ISI asks Taliban-jaish terrorist to secure Chinese interests in Kohistan

Asmatullah Muawiya has been tasked with securing the region post the attack on a bus carrying Chinese engineers in the region.

Generals at GHQ, Rawalpindi, have asked the Pakistan spy agency, Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) to depute one of its primary assets, a leader of a terror group in the Gilgit-baltistan region to control the different terror groups active in the area. This was done following the terror attack on a bus on 14 July carrying Chinese engineers and other workers employed at the Dasu dam project in Upper Kohistan.

The terrorist leader, who has been given the task of securing the region and controlling the other terror groups that are not ready to listen to the directives of the GHQ, is Asmatullah Muawiya, who until a few years ago headed the “Punjabi Taliban”. Rawalpindibased sources told The Sunday Guardian that Muawiya, who is staying in a Pakistan government-organised accommodation in Islamabad, is gathering his cadre at Gilgit to ensure the safety of Pakistani-chinese assets in the region, apart from identifying and eliminating antiisi groups in the area, on the direction of the ISI.

At present, Muawiya is also constructing a place for religious activities in Islamabad on a piece of land provided by the ISI. Muawiya, who until 2007 handled the media department of the Jaish-e-mohammed, stands accused of killing 10 foreign tourists at Nanga Parbat peak in June 2013. Those who were killed in the attack included five Ukrainians, three Chinese, one Russian and a US citizen. At the time, China had asked the Pakistan government to “severally punish” the perpetrators behind the attack.

Muawiya started his own group—junud-al-hafsa—after parting ways with Maulana Masood Azhar of Jaish-emohammed, as he was upset with Azhar for not carrying out attacks on the Pakistan army for their action at Lal Masjid in 2007. As per his own admission, until the time he was with the Jaish, he came to Kashmir twice to carry out terror attacks.

In September 2014, he announced that he would not be carrying out any operations on Pakistani soil and “surrendered” to the ISI at Fort Attock. During his surrender, he had announced

In this edition of “Indo-pacific: Behind the Headlines” we speak with renowned global war-on-terror expert Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and editor of FDD’S groundbreaking publication on terrorism, Long War Journal.

Bill Roggio served in the US Army and New Jersey National Guard and was embedded with, among others, the US Marine Corps, US

Army, and Iraqi forces in Iraq. Q: What can be done to help Afghans who want to resist the Taliban?

A: There is a burgeoning— small but growing—resistance to the Taliban in Panjshir province, home of the famed late anti-taliban leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was assassinated by Al Qaeda two days prior to 9/11. It’s being led by Amrullah Saleh. He was the Afghan Vice-president. He’s declared himself the “legitimate caretaker President” and, as per the Constitution, he’s right.

He’s said he’s going to fight.

Saleh was also former head of the Afghanistan intelligence agency, the National Security Directorate (NDS), and he has a thick rolodex of people across the country— former special forces, intel, and government officials— who have surrendered or went in hiding, but who don’t want to live under Taliban control. He’s getting a lot of refugees from other parts of the country.

It’s going to be difficult to resupply him because Panjshir,