Saturday 20 December 2014

More Child Murder on the Cards, as Taliban Leader Warns Pakistan Government.

"Narrated Atiyyah al-Qurazi: I was among the captives of Banu Qurayzah. They (the Companions) examined us, & those who had begun to grow hair (pubes) were killed, & those who had not were not killed. I was among those who had not grown hair." So says one of the authentic six compilations of ahadith in Islamic scripture, Sunan Abu Dawud, in book 38, number 4390. If killing kids as young as twelve was OK with Mohammed - he'd given these instructions to his companions - then it's OK with today's Muslim terrorists. Islamic militants the world over are practicing Islam the way their prophet did, hence the mass murder. This is why the Pakistani Taliban are so confident & unashamed in their warning of a repeat of Tuesday's Peshawar school massacre, as can be seen from this report from MailOnline on Friday (hat-tip to Tommy Robinson @TRobinsonNewEra):

'Your children will not escape': Chilling new threat from Taliban commander nicknamed 'slim' who ordered massacre of 132 children in Pakistan

  • Taliban commander Khalifa Omar Mansoor issued threat to Pakistani army
  • In a direct video message he warned more children would be slaughtered
  • Schools and universities throughout Pakistan have been warned by the authorities to step-up security
  • Serious fears the Taliban will 'make good' on their latest chilling threats

As Pakistani warplanes and ground troops killed at least 77 militants in the tribal areas close to Afghanistan's border yesterday, the Taliban commander who masterminded the massacre of 132 school children warned he would order more horrific attacks like it.

The military has intensified operations against the Taliban since the slaughter at the Army Public School in Peshawar, killing a reported 180 Taliban fighters and their supporters.

Sharif
But with Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promising to destroy terrorism, Taliban commander Khalifa Omar Mansoor warned the Army: 'If our women and children died as martyrs your children will not escape.'

In a direct video message, the mass murderer nicknamed 'slim' and described as 'the most hated – and dangerous' man in Pakistan, said: 'I want to tell the Pakistan government, and the directors, teachers and students of the army's affiliated institutions, that you are the ones strengthening this un-Islamic democratic system.

'It is these institutions that graduate future generals, brigadiers and majors, who then kill Taliban and innocent tribal people.'

Today, two extremists were hung in Pakistan - the country's first executions since 2008 - after the president ended a ban on the death penalty in response to the school massacre earlier this week.

Schools and universities throughout Pakistan have been warned by the authorities to step-up security and rehearse escape plans amid fears the Taliban will 'make good' on their latest chilling threats.

Significantly, the thickly bearded 36 year-old Mansoor was pictured with the heavily armed suicide cell behind the atrocity kneeling in blue in the middle of the propaganda picture released by the Taliban following the outrage.

In the immediate aftermath of the Peshawar carnage, the Taliban said that attack focused on the children of Pakistan's military had been carried out to make them 'feel the pain' in revenge for the deaths of their own families in the offensive on the tribal areas where various factions have their bases.

Mansoor, the self-proclaimed organiser of Tuesday's school atrocity, today said: ' This is obvious if you will attack us we will certainly go for a revenge for our families.'

Pakistan's security forces say they are determined to 'take out' the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but some civilian casualties are inevitable. They strongly deny there have been large-scale civilian casualties.

But in the video Mansoor claimed ordinary Pakistanis have disregarded the plight of residents in the country's North Waziristan tribal area that is in the sights of the military.

'This is something we cannot accept anymore, and if you continue to target our women and children, then your children will not be safe anymore,' he said.

'We announce that we will not discriminate in our attacks any longer, and will be as unconcerned as you are.'

He continued : 'If our women and children die as martyrs, your children will not escape. We will fight against you in such a style that you attack us and we will take revenge on innocents.'

Educated in Islamabad and then at a madrassa, a religious school, he is one of three brothers and spent time in the port city of Karachi before joining the Taliban in 2007.

Nicknamed 'nary,' a word in the Pashto language meaning 'slim', he is the father of two daughters and is said to have fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against both the British and US forces in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

The Taliban video describes him as the 'amir', or leader, of Peshawar and nearby Darra Adam Khel.

Bizarrely, his security file says he has a passion for volleyball and sets-up a net to play the game each time he moves his base.

