Untitled - orsam

iyals ($597,237) from Al Qaida when it tried to collect money and spread its ideology
during Haj and Umra in Saudi Arabia. (Gulf News)
8. SOUTH ASIA / GÜNEY ASYA
PAKISTAN / PAKİSTAN
Pakistan is offering a reward of about $120,000 for information about Taliban militants
linked to attacks or planned attacks in the country.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced the reward Saturday saying the government
would be willing to resettle informants and their families in Pakistan or possibly abroad if
they feared retaliation.
The Associated Press of Pakistan quotes Malik as saying the government has "broken the
back" of the Taliban which he said is "breathing" its last breath. He said the militant
group is "desperate" as it carries out "terrorist activities" in mosques, shrines and other
public places.
He commented a day after Pakistani authorities announced the arrests of two suspected
suicide bombers accused of planning to attack a mosque and government buildings in
Islamabad. A senior police official said both men were linked to the Pakistani Taliban.
Malik said many of the Taliban militants are linked to the banned Sunni Muslim Laskhare-Jhangvi.
Authorities believe the group has played a role in violence that includes the
2002 kidnapping and murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Malik said some Taliban
militants are also linked to the extremist Sunni Muslim group Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Sayfa 77