Mullah Omar brokers peace deal

LAHORE: The fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was the key player behind the controversial peace deal between the Pakistan Army and Taliban militia in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of the North Waziristan on the Pak-Afghan border. The deal was signed on September 5.

According to well placed Pakistani intelligence sources, the much-talked peace deal, repeatedly defended by Musharraf during his recent visit to the US was actually signed by the pro-Taliban militants active in North Waziristan and owing allegiance to Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The one-eyed spiritual leader of the Taliban, who has a $10 million bounty on his head for having refused to hand over Osama after the 9/11 attacks, signed a letter explicitly endorsing the peace in North Waziristan. The deal was designed to end five years of bloodshed in the area and to stop cross border infiltration from the Pakistani side of the border into Afghanistan.

Intelligence sources said that Mullah Omar had sent one of his most trusted commanders Mullah Dadullah Akhund to persuade the Taliban militants in North Waziristan to sign the truce, with a message that the deal would benefit them in a big way. Sources said had the militants not been given a go ahead by Mullah Dadullah, none of them would have agreed to sign the deal. ‘

“The Army signed the deal with pro-Taliban militants who had been on the most wanted list. The guarantors included Maulana Sadiq Noor, Maulvi Ahmad Shah Jehan, Azmat Ali, Hafiz Amir Hamza Hafiz Gul Bahadar, Azad Khan, Maulvi Saifullah, and Mir Sharaf — all wanted militants who had to co-signed the agreement.

In return for an end to the US-backed military operation in Waziristan and the release of 165 militants arrested by the Army, the tribal leaders reportedly agreed to halt attacks on Pakistani troops. However, the deal has been widely criticised as over-generous, with no way to enforce the Taliban militants’ promise not to enter Afghanistan to attack the coalition troops.

Interestingly, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the “friendly” leader of opposition in the National Assembly, who is often called the father of the Pakistani Taliban, played a crucial role on behalf of the Army in overcoming hurdles and clinching the peace deal with the Taliban.

Mullah Omar’s role in the agreement was first claimed by his military commander Mullah Dadullah Akhund who had called a senior journalist in Peshawar, claiming that he had visited the South Waziristan and the North Waziristan tribal agencies recently to advise militants to halt their operations against the Pakistani army.

Mullah gave broad hints about the Taliban’s role in the peace deal saying, “I told the Pakistani tribal militants that fighting in Waziristan was in the interest of the US. My argument was that we should fight the US, the UK and armies of other Western countries instead of wasting our energies on the Pakistan Army.”