The military said its ground forces late Thursday killed 10 militants while airstrikes killed another 17, including an Uzbek commander. Another 32 alleged terrorists were killed by security forces in an ambush in Tirah valley in Khyber on Friday as they headed toward the Afghan border, the military said.

Today, two extremists were hung in the country's first executions since 2008 - after the president ended a ban on the death penalty in response to the Peshawar school massacre.

The government ended the six-year ban on capital punishment for terror-related cases following the brutal terror attack on the army school.

Shuja Khanzada, Home Minister of central Punjab province, where the executions took place, confirmed that two militants, Aqil, also known as Doctor Usman, and Arshad Mehmood, had been hanged.

Aqil, who uses the name Doctor Usman, was convicted for an attack on the army headquarters in Rawalpindi in 2009 and was arrested after being injured.

Arshad Mehmood was convicted for his involvement in a 2003 assassination attempt on former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan's military chief Thursday signed death warrants for six militants on death row after the government ended the death penalty moratorium on Wednesday.

The United Nations called for Pakistan to reconsider executing terror suspects, saying that 'the death penalty has no measurable deterrent effect on levels of insurgent and terrorist violence'.

Yesterday morning, troops killed 18 more militants during a 'cordon and search operation' in Khyber, the military said.

Khyber agency is one of two main areas in the northwest where the military has been trying to root out militants in recent months. Khyber borders Peshawar, where the school massacre happened, and militants have traditionally attacked the city before withdrawing to the tribal region where police can't chase them.

The other area is North Waziristan, where the military launched a massive operation in June.

The province is a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) as well as the Haqqani Network - a Pakistan-based militant group with links to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The army says it has killed more than 1,700 militants since its current offensive started in June in response to a Taliban attack on the country's busiest airport in Karachi that left at least 38 dead, including the attackers.

In the southern province of Baluchistan, Pakistani security forces killed a senior Pakistani Taliban leader along with seven of his associates in three separate pre-dawn raids, said a tribal police officer, Ali Ahmed.

The Pakistani army chief late Thursday signed the death warrants of six 'hard core terrorists' convicted and sentenced to death by military courts, the army said.

It was unclear when the military planned to hang the six men, but authorities generally move quickly once death warrants are signed. Such executions are usually carried out at prisons under the supervision of army officers and then the bodies are handed over to relatives for burial.

The news comes as the heartbroken son of the headmistress murdered in the Peshawar school massacre has said she died 'saving the children' - not being burned alive or blown up while hiding in in a locked toilet.

One of the most horrific stories from the Peshawar school massacre was the death of headmistress Tahira Qazi - who was slaughtered alongside nine colleagues and 132 innocent children by the Taliban.

Early reports claimed that Mrs Qazi was specifically targeted by the six militants because she was married to a retired colonel in the Pakistani army, and that she had fled her classroom and locked herself in a toilet when she heard their gunshots.

Others confused her with a second female teacher, Hifsa Khush, who was burnt to death in front of her traumatised pupils.

But now her son Ahmad, 23, has taken to social media to clarify the reports - saying his mother was shot in the head by one of the six depraved killed as she was shepherding children out of the besieged building so they could escape certain death.

The remains of Mrs Qazi's body are believed to have been found beneath a pile of rubble after the ceiling and walls of her classroom collapsed.

Confusion over exactly how she died led to rumours surfacing that he had been hiding from the militants in a locked toilet when they blew the room to pieces using a grenade.

Others muddled her story up with that of fellow teacher Hifsa Khush, who was horrifically burnt to death in front of her traumatised pupils.

But a post on Ahmad Qazi's Facebook page clarified details of her death, saying that burn marks on her body were inflicted after she died.

These, he said, were caused by an 'additional blast' rather than a hand grenade and that 'she was pretty much recognisable.'

The statement ends with a plea from Qazi for the stories to be corrected, urging people to share his Facebook status so that 'the right information be taken to the people.'

Clarification of Mrs Qazi's death came as the Taliban issued another statement on the attack, claiming their aim had been to target the sons of a Pakistani military officer.

Mohammad Khorasani, the spokesman for Pakistan Taliban, claimed in a statement issued to media: '[The] attack on the school in Peshawar was revenge for the killing of its fighters and their families during on going military operation in North Waziristan.'

