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Maulana Mirajuddin Maulana Mirajuddin Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal India-Pakistan 20060311 Link

India-Pakistan
Mehsud ‘peace broker' shot dead in Tank
2010-05-21
PESHAWAR: A former Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) MNA and leading Mehsud tribe member who had played the part of a peace broker between the government and the Taliban, Maulana Mirajuddin, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen near South Waziristan, officials said on Thursday.

“Two gunmen riding a motorcycle shot and killed Maulana Mirajuddin as he was returning from morning prayers on the outskirts of Tank... the attackers fled the scene after shooting the leader,' police sources told Daily Times by phone from Tank.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the killing, however, a JUI-F leader said the Taliban was not responsible for murdering Mirajuddin. “It was not the Taliban, however the government may have been responsible for the killing,' Maulana Niaz Ali Shah, the JUI-F information secretary in the Mehsud areas of South Waziristan, told reporters.
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India-Pakistan
Thousands flee tense Wazoo
2009-05-22
"I am ready to give you passage through Ahmedzai Wazir areas to Afghanistan if you want to fight the occupational forces there. But I cannot join you against the Pakistani forces..."
Residents of South Waziristan are fleeing the agency amid a build up of forces by the army and the Taliban. "Mehsuds are leaving their areas in Sarwakai and Ladah tehsils for fears of an operation," local sources told Daily Times. Former tribal MNA Maulana Mirajuddin confirmed "hundreds of thousands" of people were on the move.

There have been no reports that Ahmedzai Wazirs are migrating. The tribes are seeking an "unambiguous pledge" from Taliban leader Maulvi Nazir to stay away from Baitullah Mehsud if he fights against the army, Ahmedzai Wazirs elders told Daily Times by phone from Wana. Unconfirmed reports say Nazir has told Baitullah: "I am ready to give you passage through Ahmedzai Wazir areas to Afghanistan if you want to fight the occupational forces there. But I cannot join you against the Pakistani forces..."

A group of elders attempted to meet Nazir on Thursday but could not because the Taliban leader is keeping his location secret to avoid a drone attack from the United States.
Cowardy, cowardy custard!
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India-Pakistan
Mehsuds urge govt not to target tribesmen's houses
2008-01-29
The Mehsud tribe’s grand jirga on Monday demanded the government stop targeting the houses of innocent tribesmen during its ongoing war against local Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud.

Several local elders, including Senator Maulana Saleh Shah, former member of the National Assembly Maulana Mirajuddin, Malik Masood Ahmad, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Sardar Hizbullah Gandapur and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami leader Sheikh Mohammad Shafi attended the jirga, which was held in Tank.

The jirga said the government should stop damaging the property of peaceful tribesmen. The PML-N leader sympathised with the Mehsud tribesmen, and said his party supported the Meshuds during the prevailing crisis. He said President Pervez Musharraf had imposed a war on loyal tribesmen to appease the United States in the war on terror. He also offered his houses in Karak and Dera Ismail Khan to the people who had been displaced by the South Waziristan operation.
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India-Pakistan
Mehsuds stage protest rally in Tank
2008-01-24
Mehsud tribesmen staged a demonstration in the South Waziristan political katchehry (court) in Tank here on Wednesday. Addressing the demonstrators, local elder Hassan Khan appealed to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amnesty International, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and national and international media organisations to witness ‘atrocities’ being committed against tribesmen.

He said economic sanctions had been imposed on the tribesmen of South Wazirstan, calling them “a violation of international laws and United Nations charter”. Other speakers said the government had deployed around 70,000 troops along the border with Afghanistan, which according to them was guarded by the Mehsud tribesmen in the past.

Later, local elders held a jirga. Several elders, including Maulana Mirajuddin and Malik Masood Ahmed, told the jirga that tribesmen should join hands to prepare a strategy to resolve the crisis.

Maulana Attaur Rehman, brother of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and a candidate for NA-25, also participated in the jirga, assuring the tribesmen of his support. He said, “Action being taken by the government against tribal people, especially the Mehsud tribe, is a blow to national interests.” The jirga formed a 33-member committee, which would resume its activities from Thursday (today) for restoring peace in the area. Also, Mehsud traders in Tank observed a shutter-down strike against the ongoing military operation in the area.
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India-Pakistan
Govt-Mehsud tribe pact collapses
2007-12-11
The Mehsud tribe in the troubled South Waziristan Agency announced on Monday the collapse of their pact with the government, saying they would not support the government or be responsible for militant activities in the agency till the government released seven local Taliban.

