KP Govt Offers Rs. 10(mn) Bounty For TTP's Mullah Fazlullah

Undated photo taken from video by the TTP's Umar Media propaganda wing shows chief of the banned group Mullah Fazlullah.

ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Monday announced a bounty worth Rs10 million rupees (US$100,000) for information leading to the arrest or death of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief, Mullah Fazlullah, officials said.

“The provincial government has set a bounty of Rs10 million for any information/help that can lead to the arrest or killing of TTP chief Mullah Fazlullah,” a senior official in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government told AFP, requesting anonymity.

He said that the KP government had prepared a list of 615 high profile militants and was offering a combined bounty of Rs760 million (US$7.5 million).

The official said the list also includes Mangal Bagh, chief of Lashkar-i-Islam, a Taliban-linked militant group operating in the Khyber tribal district.

Mushtaq Ghani, the provincial information minister confirmed the bounty.

Meanwhile, the country's parliament deferred voting on legislation regarding the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases until Tuesday, after the chief of a religious party objected to the contents of the national plan of action.

The bill will be presented in parliament on Tuesday for voting, after which military courts will be made legal. At present the military courts deal only with cases related to the military.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases after a deadly Taliban attack on military-run school in Peshawar that killed more than 148 people, 134 of them children.

The prime minister also ended the country's six-year-old moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases last month in the wake of the slaughter at the school.

Seven convicted militants have been hanged since the de facto ban on capital punishment ended.
Six of those executed were found guilty of trying to assassinate the then-military dictator Musharraf in Rawalpindi in 2003 and the seventh was sentenced in connection with a 2009 attack on the army headquarters.

Officials have said they plan to hang 500 convicts in the coming weeks, drawing condemnation from international human rights campaigners.

Boxer Amir Khan visits Army Public School, says ‘terrorism must stop’

Amir Khan Boxer Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif

PESHAWAR: Amir Khan, a British boxing champion of Pakistani origin, paid a visit to terror-hit Army Public School in Peshawar on Monday and said that his heart went out to the families and parents whose children had died in a brutal Taliban attack on Dec 16.

 

“The main reason I came to Pakistan was to visit Peshawar and see the parents of the victims,” Khan said.

 "Children must be scared to go back to school and the onus is on us to instil confidence in them, and also help to improve the country's security situation,” the star boxer said.

Khan expressed hope that the joint efforts of the armed forces and the citizens of Pakistan would help in ending terrorism.

“[For now], all we can do is [to] pray [for the victims' families] and hope [terrorist attacks] do not occur again,” he said.

Before visiting the Army Public School, Khan also met with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Raheel Sharif at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. During the meeting, Gen Raheel praised Khan's services for the people of Pakistan.

According to a tweet by Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) spokesman Maj Asim Bajwa, Khan also expressed solidarity with the families of the Peshawar school attack victims as well as the country's armed forces.

PM finalises strategy to strengthen National Counter Terrorism Plan

PM Nawaz Shaif

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday finalized a strategy to introduce separate working groups at the federal level as well, which would include federal ministers, DG ISI, DG IB and senior officials of other institutions, to further strengthen the National Counter Terrorism Plan.

According to sources, the Interior Ministry would oversee the implementation of all these separate working groups which would focus on the following: Prevent propagation of banned outfits, purging of various armed gangs, thwart dissemination of zealous literature, controlling the Afghan refugee situation, reformation of Madressahs, prevent any access to social media by terrorists, monitoring of Karachi Operation, and eradicate all traces of terrorism in Punjab and the rest of Pakistan.

Furthermore, the following working groups were made under separate heads to oversee the implementation of: Development reforms in FATA as well as process of returning back IDPs under Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mehtab Khan Abbasi, restriction of terrorists’ financing under Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, curbing of media coverage for terrorists under Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, and criminal reforms under the Law Minister.

Facilitator' of Taliban school attack killed in Pakistan

Pak Army Enter Into Chief Minister House While APC

Pakistani security forces have killed a Taliban commander who allegedly facilitated the Peshawar school massacre, which left 150 people dead in the country's worst ever terror attack, officials said Friday.
Named only as "Saddam", the militant was killed Thursday night in a gunfight with security forces in the restive Khyber tribal area, which borders the northwestern city of Peshawar where last week's horrific attack took place.
"Commander Saddam was a dreaded terrorist, who was killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces in Jamrud town of Khyber tribal region," top local administration official Shahab Ali Shah told a press conference in Peshawar.
"Six of his accomplices were injured and arrested."
He added that Saddam is believed to have facilitated the school attack, although the extent or capacity of his alleged involvement was not yet known.
"Authorities are currently interrogating the injured terrorists," Shah said.

Saddam and his accomplices had been involved in several recent attacks on security forces that had resulted in heavy casualties, Shah said.
The military said it killed 23 militants in aerial strikes in the troubled northwest near the Afghan border on Friday evening.
"In very effective and precise aerial strikes in North Waziristan this evening, 23 terrorists including some important commanders were killed," the military said in a statement.
"A huge underground ammunition dump and tunnel system have been destroyed," it added.

The Taliban and other militants have taken refuge in Khyber from a major army offensive launched in June in North Waziristan, another restive tribal area on the Afghan border that has been a hub for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants since the early 2000s.
Meanwhile, a US drone strike on a Taliban compound in North Waziristan killed at least four militants on Friday, officials said, the second such incident in a week.
Another drone strike in North Waziristan on December 20 killed at least five militants, officials said.
The area is generally off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to independently verify the number and identity of the dead.
Washington pressed Islamabad for years to wipe out militant sanctuaries in North Waziristan, which have been used to launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani military says it has killed more than 1,700 militants so far in its heavy offensive in the tribal zone, with 126 soldiers having lost their lives.
Pakistan has ramped up its anti-terror strategy in the wake of the December 16 slaughter at an army-run school in Peshawar, where 134 children were among the victims gunned down by heavily-armed Taliban militants.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases in order to accelerate trials, and he has also lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.
Officials said Monday that Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants in the coming weeks.