An al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani warlord accused of masterminding the slaying of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has issued a letter ordering an end to attacks on security forces, witnesses said yesterday.
Baitullah Mehsud, who was named by Pakistan’s Taliban movement last year as its chieftain and was alleged by the government to have links to Osama bin Laden’s network, issued the order amid peace talks with the government.
The typed letter distributed on Wednesday in the tribal region of Waziristan and in parts of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan warned that those who violated the order would be punished severely.
“Violators of the order will be publicly hanged upside down in main bazaars,” said Mehsud, known to be one of the top militant commanders in the rugged region.
“The order is final and there will be no leniency,” he said.
A senior Taliban source confirmed the contents.
“We have issued the letter,” he said requesting anonymity.
The letter came a day after officials said that the new government, which defeated allies of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in elections in February, had drafted a peace agreement with Taliban in the tribal belt.
It also follows the release of a senior pro-Taliban Pakistani militant, Sufi Mohammad, earlier this week after his banned hardline group Tahreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi pledged to renounce violence.
The government of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, a close aide of Bhutto, announced he would launch talks with any rebels who would renounce violence soon after winning the elections.
The previous pro-Musharraf government and the US’ CIA both blamed Mehsud for Bhutto’s killing in a suicide attack at an election rally in December. Mehsud has denied involvement.
Authorities have struck pacts with militants in both South and North Waziristan in recent years.
The deals brought about a temporary fall-off in violence in some parts of Pakistan but were also meant to stop attacks into Afghanistan.
However, critics, including US commanders in Afghanistan, said the deals let the militants entrench themselves on the Pakistani side of the border and intensify their attacks across it into Afghanistan.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said in Islamabad on Tuesday Pakistan should resist talking with al-Qaeda.
Earlier, Mehsud’s spokesman, Maulvi Omar, said the talks with the government were making progress.
“Talks are going well and the two sides have fulfilled their promises. We’re very hopeful,” Omar said by telephone.
The government had started withdrawing troops from different areas in South Waziristan and released some militants, he said.
But a military spokesman denied the army had pulled any troops back.
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