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Former ISI Khalid Khwaja found dead in Waziristan

Who killed the ex-ISI official?​


Confirmation came today that Khalid Khawaja, a former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Pakistani Air Force official, was found dead in the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali. Khawaja had been kidnapped last month along with another former ISI agent Sultan Amir Tarar, better known as Colonel Imam, and Asad Qureshi, a British journalist who was working on a documentary on the Taliban. On April 19, a previously unknown group calling itself the Asian Tigers released a video in which Khawaja and Colonel Imam identified themselves as former ISI agents. The group also demanded the release of three Afghan Taliban leaders: Mullah Baradar, Maulvi Abdul Kabir and Mansoor Dadullah.

Unless we accept that the Asian Tigers -- a name which, unlike that of other militant groups, has no religious overtones -- suddenly sprung up out of nowhere, the true identity of Khawaja's killers will likely remain unknown. A look at Khawaja's past associations and the current situation in North Waziristan, though, can help narrow the list of potential suspects.

Journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai, the Peshawar editor of The News, believes the Punjabi Taliban are the most likely culprits. In a telephone interview he said, "The Punjabi Taliban are allied with local militants and they are unhappy about the presence of Hakimullah Mehsud and the South Waziristan Taliban since they fear that might lead to army action." It has been reported that militants from South Waziristan sought refuge in North Waziristan after the army launched a military operation there last fall. Yusufzai also discounts Khawaja's well-known sympathies for the Taliban as a factor in his killing. He claims Khawaja only supported the Afghan Taliban, which has been used to achieve "strategic depth" against India. Khawaja did not have any meaningful links to the Pakistani Taliban, according to Yusufzai, because he would not have supported their attacks against the Pakistan Army.

At the same time, Khawaja's Islamist sympathies cannot be discounted. In 1988 he was kicked out of the ISI after criticizing then-president Zia-ul-Haq for failing to do enough to "Islamicize" Pakistan. And Khawaja was also a favorite of foreign journalists reporting on the Taliban. Slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl repeatedly tried to convince Khawaja to introduce him to militant leader Sheikh Mubarak Gilani. Similarly, journalist Nicholas Schmidle used Khawaja to get access to Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi. Simply put, Khawaja was the go-to guy for anyone seeking contacts with the Taliban. That alone was enough to make Khawaja a valuable target of the Pakistan military and civilian government, because he could have potentially valuable information about the militants he knew -- and, indeed, he was arrested in 2007. In recent years, Khawaja had also become a self-styled human-rights activist, forming a group known as the Defence for Human Rights which sought to locate the so-called ‘missing people' that were believed to have been picked up by Pakistan's intelligence agencies, among others. Among the people he represented were the six U.S. citizens caught by Pakistani security forces in Sargodha late last year. Still, it is far more likely that the military would hold him for interrogation rather than kill him outright.

Khawaja also had plenty of other enemies. He claimed that he had arranged meetings between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif and Osama bin Laden. According to Khawaja, possibly trying to publicly shame him, Sharif sought bin Laden's financial backing to dislodge then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Late last year Khawaja also filed a petition against the constitutional provision that gives the president immunity from prosecution. His petition came after the Supreme Court struck down the National Reconciliation Ordinance that granted amnesty to politicians, including President Asif Ali Zardari, possibly making an enemy out of the president.

Khalid Khawaja's life shows that he had one overarching dream -- to see the establishment of an Islamic state in Pakistan. To work toward that goal, he established short-term alliances with unlikely partners. In October 2001, Khawaja was part of a delegation, which reportedly included former CIA director James Woolsey, that was supposed to talk with the Taliban. His willingness to consort with everyone from CIA officials to hardened terrorists makes pinning down Khawaja's murderers an almost impossible task.


Who Killed Khalid Khawaja? - By Nadir Hassan | The AfPak Channel
 
Khalid Khwaja was an Islamist sympathizer, he filed a lot of cases in the courts to get alleged militants released and was against the war against the Taliban, though I would not go so far as to call him a terrorist, since nothing known about him so far indicates he materially supported terrorism.

His murder, and the alleged circumstances behind it, should really give pause to some Pakistanis who still believe in negotiations with the Taliban and that the Taliban, Al Qaeda and allied groups can be 'reconciled'.

If Islamist sympathizers like him are not safe, then who is?

There is no option but to destroy these people wherever they are found.

These people are consumed by hatred and intolerance, and will go to any lengths to impose that on everyone else - there is nothing to salvage here.

RIP to the deceased.


