Author: Carlotta Gall
Publication: The New York Times
Date: May 5, 2003
It is like a scene from the old
days of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Dozens of religious students, or talibs,
and other Afghan exiles with thickly wound turbans and long beards gather
on Thursday afternoons on two of the main squares in this city.
They are among the many Taliban
who took refuge here in the border regions of Pakistan after their government
collapsed in December 2001, and they are staying in the sprawling Afghan
refugee settlements here or with fellow tribesmen in remote villages.
These days they are gathering openly,
showing a growing confidence since an alliance of religious parties sympathetic
to their movement won provincial elections here last fall.
On Thursdays they meet one another,
and the talk is of war and the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan.
"We don't like the Americans, and
Karzai is a puppet of George W. Bush," said Abdul Karim, 26, a member of
the Taliban movement until he left Afghanistan two years ago, referring
to Hamid Karzai, the new leader of Afghanistan. "We want an Islamic government
in Afghanistan," added Mr. Karim, who is now a student at a madrasa, or
religious school, in Quetta.
Nasrullah, a religious student here
who recently arrived from Kandahar, in Afghanistan, said that "if the situation
continues and the Americans do not behave well, I am ready to fight, because
jihad is the duty of every Muslim."
He said he had left home two weeks
ago, after the governor of his province ordered Taliban supporters to leave
unless the elders of their village could vouch for their good behavior.
"It is too difficult studying in
Afghanistan, because all the time people demand, `Who are you and what
are you doing?' " said Mullah Shahzada, a religious teacher and former
fighter from the southern province of Helmand.
Quetta is a home away from home
for the Taliban. CD's of Taliban leaders' speeches are on sale in the shops,
the Friday sermons in the mosques are openly supportive of those who consider
themselves to be waging a holy war against Americans or other non-Muslims,
and young men speak openly of their desire to go to Afghanistan to fight.
The Taliban presence is so strong
that even many of those who have been refugees here for 20 years seem to
believe that the Taliban will return to power in Afghanistan. "There will
be fighting until the Taliban get power again," said Nur Mohammad, an Afghan
shopkeeper. "God willing, they will force those infidels out of the country."
The border regions of Pakistan,
and Quetta in particular, are emerging as the main center of Taliban support
in the region, and a breeding ground for opposition sentiment to the American
campaign in Afghanistan and Mr. Karzai's government. Senior Taliban officials
and commanders are taking refuge here, too, Afghan and American officials
say. Members of the political opposition in Pakistan confirm that Taliban
leaders are active and are recruiting young men to fight.
Alarmed by the recent increase in
attacks by rebels on American and government forces, Mr. Karzai asked Pakistan
last week to hand over some senior Taliban officials and commanders who
he said were in Pakistan. American military officials and diplomats have
also pushed for more effort from Pakistan on the border to prevent infiltration
of armed groups into Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials deny any knowledge
that senior Taliban or Al Qaeda figures are in Pakistan, but have said
they will investigate. "We will do everything possible not to allow anything
detrimental" to the Afghan government "being done from Pakistani soil,"
Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said last week.
More than 400 Taliban and Al Qaeda
suspects have been arrested in Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001, more than
in any other country after Afghanistan, a figure that hints at the extent
of the presence of Afghan militants here. Nevertheless, none of the senior
Taliban leaders have been apprehended, even though they have started calling
friendly local journalists and giving interviews over their satellite telephones.
Those familiar with the situation
contend that Pakistan's army and secret service are allowing the Taliban
to operate in Pakistan, and even protecting them. Further, the local government,
now dominated by an alliance of religious parties sympathetic to the Taliban,
provides them with legitimacy by association.
Maulavi Abdul Wasih talks like one
of the Taliban. A burly, bearded man in a white turban, he was a candidate
from a district on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and is now a senior
minister of Baluchistan province, in charge of planning and development.
There will be no peace as long as
American forces remain in Afghanistan, he warned. "America is a superpower,
but it should not try to control third world countries," he said in an
interview. "The Americans interfered in Afghanistan and destroyed the government
there; they should leave now."
In his view, part of the problem
is that the Americans have supported one group, namely the Karzai government,
against the Taliban. Whether he or others in Pakistan helped them or not,
he said, the Taliban would fight back. "This is the rule here," he said.
"If someone's home is attacked, he will defend it. Whether I support him
or not, he will do that."
He said he had no contact with former
Taliban leaders and doubted they were living in Pakistan. He knew of their
declaration of a holy war through news reports, he said.
Some Taliban may have had enough
of fighting, however, Afghan leaders and some foreign officials suggest.
"There are different groups of Taliban,"
Mullah Habibullah Akhund, a former logistics commander in the Taliban defense
ministry, said in an interview. "Some are fighting, and some, like me,
are waiting to see what the government will do. If they make an Islamic
government in Afghanistan, then it will be O.K."
Hajimal Zhrak, a former employee
of Afghanistan's agriculture ministry and one of the elders of the refugee
population in Quetta, said, "People support the Taliban but they do not
support the attacks."
His tribe, which has long provided
a base of support for the anti-American rebel leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,
met recently and decided to withdraw their support for him since it would
drive away reconstruction projects from their districts.
A United Nations official said he
had been approached by former Taliban who wanted to return to Afghanistan
if they could be assured they would not be arrested. They would leave Pakistan
because there they are under pressure to join the fight against Mr Karzai's
government.
Mr. Karzai has made a point in stressing
that former Taliban are free to return home as long as they come in peace.
But many of the regional commanders and governors, who came to power after
ousting the Taliban, do not have the same sympathy, and warn that in their
view, the Taliban have only one goal: to overthrow the government.
Pakistani opposition figures - who
often accuse the country's establishment, including the president, the
army and the secret service, of supporting the resurgent Taliban - warned
that the problem needs to be tackled at its source, that is, in these border
areas, including Quetta. "America is in for big trouble in Afghanistan
unless you remove the source," warned one influential editor, who declined
to give his name.
Habib Jalib Baloch, a former senator
and leader of the Baloch National Party, said, "America should have selected
to crush Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan, rather than go to war in
Iraq." He said he was sure that the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar,
and his top commanders were all in Pakistan, protected by their links to
the Pakistani establishment.
"You need to cut the funding," he
said. "You will not kill them with a hammer. You must cut the funding and
the connection."
