The Uzbek militants chased out of South Waziristan operated torture cells and repressed the local population, according to residents of the former Uzbek strongholds of Wana, Sheen Warsak and Azam Warsak. “By name, they were Muslims. But by deeds they were beast,” says Mohammad Qasim, 40, a resident of Landi Dhok village and former neighbour of Uzbek militants.A tribal army led by Mullah Nazir and including Ahmedzai Wazirs is still combing the area to find any Uzbeks left behind. Most of them fled after three weeks of fighting between the tribal army and militants of the Uzbekistan Islamic Movement – led by Tahir Yuldeshev – left some 200 Uzbeks dead.
During a trip to Wana, Sheen Warsak and Azam Warsak – on the invitation of pro-Taliban commander Mullah Nazir - Wazir tribesmen told journalists of the atrocities committed by the guests on their hosts. The journalists were taken to a mud-house in Landi Dhok village. “In this torture cell, the Uzbeks used to put administration officials, pro-government elders or those they deemed dangerous for their survival,” local resident Hazrat Hussain said.
The Uzbeks used the house built over around 10 marlas as a detention centre for several years. “It was rare that a prisoner came out of the torture centre alive,” said one resident of the village. Prisoners were kept in 6x3 feet cells or in one of 11 bottle-shaped wells fifteen feet deep with no ventilation. “They did not need to physically torture you as prisoners could easily die of either suffocation or mental stress,” said Hussain: “Since the centre was closely guarded by the Uzbeks and no local resident was allowed to go inside it was difficult to say the Uzbeks gave food or water to the prisoners. “The Americans may not have treated Muslims so inhumanely at Guantanamo Bay as the Uzbeks did Wazir tribal people who welcomed them on religious grounds after the Taliban government was ousted,” Hussain said.
All over the area, young and old armed Wazir volunteers roamed around in pick-up trucks looking for Uzbeks. “We are tracking down any Uzbeks who may still be hiding here or there,” said 75-year-old Azal Mir sitting in the front seat of a pick-up driving the volunteers towards Sheen Warsak. Gula Din, 14, who expressed joy at the eviction of the Uzbeks because he could now watch TV, which the foreign militants had banned in the area. “The Uzbeks did not allow us to watch TV,” he said. A senior teacher at Shaheen Middle Public School said first welcoming and then evicting the Uzbeks “speaks of the dynamics of tribal society, which itself is a science but difficult to understand”.