Vigilantes warn bandits to return looted money

PESHAWAR: Taliban militants have distributed pamphlets in Miramshah, headquarters of the North Waziristan tribal region, asking people, who they describe as “dacoits under the guise of Taliban”, to return within 10 days the money they have looted from local residents.

The pamphlet, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, bears the signature of a relatively lesser-known organisation Ittehad Mujahideen-i-Khorasan. It reads that earlier this week, some dacoits snatched the salaries of doctors from the Mirali Hospital. They pretended to be members of the Taliban and called the money ‘war booty’.

“The Waziristan Shura has not permitted such acts nor can these things be done under a peace deal. Our investigations have revealed all the people behind this incident,” the pamphlet reads.

“A Kalashnikov assault rifle and money were snatched from Akramullah Dawar, a ransom of Rs 200,000 from Gul Behram Khushkhali, and two Kalashnikovs and around Rs6,000 from an internally displaced person from the Mehsud tribe.

A resident of Bakakhel was kidnapped and later released in Hurmaz, Mirali, after a ransom of 1,000 UAE Dirhams and Rs15,000 to 20,000,” writers of the pamphlet claim.

The militants, in their pamphlet, say they have identified the people involved in all these incidents and they should either themselves return these things to the owners within 10 days or deposit them with the Mirali Guloon Mosque’s prayer leader Noor Ali Shah or with the Qari Masjid’s prayer leader in Miramshah.

The pamphlet threatens the people allegedly involved that if they did not return the looted things, they would meet the same fate as those of ‘spies’ and ‘dacoits’ whose beheaded bodies were dumped on roads.

“People [locals] are asked to deal with them [militants] with love and sympathy and help them eliminate spies and dacoits,” it says.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2010.