The war of Ghalzai's and Durrani's in offing.. Many tribes are aligned with the Durrani, one of two main Pashtun tribes whose allegiances largely lie with the ousted king Mohammed Zahir Shah, touted as a potential head of state in a post-Taliban Afghanistan.
The Taliban rely heavily on the largest Pashtun tribe, the Ghalzai, to fill their ranks and are opposed to Zahir Shah’s return. as Pakistan roils in the middle..
Thousands of armed tribesmen from Ghalzai tribe gathered Thursday on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border ready to join forces with the Taliban against the United States, officials said.
Pakistan authorities said they were reinforcing security along the frontier in a bid to stop the men — armed with automatic weapons, swords and axes — from entering Afghanistan.
The force was gathering in Dir district in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
‘More than 3,000 tribesmen have gathered at Samarbagh and more are pouring from across the Malakand division,’ Dir district official Ghulam Farooq told AFP.
He said around 2,500 had automatic weapons and others had swords and axes. ‘The situation is very tense but we are putting a security cordon in place. We are taking measures to stop them from marching into Afghanistan,’ the official said.
Extra paramilitary troops have been sent to tribal districts bordering Afghanistan, a senior interior ministry official said.
The Dir district official said it was feared a local Muslim leader would try to lead 10,000 men into Afghanistan’s Kunar province to join forces with the Taliban.
Maulana Soofi Mohamad, head of the Tehreek Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi has called for a ‘Jehad’.
But sources close to the TNSM said the Taliban leadership had asked the tribesmen to wait for a signal from the militia’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Omar has appealed to tribes in Pakistani border provinces to provide thousands of men to fight the US-led coalition. The appeal was delivered through Abdul Bari Maroofi, a chief of the Rodi Alizei tribe, and relayed throughout the fiercely independent clans in Balochistan. But the tribes there are said to hold mixed views of Omar, the Taliban and Osama.
An initial meeting between Abdul Bari and Omar took place before the September 11 destruction in New York and Washington, according to tribal sources.
Abdul Bari said he was shocked by the September 11 attacks and that Omar had given no indication of what was to come. ‘He would not discuss this type of issue with us, it would be a very big secret.’
There are about 50 main tribes of the ethnic Baluch and Pashtun groups which can cross Pakistan’s porous borders with Afghanistan and could swell Taliban ranks by between 10,000 and 20,000 men.
This would bolster Taliban troop strength to about 65,000 men who can easily move around the rugged mountain ranges that dominate Afghanistan’s interior. |
