Taleban spy-catchers murder mechanics suspected of guiding American drones

Francis Elliott in Delhi, Aoun Sahi in Islamabad and Saleem Mehsud in Peshawar
November 3 2011 12:01AM

Car mechanics suspected of fitting electronic chips that guide US drones to Taleban vehicles in northwest Pakistan are being murdered by a squad of spy-catchers. Dozens have been killed in the tribal areas of Pakistan since the formation of the insurgents’ counterintelligence unit late last year, which is believed to have been responsible for the deaths of about 250 people it suspects of passing information on insurgent leaders to the US.

The counter-intelligence unit calls itself Lashkar-e-Khorasan (Army of the Khorasan), a reference to an Islamic prophesy that an army from a town in modern-day Iran of that name will conquer the world. Mechanics were targeted after the US, which never officially acknowledges its drone campaign in Pakistan, stepped up its remotely-fired missile attacks on moving vehicles early this year, a Taleban source said.

Insurgents now assign a fighter to watch over any vehicle while it is under repair, according to one mechanic who says he survived a recent abduction and violent interrogation. Marjan Khan said that he had been snatched from his home in June by masked men.

“I was kept in solitary confinement for three months. They investigated and tortured me almost every day,” he said. “They blamed me for spying for the US as one of their cars which was brought to our workshop for some work was later hit by a drone, killing some of their very important leaders.”

Mr Khan’s hand was broken during torture but he was released after the squad concluded that he was innocent. Others fare less well. The squad stages public executions of “spies” and disseminates video footage as a warning to others.
One video shows suspected spies wearing belts of explosives, which were detonated remotely. “The squad calls these their ‘ground drones’,” said a local resident. The video is believed to have been shot in April near Miran Shah in North Waziristan, the tribal area that borders Afghanistan and is preceded by a lengthy denunciation by a group of masked fighters who identify themselves as members of Lashkar-e-Khorasan to a crowd of about 200 villagers.

Six mechanics were beheaded in January after a spate of drone attacks on insurgents’ vehicles which had been recently repaired by their workshop.
A senior Pakistan security official said it was believed that the spy-catcher squad is made up mainly of militants from Punjab and Central Asia rather than local tribesmen. Although widely feared, there are signs that the squad may have over-reached itself in recent weeks. Its activities were disowned by Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the most powerful militant commander in North Waziristan.

A Taleban commander in the region said that the unit’s total strength is about 300 fighters. “Their chief is replaced every two months and it is mandatory for them to keep their faces masked all the time and wear a black uniform. Even locals are unaware of their identities,” he said.

Haq Nawaz, a Peshawar-based journalist, said that the unit’s fighters, some of whom appear to be from Egypt, were highly skilled and technologically up to date.

“Their main job is to capture and kill spies but they are also involved in high-level kidnapping,” he said. “It seems the group is directly controlled by Arabs with support from the Haqqani network, Tehrik-i-Taleban [Pakistan Taleban] and Hafiz Gul Bahadur.”