Word: zainuddin
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...tells people, If you side with the government, this is what will happen to you.' TALAT MASOOD, a retired Pakistani general, on the assassination of Qari Zainuddin, a tribal leader and outspoken critic of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud...
...early on Tuesday, in the dusty and wild northwest town of Dera Ismail Khan, Mehsud appears to have struck first. After rising for dawn prayers, Zainuddin returned to sleep, and was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards who fled the scene in a waiting car. Zainuddin's men believe that the assassin had infiltrated the group and killed their leader on Mehsud's orders - an action widely interpreted in Pakistan to as a message to others to avoid following Zainuddin's path. (See pictures of life beneath the surface in Pakistan...
...loathing of Mehsud, Zainuddin was scarcely the model of a local hero rising up against a tyrant. In recent interviews, he pledged fealty to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, declared his fondness for al-Qaeda, and waged 'jihad' against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. A key element of his quarrel with Mehsud was a difference in militant priorities: While Mehsud and his allies in the Swat Valley were principally fighting against the Pakistani military and attacking Pakistani territory, Zainuddin believed that it was wrong to attack fellow Muslims and wanted to focus their fire on Western...
...Still, Zainuddin was clearly of some use to the Pakistani military. The militant leader hailed from Mehsud's tribe and came from the same area. The army has insisted, with good reason, that it needs local support to be able to take on the likes of Mehsud. Zainuddin, if his claims to command thousands of fighters were to be believed (and many analysts believe they were inflated), could have helped the army destabilize Mehsud by forcing him to fight on two fronts. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban...
...local support," says Cyril Almeida, assistant editor at Dawn newspaper. "There are two ways of doing it. The lashkar route [local anti-Taliban militias] is one of them, which means supporting a genuine form of rebellion. The other route has been making deals with these unsavory characters like Qari Zainuddin. Unfortunately, in South Waziristan, the state has decided to use the short-cut route of just propping up the latter...