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Moderates Poised as Pakistan Plans Coup to Unseat Taliban Leader
Monday, October 01, 2001
By Jonathan Steele / Tehran, Iran
&
Christopher Kremmer / Islamabad, Pakistan
The Guardian

In a sign of growing panic among their leaders in the face of likely US-led attacks, the Taliban recently made a secret plea to Iran for military aid.

The Guardian
Pakistan is trying to organise a coup in Afghanistan that will either kill or depose the Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and allow moderates to take control of the movement, according to highly placed sources in Iran.

The moderates would then be expected to join talks with the Northern Alliance on forming a coalition government for Afghanistan.

After years of civil war and the increasingly fanatical leadership of the reclusive Muslim cleric Mullah Omar, this would return the country to a milder form of Islam in place of the Taliban's fierce repression and the exclusion of women from work and girls from school.
(More: SMH.com.au News Source)
Copyright © 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald

Dan