Rs50m bounty for Baitullah
Source: Our Staff Reporter June 29, 2009 PESHAWAR - The federal government Sunday announced Rs50 million as head money on Baitullah Mehsud holed up in the tribal belt.
Besides, cash rewards for any information leading to arrest of 10 other militant commanders have also been made public.
A bounty of RS 15 million has been offered on Maulvi Faqir Mohammad. Faqir Mohammad is second to Bait Ullah Mehsud.
It is ironic to mention here is that Maulvi Faqir Mohammad was accorded official protocol on the eve of his visit to Commissioner House in Saidu Sharif on April 9 last. One may recall that this is the same militant commander who was invited by his fried Syed Mohammad Javed, former Commissioner of Malakand for mediating between Taliban militants and elders of Buner district.
Faqir Mohammad was escorted by well-equipped gun-touting Taliban militants including foreigners.
Third in the list of wanted miscreants is Abdul Wali. Abdul Wali introduced himself as Omar Khalid and head money of RS 10 million is being offered for any information leading to his arrest. His second-in-command Qari Shakeel is also included in the list with RS 10 million as head money.
The government also announced RS 10 million each as head money for Commander Tariq Afridi of Dara Adam Khel, Hakeem Ullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain.
Both Hakeem Ullah Mehsud and Qari Hussain are considered deputies to Bait Ullah Mehsud. Qari Hussain is mastermind of the suicide bombing.
The government announced RS 5 million as head money for Qari Ziaur Rehman an Afghan national and residing in a refugees camp at Bajaur. Fazal Saeed Otezai is the second in the list and hails from Kurram Agency. Mufti Ilyas is on 10th in the list. He is followed by Waliur Rehman from Mohmand Agency.
It is interesting to mention here that law-enforcement agencies time and again have been claiming killing a number of these wanted elements.
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AFP adds: The government has announced a cash reward for anybody providing authentic information leading to the capture of these (11), dead or alive,” said the advertisement. It then lists the wanted men, along with their bounties.
“Innocent people are being killed because of the bloody activities of these so-called defenders of Islam,” the advertisement adds.
NWFP Home Secretary Fayyaz Tooro said it was the first time Pakistan had slapped a figure on Mehsud. “This list has been issued by the Interior Ministry and has been published for the first time in close cooperation with security agencies, which provided invaluable information to the government,” Tooro told.
Mehsud already has a $ 5 million bounty on his head offered by the United States, with the US State Department branding the warlord ‘a key Al-Qaeda facilitator in the tribal areas of South Waziristan’.
The government blames Mehsud for a wave of deadly attacks killing hundreds of people here in two years of insurgency, and has vowed to unseat him from his fiefdom in the peaks of northwest South Waziristan.
Pakistan has already offered a Rs 50 million reward for the Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah. The interior minister has said Fazlullah is injured and close to capture, but the army has refused to confirm those reports.
Earlier the NWFP government announced head money against 22 leading figures of Taliban militants from Swat. So far not a single amongst these 22 was netted.