Freed academic: TTP claims Prof Ajmal swapped for three commanders

In a new video Mullah Fazalullah claims Taliban jihad to free detainees will continue

ISLAMABAD: Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazalullah has claimed that his group swapped Professor Ajmal Khan, the vice-chancellor of the Islamia College University, for three senior Taliban commanders.

Prof Ajmal was freed after four years in Taliban captivity on Thursday. At the time, the army stated that security forces ‘safely recovered’ Prof Ajmal. A statement by the military’s media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said that security forces and intelligence agencies were trying to locate Prof Ajmal since September 8, 2010, which was when he was kidnapped in Peshawar while he was travelling to the university.

However, TTP chief Mullah Fazalullah – in a rare video – claimed that Prof Ajmal was freed in a prisoners’ exchange deal. “I want to clarify that the [vice] chancellor was freed in exchange for [Taliban] prisoners,” Fazalullah said in the video released early Sunday. He said the Taliban did not accept any other demand.

The video was released to the media via Taliban’s official email ID, which was used for the first time since the military launched a major offensive in North Waziristan. Prof Ajmal was also shown in photographs while standing with the Taliban commanders apparently ahead of his release.

Fazalullah, whose whereabouts are unknown, said the Taliban would try to kidnap influential personalities to secure the release of their detained colleagues. The TTP also released photographs of the Taliban commanders who they said were released in exchange for Prof Ajmal.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2014.