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Maulana Faqir Mohammad

Maulana Faqir Mohammad

Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi

India-Pakistan

20060925

India-Pakistan

Peace body member killed in Bajaur

2011-07-07

[Dawn] A pro-government tribal elder and member of Mamond Peace Committee was killed in a remote controlled blast in Bajaur Agency, aka Turban Central on the night between Monday and Tuesday. Sources said that hard boyz planted a bomb outside the house of Malik Gul Rehman in Gat Agra area of Mamond. The bomb went off when the tribal elder came out of his house. He was struck down in his prime, they added. Meanwhile, ...back at the scene of the crime, Lieutenant Queeg had an idea: there was a simple way to tell whether Manetti had been the triggerman -- just look at his shoes!... security forces placed in long-term storage seven rustics during a search operation in Bajaur. Security forces launched the operation after attacks on checkposts in the area. The rustics were placed in long-term storage under the collective responsibility law of the Frontier Crimes Regulation and on suspicion of their involvement in krazed killer activities. Taliban chief in Bajaur Agency Maulana Faqir Mohammad has grabbed credit for the other day attack on a checkpost in Kit Kot area of the region. A security man had been killed the other day. Delivering a speech through his illegal FM radio at night, he said that Taliban had also attacked a checkpost in the agency on June 16. Five security officials had been killed in the attack. He threatened to continue attacking security forces in Bajaur Agency. In South Wazoo Agency, five security personnel sustained injuries when Taliban fired rocket on a small army camp in Makeen tehsil on Tuesday. Officials said that five Taliban were killed when security forces shot it out with the attackers.

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India-Pakistan

Troops wrest Damadola from Taliban

2010-02-07

[Dawn] Security forces captured Damadola, Taliban's stronghold 15 kilometres north of Bajaur Agency headquarters Khar, on Saturday, military sources said. According to the sources, the capture was one of the 'major successes' achieved by troops since the launch of operation Sherdil on Aug 6, 2008, in Bajaur. Damadola town, in Mamond tehsil, is the native town of Maulana Faqir Mohammad, Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan's deputy chief. Until four years ago, it had been a stronghold of Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat Muhammadi. According to security forces and the political administration, militants had established a number of training centres and underground bankers in the town. Maulana Faqir and his close associates used to issue directives to their men from the area. The place came into limelight after US drones carried out four attacks over the past four years. A number of local and foreign militants, including Maulana Liaquat, a close aide of Maulana Faqir, were killed in the strikes. According to sources, troops captured Damadola on Saturday morning after overcoming stiff resistance by militants. They said that although troops had cleared key points of the town, a few pockets were still under Taliban control. The sources said that most of the militants had been killed in the operation and a number of them might have been buried alive in underground bunkers and hideouts. APP adds: An operation was launched by security forces and volunteers of Qaumi Lashkar on Jan 27 to clear Damadola of terrorists. An FC spokesman said that during the operation a number of hideouts and bunkers had been destroyed and 60 terrorists killed. Seven soldiers lost their lives.

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India-Pakistan

Three civilians among 17 killed in Bajaur

2008-08-22

PAF fighter aircraft and Army gunship helicopters on Wednesday continued bombing suspected militant hideouts in the Bajaur Agency, killing three more persons and destroying a number of houses. Also, 14 militants were killed when the security forces repulsed a Taliban attack. There were also reports of the death of senior militant commander-cum-Naib chief Qazi (vice-chief justice) of the Taliban Islamic courts, Mufti Bashir Ahmad. However, comrades of Mufti Bashir, who is a cousin of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) deputy head and Taliban leader in Bajaur Maulana Faqir Mohammad, denied the reports. Military sources said a gunship helicopter targeted the house of Mani Gul of Samsay village in Khar, the agency headquarters, on suspicion that Mufti Bashir was staying there. "Our reports say Mufti Bashir was present in the house and might have been killed in the attack," said an official of the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) on condition that he not be named.

