July 01, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 26, 1429

WANA, June 30: Two groups of local Taliban have joined hands to fight against Nato troops in Afghanistan.

Mulla Nazir group of South Waziristan and Hafiz Gul Bahadur group of North Waziristan agreed on Monday to jointly fight the Nato troops in Afghanistan.

They nominated Hafiz Gul Bahadur as the joint Ameer and Mufti Abu Haroon as spokesman for the Taliban militants.

Talking to Dawn by telephone, Mulla Nazir said members of his group shoora hat met members of the Gul Bahadur group in Miramshah.

The meeting was also attended by commanders of the two Taliban groups.

Talking to Dawn, new Taliban spokesman Mufti Abu Haroon said the Taliban militants would go to Afghanistan to fight Nato troops on the orders of Hafiz Gul Bahadur.

He said the militants would fight the Pakistani forces too if attacked by them.

Besides Tehrik-i-Taliban led by Baitullah Mehsud, there are two other Taliban groups operating in the NWFP and in tribal areas. One of them is being led by Mulla Nazir and the other by Hafiz Gul Bahadur.

The Mulla Nazir group fought against Uzbek militants last year and drove them out of South Waziristan.

The Taliban militants of Hafiz Gul Bahadur group signed a peace deal with the government in Miramshah after a long conflict which left over 100 members of the security forces dead.