One of the commanders of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan TTP also claimed in a video message: 'If our women and children died as martyrs your children will not escape.'

Pointing towards the Pakistani military's ongoing operation in North Waziristan, Khalifa Omar Mansoor - a Taliban commander believed by security forces to have masterminded the attack, warned:' This is obvious if you will attack us we will certainly go for a revenge for our families.'

Earlier this week, pictures of a blood splattered doorway leading to an auditorium and the scene of the final gun battle emerged. In a grim tour of the building photographers were shown inside the auditorium.

The floor is caked in blood in places and dozens of chairs lie in disarray, knocked over by children running for cover as the terrorists hosed them with bullets.

The lucky ones, it transpired, survived by playing dead under these chairs as the gunmen stalked the room, searching for children they'd missed.

As people around the world united to condemn the attack, the Taliban gloatingly published pictures of the fighters responsible for the slaughter.

A series of chilling images shows them lined up with assault rifles and rocket launchers.

The massacre led to calls for the death penalty to be restored. 'It was decided that this moratorium should be lifted. The prime minister approved,' said government spokesman Mohiuddin Wan, referring to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's approval of the decision by a ministerial committee.

A moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in 2008 and only one execution has taken place since then.

The government declared a three-day mourning period, starting on Wednesday. The authorities also warned schools to be vigilant, as intelligence has been received by police suggesting terrorists are planning to attach magnetic bombs to school buses, according to Sky News.

Some of the funerals were held overnight, but most of the 132 children and 10 school staff members killed in the attack were to be buried Wednesday. Another 121 students and three staff members were wounded.

Some of the critically wounded adults - members of the school staff - died overnight, and authorities raised the overall death toll to 148.

Hundreds of people attended the funeral prayer for Mrs Qazi, held in a field of wheat crops.

Her son Ahmad, 23, said that he was proud of his mother.

'She was more committed to the students of the school than her family,' he said.

Ahmad said that he last met her on Tuesday morning, for breakfast, the day she was killed and burnt alive.

He told MailOnline: 'Her vehicle came late that day, so we talked about different things. She was so happy for her students. She told me that she would have a busy day ahead. She left home for school around 8:45 am.'

At around 10:45 he heard about the attack and tried to call her.

He continued: 'I started trying her cell number but for an hour it remained busy. I tried dozens of the time but couldn't reach her and after an hour her cell turned off. Later her personal assistant (PA) told me that she was busy talking to parents of the students. Her PA told us that she had the opportunity to leave the school.'

'She had that smiling face. But I could not see her face for more than a second after she was killed. It was so horrible. It was burnt and I could not even imagine my sister in that shape. I could not dare see her body more than once.'

Mother of three Tahira Kazi was very popular among her students, too.

'She was not an angry principal but a very disciplined one,' said 18-year-old grade 12 APS student Muhammad Tajdar. 'I have never saw her hitting a student or in an angry mood. She came to our class last time on Thursday last week and asked us to focus on our studies.'

Tajdar was there when terrorists attacked the school.

He said: 'I was on second floor of building with my class fellow when I heard firing. I saw three young men clad in black uniform jumping the back wall of the school. They were carrying guns and hand grenades. They started firing the bullets straight to the students. We quickly got into a classroom, locked the door and put chairs and benches in front of the door.

'There were at least 25 students in that classroom. We heard the cries of the students and teachers but we stayed silent. We were shivering with fear.'

Another shocking account of the massacre came from 13-year-old survivor Ehsan Elahi, an eighth grade student who was busy with his classmates learning first aid training from army instructors at the main hall of the school when he heard the sound of gunfire nearby.

He told MailOnline: 'Our teachers and instructors asked us to calm down but the sound of the bullets started came closer and closer. In the next minute, the glass of windows and doors of the hall smashed with bullets. Some people started kicking the hall doors.'

He said that situation created panic among the 100 students in the hall.

He said: 'Everybody was trying to find a place to hide but there was not such places in the hall. The students were crying and weeping. There were only chairs and benches to hide behind in the hall. I jumped behind a bench and laid on the ground.' He said the attackers burst in and started 'spraying bullets like hell'.

Elahi continued: 'I saw army instructors falling on the ground first. I saw many of my friends getting bullets on their heads, chests, arms and legs right in front of me. Their body parts and blood were flying like small pieces of cotton in the class room.

