Senior Taliban militant kills himself during police raid

Abdullah Mehsud, a former Guantanamo Bay inmate, at an undisclosed location in a file photo. Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader, blew himself up to avoid arrest by government forces near the Afghan border on Tuesday, three years after his release from Guantanamo Bay, officials said. REUTERS/Stringer



Senior Taliban militant kills himself during police raid
By Salman Masood
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
IHT

ISLAMABAD: One of the most wanted Taliban militants in Pakistan killed himself after refusing to surrender as troops raided a hideout in Zhob in the southwestern Baluchistan province, officials said Tuesday.
Javed Iqbal Cheema, a retired brigadier who heads the national crisis management cell of the Interior Ministry, confirmed the death of Abdullah Mehsud, a local tribesman from South Waziristan tribal area.
"He was an active Taliban commander and a supporter of Al Qaeda," Cheema said.
The announcement of Mehsud's death comes on the heels of stepped up pressure by the United States on the Pakistani government. American assertions that military action remained an option to quell militants, who have found a safe haven in Pakistan's frontier regions, have drawn a strong protest from the government here.
On Monday, a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson said any action by the United States in the Pakistani territory would be unacceptable. Pakistani officials maintain that any counter-terrorism operations inside its territory will be conducted solely by its security forces.
"Baluchistan police carried a raid in the wee hours of Tuesday morning on the house of Muhammad Ayub and cordoned off the area," Cheema said. "In order to avoid arrest, Abdullah Mehsud blew himself up," he said.
However, an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the raid was a joint operation of anti-terrorist force and the inter-services intelligence.
Mehsud's movements were being tracked for the past two to three days, the official said.
Pakistani officials had in the past also claimed the killing of Mehsud. This time they talked with more certainty.
"We are two hundred percent sure he is dead," said Cheema, who is also the spokesperson for the Interior Ministry.
"The autopsy of the Abdullah Mehsud was done in Zhob," Cheema said. Three of his accomplices were also arrested.
The one-legged Mehsud, 32, known for his dare-devil personality and bravado, was released from Guantanamo Bay in March 2004 after 25 months in captivity.
"He returned to a senior Taliban leadership position," Cheema said. Mehsud was involved in numerous attacks on the security forces in the Waziristan. He was also involved in militant activities in the Helmand province of Afghanistan.
Mehsud was most wanted in masterminding the 2004 kidnapping of two Chinese men, both engineers, who were taken with their Pakistani driver and a security guard in the South Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan. Both Chinese, Wang Ende and Wang Peng, were working on a multi-million-dollar hydroelectric dam project. One engineer was later killed and the other freed in a raid by government troops.
Pakistani officials expressed hoped that Mehsud's death would have a demoralizing effect on the rebel militants in South Waziristan tribal area, whcih straddles the border with Afghanistan,
Zhob in southwestern Baluchistan province has a mainly Pashtun population.
Meanwhile, the efforts by Pakistani government to resuscitate a peace deal with the pro-Taliban militants in the North Waziristan remained unsuccessful. Deadlock continued to persist in negotiations between a council of tribal elders and the governor of North West Frontier Province in provincial capital Peshawar.


Top Pakistani Taliban leader blows himself up to evade arrest
PTI
ISLAMABAD: Top Pakistani Taliban commander and former Guantanamo Bay detainee Abdullah Mehsud on Tuesday blew himself up to avoid arrest by Pakistan military during a raid in Balochistan along the Afghanistan border.
Mehsud led the local Taliban militia in south Waziristan following his release by Pakistan in March 2004, soon after the US sent him back from the detention centre for terror suspects.
He was among the most wanted militant leaders in Pakistan especially for his involvement in the abduction and killing of two Chinese engineers in 2004.
Mehsud blew himself up with a hand grenade when troops surrounded his hideout around 8:30 am at Zhob, 300 km north of Balochistan provincial capital Quetta.
Two of his brothers and an aide also stated to be a Pak-Taliban commander were taken into custody during the raid which took place after security agencies were tipped off.
Mehsud had apparently come to visit a Taliban sympathizer Sheikh Ayub Muthakhel, a top leader of the Jamat Ulema Islam, (JUI) headed by Fazlur Rehman, the Secretary General of Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal, (MMA).
The 32-year-old one legged Taliban leader was also believed to be behind the recent attacks against Chinese in Peshawar and Hub town in Balochistan.
The success for Pakistani military came after a verbal spat between Washington and Islamabad over warnings of direct military strikes by the US in militants bases in Pakistan's tribal areas.
Mesud was captured while fighting along with the Taliban in 2003 and was detained in Guantanamo.

© 2005-2007 Diligent Media Corporation Ltd. All rights reserved.



Profile: Abdullah Mehsud


Abdullah Mehsud
Mehsud said he led his fighters by taking risks
Abdullah Mehsud, who Pakistani officials say is dead, was a Taleban veteran of Guantanamo Bay who became one of Pakistan's most wanted Islamic militant leaders.
Mehsud, 33, spent 25 months in custody at the US base in Cuba before his release in March 2004.
He commanded militants who kidnapped two Chinese engineers in Pakistan's South Waziristan region shortly after his release.
One of the Chinese men was killed during a rescue bid by Pakistani forces.
As a young man, Mehsud fought for the Taleban against the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
He lost a leg in a landmine explosion a few days before the Taleban took Kabul in September 1996.
He surrendered along with several thousand fighters to the forces of Uzbek warlord, Abdul Rashid Dostum, in December 2001 in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, and was later turned over to the US military authorities.
Mehsud studied at a government college in Peshawar before attending a seminary where he befriended Afghan Taleban members and joined their movement.
Daredevil
Mehsud, whose real name is Noor Alam, is a Pashtun, the same ethnic group as the Taleban and belongs to the Mehsud tribe that inhabits South Waziristan on the Afghanistan border.


Abdullah Mehsud
Mehsud declared holy war on President Musharraf

The BBC's Rahimullah Yusufzai in Peshawar says his long hair and daredevil nature made him a colourful character.
After his return from Guantanamo, Mehsud became a hero to anti-US fighters active in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He was a comrade of another tribal militant commander, Nek Mohammad, who was killed by a Pakistani army missile in June.
Our correspondent says Mehsud sometimes rode a camel or horse while visiting his fighters in the mountains.
On other occasions, his men drive him in a vehicle and protected him round-the-clock.
In a telephone interview with the BBC in 2004, Mehsud told our correspondent that he led his fighters by example by taking risks and surviving in tough conditions.
Criticising US policies toward Muslims, he said the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan was a provocation for the followers of Islam and must be avenged.
He said he did not want to fight the Pakistan army but had declared jihad, or holy war, against the government of President Pervez Musharraf, who he accused of carrying out US policies in the region.