Pakistani Taliban’s infighting leaves six dead

PESHAWAR - Six militants were killed in fighting between two Taliban groups in Pakistan’s tribal region Saturday, intelligence officials said.

The clashes erupted when the leaders of two Punjabi Taliban groups argued about the release of former Pakistani intelligence officer Amir Sultan, known by the code name Colonel Imam, who was kidnapped together with another intelligence officer and a British-Pakistani journalist in April.

“After a brief argument on whether Colonel Imam should be freed or killed, the Usman group and Ayaz group opened fire at each other at the building of a primary school for girls in Hajikot area of Miranshah,” an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

Miranshah is the main city in the North-Waziristan tribal district, a known hotbed of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.

“Four people, including the Usman commander died, while two members of Ayaz group were also killed,” the intelligence official said.

A second intelligence official confirmed the incident, saying that the fate of Colonel Imam was not known yet.

Colonel Imam, a retired officer of Pakistan’s prime military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) received guerilla war training, especially in using explosives, in United States during Afghan Jihad against Soviet Union.

Later on he transferred his skills to the Afghan mujahidin under a program monitored by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. He was known as master trainer of Afghan mujahidin. After Soviet withdrawal, he helped promote the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.

He was kidnapped while he was travelling to North Waziristan with another ISI officer Khalid Khwaja and journalist Saeed Qureshi. Khwaja was later executed by the Punjabi Taliban, a group of militants from Pakistan’s largest province of Punjab.