The Pakistani Taliban has announced the appointment of a new leader, acknowledging publicly for the first time that its former chief, Mullah Fazlullah, was killed in a US drone strike. Fazlullah was reportedly travelling in a vehicle along with four other commanders when he was targeted by a remotely-piloted US aircraft at 11pm on June 13 in Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
In a statement released on June 23, Mohammad Khurasani, spokesman for Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), confirmed the death of Fazlullah, who was believed to have ordered the assassination of Malala Yousafzai in 2012, which later won the Nobel Prize and became a global symbol of the fight for the education of girls.
According to the statement “It is a matter of pride that all leaders of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan have been martyred by infidels” referring to two predecessors who were also killed in drone strikes.
After the death of Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack, Fazlullah was appointed as the new "Emir" (Chief) of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan on 7 November 2013. According to Ehsanullah Ehsan, the former spokesperson for TTP, Mullah Fazlullah became the leader via lucky draw.
“Radio Mullah”
Fazlullah started an illegal local FM channel in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Swat Valley in 2006. He preaches forcing vice and virtue and has an anti-Western Jihadi stance. He is considered pro-Taliban and a very powerful figure in the area. He considers most communication based electronics as "major sources of Spreading Jihad" and transmits broadcasts of his sermons on an illegal local FM radio channel, hence the nickname "Radio Mullah" or "Maulana Radio". FM signals are relayed from mobile transmitters mounted on motorcycles and trucks. During nightly broadcasts, prohibited activities are routinely declared and violators' names announced for assassination, which often includes beheading.
What is Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan?
In 2007, like-minded militias in Pakistan's tribal region came together under the command of Baitullah Mehsud, as a result of its beginnings, Tehrik-i-Taliban are not a unified fighting force but a coordinated coalition of militias. So the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan ("Taliban Movement of Pakistan"), alternatively referred to as the Taliban, is a terrorist group which is an umbrella organization of various militant groups based in the northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Pakistan.
TNSM and Nizam-e-Adl!
Fazlullah also associated with another Pakistani terrorist group named TNSM. Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law) is a Pakistani militant group whose objective is to enforce Sharia law in the country. The rebel group took over much of Swat in 2007. It was founded by Sufi Muhammad in 1992, and was banned by President Pervez Musharraf on January 12, 2002. When the founder was imprisoned on January 15, 2002, Maulana Fazlullah, his son-in-law, assumed leadership of the group.
The organization is active in the areas along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, especially Dir, Swat and Malakand but including Dargai and Chenagai. It supports the Taliban forces in neighbouring Afghanistan. It has been described as "one of the most dangerous religious militant groups in Pakistan."
The Pakistani government announced on February 16, 2009 that it would allow Sharia law or Nizam –e- Adl, in the Malakand region. The Nizam-e-Adl was retroactively effective starting on March 15, 2009. The system has three tiers: ilaqa (local area) court, the zila (district) court and the Darul qaza, which acts as a supreme court. The courts refer to the Sharia interpretation of the sects involved in the dispute. In return, Fazlullah's followers agreed to observe a ceasefire negotiated by Sufi Muhammad.
Who is Noor Wali Mehsud?
Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud has been named as the successor of Mullah Fazlullah. Mufti Noor Wali was picked at a meeting of TTP’s Central Shura soon after the death of Mullah Fazlullah. After the appointment of Mufti Noor Wali, Taliban factions pledged allegiance to their new chief, according to the TTP spokesperson.
Mehsud, 40, is a religious scholar who studied at several religious seminaries in Pakistan. He served as a deputy to former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, blamed for the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Mehsud is also believed to have fought for the Afghan Taliban in the 1990s against the Northern Alliance and took part in attacks against Pakistani security forces. The new leader comes from the Mehsud tribe that dominates the tribal districts of North and South Waziristan in northwest Pakistan. The two tribal districts are a stronghold of the Afghan Taliban-allied Haqqani network and the Pakistani Taliban. Mehsud is believed to have close links with the Haqqani network, which has carried out deadly attacks in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Terrorist activities by Fazlullah
Fazlullah had been described as a "ruthless fighter" who was vehemently anti-state and against peace talks. He was the first commander of the TTP not to come from the Mehsud tribe in Pakistan's tribal areas, hailing instead from the northwestern valley of Swat, where he waged a bloody war against the Pakistani state from 2007 to 2009.
As leader of the Pakistani Taliban, he planned a number of attacks. It was the same Mullah Fazlullah who ordered the heinous 2014 Peshawar carnage wherein gunmen strode through Army Public School corridors and classrooms spraying teachers and pupils with bullets. The men killed 148 people – at least 132 of whom were children.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal at least 748 civilians and security forces were killed in violence perpetrated by the TTP and other armed groups in 2017, down from a peak of at least 3,739 in 2012.
Ban by USA
Mullah Radio was designated a global terrorist by the United States and carried a bounty of $5 million. He had been on the run since his loyalists were routed in a major military operation in Swat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in 2009.
The United States also accused the group of attempting to stage a car-bomb attack in Times Square in New York in 2010. In March, the United States offered a $5 million reward for information on Mullah Fazlullah, saying his group has "demonstrated a close alliance with Al-Qaeda" and gave explosives training to Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber.
Implications
The death of Mullah Fazlullah now provides Pakistan now chance to spread the lies that Afghan soil is being used by the TTP as a springboard for launching attacks inside Pakistan. While it is clear that the army and ISI have an active role with the fundamentalist organizations in formulating and developing this organization. Pakistani officials also blame the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and National Directorate of Security (NDS), the intelligence agencies of India and Afghanistan, for using the TTP as an asset to perpetrate terrorism in Pakistan.