LAHORE: Leading businessman Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer, shared moments in captivity with BBC Urdu Service, saying he was with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) who tortured him badly.
During the tell-all interview, Shahbaz revealed that he was with the Islamic Movement until the group fought with the Taliban on the dispute over allegiance as IMU did not consider ‘supreme leader’ established by the Afghan group as a legitimate and wanted to ally themselves with self-styled Islamic State group.
“Following the dispute, Afghan Taliban attacked the Uzbeks and eliminated their whole group and their leadership. For three days, only death lived there. At that time, I got an opportunity to escape and did so, but the Taliban took me for an Uzbek and captured me. I was kept with other prisoners and then they took us to a village where a judge came and awarded sentences from six months to two years and we were sent to an Afghan jail,” he said.
“There I met a fellow prisoner who helped my release, it took him two to three months but he paved the way for my release,” he said, adding that he travelled from Afghanistan to Kuchlak on a motorbike, which took eight days. He said that he could not tell if they did not know who he was, and whether he was moving towards his freedom or this was some trap.
About torture, Shahbaz said that his captors used to flog him and many a times removed his nails and cut his other body parts. “They abducted me from Lahore and took me to Meer Ali area in Waziristan and used to shift my location every month from there,” he said.
“When these Uzbeks attacked Karachi airport I was there in Meer Ali, but as they knew how Pakistan’s government and army will respond, they shifted me to Datta Khel, I was there till February 2015,” he said. In his interview, he also said that his captors made videos, photos of their brutal act. “They used to flog me. I was flogged about 500 in three days, then they cut my back with blades and removed nails from my hands and feet,” he said.
He said that the abductors used to keep him hungry for days and once they stitched his mouth. Shahbaz said that he was not even provided medicine when, according to him, he was suffering from Malaria. “They used to torture me for making films and used to tell me their plans in advance. Like they would tell me that they will remove my nails tomorrow. I used to pray the whole night,” he said.
He said that he started feeling as if he was in God’s protection and nothing his captors do or say can enter the ‘shell’ God has kept him inside. When asked as to what is the first thing he ate after his release, he replied it was Nihari. He clarified that he did not eat anything at any restaurant in Kuchlak.
He said that when he was brought to the army compound and asked as to what he would like to eat, he asked them to bring Nihari. “I said bring Nihari, if possible, from Lahore. Otherwise I am ready to eat your Balochi Nihari,” he said.
