"Local gangs assisting Pak Taiban in NWFP"

Peshawar, Nov 26 : NWFP police chief has reportedly said that a group of Afghan and local criminal gangs were helping the Pakistan's unit of the Taliban, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), using Peshawar as a 'resource generation point' for the terror organization.

"The Taliban are using Khyber Agency as base and Peshawar as the resource generation point," the Daily Times quoted NWFP Inspector General of Police Malik Naveed Khan as saying.

Peshawar has witnessed a sudden spurt in incidents of kidnappings for ransom and high-profile abductions over the past couple of months, even as the whereabouts of Afghanistan's ambassador-designate to Pakistan Abdul Khaliq Farahi and the brother of an Afghan minister are still unknown.

A senior security official in the province said that a former Taliban district governor Yahya Hijrat, who now calls himself Mustafa Kamal Kamran Hijrat, is leading the TTP in Khyber Agency with recruits from Waziristan Agency and Punjab.

Khan suspects Mustafa's 'possible involvement' in the Afghan diplomat's abduction from Hayatabad on September 22.

"Criminal gangs carry out the abduction and then sell the kidnapped people to the Taliban," he said.

The officials warned the government against allowing Mustafa's group to establish itself in Khyber, saying: "Peshawar will be hell if we do not stop this group from taking roots."

ANI