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India-Pakistan

Five militants killed in Bajaur operation

2008-08-19

Security forces continued military offensive against the Taliban fighters in the restive Bajaur Agency, killing five more suspected militants and destroying house of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) deputy leader Maulana Faqir Mohammad in Chopatra village on Monday. Also, families of the five slain Army soldiers, who died in an ambush on August 8 in Loisam by the militants, reportedly reached the paramilitary Bajaur Scouts headquarters in Khar to request the authorities to expedite efforts for recovering their bodies lying in the maize fields in Loisam area. Military gunship helicopters continued targeting suspected hideouts of the militants in their strongholds of Salarzai and Mamond subdivisions. Military sources said two suspected militants were killed when gunship helicopters fired upon them at Mandal village of the Salarzai Tehsil. Both the militants were reportedly armed with AK-47 assault rifles and had attacked the military Cobra helicopter with rocket propelled grenades (RPG) but missed the target.The sources said the militants, after the attack on the helicopter, were fleeing towards a house, which they were using as hideout. They also reported that militants in some of the areas occupied houses vacated by the frightened tribesmen in many parts of the troubled region.Similarly, the "panic-creating" gunship helicopters that are usually flying over the militant-dominated areas of Salarzai and Mamond subdivisions and in Loisam, targetted a number of suspected hideouts but there were no details about the casualties inflicted on the Taliban fighters.

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India-Pakistan

Four die in Bajaur as militants desert their strongholds

2008-08-18

Four militants were killed on Sunday when three Pakistan Army gunship helicopters targeted Taliban fighters. Military sources said two militants riding a motorcycle in Inayat Killay Bypass Road were targeted by the military chopper and killed on the spot. Tribal sources, however, said both the men were local residents and were on their way home in Inayat Killay when they came under attack. In the same area, local tribal sources said military choppers hit a petrol pump and razed it to the ground. Military authorities suspected that militants operating in the adjoining Mamond Tehsil and Inayat Killay were getting fuel from the petrol pump. Similarly, military sources said two militants were killed when a chopper fired on Haji Lawang bridge in the almost peaceful Utmankhel Tehsil of the troubled tribal region. The sources said both the militants were armed and started running towards the crops when military helicopters were flying over the village. Also, official sources said a house was targeted in Badano village where militants had hidden vehicles they had snatched from the security forces. They claimed that four to six vehicles, including jeeps and pick-ups, were destroyed in the strikes on the house. They said choppers were also sent and directed to destroy the house of TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar but since it was located in middle of the houses and aerial strikes could cause damage to other houses and residents, therefore, the idea was dropped. The gunship choppers also bombed militants' suspected hideouts in other small villages of Mamond Tehsil and Mulla Said Banda and Pashat in Salarzai Tehsil. There were no details about the losses suffered by the militants. This correspondent on Sunday visited Bajaur Agency's troubled spots including Seway, where the militants headquarters was located and a so-called Islamic court had been established, Chopatra, the hometown of militants' commander Maulana Faqir Mohammad, Badan village, the hometown of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Maulvi Omar, and several other places, which were once the strongholds of the Taliban fighters and where their armed men were once publicly checking vehicles at roadside checkpoints. But amazingly, the entire region is now presenting a deserted look and there are no militants on the roadside checkpoints and their famous camps. Majority of them have reportedly gone underground and shifted to their hideouts in upper parts of Mamond and Salarzai subdivisions. In their Seway Markaz, around two dozen militants armed with AK-47 assault rifles and G-III automatic guns which they claimed to have snatched from the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) personnel near Loisam a week ago, were seen guarding the building and checking vehicles. However, when two military gunship choppers appeared in the air from Bajaur's headquarters Khar, the armed militants present around Seway Markaz became scared and started escaping into the dense maize crops. Militants also suggested to this correspondent to flee and hide in the maize crop fields and under the shadow of dense trees. This practice of hide and seek took place several times and the militants said they had no solution for choppers and warplanes. The militants admitted that they had suffered heavy losses due to choppers and warplanes and now the thundering voice of gunship choppers created panic in the hearts of many of their colleagues. The entire population of this sensitive region had left their homes due to bombing and shifted to distant towns of Peshawar, Mardan, Nowshera, etc. But a small number of residents left here to look after their households were critical of Taliban's harsh policies that had brought miseries and total destruction to them.

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India-Pakistan

Bajaur militants will remain 'impartial' in polls

2007-12-19

KHAR: Pro-Taliban militants in Bajaur Agency announced on Tuesday that they would remain impartial during the upcoming elections. “We will neither participate in elections nor will force someone to take part in the process,” Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a Taliban commander and spokesman for Mulana Mohammad Umar, told journalists after a grand jirga here. He said the local Taliban had launched a movement and had militant leader Baitullah Mehsud had been appointed its supreme commander. He denied the reports that Osama was in Bajaur Agency and termed the statement an attempt to launch a military operation in the agency. He also said they had decided to release the kidnapped levies soldiers within a few days as a goodwill gesture. Meanwhile, a grand jirga of tribal elders, consisting of Senator Maulana Abdur Rashid, held talks with local Taliban in Bajaur Agency. The jirga participants rejected President Pervez Musharraf’s claim about Osama’s presence in the agency.

