November 12, 2001	Monday	Shaba’an 25, 1422

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

PESHAWAR, Nov 11: Anti-Taliban tribal leaders and former Jihadi commanders from the eastern Ningarhar province of Afghanistan would meet here on Tuesday.

The meeting would be held at the recently-opened office of Haji Zaman, a significant former Jihadi commander and a member of the former Eastern Shoora of Afghanistan.

Haji Zaman, who recently arrived in Pakistan from France, is holding the meeting to muster support to dislodge the Taliban from the vital eastern zone of the war-ravaged country by uniting tribal elders and former Jihadi commanders from Ningarhar.

“The meeting”, said Haji Zaman, “would discuss the situation in the wake of US attacks on Afghanistan and future possibilities.”

Soon after his arrival in Peshawar, he held a meeting of his supporters and like-minded tribal elders and Afghan commanders on Oct 18.

The meeting, however, failed to organize an anti-Taliban fighting force in the Ningarhar.

Perturbed by the Mazar-i-Sharif’s sudden fall to the non-Pakhtoon forces dominated by the Northern Alliance, and the Taliban’s retreat from certain other strategically important areas in the northern parts of Afghanistan, anti-Taliban leaders, tribal elders and commanders from the Pakhtoon-dominated areas of Afghanistan — presently based in Peshawar — are grouping together to activate their efforts before it is too late.

“We are happy that Taliban have been pushed back, but Northern Alliance should not take over Kabul as it would trigger a new war to be fought on ethnic grounds”, said Haji Zaman, while talking to Dawn.

He said the Pakhtoons of Afghanistan would never like Kabul to be taken over by non-Pakhtoons.

The Tuesday’s meeting of Afghan commanders and tribal elders would be the first of its kind following the death of Afghan commander Abdul Haq executed by the Taliban on Oct 26.

However, the anti-Taliban forces belonging to the eastern zone of Afghanistan appears to be in a dilemma. “How can we fight back Taliban from the eastern zone without having resources required to dislodge the militia”, said another Afghan commander.

Haji Zaman said they had been assured of financial support and all-out help to militarily dislodge the Taliban. “But we are still waiting for the money and weapons”, he added.