Attacks Against US Led Forces In Afghan Will Continue
Ah! Gee wizz … He had me at “Hello … The USA should just empty it’s aging nuke arsenal on this part of the world and embed me in shiny green glass …”
Try hard NOT to shoot coffee or whatever other ‘beverage’ you are sipping on, out your nose when you read the part about the U.N. being “subservient to the US” … {PWAAAAHAAAHAAHAAAA!}
Attacks against US led forces in Afghan will continue: Mehsud
Islamabad, May 25: Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud has said any peace deal with the government here would not cover attacks by his fighters against the US-led forces in Afghanistan.
“Islam does not recognise any man-made barriers or boundaries. `Jehad` in Afghanistan will continue,” he told a rare news conference at Kotkai in South Waziristan tribal agency when asked if the proposed peace agreement with the Pakistan government would deter cross-border infiltration.
Mehsud, however, said his fighters constituted just a fraction of an “overwhelming afghan Taliban force… Ninety-five percent of them are Afghans.”
The elusive Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander said peace talks were underway with the government but said the process hinged on the government`s resolve. The Pakistan government should prove that it was sovereign and made its own decisions without being subservient to the US, he said.
“I am afraid this peace agreement will meet the same fate as that of the previous accords if Pakistan does not prove that it is a sovereign state and takes its own decisions,” Mehsud said, referring to the 2005 peace agreement signed in South Waziristan that collapsed in a few months.
The conflict between the Pakistani Taliban and the government is “harming Islam and Pakistan” and “the sooner it ends the better it will be.”
Mehsud described Musharraf as the “root cause” of all the violence in the country and thought the situation would straighten out after he stepped down.
Acknowledging his involvement in suicide bombings, he said: “`Infidels` have nuclear arms which are weapons of mass destruction. We have suicide bombers who are target-oriented.”
But he denied existence of any training camps for suicide bombers in his area and said his group had no links with al- Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden.
Mehsud also denied he was involved in former premier Benazir Bhutto`s assassination. “Her father and two brothers had also been killed. Do we know who killed them? Politicians have their own rivalries. They know who their enemies are.”
Musharraf had blamed Mehsud for Bhutto`s assassination. A court has implicated Mehsud in the matter and declared him a proclaimed offender.
Mehsud termed audio tapes of a phone conversation that purportedly linked him to Bhutto`s murder as technical gimmickry. “Science has developed so much that I am sure they (intelligence agencies) can produce the same tape with Musharraf`s voice,” the short-stature and burly militant commander said.
He also ruled out the possibility of cooperating with a UN-led probe into Bhutto`s killing. “The United Nations is not a neutral body. It is subservient to the US. I don`t expect it to conduct an impartial enquiry. We will not work with it.”
Mehsud questioned UN`s role in Muslim countries, pointing to the situation in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Palestine.
He also denied involvement in the abduction of Pakistan`s ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin. The envoy, he claimed, was abducted by another militant group.
“But since the group sympathises with us, they thought it fit to demand the release of our men,” he argued.
Mehsud insisted the government had not released any afghans in exchange for Azizuddin. “The government said that they did not have Maulvi Obaidullah or Mansoor Dadullah in their custody. People who had been released are locals. One of them is my close associate,” he said.
He claimed his men were “holding” between 40 and 50 government officials. He also said the main objective of the Pakistani Taliban is to enforce Islamic law in the country.
Mehsud spoke to the journalists in a classroom of a school, surrounded by over 100 heavily armed guards. He did not allow his face to be photographed or filmed.
Bureau Report
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