The announcement was made by representatives of the Mehsud tribe at a jirga here. Besides tribal elders and religious scholars, a large number of tribesmen participated in the jirga. The jirga also announced a boycott of the election in the agency and a ban on attending the political administration’s offices till the acceptance of their demands. Ex-member of the National Assembly Maulana Mirajuddin and other elders including Maulana Asam, Malik Masood Ahmad, Malik Saifur Rehman, Malik Haider Khan and Malik Dilber Khan addressed the jirga participants.

They called upon the government to release the seven arrested men immediately, as it had promised to release them in exchange for the release of more than 200 security personnel taken hostage by the Taliban on August 30 and freed on November 4, a day after the enforcement of emergency rule. A senior jirga member told Daily Times that the government had released 25 local Taliban of the total 32, which they called a violation of the cooperation pact between the government and Mehsud tribes.
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India-Pakistan
4 FC men, 3 militants killed in Bannu clash
2007-08-23
BANNU: Four Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel and three militants were killed in two separate attacks when militants attacked a checkpost jointly manned by police and FC personnel in the Miran police precincts in Bannu as well as a checkpost in Tiarza on Wednesday.

Miran police station duty officer Qudratullah told Daily Times by phone that unidentified militants attacked the Norar checkpost, 12 kilometres from Bannu, at around 2:45am on Wednesday. He said that three FC men died in the attack, while three attackers were killed and two injured in retaliatory firing.

However, the attackers managed to take their injured accomplices with them. Qudratullah said the militants attacked the checkpost from two sides and used rockets and other weapons. He said there were 10 FC personnel and seven policemen present at the checkpost at the time of the attack. The dead officials are havaldar Saeed Amin, lance naik Ishaq Ali and sepoy Bedar Bakht. In another incident in South Waziristan Agency, militants fired rockets at the Tiarza checkpost, injuring six soldiers, military spokesman Maj Gen Wahid Arshad told Daily Times.

However, sources in Wana told Daily Times that one soldier was killed when militants fired at a military transport helicopter that was landing at the Tiarza helipad. Maj Gen Arshad rejected the report, saying that the militants attacked the security checkpost and not the helicopter.

He told AFP that the soldier later died of injuries sustained during the battle. Meanwhile, MNA Maulana Mirajuddin of the MMA has reached an undisclosed area in South Waziristan to hold talks with militants who recently kidnapped 15 FC soldiers.
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India-Pakistan
Seven militants killed in Waziristan
2007-08-18
MIRANSHAH/WANA: Two foreigners were among three militants killed on Friday after they ignored a signal to stop their vehicle at a checkpost in North Waziristan, as a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a military convoy in Tank district, killing himself and injuring five soldiers, officials said. The foreigners were identified as Uzbeks. Their bodies were flown to Miranshah for a DNA test, official sources told Daily Times.

The militants were signalled to stop at Jalar checkpost, three kilometres south of Mir Ali town, but they did not, prompting an action from security forces. "The two foreign militants were killed instantly and the other injured militant died moments later. Their injured accomplice was taken into custody and is under treatment," the sources said.

Mir Ali town, according to local residents, is a stronghold of foreign militants and Uzbeks flushed out from Wana and surrounding areas of South Waziristan early this year, took shelter in the area. The military convoy came under attack on its way to Manzai from Tank city.

Meanwhile, security forces backed by gunship helicopters continued pounding targets of suspected militants in South Waziristan, after an ambush on a military convoy on Thursday. According to military sources, 15 militants and seven security personnel were killed in the clashes. "We have carried out heavy bombing of areas where militants were reported sheltering and attacking the security forces," the sources said.

Tribal sources in Jandola, main town on the border of South Waziristan, said big explosions were heard in the Chaghmalay and Sarwakai areas on Thursday night and Friday, adding that the security forces were using gunship helicopters and artillery against militants from Jandola base. Residents of Chaghmalay and Sarwakai were reported fleeing the areas, but the movement across Mehsud areas was almost impossible as all routes were either closed or risky to use.

A 21-member Mehsud peace jirga went to South Waziristan to hold talks with Mehsud militants, who kidnapped 15 paramilitary soldiers last week. MMA's MNA Maulana Mirajuddin is leading the jirga. He told Daily Times on Thursday that he was hopeful of the release of 15 Frontier Corps personnel, but Thursday clashes "concerned me".

"The jirga is meeting the kidnapers (appear to be tribal militants demanding release of their comrades from the government custody) at an undisclosed location in South Waziristan," sources in political administration of Wana said.

