Putting to rest speculation about his death in an army operation against one of his suspected hideouts, Maulana Fazlullah said he was safe and present in the Swat valley.

"I am present in Swat and leading my fighters. We will continue our fight under the leadership of commander Baitullah Mehsud till our goals are achieved," the radical cleric, also known as "Mullah Radio" for his fiery sermons advocating 'jehad', told BBC's Urdu service from an undisclosed location yesterday.

He said he and other senior members of his Shaheen Commando Force had gone underground but would "continue their struggle".

President Pervez Musharraf recently blamed Fazlullah and Mehsud for a string of suicide bombings across Pakistan. Mehsud was also blamed for the attack in which former premier Benazir Bhutto was killed in Rawalpindi on December 27.

However, Mehsud, has denied involvement in Bhutto's killing.

The Pakistan Army is believed to be preparing for a major assault in the troubled South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan to round up Mehsud and his deputies.

Mehsud was last year made the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a coalition of Taliban groups from the country's northwestern tribal areas.