KARACHI – The Tehreek-e-Taliban Swat has claimed dispatching a batch of 10 suicide bombers to the Tribal Areas to fight security forces combating militants near the Afghanistan border.
In the latest video message, Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah said, “Four of the suicide bombers have completed their tasks, while a group of another 300 bombers are ready to take their turn.” The video shows 10 young would-be bombers, their faces covered in head-scarves, listening to Fazlullah, accompanied by a few other Taliban leaders.
Taliban’s Swat media cell, Al-Fateh, was providing a copy of the DVD to reporters in Karachi, which carried the recording of Fazlullah’s address, which is divided into three parts. The first part is the address to the would-be suicide bombers; the second part to Muslims in general; and the third part to the media.
The video suggests that the fleeing Taliban leader was alive, active and living in Waziristan. “We want to tell the world that Fazlullah is alive and fine,” said a person who handed over the video message. Sources said the DVD was recorded in the first week of December 2010 at an undisclosed location in Malakand for dispelling the impression that Fazlullah had been killed and convey a message to the authorities that the Taliban leader would continue to attack law enforcement agencies, their supporters and ANP leaders.
“Journalists should support us as we are working for an Islamic revolution in the country,” the Taliban leader stressed in his message. An Awami National Party senior leader said they had been receiving threats from the Taliban for the last two years. “I have lost my only son in this fight and will never surrender to the militants,” said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Secretary Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
Dozens of ANP activists and leaders have been killed in suicide attacks, he said, adding that they “do not have concrete evidence of Fazlullah’s condition”.
