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Aghan Warlords Hold Pakistanis For Ransom
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One of the warlords is allied to Abdurrashid Dostum of the Northern Alliance |
PESHAWAR, Feb. 7 (IslamOnline) – Hundreds of Pakistanis who crossed over to Afghanistan during U.S. attacks on Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban are being held by Afghan warlords who have threatened to kill the men unless their families pay hundreds of thousands of rupees in ransom, Pakistani English-daily newspaper, Dawn reported on Wednesday.
Many of the captives are being held in prisons controlled by local warlords and are vulnerable to such ransom schemes.
Thousands of Pakistanis streamed across the border in the fall of 2001 to join the Taliban. Although most have returned, some were killed and others - no one knows exactly how many - are being held captive.
Aid workers have confirmed the ransom demands.
"Hundreds of Pakistani families are trying to find out what happened to relatives who went to fight. Some of those families are trying to work through the Afghan government, but others have been contacted by middlemen," Afrasiab Khattak, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said.
He said his organization has compiled a list of 1,000 missing Pakistanis and estimates there are 1,000 more. “And there are so many people involved in the middle. It’s a serious problem. Aid workers and human rights organizations say the extent of the extortion is difficult to judge, because both the captors and the relatives have strong incentives to remain silent, and there is no real authority to control the situation."
“We’re trying to get information about them from the Red Cross, and trying to establish contact with the Afghanistan authorities to find out whether they are alive or not, and where they are and what condition they are in,” Khattak said. “But the conditions in Afghanistan are scattered. These ransoms are the product of a violent 30-year war.”
Families who have paid or been asked to pay ransoms say the requests were funneled through Afghans living in Pakistan, some of them in refugee camps who have tribal connections to warlords across the border. The demands originate from the victors in the Afghan war officers of the U.S.-allied Northern Alliance militia and tribal strongmen who captured prisoners in the fighting, the families say.
Illustrating the extent of the problem, the newspaper related some cases, including that of Moambar Khan, 70-year farmer of Ooch. Despite being poor, he paid money for the release his son, Ghulan Akbar Khan (34). Khiasda Rahman (35) said his family has been asked to pay about Rs. 500,000 for the release of a 17-year-old nephew being held in a prison in central Afghanistan.
About 200 Pakistanis are being held for ransom by Zaman Khan, a commander loyal to Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum, whose headquarters are in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i Sharif. An unidentified commander demanding ransoms ranging from Rs. 50, 000 to Rs. 300,000 apiece is holding forty others. Another commander, Gul Rahman, is holding at least three men near Bagram, north of Kabul, for Rs. 350,000 apiece.
Pakistan's government, which supported the Taliban before joining the U.S.-led war on "terrorism", officially opposed those who volunteered to fight in Afghanistan, and now seems little inclined to help them come back. “They crossed over illegally, and they will be treated under the law if they return,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Khan.
“We have asked the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] to help us determine the situation, but at this point we don’t definitely know how many there are and in what regimes they are being held.”
Khan said there is “very little the government can do” about the ransom demands. “Certainly, it is not proper. Either one should hold them as prisoners and treat them under the law, or return them. It’s possible many of them are being held by local commanders.”
One fighter, Ghulan Khan, said he was held outside Kabul by a Dari-speaking officer who called himself Commander Kareem, but who Khan said was Karim Khalili, an ethnic Hazara leader and general in the Northern Alliance who is now working closely with U.S. Special Forces in Bamiyan.
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