Taliban gain popular support: Pakistani official

Peshawar, Pakistan, Feb 17: The Taliban are feeding off resentment in Afghanistan's biggest ethnic group and their insurgency is developing into a war of liberation against US-led NATO troops, a senior Pakistani official said.

International forces have failed to make headway against al Qaeda or the Taliban and eventually negotiations will have to take place, said Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, governor of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

Fighting in Afghanistan over the past year has been the worst since the hardline Islamist Taliban were toppled by US-led forces in 2001, and a surge in violence is expected this spring.

''It is developing into some sort of a nationalist movement, a resistance movement, a sort of liberation war against coalition forces,'' Orakzai said today.

Pakistan is an important US ally but US officials have been voicing frustration over Taliban sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the porous border.

Orakzai, one of Pakistan's most influential officials, said the Taliban might be getting help from Pakistani supporters.

However, it was anger over indiscriminate bombing and a perceived lack of representation and development among Afghanistan's Pashtuns that was fuelling the war.

''With the passage of time their strength has been swelling and today they've reached the stage that a lot of the local population have started supporting the militant operations,'' Orakzai told a news conference in his official residence in the provincial capital, Peshawar.

Orakzai was the architect of a controversial peace deal in Pakistan's North Waziristan border region in September aimed at ending fighting between pro-Taliban militants and Pakistani forces, and cross-border raids into Afghanistan.

US commanders in Afghanistan say attacks in Afghan areas adjacent to North Waziristan have increased several fold since the deal was struck. Orakzai rejected that.

''To say that everything has accumulated in the last three months since the signing of the agreement is, I think, not a fair statement. The problem lies in Afghanistan and that is where we need to look.'' POLITICAL PROCESS Orakzai, a retired lieutenant-general, commanded Pakistani forces in North West Frontier and its semi-autonomous tribal belt from just after September 11, 2001 until March 2004 and is a trusted aide to President Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf appointed him governor of North West Frontier last year.

Orakzai said al Qaeda was a global ideology and partners in the war on terrorism had failed to offer an alternative to it.

It would not be defeated through force, he said.

Similarly, the 45,000 US-led foreign troops in Afghanistan had failed to make headway against a resurgent Taliban.

''Even after five years of operations what has been achieved? Osama bin Laden is still there, al Qaeda is still there, in fact it is spreading.

''The Taliban are there, they are gaining more strength ...

there is massive corruption, the writ of the government has not been extended.'' Eventually, he said, negotiations would have to take place.

''Military operations cannot be continued until infinity.'' ''A stage has to come where the military operations have to stop and the political process has to take on from there.

''Eventually all issues have to be resolved through dialogue, on the negotiating table.''

Reuters

Related Stories