'Warm blood and flesh of my friends fell on my face and other parts of my body. It was horrible. They kept on firing bullets for at least 10 minutes and then stopped. It was a pause of a maximum of a minute. Next moment, they started spraying bullets again towards those who were crying with pain or moving. I also received two bullets on my right arm. I wanted to cry with my full voice but I held my pain and did not cry because it meant death.'

Elahi explained how his life was eventually saved by Pakistani soldiers.

He said: 'They were not ready to leave alive even a single person present in the hall. After around 15 minutes, we heard some bullets shots from outside. I think army soldiers reached the school by that time and they fired those bullets. This diverted the attention of the attackers. They ran out from the hall. But, I did not move or cried for next 10 minutes unless army men came to rescue us.

'The hall has turned to pool of blood and death. Human blood, flesh and body parts were scattered everywhere. I saw lifeless faces of many of my friends when I was leaving the hall. Their faces are still in front of my eyes.'

More horrifying accounts have emerged of another female teacher being burned alive as she courageously stood in the path of the terrorists and told her children to run for their lives.

Afsha Ahmed, 24, confronted the marauding gunmen when they burst into her classroom and told them: 'You can only kill my students over my dead body.'

The militants doused her with petrol and set her alight, but she still mustered the strength to beckon her pupils to flee.

One of her students, 15-year-old Irfan Ullah, wept as he recalled her incredible bravery.

He said: 'She was a hero, so brave.

'She jumped up and stood between us and the terrorists before they could target us.

'She warned them: 'You can only kill them over my dead body'. I remember her last words - she said: 'I won't see my students lying in blood on the floor'.'

Irfan, who suffered serious injuries to his chest and stomach in the chaos, said he hoped Mrs Ahmed would forgive him for not trying to protect her and for any mistakes he ever made in class.

'I felt so selfish as we ran away to safe our lives instead of trying to save our teacher who sacrificed her life for our better tomorrow,' he added.

Another teacher, Hifsa Khush, is also thought to have been burned alive in front of her pupils after being doused in petrol.

Prayer vigils were held across the nation and in other schools, students spoke of their shock at the carnage in Peshawar, where seven Taliban gunmen, explosives strapped to their bodies, scaled a back wall using a ladder to get into the military-run establishment in the morning hours on Tuesday.

REVEALED: THE BLOODTHIRSTY TALIBAN LEADER DUBBED 'RADIO MULLAH' BEHIND PAKISTANI SCHOOL MASSACRE - WHO ALSO ORDERED MALALA HIT
Fazlullah
Yousafzai
The bloody slaughter of 132 children at a school in Pakistan yesterday was ordered by Maulana Fazlullah - the head of the country's Taliban terror group and a man whose previous crimes include ordering the murder of teenage education campaigner Malala Yousafzai.

The firebrand militant, whose thick black beard reaches halfway down his chest, took control of the Pakistani Taliban 13 months ago, and it is thought yesterday's massacre may have been his barbaric revenge for Malala, 17, being award the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year.

Whatever his twisted motive, Fazlullah has succeeded in uniting the world in revulsion once again.

Born Fazal Hayat in 1974 in the Swat Valley, Fazlullah is a member of the Yousafzai tribe - the same group of ethnic Pashtuns from which Malala takes her surname.

Aged 18 he became the leader of the local terror group Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi after its leadership was decimated by arrests following the September 11 attacks in New York.

In the hope of cementing his legitimacy as leader, Fazlullah married the daughter of Sufi Muhammad, who founded Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi in 2002. Rumours that his henchmen kidnapped the bride and forced her to marry him have dogged Fazlullah ever since.

While in jail, Muhammad ordered Fazlullah to adopt his new name and sent him reams of radical Islamic literature designed to assist and guide his son in law.

By the time Muhammad was released from prison in 2008, Fazlullah's leadership was secure enough for its founder not to resume control.

Later that year Fazlullah allied Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi with the Pakistani Taliban, and he started taking direct orders from Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

This relationship would allow Fazlullah to become increasingly close to senior figures in the terror group.

While taking orders from the Pakistani Taliban, Fazlullah controlled more than 4,000 fighters - helping him to effectively run a parallel government in the Swat Valley and impose strict Sharia law across 57 villages.

