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‘Khyber criminals posing as Taliban’

* Tribal elder says some locals have joined Taliban to settle old scores with their enemies

By Daud Khattak

PESHAWAR: Majority of those operating as Taliban in Lower Mohmand Agency, Darra Adam Khel and some parts of Khyber Agency are gangsters and criminals, say tribesmen, maliks and officials.

Lower Mohmand consists of 45 villages 25 of which border the capital city of Peshawar. These villages are part of Yaka Ghund Tehsil of Mohmand, which borders Shabqadar area of Charsadda and Mathra locality of Peshawar.

“We’ve three types of Taliban here,” said a retired professor from Mohmand Agency. The first category consists of those studying in seminaries. The second is fighting alongside al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban in the Tribal Areas and Afghanistan, while the third category is known as “Charsi” Taliban.

“Majority of those operating in our part of the agency belong to the third category and they are involved in kidnappings, robberies and car-lifting,” he said.

A tribal Malik from Mohmand, who is presently living in Peshawar, said that Taliban in Lower Mohmand were the same people who’re involved in incidents of murder and kidnapping for ransom about two years ago.

Before the emergence of Taliban in Bajaur and their gaining strength in Swat, these people worked for “Khans” and influential Maliks in Mohmand.

As their paymasters migrated to settled areas after the increasing influence of militants in Mohmand, they disguised themselves as Taliban by sporting beards and long hair.

Secondly, he said, mostly those becoming the workforce of the Taliban were illiterate and jobless. Some people joined the Taliban to settle old scores with their enemies or with those Khans and Maliks who had forcefully occupied their lands or did them harm in the past, he added.

Another elder, who refused to be identified, said that some well-to-do people, who were still living in the Tribal Areas, were regularly feeding the so-called Taliban with big chunks of money to save their own skin. They are giving money to “Amir Sahiban” in their respective areas as “donations to be spent in the way of God,” said the elder. “The intention is just to keep them [Taliban] on their side,” he added.

Mohammad Kamal, administrator of Jamalabad religious seminary in Mechani area of Mohmand, said that half of those operating in Mohmand in the name of Taliban were gangsters, kidnappers and car-lifters.

Kamal said his 50-year-old seminary was also occupied by the so-called Taliban, however, it was vacated after intervention of a jirga and political officials. He said the so-called Taliban were making oodles of money by kidnapping people from settled areas and bullying locals to pay them.

Barely two weeks ago, Taliban in Ghalanai area of Mohmand Agency started arresting women for not wearing veil and taxi drivers for carrying such women in their cars. The armed men would fine a taxi driver Rs 1,500-2,000 if they found a woman sitting in his car without wearing burqa.

They would phone the relatives of the woman and charge them Rs 5,000 fine for allowing her to come out of the house without wearing burqa. A senior official agreed that 90 per cent of those operating in Mohmand Agency, Bara, Darra Adam Khel and Khyber Agency were professional criminals.

The official, who refused to be named, said some of the gangs were receiving huge amounts from foreign agencies.

He said reports suggested that a foot soldier operating with those people was fetching Rs 10,000 a month, while the monthly income of an ordinary commander ranged between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000.

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