US offers $5 million reward for Pakistan Taliban leader

[ddlee96969]

That is terrible news for India and Afghanistan. I hope this is a sincere effort by the US and not a cosmetic one to please Pakistan.

ask for reward first

 

[Solomon2]

Good move and this is just days after a drone strike which took out much of their leadership.

Why does Pakistan have only a $90k reward for this guy? Since Pakistan doesn't have a witness protection program the collector would have to leave the country, right? If you're already established in Pakistan with a house, job, and family would $90k really be sufficient?

 

[Dalit]

"Head price" for MF is only $90,000. Apparently the U.S. wants him sixty times more than Pakistan does!

@Taimoor Khan @SecularNationalist

I doubt it. He is a terror asset of the USA. I guess he is not needed anymore after killing thousands of innocent Pakistanis.

Nope..
They were play boy of Pakistan army and isi but they becoming bad boys.

Isi is unable to control then so now the called as terrorists. This is between your good and bad terrorists, nothing related to India.

For us, there is no bad or good terrorists. Who is attacking on India, afghanistan or pakistan. They should be killed... Terrorists should be killed at any cost.

Good job US... Kill them as soon as possible

LOL good way to hide your loss. Just pretend the terrorist you were nurtering belongs to the other side.

Good ban by the mods. One monkey less on this forum.

 

[Solomon2]

I doubt it. He is a terror asset of the USA. I guess he is not needed anymore after killing thousands of innocent Pakistanis.

I think you've noticed that there's no basis for your "doubt" and "guess."

 

[Dalit]

I think you've noticed that there's no basis for your "doubt" and "guess."

Either way, we don't care about this cosmetic killing. The damage has been inflicted long ago. These terrorists have killed countless Pakistanis. We know who is to be blamed for nurtering these terrorists.

Flex your muscles on an Indian forum. You don't convince us.

 

[Solomon2]

Flex your muscles on an Indian forum. You don't convince us.

"Us"? Are you a king or queen that you use the royal "we"? Since you don't have any reasoned comeback it's clear you're not here to be "convinced" but merely to pose.

 

[Kompromat]

They know exactly where he is.

 

[Dalit]

"Us"? Are you a king or queen that you use the royal "we"? Since you don't have any reasoned comeback it's clear you're not here to be "convinced" but merely to pose.

Says the Jew who doesn't even belong on this forum LOL You are what we call a lost soul.

Now convince us harder because so far you have done a pretty lousy job.

They know exactly where he is.

Not only that. He is their man. A little terrorist they have let on the loose.

 

[Solomon2]

RAHIMULLAH YUSUFZAI | Published — Monday 12 March 2018

US-Pakistan relations on the mend thanks to reward offer

The United States has started making a determined effort to address Pakistan’s long-standing grievances by offering reward money for information on three top Pakistani Taliban commanders currently based in Afghanistan.

Last week’s move could not only placate Islamabad, but also bring it under pressure to consider deeper cooperation with Washington and Kabul to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan. Both the US and Afghanistan have been asking Pakistan to use its influence over the Afghan Taliban leadership to persuade it to hold peace talks with the Afghan government or take action against those who insist on continuing the war. Until now, Pakistan’s consistent reply has been that it doesn’t have decisive influence on the Taliban leaders to make them change their policy of refusing direct talks with the Afghan government until there has been a complete withdrawal of US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s Feb. 28 invitation to the Taliban for peace talks and an offer to recognize the group as a legitimate political organization could contribute to the prospects of initiating an Afghan-owned peace process. Taken unaware by Ghani’s generous offer, the Taliban’s formal reply is still awaited.

Though the US has in the past carried out drone strikes in both Afghanistan and Pakistan to kill Pakistani Taliban members, its decision to go after the three top militants could help stop any further deterioration in the relations between Islamabad and Washington. It could also prompt the two to work with each other in the war against terrorism instead of at cross purposes.

America’s decision to go after three top Taliban militants could prompt Washington and Islamabad to work with each other in the war against terrorism instead of at cross purposes.​

Rahimullah Yusufzai​

The US State Department announced a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mullah Fazlullah, the head of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the group that has spearheaded a violent campaign against Pakistan since December 2007 to punish it for joining the US-led war on terror. Under its previous heads, Baitullah Mehsud and Hakimullah Mehsud, who were both killed in earlier US drone strikes, the TTP controlled large tracts of territory in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the Malakand division and Swat before suffering defeat at the hands of the Pakistani military in massive operations launched from 2009 to 2014. Fazlullah and his fighters escaped to neighboring Afghanistan in the summer of 2009 and are now reportedly based in Kunar and Nuristan provinces.

Rewards of $3 million each were also announced by the US for information on Abdul Wali, aka Omar Khalid Khorasani, leader of the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the TTP, and Mangal Bagh, head of the smaller militant group Lashkar-i-Islam. Pakistan has alleged that the three fugitive militants have built safe havens in eastern Nangarhar province and are using Afghan soil to launch terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

Fazlullah, Wali and Bagh are among the most-wanted men for Pakistan, which had already announced reward money for their capture and outlawed their groups. These organizations had claimed responsibility for some of the most horrendous terrorist attacks in Pakistan. Fazlullah’s TTP claimed the 2014 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar, in which 141 people, including 132 schoolchildren, were killed. It also claimed responsibility for the beheading of seven Pakistani soldiers in June 2012, the shooting of Malala Yousafzai in October 2012, and the failed bid by Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad to detonate an explosive device in Times Square, New York, in May 2010. Among other attacks, Wali’s JUA was accused of killing two Pakistani employees of the US Consulate in Peshawar in March 2016, and Bagh’s men of attacking NATO supply convoys.

The reward offers came two days after a US drone strike on a compound in Kunar killed 21 TTP militants, including Fazlullah’s son Abdullah and suicide bombing trainer Ustad Yaseen. In other recent US drone attacks in Afghanistan, TTP deputy leader Khan Said Sajna and top operative Khalifa Umar Mansoor, the mastermind of the Peshawar school massacre, were killed in Paktika and Nangarhar provinces, respectively.

Those killings and the recent US move to offer reward money for Fazlullah, Wali and Bagh should take care of some of Pakistan’s concerns, though Islamabad will also want the US to help curtail arch-rival India’s influence in Afghanistan. Pakistan will need to take steps to address US concerns, particularly its demand to go after the Haqqani network, which was designated as a terrorist organization by Washington in 2012 after being held responsible for major terrorist attacks in the Afghan capital, Kabul. After a flurry of diplomatic visits and reassuring statements by Pakistan and the US that they wanted to continue efforts to improve relations, a thaw in the relationship is finally becoming visible despite President Donald Trump’s tough language against Islamabad last year.

— Rahimullah Yusufzai is a senior political and security analyst in Pakistan. He was the first to interview Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and twice interviewed Osama Bin Laden in 1998. Twitter: @rahimyusufzai1