Tuesday, December 22, 2009

By Mushtaq Yusufzai

PESHAWAR:Rejecting as baseless the US allegations about the presence of AfghanTaliban in the tribal areas, a militant commander said they did notneed to flee to the neighbouring country when the Taliban controlledmajor parts of Afghanistan.

Mulla Sangeen, a key commander ofthe Afghan Taliban, claimed there was no truth in the US charges, asthe Taliban were holding 80 per cent of the territory in Afghanistan.

Inhis video message, which the Taliban commander claimed was recorded inone of his camps in the Paktika province, he said the Haqqani networkwas active and based in Afghanistan. Sangeen is also affiliated withthe network.

The network, led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, hasnominated Sangeen as the shadow governor of Paktika. He said bypressing the government to launch a military operation in NorthWaziristan, the US was, in fact, trying to weaken the country. He saidthe US was making efforts to pit Pakistan’s armed forces and peopleagainst each other. Sangeen said the Taliban had become a strong forceand at the moment, they were ruling most of the country with the helpof the Afghan people.

“The US knows that we are here inAfghanistan and are fighting against them. The US always levels suchallegations whenever it suffers losses at our hands,” he stressed.

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