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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistain's brutal beneficiaries betray their refuge |
| 2008-03-27 |
| Despite a long history of using Pakistan as a safe haven, Taliban on the front lines of the insurgency say they have no loyalty to their neighbouring country. A survey of 42 insurgents in Kandahar found most were critical about Pakistan, where they are reported to have headquarters and supply lines, and most were critical of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, often using the harshest language to describe him. Some insurgents claimed they want to fight for the seizure of vast swaths of Pakistan's territory in the name of expanding Afghanistan to include the major cities of Quetta and Peshawar. Every fighter asked said those two cities belong inside Afghanistan, and all of them rejected the existing border as a legitimate boundary between the countries. The Globe and Mail's modest sample of Taliban opinion may only reflect an effort by the insurgents to hide their sources of support in Pakistan, analysts say, or it may point to something more troubling: the growing indications that parts of the insurgency are no longer controlled by anybody. "If they are supported by ISI [Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency], why are they attacking Pakistan?" said Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, after reviewing The Globe's raw video footage. "Why would the ISI want these kinds of activities in Pakistan? It's out of control. Nobody is able to control it. This is Afghan government propaganda, about the Pakistan government controlling the Taliban." Few historians dispute that Pakistan's intelligence services played a decisive role in establishing the Taliban movement in 1994, and Islamabad appeared to retain a strong influence over the regime that seized Kabul two years later. President Musharraf formally cut ties with the Taliban in 2001, but in recent years a growing number of observers have accused Pakistan's agents, or former agents, of continuing their assistance for the radical movement. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 neat pic John... Thanks! >:) |
| Posted by: RD 2008-03-27 21:34 |
| #5 BTW, the ANP party that came to power recently is led by a grandson of Abdul Gaffar Khan (guy on the left) |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-03-27 13:52 |
| #4 Afghanistan voted against the entry of Pakistan into the United Nations in 1947 because it did not accept the legality of the NWFP's incorporation into Pakistan. The Government of the NWFP, led by an arm of India's Congress Party was dismissed by Sir George Cunningham, governor of the NWFP. Afghanistan argued that the NWFP should have been given the option to join Pakistan or become independent. The option to join India was forbidden by Lord Louis Mountbatten (the last Viceroy of the Indian Empire) because of the lack of territorial contiguity. The NWFP leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a follower of the Mahatma and sometimes called the Frontier Gandhi for his leadership of the Pashtuns in non-violent resistance during the struggle against the British was jailed. The 100 year Durand Line treaty between the British Raj and the Emirate of expired in 1993. Afghans consider the Pashtuns regions annexed by the British into their Indian Empire as legally Afghan territory. With the expiration of the treaty, they want it back. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-03-27 13:49 |
| #3 He, he. One of the keys of Pakistan's support to Taliban is that the Pakis thought that ultraislamists would not question the Durand line (the Durand treaty expired somewhere in the 90s): "We are all muslims. Who cares about a little border between friends?". I am happy this comes now to bite the Pakis. Also if Taliban start turning to nationalism they will a) turn against Mullah Omar who allowed Al Quaida (furriners) rule the country b) turn against Al Quaida (Arabs, furriners) c) they become Afghanistan's problem not ours. |
| Posted by: JFM 2008-03-27 09:46 |
| #2 Could it be that ISI is out of anyone's control, and is only working to implement Islamism in Pakistan (for starters). |
| Posted by: gromky 2008-03-27 06:02 |
| #1 in the name of expanding Afghanistan to include the major cities of Quetta and Peshawar Greater Afghanistan? I don't recall calls for this before, is it new? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-27 03:00 |