Hudhaifa
04-11-03, 21:55
'Quetta is the new Taliban HQ'
web.mid-day.com
November 2, 2003
The Pakistani province of Quetta has become the new headquarters of the Taliban, with militia leaders living openly in the province, raising money and preparing for attacks on security forces in Afghanistan, according to a US daily.
“Thousands of Taliban fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support of a provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. Taliban leaders wanted by the US and Kabul governments are living openly in nearby villages,” the Washington Post said quoting a recent report in Pakistani media.
The report by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid quoted the provincial government’s information minister as saying, “Only the Taliban can constitute the real government of Afghanistan.”
The Taliban leaders and their followers are not ensconced in remote caves or dispersed across trackless badlands but operate openly in a major city, where they effectively control several neighbourhoods, the paper said.
Local politicians deliver vehicles and raise money on their behalf. When they travel to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, they cross not in ones or twos but by the score, in buses that are waved through by Pakistani border guards, it said.
Noting that Quetta may be described as the new headquarters of the Taliban movement, the Post pointed out that its correspondent John Lancaster met a Taliban recruiter who described how he travelled with 14 other Pakistanis across the border into Afghanistan last summer to wage war against US and Afghan forces.
“It is no problem at all to cross back and forth,” the recruiter said. “All this is happening in a country whose government claims to be an ally of the United States,” he continued.
http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=38453
web.mid-day.com
November 2, 2003
The Pakistani province of Quetta has become the new headquarters of the Taliban, with militia leaders living openly in the province, raising money and preparing for attacks on security forces in Afghanistan, according to a US daily.
“Thousands of Taliban fighters reside in mosques and madrassas with the full support of a provincial ruling party and militant Pakistani groups. Taliban leaders wanted by the US and Kabul governments are living openly in nearby villages,” the Washington Post said quoting a recent report in Pakistani media.
The report by Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid quoted the provincial government’s information minister as saying, “Only the Taliban can constitute the real government of Afghanistan.”
The Taliban leaders and their followers are not ensconced in remote caves or dispersed across trackless badlands but operate openly in a major city, where they effectively control several neighbourhoods, the paper said.
Local politicians deliver vehicles and raise money on their behalf. When they travel to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, they cross not in ones or twos but by the score, in buses that are waved through by Pakistani border guards, it said.
Noting that Quetta may be described as the new headquarters of the Taliban movement, the Post pointed out that its correspondent John Lancaster met a Taliban recruiter who described how he travelled with 14 other Pakistanis across the border into Afghanistan last summer to wage war against US and Afghan forces.
“It is no problem at all to cross back and forth,” the recruiter said. “All this is happening in a country whose government claims to be an ally of the United States,” he continued.
http://www.afgha.com/?af=article&sid=38453