Who’s really holding him?

A swap for 136 militants offered Warsaw/Islamabad: Pakistani Police continues its search for a Polish engineer, Piotr (Peter) Stanczak, kidnapped on Sunday morning, September 28, in the Attock region, northwestern Pakistan. More than a week passed without a significant breakthrough. Last week the Pakistani Ministry of Interior informed the Polish authorities that Mr. Stanczak “is alive” and “in the hands of Pakistani Taliban,” but no specific information followed.

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Yaqoob Malik, a Dawn daily reporter wrote on October 4 that the Police had arrested “four local people in Pind Sultani and Domail villages of Jand tehsil for their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak.” Two of them were soon released and two more were still interrogated by a five-member Police interrogation team. The arrests of local villagers were made to find out who effectively helped the still unknown kidnappers. “Irrespective of the claim of Taliban, the investigation team was making hectic efforts to trace the local facilitators as undoubtedly without them, the kidnappers were not able to do such high-profile kidnapping,” wrote Yaqoob Malik. Throughout the past week, I kept on searching for any clues that could have led to the place where the GEOFIZYKA KRAKOW engineer could be kept or to sussing out people who might be involved in his capture and forced detention. I asked for the help our author and friend, Mr. Hamid Mir from Islamabad, who spoke to the Minister of the Internal Affairs, Rehman Malik, and wrote back to me about his suppositions. "Yes, the Taliban did it but there are many groups using the name of Taliban. They have no one command structure like the Taliban of Afghanistan, so we are listening to them and trying to intercept some good clue,” Mr. Malik told Hamid Mir. Earlier last week, Pakistani media reported that a Pakistani Taliban spokesman, Muslim Khan, claimed his group of militants held the Pole and two Chinese engineers (abducted in August) and they demanded their exchange of 136 Taliban fighters remaining in Pakistani jails. “I know Muslim Khan. His operational area is far away from the place of the event. It is difficult to believe him. He is spokesman of Swat Taliban who already has two Chinese Engineers. Maybe he is trying to become important,” Hamid Mir wrote back to me. He also added “I personally believe that the Polish engineer is not with Swat Taliban. He was kidnapped by some local criminals and they may hand him hand him over to the Taliban because they are no different from criminals.” We have conveyed our demand to the negotiation team," Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan was reported to say. The Taliban spokesman also said that they have shifted the Polish engineer to a safe place. He made a point that the Taliban will not free the engineer unless their colleagues arrested in Bajaur, Swat and Darra tribal regions are freed. He also warned that the life of the Polish engineer will be in danger if arrested militants are not freed. But was he telling the truth?

The mysterious Baitullah Mehsud

Last Friday, a leading Polish daily paper "Dziennik" published a story, based on their phone contact with Mr. Ahmed Rashid, whom they call "the world's best expert on the Taliban." According to Mr. Rashid from Lahore and to some other, unidentified contacts of the Polish daily, Peter Stanczak is in the hands of Tehriq-e-Taliban and its leader Baitullah Mehsud (35), who they call "a Taliban bin Laden" and report that Mehsud commands "a 20,000 rebel army." Mehsud was reported to have taken 300 POWs from the Pakistani Army in October 2007. Mehsud was also accused of staging a bomb and sniper attack that killed Mrs. Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. According to "Dziennik," Ahmed Rashid told them that there was a "classic hand-over of conditions for negotiation" from the side of Mehsud or his people (to whom?) concerning the Polish engineer. The Polish Embassy in Islamabad and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw were very skeptical about that information. But on Saturday the Polish Prime Minister, Mr. Donald Tusk, was to call his Pakistani counterpart, Mr. Yousaf Raza Gilani last Saturday to talk about the kidnapped Polish engineer and the Pakistani government's action to free him. However, Baitullah Mesud remains a mystery figure. Muhammad Najib wrote in Hindustan Times (October 2, 2008) that “Confusion prevails over the fate of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, with his 'spokesman' on Thursday refuting media reports that the militant had died of renal failure and saying that he spent a busy Eid. SeveralPakistani TV channels reported on Wednesday that 35-year-old Mehsud, accused of planning the December 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, had died of renal failure. However, a letter received by a Peshawar-based journalist from Mehsud's 'spokesman' on Thursday said the terrorist leader was in good health and had a busy time on Eid, which was celebrated on Wednesday. Despite the denial of Mehsud's death by the Taliban, several journalists based in the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and tribal areas believe otherwise. They think the Taliban will announce his death once they find his successor. ”I believe that he would have called journalists to tell them that he is alive... he had been in contact with several journalists. But this mysterious silence make us believe that he may have died or has very serious health problems," journalist Ahmed Khan told Indo-Asian News Service.” The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed by Pakistani authorities that Mr. Peter Stanczak “is alive” and “in Taliban hands” somewhere in the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Territory), near the Afghanistan border. If really the Polish engineer is being detained by militants of Tehriq-e-Taliban, his rescue might be very difficult. The Taliban, al Qaeda, and allied terrorist groups have established 157 training camps and more than 400 support locations in the tribal areas and the Northwest Frontier Province, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal. As American special forces continue their airborne attacks against strongholds of the Taliban and al-Qeda in the tribal territories of Pakistan, and the Pakistani Army is on the offensive too, with some 120,000 troops engaged in battle and search and destroy operations, the fate of the Polish citizen, the Chinese engineers and other kidnapped people may depend of on a possibility to strike a deal with these militants and, at least in part, accept their negotiating conditions. Otherwise, the captured foreigners will be used as hostages and their life will be in constant danger. Let’s hope, however, that they might be saved. Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all. ~ Emily Dickinson ~

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