A senior Taliban military commander warned the government against undertaking military operations against the Taliban and hurled a similar threat at the US, saying that the militants were “destined to achieve victory”.“Let me make it clear that we will take up arms if any military operation is carried out in the name of training camps,” Maulvi Abdul Khaliq, who reportedly put up stiff resistance during military operations last year, told a group of journalists. “To say there are training camps in Waziristan is absurd because tribal people are born trained. We do not need any training,” said the Taliban commander.
| They're born brilliant, too, apparently. |
He described the government’s claims about the presence of training camps and foreign militants as “baseless”. “We neither allow foreigners here nor do we shelter them,” he said. “Every resident of North Waziristan will take up arms if there is a military operation.”
He said all foreign militants had crossed the border after last year’s agreement, under which the militants had pledged to “purge Waziristan of all foreign militants”.
The senior Taliban commander also rejected claims that his followers were crossing the border to attack NATO and US forces and Afghan troops. “Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is making these accusations to conceal his own weaknesses, as the border is heavily guarded on both sides,” said the commander who has been termed a “hard shell to crack” by security forces. He said the NATO forces had “failed to demoralize the Afghan mujahideen” and that foreign forces would “never make the mujahideen surrender”. The Taliban commander also denied involvement in the suicide attack on Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao Khan on April 28 in his hometown in Charsadda district. The commander said the Pakistani ruler was attacking “innocent people” in Waziristan to “appease” the Americans. He predicted a “Soviet-like fall” for the US in Afghanistan.