PESHAWAR, Oct 23: Reluctance by Washington to give financial and military support to anti-Taliban commanders from the Pushtun belt of eastern and southern Afghanistan has put a big question mark over attempts to dislodge the Taliban before the advent of Ramadan next month, Afghan and Pakistani sources said.

Background interviews with top anti-Taliban commanders in Peshawar revealed growing sense of frustration over reluctance by the United States to bankroll the toppling of Taliban.

A notable Afghan commander, who said he had met US congressmen and officials from Pentagon in Rome very recently, who had promised to give financial and military assistance to dislodge the Taliban.

The follow-up meetings and promises by American diplomats and officials also did not yield any results. “We are waiting for help. No such thing, however, is forthcoming,” Haji Muhammad Zaman, a former mujahideen commander from Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangrahar said. He said that he was tired of the promises and could not wait any longer. “This is the time for action.”

The commander said that he had now decided to act on his own and had begun sending people to Nangrahar to talk to the tribal chiefs and coordinate efforts to remove the Taliban.

The Taliban on Monday said they had arrested fifty people in Jalalabad on suspicion of working for Haji Zaman. The commander, now based in Peshawar, denied knowledge of these arrests.

Another former mujahideen commander, who is being tipped for a top slot in future dispensation under the former king made similar complaints. He said that the Americans had promised assistance to dislodge the Taliban but that no such thing had been given to him. “I have not received any assistance. The Americans have got to help the Afghan people this time. They left Afghanistan in a total mess in 1992 and walked away,” Commander Abdul Haq said.

Extremely frustrated with the situation, Abdul Haq has now decided to go his own way. He dispatched a hundred and twenty people to Nangrahar on Monday, though some Afghans continue to be skeptical of the way the whole military operation against the Taliban is being handled.

“It has to be very well organised. You have to have enough men to challenge the Taliban and the thousands of Arabs and other foreign radicals,” one Afghan commander said. “We have had several meetings with them (Americans). We are now tired of all this,” one Afghan leader said.

“We tell them, you do not have to send bombs, planes and Special Forces, just give us the weapons and we will get rid of the Taliban,” an Afghan commander said.