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TTP spreading to settled areas of NWFP

Daily Times Monitor

LAHORE: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is expanding its influence outside the Tribal Areas and has recently appointed leaders in the settled areas of the country, BBC Urdu reported on Friday.

Zulfiqar Mehsud, the TTP emir in Khyber Agency and a spokesman for Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, told BBC that one Habibur Rehman had been appointed the TTP’s Mardan emir and Mullah Kamran will be the Taliban spokesman in the district.

He also said a Taliban leader who he identified only as Abdullah had been appointed the TTP emir in Peshawar some days ago, but said the decision had not been announced yet.

The report, published on the BBC Urdu website, quoted other sources in the Taliban as saying the appointments were made in a TTP shura (council) meeting in Orakzai Agency, and that the previous Mardan emir had died in a clash with the police, the BBC said.

It also said the ‘sharia courts’ set up by local Taliban have resumed operations in most parts of Swat district despite the ongoing military operation in the area.

Muslim Khan, the Taliban spokesman in Swat, told BBC that the courts had been reactivated in Matta, Khawazakhela and Kabal tehsils, where the TTP formed a ‘sharia bench’ consisting of three clerics.

But NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain denied the report. He told BBC that the revised draft of the Nizam-e-Adl Ordinance of 1999 – that included sharia courts – had been withdrawn to rectify ‘technical errors’ and include Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi leader Sufi Muhammad’s recommendations.

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