Islamabad: Around 60 second-rung Taliban
leaders fled the Swat valley after a military operation was
launched there and used the southern Pakistani port city of
Karachi as a transit route to travel to the Middle East,
according to a media report today.
While activists of nationalist parties in Sindh
province blocked roads on the border with Punjab to stop the
influx of people displaced by the military operation in Swat,
the Taliban`s second-rung leadership travelled to Karachi by
train and then flew to Middle Eastern countries.
Sleeper cells of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in
Karachi facilitated the travel of at least 60 militant leaders
and arranged air tickets to the Middle East for them, the
Daily Times newspaper quoted its sources as saying.
Some of those who travelled to the Middle East via
Karachi were close to Taliban leaders Muslim Khan and Maulana
Fazlullah and were part of the militants` decision-making
council.
A sizeable number of people from Malakand division,
which includes Swat, work in the Middle East. After Sufi
Muhammad created the Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi in the
1990s, he took around 10,000 activists to fight US forces in
Afghanistan.
When the TNSM lost its hold, several of its activists
left for the Middle East.
Bureau Report