I agree with you and like you as a civilised person i also feel sad about his death and the way he died was a shame
but again like you said he is one of the many hidden hands who brought Pakistani society into a utter religious and secterian intolerance.
he is one of of the mentors of sipahe Sahaba & lashker e Jhangvi who specialise in killing & terrorising a specific sect in Pakistan.
I also remember his interview with Associated press or CNN where he was very smug and proud to be associated & close acquaintance with OBL and Mullah Omar.

if someone says that he is one of the men responsible to bring the present time of Pakistan where citizens of Pakistan are being blownup and being beheaded regardless if they pray with cross hands or open hands or whether they are Muslim or not or whether they support War on terror or not then i wont disagree

ISI (in addtion to Saudi funding of Madrassahs) is responsible for radicalising Pakistani institutions. My cousin (now retired )who has had excellent service record in counter insergency in Balochistan against BLA terrorists told me himself about the shaddy going ons in ISI and how he was not inducted inducted into ISI despite showing interest.

in the end I will say who lives by the sword dies by the sword
I am sad that his family has lost him in a way that no one deserves to loose but he had that coming

in the end I will condemn this death and the killers and will pray that we get ou Pakistan back, the way it was few decades ago
A more tolerent, respecting and progressing Pakistan
where differences in faith, religion and language are celebrated not merely tolerated

Amen

Pakistan Zindabad:pakistan:
 
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News Jang Group

Khalid Khwaja was arrested in 2002 after the murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi. Khwaja had exchanged some e-mails with Pearl just a few days before his killing. Later, Marianne, the widow of Pearl, informed investigators that Pearl contacted Khwaja through Mansoor Ijaz and he only tried to help her husband in obtaining the contact numbers of some militants. Khwaja was released after a few weeks.

He surfaced again in 2005 when he gave an interview to a foreign newspaper and claimed that he was instrumental in arranging funds for a training camp established by a politician from Rawalpindi for Kashmiri militants. The same year he arranged a meeting of an MMA parliamentarian Shah Abdul Aziz, a religious leader from Kohat Javed Ibrahim Paracha and a pro-Taliban businessman Arif Qasmani with some top US officials, including Karen Hughes.

Javed Paracha confirmed that meeting to The News on Saturday and said that it was arranged by Khalid Khwaja. He said: “I was offered a huge amount of money for talking to the Taliban on behalf of the US government, but I told the Americans that first the Pakistan Army must give me a green signal and then I will proceed but Americans were acting on their own and the talks broke down.”

Javed Paracha also said that Khalid Khwaja came to his home on March 25 with Col Imam and a British journalist. Khawja wanted me to help him in his visit to North Waziristan. He said, “May be Khwaja was again trying to establish communication lines between the Americans and the Taliban but I received a clear message from Taliban that your friend is not welcome.”

Paracha claimed that he advised Khwaja not to go there. He said: “I also requested Col Imam not to take the risk. Col Imam was reluctant but Khwaja insisted and they left for Mir Ali against my advice.”

Both Javed Paracha and Khalid Khwaja had close relations with Lal Masjid clerics in 2007. Paracha met Maulana Abdul Aziz and Abdul Rashid Ghazi along with then Federal Minister Ejazul Haq and requested them to surrender. Khalid Khwaja advised Lal Masjid clerics otherwise.

Khwaja became very active in August 2008 when he contacted PML-N leaders and asked them to file a petition against the participation of Asif Ali Zardari in the presidential election. According to PML-N leader Senator Pervez Rashid, “Khalid Khwaja offered us that Nawaz Sharif should file a petition against Zardari and he will manage a Supreme Court verdict against Zardari within 24 hours but we refused to play in the hands of Khwaja.”

Khwaja had played a very active role against the government of Nawaz Sharif in 1999. He claimed in front of some JUI-F leaders that Nawaz Sharif took money from Osama bin Ladin in 1989 and promised that he would not act against Arab militants after coming into power. Those were the days when Americans were putting pressure on Nawaz Sharif to start operations against the Arabs living in Pakistan. The JUI-F and the JI started a mass campaign against Nawaz Sharif and within a few weeks his government was toppled.

This scribe tried to confirm the claim of Khalid Khwaja from Osama bin Ladin in November 2001 but he never confirmed it. Khwaja told American TV channel ABC in November 2007 that he had arranged a meeting between Nawaz Sharif and Osama bin Ladin in the Green Palace Hotel of Madina in 1989 just a few weeks before the no-confidence move against Benazir Bhutto. Osama was reported to have agreed to provide him some money.

US officials investigated this claim from many al-Qaeda operators arrested after 9/11 but only one, Ali Muhammad, told the FBI that a meeting between the representatives of Osama and Nawaz Sharif took place long ago in Saudi Arabia. He never confirmed a direct meeting between the two. Osama bin Laden never liked these claims of Khalid Khwaja who always claimed to be a friend of Osama. Khwaja had no meeting with Osama bin Laden in the last 20 years but he always claimed to be a friend of Osama.

