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| Afghanistan |
| Talib commander in talks on post-Talib government |
| 2001-10-21 |
A foreign ministry spokesman said that Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, commander of all Taliban forces on a crucial 1,000-mile stretch of Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, had been in Pakistan's capital as part of a search for a "broad-based government" to succeed the Taliban. The spokesman did not say how far the negotiations have proceeded, or the degree of support given to the initiative by Maulvi Haqqani, a veteran commander from the 1980's guerrilla war against Soviet forces and a hero in Afghanistan. The hard- line clerics of the Taliban named him to the top army post early in October. He previously was dismissive of opposition attempts to topple the Taliban government by luring high-level defectors. Yet, Maulvi Haqqani appeared to dash hopes that he could be the catalyst for the fall of the Taliban government with a newspaper interview published in Pakistan in which he spoke contemptuously of the very notion of a coalition government to take over from the Taliban. "No one from the Taliban will be part of such an unacceptable government, which will be filled with American, Russian and Indian stooges," he said in an interview with The News, which said the interview had been conducted from "an undisclosed location," apparently a house in Islamabad belonging to Pakistan's military intelligence agency. The Taliban commander, who was appointed to his job only this month, spoke of his loyalty to the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, who has been one of the principal targets of American military attacks, saying that other Taliban leaders would never abandon Mullah Omar "as long as he keeps serving Islam." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |