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India-Pakistan

Who kidnapped Shahbaz Taseer, and why does it matter?

2011-09-06

Two cars and a motorbike were used to kidnap the son of former governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer from Lahore's Gulberg area while he was on his way to office on Friday 26 August 2011. The city was gripped with panic because of this was the second high-profile kidnapping soon after the kidnapping of an American official, Warren Weinstein, from the city. Most likely, Shahbaz has been picked up by the Taliban through their affiliates such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which last February kidnapped the son-in-law of the former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), General Tariq Majid. The police is considering other possibilities too. It could be Mr Taseer's tenants in a plaza which he wanted vacated for repairs; it could be a rival real-estate tycoon seen attacking the Taseer family through his local newspaper; and it could be a quarrel within his circle of personal friends. Although no one can be sure about who kidnapped Shahbaz one speculation is that Al Qaeda and its subordinate groups are the most likely candidates, as they augment their fast dwindling kitty of for buying explosives. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has the most unbuttoned mouth in the province and has once again invited a barrage of denunciation from the opposition PPP, obfuscating the issue through mutual recrimination. Rana Sahib had put his foot in his mouth when hazarding a guess on who could have abducted the American from Lahore's Model Town. He came on TV and opined that Warren Weinstein could have been doing the kind of things in Pakistan that CIA contractor Raymond Davis had done, killing three people on a Lahore road. Then an economist writing in Express-Tribune (26 August 2011) clarified the status of the American: 'Dr Warren Weinstein, who headed the Pakistan Initiative for Strategic Development and Competitiveness (PISDAC) project, is a very well known figure within Pakistan's aid and development community. Under the PISDAC project, Weinstein oversaw strategic interventions in the dairy, gems, jewellery, marble and granite sectors in Pakistan, resulting in the establishment of companies such as Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC), and the Pakistan Dairy Development Company. The project also provided technical assistance in modernising dairy as well as marble production and improving marketing in the gems and jewellery sectors. The overall impact of that intervention on Pakistan's economy according to one reported, is estimated to be around $67 million. 'The details of Dr Weinstein's contribution to Pakistan's economy, including PISDAC and other projects, are easily available on the Internet. Given the current office that Mr Sanaullah occupies, and the importance of what he says to the press, Punjab's law minister should perhaps encourage his staff to use Google to keep him updated on such a sensitive issue'. The other high-profile kidnapping in Lahore was that of Malik Amir which took place in August last year and he still has to be recovered. Malik, 35, a jeweler and president of Barkat Market Traders Union in Garden Town Lahore, was kidnapped by armed men from his Faisal Town, Lahore residence. After a lot of search the family finally received a videotape message in February 2011 showing masked militants wielding kalashnikovs in the background. Captive Amir stated that his kidnappers wanted to be paid a ransom amount of Rs130 million as well as want the release of 153 militants being held in various prisons across Pakistan. Malik Amir is a prosperous son-in-law of the former Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Tariq Majid, and his captor is Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ). The terrorist outfit most certainly wanted - through Malik Amir - to communicate with Pakistan Army. Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin was taken hostage by Taliban terrorists in February 2008. Tariq was traveling by road from his home in Peshawar to Kabul. He was taken along with his driver Gul Nawaz and bodyguard Amir Sultan in Pakistan's Khyber Tribal Agency, prior to passing through the border crossing at Torkham. The Taliban bargained hard over Azizuddin (now our ambassador in Turkey) and got a lot of their terrorists released in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was reported that a former Al Qaeda prisoner at the US military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, was to be exchanged for him. Money for Ambassador Azizuddin also changed hands through the Taliban chief, Baitullah Mehsud. It was reported that 55 additional militants were released, and that a payment of 20 million Pakistani rupees was made. One person released was Abdur Rahim Muslim-Dost. He was arrested along with his brother by Pakistani intelligence in November 2001 for links to Al Qaeda. Dost was an Afghan national, a journalist, and a poet. He was a member of Al Qaeda ally Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami and worked for three pro-Taliban publications. In September 2008, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, an Afghan diplomat was seized in Peshawar and taken to a hideout which according to Farahi was only 20 minutes away. Farahi, 52, spent two years and two months as a captive of Arab members of Al Qaeda in Waziristan. Questioned under torture for the first six months, he was moved 17 times. Apart from the first days when local Pakistani and Afghan militants handled him, he was always held by Arabs, which tells us how Pakistani Taliban serve their Arab masters. As he revealed after his release in March 2011, Farahi was driven deep into the mountains of South Waziristan where the militants ran a virtual mini-state beyond the control of the Pakistani government. Farahi was released the same way, for money and in return for the release of Al Qaeda-linked terrorists. The same thing happened with an Iranian diplomat picked up in Peshawar, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, the Iranian consul, till he was released in March 2010, on the same terms. Kidnappings may increase in the days to come, if past incidents are any indication. Al Qaeda once thought non-Muslims rather than Muslims should be abducted for ransom. The man who spearheaded this policy was Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani Kashmir-related 'asset', who had finally joined Al Qaeda as its top commander. The man who handled the nitty-gritty was Major (r) Haroon Ashiq who had defected to Al Qaeda because his brother Captain (r) Khurram had earlier joined Al Qaeda and died fighting the Americans in Helmand. Haroon is now in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi after getting caught trying to kidnap an Ahmadi. Kashmiri also got Haroon to kill Major-General (r) Alavi in Islamabad in 2008. Al Qaeda thought kidnapping non-Muslims for ransom was kosher and had got him first to kidnap a Hindu from Karachi with the help of another Major Basit. When the Hindu was discovered to have no cash at home, he was let off on the condition of embracing Islam, with which, needless to say, he immediately complied. The Al Qaeda policy of kidnapping Ahmadis continues in force and at the time of writing the relative of a prominent Ahmadi of Lahore is with Al Qaeda - in the process of being bargained over. Let us hope against all hope that the kidnappers of Shahbaz Taseer are not linked to Al Qaeda and that he has still not been taken out of Lahore into the mountain fastnesses of Al Qaeda, and that the abductors are discovered and forced to release him. Otherwise, this could be the beginning of a series of kidnappings-for-ransom of the financial elite of Lahore.

