Posted on 09/06/2003 5:57:12 PM PDT by blam
Almost two years after they were defeated, thousands join the Taliban's new jihad
(Filed: 07/09/2003)
Massoud Ansari travels with militia fighters around the Kandahar region of Afghanistan
They are known as the Sarbaz - those who care nothing for their own lives - and they represent one of the greatest threats to the government of Mohammed Karzai and the international forces seeking to bring stability to the shattered country of Afghanistan.
The Taliban, supposedly vanquished in December 2001 when American and Northern Alliance forces drove them from power, are reviving and fighting back across southern Afghanistan.
Siddiqullah is one of many hundreds - possibly thousands - of young men who have been recruited to the Taliban to join their guerrilla war against government and allied forces. At 24 and recently engaged, he has put his life on hold to wage a holy war on "infidel" forces occupying his country.
"My parents insisted that I wait for a while and get married, but I told them that my first and last commitment is jihad and I don't want to make any other commitment at this stage," he said.
Siddiqullah is involved in the increasing number of hit-and-run attacks against government and American troops, moving from village to village through the bleak mountains of this rugged region, sometimes spending days travelling on foot through the desert.
"Jihad is now ordained for all of us," said Siddiqullah, and it seems that many young men agree with him. Students from religious seminaries across the border in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan have joined the war within Afghanistan, and are ready to take part in suicide missions.
Members of the Taliban say that their renewed campaign follows a reorganisation carried out by three regional commanders earlier this year, on the orders of the movement's one-eyed spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar - who, along with Osama bin Laden, remains at large.
Responding to the call, Mullah Dadullah Kakar, a one-legged veteran of the war against the Russians, and Maulvi Sadiq Hameed travelled to the Madrassas, or religious schools, in Baluchistan, to recruit students.
The third Taliban commander, Hafiz Majeed, garnered support from the tribal chieftains and elders in southern Afghanistan.
Dadullah has fought the allies ever since the Taliban regime was driven from Kabul, Kandahar and Afghanistan's other main cities. As one of Mullah Omar's most trusted lieutenants, he escaped to Pakistan, where he was sheltered by Kakar tribesmen in Baluchistan.
"The tribesman not only gave him shelter but also bought him a Land Cruiser and gave him huge amounts of money," said a Taliban fighter. Later, when they realised that he might be arrested in Baluchistan, the tribesmen moved Dadullah to a house in part of Karachi - Pakistan's biggest city - which is dominated by affluent Pathan businessmen.
Subsequently Dadullah, accompanied by religious scholars from Afghanistan, visited dozens of religious schools in Pakistan's tribal areas to lecture students and deliver instructions on jihad from Mullah Omar.
While hundreds have already joined the fight, Taliban leaders claim that many more religious students from Pakistan are ready to go.
In the past 15 days alone, about 150 people - including Afghan troops, policemen and civilians - have been killed in southern Afghanistan. The most significant attack came when 400 Taliban militia reportedly captured one of the districts of Zabul province for a few hours, killing 29 government soldiers and even hoisting a Taliban flag. They used the loudspeakers of mosques to warn residents not to co-operate with United States forces or the government.
The Taliban are drawing on support from Pathans, who complain that they are under-represented in the government compared with the ethnic Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks who have taken many of the senior jobs in the police force, army and administration.
Meanwhile, many traders, already compelled to pay extortion money to Northern Alliance warlords, subsequently lost their businesses to the looters who roam Afghanistan's highways. Those who resisted were killed.
The scarcity of reconstruction work in Afghanistan's southern regions, where people lack healthcare, education or even wells for drinking water, has boosted the Taliban's recruitment drive. Mohammed Hasan, a villager in a remote valley near the Pakistan border, said: "We supported the coalition because we thought that they would change our life, but so far nothing has changed."
Many areas of the south still look as they did under Taliban rule: men wear black turbans, women cover themselves from head to toe, and there are no cinemas or television sets. With only 15,000 American troops in the whole of Afghanistan, it is impossible for them to keep an eye on every single movement.
Mohammed Amin, a 30-year-old leading a group of Taliban in the Pashmol district of Kandahar province, said hundreds of tribesmen were acting as the eyes and ears for the movement, supplying information on the movement of government forces. Some of the volunteers children were as young as 12.
Meanwhile, he boasted, Taliban fighters had managed to join the Afghan government army, where they acted as spies and saboteurs. "They either confide to us information about the plans movement of Afghan US troops, or they attack these troops and kill them."
Taliban fighters go to great lengths to avoid detection, moving in small groups of 20 or fewer, emerging from hideouts after dark to lie in wait for government patrols, or to launch ambushes on army outposts while troops sleep.
Most of the communication is through hand-written notes, although local commanders also use satellite telephones and radios.
Amin showed me a handwritten letter bearing the signature of Mullah Omar, urging his men to fight and free the people from the "slavery of the infidel US".
