A campaign of high-profile kidnappings has provided the Pakistani Taliban and their allies with new resources, arming insurgents with millions of dollars, threatening foreign aid programmes and galvanising a sophisticated network of jihadi and criminal gangs whose reach spans the country. Wealthy industrialists, academics, Western aid workers and relatives of military officers have been targets in a spree that, since it beginning three years ago, has spread to every major city, reaching the wealthiest neighbourhoods, The New York Times said quoting Pakistani security officials.
For many hostages, the experience means a harrowing journey into the heart of Waziristan, the fearsome Taliban redoubt along the Afghan border that has borne the brunt of a CIA drone-strike campaign. One young Punjabi businessman who spent six months there in Taliban hands last year described it as a terrifying time of grimy cells, clandestine journeys, brutal beatings and grinding negotiations with his distraught, distant family.
For all that, his captors betrayed glimpses of humanity, even humor: small acts of kindness, quirky after-dinner games, shared confidences and reminiscences. But their ruthless intent was never in doubt, the former hostage said, speaking anonymously because he feared reprisals against his family. During his captivity, four teenage suicide bombers were undergoing instruction, taking indoctrination classes in the morning and carrying mock explosive vests equipped with push-button detonators in the afternoon.
“Their mantra was, ‘One button and you go to heaven,’ ” he recalled. In one case, a 70-year-old German aid worker and his 24-year-old Italian colleague, who disappeared from Multan on January 20, are being held by militants in North Waziristan, a senior security official confirmed. Others in militant captivity include Shahbaz Taseer, son of the assassinated former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, two Swiss tourists who vanished as they drove toward the Iranian border, the son-in-law of a retired four-star army general and Warren Weinstein, a 70-year-old American snatched from his home last August, days before he was due to leave Pakistan, and said to be held by al Qaeda.
The Pakistani Taliban are unapologetic, saying the kidnappings earn valuable funds, offer leverage to free imprisoned fighters and are a political statement against longstanding American efforts to drive al Qaeda from the tribal belt. “We are targeting foreigners in reaction to government demands that we expel the foreign mujahedeen,” said the deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Waliur Rehman, during an interview at his North Waziristan stronghold. The business is run like a mobster racket. Pakistani and foreign militant commanders, based in Waziristan, give the orders, but it is a combination of hired criminals and “Punjabi Taliban” who snatch the hostages from their homes, vehicles and workplaces.
Ransom demands typically range between $500,000 and $2.2 million, although the final price is often one-tenth of the asking amount, security experts say. The kidnappers’ methods are sophisticated: surveillance of targets that can last months, sedative injections to subdue victims after abduction, video demands via Skype, use of different gangs for different tasks, often with little knowledge of one another. The victims tend to be wealthy, the police have recovered lists of prominent stock market players from kidnappers and, often, from vulnerable sectarian minorities.
