Enemies misled Taliban, ‘commanders’ confess

Five surrendered Taliban commanders say they carried out activities at the behest of the 'enemies of the country'.

SWAT: Five Taliban ‘commanders’, who had already surrendered, were brought before tribal elders and media personnel on Sunday by security forces in Kanju in Kabal tehsil. The suspects confessed that they had carried out unlawful activities at the behest of the “enemies of our country who pretend to work for religion”.

The detained men were identified as Mohammad Ala Maqam, Khurshaid, Shamsul Haq, Hafiz Sadiq Ali and Farman Ali.

Ala Muqam, a prominent local militia leader who was the first to issue a religious edict calling for “slaughtering security forces”, told news men: “The Taliban killed innocent people, made a lot of children orphans and left a large number of women widows, spread terror and destroyed peace in the paradise-like valley.”

“We were misled by the enemies of our country who pretend to work for religion, who play a game of war…in our land, we are highly repentant because we plunged the valley into permanent mourning…and peace and normalcy was restored by security forces…now the situation is peaceful,” the former ‘commander’ said.

“The role of the army is to protect the country from external threats but because of our unlawful activities, they had to leave borders and move here to restore the writ of the government and eliminate anti-state actors by initiating an army operation.”

Brig Saeed Nagra, the operation in-charge of Kabal tehsil, addressed the elders and said: “Terrorists used the name of religion for their nefarious designs and the army had to come into action…The operation will continue till the militants are completely eliminated…It should be kept in mind that there will be no compromise…Absconding militants from the Kabal area can adopt a respectful way and surrender before the security forces.” Inamur Rahman, president of the peace committee said: “We appreciate Taliban commanders for surrendering voluntarily…local people are very happy…I take this opportunity to tell absconders to surrender themselves immediately and avoid further mishaps with their families…The less time they take to give themselves up will help improve the forces’ reaction against them.”

A number of senior Taliban ‘commanders’ surrendered voluntarily after the army and the local defence committee asked their families to help the security forces.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2010.