Swat Taliban chief dead, claims Pakistan army

Pakistan has claimed that Swat Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah has been killed in a military operation.

Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain said the army has confirmed the deaths of several top militant commanders. The NWFP government has also announced cash reward for the arrest of 21 other Taliban commanders, Pakistani newspaper The News reports. The government has also announced an additional bounty of four million rupees over arrest of Haji Muslim Khan, and five million rupees over arrest of the Taliban's Naib Ameer Shah Doran.

PTI adds: Earlier, Pakistan put bounties on the heads of 21 top Taliban militants operating in the Swat Valley with radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah, the architect of 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.

Also on the rogue's list are Taliban's spokesman Muslim Khan and along with three other prominent Taliban faces in Swat -- Commander Qari Mushtaq, Mehmood Khan and Bukht Farzand -- each with a reward of three million rupees on their heads.

This is first time Pakistan government has moved to put these terrorist leaders, who all form part of Tehrik-e-Taliban, on the wanted list and it comes after Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that yesterday's massive bomb attack at ISI office in Lahore was a handiwork of these insurgents.

"People providing authentic information leading to the capture -- dead or alive -- of these individuals will receive a cash award," said a pictorial announcement by the government in all leading papers.