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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...5193983515954508.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
By TOM WRIGHT And REHMAT MEHSUD
ISLAMABAD—A new video of a captive former Pakistani spy known for his alliance with the Taliban gave further evidence of divisions among Islamist militant groups under pressure from a Pakistani army offensive.
The local Geo Television Network broadcast a video Monday showing the senior former intelligence operative Sultan Amir Tarar, who is known as Col. Imam, along with another former spy and a British filmmaker. The three were kidnapped in late March while traveling in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan, a mountainous area in which Taliban and al Qaeda fighters found refuge for years until the recent military offensive.
In the video, filmmaker Asad Qureshi, a British citizen who was in the tribal regions to make a documentary, says the three were being held hostage by an Islamist group called Asian Tiger. Intelligence experts said they were unfamiliar with the group.
Col. Imam identifies himself in the video as a former senior member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency. A second former ISI operative, Khalid Khawaja, also features in the video, which shows the three men, one at a time and from the waist up, speaking into the camera.
Col. Imam, a well-known figure in Pakistan who is regularly quoted in the Western media, is often cited as an example of the links that bind Pakistan's shadowy but powerful military intelligence world to the Taliban, which is fighting U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan from bases just inside Pakistan's tribal belt.
Col. Imam was a strategist of the U.S.-backed Mujahedeen struggle against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and later helped recruit and train members of the ultrareligious Taliban movement, which took over Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.
His kidnapping raised eyebrows in Pakistan because of his close association with militant Islam. Col. Imam operated in the tribal regions for decades, recruiting and training Islamic fighters.
His abduction shows how fragmented the Taliban-inspired insurgency in the tribal regions has become, said Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI.
In the video, Mr. Khawaja says he was sent to the region by Mr. Gul and a former army chief, though he doesn't say why. Mr. Gul denied he was involved in the expedition.
Mr. Gul said Col. Imam remains popular with the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan, who wouldn't want to kidnap him. But there are a number of other local jihadi groups in the tribal regions, including the Pakistan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that are focused on attacking Pakistan's government and may have planned the action, he added.
The Pakistan Taliban and other homegrown jihadis are under intense pressure from the Pakistan military operation, which is aided by U.S. drone strikes, that has killed many of their senior leaders in the past year. The insurgents, in turn, have attempted to sow chaos inside Pakistan through bombing government, military and civilian targets.
On Monday, militants struck again, killing at least 25 people in a bomb attack on a crowded market area in Peshawar, a town in the northwest of the country which is the gateway to the tribal regions. The city was hit earlier Monday by an attack on a school funded by the police, leaving a young boy dead.
It remains unclear what Col. Imam was doing in the tribal regions. Mr. Qureshi, the British filmmaker, may have hired the two former ISI officers to guide him in South Waziristan, which remains dangerous despite the successful military offensive.
A senior Pakistan military official said both former members of ISI were operating in the tribal regions in a private capacity and weren't engaged in secret peace talks with insurgents, as some Pakistani media reports have suggested.
By TOM WRIGHT And REHMAT MEHSUD
ISLAMABAD—A new video of a captive former Pakistani spy known for his alliance with the Taliban gave further evidence of divisions among Islamist militant groups under pressure from a Pakistani army offensive.
The local Geo Television Network broadcast a video Monday showing the senior former intelligence operative Sultan Amir Tarar, who is known as Col. Imam, along with another former spy and a British filmmaker. The three were kidnapped in late March while traveling in the Pakistani tribal region of South Waziristan, a mountainous area in which Taliban and al Qaeda fighters found refuge for years until the recent military offensive.
In the video, filmmaker Asad Qureshi, a British citizen who was in the tribal regions to make a documentary, says the three were being held hostage by an Islamist group called Asian Tiger. Intelligence experts said they were unfamiliar with the group.
Col. Imam identifies himself in the video as a former senior member of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence military spy agency. A second former ISI operative, Khalid Khawaja, also features in the video, which shows the three men, one at a time and from the waist up, speaking into the camera.
Col. Imam, a well-known figure in Pakistan who is regularly quoted in the Western media, is often cited as an example of the links that bind Pakistan's shadowy but powerful military intelligence world to the Taliban, which is fighting U.S. forces across the border in Afghanistan from bases just inside Pakistan's tribal belt.
Col. Imam was a strategist of the U.S.-backed Mujahedeen struggle against the Soviet Union in the 1980s and later helped recruit and train members of the ultrareligious Taliban movement, which took over Afghanistan in the mid-1990s.
His kidnapping raised eyebrows in Pakistan because of his close association with militant Islam. Col. Imam operated in the tribal regions for decades, recruiting and training Islamic fighters.
His abduction shows how fragmented the Taliban-inspired insurgency in the tribal regions has become, said Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI.
In the video, Mr. Khawaja says he was sent to the region by Mr. Gul and a former army chief, though he doesn't say why. Mr. Gul denied he was involved in the expedition.
Mr. Gul said Col. Imam remains popular with the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan, who wouldn't want to kidnap him. But there are a number of other local jihadi groups in the tribal regions, including the Pakistan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, that are focused on attacking Pakistan's government and may have planned the action, he added.
The Pakistan Taliban and other homegrown jihadis are under intense pressure from the Pakistan military operation, which is aided by U.S. drone strikes, that has killed many of their senior leaders in the past year. The insurgents, in turn, have attempted to sow chaos inside Pakistan through bombing government, military and civilian targets.
On Monday, militants struck again, killing at least 25 people in a bomb attack on a crowded market area in Peshawar, a town in the northwest of the country which is the gateway to the tribal regions. The city was hit earlier Monday by an attack on a school funded by the police, leaving a young boy dead.
It remains unclear what Col. Imam was doing in the tribal regions. Mr. Qureshi, the British filmmaker, may have hired the two former ISI officers to guide him in South Waziristan, which remains dangerous despite the successful military offensive.
A senior Pakistan military official said both former members of ISI were operating in the tribal regions in a private capacity and weren't engaged in secret peace talks with insurgents, as some Pakistani media reports have suggested.