Pakistan :Another key Taliban leaders killed

 Another key Taliban leaders killed  

By Zia Ur Rehman  

Three other key Taliban leaders of the banned extremist group, Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi (in short TNSM which means the Movement for the Enforcement of Sharia in English), headed by Maualana Sufi Muhammad, in insurgency-ploughed area of Malakand Division of Pakistan, it is reported.

ISPR, a Pakistan military’s public relations body, claimed three leaders including Amir Izaat Khan, Maulana Alam and Maulana Wahab, who were spokesperson, second ranked head and member of central committee of TNSM respectively, were been killed during a clash between the Taliban militants and Pakistan’s military in the area of Sakhakot in Saturday’s morning.  

ISPR further added that a convoy of <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />Pakistan military carrying the prisoners including the said leaders of TNSM, from Batkhela to Peshawar, the provincial capital, for investigation purpose, which was attacked by the dozens of armed militants in the areas of Sakhakot. They added that leaders of TNSM were killed in exchange of firing between the both military and the militants. They also claimed that a military officer has been also killed while five soldiers sustained injuries from the government’s side in this clash.

Independent security experts are seeing the killing of leaders of this banned Taliban group with a suspicious eye. they opine that no one key leader of Malakand chapter of  Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP in short which means the  Movement of Pakistani Taliban in English) is not arrested or killed yet which show the weaknesses of the operation carrying on in Malakand to crush Taliban militants. TTP is the main powerful terrorist group, headed by Baitullah Mehsud, who is the responsible for all the bloodshed and suicide attacks committed in Pakistan as well as charged in the assassination of Mrs.Benzair Bhutto, former prime minister of the country. An advertisement had been published in the province’s main newspapers carrying a reward of million of rupees on the leaders of Malakand chapter of TTP, including Maualana Fazlullah, Muslim Khan, Ibn-e-Amin and others.

According to the experts, the defunct TNSM and TTP are two separate organisations and the military is only arresting and killing the leaders of TNSM instead of TTP which shows the lapses in the operation till the time carrying out in Swat.