One of the robbers who carried out the Rs2.2 million robbery at the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) in Swat has told investigators that the robbery was carried out with the aim of acquiring money to buy necessary military hardware required to attack army troops in Malakand Agency. He also revealed that suspects in the robbery case were affiliated with banned militant organisation, Jaish-e-Muhammad and included veterans of the Afghan and Kashmir jihad as well as newly-trained militants. The armed robbery took place on December 3, 2004 but Malakand police chased the militants and killed and arrested several after a pitched battle on the border between Swat and Dir districts. Investigators probing the robbery case have revealed that one of the arrested militants told the joint investigation team that the robbery was carried out to raise money to buy horses so that military equipment could be easily moved around the region. "Our amir [the militant did not name him] told us that every possible effort should be made to involve the army in Malakand so that a situation similar to South Waziristan would be created and we would be able to launch an attack on the army," a police investigator quoted an arrested militant. "We are not at war with the Pakistani people and the police; our war is against the Pakistan army that is fighting the mujahideen on behalf of the United States. We will finish it [the army] before it finishes us."Investigators told TFT that the arrested militants had revealed that they selected Malakand for their operation because of its difficult terrain and poor communication-system. "Had the money not been recovered and the militants killed and arrested, I think we would have been in serious trouble," an anti-terrorist investigator told TFT. "The militants would have unleashed terrorist activities and the police would not have been able to do much about it. After that, the army would have jumped into the fray in the manner in which it always does, as a 'last resort'." Investigators say the militants have revealed that banned religious group, Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariah Muhammadi, was providing the ground for the militants readying to launch an operation in Malakand.
The investigators also revealed details about the militants who killed two Aga Khan Foundation Health Service officers in Chitral on December 27, 2004. "The killers first met in Pule-Charkhi jail Kabul after being arrested by anti-Taliban Northern Alliance forces in 2001," said an investigator. "After being released, they planned to attack the office to drive the foundation out of Chitral. We are looking for Maulana Muhammad Khalid, the chief of the militants and his son, who are still at large," he added. A senior police official in Mingora city told TFT that Swat district had recently seen a "great concentration" of militants. "This was expected to happen because Swat is the old transit route for Afghan and Kashmir mujahideen who receive training in Mansehra and Balakot camps," he said. Intelligence agencies' suspicions about the relocation of militants fleeing military operations in South Waziristan Agency to non-tribal areas are growing and a source said Malakand Agency, Swat, Upper and Lower Dir districts were becoming a homeland for militants.