Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday raised ten-fold the amount of reward put on the head of radical cleric and Swat Taliban spokesman Maulana Fazlullah, quashing speculation that he has been "killed" in combat.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the head money for Fazlullah, also known as 'Mullah Radio,' has been raised from Rs 5 million to Rs 50 million, Geo TV reported.
NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain was quoted as saying by a news report that the Taliban commander had been killed in a military operation. There was, however, no word from the Army on his fate.
Meanwhile, Malik said 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes due to the military offensive against the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province.
He also said that some "dangerous" Taliban have been arrested from the camps of the internally displaced persons.
Pakistan had on Thursday put bounties on the heads of 21 top Taliban militants operating in Swat Valley with Fazlullah, the architect of the uprising in Swat, heading the list with a reward of five million rupees.
The government drew up the 'rogue list' and published it alongwith their mugshots in all leading newspapers in the country, saying these terrorists were wanted "dead or alive" as its military operation gained ground in Swat.