Reports in the American press, based on the claims of so-called Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif, that Mullah Omar is hiding in Quetta refuse to go away. Another one appeared in the Christian Science Monitor on Friday, filed by its correspondent David Montero from Islamabad, who claimed that the naming of Quetta as the refuge of the former head of the Taliban regime was creating an “international uproar”. Hanif has said that the Taliban leader is under ISI protection. Abul Haq Haqiq, also known as Dr Mohammad Hanif, made the statements in a videotaped interrogation released by Afghan intelligence on Wednesday, following his alleged arrest while crossing from Pakistan into the Afghan province of Nangarhar.
The Monitor report noted that Hanif’s claims were the latest in a “stream of international criticism of Pakistan”. Afghanistan officials, including President Karzai, have accused Pakistan of harbouring Omar, and news of his whereabouts was amplifying questions about Pakistan’s commitment to the war on terror, the report quoted unnamed analysts as saying.
Hanif also told his Afghan interrogators that the Taliban, with help from the ISI, were responsible for more than 100 suicide attacks that killed 270 civilians and 17 international soldiers. The Monitor quoted Prof Rasul Bahksh Rais from Lahore as saying, “It’s extremely important news. When we add all these accusations together, they pose a real problem for Pakistan’s credibility, that it is playing a double game.”
Hanif told the Monitor in mid-December that Omar remained a central pillar in Taliban operations. He was not always present at meetings of the upper leadership, but all decisions were conveyed to him for approval, claimed Hanif. “Without Mullah Omar, we would not be able to reorganise and have this intensity of our attacks.” He was speaking by telephone last December from an undisclosed location. The newspaper said, “If true, Hanif’s taped confession would constitute the highest level official statement from the Taliban that Omar is in Quetta. It would also verify that the operational centre of the movement is in Pakistan. Many have long claimed this, chief among them Karzai, who last February delivered a series of dossiers to Islamabad detailing the addresses of Taliban leaders in Quetta.
Pakistan rejected the validity of those files, just as they immediately rejected Hanif’s claims, calling it another salvo in Afghanistan’s escalating blame game. ‘This is the most absurd statement that can come out,’ said Maj Gen Shaukut Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistani military. ‘Pakistan is fully committed to fighting terrorism.’ Hanif’s accusations against Afghan intelligence officials may have been coerced, some observers say.”
The Monitor report noted that Hanif’s new claim contradicted what he had said earlier to the newspaper. “Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan and all (Taliban) leaders too. There is no Taliban in Quetta,” he said at the time. In his conversation with the American newspaper last month, Hanif dismissed reports that Pakistan was providing aid to the Taliban. “Pakistan is not helping. Basically the Afghan people help, themselves,” he said. However, he contradicted himself again in Thursday’s taped interrogation, claiming that a former ISI chief, Gen Hamid Gul, was providing financial and logistical support to the Taliban. Hamid Gul has dismissed the charge as “nonsense.”