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India-Pakistan

'Azizuddin reached South Waziristan through Afghanistan'

2008-07-17

Former Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin was taken to South Waziristan after a detour of over 100 kilometres into Afghan territory, sources said on Wednesday. "The ambassador reached South Waziristan through Afghanistan as clashes in the Orakzai tribal region changed the travel plans of his abductors," sources close to Azizuddin's family told Daily Times. The former envoy was kidnapped from the Khyber Agency on February 11 and was released over three months later on May 17 after the government paid out a "huge ransom", the sources claimed. However, the federal government has said that it rescued the ambassador during a "commando operation" and paid no money. "He (the ambassador) was treated well, but the initial hours of his abduction were terrible because his abductors took him into Afghanistan to escape the clashes in Orakzai," the sources added. "At the time, Azizuddin was not aware that he was being driven through Afghanistan but was informed of it later." While the former ambassador spoke briefly to the media at his Islamabad residence hours after his release, he has yet to give a detailed interview about what really happened to him. Baitullah's role: Baitullah Mehsud, whose base lies in South Waziristan, has denied that he had any direct involvement in Azizuddin's kidnapping but admits "another group" was involved. However, Zulfiqar Mehsud, deputy to Baitullah, told Daily Times on May 23 that his group had "kidnapped the ambassador". "We did not know whom we had kidnapped in the initial hours. However, when we heard through the media that our prisoner was Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, we were overjoyed," Zulfiqar said. According to the sources, Baitullah would meet Azizuddin "once a week" and was always "very apologetic". "Baitullah Mehsud told Azizuddin that he was kidnapped without his (Baitullah's) permission and that people like Azizuddin should not be kidnapped," they said. The sources say that Azizuddin was treated very well during his captivity. "He (the diplomat) was allowed to walk and used to talk to his family on the phone quite frequently," they added. They also said that Azizuddin was still confused over who had really kidnapped him: "He is not sure how true it is that his 'own people' (countrymen) were behind his kidnapping."

