PESHAWAR, Oct 18: Peshawar-based former Afghan Jihadi commanders’ move to engineer removal of the Taliban by causing defections within the ruling militia and by winning over tribal elders in Afghanistan have apparently received a major setback owing to US airstrikes, according to Afghan sources.

The sources said that behind- the-scene moves and ‘deals’ with Afghan commanders from amongst the Taliban and tribal elders, initiated by some of Peshawar-based former commanders amidst the fast changing scenario in the wake of Sept 11 attacks on United States, were hampered by bombing of Afghanistan.

“I am afraid this ( airstrikes) will put the Taliban in a more stronger position as those who were ready to stop supporting the Taliban would become hardliners,” said a commander, Abdul Haq, the former chief security officer during the Rabbani government in Afghanistan in the 1990s and a key figure among those pursuing an agenda for the removal of Taliban.” I wish this should not have happened. We had a chance to bring about a change by removing the Taliban leadership,” he added.

Pir Gilani, the head of the Assembly of Peace and Unity, Afghanistan — a recently constituted alliance of Afghan groups trying to replace the Taliban — also shared the views voiced during a press conference in Peshawar recently.

Afghan commanders and intellectuals— busy engineering Taliban’s removal by causing simultaneous defections in several Afghan cities to ensure a total collapse of the regime —viewed the US attacks as a ‘booster’ for the ruling militia, the sources said.