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India-Pakistan

Jihadis preparing to avenge Bajaur

2006-12-18

Militants belonging to banned jihadi outfits are planning suicide attacks on army installations in Pakistan and foreign troops in Afghanistan in revenge for the air strike on a Bajaur madrassa in November, Daily Times has learnt. According to reports submitted by intelligence agencies to the Interior Ministry, Maulvi Inayatur Rehman and Maulana Faqir Mohammad of the Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) have pledged before their supporters to target VIPs in Pakistan and US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The bombed Bajaur madrassa was run by the TNSM and is thought to have been used as a training camp for militants. Sources said that British and US diplomats and nationals were also possible targets of the militants. Leaders of the Harkatul Mujahideen, Lashker-e-Jhangvi and Khudamul Islam have also pledged to cooperate with the TNSM and called for a joint strategy, the sources added.

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India-Pakistan

Wanted TNSM leader seeks peace in Bajaur

2006-09-25

PESHAWAR: Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a wanted leader of the banned Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TNSM) in Bajaur Agency, has expressed his group's readiness to hold talks with the government to ensure peace and stability in Bajaur. He wants the same kind of safe area setup they've got in North Wazoo, of course. TNSM is the Bajaur version of the Wazoo Taliban... In a phone call to The News from an undisclosed location, he said the government did the right thing by concluding a peace agreement with tribal Islamic militants in North Waziristan. He recalled that similar agreements signed earlier in South Waziristan made that region peaceful and stable. That's a fluid concept in Pasthtun country, of course... "The government should consider constituting a grand tribal jirga to hold talks with Islamic groups in Bajaur Agency for removing misconceptions and restoring durable peace in the area," he stressed. Maulana Faqir Mohammad, who has been accused of harbouring foreign militants in Bajaur Agency, said he and his men didn't want to fight the Pakistan Army or other law-enforcement agencies. "We are all Muslims and Pakistanis. We want peace and development in Bajaur and are willing to go the extra length to make that possible," he remarked. "Them thar furriners and infidels is a diff'rent story, o' course!" He felt the weak jirga system in Bajaur due to the self-serving attitude of Maliks was also a hurdle in negotiating a solution to the problems in the Bajaur tribal region. "Hrarrr! Maliks! Liars an' thieves, the lot of 'em!" The Maulana rejected US media claims that Osama bin Laden could be hiding in Bajaur. He said there were no signs of his presence in Bajaur. "Such reports are like shooting in the dark. The US wants to keep Pakistan government under pressure through a campaign of disinformation," he argued. "Da witnesses is all dead!" In reply to a question, Maulana Faqir Mohammad expressed his ignorance about the motives behind the roadside bomb attack that killed a female employee of NCHD and injured three of her colleagues in Bajaur. He said he had no idea as to would have done this.

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India-Pakistan

2 graves near Damadola found empty

2006-01-19

Investigators said on Wednesday that they had found two empty graves at the site of a controversial US air strike in the Bajaur Agency, a day after officials said that up to five foreign militants had died in the attack. However, there was no information about the identities of the insurgents who died in the raid, despite initial US intelligence reports that Al Qaeda’s Egyptian number two Ayman al-Zawahri may have been among them. Officials said that local militants may have shifted the bodies before their scheduled burials to stop authorities from DNA testing the remains and finding out who was killed in Friday’s missile attack. Residents of Damadola village in Bajaur, however, have reported that 18 civilians died in the attack, for whom as many graves were dug, and that no militants were in the area. “The residents dug 18 graves but buried 16 people and two graves were left vacant before they covered them over,” a senior security official said, citing a report by intelligence officials in the region. On Tuesday, the Bajaur regional administration chief said that the missile strike was aimed at foreign militants invited to a dinner and that four or five were killed – the first such public confirmation by Pakistan. The tribal administration said that two local militants, Maulana Faqir Mohammad and Maulana Liaqat, had removed the bodies of the foreign extremists killed in the attack to “suppress the actual reason of the attack”, but gave no evidence. On Wednesday, Shah Zaman Khan, director general of media relations for the tribal areas, said that the terrorists’ bodies are now probably in “inaccessible mountainous areas” along the rugged, ill-defined border. “Efforts are underway to investigate further,” Khan said. “The administration is also trying to arrest those clerics who were believed to be there.” A counter-terrorism official said that several of those killed were believed to be Egyptian.

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