DERA ISMAIL KHAN! Volly ball player Becomes the most hated man in Pakistan is a
36-year-old father of three.
His real
name is Umar Mansoor and the Pakistani Taliban say he masterminded this week's
massacre of 132 children and nine staff at a school in Peshawar - the deadliest
militant attack in Pakistan's history. A video posted on Thursday on a website
used by the Taliban shows a man with a luxuriant chest-length beard, holding an
admonishing finger aloft as he seeks to justify the Dec. 16 attack. The caption
identified him as Umar Mansoor.
"If
our women and children die as martyrs, your children will not escape," he
said. "We will fight against you in such a style that you attack us and we
will take revenge on innocents." The Taliban say the attack, in which
gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests executed children, was retaliation for a
military offensive carried out by the Pakistani army. They accuse the military
of carrying out extrajudicial killings.
The
accusation is not new. Many courts have heard cases where men disappeared from
the custody of security services. Some bodies have been found later, hands
bound behind the back and shot in the head, or dismembered and stuffed into
sacks. Some security officials say privately the courts are so corrupt and
afraid, it is almost impossible to convict militants.
"You
risk your life to catch terrorists and the courts always release them,"
said one official. "If you kill them then they don't come back."
The
country is so inured to violence that the discovery of such bodies barely rates
a paragraph in a local newspaper. Despite this, the school attack shocked a
nation where traditionally, women and children are protected, even in war. Six
Pakistani Taliban interviewed by Reuters confirmed the mastermind was Mansoor.
Four of them said he is close to Mullah Fazlullah, the embattled leader of the
fractious group who ordered assassins to kill schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai.
"He
strictly follows the principles of jihad," one said. "He is strict in
principles, but very kind to his juniors. He is popular among the juniors
because of his bravery and boldness."
Mansoor
got a high school education in the capital, Islamabad, two Taliban members
said, and later studied in a madrassa, a religious school. "Umar
Mansoor had a tough mind from a very young age, he was always in fights with
other boys," said one Taliban member.
Mansoor
has two brothers and spent some time working in the city of Karachi as a
labourer before joining the Taliban soon after it was formed, in late 2007,
said one commander. His nickname is "nary," a word in the Pashto
language meaning "slim", and he is the father of two daughters and a
son, said another commanders.
"(Mansoor)
likes to play volleyball," said one of the Taliban members. "He is a
good volleyball player. Wherever he shifts his office, he puts a volleyball net
up."
The
Taliban video describes him as the "amir", or leader, of Peshawar and
nearby Darra Adam Khel. Mansoor deeply opposes talks with the government, the
commanders said.
"He
was very strict from the start when he joined," a commander said. "He
left many commanders behind if they had a soft corner for the
government."
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