'Swatis in US, a lucrative source of ransom for Taliban'

Pakistani immigrants from the Swat Valley have alleged that some of their families were being singled out for threats, kidnapping and even murder by Taliban forces, who view them as potential American collaborators and lucrative sources of ransom, a media report said on Tuesday.

Some immigrants claimed they, too, were being threatened in the United States by the Taliban or its sympathizers while some said they were being attacked or kidnapped when they returned home, the New York Times reported.

Fresh reports of hardship arrive here every day, sometimes several times a day, and spread quickly among the several thousand Swati immigrants in the New York region, they were quoted as saying in the report. The threats have added a dimension to their sufferings.

These include families being driven from their villages, houses being destroyed, relatives disappearing, the report said, adding that the fate of the valley dominates conversation among the exiled.

"It's 24/7," said Zakrya Khan, 30, the owner of two gyro restaurants in New York whose staff of 15 is almost entirely Swati was quoted as saying. "This is their only concern now."

Just like every community of exiles from conflict-ridden country suffers when relatives who remain behind are caught in the fight, the immigrants also believe that their presence in the US was endangering the lives of their relatives back home, where Taliban has imposed its authority over vast swath of the region, it said. 

More than that, Swati immigrants are in an excuriating dilemma that the more they try to help their families back home, the more harm they may do, the report says, which has
filled many with a combination of helplessness, fear, sadness and guilt.

If they speak out, they fear, it could lead to retribution for them or their relatives in Pakistan, the paper said, adding that some exiles who have participated in anti-Taliban
political demonstrations here or agitated in support of Swat residents say that they and their families have come under pressure as a result of these activities.

A few dare leave the US for fear of losing the single largest income stream their families have, it added. Some Swati immigrants were quoted as saying that they are skeptical about the deal with Taliban the Pakistan government announced on Monday to establish Islamic law in the region and suspend military operation there. 

"Two other accords in the last six months failed — and they were bracing for a resumption of violence," they were quoted as saying.

Iqbal Ali Khan, the general secretary of the American chapter of the Awami National Party, a dominant secular political party in Swat, told the Times that he had received
three threatening phone calls in the past two months. 

The callers, who did not identify themselves, told Khan he was "too active" and ordered him to bring USD one million with him on his next trip to Pakistan.

"Or you know what will happen," one caller was quoted by Khan as saying. The most recent call came last Tuesday. "You're still active," the caller said, Khan recalls. "This is
the last warning." 

On Wednesday, he told the paper that he received a dire call from his brother, who at that very moment was hiding in a forest on the outskirts of the valley's largest city, Mingora, with their 97-year-old father.

The elder Khan had received a letter from the Taliban earlier in the day warning him that he would be kidnapped unless he handed over USD 200,000. The note specifically
instructed the father to get the money from his son in the US.

Estimated 6,000 to 7,000 people from Swat Valley are presently residing in the United States, about half of whom live in the New York metropolitan region, the paper said,
citing Taj Akbar Khan, president of the Khyber Society USA, a Pakistani charitable and cultural organization.

In New York, Swatis generally live within the larger Pakistani population, which is concentrated in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Astoria, Queens, among other neighbourhoods.

Many Swatis, the paper said, suspect that the Taliban has spies among them, and that insecurity mirrors the rampant mistrust in the valley, where many residents fear the
Pakistani security forces almost as much as the Taliban and do not know whom to trust.