Report says missing ex-intelligence officials, journalists with Taliban
Friday, April 09, 2010
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: There was a likely breakthrough on Thursday in mysterious disappearance of the five persons, including two former intelligence officers and two British passport-holder journalists as Taliban sources said they were safe and sound and staying with Commander Waliur Rahman in South Waziristan.
“They are still working on their project,” claimed a senior Taliban commander, who belongs to the Mehsud militants operating in South Waziristan. Pleading anonymity, the Taliban commander said that former intelligence officials Col (retd) Imam and Khalid Khwaja, presently chairman of Defence for Human Rights, along with some other colleagues had arrived in Mir Ali, the second biggest town of North Waziristan, a few days ago to meet TTP commander Waliur Rahman.
They and two British passport-holder journalists, one of them identified as Asad Qureshi, mysteriously went missing on way to North Waziristan Agency on March 26. Besides their family members, the state-machinery, as well as friends and well-wishers of the two former intelligence officials, are making efforts to locate their whereabouts.
The Taliban commander, who called The News from an undisclosed location, said Col Imam and his colleagues had spent a night with them in Mir Ali and interviewed senior Taliban commander Waliur Rahman.
The next day, the commander said, the team left for the nearby South Waziristan under Taliban escort where they were still busy in their work. He dispelled rumours that Col Imam and his colleagues could have been kidnapped and were still missing.
“They trusted us and our people took them to our strongholds in South Waziristan where they are staying with us as guests,” the Taliban commander explained. He said their visit to Waziristan was planned and Taliban commanders were waiting for their arrival in Mir Ali. He said they knew Col Imam and his men were making a documentary for a foreign news channel and they happily consented to help them in their job as the Pakistani media had stopped covering their activities.
“We are not happy with the Pakistani media as it has stopped following objectivity and was pursuing only the government agenda,” he complained. Though he refused to mention the place where Col Imam and his associates were staying, the commander said they were staying somewhere in Shaktoi, an area still in Taliban control in South Waziristan.
The US spy planes last January carried out a number of missile attacks in Shaktoi in which a number of foreign and tribal militants lost their lives. It was in Shaktoi where the US drone had struck a suspected militant hideout on January 14-15 in which US and Pakistani security agencies believe Hakimullah Mehsud was killed.
Taliban still deny Hakimullah Mehsud’s death and are claiming he is alive but has gone underground under a strategy. The Taliban commander said Col Imam and his colleagues might return within two or three days. He said the area where they were staying lacked the telephone facility.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s former MNA from Kohat, Javed Ibrahim Paracha, when reached by telephone, also confirmed that they had spent a night in Mir Ali. “We know they spent a night in Mir Ali but we are trying to locate that house where they stayed,” Paracha told this scribe from his Kohat residence.
Paracha said he was in touch with the Taliban leaders as well as with government functionaries in North and South Waziristan. Col Imam, Khalid Khwaja and the two journalists spent a night with Paracha in Kohat and then left for Waziristan on March 26.
There were also reports that Khalid Khwaja and a few other people recently negotiated between the government and Mehsud Taliban led by Hakimullah Mahsud. Official sources said Khwaja had made some visits of North and South Waziristan and successfully brought the two warring sides to the negotiating table that subsequently brought an end to the fighting between security forces and militants in South Waziristan.
“Even now he may have tried killing two birds with one stone,” a government official based in North Waziristan said, seeking anonymity. However, this piece of information couldn’t be confirmed from independent sources.
