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| Afghanistan |
| Afghans fed up with Pakistani tolerance for Taliban |
| 2006-02-14 |
| Afghan President Hamid Karzai will call on neighboring Pakistan to tackle the Taliban with the same vigor it has shown in dealing with al Qaeda when he visits Pakistan this week, officials said. Allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been testy for much of the time since Pakistan's independence in 1947. Pakistan officially dropped support for the Taliban after the September 11 attacks and has since arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members, including top lieutenants of Osama bin Laden. But the Taliban, most of them ethnic Pashtun, often with tribal links on both sides of the porous border, are being allowed to operate from Pakistan, says an increasingly exasperated Afghanistan. "Mr Karzai will explain that the people of Afghanistan want an end to terrorism and there has been no decisive campaign (by Pakistan) about it," said Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, an Afghan presidential adviser on foreign affairs. "One of the requests will be for Pakistan to act with the same vigor in arresting Taliban as it has been doing with clamping down on al Qaeda," Spanta told Reuters. A wave of 15 suicide bombings since November, most claimed by the Taliban, has fueled accusations Pakistan is not doing enough to stop militants from attacking from the safety of its soil. "Diplomacy is stretched here," said an aide to Karzai who declined to be identified. Afghanistan wanted action: "honest, sincere and intensive cooperation" in tackling the Taliban. Pakistan denies helping Afghan insurgents but says some Taliban might be able to slip back and forth over the border. But Pakistani political analysts say it is constrained by internal and external considerations when it comes to getting tough with the Taliban. Pakistan has a large Pashtun minority, many of whom have risen through the ranks of the army, and partly as a result, Pakistan sees Pashtuns, Afghanistan's largest ethnic group, as natural allies. Afghanistan's Tajik factions, which rose to power after the Taliban were ousted, are seen as close to Pakistan's rival, India. So Pakistan risks alienating both Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns with a crack down in a conservative, anti-American region where many sympathize with the Taliban, analysts say. There are also domestic compulsions for not getting tough with the Taliban, said Pakistani analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi. Pakistan's volatile North West Frontier Province on the Afghan border is ruled by an alliance of Islamist parties, some of which openly back the Taliban, which would be enraged by drastic action against the Afghan Islamists. "It would strain the government's relations with the MMA and it doesn't want to do so at the moment," Rizvi said, referring to the alliance ruling North West Frontier. Pakistan's core foreign policy issue -- its decades old rivalry with India -- also hangs over its Afghan relations. Afghanistan's trade, aid and diplomatic relations with India are flowering, much to the suspicion of Pakistan which recently accused India and Afghan drug lords of meddling in an insurgency in Baluchistan province, in Pakistan's southwest. Karzai is due to arrive in Pakistan on Wednesday and will meet President Pervez Musharraf during his three-day stay. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 Is the Taliban's form of islam the real deal? Or are they just as "apostate" as the Shia? Someone need to drop that bug in someone ear. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-02-14 15:11 |
| #5 Soooo... Pakistan's between a rock and a hard place, since it was founded (IIRC) as "India, but Muslim and not Hindu" and thus needs to hold to at least a modicum of Islam for raison d'etat, demographics and politics? |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2006-02-14 11:18 |
| #4 Heh heh!! Never spotted that - Great Uncle Bulgaria - they sure have muslims in Bulgaria, AAA. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-02-14 07:04 |
| #3 MMA Terror Cell Operating Out Of Wimbledon Common... |
| Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar 2006-02-14 06:45 |
| #2 The MMA is a big backer of the Taliban too. Pakistan's government and army needs to crack down on it and the Taliban. Someone else will take them on if Pakistan doesn't. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2006-02-14 05:49 |
| #1 Afghan President Hamid Karzai will call on neighboring Pakistan to tackle the Taliban with the same vigor it has shown in dealing with al Qaeda when he visits Pakistan this week, officials said. Karzai have been talkin to Algore? |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-02-14 01:56 |