Islamabad, July 20: Pakistan’s army is investigating whether the leader of the Taliban in the northwest Swat Valley, said to have been wounded in an airstrike, delivered a recent radio address, a spokesman said.
A local resident said the voice on the recording on Tuesday was definitely Maulana Fazlullah’s, but that he sounded sombre and sick.
Fazlullah long used illegal FM radio transmissions to rally militants and sow fear among residents in the valley, a scenic former tourist haven that largely fell prey to militancy more than two years ago.
The transmissions mostly stopped after the army launched its latest offensive in Swat nearly three months ago.
The operation has strong backing from the United States, which wants Pakistan to clear safe havens for militants who threaten the war effort in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Nearly two weeks ago, the military said it had received credible reports that Fazlullah had been wounded in an airstrike.
However, Mohammad Yaseen Khan, an electronics dealer in Swat’s main city of Mingora, said he heard Fazlullah speak for three or four minutes on Tuesday.
“That was definitely him, but not with his usual firebrand, aggressive style,” Khan said. “Rather, he was sounding like a sick man.”
Fazlullah asked his supporters not to lose spirit in the face of the army offensive, Khan said.
“We have inflicted heavy losses to this army, and there is a need for a last push to give them final defeat,” Khan quoted Fazlullah as saying. Khan said Fazlullah also pledged that the jihad would continue until the world ends.
Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas confirmed that the military is looking into the reports but said it’s possible it was an older recording being played.
-Agencies