Taliban hold government, army responsible for TNSM leaders' assassination

Peshawar, June 8 (ANI): Furious over the death of TNSM leaders, Maulana Mohammad Alam and Amir Izzat Khan, the Taliban has blamed the NWFP government and the Pakistan Army for the killings.

The Taliban rejected the government's version that the leaders were killed in an ambush with the militants.

"Their sacrifices would not go waste. They were killed as part of the government's new policy to eliminate all the Taliban leaders and commanders," the Taliban's Swat chapter spokesperson Muslim Khan said.

"The two were eliminated as a gift to the visiting US diplomat Richard Holbrooke," Khan added.

The arrested TNSM leaders were being taken to Peshawar along with some terrorists, when some suspected terrorists blew up their vehicle with a remote-controlled bomb in Sakhakot.

Terming the whole incident as government's drama, he said the Taliban did not carry out attacks on military convoys leaving the Swat Valley or the Malakand Division.

"We normally don't attack military convoys leaving Swat. Taliban cannot attack colleagues from the TNSM. It was a drama staged by the government to kill the TNSM leaders and then put the blame on us," The News quoted Khan, as saying.

He vowed that the Taliban would continue its resistance against the military until the implementation of Sharia in Malakand Division.

"We would continue to resist the military operation in Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and other districts of the Malakand Division and choose the target," Khan said. (ANI)