militancy ----Spy chase

militancy
Spy chase

(Published in The News on Sunday)

On September 7, 2011, the Taliban Shura of North Waziristan headed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur disowned a militant organisation Lashkar-e-Khorasan (also known as Ittehad Mujahideen-e-Khorasan) active in North Waziristan Agency (NWA). “We want to inform the people of North Waziristan that we failed to bring this organisation on the right path and we have nothing to do with this group,” the Shura members stated in the pamphlet that was distributed in Meeran Shah and Mir Ali bazaars. It was signed by all the members of the Shura, including Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is considered the most influential militant commander in NWA having several thousand fighters at his disposal.

Exactly after a week, the Lashkar reacted to Gul Bahadur’s announcement and issued a statement warning people that it will not abandon “its objectives at any cost and will not spare anyone trying to create hurdles in their way”.

The reaction of Lashkar, which is a very small group as compared to Bahadur’s, is surprising for most of the analysts who understand the dynamics of militancy in NWA. It is for the first time that a small group in the area has challenged the authority of Bahadur and his Shura in the area. Even the Haqqani network and the TTP commanders in the area try to maintain cordial relations with Bahadur, despite the fact that he has signed a peace deal with the government of Pakistan back in 2006 which is still intact.

Interestingly, Lashkar-e-Khorasan was established late last year by the Taliban leadership in North Waziristan, including some commanders of the Bahadur group to counter spying. Its main job is to hunt down the tribesmen spying for the CIA’s drone campaign.

The Lashkar was first established as a loose network, but within a short span of time it has become an organised unit that is working on counter-intelligence lines. “It collects information about and eliminates CIA spies, agents of the government and people who are on the payroll of the Pakistan army or hatch conspiracies against Mujahideen,” says a Taliban associate in North Waziristan.

He says the total strength of Lashkar fighters is not more than 300. “They are highly-trained and hence lethal. Only a few people, even among Taliban ranks, know the exact structure of the group. Its fighters keep their faces masked whenever they come out of their hideouts. They also wear a black uniform with word Khorasan written on it. They travel on vehicles with tinted windows. They do not reveal their identity even when they capture and kill a spy in public. So far the group has killed more than 250 suspect spies in NWA.”

He adds that since early this year, the group has killed more than 35 car mechanics. “After drones started attacking vehicles of militant commanders in the area, they found out that some car mechanics, while repairing vehicles of militants, place electronics chips that guide drones to its targets.”

The executions are occasionally carried out in public in a brutal fashion. Most of such executions take place around Mir Ali area, preceded by a sermon by the head of the Lashkar warning people to not put their faith and life at risk for money. Then the ‘blamed spy’ is tied with belts of explosives, called ‘ground drones’, and detonated in front of the locals.

“They gun down or slaughter suspect spies and dump the bodies on roadsides. A letter is usually tied to the body,” informs a resident of NWA. According to him, in May this year, they abducted a young man belonging to influential Mosakey tribe under suspicion of being a spy and killed him. “He was a very nice man. He was a graduate and ran a private business in Mir Ali bazaar. So the locals in Mir Ali bazaar protested against his killing by blocking the road. We fear them most because they don’t have faces and most of the Lashkar operatives are not local,” he tells TNS.

Majority of those killed by the Lashkar belong to local tribes of NWA or people settled there. “So far, it has killed only one spy belonging to the Mehsud tribe. They do not spare a suspect. Its fighters have killed even some very influential people of the area, including commanders among their ranks. It is true that locals are concerned about the group’s activities,” says a Taliban commander who belongs to the Mehsud tribe.

“Lashkar is ultra-radical and ultra-violent, but I do not think it is strong enough to challenge the authority of Hafiz Gul Bahadur in the area. The politics of pamphlet is an eyewash. A group cannot operate in NWA without the Bahadur group’s nod. In fact, the brutal activities of the Lashkar, especially violent public execution of suspect spies, put a lot of pressure on Bahadur, so the best way for him to satisfy the locals was to disown it,” Peshawar-based senior analyst Ismail Khan tells TNS.

Former secretary Fata, Brig (retd) Mehmood Shah, believes that the Bahadur group concentrates only on Afghan jihad and that is the reason why it has disowned the Lashkar. “There are many different groups operating from Mir Ali area of North Waziristan and the Lashkar is one of them. It is a very lethal group and gets most of the support from local Dawar tribe and Punjabis settled in the area,” he tells TNS. “Hafiz Gul Bahadur is against all these groups and wants to eliminate them as well. But if he will start fighting these groups in the area, it will shift his focus from the Afghan jihad.”

Independent analysts, who have understanding of the Lashkar doings, confirm that its fighters are highly-skilled and technologically updated. Haq Nawaz, a Peshawar-based senior journalist, says: “Some of those who were abducted by these people and later released have told me that most of the investigators and judges of this group look like Egyptians. When one of the suspected spies denied all charges in front of its investigators, they ran the footage on a projector of his meeting with a person who is considered a lynchpin between local informers and CIA. I don’t think announcement by Gul Bahadur disowning the group is more than a tactic to get the support of local people who dislike the Lashkar’s activities. The group may be renamed to pacify public anger,” Nawaz believes.

It seems true as a local in NWA informs TNS that he has seen a pamphlet a few days back in the Mir Ali bazaar from a new militant organistaion — Saif-ul-Furqan — warning spies of dire consequences.

— Addittional reporting by Saleem Mehsud