The Pakistani Taliban has killed a former intelligence officer who was taken hostage last year in the North Waziristan tribal region, Pakistani officials said on Sunday.
Colonel Imam was taken hostage along with another former officer of Pakistan’ Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, a British television journalist and a driver, Rustam, in March 2010. A Taliban-linked group, Asian Tigers, had claimed responsibility for their kidnapping and had sought the release of their colleagues and a ransom in exchange for the lives of the abductees.
TV channels reported that Colonel Imam has been killed in North Waziristan. There was no family confirmation of the report. The Taliban had also killed another former ISI official, Khalid Khwaja, but had freed British TV journalist Asad Qureshi and the driver, Rustam, after his family paid the ransom, sources said.
The former ISI officers and Qureshi had gone to North Waziristan to make a documentary on the Taliban for Britain’s Channel 4.
An IANS report said Col. Imam’s real name was Sultan Amir Tarar and that they had been abducted by the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, working in tandem with the Pakistani Taliban. It quoted Geo TV as saying the Taliban had sought Rs 50 million for the release of Col. Imam but that negotiations made no headway and he was killed Sunday.