Khwaja’s fate was sealed after spying charges

Saturday, May 01, 2010

By Rahimullah Yusufzai

PESHAWAR: When the militants accuse someone of spying, chances are that the person’s fate is sealed.

Former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official Squadron Leader (retd) Khalid Khwaja’s fate also became uncertain when his kidnappers belonging to the previously unknown militant group, the Asian Tigers, released a video-tape in which he was coerced into admitting that he had been spying for the ISI and the American CIA. By recording his confession, obviously at gun-point, the group’s leaders had apparently made up their mind to eliminate Khwaja.

The militants, whether al-Qaeda or Taliban, show no mercy to people they consider as spies. They justify the harshest punishment to spies on religious grounds.

The militants associated with Asian Tigers, which obviously is a fake name, had kidnapped Khwaja along with another former ISI official Colonel (retd) Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Colonel Imam, and British journalist Assad Qureshi, in North Waziristan on March 26. They took their time to release videos of the kidnapped men and then set deadlines for their demands to be met. On the expiry of the deadline, they executed Khwaja and are threatening to mete out the same fate to Colonel Imam and Asad Qureshi if the Pakistan government doesn’t accept their demands.

Often, the militants execute one person to pressure the government to accept their demands to save the other persons made hostage. The same strategy has been adopted in this case. However, the government is unlikely to release the Afghan Taliban commanders Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar and Mansoor Dadullah on the demand of the Asian Tigers in exchange for Colonel Imam and Asad Qureshi. The third Afghan Taliban commander, Mulla Abdul Kabir, whose release was demanded by the militants, is apparently not in the custody of the Pakistani intelligence agencies.

One didn’t expect the militants to execute Khwaja, a vocal supporter of militant causes and a strong critic of the US. That they have taken this extreme step shows that they are ready for the consequences, which could eventually include a major military operation in North Waziristan. That is probably what this group of militants would want as they are mostly outsiders and include the Punjabi Taliban and Mehsud fighters of the TTP evicted from South Waziristan as a result of the Pakistan Army operations there. They would like North Waziristan to become embroiled in this battle and the Pakistan Army to be engaged in a wider battlefield.

Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the leader of the non-TTP Taliban in North Waziristan, has been trying to save his peace accord with the government but he appears helpless in checking the activities of militants who have come from outside and found sanctuaries in his area.