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Pakistani Taliban chief wants volunteers for Afghan jihad

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A self-proclaimed Pakistani Taliban leader Friday invited people to come to Afghanistan to fight a holy war against US-led forces, local officials said.

“We are leaving for Afghanistan tomorrow, those who want to participate in Jihad can join us,” Asmatullah Shaheen told a gathering of more than 300 people in Jandola town, near the restive tribal region of South Waziristan, they said. Shaheen, 30, also announced a three-month extension on an Islamic edict he handed down last month stating that men in the conservative region should all grow beards.

“The extension has been allowed on the request from local people,” he was quoted as telling the gathering, held in the compound of a local school.

Those who failed to comply would face a “social boycott” under which local hospitals run by tribesmen would not help them and their children would be barred from school, he said.

He also announced a series of other Islamic laws, without saying how they would be enforced. Shaheen’s fiery speech comes after recent claims by military and security sources that so-called Pakistani Taliban have taken virtual control of some parts of the tribal areas and neighbouring NWFP.

Pakistani forces have clashed repeatedly with militants in the tribal areas. Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an insurgent ambush on Thursday. Shaheen, reportedly a polio victim, claims to be associated with Abdullah Mehsud, the successor of a pro-Taliban militant leader Nek Mohammad, who was killed in a missile attack in the tribal area in 2004. Shaheen himself was arrested earlier this year on criminal charges. He resumed his activity after his release on bail about a month ago, residents said. AFP

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