ISLAMABAD: Two former officials of the premier intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and a free lance journalist have gone missing in suspicious circumstances from Kohat.

Family sources of the missing ISI officials Col (retired) Imam and Sq Leader (retired) Khalid Khawaja revealed that these officers were assisting the free lance journalist Asad Qureshi who was making a documentary on Taliban and Al-Qaeda. They were on way back to their homes after having a meeting with the Taliban leadership in tribal areas when they were allegedly picked up by unknown people. It is yet not clear who kidnapped them. However, it is pertinent to mention that both the former ISI officers were having close relations with Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership.—DawnNews

PESHAWAR: The whereabouts of the five ‘missing’ persons including two former Inter-Services Intelligence officers and two British passport-holder journalists could not be traced even after almost two weeks.

Former ISI official Colonel (R) Imam, Chairman of Defence for Human Rights Khalid Khwaja and two journalists with one identified as Asad Qureshi mysteriously went missing on their way to North Waziristan on March 26.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s former MNA from Kohat, Javed Ibrahim Paracha said five of them visited him before leaving for North Waziristan on March 26. In North Waziristan, he said, Colonel (R) Imam, Khalid Khwaja and their colleagues were scheduled to interview some Taliban commanders for the documentary they were making for a foreign news channel.

Talking to this scribe from his Kohat residence by telephone, Paracha said five of them spent a night with him and then left for North Waziristan on March 26. “They interviewed me for three hours about recent reports of US-Taliban talks and current situation in Afghanistan for their documentary. One of the two British passport-holder journalists was a foreigner while the other one was British citizen of Pakistani origin,” explained the former parliamentarian, whose legal fight helped several foreign nationals to reach their home countries who were earlier languishing in Pakistani prisons.

Paracha said Colonel (R) Imam’s two sons – a brigadier and a colonel serving in Pakistan Army – had called him on Tuesday to know about his father and his colleagues. He said they seemed extremely worried about the fate of their father and his friends. “They (Imam’s sons) are reaching Kohat today to see me to discuss what they should do for tracing them,” he said.

The former MNA said before coming to him, Colonel (R) Imam and his colleagues had gone to Karak district where they met with former Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam MNA, Maulana Shah Abdul Aziz.

However, when reached by phone, Maulana Abdul Aziz said the time Colonel (R) Imam, Khalid Khwaja and other people were leaving for North Waziristan, he was staying at the house of Khalid Khwaja in Islamabad where he had taken his ailing son to a cardiac surgeon. He said Khalid Khwaja and other men of his team went to Karak and spent a night at his house. In the morning, they came to Kohat for a meeting with Javed Ibrahim Paracha, Maulana Aziz added.

He said he had advised them not to travel to North Waziristan at this time as the military had established several checkpoints on the main Bannu-Miramshah Road at the Frontier Region of Bakakhel outside Bannu. “But they did not listen to me and insisted to go there at any cost,” remarked the former MNA, who said Khalid Khwaja was his best friend.

“If they stop us we would tell them we are journalists,” he quoted Khwaja as telling him after his advice not to go to the troubled tribal region. He believed none of Khwaja’s colleagues would have been able to enter North Waziristan due to strict security arrangements made by the army and suspected they might have been held on any checkpoint. He said when Khwaja and his friends were in Karak, Taliban called him on his cell phone that he had left at his Islamabad residence to tell them to postpone their NWA trip for sometime as they had not sought permission from Taliban chief, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, about their visit.

The Maulana said his son, Osama, attended telephone calls from Taliban in North Waziristan who asked him to inform his father not to come to Waziristan without their permission. According to Abdul Aziz, Khalid Khwaja and Imam then made some telephone calls from his residence in Karak and had spoken to Taliban commanders in Miramshah.

Official sources said intelligence agencies working on the subject got record of their telephone calls in which Khalid and Colonel (R) Imam made several telephone calls to two Punjabi Taliban commanders in Miramshah, Usman and Doctor, during last day of their disappearance. Pakistan army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said he came to know about their disappearance from media but denied their detention by the intelligence agencies.

ISLAMABAD: Videos of two former ISI officers, who went missing last month, were released by unknown militants in the tribal areas of Pakistan on Monday. Col (retd) Amir Sultan, widely known as Col. Imam and Squadron Leader (retd) Khalid Khawaja went missing in the tribal areas last month while they were accompanying a journalist to assist him with a documentary on militants. In the video, both hostages introduced themselves as former ISI officers. They claimed that they were visiting the tribal areas following an advice by former Army Chief General Aslam Baig and former DG ISI Lt.General Hamid Gul.

However, Khawaja also mentioned the name of a serving ISI official, Colonel Sajjad and said that he visited the area on his direction. The militants have demanded the release of at least two arrested Taliban leaders in Pakistan’s custody for the release of the two officers. The demand was made through an email which also contained the footage of the two officers.

The militants have threatened that if Mullah Kabir and Mullah Mansoor Dadullah were not released, the officers would be killed. The unknown militants who sent their email late Sunday night also mentioned that they would issue another list of their demands soon.

Two former ISI officers, journalist missing from Kohat
Monday, 05 Apr, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Two former officials of the premier intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), and a free lance journalist have gone missing in suspicious circumstances from Kohat.

Family sources of the missing ISI officials Col (retired) Imam and Sq Leader (retired) Khalid Khawaja revealed that these officers were assisting the free lance journalist Asad Qureshi who was making a documentary on Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

They were on way back to their homes after having a meeting with the Taliban leadership in tribal areas when they were allegedly picked up by unknown people. It is yet not clear who kidnapped them.

However, it is pertinent to mention that both the former ISI officers were having close relations with Taliban and Al-Qaeda leadership.—DawnNews

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