alive,"
said the advertisement. It then lists the wanted men, along with their bounties.
"Innocent people are being killed because of the bloody activities of
these so-called defenders of Islam," the advert says. Fighter jets and
helicopter gunships have been pounding Mehsud's hide-outs for weeks, ahead of
an expected ground offensive following a similar operation to root out Taleban
in and around northwest Swat Valley launched in late April.
Fayyaz Tooro, home secretary of the North West Frontier Province, said it
was the first time Pakistan had slapped a figure on Al-Qaeda-linked Mehsud.
"This list has been issued by the Interior Ministry and has been
published for the first time in close cooperation with security agencies, which
provided invaluable information to the government," Tooro said.
Mehsud already has a $5 million bounty on his head offered by the United
States, with the US State Department branding the warlord "a key Al-Qaeda
facilitator in the tribal areas of South Waziristan."
Pakistan blames Mehsud for a wave of deadly attacks killing hundreds of
people here in a two-year insurgency and has vowed to unseat him from his
fiefdom in the peaks of South Waziristan.All but two of the 10 other wanted men
hail from the tribal belt, with bounties of between 10 and 15 million rupees
each for close aides Maulvi Faqir Mohammad and Qari Hussain, and Taleban
spokesman Hakimullah Mehsud.
Analysts and security sources have said that the military will likely try
to fan rivalries among the Mehsud tribe to gain allies before any operation
into the hostile, mountainous territory along the Afghan border.
That strategy was dealt a blow on Tuesday when Qari Zainuddin - a rising
tribal leader who had defected from Mehsud's Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan - was
assassinated in an attack claimed by the TTP.
Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt has become a stronghold for Taleban
and Al-Qaeda extremists who fled Afghanistan after a US-led invasion toppled
the Taleban regime in late 2001.
At least six soldiers were killed yesterday when their convoy came under
attack about 45 km west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, an
official said.
- With input from agencies
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