Pak military releases ‘confession’ video of Taliban spokesman

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani military on Wednesday launched a propaganda campaign against India and Afghanistan by releasing a “confessional” video from a former Taliban spokesman who claimed the spy agencies of the two countries had funded terrorism in Pakistan.

The video featuring Tehreeke-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan, issued against the backdrop of Islamabad’s strained ties with New Delhi and Kabul, received extensive coverage in the local media. It emerged a week after news broke that Ehsan had surrendered to the army.

Soon after the video was released, chief military spokesman Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor said in a statement: “Ehsanullah Ehsan exposed hostile foreign agenda and their designs to destabilise Pakistan. Our youth is our strength, shall never fall prey.”

In the video, Ehsan said his real name was Liaquat Ali and that he joined the Taliban in 2008 when he was in college.

He said, “They (the Taliban leadership) got their (Indian) support, their funding and took money for every activity they did. They pushed the (Taliban) soldiers on the front lines to fight against the Pakistan Army and went into hiding themselves.”

Ehsan added, “When they started taking help from India and RAW, I told (Taliban commander) Umar Khalid Khorasani that we’re supporting the kuffar (non-believers) and helping them kill our own people in our own country.”

He said in the video that terror organisations have “committees in Afghanistan” and communicate with the Indian and Afghan spy agencies.

The Afghan spy agency “gave them documents so that they can easily move around”, he claimed.

Ehsan, who was a spokesman for the Taliban and Jamaat-ulAhrar, claimed the group “misguided dozens of people, especially the youth, into joining the organisation”. He also revealed that Mullah Fazlullah became the Taliban chief through a lucky draw after a drone strike killed his predecessor Hakimullah Mehsud.