Pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah asked his followers on Friday to hit official targets, after the government ignored a demand to release his supporters, eyewitnesses and security sources said.
Abduction of government officials was part of the targets that the cleric said should be achieved. “I ask you to attack the targets,” he told a council at Iman Dheri outside Mingora city, his headquarters. “Now I will show the government what I can do,” he was quoted as telling the council.
The cleric, believed to be in his 30s, is the son-in-law of Tehreek-e-Nifaz Shariah MuhammadiÂ’s jailed leader Sufi Muhammad and enjoys widespread support among the rural people of Swat.
Since July, Swat has been experiencing Islamists-linked violence, attacks on police and security forces and bombing of audio and video shops. Meanwhile, local police arrested three persons in connection with the Patham Hotel explosion, and moved them to Peshawar for interrogation. Maulana Fazlullah declared the three arrested persons as his followers and demanded their immediate release but the police had ignored his warning. |