Hundreds of Taliban fighters rushed to disguise themselves with new haircuts in the weeks before an army assault, it has emerged.
Azam Khan was one of the top barbers in Miramshah — the main town of North Waziristan — until he, like nearly half a million others, fled the long-awaited offensive unleashed by the military on the tribal area in June.
He told the media, his business boomed in the month leading up to the army assault as the militants sought to shed their distinctive long-haired, bearded look.
“I have trimmed the hair and beards of more than 700 local and Uzbek militants ahead of the security forces’ operation,” he said, while cutting hair in a shop in Bannu, the town where most civilians fled.
For years he cut Taliban commanders’ hair to match the flowing locks of former Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Hakimullah Mehsud, killed by a US drone last November, but in May a change in style was called for.
“The same leaders came asking for trimming their beards and hair very short, saying that they were going to the Gulf and wanted to avoid problems at Pakistani airports,” Khan said.
Even Uzbeks and Tajiks with little knowledge of the local language came to him, he said.
“Knowing little Pashto, they used to utter four words: ‘mulgari (friend), machine, zero, Islamabad’,” said Khan, asking him to shave their beards to nothing so they could go to Islamabad.
The rugged, mountainous area on the Afghan border has been a hideout for years for Islamist militants of all stripes, including al Qaeda and the homegrown TTP as well as foreign fighters including Uzbeks and Uighurs.
Hikmatullah Khan, a shopkeeper in Miramshah, said that at the same time as commanders were insisting he pay Rs300 a month “tax”, their fighters were stocking up on grooming products.
“They were very keen to buy foreign-branded shampoos, soaps and perfumed sprays,” Khan told the media.
