ISLAMABAD -- Maulvi Fazlullah, the local leader of Taliban in the restive Swat valley, has surrendered following a tacit agreement with the army under which his wife and three daughters have been released, according to well-placed army sources.
“He has surrendered in Manglore area of Swat on Thursday,” a senior intelligence official told IslamOnline.net, requesting anonymity for not being authorized to break the news.
“His arrest will soon be shown.”
Maulvi Fazlullah, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat (TTS) leader, has been in hiding since the army unleashed a massive military operation in the troubled valley in May.
His wife and three daughters, besides the family of Maulana Sufi Mohammad, his father-in-law, have been detained by security forces to force him to surrender.
The intelligence official says Fazlullah is being questioned by the army to hunt down the leftovers of his network.
“He is injured, but not badly. His surrender is not being shown because he is being grilled by the army officials so that his entire network can be crushed.”
Maulana Fazlullah, locally known as Maulana Radio because of his FM radio station, has been leading a two-year uprising that has devastated the Swat valley.
His TTS is a break-away faction of the non-violent Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shari’ah Mohammadi (TNSM) led by Maulana Sufi Mohammad.
The Director General of the Inter Services Public Relations, Major General Ather Abbas, denied the arrest.
“That is not correct,” General Abbass told IOL.
“Operations are being conducted to arrest all the terrorists including him."
The army announced last week the arrest of five top TTS leaders, including its chief spokesman Muslim Khan and senior commander Mahmood Khan, in Mingora, the capital of Swat.
Deal
The intelligence official said Maulvi Fazlullah had sent a message to senior army commanders in Swat that he is ready to surrender if his family was released.
“And he did that after his family was released.”
The official insisted there was no other condition except the release of Fazlullah’s family in the surrender deal.
“He will be dealt as per the law. No guarantee whatsoever was given for his surrender.”
Maulana Gayasuddin, a cousin of Sufi Mohammad and a close relative of Fazlullah, confirmed the release of their family members, but not the surrender.
“I don’t know about this. This is a mountaineer region, (where Fazlullah was hiding) and we have not been in contact with him,” he told IOL by telephone from Dir, an adjoining district of Swat, and the hometown of Sufi Mohammad.
But a senior journalist from Swat confirmed the news.
“He is very much with them (security forces),” he told IOL, requesting not to be named.
“The release of Maulvi Fazlullah’s family is the outcome of his surrender.”
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