PESHAWAR: The mysterious and until now unknown militant organisation, the Asian Tigers, executed former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official Khalid Khwaja near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan on Friday after holding him hostage for more than a month.
“We decided to kill Khalid Khwaja as the deadline we had given for our demands expired on Friday. The ISI and the government did not take our demands seriously,” said a spokesman for the Asian Tigers in an e-mail sent to this scribe soon after the killing of the elderly Khwaja.
Squadron Leader (retd) Khalid Khwaja, Colonel (retd) Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Col Imam, and documentary maker Asad Qureshi, had gone to North Waziristan on March 26 to make a documentary about the Taliban. They suddenly disappeared and nothing was heard of them until the Asian Tigers claimed responsibility of their kidnapping.
The Asian Tigers, which is believed to be run by a group of Punjabi Taliban and Mehsud militants, had accused Khwaja of working for the ISI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US.
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.
Villagers said they came out of the mosque and saw the bullet-riddled body of an elderly person lying on a small road of Karamkot village. “We did not know about this old man but he was looking graceful. Someone had just shot him dead. He was shot in the head and chest and was still bleeding when we reached there,” said Muhammad Israr, a shopkeeper in Mir Ali Bazaar. He said he was among the few people who had reached there first and saw the body.
Some villagers said they saw armed people reaching there in a car and firing at the bearded man with AK-47assault rifles.
His assailants had placed a computer-generated letter on his body, alleging he was killed for his association with the ISI and CIA and his negative role in the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa military operation in Islamabad.
Terrified tribesmen did not want to take any risk by shifting the body to a proper place. By evening, the once powerful and now toothless political administration sent a Jirga of elders and some low-level government officials to collect the body of the former ISI officer.
The Jirga, which was holding white flags, later took possession of the body and shifted it to the military camp in Mir Ali.
Muhammad Omar, a spokesman for Taliban Media Centre that is believed to be operated by the Punjabi Taliban, called this scribe saying the other two men, Colonel Imam and Asad Qureshi, might meet the same fate if the government did not consider the demands of the Asian Tigers seriously.
He claimed all major militant organisations operating in the region had a unanimous opinion about punishing Khwaja. “Everybody wanted him to be executed as he had confessed of all charges against him,” explained Omar who spoke in Urdu.
He claimed that Khwaja and Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz, the former MMA MNA from Karak, during their previous visit to North Waziristan had brought a list of 14 senior Taliban commanders, majority of them Punjabis associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and told the TTP leaders, Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rahman that they were getting financial assistance from the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Omar even mentioned names of militant commanders identified as Indian agents by Khwaja and said among them were Qari Zafar, Rana Afzal, Ustad Abdul Samad, Qari Ehsan, Qari Basit, Ustad Aslam, Yasin, Qari Assadullah, Qari Imran, Qari Hamza, Ustad Khalid, Abu Huzaifa, Matiur Rahman and Qari Hussain Ahmad Mehsud. The last-named is considered to be the master trainer of suicide bombers.
Omar narrated a long list of allegations against Khwaja. He said one of the main causes of his death was his support to the Afghan Taliban and strong opposition to the Pakistani Taliban. “He would call us terrorists and refer to the Afghan Taliban as Mujahideen,” Omar recalled.
In the recent videos released by the Asian Tigers, Colonel Imam had claimed that he had come to North Waziristan on the advice of former Army chief General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg while Khwaja said he had gone there on the advice of former ISI chief Lieutenant General (retd) Hameed Gul, General (retd) Aslam Beg and Colonel Sajjad of the ISI.
Meanwhile, senior Afghan Taliban commanders, who were negotiating with the Asian Tigers through two senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders from Orakzai Agency, said the group comprised 30-40 people, Punjabi and Mehsud, all expelled from their respective groups — the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the TTP.
They said the two TTP leaders had held a meeting with members of Asian Tigers about their demands. The group, they said, told the TTP leaders that they would inform them about the demands within two days. The Taliban commanders said the group was supposed to convey them the demands on Saturday but they killed Khalid Khwaja without any reason.
