Another Taliban song and
dance By Syed Saleem Shahzad
"... The first contact between the US
and the Taliban in Quetta foundered over the issue of
[Taliban leader] Mullah Omar. However, within a few
weeks, the ISI [Pakistan Inter-Services Intelligence]
came up with another batch of Taliban ... of much
lower profile than the first group. They agreed to
establish a forum under the name of Jaishul Muslim,
and without Mullah Omar ... a last-ditch attempt by
the US to establish the semblance of a sufficiently
stable government so that they can pull their troops
out of the country, with at least some justification
that they have done their job." Tribes, traditions
and two tragedies, Asia Times
Online, September 12, 2003
CHAMAN,
near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border - Exactly a year
after the formation of the Jaishul Muslim in Peshawar,
Pakistan, to accommodate "moderate" or "good" Taliban,
and with just a month to go before presidential
elections in Afghanistan, the role of the grouping has
taken on added importance.
The Jaishul Muslim
was created to split the Taliban by turning some against
their leader Mullah Omar. The main purpose was to create
an organization that could control those warlords and
tribes siding with Mullah Omar by bringing them into the
Jaishul Muslim's fold, especially in southern and
southeastern Afghanistan.
The organization does not
have a direct role in politics at this stage, but the
idea is to win over sufficient Taliban commanders and
supporters in the Afghan resistance eventually to call
a truce with Hamid Karzai's Kabul government, which is
backed by the United States.
Karzai is the favorite to
win the October 9 presidential elections, but to do so
it is necessary that the Pashtun vote not be too diluted
by the Taliban, who are vigorously trying to prevent a
fair and open election from being staged. Once Karzai is
re-elected, and a semblance of order brought to the
country, with the crucial help of the Jaishul Muslim,
the US will be better placed to declare "victory" in
Afghanistan, an important issue for President George W
Bush in his own re-election bid in November.
Turning the Taliban The participation
of "good" Taliban in government was agreed in principle
by the US and Pakistan in mid-2003, leading to the first
contact with the Taliban, and finally the inception of
the Jaishul Muslim by Akber Agha in September of that
year. In one of his first pronouncements, he called for
jihad against the US, but crucially he criticized the
policies of Mullah Omar. A new face of the Taliban was
born.
After the disintegration of the Taliban in
the face of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late
2001, they have remained a constant thorn in the side of
the occupying forces, as well as Karzai's government,
evidenced by the continued successes of the Afghan
resistance.
Pakistan, with the US, has tried
throwing money at some Taliban to buy their loyalty,
with limited results. More recently, Pakistani
authorities have cracked down on Taliban sheltered in
the country. A number have been arrested, then released
once they have switched sides.
Nevertheless,
this initially had little effect, as the real strength of
the Afghan resistance and its stubborn leader Mullah
Omar is its loyal commanders in the field in
Afghanistan. But the resistance does have one glaring
weakness - the lack of a coordinated central command,
the result of relentless US surveillance that has forced
the Taliban to abandon the use of satellite telephones
for operational purposes and rely on messengers, which
is obviously slow and inefficient.
As a result,
the Jaishul Muslim, which is also called the Jamiat
Jaishal Muslimeen, has recently been able to target
individual commanders, notably in southern and
southeastern Afghanistan, such as Mullah Sabir.
Akber Agha no longer openly criticizes Mullah
Omar, although he does not give approval of his
leadership. Instead, he claims to be like any other
Taliban group, such as the Hezb-i-Islami led by
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and others, who are waging jihad
against the US to liberate Afghanistan from foreign
occupation.
Can the Jaishul Muslim, though,
justifiably regard itself as a real resistance movement
in Afghanistan, especially as it is backed by the US and
Pakistan, and with their money as well?
"The
Jaishul Muslim is active in Zabul and Hilmand. Its
founder Akber Agha was among the pioneers of the Taliban
movement, thus we cannot challenge his integrity and
loyalty to Mullah Omar," Maulana Yusuf, the
administrator of the famous Jamia-tul-Islamia Islamic
seminary in Chaman, told Asia Times Online. He is the
son of Maulana Abdul Ghani, whom Karzai recently blamed
for sending Taliban into Afghanistan to fight in the
resistance.
After some cross-questioning,
however, Yusuf, admitted that none of the old guard of
the Taliban movement (except Akber Agha) had joined the
Jaishul Muslim.
"Initially, Mullah Abdul Razzaq
[former Taliban central minister] joined, but recently
we have heard that he backed out," said Yusuf. Razzaq
was indeed the first US Federal Bureau of
Investigation-Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence
contact to launch a rebellion against Mullah Omar.
But Yusuf continued, "Mullah Abdul Razzaq is
nowhere to be seen. He is not active for the Taliban or
for Akber Agha, or anybody else. All we know is that he
has not been seen in Chaman." Razzaq is from Chaman and
joined the Taliban movement in Kandahar.
"He
does not have a son, so his parents insisted that he
marry again. At first he refused, but after a lot of
pressure he agreed. But the situation in Chanan became
difficult for the Taliban and he has not been seen by
anybody in Chaman, not even by his new bride," said
Yusuf.
Tough nut to crack There is no
doubt that the Taliban movement is difficult to break.
Even in the early fierce US bombardment of the country
there were few defections of note, apart from Mullah
Khaksar and Amir Jan, after which Mullah Omar made the
quick decision to retreat from Kabul, and later from
Kandahar.
After the fall of the Taliban,
Pakistan was desperate to re-establish connections in
Afghanistan that would be acceptable to the US. One
option included Hekmatayr's Hezb-i-Islami. Another was
former jihadi commander Nabi Mohammedi's son, who used
his ties among the lower cadre of the Taliban, many of
whom had returned to Pakistan homeless and penniless
after the collapse of the Taliban regime. (Most of the
Taliban hailed from the Harkat-i-Inqilab-i-Islami, led
by Nabi Mohammedi.)
They were vulnerable, and
many of them were organized into the Jamiat-i-Khudamul
Koran. At a press conference they announced their
disassociation from Mullah Omar and the Taliban
movement. However, the party never gained any momentum,
and soon fell into disarray, without any political gains
for Pakistan in Afghanistan. In fact, under the same
banner, a number of members joined the resistance
movement in Afghanistan.
The Jaishul Muslim is
now a year old and sits at a defining juncture. Either
it will hijack the Taliban resistance movement, or it
will itself be hijacked by Mullah Omar loyalists, just
like the Jamiat-i-Khudamul Koran before it.
Syed Saleem Shahzadis bureau chief,
Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be reached at
saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
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By Syed Saleem Shahzad 
