Intimidation: Security officials receive death threats in wake of Diamer operation

Letter bearing the name of a TTP group mentions six officials.

GILGIT:

A banned militant group has allegedly given death threats to security officials involved in an operation against terrorists.

Security officials from Gilgit-Baltistan police, Scouts and the Pakistan Army undertook an extensive operation in parts of Diamer valley, arresting a dozen suspects in the killing of a police official and two military personnel who were investigating the massacre of 10 foreign tourists and their Pakistani guide at the base camp of Nanga Parbat in June.

“We have received handwritten letters addressed to about six officials by name,” a security official in Gilgit said on Saturday, without revealing the identities of officials mentioned in the purported letter. The letter bears the name of the Hafsa group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and contains death threats to the officials, he added.

Following the massacre of security officials in Chilas, the headquarters of Diamer valley, several key suspects including the alleged mastermind of the Nanga Parbat incident, Qaribullah alias Hassan, his accomplices Mushtaq alias Commander Ghazi and four other suspects were arrested.

“This isn’t shocking news at all,” said DIG Ali Sher, who spearheaded the operations in Chilas. “This is a sort of a war between the terrorists and security officials,” he added.

The DIG denied having any additional security in place for the threatened personnel, but said such tactics would not discourage police and other forces in weeding out terrorism from the region.

He appreciated the role of the public in Diamer and Kohistan and said the arrest of key suspects would not have been possible without the support of the people. “The people simply isolated the criminals by withdrawing their support to any such element in the society, and that’s something we are expecting others to do,” said Sher while talking to the media.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2013.