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Pakistani government places $600,000 bounty on Taliban leader

02 November 2009 08:21 (UTC +04:00)

Islamabad â€“ APA. Pakistan on Monday offered rewards worth five million dollars for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of the country’s Taliban warlord Hakimullah Mehsud and 18 lieutenants, APA reports quoting AFP.
The rewards for top-ranking Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants were offered in a black-and-white government advertisement on the front page of The News daily and flashed on Pakistani television channels overnight.
Mehsud, who took on the leadership mantle after a US drone attack killed his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud in August, headed the list with 50 million Pakistan rupees (600,240 dollars) slapped on his head.
TTP has been blamed for some of the worst attacks in Pakistan, which have killed around 2,400 people in a deadly wave of carnage over the past two years.
The hardcore faction has also claimed responsibility for many strikes in a recent surge in bloodshed, in which more than 300 people died last month, as the military launched a ground offensive against the TTP in South Waziristan.