SUICIDAL ATTACK IN LAHORE

PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban have offered in a recent telephone conversation to lay down arms if President Pervez Musharraf quits, his policies are reviewed and Islamic laws are enforced in Pakistan.

In an exclusive telephone interview with Kyodo News, a spokesman for Taliban Commander Baitullah Mehsud said the Taliban launched their struggle because of the "wrong" policies of Musharraf, particularly in tribal areas.

"We have said it loud and clear that the wrong policies of government must be abandoned, Musharraf should be removed and Islamic laws enforced. These three things will guarantee that we will stop our struggle," spokesman Mullah Omar said.

Pakistani tribesmen have waged a war on the Pakistan Army, which has deployed 100,000 troops on the border with Afghanistan after complaints that al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban remnants and their Pakistani supporters are launching attacks into Afghanistan from bases in Pakistan.

Mehsud has been declared united leader of all the militant groups resisting Pakistan Army operations in South Waziristan and is urging all other militant groups in North Waziristan and Swat to join him.

"All the groups in South Waziristan have united under Baitullah Mehsud and have made it clear that it is necessary for Taliban to unite and combine under the flag of Baitullah Mehsud," Omar said.

Baitullah Mehsud is known to be a former inmate of the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison who was released after interrogation.

On his return, he started a resistance against U.S. and Pakistani military operations in the tribal areas.

The Pakistan government has declared him a proclaimed offender, but he is emerging as a legend in tribal areas for his resistance to the army and his support to the resistance against the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.

Omar denied Mehsud has an affiliation with al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and declared he was leading the struggle only within Pakistan.

"Our formation is by our tribal people only and no one else, like al-Qaeda or the Afghan Taliban is involved," he said. The spokesman did, however, express full support for al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

"The Taliban in Pakistan respect (Osama) bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar and we consider them heroes of Islam. We think they are alive and leading Muslim mujahideen from the front, but we do not know their whereabouts," he said. - Kyodo