Khurasan’s brutality silences spies

One of his executioners – members of an elite militant hit squad – zooms a camera in on his severed head and body parts for a video later distributed in street markets as a warning.

Al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taleban and the Haqqani network – blamed for a 13 September attack on the US embassy in Kabul – picked the most ruthless fighters from their ranks in 2009 to form the Khurasan unit for a special mission.

The Obama administration was escalating drone strikes on militants in the Pakistani tribal areas on the Afghan border and something had to be done to stop the flow of tips used for the US aerial campaign.

Militant groups do not have the military technology to match the drone programme, but they understand the value of human intelligence, and fear, in the conflict.

So the Khurasan was deployed to eliminate anyone suspected of helping the Americans or their Pakistani government and military allies. Just last week, an Afghan couple visiting Pakistan was shot dead for spying in North Waziristan.

“The whole community is scared of the Khurasan, and sometimes we ask each other ‘have you seen the videos?’ ” said one man, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.

“They have people everywhere. How do I know who is an informer for them and who isn’t?”

Made up mostly of Arabs and Uzbeks, the Khurasan, named after a province of an old Islamic empire, is a shadowy group of several hundred men who operate in North Waziristan, where Washington believes Haqqani network leaders are based.

CIA pilots, who remotely operate the drones, could step up their pursuit of the Haqqani network leaders after an attack on the US mission in Kabul last month.

That would likely prompt the Khurasan to become more ruthless, after capturing about 120 people they have accused of being spies since 2009.

When suspected collaborators are caught, they are held in cells in a network of secret prisons across North Waziristan.

A committee of Khurasan clerics decides their fate. Most are declared guilty after what group members admit are “very, very harsh” interrogations.

“They are given electric shocks. If they don’t help then an electric drill is used or the spies are forced to stand on electric heaters,” said one Khurasan operative. “Or nails are hammered into their bodies.”

Any attempt to intervene on behalf of people who are captured is risky. The Khurasan see that as collaboration with the enemy, too, and it is punishable by death.

Whenever someone is found guilty, the Khurasan make sure everyone knows about it.

“The spies are taken outside residential areas at night and shot dead. Their bodies are thrown on roadsides or squares in the town with a piece of paper warning others to refrain from this ‘dirty’ job of spying,” said one operative.

Their methods have become so brutal that the Khurasan have alienated some of the militant leaders who created them, men who would not think twice about ordering beheadings.

The Khurasan are not dependent on larger militant groups like the Taleban, funding their operations through kidnappings.

They are making it more difficult for the Pakistani army to persuade Pashtun tribal communities to form pro-government militias – a cornerstone of its counter-insurgency strategy.

The Khurasan, meanwhile, are challenging other militants who may want to rein them in.

“No one is above our law,” said a Khurasan militant.