The bloody end of a soldier-turned-Jihadi
ISLAMABAD: Captain Dr (retd) Tariq Ali, one of Pakistani Taliban commanders shot dead by their fellow jehadis in Nangarhar province of Afghanistan on March 13, was a soldier-turned-militant who had returned to Pakistan from England only last year to join hands with Commander Omar Khalid Khurasani-led TTP Jamaatul Ahrar (JA), finally becoming the editor of the JA’s English journal, ‘Ihya-e-Khilafat’ (Revival of the Islamic Caliphate).
Captain Dr Tariq Ali, who was generally known in the Pakistani militant circles as Abu Obaidah Al Islamabadi, was killed in eastern Afghanistan along with Qari Shakil Haqqani by their fellow commanders who in turn were gunned down on the orders of the Jamaatul Ahraar ameer, Abdul Wakil alias Commander Omar Khalid Khurasani. JA spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan has said those involved in the assassinations of the senior Taliban commanders had been hired by the security agencies to carry out the job. “They had joined us almost four months ago, after being planted by Pakistani security agencies with the prime task of killing our senior leaders. They were gunned down after they confessed to their relations with the Pakistani security agencies,” Ehsanullah Ehsan added.
Qari Shakil Ahmed Haqqani, who belonged to the Mohmand Agency and had served as the head of the TTP’s political Shura after Hakimullah Mehsud’s death, had joined hands with Omar Khalid Khurasani when the latter discarded the TTP umbrella last year and formed the breakaway group – TTP JA. Having realised that their ranks have been infiltrated by planted elements of the agencies, the leaders of the three major militant factions of the Pakistani Taliban led by Mullah Fazlullah, Omar Khalid Khurasani and Mangal Bagh of the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) have decided to join hands by merging their groups into a single entity — Tehreek-e-Taliban. The three leaders have already constituted an organising committee to form a supreme council in the next few days to select a new leader with consensus. This reunion is quite worrisome for the Pakistan security establishment which had launched a massive operation Zarb-e-Azb against these Taliban commanders in June 2014.
The militant circles in the tribal belt say the killings of Qari Shakil and Tariq Ali were a major blow to the Taliban mafia. Tariq Ali was a soldier-turned-militant who had released a video message recently. The video was captioned ‘The story of a Mujahid who joined the TTP Jamaatul Ahrar after abandoning a luxurious life in Britain’. “Allah blessed me with the passion of Jihad.
I left Britain with an intention to go to Iraq and join Islamic State, but I was arrested on the way and sent to prison in Croatia. Then I was deported to Pakistan where I joined the Jamaatul Ahrar. May be it was the will of Allah that I should join the Mujahideen of Khurasan instead of Iraq and Syria,” he added.
In the video, Tariq Ali gave his Pakistan Army number as 103907, confirming that he had passed out with the 18th Course of the Army Medical College. He claimed that he had served the Pakistan Army for seven years and emigrated to work as a doctor in London, before being struck off by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) after a hearing in Manchester, England for his alleged involvement in militant activities.
Wanted by the Scotland Yard ever since he left England in 2014, Tariq Ali had been the spokesperson of a London-based radical group – Shariah4Pakistan. He had travelled all the way from England to Waziristan in April 2014 to join hands with Commander Omar Khalid Khurasani. Keeping in view his proficiency in the English language as well as his “commitment” with the “cause” of jehad, Omar Khalid Khurasani had instantly tasked him with launching an English magazine (being the editor) to target English-speaking audience.
The first issue of the 55-page magazine, ‘Ihya-e-Khilafat’ (Revival of the Islamic Caliphate) was released on the Facebook page of the JA on October 20, 2014. The editor of the magazine, Dr Tariq Ali alias Abu Obaidah al Islamabadi had claimed in the introduction of the journal that it is an endeavour by the JA to expose to the English-speaking audience the un-Islamic nature of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Tariq Ali had studied at some of the prestigious universities in the United Kingdom like Cambridge and Imperial College London, besides having served in the Frontier Corps Balochistan and the 80 Infantry Brigade at Siachen, being a captain doctor of the Army.
The magazine also carried several articles written by senior leaders of the JA including Omar Khalid Khurasani, Qari Shakil Haqqani, Ehsanullah Ehsan, and last but not the least, Tariq Ali.
In his article titled “Nationalism – an old concept and a new religion”, he wrote: “The Muslims of Pakistan should support only those Mujahideen who are fighting to implement Shariah in Pakistan and striving to make this land a part of emerging global Khilafat (Caliphate). Muslims of Pakistan should save themselves from the trap of the secular government which claims to be a Muslim (government) but keeps benefiting from its alliance with Kuffar (infidels). The Muslims of Pakistan should also be aware of the misguided religious politicians who continue to paint democracy as Islamic. They should also be aware of the jehadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, which are either supporting secular government or restricting their efforts to a certain piece of land such as Afghanistan or Kashmir.”
http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-13-36400-The-bloody-end-of-a-soldier-turned-Jihadi