Khwaja and Shah Abdul Aziz met Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud in early 2009. They convinced Baitullah to write a letter to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani for a ceasefire. The Pakistan Army leadership never trusted Baitullah Mehsud and this effort failed.

Khalid Khwaja filed many petitions in superior courts in his last days. One of them was against the constitutional immunity for the president. His political role is still a mystery. His friends claim that he definitely had relations with some Americans but he was not a CIA agent.

Sources in the military establishment said that he had no mandate of the Pakistan Army for talking to the militants. Some sources said that Khalid Khwaja was used by the Pakistani establishment against Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto many times but he was not trusted in his last days.

The whole drama of his kidnapping and assassination exposed the internal differences of many Taliban groups. A powerful Taliban commander of North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadar, tried his best to rescue Khwaja but failed due to his limited influence in Mir Ali. This area is mostly populated by Dawars but these days Mir Ali is controlled by Mehsud militants who have provided sanctuaries to different groups of the Punjabi Taliban, including some Kashmiris, who have developed differences with Pakistani establishment after the ban on many outfits during the last few years. These disgruntled militants don’t listen to Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Sirajuddin Haqqani group, which is influential in the areas close to Miramshah.
 
The involvement of Kashmiri and Punjabi militant groups seem to be more pronounced that the the traditional Pashtoon base of TTP in this case. Looks like Asian Tigers consists more of these Kashmiri and Punjabi extremists groups or ex members of these groups.
 
He chose his own destiny, and when I was listening to his widow and son they showed no emotion. To them he was a martyr and I am pretty sure Khalid also must have thought himself as one until a bullet was putted in his head.

News Jang Group

The whole drama of his kidnapping and assassination exposed the internal differences of many Taliban groups. A powerful Taliban commander of North Waziristan, Hafiz Gul Bahadar, tried his best to rescue Khwaja but failed due to his limited influence in Mir Ali. This area is mostly populated by Dawars but these days Mir Ali is controlled by Mehsud militants who have provided sanctuaries to different groups of the Punjabi Taliban, including some Kashmiris, who have developed differences with Pakistani establishment after the ban on many outfits during the last few years. These disgruntled militants don’t listen to Hafiz Gul Bahadar and Sirajuddin Haqqani group, which is influential in the areas close to Miramshah.

So does this means pretty soon we will see a clash among different taliban groups in NW, if so better. It seems the Mehsud and Punjabi Talibans have found a new base in NW and they are trying to provoke army to start operation in NW. But it would be better if Talib groups start to fight each other that way PA can pick those who are left and send them to hell as well.
 
HuJI chief behind ex-ISI man's killing? - Pakistan - World - The Times of India

LAHORE: Pakistani investigation agencies probing the abduction of former ISI official squadron leader Khalid Khwaja and his subsequent murder believe that the Asian Tigers, the group which took the responsibility for Khwaja's assassination, is actually a cover for top militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri's led Harkatul Jihadul Islami (HUJI).

According to sources, Pakistani officials have credible input that Kashmiri is currently in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan where the bullet riddled body of Khwaja was recovered on Friday, almost a month after he was abducted with his former ISI colleague Colonel Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam and a British journalist of Pakistani origin, Asad Qureshi.

Sources said that all the three kidnapped persons who were last seen in Mir Ali, were in touch with one Usman Punjabi before they went missing. Officials probing the abduction believe that Usman was actually a 'mole' of Kashmiri to catch Khawaja and Imam, The News reports.

Reading into Khawaja's statement from the video, which was released by his abductors just a few days ago, Pakistani investigators have drawn the conclusion that the abduction of the former ISI officials has something to do with the rift among the various Kashmir centered jihadi groups which operate from Pakistani soil.

They cited Khawaja's remarks in the video that certain jihadi commanders such as Maulana Fazlur Rahman Khalil, Maulana Masood Azhar and Abdullah Shah Mazhar and jihadi groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Al Badr are still operating as ISI proxies and allowed to collect funds in Pakistan.

"As a matter of fact, while the leaders of the three mainstream Kashmir jihadi groups, JeM, LeT and HuM, are still allowed to move freely across Pakistan despite being proscribed by the government, Ilyas Kashmiri has been declared as one of the most wanted fugitive commanders," the newspaper said.

Kashmiri was arrested by the Pakistani authorities after the December 2003 twin suicide attacks on the then President General Pervez Musharraf's carcade in Rawalpindi, but was released two weeks later due to the lack of evidence. He is said to have been running a terror training camp in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.
 
Ina Lillah e wa ina eleh e rajeun.
 
