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