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India-Pakistan

Taliban capture US helicopter parts

2008-06-18

In a startling operation that shook the Pentagon, the White House and the US administration some weeks back, the Taliban in the tribal areas captured parts of three US helicopters — Chinook, Black Hawk and Cobra — while they were being shipped in huge containers from Peshawar to Jalalabad in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials have confirmed the capture while the US diplomats stationed in Islamabad are trying to fudge the issue without denying it outright. US embassy spokesperson Elizabeth Colton commented: "The embassy has no comment on this as the information appears to be only hearsay." When this correspondent informed the embassy spokesperson that he had seen pictures of the stolen parts of helicopters, she again said "no comment". Some diplomats in Islamabad are very much aware of this recent Taliban operation but they were not ready to speak on record. Diplomatic sources say the recent US air strike in the tribal areas was actually an attack on the location where the unassembled parts of the two helicopters, owned by the US armed forces, were stored by the Taliban. Sources told The News US Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher was to visit Pakistan and Afghanistan soon in view of the situation in the region. What is shocking is the revelation that the US forces were transporting helicopters in unassembled form in containers, which landed at the Karachi Port and travelled all the way by road to Peshawar and then entered the tribal areas for onward journey to Afghanistan. When these containers entered the Khyber Agency at Jamrud, the Taliban stopped the convoys and took away the helicopter parts. Pakistani paramilitary forces in the area tried to confront the Taliban but they suffered heavy losses due to darkness. This happened in the same area where Pakistan's Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin was kidnapped in February this year. Chinook and Black Hawk were captured recently while the Cobra was hijacked some weeks back. When the Taliban first captured the Cobra helicopter, they filmed all the stolen parts and supplied the CD to their allies in Afghanistan. Some people in the Farah province of western Afghanistan showed interest in purchasing the Cobra helicopter and subsequently its parts were smuggled to Farah. Taliban sold this Cobra to an unidentified customer for several hundred thousand dollars. Following the latest ground hijacking, the Taliban have again filmed all the stolen parts of CH-47 Chinook and Black Hawk choppers. Chinook is a versatile twin-engine helicopter that was also used to help the earthquake victims in Kashmir in October 2005 by the US Army. The Taliban have again sent the CD to people for attracting customers from neighbouring countries of Afghanistan. They do not seem to have hit any customer as the stolen parts with extra engines are still in their custody. The Taliban captured some unexploded Tomahawk missiles in the Khost area of eastern Afghanistan in 1998. These missiles were fired on al-Qaeda hideouts after attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The Taliban handed over some of the unexploded US missiles to the Chinese in 1998. Top US military officials have demanded recently from Pakistan to start an operation in the tribal areas for the recovery of their stolen helicopters. They have expressed concern that instead of initiating an operation against the Taliban, the new government is negotiating peace with the Taliban. Concerned officials in the Foreign Office were of the opinion that the Taliban had increased their attacks in Afghanistan recently due to the incompetence of the Afghan National Army and the Nato forces. The Taliban used a fuel tanker packed with 1800 kg of explosives a few days ago to break a jail in Kandahar. They got released their 400 comrades along with 1,100 other prisoners in that operation. On Tuesday, the Taliban captured Arghundab district of Kandahar province. It was also a big blow to the credibility of Nato and the Karzai government but now both of them are trying to divert the international attention by threatening to attack the Pakistani border areas. The Taliban have recently conducted bloody operations against the Nato forces in Shenwro district of Parwaon province in the north, Taren Kot city of Uruzgan province in the south and Poli Alm city of Logar province close to Kabul. All these are not close to the Pakistani borders and the Taliban were attacking the Nato with the help of the local population. It was learnt that the high command of Pakistani security forces has requested the government for permission to respond in a hard-hitting manner to any attack from Afghanistan in future. Meanwhile, US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher would visit Pakistan and Afghanistan shortly. It is expected that he would try to narrow down the differences between Islamabad and Kabul.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan swapped top Taliban leaders for its ambassador

2008-05-29

Pakistan swapped two senior Taliban leaders for the release of its kidnapped envoy to Afghanistan, a media report said on Wednesday. No! Reeeeally? Who'da thunkit? "Despite the fact that the government authorities have repeatedly denied the release, both the militant leaders reached Afghanistan around two weeks back," the News said. Quoting sources, it said the two leaders, identified as Mullah Obaidullah Akhund and Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, were freed along with "hundreds" of other militants to secure the release of Pakistani envoy to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin. An eminent jihadi leader from Afghanistan confirmed it, saying the two militant leaders had reached their homeland around two weeks back. "The release of both the Taliban commanders was part of a package deal between the Pakistani authorities and the Taliban under which 35 army personnel were also released besides Pakistani ambassador and his staff," the News quoted the jihadi leader, who was not identified, as saying. Taliban militants had abducted Azizuddin three months ago while he was travelling in Pakistan's tribal areas in the country's north. He was released on May 15.

