Taliban flays Pak. 'complicity'

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD, NOV. 9. The gulf between the Taliban militia and the Pakistan Government is widening following a series of decisions by the military Government in the last few days. For the first time since the September 11 terrorist strikes on the American cities and the October 7 military campaign by the U.S.-led forces on Afghanistan, the Taliban has spoken out openly against the Musharraf Government. Mullah Tayyaba Agha, spokesman for Taliban chief, Mullah Omar, has been quoted in the Pakistan Urdu daily, Jang, as having said that Pakistan had left no stone unturned to ``destroy'' Afghanistan.

Talking to Jang in Kandahar, Mullah Agha and the military commander, Mullah Akhtar Usmani, said that the ban on the Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef's press briefing in Islamabad was an ordinary thing and Pakistan had done much more to destroy Afghanistan. They said that Pakistan had ``provided airbases and the warplanes of the enemy were operating from the Pakistan soil and killing innocent Afghan civilians''.

They alleged that even Cruise missiles were being fired from the Pakistan airspace and the enemies of Afghanistan were free to hold anti-Taliban meetings in Pakistan. The Taliban understood that a few individuals imposed the present Afghan policy on Pakistan, but the people were supporting the Taliban.

Support to Taliban

In a related development 1,500 armed activists belonging to Tehreek-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) in Bajaur Agency left for Afghanistan on Wednesday to participate in the `jehad' against the U.S. forces. The local media said that another contingent of TNSM would leave in the next few days. As many as 25 truck loads of essential commodities had been sent to Afghanistan from the area. Further collection of funds and essential commodities and the drive to recruit more were still on in various tribal areas. Even as the local media is reporting about the crossover by the armed activists of various outfits, the Pakistan Foreign Office has been maintaining that no one was going to Afghanistan to fight the US-led forces.

The standard response of the Pakistan Foreign Office to the subject had been that it was impossible to seal completely the 2500-km porous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. ``If some individuals are crossing through the non-conventional routes, we are not aware of it. But the known main routes are effectively sealed,'' the spokesman said.

In another development, the former ISI chief, Mr. Hameed Gul, has taken exception to the reported comments of the U.S. envoy to Pakistan, Ms. Wendy J. Chamberlin, on the Pakistan Army. In an interview to the Urdu daily, Nawai Waqt, he said that her comments were a clear violation of diplomatic norms. It was an attempt to create differences within the Army on the basis of ideology and identity, but it was far from reality. He said that the right-wing people, who were protesting against the U.S. role in Afghanistan, were the same people who had been supporting Pakistan's policy on Kashmir and Afghanistan. They were natural allies of the Army and had never been against it. But the people presently surrounding the Musharraf Government were those who had been opposing the Army's policies on defence expenditure, Kashmir and nuclear programme, he said.

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Section  : International
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