(Updates with fresh quotes and background) By Alamgir Bitani KOTKAI, Pakistan, May 24 (Reuters) - The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, vowed on Saturday to carry on fighting NATO and U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan regardless of negotiations for a peace deal with the government of Pakistan. The Taliban leader told a group of journalists, invited to his stronghold in the tribal lands of South Waziristan, that he wanted to stop fighting the Pakistan army. "Fighting between the Taliban and Pakistan is harming Islam and Pakistan. This fighting should come to an end immediately," the black-bearded, short, muscular Mehsud said. But he made no commitment about halting attacks in Afghanistan, and said the jihad, or holy war, would carry on. "Islam does not recognise frontiers and boundaries. Jihad in Afghanistan will continue," Mehsud said, as guards carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles looked on. Mehsud emerged as a notorious militant commander over the past year, having been linked to a string of suicide attacks, including one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto last December. After an offensive in January, the army succeeded in bottling up Mehsud's forces in the mountainous tribal lands of Waziristan, giving the government a stronger position to negotiate from. Though led by Bhutto's party, the new government, after taking office in March, opened talks with tribal elders to persuade Mehsud to desist from launching attacks from their territory. Pakistani authorities say tribal elders were close to finalising the peace pact with Mehsud. Pakistan's western allies, notably the United States, harbour grave reservations about any peace deal, as such pacts in the past have resulted in the militants regrouping in the safe sanctuary of the tribal lands. CROSS-BORDER MOVEMENTS The proposed 15-point agreement, a draft of which was seen by Reuters, called for an end to militant activity, an exchange of prisoners and gradual withdrawal of troops from Waziristan. However, it made no explicit reference to militants stopping attacks in Afghanistan. The Pakistan army says it controls all roads out of Mehsud's tribal lands, which do not border Afghanistan, so the scope for cross-border movements is limited. Mehsud has broke a peace deal signed with the government in 2005, and last year humiliated the army by capturing some 250 soldiers, and freeing them in exchange for the release of his own men. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte voiced his government's misgivings about Pakistani peace talks with the militants during a congressional hearing on Tuesday. Mehsud said he was proud to be an enemy of the United States. He said Afghans were leading the fight against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, while Pakistanis and other foreigners made up only five percent of the insurgents.Mehsud said he had never met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or Taliban chief Mullah Omar. "But, like every true Muslim, I wish to have a glimpse of these two great leaders," he added. U.S. General David Petraeus said on Thursday that al Qaeda's leadership was inside Pakistan's tribal areas, and the next major attack on the West would probably originate from there. Mehsud denied involvement in Bhutto's murder. The government led by Bhutto's party plans to seek a U.N investigation, but Mehsud said he would not cooperate with any such probe. "The U.N. is a slave body. We will not work with it." (Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Bill Tarrant)
Policemen wheel the body of Tariq Khan after a shooting incident in Karachi May 23, 2008. Khan, provincial vice president of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party, was ...
