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Yuldashev said injured in northwest
 [ADN Kronos] By Syed Saleem Shahzad - The leader of the Pakistani militant group, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Qari Tahir Yuldashev, has been injured in an attack in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region. Army spokesman Maj.Gen. said late on Tuesday that Yuldashev was injured in the northwest town of Makeen.
The front is said to be headed by Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahiri. He reportedly lives in South Waziristan which is protected by Mehsud, against whom the army is poised to launch an offensive. Yuldashev commands between 2,000 and 2,500 Uzbeks who whom observers say form the backbone of the Taliban-led insurgency in North West Frontier Province's restive Swat Valley, where militants have been fighting to impose a strict version of Islamic law. He is considered Mehsud's ideologue and his fighters significantly buttress Mehsud's forces in his South Waziristan power base. Previous reports from Pakistani security forces claiming that Yuldashev had been killed or injured turned out to be false. Yuldashev is not considered a real threat for western troops based in Afghanistan as his main area of operations is Pakistan, where he allegedly stages attacks against Pakistani troops. Yuldashev's Uzbek fighters are notorious for their brutality and for releasing to the media gruesome videos showing the agony of victims having their throats cut, typically with rusty knives. They are blamed for having 'trained' militants in such slaughter techniques in Pakistan's tribal areas. Yuldashev and his fighters in 2007 survived an attempted coup against them by a Taliban commander Moulvi Nek Mohammad who was backed by Pakistani forces in South Waziristan. Nek Mohammad received arms and money by the Pakistani security apparatus in January 2007 and carried out a massacre of Uzbeks in which at least 250 were killed. Following the attempted coup, Yuldashev and his comrades fled to neighbouring North Wazirstan's Shawal area. After Nek Mohammad's rival Mehsud rose to prominence as Taliban commander, Yuldashev returned to South Waziristan and reportedly stayed with with Mehsud. A faction of Uzbeks rebelled against Yuldashev's brutal practices but failed to form a breakaway group in North Waziristan as they could not muster enough fighters. But if Yuldashev is killed, it is quite possible there will be a 'diaspora' of Uzbek fighters from South Waziristan, according to observers. Posted by: Fred 2009-06-19 |
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