WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The U.S. has announced it will pay a $5 million reward to anyone who assists in the finding of the leader of Pakistan’s Taliban, and has offered $3 million for two other militants from other terrorist groups.
The U.S. State Department posted the reward for information leading to Maulana Fazlullah, the head of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant group (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban.
It also offered $3 million each for two other militants associated with the TTP: Abdul Wali, leader of Jamaat ul-Ahrar, and Mangal Bagh, the leader of Lashkar-e-Islam.
The State Department said the TTP has "demonstrated a close alliance with al-Qaeda" and the three pose a threat to the security of the United States.
"Each of these individuals is believed to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of the United States and its nationals,” the department said in its statement.
"In addition to opposing the Pakistani military, one of TTP’s stated goals is the expulsion of Coalition troops from Afghanistan. The group has demonstrated a close alliance with al-Qaeda, and, since 2008, has also repeatedly publicly threatened to attack the U.S. homeland.”
Although Pakistani Taliban militants still unleash attacks, the group has lost control of all territory in Pakistan since its December 2014 attack on an army school that killed 132 children.
According to U.S. officials, TTP gave explosives training to Faisal Shahzad, who failed in his attempt to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square in May 2010.
The group was behind the massacre of more than 150 people at a Peshawar school in December 2014, and nine dead in another attack in December 2017 in the same city.