PESHAWAR, March 29: Two political tehsildars who were being held hostage by militants in the rugged South Waziristan tribal region are believed to have been killed, a senior government official told Dawn on Monday.
The information about the deaths of the tehsildars jolted the authorities here who are still reeling from the shock of the execution of eight soldiers of the Pakistan Army by militants last week.
The tehsildar of Birmal, Mateeullah Burki, and of Wana, Amir Nawaz Marwat, both junior civil officers in the administration that governs the South Waziristan region, had been missing since the military launched its biggest operation against foreign militants and their tribal supporters on March 16.
A jirga of tribal elders that had negotiated the release of 11 paramilitary soldiers on Sunday - also held hostage since the launch of Kaloosha-II operation - had been told by militants that the two tehsildars would be freed on Monday.
"We all were waiting for them to return and reunite with their families," said a grief-stricken official on phone. "Nobody had expected them to be killed in cold blood. They were civilians and had no direct link with the military operation. Even otherwise, nobody kills hostages. This has added a new dimension to the issue," the official said.
Head of the security in Fata, Brig Mehmood Shah said he believed the two officers had been killed but added that he would know with certainty only when authorities in the regional headquarters in Wana got their bodies.
"I cannot confirm until we see the bodies", Brig Shah said. He said that authorities had been tipped off by locals in Ziara Leetha, a village about 10km to the west of Wana, that they had found two bodies lying in a ditch close to a tubewell, and they thought the bodies could be of the two tehsildars.
"The locals who had informed the authorities in Wana said the bodies were lying in a ditch inside a tunnel. It was stinking in there and it was too dark when we came to know about it. So unless we know whose bodies are those, we cannot say whether they are dead or alive," the official said.
Authorities immediately dispatched a moharrar along with an ambulance and some local elders to the place to retrieve the bodies. These had not reached Wana till late night.
But government and security officials in Peshawar and Wana said they were almost certain the bodies were of the tehsildars. "We will now ask the jirga why did the militants not keep their words and why did they have to kill hostages in cold blood.
The jirga has to do a lot of explanations," a senior official said. He said that the militants had told the jirga of Zalikhel - the tribe to which the five most wanted men accused of sheltering and supporting foreign militants belonged - that the two officers were being held at another location and it would take them a day to get there and get them out.
Analysts had earlier said the release of 11 paramilitary soldiers by militants would help cool tempers that were raging following the military operation in Kaloosha and the adjoining Shin Warsak.
While authorities waited for the bodies to arrive, senior government and military officials were in meetings late on Monday to assess the situation and formulate a possible response.
Officials reckoned that the killings of the two offices might have been caused by the news of the death in the military operation of what the DG ISPR had described an Al Qaeda intelligence chief.
Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan had told a news briefing in Islamabad that Abdullah, the intelligence chief, had been killed during operation Kaloosha-II. "We have no idea who this guy is", said one official. "We are still checking who this man is. At the moment, we have no clue about him", said another.
One official with knowledge of the Kaloosha-II operation said security officials had picked up intercepts of militants holed up in the area talking about Abdullah who, he added, sounded more like a courier.
A local official said Abdullah was an Egyptian and was known to have been living with other foreign militants in the area. While officials said they did not know when the two tehsildars had been killed, if at all reports of their death were true.
"We don't know when and how they were killed until we get their bodies and have them examined by coroners," Brig Shah said. An official, however, insisted that according to their information the two tehsildars were alive at least until 6pm on Monday.
"We don't know yet whether these reports (about their execution time) are true but it looks like those holding them shot them after having learnt of the death of their comrade, Mr Abdullah", said this official.
