"Pak Taliban 'organizationally distinct' from Afghan group"

Washington, July 9 : A new US report prepared by the prestigious 'US Council on Foreign Relations' has claimed that that Taliban movement in Pakistan was "organizationally" distinct from the Afghan group.

According to the report, Pakistan's Taliban rose up in 2002 in response to the Pakistan Army's incursions into the tribal areas to hunt down militants.

The report quotes Kenneth Katzman, an Afghan expert at the US Congressional Research Service, as saying that intolerance for a sustained US troop presence was translating into "a little more permissiveness in some areas for the Taliban."

Katzman called it "a worrisome trend".

The report noted that despite the fall of senior leaders, the Taliban movement continues to "exert enormous influence on the populace," lobbying Afghans to take up their cause.

"One unintended consequence of knocking out senior Taliban leaders has been the rapid rise of inexperienced younger leaders, some of whom have been radicalised by Al Qaeda," the Dawn quoted Katzman as saying.

ANI