• 05 May 09
  

  unnikrishna kurup
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    Afghan Talib
  • he man in front of me is Zabiullah Mujahid -- one of two spokesmen for the Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Oma
  • He is around 30, maybe a little younger, bearded, but not heavily so. He is slight but not weak and close to my height -- a little over six foot -- and meeting him is a big deal.

  • He tells me the policy is clear. "We ask from the beginning and we say once again one to enforce the Sharia law and Islamic government in Afghanistan, and to remove foreign forces remove from our country."

    He tells me presidential elections expected this year are a sham, that the Taliban are telling Afghans to stay away and he warns: "We will target the Afghan parliamentary members and government officials so if there is elections, yes it is clear we will target them."
  • A couple of sources on the Afghan conflict have been keeping me informed of back channel talks aimed at bringing peace and splitting the Taliban from al Qaeda. In September last year the first face-to-face meeting between Afghan officials and Taliban representatives got under way in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
  • My sources had told me Mullah Omar had let it be known the Taliban recognized they will not win the war by military means alone.
  • Mujahid affirmed that is the Taliban's position. "We believe by both ... by negotiation and also by war ... we ask them to leave the country we are ready to talk ... so they are not ready to leave so they want to talk by the mouth of the gun we will talk by the mouth of the gun."

  • I was told, was to tell their fighters to avoid civilian casualties.

    When I asked Mujahid he told me that policy hadn't changed. In their newly announced battle plans to target Afghan officials as well as U.S. and NATO troops he told me "we ask of the civilians don't be close to the troops; be away from them; not to be targeted."

    I ask what are the conditions for going into talks? "Our conditions are clear, we want to negotiate and they [the U.S.] will not interfere in our affairs, secondly they [the U.S.] will leave the country, third let the Afghan people to do what they want to do, like form the Islamic government they want to establish."
  • I ask Mujahid about their links. "We are not under the command of al Qaeda: some people are coming to fight and we say welcome." On the issue of who is in charge he is emphatic: "We are from the country [Afghanistan] we are the boss, we not have any link with them they not have any link with us."
  • The only reason they didn't turn him over was out of fearsome ethnic tribal loyalty known as Pashtunwali. Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are at opposite ends of the ultra-conservative corner of Islam they occupy. Not natural bedfellows.

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