Pakistan offers Taliban bounties

[Shreyas]

Pakistan offers Taliban bounties

Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud heads the wanted list Pakistan's government has offered rewards totalling $5m (£3m) for information leading to the capture of Taliban leaders and commanders. A sum of 50m rupees ($600,000) has been promised for the capture - dead or alive - of the group's leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, and two top aides. The Taliban have been blamed for a recent series of attacks in Pakistan. The rewards come as the army carries out an operation against militants in South Waziristan province. Pakistan's government announced the offers in a series of national advertisements. It said the accused were "daily involved in deadly activities" which were killing Muslims and "earning a bad name for the Muslims in Pakistan and around the world". Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud "Such people are killers of humanity, and they deserve an exemplary punishment," it said. "Anyone who captures these people dead or alive, or provides concrete information, the government will award them a cash reward." Rewards of 50m rupees were also offered for the Taliban's South Waziristan leader, Wali-ur Rehman, and for Qari Hussain, the commander in Kotkai. Eleven commanders have 20m-rupee bounties on their heads and rewards of 10m rupees are on offer for five others. The announcement comes after a series of deadly blasts in Pakistan, blamed on the Taliban. On Wednesday, at least 118 people were killed in a huge explosion at a market in the city of Peshawar. And within hours of the announcement of the awards, at least 15 people were killed in a blast in the city of Rawalpindi.

Source

Hope this steps to capture some Taliban leaders work.

[Kryptonite]

I would hope people would come out and talk, I think the reward money may even entice them out more

[FlyingKiwi]

I think rewards would definitely be a good way to get people who might otherwise be unwilling to come forward to do so. They would need to be very careful to ensure the informants' security though.

[brightside.]

These reward announcements aren't going to do anything. First of all, there is a very heavy military offensive going on in South Waziristan, where these Taliban are holed up. They are surrounded from all sides, the civilian populations of these areas have fled the fighting. There is nobody left in the area, except the Taliban and the military. So who will claim these rewards? CIA and ISI already have people spying on the Taliban (sometimes those accused of spying for the US are brutally murdered by the Taliban), and they won't blow their cover by asking for a prize.