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India-Pakistan

No co-operation with UN on BB murder probe, says Mehsud

2008-05-25

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud said on Saturday that he will not co-operate with the United Nations (UN) in its probe of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. “Surely, the UN will say it’s the Taliban that have murdered the former prime minister, as the United States has already said that Baitullah is involved in her assassination,” he told journalists at a press conference. “The UN is a slave body [to the US],” he said, reiterating his denial of any involvement in the murder. “We didn’t kill Benazir Bhutto. We are not involved,” Mehsud said. “She had not taken any action against us, so there was no need to harm such a person.” He alleged that intelligence agencies had killed her, but did not elaborate, the AP news agency reported. He said that he was in contact with Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari about allegations against him, adding that Pakistanis should think about who could benefit from Benazir’s assassination. Proud: Mehsud said that he was proud to be an enemy of the US. “America is our enemy and we’ll fight against it wherever it is possible,” he said. He said that the Taliban could not negotiate with Americans, as Christians and Jews could not be friends with Muslims. “They are the enemies of Muslims,” he said. He said that Afghan Taliban made up 95 percent of those leading the fight against US-led forces in Afghanistan, adding that Pakistanis and other foreigners made up only five percent of the insurgents. Peace: Mehsud confirmed reports that the Taliban had been holding peace talks with the government. He said the peace accord would be successful only if Pakistan did not allow America to interfere in its internal affairs, adding that durable peace could return if Pakistan controlled its prevailing situation on its own as a sovereign state. However, he said that the Taliban could not tolerate the army and all troops would have to abandon the area. He said his group “sincerely wants” peace talks being conducted via tribal elders to succeed. He defended suicide attacks as a viable form of self-defence, saying that such attacks were equivalent to atomic bombs. He said there were no training camps in the area and that Mullah Omar and Osama Bin Laden were not hiding in the region. “But we’ll welcome them. They are great people and mujahideen and Muslims love them,” he said. The TTP leader said his organisation was not involved in the kidnapping of Pakistan’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, saying the ambassador had been kidnapped by some other group and had not been in South Waziristan. According to Online, he said that the TTP helped secure Azizuddin’s release but had no knowledge of his location. He said reports of foreigners in South Waziristan were propaganda to justify US attacks in the area, NNI reported.

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India-Pakistan

Cabinet decides not to withdraw army from FATA

2008-05-22

The army will remain in the restive Tribal Areas and settled areas of the NWFP but will change its positions to facilitate the local population, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday. “There will be no reduction of army in the restive areas. The government is committed to maintaining peace. The troops will be re-deployed to new positions but will remain within a 12-hour operation range,” she told reporters after a federal cabinet meeting. Compensation: “The people whose houses were damaged during the military operation will be compensated,” she said. She said the government was not talking to terrorists and militants and only negotiating with people who laid down arms. “There were no exchanges or bargains over the release of Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin,” she said. The Information minister said the draft of the PPP’s constitutional reforms package was still with the Law Ministry and the cabinet would discuss it after it has been presented to it. “People have a right to peaceful protest but it is the government’s duty to maintain law and order,” she said.

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India-Pakistan

Deal struck with Taliban for release of ambasssador

2008-05-21

(AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - Twenty Taliban prisoners are expected to be freed from Pakistan's jails by Thursday in an exchange under which Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, was released at the weekend. Taliban sources told Adnkronos International (AKI) that 60 prisoners had already been released, and 20 others would be freed later this week. The Taliban also confirmed that they had received a 20 million Pakistani rupee (or 288,000 dollar) payment for the release of the Pakistani ambassador and two army captains. This despite the fact that the Pakistani authorities claim that no deal was made. An adviser to the Pakistani prime minister for interior ministry affairs, Rehman Malik said on Saturday that Azizuddin's release came as a "result of a law enforcement action." "No deal took place. No exchange of terrorists. No exchange of individuals," he said. Sources told AKI that high profile prisoners including Mufti Muhammed Yousuf, an Afghan Taliban commander arrested in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, have already been released. Maulana Abdul Aziz from Islamabad's Red Mosque is also expected to be released after being acquitted of 26 out of27 cases by the courts and released on bail. The next batch of prisoners are likely to be released by Thursday and is expected to include Muslim Dost, a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who has been in the custody of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Earlier the Pakistan government and the Taliban categorised the prisoners and then negotiated a series of exchanges for the ambassador's release. The first and second lot of prisoners were swapped last week and a third is expected to be completed by Thursday. Pakistan's ambassador has meanwhile returned home after being freed by the militants who abducted him in February. Tariq Azizuddin said he had been released in the Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan on Friday but declined to identify his kidnappers after his release. Azizuddin disappeared on 11 February along with his driver and bodyguard while travelling by car from Pakistan to the Afghan capital, Kabul.

