Afghan envoy claims Pak army, ISI backing Taliban

Afghanistan Ambassador to India Masood Khalili has accused the Pakistan army and the Inter-Services Intelligence of actively helping the Taliban militia dislodge Uzbek leader General Abdul Rashid Dostum from Mazar-e-Sharif.

Khalili also claimed the combine led by former Afghan defence minister Ahmad Shah Masoud and General Abdul Malik had captured many strategic areas in the north, threatening Taliban rule in Kabul.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi on the security situation in Afghanistan, Khalili said hundreds of Pakistan defence personnel had joined the Taliban forces to take control of a number of provinces of Afghanistan, which were under Dostam's control. He said some Bangladeshi recruits were helping the Taliban fight anti-fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan.

Khalili said the Masoud-Malik alliance had captured senior officials of the Taliban militia, including Mullah Ghouse, Mullah Ihsanullah and Mullah Mutaqi, information minister of the Taliban government.

The ambassador said the alliance troops were in full control of three important passes -- Jabal Siraj, Salang and Gulbahar -- thus trapping thousands of Taliban fighters.

Masoud's troops, he said, had reached near the Bagram air base, about 48 kilometres from Kabul. Taliban soldiers, he added, were facing revolts in Herat, Jojan, Blagh and Qundez provinces, adding that soon the Taliban would lose control of Kabul.

Describing the Taliban forces as ''super fundamentalist,'' he claimed they made the lives of common people miserable. The Taliban, he said, was especially severe on women, not letting them move out of their houses.

Khalili claimed the Pakistan ambassador to Afghanistan, who was present at the takeover of Mazar-e-Sharif by the Taliban, had disappeared after the revolt by the local people against the fundamentalist regime. He is reported to have fled, but all important Taliban leaders including "governor" Mullah Ihsanullah were arrested, he said.

He criticised those countries which had given recognition to the Taliban regime, claiming it posed a serious threat to the security of the region.

Khalili felt the Afghan problem could not be resolved militarily, but could through negotiations. He favoured holding of a Lohya Jirga (grand assembly) to find ways of ending the conflict in his country where several million people have died since the Soviet occupation.

The ambassador lauded as "genuine" the Indian policy of not recognising the Taliban, but maintaining diplomatic ties with the Burhanuddin Rabbani government. He also denied that Rabbani had fled to Iran.

''He is very much in Afghanistan and actively mobilising people to oust the Taliban regime,'' the ambassador said, adding, ''There is no question of any compromise with the Taliban.''