Asia Times: Musharraf and his Taliban 'pals'

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Musharraf and his Taliban 'pals'
By Kaushik Kapisthalam
Jul 19, 2005

The signs are unmistakable: America's "war on terror" is in jeopardy in Afghanistan, although the locus of the renewed Taliban-led efforts seems to be across the border in Pakistan.

Playing favorites
US and other Western government officials have always been lavish in their praise of Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf. Indeed, Musharraf's supposed about-turn on supporting the Taliban after the September 11 attacks is now accepted without question. Most Taliban emerged from madrassas (seminaries) in Pakistan. However, it has always been a reality that Musharraf has treated the Taliban differently than he did al-Qaeda. For instance, even though Pakistan has arrested and handed over to the US many senior al-Qaeda leaders, not a single senior Taliban commander has been handed over by Pakistan to either the US or the Afghan government.

It is an open secret in Pakistan that virtually the entire leadership of the Taliban military hierarchy lives and operates out of the city of Quetta, which is the capital of Pakistan's Balochistan province. Since the fall of the Taliban in Kabul in late 2001, Western and Pakistani reporters have been able to interview Taliban commanders and other leading figures well inside Pakistan, especially around Quetta. Despite the documented facts, the Pakistan government has always flatly denied the presence of Taliban commanders in Quetta, or elsewhere inside Pakistan for that matter.

Afghan anger
The Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai has for some time been angry at the role of Pakistan in the recent resurgence of the Taliban. In the run-up to the Afghan presidential elections last year, Karzai complained about Taliban bases inside Pakistan to US President George W Bush. In the days that followed, Bush reportedly had a quiet conversation with Musharraf, asking him to look into Taliban activity emanating from Quetta. The Taliban attacks ended almost immediately.

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GG19Ag03.html