Taliban Leaders in Pakistan
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Saturday, January 26, 2008; 1:30 PM
-- Key Taliban leaders in Pakistan:
BAITULLAH MEHSUD: Head of the newly formed Taliban Movement of Pakistan. He has been named by the Pakistan government and the CIA as the man behind the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets in 1980s; alongside the Taliban in the 1990s and against U.S. and NATO troops after 2001. Now taking aim at the Pakistan military. From the Mehsud tribe of South Waziristan, near the Afghan border where Western intelligence suggests Al Qaida is regrouping.
MAULVI FAZLULLAH: Uses an illegal FM radio station in Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley in the northwest to rally supporters to his rigid brand of Islamic rule. Followers have burned down CD shops, girls' schools and launched dozens of suicide attacks against Pakistani police and military. Commander in the Taliban Movement of Pakistan.
FAQIR MOHAMMAED: Based in northwestern Pakistan's Bajour Agency, he is considered a close ally of al-Qaida's Ayman Al-Zawahri. Part of the Taliban Movement of Pakistan but also a key member of the Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law. He has sent hundreds of young men to fight in Afghanistan and has been implicated in dozens of suicide attacks.
SADIQ NOOR: Powerful leader in North Waziristan, where followers have battled Pakistan's military and provided assistance to the Afghan Taliban across the border. He is closely aligned to Afghanistan's Jalaluddin Haqqani, a key eastern Afghan commander who coordinates activities between al Qaida and the Taliban.
MAULVI GUL BAHADAR: The leader behind the deeply flawed September 2006 agreement with the Pakistan military that gave breathing space for the burgeoning Pakistani Taliban. Based in North Waziristan.
