Linda Norgrove, the aid worker who died during a bungled rescue mission, may have been hours away from being freed by Afghan tribal elders who were negotiating with her captors, an investigation in eastern Afghanistan has found.
Local leaders were convinced they could free Linda Norgrove after negotiating the release of several Afghan prisoners in the area in the preceding year
Afghan tribal leaders spent 12 days negotiating for the release of Linda Norgrove, covering 150 miles on foot as they criss-crossed the mountains of Kunar seeking to intercede with her captors, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
Local leaders were convinced they could free the Scottish aid worker, aged 36, after negotiating the release of several Afghan prisoners in the area in the preceding year.
The gang holding her had reached the point where it was ready to free Miss Norgrove, they claim, but they say hopes of a peaceful resolution were thwarted.
They blame Nato's refusal to assist them, and to call off the special forces search operation which led to the bungled rescue in which she died.
"Some days after Linda was killed the Americans came to talk to us. I told them it was their fault she was dead," said Haji Kamil, the 39-year-old leader of the delegation, who met The Sunday Telegraph on Thursay at a guesthouse in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
Mr Kamil, a wiry man with intense dark eyes and jet black beard, dressed in a long Afghan shirt, waistcoat and circular pakul hat, was leader of a group which was outraged by the kidnapping.
Abduction of a woman is strictly taboo in the conservative Pashtun culture of Kunar Province where Miss Norgrove was kidnapped, and the elders had threatened to exile the family of the kidnappers and burn down their homes unless Miss Norgrove was released. They believe the threat was effective and are convinced that they were close to gaining her release when the botched raid was ordered.
One farmer said he had seen Miss Norgrove being led up into the hills on a donkey after she was seized by between six and eight men, armed with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, on a stretch of road where the mountainside meets a fast-flowing river.
Suspicion for the kidnapping immediately fell on Mullah Basir, the local commander of a 20-strong band of insurgents loyal to a leader called Qari Dawat, the head of Jamaat-ud-Dawa al Quran wal Sunnah (JDQ) in Kunar province.
JDQ is an Islamist group, linked to al Qaeda and believed to have strong ties to elements of Pakistan's security forces. The Arabic name means the Assembly for the Call of the Koran and the Sunnah.
Mr Dawat commands about 200 fighters in Kunar, and claims to have killed 30 US soldiers. He has also described capturing a bounty hunter who was tracking him in a bid to collect a $400,000 reward from US forces. Last summer two of his children were reportedly killed in an airstrike on one of his homes.
While Miss Norgrove was being held, Mr Dawat contacted Afghan journalists with three demands for her release - the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, the release of insurgent prisoners from Kunar, and the release of Aafia Sidiqqui, a Pakistani scientist held by the US military.
Basir was already notorious as a kidnapper and had been responsible for attacking a nearby polling station and killing two voters during the parliamentary elections a week before Miss Norgrove's abduction.
A strongly-built man with a reputation for unpredictability, Mullah Basir was well known in the area, but was not considered powerful.
"When we heard the news it was a woman, everyone was angry. It is one thing to kidnap, but to kidnap a woman is the worst," Haji Kamil said.
The news that a foreign woman had been seized reached Mr Kamil through the governor about two hours after she was taken.
Four hours later, Mr Kamil and 13 elders arrived at Mullah Basir's home village of Islam Khane in the Dewagal Valley.
Furious, the delegation walked straight through the village of 40 houses, high above the valley, to his modest four-room home.
He was not there, but his older brother, Nur Rahman, invited them in and for three hours the men threatened and cajoled him to speak to his brother.
To display their displeasure under the Pashtun tribal code, they would not eat or sleep in his house, but rested next door.
"We explained to him that Linda was helping with agriculture, to make canals, and the people were upset," Mr Kamil added.
The kidnap of a woman would leave an unbearable stain on the honour of the valley, the elders said. Fearing the beginnings of a blood feud, Nur Rahman had little alternative but to agree to talk to his brother.
However, the village was woken early by the sound of American helicopters and jets flying overhead as the search began in earnest.
Islam Khane's residents fled, fearing an attack, Nur Rahman was gone and the group walked back for five hours.
The following day, the elders asked the governor to speak to Lieutenant Colonel Joel Vowell, commander of US forces in the area, to call off the operation and allow them to negotiate.
Mr Kamil said villages were being deserted in the face of the aggressive search and helicopters and jets were firing into the forests, perhaps to put pressure on the local insurgents.
"We told the governor this problem would not be solved by fighting. It will only finish with negotiation," he said.
The suggestion was rejected. The Americans told the group their negotiations could continue, but the search operation would not be called off.
Because bungled air strikes on wedding parties or travelling groups of men had given American forces in the area a reputation for being careless and trigger happy, the men became reluctant to travel into areas where there were troops, fearing they would be targeted.
But after long discussions, they decided they had to take a chance "because a woman was involved".
On the fifth day of the crisis, 18 elders again set out on foot for Mullah Basir's home in Islam Khane.
They found a village with no men, and with the women hidden in their homes or leaving. An American patrol was there, but without an interpreter they could not communicate. "We said we were trying to help Linda, they gestured we should go away or they would shoot."
Nearly a week into the kidnapping, an American commander finally met the delegation, arriving by helicopter where the elders were staying at their base in the nearby village of Spindar.
The Americans promised the delegation they would not be fired on if they told them in advance where they were heading each day.
The elders did so, but found each time they mentioned a village, it would be raided by troops in helicopters before they could get there, leading the elders to suspect they were being used as a source of intelligence.
Angered by the lack of progress, the elders finally swore a terrible oath of vengeance on Mullah Basir's relatives unless they reined him in.
"We told his relatives, if he doesn't release her, we will burn your houses and exile you from your villages," said Mr Kamil. "You will not even be able to bury your dead in the village and dogs will eat your corpses. We will cut our relations with you. We will not come to your funerals and we will not come to your weddings. This is the worst challenge we can give."
The threat of a feud appeared to have an effect. Nur Rahman and another associate of Mullah Basir contacted the elders by telephone, telling them to rendezvous at a remote spot, on the border of the Dewagal and Mazar valleys.
The group said that if they were to attend, they would insist on seeing Linda in person, or having proof she was alive. They also said that they should be accompanied by a Nato officer. However, as the elders waited to hear back, Nato began a large operation in the vicinity of the rendezvous, again thwarting negotiations.
Walking back to the district centre, to use their telephones, the elders again made contact with Nur Rahman and a close associate of Mullah Basir.
He remained willing to talk, Mr Kamil said and even agreed to hand over Miss Norgrove if Nato stopped the operation.
But Nato told the elders any let up in the operation would only allow the insurgents to smuggle Miss Norgrove across the border into Pakistan.
In any event, the decision to launch a rescue attempt had already been made. The failed raid then took place in a remote, wooded area called Matakan, on the border of the Dewagal and Mazar valleys. Two of Mullah Basir's nephews were killed in the raid, while Mullah Basir himself remains on the loose. "The game was finished," said Mr Kamil, "Linda was dead."
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Aid worker Linda Norgrove was close to freedom, Afghan tribal elders claim - Telegraph
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