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Al-Qaeda's spy killers spread terror in Pakistan
By Nadeem Sarwar and Safiullah Gul Mehsud Nov 3, 2011, 2:34 GMT
Peshawar, Pakistan - Ayub Khan was on his way home when masked men, dressed in black and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, pulled him out of a minibus on a summer evening in Pakistan's north-western tribal district of North Waziristan.
For the next 15 days he was tortured, and threatened with execution if he did not admit that he was a US spy providing information that led CIA-operated unmanned aircraft to their targets.
Khan, a pseudonym, managed to convince his captors that he was not a spy and was released with broken bones and holes in his feet, made by an electric drill.
Many others picked up since February 2009 were not so lucky. That was when al-Qaeda launched its new group, Ittehad-e-Mujahideen Khorasan, to spot and kill spies as the US intensified drone attacks in Pakistan's seven tribal districts, where Taliban and al-Qaeda have bases. The terrorist group has executed up to 250 people on charges of espionage.
Missiles fired from unmanned aircraft have hit al-Qaeda hard, killing several dozen of their high-ranking leaders and operatives.
US officials have described as a success the killing of al-Qaeda's suspected chief of operations, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, in August, and that of his replacement Hafs al-Shahri, a Saudi national, three weeks later.
Drones are armed with sophisticated technology and night-vision instruments but picking the right target is not possible without an intelligence network on the ground.
Agents among the local population identify and locate the target and guide the missiles fired from the drones with equipment that is supplied to them.
Sometimes agents give the location of the target through satellite phones to CIA stations in Afghanistan and the information is relayed to the drone operators, Taliban sources and Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The militants want to break this network by eliminating the suspected agents in a way that creates fear among the local population. The suspects are abducted, tortured to get information, and then killed. Their bodies are dumped along the road with a warning that 'every US spy will face the same fate.'
With its headquarters in the Machikhel area of Mirali sub-district in North Waziristan, the anti-spy militia is primarily an offshoot of the Jihad Islamic Union (JIU), which itself is a faction of the larger Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan movement.
Due to and old and trustworthy alliance, al-Qaeda has brought JIU to the forefront for day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal region as its own main leadership goes further into hiding from the drone attacks. The JIU is also mainly responsible for recruitment from European countries for al-Qaeda.
The current head of Ittehad-e-Mujahideen Khorasan is a 35-year-old Saudi, known locally by the alias Mufti Abdul Jabbar. He came to North Waziristan in 2002, and has learned the local customs and language.
Khorasan members are believed to number around 2,000 with some 60 per cent from Central Asia, 20 per cent Arabs and the rest made up of locals and Islamist militants from Pakistan's largest province of Punjab, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.
The Khorasan group has a 15-member council that decides the fate of a person accused of espionage. Suspects are held at one of the at least 10 private jails in the Miramshah, Mir Ali and Datakhel areas of North Waziristan before being either released or condemned to death. There is no middle way, at least for the Khorasan group.
This policy has created differences with their hosts, the Pakistani Taliban, especially the local militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
Bahadur has maintained a balance over the years by allying himself with the local tribesmen and by making deals with the Pakistani government. He focuses mainly on supporting the Taliban's cross-border attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, and avoids any activity against Pakistan, unlike some other local Taliban groups.
But the al-Qaeda Khorasan group is disturbing the balance by making Bahadur's tribesmen angry with their acts of cruelty.
'I don't know where these animals have come from. They have no regard for Islam, life, respect or the property of a man,' said a tribal elder from Mir Ali who spoke on condition of anonymity.
'We have tried to correct them but all repeated attempts to reform them have failed,' Bahadur told tribesmen in a leaflet circulated last month in North Waziristan.
In a defiant gesture, the Khorasan group also distributed a pamphlet, vowing that they would bring every 'enemy of Islam to justice' and warned that the group could adopt any means, even those that deviated from its 'customary approach,' to acheive its objectives.
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Sigh, where is Imran Khan when you need him the most ? I would like to see a Khorasan dharna more than a drone dharna.