However, the Taliban fighters say they do not intend trying to regain control of the whole of Afghanistan in the near future. "We've the strength, guts and force to take even Kabul any time, but we know our limitations and we wouldn't be able to sustain that control," said 28-year-old Habibullah, a recent recruit to the militia from the refugee camps in Pakistan.
"We don't have the technology to withstand B-52 air strikes. What we are trying to do is inflict maximum damage to the US troops and their allies so that they get fed up and leave our country.
"We know that won't be soon but we also know that they will get fed up eventually. Look at what our long resistance did to the Russians."
This is not accurate. (I have seen the records.) The Council of Khalistan has not made any contributions to Dan Burton; Dr. Aulakh, who heads the Council, has. This is a small difference, perhaps, but a necessary distinction nonetheless.
And let's not forget that the Sikh separatist movement is what brought down Canadian Air flight 182 in 1985.
Not according to Canadian journalists Zuhair Kashmeri of the Toronto Globe and Mail and Brian McAndrew of the Toronto Star. Their book Soft Target shows pretty conclusively that the Indian government was involved in the attack on this plane. The NewsMax article you cited has an excellent paragraph on Soft Target and the evidence it adduces. The two authors covered the incident for their respective newspapers and they didn't think the official explanation passed the smaell test, so they did a good deal of investigation.
A Member of the Canadian Parliament, David Kilgour, later wrote a book called Betrayal: The Spy That Canada Forgot, which covers the exploits of a Canadian-Polish double agent. He was approached, according to Kilgour, by Hindu agents seeking his help for a second airplane bombing.
But while Indians try to figure out that they belong with England and America in the trend toward a modern, democratic and capitalist globalism, Pakistan is close to rejecting it permanently in favor of a uniqely Islamic future.
President Musharraf is our ally and about as secular as Pakistani leaders get. Unfortunately, not all of the government ministers and the military share this view. Instead of beating up on Pakistan, we should try to make certain that Musharraf's view prevails. Otherwise, all that you fear about Pakistan may well come true.
The west is willing to share the east with other religions. Perhaps Hindus are willing to share with the west.
They do not practice religious tolerance within their own borders. An American missionary, Joseph Cooper, was expelled from the country after Hindus beat him up so severely that he had to spend a week in an Indian hospital. Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two little sons were burned to death in their jeep by a mob of Hindu militants chantign "Victory to Hannuman." Christian churches ahve been burned. Nuns have been raped, priests have been attacked, schools have been destroyed by militant Hindus affiliated with the RSS. Police broke up a Christian religious festival with gunfire. Yet not only has no one been punished for these crimes, Prime Minister Vajpayee says that "I will always be a Swayamsewak." Meanwhile, a cabinet minister is quoted as saying that Pakistan should be absorbed into India and another leader says that everyone who lives in India must be a Hindu or be subservient to Hindus. And according to the Washington Times, India is supporting cross-border terrorism in Sindh.
I'd like to believe it too, but unfortunately the evidence shows otherwise. There have been tens of thousands of religious minorities killed by security forces. The massacres in Gujarat last year were planned by the government, according to The Hindu. Also, the police were ordered not to intervene, according to a policeman quoted in an Indian paper. This is eerily reminiscent of the Delhi massacres of Sikhs in 1984, when police were locked in their barracks.
The evidence is pretty strong. Even the Canadian Security Investigative Service believes that the Indian government was responsible.
The book Soft Target is pure slamic propaganda, written by a slammie who's only aim in life is to lie to the infidels and convert or kill 'em/
The book has two authors, both of whom were highly enough thought of to be working at a big-city newspaper. One, Zuhair Kashmeri, is probably Muslim. (So what?) The other is Brian McAndrew, a pretty well respected Canadian journalist an,din case you hven't noticed, an Anglo. Even if Kashmeri has an agenda, which I don't think is proven just by his Muslim-sounding name (and I think it's pure bigotry to say that it is), I'm sure McAndrew doesn't, at least not on this particular question.
The evidence that the book adduces is pretty strong. It is buttressed by Kilgour's book. I posted three paragraphs of evidence from the book in an earlier post. I suggest you read it before you put up any more of your bigoted dismissals.
I don't think he is. Elements of his government are, but he is doing about as much as he can for us without being overthrown. And there is an area along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border that is very hard to control.
It would be easier to control it with more troops in there. Right after our victory in Afghanistan, Musharraf had a lot of troops in there and they were actively helping in the effort. Then India moved a lot of troops to the Kashmir border. This had the desired effect of forcing Musharraf to divert some fo the troops from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region to Kashmir. That also may have allowed bin Laden to slip through when he couldn't have before (an outcome which would not disturb the Hindu Nazis.)Then India complained publicly that Musharraf wasn't really helping the anti-terror effort. What hypocrites!
Perhaps a radical Mullah or two can convince them that American guns and bullets have no power over them.
Because anti-Americanism trumps everything else.
Remember that bin Laden also says that the Saudis are his enemy, but the Saudis provide mucho funding to him and his family and his organization.
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