Re: Malik ups bounty on TTP spokesman
Ehsanullah becomes more important than Hakeemullah - thenews.com.pk
Ehsanullah becomes more important than Hakeemullah - thenews.com.pk
ISLAMABAD: After moving up in the ladder of the most wanted terrorists being sought by the Pakistani authorities, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman (TTP) Ehsanullah Ehsan has become more important than his boss, Commander Hakeemullah Mehsud who has neither made any public appearance nor issued any statement for almost a year now.
Following a failed assassination attempt on well-known journalist Hamid Mir and the subsequent responsibility claim made by the TTP spokesman, interior minister Rehman Malik has announced Rs200 million head money for information leading to Ehsan’s capture or killing. Interestingly, however, the bounty announced for the TTP spokesman far exceeds that of Hakeemullah Mehsud, the fugitive ameer of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and Commander Waliur Rehman, his second-in-command. It was on November 2, 2009 that the Pakistani government had offered Rs50 million reward for information that leads to the capture or killing of Hakeemullah Mehsud. The same amount was fixed for similar information regarding Commander Wali-ur-Rehman and Qari Hussain Mehsud, besides smaller rewards for 16 other TTP militants.
The bounty announced for information leading to Ehsanullah Ehsan is more than three times the head money for the arrest or killing of Hakeemullah and Waliur Rehman. Therefore, it appears that Ehsanullah has turned out to be the prime target of the law enforcement agencies, being the public face of the TTP and the most prominent voice of the Pakistani Taliban who have let loose a reign of terror in all the four corners of the country. Hardly a day passes when Ehsanullah does not make a responsibility claim for a deadly act of terror; no matter whether it takes place in Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore, Rawalpindi or Islamabad.
It was on October 17, 2012 that Rehman Malik had first offered Rs100 million bounty on Ehsan, after he had claimed responsibility for the cowardly assassination attempt on the 14-year old Malala Yousufzai. But hardly a few hours after the abortive attempt on Hamid Mir’s life in Islamabad on November 26, Rehman Malik doubled the bounty to Rs200 million, adding that “Ehsanullah is actually working for foreign elements”. But quite interestingly, after announcing the head money for TTP spokesman, the interior minister said in the same breath that the government was ready to give general amnesty to all proscribed organisations, including the Tehrik-e-Taliban, if they renounce terrorism.
“If the banned organisations agree to cooperate with us and give up terrorism, they will be removed from the list of proscribed organisations”. The minister then addressed Hakeemullah Mehsud, saying, “Don’t hide in one bunker or another. Today, I announce general amnesty for you if you stop killing innocent people. The enemies you work for will kill you too one day”. However, the very next day, Ehsanullah Ehsan ruled out any possibility of peace negotiations with the government and vowed to continue fighting until the ouster of the ‘secular rulers’.
Well-informed sources in the security establishment say they are trying to ascertain the validity of some recent intelligence reports that Ehsanullah Ehsan might be operating from the safe house of a foreign diplomatic mission in Peshawar, being the safest place.
Ehsanullah makes all his responsibility claims through wireless phone and the last such claim was about the assassination attempt on Hamid Mir. The Geo Television anchor was targeted in the aftermath of the media report that Hakeemullah Mehsud has issued directions to his subordinates to target Pakistani media groups for their biased coverage of the Malala incident.
In fact, a premier intelligence agency had intercepted a telephonic conversation between Hakeemullah and one of his subordinates, Nadeem Abbas alias Intiqami, in which the TTP chief directed Abbas to attack all such media organisations, which had denounced Tehrik-e-Taliban after the Malala incident. The Taliban leader was of the view that the Pakistani electronic media in particular has become biased against them and was giving undue coverage to the attack on Malala besides portraying them as the worst people on earth.
