Pak Taliban offers security to Imran Khan for peace march against drone strikes

[Afghanistan2010]

Karachi, Oct. 2 (ANI): The Pakistani Taliban has said it has offered Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan its security for their upcoming peace march into the country's tribal region, protesting against U.S. drone strikes.
According to The News, senior commanders of the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said a recent meeting, headed by the group's leader Hakimullah Mehsud, set aside earlier instructions to send suicide bombers to assassinate the former cricketer. Instead, the TTP noted Khan's opposition to U.S. drone strikes against militants in its territory, and hence offered security assistance, the paper said.
"We are ready to provide them security if they need. We endorse Imran Khan's plea that drone strikes are against our sovereignty. The anti-drone rallies should have been taken out by the religious leaders long ago but Imran had taken the lead and we wouldn't harm him or his followers," TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said.
The TTP had earlier opposed the peace march and had threatened to attack Imran terming him a "liberal".
Imran said he had been promised the support of local tribes but was worried the government was opposed to allowing foreign peace campaigners and journalists to attend.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has recorded at least 2570 deaths since 2004 in 346 drone strikes.
The PTI rally against drone strikes will begin on October 6. (ANI)

http://in.news.yahoo.com/pak-taliban...064220574.html

[Shah-i-Kot]

Taliban offer security to PTI’s peace march

By News Desk
Published: October 3, 2012



Imran’s party says it will go ahead with Oct 7 rally with or without govt’s blessings. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

A day after the South Waziristan administration denied the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) permission to stage a rally in the region citing volatile security, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) offered security to Imran Khan and his supporters during their “peace march” scheduled for October 7.

According to British newspaper The Telegraph, in a recent meeting senior TTP commanders set aside earlier instructions to send suicide bombers to assassinate the cricketer-turned-politician.
Instead, the group commended Imran’s vociferous opposition to US drone strikes in the tribal regions. The TTP’s notorious chief Hakimullah Mehsud headed the meeting.
“We are ready to provide them security if they need. We endorse Imran Khan’s plea that drone strikes are against our sovereignty,” he said.
“The anti-drone rallies should have been staged by the religious leaders long ago but Imran had taken the lead and we wouldn’t harm him or his followers,” said a spokesperson for the TTP.
The PTI chief told a news conference on Sunday that the Mehsud, Burki and Bhittani tribes of Waziristan have assured him that they would provide security to participants of the rally, The Telegraph reported.
“We feel no threat from any side but feel threatened by the forces which have been playing politics on this issue,” Imran said, adding that the government should take steps to provide security to the media persons, who would be covering the proposed peace march.
Earlier, the TTP had criticised Imran’s statement in which he had called himself a “liberal”. The group contended that by classifying himself as a liberal, Imran had proved that he was a slave of the Western powers.
Meanwhile in Lahore, the PTI said that the party will go ahead with its planned “peace march” as per schedule with or without the government’s blessings.
PTI Information Secretary Shafqat Mahmood said the tribalpeople have welcomed the “peace march”, and there is no reason for the local administration to stop it.
He requested the South Waziristan administration not to create hindrances in the “historic march”, saying the rally was only being held to protest the barbarity of drone attacks and express solidarity with the people of Fata.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 3rd, 2012.