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India-Pakistan

Pakistan swapped Taliban for envoy

2008-05-19

TOP Taliban militants - including possibly Mullah Omar's deputy Mullah Obaidullah Akhund - were believed to be on their way back to the battlefield last night after being freed by Pakistan's new Government as part of a deal to gain the release of the country's kidnapped ambassador to Kabul. A full-scale withdrawal of Pakistan forces was under way from region of South Waziristan. At the same time, reports indicated that a full-scale withdrawal of Pakistan forces was under way from the strategic region of South Waziristan, which is dominated by the al-Qa'ida- and Taliban-linked commander Baitullah Mehsud and serves as a key launching pad for attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. The released ambassador, Tariq Azizuddin, seized by militants before Islamabad's election in February as he drove with bodyguards inside Pakistan territory along the main highway that leads to Afghanistan, is believed to have been held in South Waziristan. Last night, as Mr Azizuddin was reunited with his family at his home in Rawalpindi, government officials insisted no deal had been done to secure his release. Pakistani newspapers reported that at least 12 "senior militants" including Mullah Obaidullah - Afghanistan's defence minister when the Taliban held power in Kabul, and a legendary fighter whose importance, analysts say, cannot be overstated - were freed as part of a deal in which 55 Pakistani soldiers as well as Mr Azizuddin were released, though Islamabad officials denied this. Conflicting reports said that while Mullah Obaidullah was on the top of a list of more than 50 Taliban commanders whose release was demanded as part of the deal, Islamabad had declined to free him. Linked to the release deal, however, are believed to be the military pullout from South Waziristan and other moves to reach peace accords with the militants. The prospect of some of the most hardline and effective jihadi militants being freed, and of the pullout from South Waziristan presaging similar retreats elsewhere, is likely to cause serious dismay in Washington, within NATO and among nations concerned about the seriously stepped-up levels of cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan from Pakistan. When he was captured by Pakistani forces in the Balochistan capital of Quetta in March last year, Mullah Obaidullah was regarded as an important catch in the war against the Taliban. US President George W. Bush is expected to seek personal assurances about the Pakistani Government's commitment to the war on terror when he meets Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Sharm el-Sheikh. Washington has made no bones about its apprehensions over the peace deals being negotiated, and events surrounding the release of Mr Azizuddin will, according to analysts in Islamabad, do nothing to mitigate those concerns. Meanwhile, the political problems confronting the fledgling Government were underlined last night when it was announced that the powerful lawyers' movement credited with leading the fight for democracy against President Pervez Musharraf is to start another "long march" - this time to try to force the restoration to office of the country's sacked judges. A meeting in the Punjab capital of Lahore decided yesterday to target Pakistan People's Party leader Asif Ali Zardari. He is seen as the main obstacle to the reinstatement of the judges sacked when Mr Musharraf declared his state of emergency last November. The march, due to begin on June 10, with lawyers from across Pakistan setting out for Islamabad in what is set to pose a huge challenge for the Government, is aimed at forcing Mr Zardari to change his stance. Reports last night said that as relations with his main coalition partner, Nawaz Sharif, deteriorate, Mr Zardari was working out a "minus Nawaz" strategy that, to the delight of Mr Musharraf, would see the evolution of a two-thirds majority for a coalition made up of the PPP and parties allied to Mr Musharraf.

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India-Pakistan

US attacks can derail talks: Pak Talibs

2008-05-19

The government of Pakistan should prevent ‘American attacks’ on the ‘innocent’ citizens of Bajaur, a TTP spokesman said on Sunday. Speaking from an undisclosed location, Maulvi Umar expressed concern over the action against militants in Darra Adam Khel and Swat, saying it might cause a serious blow to their peace talks. “The Taliban are ready to safeguard the borders of Pakistan if the government can not do so with military means,” said the spokesman. Umar said that ambassador Tariq Azizuddin was freed after successful talks with the government of Pakistan, adding that their negotiations with the government had entered into a decisive phase. He said the two sides would exchange prisoners in the coming days.

