| Pakistan is accused of supporting terrorists (especially those attacking India), and of creating the Taliban in the early 1990s. In response, Pakistan points out that since September 11, 2001, the war on terror has killed nearly 40,000 Pakistanis, and cost Pakistan nearly $70 billion. But that is not the whole story. As with the original Taliban back in the early 1990s, the main source of current Taliban gunmen are the Madrasses (religious schools) in the tribal areas of Pakistan and northern Pakistan in general. Radio intercepts, prisoner interrogations and captured documents indicate that up to 60 percent of the Taliban found in southern Afghanistan, especially in Helmand province, are Pakistanis, most of them from these religious schools. |