Sunday, Dec 05, 2004
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By Declan Walsh
QUETTA/KANDAHAR, DEC. 4. The U.S.-led hunt for the Taliban continues relentlessly in Afghanistan. Three years after invading, 18,000 soldiers wield a battery of hi-tech weapons; stealth aircraft crowd the skies; satellites spin overhead; and special forces creep across remote mountains in a billion-dollar mission. Yet, finding the militants is a far easier task in neighbouring Pakistan: you just stroll down to the shops. A wide variety of militant merchandise is on sale along Kusi Street in Quetta, 100 km south of the mountainous Afghan border. Posters of Osama bin Laden brandishing a Kalashnikov hang from doors. Stickers of Taliban clerics are plastered on the walls. The Taliban Speeches Centre sells a range of cassettes for about $0.50 each. Crackly recordings contain speeches and poems calling young men to join the jihad or mourning its martyrs. Gory covers match the themes — crossed swords dripping with infidel blood, battlewagons loaded with black-turbaned fighters, and images of bearded militants now detained in Guantanamo Bay. The men sitting cross-legged behind the counter describe themselves as staunch Taliban supporters. ``We will not go home until there is an Islamic Government in Afghanistan,'' says the shop owner, Muhammad Gul. Others go much further. ``I am a mujahid and I will fight to the end of my life,'' quietly declares Yar Muhammad, a 22-year-old Taliban who says he has just completed guerrilla operations in Afghanistan.
The militant's life
Moving to the privacy of a car, he describes the militant's life — being trained to fire rockets and plant roadside bombs; conducting night-time attacks against Americans; then flitting across the leaky border under the nose of three armies. ``We change our clothes and take off the turban to disguise ourselves. Some Taliban even shave.'' Now, Muhammad has come to Quetta to fire his fundamentalist fury in one of the city's many madrasas, or Islamic schools. Later, he will return to continue the battle. ``We are fighting for the will of God,'' he says solemnly. The Taliban's failure to disrupt Afghanistan's election on October 9, which was won by the President, Hamid Karzai, sparked a flurry of predictions that the Islamists' demise was near. The U.S. military suggested their troops were demoralised and their leaders divided. Reports of impending defections to the Government side appeared in the press.
Tempo of violence
But now, the tempo of violence is quickening again. In the past week, two U.S. soldiers and four Afghans, three of them aid workers, have died in attacks. Meanwhile, thousands of American soldiers are preparing raids on the Taliban's winter sanctuaries. They hope to stave off the Taliban's spring offensive which could endanger parliamentary elections scheduled for April. The Taliban is once again proving a slippery foe, partly thanks to its easy refuge in Pakistan. As cities like Quetta offer a new home to the Taliban, officials at the old bases in Afghanistan are infuriated by the apparent ease with which they slip across the border. The police chief in Kandahar, the former Taliban homeland 130 km north of Quetta, says Pakistani support is stalling efforts to crush the rebellion. ``Look, the top 10 Taliban leaders are still living in Pakistan. How is that possible without assistance?'' Mullah Naquib, a hardline religious leader and former Taliban commander in Kandahar, echoes the accusation. ``That Pakistan supports the Taliban is obvious. We do not trust their promises.'' Pakistan vehemently denies the charges. The President, Pervez Musharraf, dropped his support for the Taliban in 2001, realigning his Government with the U.S. Since then Mr. Musharraf has stood behind the new Afghan Government and sent thousands of soldiers to the border in search of the Al-Qaeda militants and sympathetic locals.
Impossible task
Nevertheless, his officials argue that securing the long border is a near impossible task. Balochistan province, of which Quetta is capital, has just 6 million inhabitants but covers 44 per cent of the country. ``The terrain is very favourable to the insurgents,'' says Shoukat Haider Changezi, director general of the Levies, a rural police force. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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