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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Murrey Walker who wrote (41643)	11/15/2001 6:44:25 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Respond to of 50167

<do you have any sense of the mindset of the Pro Taliban Pakistanis> This is what the government is doing ..“Pakistan’s security forces have so far arrested at least 250 persons fleeing from Afghanistan,” the sources requesting anonymity said. These arrested people are apparently supporters of Taliban who had earlier crossed over to Afghanistan to participate in the Jehad against the United States. They are now trying to sneak back into Pakistan after the withdrawal of Taliban troops from the main cities of Afghanistan. Several thousand activists of Tehreek-i-Nifazi-Shariat-i-Muhammadi of Sufi Noor Muhammad, who entered Afghanistan early this week, are missing inside Afghanistan. The authorities in Pakistan fear they might have been killed during the fierce war in recent days.It would be difficult to estimate the number of diehard supporters of Mulla Omar and Osama bin Laden. They would, perhaps, like to carry on their leaders’ “mission”, even after both Omar and Osama left the scene. (The US mission would not be complete without their removal.) The general belief is that their followers would move to the mountains to prosecute guerrilla warfare, but would find it hard to replenish their stocks of food and armament. Not only is Afghanistan landlocked, but is also surrounded on all sides by countries out to see the last of these elements. They could also seek sanctuary in the tribal belt on the Pakistan side to foray inside Afghanistan. It is doubtful, however, whether the support they would get from their sympathisers here would be significant enough to enable them to unnerve the forces which would be controlling the country. Islamabad has already moved its troops close to Afghan border to check the infiltration of any criminal element into Pakistani territory. Authorities in the provinces bordering with Afghanistan, North West Frontier Province, and Balochistan, have been issued strict instructions to arrest anyone trying to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan illegally. Pro talebin.. They have a crow to eat. Pakistan should capitalise on hints from the Alliance that it would like “non-belligerent relations” with Islamabad. Whatever its past attitude, and given that no representative system of government at Kabul could exclude the Alliance, we should seriously attempt to normalise relations with it. The sudden turn-around of the military realities in Afghanistan has underlined the urgency of the UN role which is considering a five-point plan towards a new setup. The plan envisages forming ‘a provisional council’, convening a Loya Jirga and transition to a new administration within two years. There could be no better way to forestall instability and anarchy than putting in place, at top speed, a system of governance representing all segments of Afghan society. The tribal chiefs would be disposed, more than ever before, to participate in devising a workable way out. The process should be actively pursued to deny the local warlords the wish to get entrenched and end the misery accosting the Afghan nation at every corner for over two decades.

To: Murrey Walker who wrote (41643)	11/16/2001 4:14:23 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 50167

<do you have any sense of the mindset of the Pro Taliban Pakistanis. > <<The 'tactical retreat' by the Taliban has in fact turned out to be a strategic debacle. By giving a walkover to Northern Alliance to enter Kabul, the Taliban had tried to barter territory for survival and hoped to retain substantial support among the Pakhtuns who resent a non-Pakhtun Kabul falling into the hands of others. But the Taliban's defeat is so dramatic that not only in the Tajik-Uzbek-Hazara regions they have been routed, but also in the Pakhtun areas the warlords and the tribal chieftains are not letting them to maintain a foothold. The Taliban has again surprised, first by sweeping Afghanistan and braving the bombing for almost ten weeks, by now continuing to retreat from almost everywhere with, perhaps, no safe-havens left among the people, except the caves and remote hideouts or some sanctuaries as refugees on this side of the Durand Line. They had first committed the strategic blunder of not listening to Pakistan, their only ally and preferring their brotherhood with the 'most wanted terrorist', Osama and his Al-Qaeda, over Afghan national interests. Then, in their stupid tribal chivalry, they took the self-suicidal road of fighting entrenched warfare on the frontlines and, thus, became an easy prey to one of the most ferocious bombings in history. And now they have beaten such a disorganized retreat that all those forces in the Pakhtun-dominated province, especially the tribes fed up with warlords, who had once submitted to their writ, are encouraged to revive their fiefdoms, as has already happened in many provinces. Their last ditch effort to regroup will cast them decisively and may not leave them in a position to even resort to hit and run guerilla operations and maintain a clandestine network for a protracted struggle. It is now matter of weeks, if not days, that their fated will be sealed. Such a swift deafeat of an adversary will, however, encourage the US to interfere elsewhere in the Muslim world. The Taliban were presiding over such a repressed and devastated populace that they might not find a popular base, most crucial to guerilla warfare. The spontaneous jubilations being expressed by the Afghan people, rebellion in many provinces and surrender in some areas only reveal the deep alienation and hatred the Afghan people were nursing against them. They will be increasingly seen by the Afghans as a source of inviting international wrath and an inescapable precise-bombing. Many among Afghans may even prefer to earn some badly needed dividends over providing them a sanctuary, rather than become a victim of Afghan chivalry. They cannot last long by hiding in caves and tunnels or hills, divorced from people and cut off from essential supplies. Before the US military strategy could prolong, they simply withered away; paving the way for achieving the objectives set by US, eradication of Osama and his associates. Unlike the Soviets, the US was facing an adversary it created that was also abandoned by its only patron, Pakistan, who refused to take a self-suicidal course the clergy was insisting. In the post-cold war world, it is impossible for any movement or country to survive that defies the necessary conditions of its own existence and challenges the international community in such a stupid manner as did the Taliban. The Taliban did emerge as a stabilizing force, but with their extremism and repression they not only brought a bad name to Islam, but also infinite miseries to the Afghan people. With the defeat of first Sunni-state of amateurish seminary, a dangerous process of Talibanization of Pakistan has met a serious setback. If Pakistan vigorously pursues a de-Talibanization course in all its ramifications, then it will be saving its future from falling into the hands of medievalist reactionaries. >> Imtiaz Alam..