Taliban renews its threat to kill ‘pharaoh’ Musharraf

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Taliban movement renewed its threat to kill former military strongman Pervez Musharraf, in a video message released yesterday.

‘‘God willing, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan is all prepared to deal with this great pharaoh of human history,’’ Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the insurgent group, said in the six-minute video.

Mr Ehsan accused Mr Musharraf of triggering a ‘‘bloodbath’’ in the Waziristan tribal region and the volatile south-western province of Balochistan during his rule. He also criticised Mr Musharraf for a 2007 military operation at Islamabad’s Red Mosque and its girls’ seminary.

He said the 69-year-old former president was trying to ‘‘deceive’’ the people through his slogan of ‘‘Pakistan First’’.

Mr Ehsan issued a similar death threat to Mr Musharraf on the eve of the former president’s homecoming in March, after nearly five years of self-imposed exile.

Mr Musharraf continues to be under detention at his plush farm residence in an Islamabad suburb. He has stayed there for more than a month as investigators probe old allegations of detaining judges after imposing emergency rule, as well as the circumstances of the death of a rebellious Baloch chieftain. Mr Ehsan asked ‘‘Baloch brethren’’ to stand shoulder-toshoulder with the Taliban in its struggle for enforcement of sharia.

The latest video started with a grab from a television talk show in which Mr Musharraf defended the Red Mosque raid, which left more than 100 people dead.

The video also repeated a message from Adnan Rasheed, who was freed in a militant attack last year from a prison where he was on death row for a previous attempt on Mr Musharraf’s life.

‘‘The mujahideen of Islam have prepared a special squad to send Musharraf to hell,’’ Rasheed said.

Mr Musharraf’s appearance before courts has been restricted after authorities warned militants have planned his kidnapping. A car rigged with explosives was also found close to his residence last month.

Meanwhile, Sami ul Haq, a hardline cleric believed to be close to the Islamist insurgents, offered to mediate a peace deal between the Taliban and the incoming government, local English-language daily The News reported yesterday.

But the cleric set as a condition that Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders must be on the same page and that they must remain committed to negotiations despite possible US backlash.

Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Mr Musharraf in 1999, is poised to become the country’s prime minister for a third time after his Pakistan Muslim League emerged as the single largest party in the landmark May 11 general elections.

Mr Sharif supports peace talks with the Taliban, which said late last week it would be premature to comment before a new government took charge.