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Friday, October 5, 2001
(13:32:54 MET)
By Kamran Khan / Jang Group of Newspapers

"We have to recognise that Pakistani tribal belt will provide a strategic depth to Taliban. They will get continuous support from an area which will be beyond the enemy's reach."

KARACHI, Pakistan -- Source
Mullah Omar-led Taliban militia and their supporters in Pakistan are working on a six-pronged strategy based on Pashtun nationalism and religious sentiments to build mass resistance against a United States-sponsored drive to replace the present Taliban set-up in Afghanistan with an internationally recognized moderate broad-based government.

Afghanistan watchers, both in and outside the government of Pakistan, have conceded that so far the results of the Taliban's efforts to mobilize Pashtun support on both sides of the Durand Line have been positive, meaning that an international push from Rome for a new pliable government in Kabul would most definitely meet stiff armed resistance from a major chunk of Afghan populace.

Identifying the six elements of Taliban strategy to gather maximum Pashtun support, official and independent Afghanistan analysts in their interviews with this correspondent said Mullah Omar and his aides are presently concentrating on:

(1) Bringing the former Pashtun mujahideen commanders to their fold
(2) Influencing the powerful Pashtun tribal leaders inside Afghanistan with offers for cushy government positions
(3) Use of sentimental issues to create dissension amongst Afghani Pashtuns who are prepared to help anti-Taliban forces
(4) To use Pashtun-dominated Pakistani tribal belt as a strategic reservoir
(5) To use Islamic sentiments in the hard-line Pakistani religious cadre to gain military strength in the impending military confrontation
(6) To gain favorable response from the Pashtun composition of Pakistani border forces

There is a general feeling amongst Afghanistan analysts that the Taliban leadership is now reacting to Pakistan's decision to extend an unstinting support to the international campaign against terrorism by devising a strategy that may put Islamabad under tremendous internal pressure.
(More: Afgha.com News Source)
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