It was while governing the Swat Valley that Fazlullah began using FM radio stations to broadcast his firebrand sermons in the area, earning him the nickname Radio Mullah.

His rantings about 'sins' such as television, music, and computers were deemed compulsory listening among the villagers as the Taliban imposed a rigorous version of Islamic law, publicly beheading and flogging wrongdoers and burning schools.

In 2012 Fazlullah ordered the death of Malala Yousafzai - the teenage education campaigner who almost died when a masked gunman in Swat Valley jumped into a vehicle taking girls home from school and shouted 'Who is Malala?' before shooting her in the head.

Mehsud
Last November Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed by a U.S. drone strike, leading to the Taliban's supreme council electing Fazlullah as its new head.

Since then, the militant has specialised in the kind attention grabbing savagery that deflects attention away from the Taliban's declining influence in Swat Valley, which has been eroded by bitter feuds with local clans - including the traditionally dominant Mehsud tribe.

Fazlullah has also found his power reined in by the Pakistani military's fresh push into the Taliban's former North Waziristan stronghold.

In September Fazlullah also declared the Taliban's support for the Islamic State and vowed to send fighters to assist the terror group as it was wages bloody war in Syria and Iraq.

Yesterday's brutal massacre of schoolchildren is widely seen as an attempt by Fazlullah to prove to his rivals that the Taliban is still a relevant force.

The strategy may not be particularly well thought out, however, as it is only likely to add to the tribal divisions that have drastically weakened the group over the past year.

The attack was the deadliest slaughter of innocents in the country and horrified a nation already weary of unending terrorist assaults.

Army commandos fought the Taliban in a day-long battle until the school was cleared and the attackers dead.

'They finished in minutes what I had lived my whole life for, my son,' said laborer Akhtar Hussain, tears streaming down his face as he buried his 14-year-old, Fahad. He said he had worked for years in Dubai to earn a livelihood for his children.

'That innocent one is now gone in the grave, and I can't wait to join him, I can't live anymore,' he wailed, banging his fists against his head.

'The attackers came around 10:30 a.m. on a pick-up van,' said Issam Uddin, a 25-year-old school bus driver.

'They drove it around the back of the school and set it on fire to block the way. Then they went to Gate 1 and killed a soldier, a gatekeeper and a gardener. Firing began and the first suicide attack took place.'

The Taliban said the attack was revenge for a military offensive against their safe havens in the northwest, along the border with Afghanistan, which began in June. Analysts said the school siege showed that even diminished, the militant group still could inflict horrific carnage.

The attack drew swift condemnation from around the world. President Barack Obama said the 'terrorists have once again showed their depravity.'

Pakistan's teenage Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai - herself a survivor of a Taliban shooting - said she was 'heartbroken' by the bloodshed.

Even Taliban militants in neighboring Afghanistan decried the killing spree, calling it 'un-Islamic.'

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif pledged to step up the campaign that - along with U.S. drone strikes - has targeted the militants.

'We will take account of each and every drop of our children's blood,' said Sharif, who rushed to Peshawar shortly after the attack to offer support for the victims.

At a top-level meeting in Peshawar he said: 'We must not forget these scenes. The way they left bullet holes in the bodies of innocent kids, the way they tore apart their faces with bullets.'

Obama
Ghani
Sharif said he spoke to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani late Tuesday to discuss how both countries could do more to fight terrorism. The two agreed to launch fresh operations on their respective sides of the border, he said, and pledged to 'clean this region from terrorism.'

In neighboring India, which has long accused Pakistan of supporting anti-India guerrillas, schools on Wednesday observed two minutes of silence for the Peshawar victims at the urging of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called the attack 'a senseless act of unspeakable brutality.'

Ziauddin Yousafzai, Pakistani diplomat and the father of Malala Yousafzai, told the BBC Today programme that his family was traumatised by the atrocity.

He said: 'Yesterday we heard about this horrible news, my whole family was in trauma. It is the extreme of extremism.

'I can imagine how much sadness, terror and horror those families will be passing through now.

'Yesterday my wife had a fit, she went into unconsciousness for five to 10 minutes. I have never seen my daughter so sad and upset as I saw her yesterday.

'Schools should be safe places for children. I am afraid that if they [Taliban] are not countered, we may see more horrible things in future.'

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