'We abhor killing innocent people through suicide attacks and bomb blasts, attacks on our own army and destruction of social infrastructure,' a statement quoted him [Fazal Saeed] as saying in the Afghanistan Sun.
Fazal Saeed, a former commander of the terrorist group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has decided that killing innocent people/civilians AND attacking the army of Pakistan is unjustified morally. According to Saeed, the targeting of "Muslims" is forbidden by Islam. Saeed was a commander of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in the Kurram Agency, a part of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
After supposedly asking the leadership of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to stop targeting these two groups of people, Saeed had enough and quit, forming his own group, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Islami. "The new organization will not attack our own security forces," he claimed.
While the splitting off of one top commander in the Taliban leadership isn't necessarily the beginning of the end, it could be a sign of things to come. The TTP is made up of Sunni's, while Saeed was commanding a primarily Shia majority. When TTP was formed, the groups that came together were primarily anti-Shia.
"For the first time someone has publicly spoken against the TTP and criticised its strategy," said Brigadier (retd) Mahmood Shah in Peshawar. Some consider this a significant development within the Taliban movement. Does this mean the Taliban has started splitting apart? Will the government step up and take advantage of this split to further erode the leadership of the Taliban? Time will tell.
However, Saeed is firm on his commitment to continue fighting the US and NATO forces over in Afghanistan. Also he [Saeed] will continue fighting in Pakistan against those who are anti-Islamic.
So where does that leave the innocent civilians? Safe it seems, if Saeed has bombs and IED's that will only kill non-Muslims. Only by watching Saeed and Tehrik-i-Taliban Islami actions over the coming months we will know if he truly is taking the "moral high ground" here.
Stumble It!
