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Tailban chief ideologist survives ‘Zalzala’

* Hussain says his fighters presumed him dead following destruction of his house

KOTKAI: Taliban chief ideologist and suicide bombing trainer Qari Hussain survived ‘Operation Zalzala’ earlier this year in South Waziristan, saying on Sunday that he was “born to live and serve the Taliban”. The army had said in a media briefing at Speenkay Raghzai on May 18 that they had intercepted militants’ wireless communication saying that Qari Hussain had been killed in the several weeks long operation launched on January 24. “I am alive, don’t you see me?” the influential Taliban trainer told Daily Times minutes after Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud addressed a news conference inside a government school building.

House destroyed: The Kotkai mud-house of Qari Hussain was destroyed in the operation, in which military commander Brig Ali Abbas had said tanks were used for the first time in South Waziristan. “Since my house was also targeted during the operation and it was destroyed, some of my mujahideen may have said on wireless that I am dead and the military believed it,” grey-haired Qari, in his early 30s, added. Asked if he was still training suicide bombers, Qari Hussain did not respond directly and started looking at the Taliban standing by. Hussain also evaded a question asking whether he was affiliated with a banned militant sectarian organisation. “I am with every Muslim group,” he said in the brief interview. iqbal khattak

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