Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Following the intervention of senior Afghan Taliban commanders, talks for the release of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer Col Imam and journalist Assad Qureshi have entered a crucial phase and both are likely to be released soon, Taliban sources confided to The News on Thursday.
“They are at least in safe hands now as both have been handed over to a third party,” said a Taliban commander who was privy to the ongoing negotiations between the jirga and ‘Asian Tigers,’ a little-known militant organisation holding the two men hostage.
Pleading anonymity, the sources said that both the hostages would remain in protection of the third party till conclusion of the negotiations between the jirga and ‘Asian Tigers.’ “They may be released within hours or it may take days as the group holding them is very rigid and anti-ISI,” said a Taliban commander.
‘Asian Tigers,’ a mysterious organisation, had kidnapped Squadron Leader (R) Khalid Khwaja, Col (R) Sultan Amir Tarar, commonly known as Col Imam, and British journalist Assad Qureshi, on March 26 in North Waziristan where they had gone to make a documentary about the Taliban.
The group accused Khalid Khwaja and Col Imam of working for the ISI and threatened to kill them if their demands were not accepted. On April 30, it executed Khalid Khwaja near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan and dumped his body on the roadside.
A two-member jirga of Taliban commanders from Orakzai Agency started talks with Asian Tigers, which is believed to be run by a group of Punjabi Taliban, for the release of the remaining two hostages. There was a stalemate in the talks as the group suspected the jirga to be pro-government and refused to continue the negotiations.
Since the Afghan Taliban did not want Asian Tigers to harm their once time-tested friend, Col Imam, they sought help of regional militant commanders and some religious clerics to play their role in resolving the issue.
There were also reports that Maulana Samiul Haq, leader of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S) had personally reached North Waziristan to secure the release of Col Imam and Assad Qureshi through negotiations.
In their previous round of failed talks with the two-member jirga, the group had demanded the release of 120 prisoners, majority of them Punjabi Taliban, from various jails in exchange for Col Imam and Assad Qureshi.
The Taliban sources said that the new jirga, comprising influential Taliban commanders, noted clerics and some elders had entered into conclusive stage of talks with the militant group and may soon succeed in securing the release of the two men.
Meanwhile, friends and relatives of the kidnapped men as well as the Taliban and jirga members were astonished by reports in sections of the media about release of Col Imam and Assad Qureshi. Almost all television channels in their breaking news stories reported the release of the two hostages but all these news proved untrue.
Source: The News
Date:5/8/2010
