Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
Afghans fear Taliban taking over in Pakistan

Afghans fear Taliban taking over in Pakistan

Author: Liz Sly
Publication: The Seattle Times
Date: November 15, 2002
URL: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134576618_pakistan15.html

Afghanistan's government is growing increasingly alarmed that the political ascendancy of pro-Taliban Islamic fundamentalist parties in neighboring Pakistan will significantly increase the ability of the former Taliban to reorganize and regroup.

A year after the Taliban were driven out of Kabul, most of their senior leaders are still at large and continue efforts to challenge the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, Afghan and U.S. officials say.

Many of those leaders live openly in Pakistan's cities, and some are wanted by the Afghan government for alleged war crimes, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Samad.

"There are so many of them. Almost the whole Taliban Cabinet is in Pakistan," he said. "There's a whole list of bad guys who need to be brought to justice."

There have been repeated reports during the last year that the Taliban are seeking to reconstitute themselves, but there has been little evidence that they are succeeding. U.S. forces still regularly come under attack from small-arms fire, but the attacks are ill-coordinated.

In an unusual attack Sunday, 10 to 15 107-mm rockets were fired at a U.S. base in Lwara, in eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. The attack was different, said U.S. military spokesman Col. Roger King, because the base was targeted simultaneously from four or five locations. All of the rockets missed the base and there were no casualties, he said.

In six months with two or three attacks a week against bases around Afghanistan, only one rocket has hit a U.S. position, and it was unoccupied at the time, King said.

"We feel that they don't have the capability to do larger, more coordinated operations," said King. "We still have evidence that people are trying to regroup, but these efforts are not necessarily being brought to fruition."

Afghanistan's government is nonetheless worried that the recent victory of Pakistani Islamic fundamentalist parties in provincial elections in border areas will give a vital boost to the Taliban's efforts. The leaders of the Islamic alliance that stunned Pakistan's political establishment by sweeping the vote in provincial elections in the North West Frontier Province and winning the largest number of seats in neighboring Baluchistan are close friends and allies of Taliban leaders, many of whom are living in Pakistan.

The alliance also secured enough seats to hold the balance of power in the nation's new national assembly and may play a leading role in forming a new government. A month after the election produced no clear victory for any party, the three parties with the most seats are still haggling over who will lead the next government.

The Islamic Alliance is being wooed both by the pro-military party, the Pakistan Muslim League, which won the most seats, and the Pakistan People's Party of Benazir Bhutto, which came in second. As a condition for forming a coalition with either party, the alliance is insisting that its candidate, Fazl-ur Rahman, be appointed prime minister.

Rahman is an old friend and ally both of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the former Taliban leader who is also at large, and Osama bin Laden, whose voice is reportedly heard in a recently made audiotape. The Afghan government is extremely concerned at the prospect that Rahman may lead Pakistan's next government, Samad said. "These people were the mentors of the Taliban," he said.

Even if the alliance does not play a leading role in the next government, its hold over the provinces bordering Afghanistan, which provide key transit routes for al- Qaida and Taliban members moving in and out of Afghanistan, will help former Taliban officials to move and operate more freely than they have in the past.

Among those reportedly living in Pakistan are Nuruddin Turabi, the former justice minister; Obeidullah, the former defense minister; Mullah Beradar, the former governor of Herat and a top front-line commander; and Mullah Dadullah, whom Afghans say oversaw the massacre of hundreds of ethnic Hazaras in the central province of Bamiyan as well as the destruction of the giant Buddha statues.

U.S. officials say their intelligence supports the contention that most former Taliban officials are in Pakistan. The U.S. has no interest in tracking down Taliban leaders who have gone into retirement, and the U.S. military effort is still focused on the remnants of bin Laden's al-Qaida. Nonetheless, many of these figures are suspected of actively supporting efforts to stage attacks against American forces, U.S. officials say.

Also high on the U.S. wanted list is Mullah Omar, the one-eyed Taliban leader who slipped away from his stronghold in Kandahar last December. He is believed to be hiding in a remote network of canyons along the border. U.S. forces are searching for him.

There are credible reports, American and Afghan officials say, that Omar regularly travels from his hideout to Pakistan to meet with former Taliban officials.

The biggest concern for coalition forces now is not the Taliban, however, but renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is rallying opposition in Pakistan's border regions and within Afghanistan to the U.S. presence, officials say. It is believed he has struck an alliance with former Taliban leaders and is enlisting their supporters.
 


Back                          Top

«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements