Pak Army operates death squads: Ehsanullah Ehsan
An 11-minute audio clip released by former Taliban commander, Ehsanullah
Ehsan, has made public the names of the officers of the Pakistan Army,
who had facilitated his “surrender” and were handling him. What has come
as a bigger surprise is his claim that he was asked by the Pakistani
Military Intelligence (MI) to be part of a “death squad” that comprised
surrendered terrorists from various groups including Jaish-e-Mohammed
and Ehsanullah’s former group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The
objective of this death squad was to eliminate individuals whose names
were selected and compiled by the Pakistan Army. These individuals were
regarded as “anti-state” by the Army and hence were chosen to be
assassinated.
Ehsan told The Sunday Guardian that he would be
making the names of the individuals who were on this death list, public
very soon. If the list and the content of it indeed become public and if
it emerges that individuals on that list have been killed, it will
confirm the long held suspicion that Pakistan Army has been operating
and managing death squads that it uses to silence “troublemakers”.
These
revelations have been taken cognizance of by international agencies and
can have a bearing on the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) meeting,
which is expected in September to review Pakistan’s case before it is
placed in front of the FATF plenary, which is likely to take place in
October.
Ehsan
told The Sunday Guardian that the list had names of people mostly from
Peshawar, Quetta and Mardan. “I was shown a list of those individuals
the Pakistan Army wanted to eliminate, many of them were Pashtuns from
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and a few of them were journalists,” he
said. Ehsan also claimed that he was told that there were multiple other
similar death squads that were already working in other parts of
Pakistan, mainly in the region of Balochistan, that were carrying out
killings on the orders of the Pakistan Army.
The clip was posted
on YouTube on 10 August, after which Ehsan had shared the details of the
same with this newspaper and other media outlets.
In the clip,
Ehsan has shared what happened with him and his family between his
surrender in April 2017 and his subsequent escape. His escape was first
reported by The Sunday Guardian (Pak Taliban leader Ehsanullah Ehsan
‘flees’ from safe house, 18 January) in January 2020, a fact which
Ehsan, too, has confirmed in the latest clip during which he has stated
that his news of escape was first broken by an “Indian newspaper”.
In
this clip, Ehsan, whose real name is Liaqat Ali, has named multiple
officers of the Pakistan military, some now retired and some still
serving, who facilitated his surrender and then worked as his handler.
According
to the conversation that he had with The Sunday Guardian post the
release of the audio clip and his statement released online, he had met
Lieutenant General Asim Munir, who was heading the MI at the time after
his “surrender”; Munir later went on to become the chief of the ISI.
“After
surrendering, I was taken to Peshawar by Colonel Umar of MI, who was
designated as my handler. From there, I was taken to a safe house at
Jailil road in Peshawar which also has a church and St. John’s Cathedral
School. My son Abbas Khan used to go to that very school. I stayed
there for 18 months after which we were shifted to another safe house at
Shami Road in Peshawar, which is near the PAF golf club. Apart from
Colonel Uma, Brigadier Majid of MI was looking after me,” he has
claimed.
In his audio message, Ehsanullah Ehsan has also shared
photos from Google Map of the area where both the safe houses were
located.
He told The Sunday Guardian that at any given time, five guards were stationed at his house, but they would not enter the house.
On
the night of 12 January, he booked an online taxi with the help of his
mobile phone. “I got out of the back door of the house with my family
members and took a taxi to Haji Camp bus stand from where I took another
vehicle. After a journey of 20 hours, I reached beyond the borders of
Pakistan,” he claimed.
After travelling almost all night, once he
reached a “safe” place, he called a Pakistani officer on WhatsApp to
find out if he had heard of his escape. “I found out that no one had
heard of my escape yet.”
Ehsan told The Sunday Guardian that his
surrender pact was signed by General Munir along with one Major General
Aamir, who had stood as guarantor that all the promises made by the
Pakistan Army to Ehsan would be met with.
“Some days after the
surrender, I realised that I was under house arrest, I was not allowed
to go out, nor was anyone allowed to meet me, despite the agreement that
was signed clearly stating that there would be no restrictions on my
movement. Soon after, their behaviour and conduct became rude and they
started reneging on their promises. When I called up Major General Amir,
who had stood as guarantor, he simply said he was helpless. Perhaps the
Pakistan Army was confident that I would not escape as I had my family
with me and secondly, I had myself surrendered by my own wish,” he told
The Sunday Guardian while responding to why only five guards were placed
to guard him.
The Pakistan Army, for the first time, commented
on this matter on Thursday. In a press briefing at the Pakistan Army’s
headquarters in Rawalpindi, its spokesperson, Major General Babar
Iftikhar stated that Ehsan had escaped while taking part in a military
operation. “The comments made in the tape are absolutely baseless. He
escaped while we were using him for an operation. He was in our custody
and the information he gave helped us dismantle the terrorist
organisations he was working for,” the spokesperson said.
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