ISLAMABAD, 19 May 2007 — There is panic in the Taleban ranks following the killing of two senior commanders, Akhtar Mohammad Osmani and Mullah Dadullah.
According to reports in the Pakistani media, there is a growing concern among Taleban fighters about the infiltration in their ranks by spies working for the United States and its allies since both Osmani and Dadullah were killed on the basis of information provided by informers having access to their hide-outs.
Reporting in The News yesterday, seasoned journalist Rahimullah Yusufzai quoted Taleban sources as saying that both their commanders were killed when two Afghans close to them passed on information about their whereabouts to the US military authorities. The sources told Yusufzai that both the spies had been Taleban fighters in the past and that “they had done nothing until then to arouse any suspicion.”
According to the report, the man who betrayed Dadullah had been arrested along with another suspect and would soon be put on trial.
“His name is Din Mohammad. He confessed to his crime during investigation,” the report quotes a Taleban fighter.
Last December, Taleban commander Osmani was killed in Afghanistan’s southwestern Helmand province when a laser-guided missile fired from a pilotless, US Predator plane destroyed his vehicle. Both Osmani and Dadullah were killed in Brahmcha area, which, according to Yusufzai, is located close to the border with Pakistan and adjoins Balochistan’s Chagai district. Brahmcha village is situated both in Afghanistan and Pakistan and is known as wild place frequented by drug traffickers and Taleban fighters.
Soon after Osmani’s killing, Taleban arrested one Ghulam Nabi, who had been a Taleban member and was running a madrasa in Quetta’s Satellite Town locality. During interrogation, Ghulam Nabi confessed that he was a spy for the US military. He also admitted his role in pinpointing Osmani’s whereabouts to the Americans, who quickly flew a drone to fire missiles at a vehicle in which the Taleban commander was traveling.
A shocking videotape made by the Taleban showed Ghulam Nabi, a young bearded man, making the confessional statement. Facing the camera and answering questions by a Taleban official, he gave his father’s name and home address and admitted having betrayed Osmani. On Dadullah’s instructions, Ghulam Nabi was then made to lie on the ground by Taleban fighters and a 12-year-old boy began slitting him with a long knife. With great difficulty, the boy managed to behead him.
The on-camera beheading by the boy was widely criticized by the Afghan government and the media and also by people elsewhere in the world.
Dadullah, already a feared Taleban commander, was referred to as Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi of Afghanistan.
While still alive, Dadullah had defended Ghulam Nabi’s beheading by the 12-year-old boy by arguing that young Muslims must be trained and motivated to wage jihad and kill enemies of Islam.
Ghulam Nabi, who was an Afghan refugee living in Balochistan, was also said to have spied on drug traffickers. He was very close to Osmani and other Taleban commanders and had earned their gratitude by arranging treatment of injured and sick Taleban fighters and raising funds for them. According to Taleban sources quoted in the Pakistani newspapers, Ghulam Nabi was eventually recruited by the US military to work for it as a spy and paid handsome amounts of money.
The reports say there is little doubt that Din Mohammad, accused of spying on Dadullah, would be beheaded on-camera and the footage released to the media. Copies of the tape would also be distributed among Taleban fighters to remind them about the fate of a spy disguised as a jihadi.
“The Taleban have yet to show mercy on anyone accused of spying against them. Scores of Afghans have been beheaded or executed after being caught spying for the US, NATO or Afghan military authorities.
The beheading of alleged spies has also been going on in the Pakistani tribal regions of South Waziristan and North Waziristan and it appears that tribal militants have copied the tactic from the Afghan Taleban,” wrote Yusufzai in his detailed report..
Shocked by the presence of spies in their ranks, the Taleban have reportedly become extra careful in selecting fighters to serve as their bodyguards. Suspicion is now falling even on trusted men and it is creating tension in Taleban ranks, the media reports added.
