Taliban snatch away America's hope


	October 27, 2001	atimes.com

Central Asia/Russia

Taliban snatch away America's hope
By Syed Saleem Shahzad and Nadeem Malik

KARACHI and ISLAMABAD - Battle-scarred mujahideen commander Abdul Haq was quoted recently as saying that he regretted that he had not destroyed the Taliban in the conflict in Afghanistan following the Soviet withdrawal in the early 1990s.

He paid with his life by not doing so. On Friday he and at least five of his officers were captured by the Taliban while on a foray inside eastern Logar province in Afghanistan to woo support away from the Taliban. A Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman in Peshawar subsequently said that the Taliban had executed Haq in Kabul. The spokesman added that Haq had two satellite phones and "lots" of US currency on him when he was arrested.

His initial capture, despite the best efforts of a supporting cast of United States Black Hawk attack helicopters, has dramatically altered the situation in Afghanistan as Haq was the man that the US believed was the ace in their pack in unseating the Taliban regime without US troops having to become bogged down in a lengthy military campaign.

Now, with Haq removed - on its own a graphic illustration of the efficiency of the Taliban intelligence network - hopes of splintering the Taliban forces in the eastern regions are remote. The United States appears to have little option but to send more troops into Afghanistan, a move that carries grave dangers.

As Haq himself was quoted recently as saying, "I'm telling you, if they [US] troops start to get involved, and they send ground troops, I'm telling you that would be a big disaster for peace in the country, and that they would push the whole nation into Taliban hands. You will just create thousands of [Osama] bin Ladens."

Indeed, the death of Haq appears to have triggered the Pakistani militant religious group Hizb-e-Islami, led by Gulbaddin Kekmatyar, into sending troops to join hands with the Taliban. The Hizb-e-Islami, and other similar groupings, have long said that they would supply members for a jihad in Afghanistan. Now it appears to be happening. And on Friday, the United Kingdom said that it would make 200 Royal Marine commandos immediately available for ground operations in Afghanistan.

A Taliban spokesman in the eastern city of Jalalabad told the private Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press on Friday that Haq had been captured while fleeing on horseback at Azra in Logar province, 20 miles west of Pakistan's northwestern frontier, in rocky, mountainous terrain. "We had secretly surrounded the place for two days where Haq was hiding with his supporters," said the spokesman. The Taliban claimed that Haq had used a satellite telephone to call for attacks by US aircraft in a vain attempt to stave off capture, the news agency said.

The 43-year-old Pashtun, who lost his right foot to a land mine in the 1980s and carries at least a dozen scars of war, left the Afghanistan scene in 1992 to run an import-export business in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He returned last month at the behest of senior Pakistan officials as he was viewed as the only person capable of inducing defections from the ranks of the Taliban in the eastern provinces, where he is highly respected among fellow Pashtuns, many of whom fought alongside Haq against the Soviets during the 1980s.

Another Pakistani chieftain, Hamid Karzai, leader of the Popalzai tribe that lives around the Taliban spiritual capital of Kandahar, is reported to have left Quetta for that city to pursue the same objectives as Haq. Sources say that the Taliban are still trying to track him down. The two commanders were implementing Pakistan and US plans to convene a loya jirga (grand council) to topple the Taliban and replace it with a Pashtun-dominated administration.

Sources say that Haq's decision to enter Afghanistan at this stage was a hasty and ill-informed one, illustrated by the fact that he was left isolated when the Taliban attacked his group. Although he had already had some success in causing some minor commanders to defect, and had been promised more, and bigger ones, he should have remembered that these very commanders and tribesmen have on different occasions been obedient to virtually every person who has headed a government in Afghanistan. For the present, they clearly feel that they are better off with the Taliban, who have made Logar their power base. Even if Kabul falls, they can mount an indefinite guerrilla war in the region.

And to the north of the country the situation is not going the way of the United States. US-led air forces have been pounding the frontline Taliban positions lined up against the Northern Alliance just a few score kilometers from Kabul. But the alliance, apparently weakened by internal differences, has been unable to capitalize on the assistance it has received, and in fact its troops have even been pushed back in some places. The introduction of ground troops by the US and its allies in this theater now seems the only solution.

In Pakistan, authorities are taking measures to prevent thousands of tribesmen from flooding into Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban.They have reinforced security along the North Western Frontier province after reports that several thousand men were gathering in Dir district in the semi-autonomous tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. These are Pashtun-dominated regions where the fellow Pashtun of the Taliban are widely supported for tribal and ethnic reasons as much as for their shared Islamic faith. "The situation is very tense, but we are putting a security cordon in place. We're taking measures to stop them from marching into Afghanistan," one official said.

The tribesmen have rallied to the call of a radical Islamic group, Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-i-Mohammadi (TSNM), which is trying to enforce Islamic Sharia law in the area. Many of the volunteers have their own guns, swords and axes, with around 2,500 said to be carrying automatic weapons.

Much of the border is awash with weapons. TSNM leader Maulana Sufi Mohammed said that they would send a delegation of clerics to meet the Taliban, who, he said, had welcomed their offer of support. Previously, the Taliban have suggested that they do not need reinforcements from outside, possibly because many volunteers would be untrained.

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