By Nadeem Sarwar and Safiullah Gul Mehsud Nov 3, 2011, 2:34 GMT
Peshawar, Pakistan - Ayub Khan was on his way home when masked men, dressed in black and carrying AK-47 assault rifles, pulled him out of a minibus on a summer evening in Pakistan's north-western tribal district of North Waziristan.
For the next 15 days he was tortured, and threatened with execution if he did not admit that he was a US spy providing information that led CIA-operated unmanned aircraft to their targets.
Khan, a pseudonym, managed to convince his captors that he was not a spy and was released with broken bones and holes in his feet, made by an electric drill.
Many others picked up since February 2009 were not so lucky. That was when al-Qaeda launched its new group, Ittehad-e-Mujahideen Khorasan, to spot and kill spies as the US intensified drone attacks in Pakistan's seven tribal districts, where Taliban and al-Qaeda have bases. The terrorist group has executed up to 250 people on charges of espionage.
Missiles fired from unmanned aircraft have hit al-Qaeda hard, killing several dozen of their high-ranking leaders and operatives.
US officials have described as a success the killing of al-Qaeda's suspected chief of operations, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, in August, and that of his replacement Hafs al-Shahri, a Saudi national, three weeks later.
Drones are armed with sophisticated technology and night-vision instruments but picking the right target is not possible without an intelligence network on the ground.
Agents among the local population identify and locate the target and guide the missiles fired from the drones with equipment that is supplied to them.
Sometimes agents give the location of the target through satellite phones to CIA stations in Afghanistan and the information is relayed to the drone operators, Taliban sources and Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The militants want to break this network by eliminating the suspected agents in a way that creates fear among the local population. The suspects are abducted, tortured to get information, and then killed. Their bodies are dumped along the road with a warning that 'every US spy will face the same fate.'
With its headquarters in the Machikhel area of Mirali sub-district in North Waziristan, the anti-spy militia is primarily an offshoot of the Jihad Islamic Union (JIU), which itself is a faction of the larger Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan movement.
Due to and old and trustworthy alliance, al-Qaeda has brought JIU to the forefront for day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal region as its own main leadership goes further into hiding from the drone attacks. The JIU is also mainly responsible for recruitment from European countries for al-Qaeda.
The current head of Ittehad-e-Mujahideen Khorasan is a 35-year-old Saudi, known locally by the alias Mufti Abdul Jabbar. He came to North Waziristan in 2002, and has learned the local customs and language.
Khorasan members are believed to number around 2,000 with some 60 per cent from Central Asia, 20 per cent Arabs and the rest made up of locals and Islamist militants from Pakistan's largest province of Punjab, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.
The Khorasan group has a 15-member council that decides the fate of a person accused of espionage. Suspects are held at one of the at least 10 private jails in the Miramshah, Mir Ali and Datakhel areas of North Waziristan before being either released or condemned to death. There is no middle way, at least for the Khorasan group.
This policy has created differences with their hosts, the Pakistani Taliban, especially the local militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
Bahadur has maintained a balance over the years by allying himself with the local tribesmen and by making deals with the Pakistani government. He focuses mainly on supporting the Taliban's cross-border attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan, and avoids any activity against Pakistan, unlike some other local Taliban groups.
But the al-Qaeda Khorasan group is disturbing the balance by making Bahadur's tribesmen angry with their acts of cruelty.
'I don't know where these animals have come from. They have no regard for Islam, life, respect or the property of a man,' said a tribal elder from Mir Ali who spoke on condition of anonymity.
'We have tried to correct them but all repeated attempts to reform them have failed,' Bahadur told tribesmen in a leaflet circulated last month in North Waziristan.
In a defiant gesture, the Khorasan group also distributed a pamphlet, vowing that they would bring every 'enemy of Islam to justice' and warned that the group could adopt any means, even those that deviated from its 'customary approach,' to acheive its objectives.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sigh, where is Imran Khan when you need him the most ? I would like to see a Khorasan dharna more than a drone dharna.