Agencies add: Militants attacked two security posts in the Tiarza area, about 20 km north of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan region, security officials in the area said. The security forces suffered no casualties and killed four of the militants, they said. The two Waziristan regions are near the Afghan border, where security officials say remnants of Al Qaida and Taliban are hiding. There has been a surge in attacks on the security forces in the tribal region since July, when militants ended a 2006 peace deal, accusing the government of violating the agreement by deploying additional troops at checkpoints in the region.
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India-Pakistan
15 killed in Waziristan
2007-08-17
Ten militants and three soldiers were killed in an attack on a military convoy in South Waziristan, while two soldiers were killed and four others injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in North Waziristan on Thursday.

"Militants ambushed a military convoy near Chaghmalay, and air support was sought against them. Ten militants were killed and 12 injured while the security forces suffered two casualties," military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told Daily Times.

Arshad said that two soldiers were killed and four others injured in a roadside explosion near Kaka Ziarat in Teti Madakhel, 70 kilometres north of North Waziristan's Mir Ali town, and the security forces had arrested six persons for carrying out the attack. The attacked convoy was heading to Dhandikach from the Speenwam area near the Pak-Afghan border, he added. The killing of the militants came hours after South Waziristan Political Agent Hussainzada Khan held a meeting with a 21-member Mehsud peace committee for the safe recovery of 15 Frontier Corps personnel taken hostage by the militants last week.

Maulana Mirajuddin, member of the National Assembly from the MMA, said the clash at Chaghmalay could hinder the safe release of the 15 FC personnel. "We discussed the release of the FC personnel and peace with the political agent. However, hours later the militants and security forces clashed and let's hope this incident does not affect the release of the kidnapped personnel," he told Daily Times by phone from Tank city.

Residents of Jandola, entry point of South Waziristan, said the Wana-Tank highway was blocked after Mehsud militants stopped traffic to and from Wana. This, they said, may lead to a conflict between the Mehsud and Wazir tribes. Truckloads of tomatoes and apples of the Wazir tribesmen in Wana waited for a long time for security clearance for upcountry transportation as the Mehsud militants blocked the Wana-Tank highway. The highway was later opened for traffic in the afternoon.

Earlier, Wazir elders said they feared a "full-scale war between the Mehsuds and Wazirs if the highway remained blocked and attacks on security forces in Wazir areas by Mehsud militants continued. Maj Gen Arshad said the government would not let the two tribes go to war.

Separately, NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai held a meeting with elders and pro-Taliban clerics in North Waziristan on Thursday, officials and security sources said. It was the governor's first visit to Miranshah after his return from Kabul where he attended the joint peace jirga of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Orakzai said that the 2006 peace deal with the pro-Taliban militants had "no guarantee mechanism" for implementation.
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India-Pakistan
Mehsud militants take positions on hilltops
2007-07-28
Militants from Baituallah Mehsud group have taken positions on hilltops over a 20-km strip between Sarwaki tehsil and Madi Jan overlooking main Wana-Dera Ismail Khan highway, security sources said on Friday. The move came three days after Taliban militant leader Abdullah Mehsud died in Zhob district of Balochistan province on Tuesday. The militants have taken the positions to cut supply lines of the military on the Wana-Tank road if security forces launch an operation in North Waziristan, according to sources.

A Mehsud jirga returned from Wana without meeting South Waziristan Political Agent Hussainzada Khan, and MMA MNA Maulana Mirajuddin criticised the official’s behaviour. Khan, however, told reporters that he was waiting for the jirga but they went back.
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India-Pakistan
Tank tribes to support govt
2007-04-03
An all-tribes jirga threw its support behind the government on Monday to restore peace in Tank city following pro-Taliban militants’ attacks on March 28. The jirga banned offices of militant groups in the city, and pledged to fight and expel foreign militants, said elders and the district nazim. “All tribes have agreed that they will collectively work to restore the district’s peace,” Tank Nazim Riaz Kundi told Daily Times. Dera Ismail Khan DIG Zulfiqar Cheema said the jirga was “successful”, as participants approved the government’s 10-point agenda. “A peace committee was set up to look into ways to guard peace in the district on a permanent basis,” he told reporters.

