Levies men executed by abductors of ex-ISI officers

ISLAMABAD: The December 27 abduction and execution of 22 Levies personnel was carried out by Tariq Afridi Group of the Pakistani Taliban which was previously involved in the 2010 kidnapping of two former ISI officers, Colonel (R) Sultan Ameer Tarrar and Squadron Leader (R) Khalid Khawaja. Both the men were subsequently handed over to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, only to be executed in a horrific manner.

The shooting of the abducted paramilitary soldiers came a day after the fugitive ameer of the TTP Hakimullah Mehsud said in a video message that the Pakistani Taliban were willing to negotiate a ceasefire deal with the government if it agrees to make Shariah the supreme law of the land besides severing all ties with the US.

Preliminary investigations into the execution of the 22 abducted Levies men have indicated that they were in fact made to surrender at their security check posts in Hasan Khel and Jina Kor areas of the Peshawar Frontier Region by the militants belonging to Afridi Group. Two militiamen were killed by the attackers who overran the posts before taking away 23 personnel. The Levies men were tried and convicted by a Taliban court, before being blindfolded, tied, lined up and shot in the head.

The tribal administration came to know about their killing when one of the kidnapped men, identified as Usman Sher, escaped the shooting and managed to reach the security authorities. The Taliban’s top spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan had claimed responsibility, saying, “We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn’t make any demand for their release because we don’t spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting.”

However, it has now transpired that their kidnapping and execution was in fact carried out by Tariq Afridi Group, one of the most dangerous Taliban factions based in Darra Adam Khel. The group operates in Aurakzai, Khyber, Peshawar, Kohat, and Hangu areas. Although Commander Tariq Afridi, the ameer of the group, is rumored to have been killed in August 2012 by none other than his own brother-in-law, his death has not yet been confirmed by Mohammad Afridi, the spokesman for the Tariq Afridi Group. Considered to be the most ruthless among his militant colleagues and known for his harsh policies, Afridi was rumoured to have been gunned down in Tirah Valley of the Khyber Agency, although the Taliban had refuted the reports of his death.

Formerly an active member of the al-Qaeda-linked anti-America and anti-Shia jehadi organization Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Tariq Afridi was named the ameer of the TTP’s Khyber Agency chapter in November 2009. But he preferred to maintain the identity of his jehadi group as a separate entity being the most powerful terrorist group in Khyber Agency. Security officials investigating the slaying of the 22 Levies men say they were still unsure about the death of Commander Tariq Afridi, but they were sure of one thing that his group was involved in the gruesome execution of the militiamen. They pointed out that Tariq Afridi’s henchmen had conducted numerous attacks on the Pakistani security forces, especially in Peshawar, Kohat and Hangu districts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Well-informed sources in the security establishment say Tariq Afridi Group, which was responsible for closing down the Kohat Tunnel twice in 2008, poses a major challenge to the security forces in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for having kidnapped and killed Pakistanis and foreigners alike. In early 2009, the group claimed the kidnapping and beheading of a Polish geologist, Piotr Stanczak.

The Polish national was abducted from Attock on September 28, 2008 after Afridi’s men shot dead his driver, translator and bodyguard with whom he was traveling in a vehicle. Piotr was allegedly offered the opportunity to avoid execution by converting to Islam, but he refused to do so. He was executed on February 6, 2009 after the authorities failed to fulfill the demands of his captors - the release of some Taliban militants from government jails and a huge amount of money.

The next victim of Tariq Afridi Group was the Vice Chancellor of the Kohat University of Science and Technology (KUST), Doctor Lutfullah Kakakhel, who was abducted from Darra Adam Khel on November 6, 2009. He was, however, released on June 22, 2010 after the KPK government released three militant commanders, including a close aide of Tariq Afridi. Earlier, the Tariq Afridi Group of TTP, Darra Adam Khel chapter, claiming responsibility for the abduction, had demanded the release of 60 militants in the custody of military authorities.

According to well-informed intelligence circles in Islamabad, a US development expert Warren Weinstein, who was kidnapped by Lashkar-e-Jhangvi from his Model Town residence in Lahore on August 13, 2011, was sold to Tariq Afridi in Darra Adam Khel, who finally handed him over to al-Qaeda. On December 1, 2011, Dr Ayman Zawahiri claimed that Warren, the country director of a US-based consultancy that works with the USAID, was in al-Qaeda’s custody and that he would be freed only if the United States stopped drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia and freed terrorist prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

It was on March 26, 2010 that the group, while operating under the guise of “the Asian Tigers”, abducted two former officers of the ISI, Col (R) Sultan Amir Tarar and Squadron Leader (R) Khalid Khawaja along with a British journalist Asad Qureshi when they were on their way to North Waziristan to make a documentary film on the Taliban. On April 19, 2010, 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 Asian Tigers subsequently handed Khawaja and Tarar over to the TTP, only to be shot dead. Khawaja was found dead in Mir Ali on April 30, 2010 – a month after being kidnapped, while Imam was executed in captivity, as documented in a video released by the TTP in January 2011, almost a year after his abduction. The video showed TTP Ameer Hakimullah Mehsud standing next to Imam, shortly before he was shot dead.

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