PESHAWAR, Oct 7: A Mujahideen leader said on Sunday the United States should hold off attacking Afghanistan to give them time to push out the ruling Taliban.
Washington should refrain from hitting the Taliban for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden, key suspect in the suicide plane strikes on New York and Washington, because it would harm the Afghan people and make it more difficult to remove the Taliban, Pir Sayed Ahmad Gailani said.
“ Basically we are against any kind of war, or military action,” said Gailani, a prominent Mujahideen leader who fought the Soviets. “They should refrain from making the people of Afghanistan the victims of this war.”
Gailani said efforts were being made for a consensus among Mujahideen groups on what steps to take against the Taliban — who seized power in 1996 from Mujahideen groups — as well as putting some framework in place for a post-Taliban Afghanistan.
“ The people of Afghanistan, the nation of Afghanistan, the heroic Mujahideen, they should do the job,” Gailani told reporters when asked how the Taliban should be removed. He did not elaborate.
Gailani, also a religious leader, had popular support in the eastern provinces of Afghanistan during the war but did not receive military aid from Pakistan and the United States because he advocated the return of the former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, who Gailani is related to by marriage.
Gailani now leads the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, a pro-royal group that he said wanted some role for the king and sought to end differences between Mujahdeen groups who have fought each other in the past.
“ We deeply respect his majesty, the former king of Afghanistan, (but) the prevailing situation is beyond the capacity of an individual or a group,” he said of the king, who has lived in Rome since being overthrown in 1973.
COMMON FRONT: Gailani, who was to meet other Mujahideen groups on Sunday, said they were committed to creating a common front.
“The majority of the Mujahideen groups are sitting in this room, so we have learned from the past,” he said. “None of us should take advantage of this crisis to turn it to one’s own benefit.”
Mujahideen groups have spoken out more strongly against the Taliban since the attacks on the United States nearly a month ago prompted President Pervez Musharraf to throw his support behind the US.
“We are confident that Pakistan and the government of Pakistan will play a major role in facilitating this process that is under way,” Gailani said.
He repeated calls for a Loya Jirga to help decide war-ravaged Afghanistan’s future.
“ We have always advocated the convening of a Loya Jirga, but a Loya Jirga which represents the people of Afghanistan,” he added.—Reuters