Taliban group ‘invites’ Musharraf to militant stronghold
Local Saturday, May 15th, 2010The head of the Pakistani army’s media arm has received an email purportedly from a group calling itself the Punjabi Taliban inviting Pakistan’s former president Pervez Musharraf to visit the tribal area and militant stronghold of North Waziristan.
A received a copy of the email sent to Major General Athar Abbas, which claimed, bizarrely, that it had set up a “fan club” for Musharaff, who survived several assassination attempts against him by militant groups during his presidency.
In North Waziristan and northern areas of Pakistan there is no independent media which represents the views of ordinary people living there, just “spies who camouflaged themselves,” the email claims.
“They (the media) try to prove that every child born here is nothing but a ‘terrorist’ though no one has any specific meaning of terrorism in any dictionary in any part of the world.
“This is also the reason people of these areas hesitate to get in touch with media of every kind,” the email reads.
The email said the Taliban Media Centre said this why it felt it must speak on behalf of the local population.
“There is a very strange feeling of the people especially the mujahideen about former president and ex-general Musharraf. We believe he is the most popular person among mujahideen; in fact he is in the top ten list,” said the email.
“That’s why we on behalf of the mujahideen, invite the ex-general in to Waziristan.
“We also assure that no one has ever welcomed him as warm heartedly as we will, arranging a red carpet reception for him.”
Musharraf’s visit to North Waziristan would demonstrate his “sympathy with the poor people of Pakistan” and his belief that his popularity was continuing to grow, the email said.
The Punjabi Taliban are also known as the Asian Tigers, a previously unknown group which gained notoriety after it kidnapped three people in late March in North Waziristan who had reportedly travelled there to interview militant leaders.
The men included a former Pakistani Inter-Services-Intelligence officer, Khalid Khwaja, a British journalist of Pakistani origin Asad Qureshi and a second ex-ISI officer, Sultan Tarar, also known as Colonel Imam.
Khwaja’s bullet ridden body was found dumped near the town of Mir Ali in North West Frontier Province last month.
One of the three men’s alleged captors , Usman Punjabi, contacted on Friday and said he had received a religious decree stating that Tarar was an “infidel” and could be executed.
On Thursday, it was reported that Tarar and Qureshi’s captors had supplied a list of 160 high-profile prisoners they wanted to be freed in exchange for Tarar’s release.
Qureshi appeared appeared in a video this week in which he appealed for help to raise the 10 million dollar ransom his captors had demanded by 15 May.
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on May 15 2010. Filed under