The Taliban felt someone very powerful was behind the group as despite having limited number of fighters, it was freely moving in the region. “The group is run by Usman Punjabi and Sabir Mehsud — both were expelled from their respective organisations,” the Taliban commander said, wishing not to be named.
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
Source: TheNews.com.pk
Squadron Leader (retd) Khalid Khwaja, Colonel (retd) Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Col Imam, and documentary maker Asad Qureshi, had gone to North Waziristan on March 26 to make a documentary about the Taliban. They suddenly disappeared and nothing was heard of them until the Asian Tigers claimed responsibility of their kidnapping.
The Asian Tigers, which is believed to be run by a group of Punjabi Taliban and Mehsud militants, had accused Khwaja of working for the ISI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US.
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.
Villagers said they came out of the mosque and saw the bullet-riddled body of an elderly person lying on a small road of Karamkot village. “We did not know about this old man but he was looking graceful. Someone had just shot him dead. He was shot in the head and chest and was still bleeding when we reached there,” said Muhammad Israr, a shopkeeper in Mir Ali Bazaar. He said he was among the few people who had reached there first and saw the body.
Some villagers said they saw armed people reaching there in a car and firing at the bearded man with AK-47assault rifles.
His assailants had placed a computer-generated letter on his body, alleging he was killed for his association with the ISI and CIA and his negative role in the Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa military operation in Islamabad.
Terrified tribesmen did not want to take any risk by shifting the body to a proper place. By evening, the once powerful and now toothless political administration sent a Jirga of elders and some low-level government officials to collect the body of the former ISI officer.
The Jirga, which was holding white flags, later took possession of the body and shifted it to the military camp in Mir Ali.
Muhammad Omar, a spokesman for Taliban Media Centre that is believed to be operated by the Punjabi Taliban, called this scribe saying the other two men, Colonel Imam and Asad Qureshi, might meet the same fate if the government did not consider the demands of the Asian Tigers seriously.
He claimed all major militant organisations operating in the region had a unanimous opinion about punishing Khwaja. “Everybody wanted him to be executed as he had confessed of all charges against him,” explained Omar who spoke in Urdu.
He claimed that Khwaja and Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz, the former MMA MNA from Karak, during their previous visit to North Waziristan had brought a list of 14 senior Taliban commanders, majority of them Punjabis associated with the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and told the TTP leaders, Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rahman that they were getting financial assistance from the Indian intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Omar even mentioned names of militant commanders identified as Indian agents by Khwaja and said among them were Qari Zafar, Rana Afzal, Ustad Abdul Samad, Qari Ehsan, Qari Basit, Ustad Aslam, Yasin, Qari Assadullah, Qari Imran, Qari Hamza, Ustad Khalid, Abu Huzaifa, Matiur Rahman and Qari Hussain Ahmad Mehsud. The last-named is considered to be the master trainer of suicide bombers.
Omar narrated a long list of allegations against Khwaja. He said one of the main causes of his death was his support to the Afghan Taliban and strong opposition to the Pakistani Taliban. “He would call us terrorists and refer to the Afghan Taliban as Mujahideen,” Omar recalled.
In the recent videos released by the Asian Tigers, Colonel Imam had claimed that he had come to North Waziristan on the advice of former Army chief General (retd) Mirza Aslam Beg while Khwaja said he had gone there on the advice of former ISI chief Lieutenant General (retd) Hameed Gul, General (retd) Aslam Beg and Colonel Sajjad of the ISI.
Meanwhile, senior Afghan Taliban commanders, who were negotiating with the Asian Tigers through two senior Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders from Orakzai Agency, said the group comprised 30-40 people, Punjabi and Mehsud, all expelled from their respective groups — the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the TTP.
They said the two TTP leaders had held a meeting with members of Asian Tigers about their demands. The group, they said, told the TTP leaders that they would inform them about the demands within two days. The Taliban commanders said the group was supposed to convey them the demands on Saturday but they killed Khalid Khwaja without any reason.
The Taliban felt someone very powerful was behind the group as despite having limited number of fighters, it was freely moving in the region. “The group is run by Usman Punjabi and Sabir Mehsud — both were expelled from their respective organisations,” the Taliban commander said, wishing not to be named.
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
Source: TheNews.com.pk
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