Radical cleric Sufi Mohammad resurfaces in Pakistan
July 26th, 2009 - 1:26 pm ICT by IANS
Islamabad, July 26 (IANS) A radical Islamic cleric who brokered a peace deal with the Taliban in Pakistan and went missing during a military offensive has resurfaced in Peshawar city, media reports said Sunday.
Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Mohammad was seen Saturday for the first time since the military operation was launched April 26.
He was caught on camera by a TV channel, which showed him at a TNSM meeting in Peshawar.
Sufi had “trimmed and dyed his beard red to keep his identity a secret”, a TNSM supporter told the Daily Times Sunday.
TNSM will be deciding its future course of action at a Central Executive Committee (Shura) meeting to be held soon. This was decided Saturday at a Shura presided over by Sufi Mohammad, Dawn News reported Sunday.
Sufi Mohammad had been residing in a rented house in Peshawar’s Sethi Town area.
The army battled the militants after the Taliban reneged on a controversial peace deal with the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government and instead moved south from their Swat headquarters and occupied Buner, just 100 km from Islamabad.
The operations began in Lower Dir, the home district of Sufi Mohammad, who had brokered the peace deal and who is the father-in-law of Swat Taliban commander Maulana Fazlullah.
They later spread to Buner and Swat - and to South Waziristan.
The military operations have displaced 3.8 million civilians from the three districts of NWFP. The displaced civilians have now begun to return home.
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- Radical cleric Sufi Muhammad's deputy killed in escape bid - Jun 06, 2009
- TNSM chief Sufi Mohammad resurfaces in Peshawar - Jul 26, 2009
- Radical cleric Sufi Muhammad's deputy killed in rescue bid (Lead) - Jun 06, 2009
- Taliban leader Sufi Muhammad arrested in Pakistan - Jul 26, 2009
- Radical cleric's son killed in shelling in Pakistan - May 07, 2009
- Don't look for Sharia in democracy: Sufi Mohammad - May 04, 2009
- Another aide of radical cleric Sufi Muhammad held - Jun 09, 2009
- Pak to hold trials of TNSM-Taliban operatives next year - Dec 03, 2010
- Pro-Taliban cleric Sufi Muhammad arrested in Pakistan (Lead) - Jul 26, 2009
- Pakistani security forces kill 10 Taliban in Lower Dir - May 30, 2009
- Civil servants in Pakistan's northwest asked to return June 20 - Jun 13, 2009
- Top pro-Taliban cleric faces treason charge in Pakistan - Aug 02, 2009
- Educational institutes in Swat to reopen Saturday - Jul 31, 2009
- Pakistani Army claims victory over Taliban in Swat, Waziristan - Feb 23, 2010
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