Thursday, August 20, 2009

Top Taliban Commander In Pakistan Along With 60 Fighters Surrenders To Pakistani Forces


This is a very brief article here at Dawn but fairly major news as a top Pakistani Taliban leader has surrendered to Pakistani military forces along with 60 of his jihadis.

Let's look at the story:


Taliban commander surrenders with 60 comrades

ISLAMABAD: Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan commander Khurshid, a close ally of Fazlullah, along with 60 comrades voluntarily surrendered to District Coordination Officer Mingora at Saidu Airport. According to ISPR here Thursday, the surrender was also witnessed by a number of notables of the area, while the operation, Rah-e-Raast is continuing in Swat and Malakand Division.
Security forces conducted search operation at Kukarai whereby killing 2 terrorists while, apprehending five Afghan nationals from Charbagh. Security forces apprehended 3 suspects during routine checking at Rashagatta and destroyed a terrorists training camp besides demolishing 10 houses and discovered a cave of about 20 feet length in Dir.
Now, the article mentions Fazlullah - Fazlullah is the #1 Taliban commander in the Swat Valley and orchestrated the take over of the Swat Valley a number of months ago and was mostly responsible for bringing the wrath of the Pakistani military down on the Swat area.

To have a significant leader such as Khurshid just up and surrender shows the dire straits that the Taliban have reached in the whole Swat region. I have no idea how good the Pakistanis are in interrogation but Khurshid probably has more intel on the Taliban in the region than any possible other prisoner ever taken. One can only hope he sings like a canary.

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