Highly-trained Taliban gunmen targeting Pak Ex-PM Imran Khan, with orders to kill him

WASHINGTON DC: According to a former CIA operations director who was posted in Kabul during the height of the US involvement in Afghanistan, highly-trained Afghani Taliban commandos are tracking the movements of former Pakistan PM Imran Khan with the aim of eliminating him. The Taliban commandos who are already in Pakistan are disguised as business men and traders and are charting out elaborate plans to eliminate the popular political leader.

A top US Military Intelligence source has already warned that Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan could be killed in an assassination bid any time, even in the next few hours or days, either by certain rogue elements within the Pakistan army establishment or the Afghanistan Taliban or similar militant groups operating in the region. The Taliban could collaborate with rogue elements within the Pakistan army or police as huge money is involved, said the former CIA director.

Millions of dollars are at stake, said our source. Both the present ruling dispensation in Pakistan, some top brass in the Pakistan army, millionaire business men in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, the UAE and other Gulf countries want the former Pak PM dead, said our CIA source. Khan’s life is in grave danger as there are several very powerful entities both within and without the country (Pakistan) who want him dead. He may not survive till the time elections are held in Pakistan, the former US spy said on condition of anonymity, claiming that “elaborate and sophisticated plans are made to bump off Imran Khan and to ensure that he is not available during the national polls”. There is a lot of money and powerful people with international connections involved, the official said.

The 70-year-old former premier faces 37 or 40 cases filed against him by various law enforcement agencies in different parts of the country. These include five cases filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan in connection with alleged illegal foreign funding and using inappropriate or threatening language against the poll panel and its chairman as well as trying to influence the outcome of polls using certain banned or communally offensive methods.

Imran Khan’s security was beefed up after he survived an ‘assassination attempt’ during a rally in Wazirabad in Pakistan’s Punjab province last November. According to local newspaper, Dawn, a “special contingent of commandos from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” took charge of his security following the attack in which he was injured, though not seriously.

However, US Intelligence agencies tracking the political developments in Pakistan are of the view that the present ruling dispensation in Pakistan does not want Imran Khan to be “politically active or alive” and his presence could lead to their downfall if polls are held in the next 6-10 months as his party the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could manage to sway millions of Pakistani voters against the present government.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is still a very formidable force in Pakistan and has thousands of dedicated party workers who are ready to go to jail or even face police thrashing and firing to support Khan, as was seen in the recent police action against him.