ISLAMABAD: A senior official of the defence ministry told a Senate committee on Monday that more information could be extracted from the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) former spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan.

Additional Secretary retired Rear Admiral Faisal Lodhi, while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, referred to the revelation made by Ehsan that the militant group Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) had a direct link with the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) intelligence agencies. He said much more information could be obtained from the man who had been a TTP insider.

When the members of the panel called for his trial, the official said Ehsan was believed to have had a role in a number of terrorist incidents, including attacks on the Bacha Khan airport, tourists in Gilgit-Baltistan, Wagah border and in Mohmand Agency and the killing of Punjab home minister retired Col Shuja Khanzada.

He assured the committee that the due process of law would be adhered to and ruled out immediate disposal of the case.

Due process to be followed in militant spokesman’s case: official

Mr Lodhi made it clear that there were no ‘good or bad Taliban’ and this was the stated policy of the government.

When asked in whose custody Ehsan was, his brief answer was: “In the custody of the intelligence agency concerned.”

Members of the committee were critical of the government’s policy towards militant organisations and regretted the ‘glorification’ of Ehsan.

Senator Saleh Shah from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas alleged that the government was facilitating some groups of the TTP and they had opened their offices in Tank, Dera Ismail Khan and Bannu.

The official said there was no intention to glorify Ehsan and the security agencies had achieved their operational objectives with the airing of his confessional statement on television channels.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Tahir Mashhadi said the former TTP spokesman should be tried under relevant laws and the due process of law must be followed. He called for desisting from portraying people like Ehsan as heroes on TV channels and for treating ‘terrorists as terrorists’.

Barrister Mohammed Ali Saif said there was a split in the TTP following the death of its chief Hakimullah Mehsud and differences between Mullah Fazlullah and Khalid Khorasani had led to the formation of the JuA. He disagreed with the ‘revelation’ that the JuA had links with RAW and NDS.

He was of the view that presenting Ehsan on TV channels would cause problems in his prosecution and said the same was the case with Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav.

The committee’s chairman Rehman Malik said the former TTP spokesman had openly declared his allegiance to the militant Islamic State (IS) group. “If the government wants to make him an approver, then proper procedure must be adopted. The government should not bring him on TV,” he said.

He also raised questions over the way the government had handled the case of Jadhav in the International Court of Justice and asked why the attorney general did not represent the country and an ad hoc judge was not appointed.

Drug smuggling

The committee asked the interior ministry to form a task force for a thorough investigation into reported smuggling of narcotics through PIA planes.

An officer of the narcotics division informed it that the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency had not shared information about the incident in writing.

The committee also observed that the deduction of one per cent amount from all projects of the ministry, out of its allocated budget, for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was unfair and the government should make a separate allocation.

A highlight of the meeting was a walkout by Senator Mukhtiar Ahmad Dhamrah in protest against absence of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Minister of State Baleeghur Rahman.

The chairman declared that a privilege motion would be moved against the ministers if they missed the next meeting.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2017