A former Afghani civil pilot has claimed that a group of radical Islamists had been trained on flying civilian aircarft in Afghanistan.
The pilots, some of whom carry European passports, left Afghanistan one year ago to an unknown destination.
Captain Rasoul Pervez, who requested his surname not to be published, told the London-based daily Asharq Al Awsat that a group of 14 radical young Muslims received special training on civil aviation including Boeing planes of which the Afghani national carrier, Ariana, owns three.
Pervez who worked for Ariana for 25 years said that Taliban had forced him and four other former pilots to train a number of Arab, Afghani and Pakistani young men who fight along with the ruling militia.
The Afghani pilot added that the training included “ground training” before the pilots-to-be were transferred to a military air base near the city of Bampan.
At the base, the captain says, the trainees were instructed by people he named as: Captain Abdel Sattar, Captain Faid and a retired Pakistani general called Islam Khan. He described the trainees as fanatic young men.
Pervez added that seven of the trainees were very proficient in English and translated many books and manuals on aviation into the languages spoken in Afghanistan including Persian, Pashtu and Urdu.
Pervez, who was speaking from an undisclosed location in Afghanistan, has been unemployed since the UN imposed sanctions on the Afghani airlines -- Albawaba.com
