NZer Detained In Pakistan-Near Terrorist Stronghold
From Stuff
Pakistani security forces have detained a 35-year-old New Zealander who was trying to enter an al Qaeda and Taliban militant stronghold on the Afghan border.
Pakistani intelligence officials who declined to be identified have said they suspected he might have links with Islamist militants.
The man, identified on his passport as Mark Taylor, was detained at a paramilitary checkpost on the outskirts of Tank town, about 280km southwest of Islamabad, which is the gateway to South Waziristan.
The top government administrator in Tank, Barkatullah Khan, said, the man had told the soldiers who detained him that he was going to South Waziristan to get married.
"He was travelling in a passenger van. He has a beard and was wearing a shalwar kamiz as a disguise," Khan said, referring to a traditional baggy trousers and tunic outfit worn by men...
While some Westerners of Asian descent have been known to travel to Pakistan to join militants, very few Westerners with European roots have been know to have gone there for that purpose.
South Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions that have long been off-limits for foreigners without special permission and which in recent years have become plagued by militant violence.
New Zeal I have a Mark Taylor active in leftist politics at Auckland Uni in the mid '90s.
Anyone else know someone who might fit the bill?
Pakistani security forces have detained a 35-year-old New Zealander who was trying to enter an al Qaeda and Taliban militant stronghold on the Afghan border.
Pakistani intelligence officials who declined to be identified have said they suspected he might have links with Islamist militants.
The man, identified on his passport as Mark Taylor, was detained at a paramilitary checkpost on the outskirts of Tank town, about 280km southwest of Islamabad, which is the gateway to South Waziristan.
The top government administrator in Tank, Barkatullah Khan, said, the man had told the soldiers who detained him that he was going to South Waziristan to get married.
"He was travelling in a passenger van. He has a beard and was wearing a shalwar kamiz as a disguise," Khan said, referring to a traditional baggy trousers and tunic outfit worn by men...
While some Westerners of Asian descent have been known to travel to Pakistan to join militants, very few Westerners with European roots have been know to have gone there for that purpose.
South Waziristan is one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions that have long been off-limits for foreigners without special permission and which in recent years have become plagued by militant violence.
New Zeal I have a Mark Taylor active in leftist politics at Auckland Uni in the mid '90s.
Anyone else know someone who might fit the bill?
posted by Trevor Loudon at
2/12/2009 08:19:00 AM
4 Comments:
A lot of Mark Taylor's out there...I think I know the MT in question.All I can say is he is not European in appearance. Which could explain why he got as far as he did wearing the traditional attire of the area.
We will wait and see...I could be wrong but I doubt it.
What about the Mark Taylor you know makes you think he might be3 the man in question anon?
Associates? beliefs? Patterns of behavior?
The sketchy description fits to the Mark Taylor I know, that is the age, the AU & NZ Passports.
I could still be wrong, and I am trying to contact his family in Christchurch to verify.
This could be it, the big link between Al Qaeda and the Greens.
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