Chief of Taliban beheading squad captured
By Our Correspondent
Thursday, 17 Sep, 2009
MINGORA: Sher Mohammad Qasab, one of 15 Taliban ‘commanders’ carrying a head money of Rs10 million, was captured in Swat on Wednesday, along with 16 other militants.
Thirty-seven terrorists laid down their arms in different areas of the valley. Qasab’s is the third high-profile arrest announced in five days.
According to the Swat media centre, security forces arrested 17 militants, including Mohammad Qasab and his son Adalat Khan, during a search operation in Gat Kandao area of Charbagh.
Qasab, who was injured in the operation, was presented before local people in Charbagh Bazaar. His other three sons, Zahid, Shah Wazir and Perwanat, had been killed in a clash with security forces a couple of days ago.
Qasab was wanted in various cases of terrorism, including attacks on government installations and beheading of security and police personnel.
(According to AFP, military officials confirmed Qasab’s arrest. ‘He was injured during an exchange of fire with security forces. In the same exchange of fire, three of his sons were killed,’ Col Akhtar Abbas, the military spokesman in Swat, said.
‘Troops encircled him for days,’ a military official in Peshawar said. Col Abbas accused Qasab of personally beheading members of security forces and setting fire to a dozen girls’ schools in different parts of the valley.
‘He was running a slaughter centre in Charbagh where he himself used to slaughter opponents and security personnel,’ he added.)
According to the ISPR, 37 militants, including one Shamakhel and his two sons, laid down arms in Shah Dheri, Shah Dand Banda, Kanju and Bar Shor areas.
Eight tunnels were discovered and three bombs defused in Ashar, Banr and Mangaltan areas. A woman and her child were injured when a mortar shell hit their house.
Muhammad Irfan Mughal in Dera Ismail Khan adds: Eight militants were killed when security forces backed by helicopter gunships pounded their hideouts in Paharpur area near here on Wednesday.
Six militants were arrested and a large quantity of weapons and ammunition was seized. Officials said that several militant hideouts near Lakki Marwat had also been destroyed.
DAWN.COM | Pakistan | Chief of Taliban beheading squad captured
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Security forces kill 10 militants during Swat clash
Thursday, 17 Sep, 2009
PESHAWAR: Pakistan said security forces killed 10 militants, including a local Taliban commander, on Thursday in a pre-dawn exchange of fire near a river in the northwest Swat valley.
Pakistan launched a blistering offensive against the Taliban in Swat after militants marched to within 100 kilometres of the capital Islamabad in April. The military now says the area is clear.
The militants were trying to cross a river at night when police and army troops pounced on them, the military said in a statement from Swat.
The militants allegedly wanted to infiltrate Mingora, the main town in the former tourist resort.
‘Police and army acted jointly, and as a result of an exchange of fire 10 militants were killed,’ the statement said.
The municipal administration and local people buried the bodies in a graveyard after daybreak, said Major Mushtaq Khan.
Residents who identified the dead said they included an important local Taliban commander, Amjad Ali.
Pakistan has claimed three major arrests in Swat in the last week and on Wednesday captured wanted commander Sher Mohammad Qasab who led a beheading squad during a two-year uprising in the valley.
Swat had slipped out of government control after radical cleric Mullah Fazlullah rose up in July 2007, commanding thousands of followers who beheaded opponents, burnt schools and fought to enforce Islamic law.
Qasab was one of 15 Swat commanders commanding a 10-million-rupee bounty. The army said he was injured and arrested in a military operation in which three of his sons were killed and another captured.
Pakistan's list of most-wanted Taliban militants in Swat is headed by Fazlullah who has 50 million rupees on his head.
A military spokesman in Swat accused Qasab of personally beheading security personnel and setting fire to a dozen girls' schools in different parts of the valley, where western tourists would once go skiing.
On Friday, Pakistan announced the arrest of the Swat Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan and Mahmood Khan, a northern commander.
