- News>
- Asia
Taliban not to attack Pakistan forces: Report
Taliban militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan have formed a new grouping which has pledged to stop targeting Pakistani security forces.
Islamabad: Taliban militants in Afghanistan
and Pakistan have formed a new grouping which has pledged to stop targeting Pakistani security forces and focus their attention on US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan at the intervention of their elusive supreme commander Mullah Omar.
At the instruction of the one-eyed Omar, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban formed a joint five-member `shura` or council with other Pakistani militant groups yesterday to oversee an end to attacks on Pakistani forces, The News daily quoted its sources in the Taliban as saying. Mullah Omar has not surfaced since the flight of the Taliban from Kabul in 2001 and according to reports is sheltering in and around Quetta, the capital of Pakistan`s restive southwestern Balochistan province.
The new `shura` includes the Haqqani network and powerful commanders of the groups led by Maulvi Nazeer and Hafiz Gul Bahadur who have already signed a peace deal with the Pakistan army.
The new entrants into the `shura` are the factions of Pakistani Taliban led by Hakimullah Mehsud and Maulana Waliur Rahman from South Waziristan. The moves to unite factions of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban comes in the wake of pressure by the US government on Islamabad to take military action against these groups believed to be a massed in North Waziristan.
The five-member `shura` with other Pakistani militant groups made a pledge to "stop their fight against their own armed forces and instead focus their attention against the US-led forces in Afghanistan", The News said.
PTI
At the instruction of the one-eyed Omar, the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban formed a joint five-member `shura` or council with other Pakistani militant groups yesterday to oversee an end to attacks on Pakistani forces, The News daily quoted its sources in the Taliban as saying. Mullah Omar has not surfaced since the flight of the Taliban from Kabul in 2001 and according to reports is sheltering in and around Quetta, the capital of Pakistan`s restive southwestern Balochistan province.
The new `shura` includes the Haqqani network and powerful commanders of the groups led by Maulvi Nazeer and Hafiz Gul Bahadur who have already signed a peace deal with the Pakistan army.
The new entrants into the `shura` are the factions of Pakistani Taliban led by Hakimullah Mehsud and Maulana Waliur Rahman from South Waziristan. The moves to unite factions of Afghan and Pakistani Taliban comes in the wake of pressure by the US government on Islamabad to take military action against these groups believed to be a massed in North Waziristan.
The five-member `shura` with other Pakistani militant groups made a pledge to "stop their fight against their own armed forces and instead focus their attention against the US-led forces in Afghanistan", The News said.
PTI