Senator Saleh Shah and MNA Maulana Mirajuddin also participated in the jirga of Mehsud, Bhittani and other tribes. “No one will enter Tank district with unlicensed weapons. No banned or illegal militant organisation will be allowed to open offices here,” according to decisions made at the jirga. The nazim said, “The jirga also made tribesmen living in the district bound to not shelter militants.” Houses where militants were being sheltered would be demolished, the jirga warned. All participants of the jirga opposed religious extremism. Also, DIG Cheema agreed to extend a relaxation in the curfew imposed in the area from 8am to 5pm, and said that after two days, the curfew would be relaxed from 8am to 8pm.
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India-Pakistan
Wazir tribes want foreign militants out
2007-03-25
A key leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl from South Waziristan said on Saturday that the majority of Ahmedzai Wazir tribes were now against the presence of foreign militants in their areas. Returning from Wana after brokering a temporary ceasefire between Maulvi Nazir-led militants and Uzbek militants, MNA Maulana Mirajuddin said the Ahmedzai Wazir tribes had “withdrawn the hospitality” enjoyed by foreigners since they crossed into Pakistan from Afghanistan in 2001. “What I gathered there is that Maulvi Nazir enjoys the full support of Wazir tribes, who are no more willing to shelter the foreigners and are demanding the foreigners leave their areas,” the MMA parliamentarian told Daily Times over the telephone from Tank city.

Around 130 Uzbek militants were killed in four-day clashes with the followers of Maulvi Nazir, who had ordered foreign militants to surrender after an Arab fighter was found dead, and the Uzbeks were prime suspects. During the clashes, 30 supporters of Nazir were also reported killed.

Meanwhile, a jirga returned from Wana, but no final decision was made on the foreigners’ exit from the Wazir areas. “We were successful in the sense that both sides agreed to find a solution to the problem through a jirga,” said Mirajuddin.

A security official said the situation in Azam Warsak, Kaloosha, Sheen Warsak and other areas around Wana was calm, and no clashes had been reported. “So far so good,” he said via phone from Wana.

However, both sides were holding their positions on hilltops and roadsides, checking all traffic. Maulvi Nazir’s men reportedly captured three Uzbeks and a local, but there was no independent confirmation. Also, some rockets and mortars were fired from the Afghan side, injuring a man and damaging two houses in North Waziristan, a local administration official told Daily Times. “Five rockets and as many mortars were fired from across the border between 9am and 1pm in Utmankhel village, Mir Ali subdivision, from the direction of Afghanistan’s Khost province,” said the official.

Misal Khan was injured when one of the rockets hit his home, while the other rockets and mortars landed in an open field, he added. He did not say whether security forces had retaliated. Meanwhile, two remote-controlled bomb attacks on two separate convoys of the Frontier Corps in Bannu injured one soldier.
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India-Pakistan
110 killed as Waziristan festivities enter third day
2007-03-22
Clashes between foreign Al Qaeda militants and pro-government tribesmen in South Waziristan have left 110 people dead, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told Daily Times on Wednesday.

Sherpao said that 84 Uzbek militants and 17 local tribesmen, including nine civilians, had been killed during three days of fighting. Another 83 Uzbeks have been captured by the tribal forces, he said, adding that the government has not intervened in the clashes. However, witnesses in Wana told Daily Times that the army had fired artillery rounds from the Zarinoor base at the Uzbek militants’ positions in Azam Warsak and Sheen Warsak and gunship helicopters were hovering over the area. “My home is near the military base and I can hear the artillery being fired,” Rasool Wazir, a businessman, told Daily Times by satellite phone. Army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said he had no information that artillery was being used against the foreign militants.

Maulvi Nazir is leading the battle against foreign militants for the first time since they crossed over from Afghanistan after the US invasion. Rasool Wazir said the clashes were spreading from Azam Warsak and Kaloosha to areas like Karikot. Uzbek militants are being supported by key commanders of the late Taliban leader Nek Muhammad and they have taken control of a school in Karikot and all schools have been closed for an indefinite period, tribesmen arriving in Tank city from Wana told Daily Times.

Security officials said the clashes began with the killing of Saiful Adil, an Arab fighter whose body was found a few days ago. “Maulvi Nazir supports the Arabs and suspected that the Uzbeks had murdered Adil,” the officials said. They said that Nazir’s men attacked two private jails operated by Uzbek militants in Azam Warsak early on Wednesday, adding that the tribesmen killed more than 20 Uzbeks and rescued four local prisoners. Residents of Wana arriving in Tank city claimed that they had seen “Punjabi Taliban” fighting alongside Nazir’s men, but their claims could not be confirmed.

Former FATA security chief Brig (r) Mehmood Shah said the government should take advantage of the situation by covertly or overtly supporting the tribesmen. Meanwhile, a jirga led by MMA MNA Maulana Mirajuddin is heading towards Wana to negotiate a ceasefire between the warring factions.
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