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India-Pakistan

Senators say extremists defying govt authority

2008-05-07

Nationalist Pashtun senators from Balochistan accused religious extremist and foreign elements on Tuesday of defying government authority, especially in the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). During a debate on the law and order situation in the country, moved by Leader of the Opposition Senator Kamil Ali Agha, the senators expressed their concern over the “fast deteriorating” law and order in the country. They took particular note of the incidents of kidnapping for ransom. “The state administration has completely collapsed. Government writ is not seen anywhere, especially in the Pashtun-dominated areas of NWFP. Outlaws are kidnapping, looting and killing innocent people at will. And our Corps Commanders and inspector generals are bargaining for the release of the abducted rather than taking action against criminal elements,” said Pushtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP)’s Senator Abdul Rahim Mandokhail in his opening remarks. Expressing disappointment over the law-enforcement agencies’ inability to trace abducted Pakistani Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin almost two months after his kidnapping, he also questioned whether the agencies were sponsoring such elements themselves. Strength: Mandokhail said that the religious extremists had become so strong in the Tribal Areas that they were now implementing their own version of Islam by force. He alleged that the most people of the region, including parliamentarians, were aware of the identities of the kidnappers. Senator Azam Swati of the JUI-F, however, said that Pakistan had made two major mistakes in its foreign policy by first joining the Afghan war in the 1980s, and then joining the war on terror on the behest of the US. “The first policy resulted in Klashnikov culture and the second in suicide attacks in Pakistan. He urged an immediate review of the country’s policy on war on terror.

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India-Pakistan

Family of abducted ambassador issue 'fervent' appeal for his release

2008-05-04

The family of Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan appealed on Saturday to his kidnappers to free him and expressed frustration at the government’s failure to secure his release three months after he vanished on a border highway. Tariq Azizuddin, his driver and his bodyguard disappeared on February 11 as they drove from Peshawar towards the Afghan border. In a video aired on April 19 on an Arab satellite channel, Azizuddin said that Taliban militants had kidnapped them. In a statement issued on Saturday, the envoy’s family said that while “some contact” had been established with Azizuddin a month after his abduction, there was no sign he would be released soon. They did not elaborate on the contact, but they said they had learned that his health was deteriorating because of his confinement in “subhuman conditions”. It remains unclear if Azizuddin is really in the hands of the Taliban and whether he has become a pawn in peace talks between the government and tribal militants.

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India-Pakistan

Militants turn to abduction of key officials to achieve objectives

2008-04-23

The kidnappings of key government and international organisatons’ officials by militant outfits is a “more lethal weapon than suicide bombing”, military and security officials said on Tuesday. They said that, “The militants seem to have worked out a new strategy and that is to kidnap high profile people. In doing so, they exert great pressure on the government to force acceptance of their demands, while still portraying a soft image of themselves.” Khyber Agency: The militants seem to have chosen the Khyber Agency for most of the kidnappings, most likely due to its strategic road link with Afghanistan. A major supply route of the United States and NATO forces also passes through the agency. Recently, Pakistan Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin was kidnapped from Khyber Agency on February 11. On Monday, paramilitary forces foiled an attempt to kidnap two World Food Programme (WFP) officials. According to the security officials, “With kidnapping, pressure builds on the government to accept most demands, as public pressure increases and the issue becomes a humanitarian concern.” Warning the government to take a more serious view of the situation in the Tribal Areas, the officials said that Azizuddin’s kidnapping was “targeted”. They also said that Monday’s attempted kidnapping was “designed” to put pressure on the government to accept certain spurious demands. The militants do this while showing a “political face pledging to work for peace” in public to retain the peoples’ sympathies, they added. The officials warned that if the Khyber Agency followed in the footsteps of Waziristan or Bajaur, Peshawar’s fall might not be far behind. They said that the militants’ ambush of paramilitary forces in Landi Kotal on Monday was a “reminder of skills foreign militants display when their colleagues come under threat”. “When the paramilitary soldiers were returning from foiling the abduction of WFP officials, they were ambushed by around 50 elements. This ambush could only be carried by a bunch of people who are highly trained,” the officials said. According to the officials, the Landi Kotal tehsil of the Khyber Agency is becoming a “red hot area” for militants, because of the region’s strategic proximity to the Tirah Valley, which offers an ideal haven for militants. Separately, tribal sources told Daily Times that foreign militants were infiltrating the Khyber tribal region. They said the local Taliban were not acting against the government. The Taliban have also denied their involvement in Azizuddin’s kidnapping, but senior government officials are accusing Waziristan, where they claim the envoy is currently being held.

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