Mullah Fazlullah is in Pakistan: Shahidullah Shahid

Militant outfit's spokesperson says TTP leader is currently in the tribal regions of Pakistan.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Mullah Fazlullah is currently in the tribal regions of Pakistan, and not in Afghanistan as claimed by Pakistani officials, the militant outfit claimed on Thursday, the BBC reported.

Islamabad maintains that Mullah Fazlullah is based in the Kunar province of Afghanistan and has sought from Afghanistan the extradition of the TTP chief as well as the dismantlement of what it calls the militant outfit’s longstanding hideouts in Kunar and Nooristan provinces.

Speaking to the BBC, TTP spokesperson Shahidullah Shahid said that Mullah Fazlullah was not under the influence of the Afghan government even when he was in Afghanistan and added that the TTP has never been aided by any government.

Shahid also said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government treated the negotiations between the government and the Taliban as a joke, saying they mishandled it even more than the governments of Musharraf and Zardari.

The Pakistan Army is currently engaged in a major military offensive against the Taliban in the North Waziristan tribal region.