WASHINGTON, Oct 28: A man described as a possible post-Taliban leader, Hamid Qarzai, was reported to be inside Afghanistan seeking to build dissent against the Taliban, media reports said Saturday.

Qarzai, identified as having favour among some Washington strategists to lead an alliance of southern Afghans against the Taliban, had been in Afghanistan more than a week and had not been heard from by his associates for some time, the New York Times and Washington Post reported.

A similar mission by exiled Afghan Abdul Haq, who was directly working with the exiled King Zahir Shah to negotiate a post-Taliban government, ended in bloody violence Friday when he was captured by the Taliban and executed. Abdul Haq, a legendary veteran commander of the mujahedin fight to oust the Soviets, bore no official backing by the US, but there were reports that the US military responded — albeit to late — to a satellite call from his supporters for help.

US military officials have not confirmed they responded to the call.

The missions by the two men are part of the growing intrigue over who will govern Afghanistan, assuming the US-led military mission in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks ousts the resilient Taliban regime and captures the Al-Qaeda terrorist network there.

The United States is backing the initiative by the King to bring together Afghanistan’s disparate ethnic groups — the Pashtuns in the south, to which Qarzai and Haq belong, and the Uzbeks and Tajiks, which make up a large part of the Northern Alliance rebel fighting troops.

The United States is trying to steer between demands from Pakistan, which lies to the south and is deeply distrustful of the Northern Alliance, and other groups. Over the course of the past week, traditional tribal and ethnic leaders have gathered in Peshawar with Washington’s reluctant approval, and another meeting that has more solid Washington backing was being slated for Turkey.

James Ritchie, a wealthy private American supporter of Abdul Haq who grew up in Kabul, told CNN broadcaster Saturday that he was the last one to talk to him.

Ritchie then informed James McFarlane, a former presidential national security advisor who has said he is involved because the United States abruptly left Afghanistan in the lurch after backing the mujahedin to oust the Soviets in 1989. The country spiralled downwards into years of war among rival factions, until the Taliban seized control.

McFarlane contacted the US military to summon help for Abdul Haq, reports said.

Abdul Haq “received no help from the United States government,” Ritchie told CNN. “I feel like we’ve left him hanging in the lurch on numerous occasions.”

The Taliban denounced Abdul Haq as a spy and traitor.

Abdul Haq had lost use of one leg while leading Islamic fighters when he stepped on a landmine during the anti-Soviet war. His wife and son were murdered in 1999 in Peshawar, possibly to serve warning.

There were various suggestions in the US media about how Abdul Haq was trapped, including the possibility he had been fooled by a Taliban commander pretending to be ready to change sides, and the possibility he was betrayed by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, which originally backed the Taliban.—dpa