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Taliban’s mood swings against talks
Syed Saleem Shahzad
Mullah Akhtar Mansoor,
a former minister of civil aviation in the Taliban
regime, is likely to take over as supreme commander of
the Taliban in Afghanistan following the recent arrest
of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Karachi.
Taliban sources tell
Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity that
the appointment will be largely symbolic and primarily
for coordination purposes as Taliban leader Mullah
Omar, following difficulties in recent years, has
decentralised the Taliban's command structure. The
idea is to give commanders in the field greater
flexibility and allow for the possibility that should
even Mullah Omar be seized or killed, the resistance
would continue to function.
Mansoor, about 50
years old, hails from Kandahar in southern Afghanistan
and at six feet tall (1.82 meters) he cuts a striking
figure with a full beard. Initially he comes across as
tough-talking, later one realises this is simply him
being frank, and like any Pashtun he enjoys a good
gossip.
Mansoor kept a
relatively low profile in the Taliban, although when
Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked en route from
Kathmandu to Delhi in December 1999 and forced to land
in Kandahar he was pushed into the limelight, playing
a key role in the negotiations which led to several
Pakistani militants held by India being freed in
exchange for the release of the hostages on the plane.
After the defeat of
the Taliban in 2001, Mansoor ended up in Karachi,
where he spent several years before the Taliban
regrouped and he started some activities in
Afghanistan.
"Mansoor's appointment
is very likely, but so far there has been no confirmed
decision," a mid-ranking Taliban official told Asia
Times Online. "However, the position of supreme
commander is now ceremonial and for the purposes of
coordination. In the new setup, military operations
have been completely decentralised and are in the
hands of local commanders who have been given broad
policies. It is up to them to sort out their own
tactics," the Talib said.
"For this reason,
Mullah Baradar's arrest did not have much effect on
military operations, including at Marjah [the ongoing
major offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province] where the Taliban continue to provide tough resistance to the
occupation forces. And whoever is appointed [supreme
commander], it won't make much difference on military
operations."
The Taliban official
claimed that after some bitter experiences, such as
when Mullah Abdul Razzaq, a former Taliban interior
minister, engaged in dialogue with the US on his own,
and some differences over operational matters between
the slain Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Omar, Mullah Omar
set up a broad-based command council. All those
fighting under the flag of the Taliban were given
representation on this council, even if they were not
too close to Mullah Omar, with the idea being that
nobody would be indispensable to the resistance.
In this manner, former
mujahideen commander Sirajuddin Haqqani - something of
an outsider to the Taliban - became a member of the
council, as did Maulvi Abdul Kabeer. Kabeer was a
governor of Nangarhar province during the Taliban
regime but his allegiance to the movement was often
questioned. He was arrested in Nowshera at the
weekend.
The strange case of
Mullah Baradar
At least five
important people associated with the Taliban movement
were sitting in a room with this correspondent when
the conversation turned to Mullah Baradar's arrest and
why the Pakistan military turned him over to the
Americans. A week after news of his arrest became
public, the Taliban are still pondering why such a
senior person was given to the US Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).
One view was that the
CIA would have traced Mullah Baradar anyway, so
Pakistan pre-empted this and won some praise from the
US in the process.
Another thought was
that the arrest of Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir
Muhammad, two shadow Taliban governors in northern
Afghanistan, in Faisalabad on January 26, led to them
tipping off the authorities over the whereabouts of
Mullah Baradar.
"Under whatever
circumstances the Pakistan army turned over Mullah
Baradar to the Americans, whether under duress or
through greed, it has lost its credibility in the eyes
of the Taliban and now no dialogue is possible with
the Taliban," a source close to many top Taliban
leaders told Asia Times Online.
The administration of
US President Barack Obama, while surging ahead with
the military option, is also keen to start a
negotiation process with elements of the Taliban. The
Pakistan military, which is calling the shots in the
country's "war and terror" dealings with the US,
rather than the civilian government, sees itself as
playing a pivotal role in the dialogue process.
"Now, the Taliban
won't accept
Pakistan as a mediator in any
talks. The Taliban were softening towards talks, but
after Baradar's arrest the world will see a tough
stance from the Taliban," the source said.
Intelligence contacts
in Karachi tell Asia Times Online that Mullah
Baradar's arrest marks the first time that American
and Pakistani teams had mounted a joint raid without
calling in - or even informing - either the police or
rangers.
And previously,
Pakistan would first have taken any terror-related
figures into its custody for interrogation, and only
then would the person have been handed over to the US.
With Baradar, a joint interrogation team was set up at
the outset.
For the first time in
the nine years of the "war on terror", Pakistan, by
cooperating in operations and the interrogation
process, appears to have fully adopted the American
war in Afghanistan as its own battle. |