I don't know how big agent one can become in two years of stay in any intelligence agency that one claims to be friend of Mr OBL, offers political leadership to arrange meetings/ money from OBL and offers to obtain favorable decisions from courts. I doubt his status more likely to be a CIA agent. Once we find people linking his death to Kashmiri Fighters, i can smell it to be a prelude of another story. Anyways may Allah forgive his sins and award him a better place. :pakistan:
 
The involvement of Kashmiri and Punjabi militant groups seem to be more pronounced that the the traditional Pashtoon base of TTP in this case. Looks like Asian Tigers consists more of these Kashmiri and Punjabi extremists groups or ex members of these groups.

There is no Kashmiri militant group exist in Pakistan.
There might be Punjabi militant groups, Taliba etc or may be......RAW
 
Its hard to say who was really behind his asssination but as there are contradictions in the stories that have come out so far but one thing is clear that Tribal areas require a huge clean up with more presence of the state's security and adminstrative organs.

The lawlessness that has been there since inception has caused nothing but trouble for Pakistan.

From criminals , to car thieves , to child kidnappers and now the terrorists and criminals of all walks have found this lawlesness to be an attractive cover for whatever activity they are up to and this is not in the interest of Pakistan as this gives space to foreign ( and internal ) enemies of Pakistan to use it against the state.
 
Understand there are numerous groups in North Waziristan, some who are against NATO forces and some against Pakistan.

They wanted the taliban leadership to be handed over to the Afghans, this is clearly a case of some inside deals between Anti Pak groups and their suppliers.

Hekmatyar, Haqqani and Bahadur are attacking some groups of taliban, The word taliban itself is wrong as there are many groups and they can only be termed Mujahideen.

This Mehsud and other bastards are pure gangsters and I hope all these groups die fighting each other.

There are also two kinds of ISI, it was reported before, one which deals with the western countries. They are modern and secular and then there is the extremist ISI which deals with these crazy terrorist groups.

Khwaja died from what he had a big hand in starting.
 
Funeral prayers of Khalid Khwaja offered

ISLAMABAD, May 2 (APP): Funeral prayers of former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) official Squadron Leader (R) Khalid Khwaja was offered Sunday at Islamabad H-9 grave yard. The funeral prayers were lead by Khateeb of Lal Masjid while attended by former Chief of Army Staff Gen. (R) Mirza Aslam Baig, former DG ISI Lt. Gen. (R) Hameed Gul and a large number of other people.

Khalid Khwaja was killed by a mysterious and until now unknown militant outlet, the Asian Tigers, near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan on Friday after holding him hostage for more than a month. Squadron Leader (retd) Khalid Khwaja, Colonel (retd) Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Col Imam, and Pakistani origin British documentary maker Asad Qureshi, had gone to North Waziristan on March 26. They suddenly disappeared and nothing was heard of them until the Asian Tigers claimed responsibility of their kidnapping.

Tribal sources in Mir Ali, the second largest town of North Waziristan after its regional headquarters Miramshah, said villagers were offering the Friday prayers when firing was heard in Karamkot village, five kilometres west of the main Mir Ali-Miramshah Road.

Gen. Hameed Gul, while talking to media after the funeral prayers, denied that Khalid went to Waziristan on his advice. I did not met him for last more than three months but I know he was on a peace mission to convince Taliban stop attack on Pakistani soul, he said.
 
Understand there are numerous groups in North Waziristan, some who are against NATO forces and some against Pakistan.

They wanted the taliban leadership to be handed over to the Afghans, this is clearly a case of some inside deals between Anti Pak groups and their suppliers.

Hekmatyar, Haqqani and Bahadur are attacking some groups of taliban, The word taliban itself is wrong as there are many groups and they can only be termed Mujahideen.

This Mehsud and other bastards are pure gangsters and I hope all these groups die fighting each other.

There are also two kinds of ISI, it was reported before, one which deals with the western countries. They are modern and secular and then there is the extremist ISI which deals with these crazy terrorist groups.

Khwaja died from what he had a big hand in starting.

Sir,
you just spoke my heart.
this guy was instumental in what we see today happening in Pakistan
what started as a mere secterian terrorism turned into an all out war against every citizen of Pakistan where even children are not spared and shot in the head in the Mosques at point blank range by these fanatic terrorists.
although it is very disturbing to see a fellow country man & a member of the armed forces to die like that and his family to suffer such a tragic loss but the fact remains that this Zia era mentality should go now
by looking at who attended his prayers & who led the prayers I have no doubt that he was the talking front of the fanatics
whether it was an own goal or not I dont know
but I can only pray Allah to safegaurd the people of Pakistan

Amen
 
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