Shahbaz Taseer recalls tales of horror in captivity

Shahbaz Taseer son of slain Punjab Governor Salman Taseer recounted how he was brutally tortured while in captivity of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in an exclusive interview with BBC Urdu.

“They flogged me. In three days they flogged me about 500 times. They took a blade and cut my waist. With pliers they scooped out my flesh. They plucked out the nails from my fingers and toes. They buried me in the earth, for seven days, then three days…..then three more days.”

Shahbaz was kidnapped in August 2011 from Lahore and he was recovered in March 2016 from Kuchlak Town near Quetta four years later.

“They would starve me. There was time when they didn’t feed me for seven days…or more. I don’t remember how many days. They stitched my lips with a needle and thread. They shot me in the leg. I was very lucky that the bullet did not pierce my bone.”

“They placed honey bees on my face. So that my face swells. And my family gets worried when they see my pictures. I was sick with Malaria. But they did not give me medicine. They kept asking me for my bank account.”

“When they cut out my flesh I bled pools. There was so much blood. I bled for a week. They kept asking me for my bank account. They had no mercy. I begged Allah for mercy. And Alhamdulillah he eased my pain.”

“Before they filmed me, they would ask me to prepare. I asked them what sort of preparation. They would say “tomorrow we will pluck out your nails”. I would pray all night, after Isha prayers I offered Nafl and then ask Allah for strength till Fajr.”

“I began to feel Allah had protected me in his shell. And whatever pain they inflicted on me, physical or mental, it would not affect me.”

Time spent in prison

“I was with one group the whole time; the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. I stayed with them till a fight broke between the Uzbek group and the Afghan Taliban over the question of Caliphate. The Uzbeks wanted to pledge alliance to the Islamic State. That is when I became a prisoner with the Afghan Taliban. They did not know who I was and for a long time they thought I was Uzbek.”

“From Lahore I was taken to Mir Ali in Waziristan where I was transferred to a different location every other month. Till June 2014 I was in Mir Ali, that was the time when the Uzbeks attacked the Karachi Airport. They knew what the reaction from the government will be and so they transferred me to Shawal where I stayed till February 2015. After that I was taken to Zabul in Afghanistan through Gomal. Once when drone attacks had increase I stayed with one family for one and a half month.”

“We were attacked not just by drones but also fighter jets. When I went to meet Haider Gillani a few days back I told him the noises in the sky were terrifying. He understood but our brothers did not understand what we were talking about. Sometimes the bombing would continue for hours. Nothing that you have learnt at school can help you then, you can never be prepared… it is only your instinct of defense which saves you then.”

“I survived a drone attack. This was when Taliban commander Abu Yahya Al-Libi was killed in a drone attack. I came to know much later. He was sitting in a room next to mine when the attack happened. The roof fell on my head. I was stuck in the rubble. I was covered in dust. I coughed. People gathered around me. An Uzbek saw me and said, “Put these bodies in a truck”. He wanted to hide me from the world. Later he told me the attack was targeted at Abu Yahya Al-Libi. He told me that no one had ever survived a drone attack. He did not want to say it himself but he meant Allah had saved me.”

Freedom at last

“When the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Umer died the Uzbeks said the Afghan Taliban has no official status. The Uzbeks said that Caliphate has been declared in Iraq and Syria. They pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. Differences arose over the matter. The Afghan Taliban believe that only one of them can lead the Caliphate—and he has to be Pathan. When the Uzbeks rebelled they killed every one of them. There was nothing but blood and bodies for three days.

 I got a chance to escape then and I did. I was running up a mountain and an Afghan Taliban battalion caught me. They beat me and took me to a village with other prisoners of war. A Qazi handed out sentences. I was sentenced to prison and put in an Afghan jail. There I met an Afghan Taliban who helped me. It took time, two to three months. But he dug a way out for me. I traveled from Afghanistan to Kuchlak on a motorcycle. It took me eight days. I was released on February 29 and on March 8 I called my family. All through the journey I thought if I was walking to freedom or this was another deathtrap.”

An unforgettable incident

“One night in Ramzan there was heavy bombardment at Shawal. The family I was staying with had to run away to a safe location. One man was responsible to take all the women and children. The women could not carry all of the children. Three were left in the house. I went back to bring them with me. The girl was very scared. She was not coming out from under the bed. So I carried the boys and the girl came running with me. I hid inside a mountain. The bombing stopped and the women came to me. They thanked me. They knew I could have run away at that time, but I couldn’t leave the children and save my life.”

First thing he did as a freeman

“I had Nihari. I did not eat anything at Kuchlak. At the army compound they asked me if I would like some tea, coffee, water. I asked them to bring me some Nihari…from Lahore if possible….but if not I could eat Baloch Nihari too.”

Planning the future

“After a long time in my life I am in a position where I can plan the future. I am just meeting friends. Spending time with family. I am living each day, one step at a time.”