fled the Tora Bora onslaught last December into the
tribal areas of northwest Pakistan and Pak-occupied
Kashmir, and that Pakistani officials have done little
to try to track him down
Posted on 03/26/2002 4:34:57 PM PST by henbane
| Al-Qaeda, Taliban fighters regrouping in Pakistan, says Kabul ANI Kabul, March 26 Afghanistan's minister for border security and a top intelligence official have accused Pakistan of sheltering fleeing Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters and helping them to cross the border back into Afghanistan, where they can attack US forces and destabilise the new government in Kabul. In separate interviews, Minister of Frontiers Amanullah Zadran and a senior intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said on Monday the Afghan government has evidence that the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, and fundamentalist Pakistani clerics - both of whom have historical ties with the Taliban - have given haven to Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who fled US military offensives in eastern Afghanistan. Pakistan has consistently denied funding the Taliban, both at the height of the fundamentalist regime, when the links between Pakistan's intelligence services and the Taliban were well documented and widely accepted, and in the aftermath of Sept. 11, when Pakistan President Musharraf swiftly sided with the United States against his former allies in Kabul. "The Pakistanis are not any longer sending their own troops [to help the Taliban], because they are under pressure from the US," Zadran said. Instead, he said, Pakistani intelligence agents who remain sympathetic to the Taliban are helping Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar "to destabilize Afghanistan. These people have offices in Pakistan." Zadran said the Afghan government is "100 percent sure" that Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist mastermind, fled the Tora Bora onslaught last December into the tribal areas of northwest Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir, and that Pakistani officials have done little to try to track him down - allegations the Pakistanis deny. Mullah Omar is hiding in southwestern Afghanistan, according to Afghan intelligence reports, Zadran said. The frontiers minister, who is responsible for maintaining security along the porous 1,500-mile border with Pakistan, insisted that there are no forces from Al Al-Qaeda left in the Shah- e-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan after a US campaign to roust them from mountain caves, because "every one of these people - including Arabs from Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi - have either been killed or withdrawn to Pakistan." He said the Al-Qaeda forces are active in the semiautonomous and loosely policed tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, and warned that "after 30 days, some Al Al-Qaeda members may pop up somewhere else.... Al Al-Qaeda is not 100 percent eliminated and they could still destroy the democratic system in Afghanistan or the world." Zadran said that because of the proximity to Pakistan of Khost, the lawless Afghan border city that was the site of the most recent attack on a US special forces base by suspected Al-Qaeda members last week, "those Al-Qaeda can spend two hours in Pakistan, one hour in Khost." Both foreigners and Afghans, he said, "are being paid to fight in Afghanistan, though they live in Pakistan." Zadran said his border guards intercepted a convoy of six trucks several weeks ago that were carrying medicines and essential supplies to Al-Qaeda forces from Peshawar, Pakistan, to Sarana, in the bordering province of Paktia - proof, he asserted, that some elements in Pakistan are helping the enemy forces. Musharraf has taken public steps since Sept 11 to crack down on Islamic extremists and to shut down the cells of his intelligence agencies that previously aided the Taliban. But sources in the Pakistani armed forces acknowledge that some elements of the ISI remain sympathetic to the Taliban and believe that the government that replaced it is the least friendly to Islamabad in years - and they are quietly mobilizing to undermine it. Because of its volatile relationship with India to the east, Pakistan has long believed it needs an unquestioned ally to the west. The senior Afghan intelligence officer said his agency has evidence that "Taliban and Al Al-Qaeda have left Paktia and are preparing themselves in remote areas of Pakistan" for a comeback. Ten days ago, he said, 100 Al-Qaeda troops crossed from Pakistan into Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, to accompany senior Taliban commander Jalahuddin Haqqani through mountain ranges about 500 kilometers northeast to Chamkani, a town in Paktia province hard on the border with Pakistan's Northwest Frontier province. "All the funding came from Pakistani fundamentalists who are funneling money to Al Al-Qaeda since their bank accounts have not been frozen," unlike bin Laden's. "ISI provided security and intelligence for them so they could pass through the area safely," the senior official asserted. |
Looks like serious pressure on the Afghan-Paki border zone is in order. And why haven't those terrorist-supporting bank accounts been put in the deep-freeze?
What with ominous rumblings of violence in Kashmir, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is now caught in a terrible vise between the unfriendly warlords in Kabul on its West flank and the Indian enemy in Kashmir on Pakistan's Eastern salient.
Something's going to blow before too much longer.
So long as one Alqaida member is free to plot against the world, the world is in danger of total destruction. Okay, we'll keep that in mind. BTW, if there is only one member of Alqaida left, is it still Al Alqaida?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.