MIRAMSHAH, Jan 24: Mystery shrouded the death of Sultan Amir Tarar alias Colonel Imam, a former ISI official, amid conflicting reports about the cause. According to some reports, he was shot dead by his kidnappers while some sources put down the death to a heart attack.
Colonel Imam was seized by militants last March with another ex-spy and a British journalist in North Waziristan.Sources close to the Taliban said they too didn't know how he had been killed.
“Col Imam was killed outside North Waziristan, but his body was brought back most probably from Afghanistan,” the sources said.
Tariq Hayat, the top administrative official for tribal areas, said he believed in the heart attack version, but he saw it in a different light.
“I was told by the political administration of North Waziristan that he died from a heart attack,” Mr Hayat told AFP.
“He died from a heart attack, but I will say that he was killed by the Taliban because he was a heart patient and if you don't provide medicine to a heart patient you are going to kill him,” he said, adding that his body had not been recovered. Taliban have gone into a huddle to discuss the situation arising out of the death of Colonel Imam, a former ISI official, in North Waziristan.
“A meeting of key Taliban leaders is in progress at an undisclosed location to discuss the aftermath of Col Imam's death,” a spokesman said.
They said that the meeting would decide about the handing over of the late officer's body to his heirs.
The incident has enraged local Taliban who want to know about his killers, informed sources said. Col Imam was considered to be the godfather of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.—Correspondent
