It does not take long to find the Taleban in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan.
The first place to look is in the Afghan refugee camps that were set up after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and provided many of the Taleban’s first recruits in 1994.
After a few hours of green tea and small talk in Panjpiri — 60 miles northwest of Quetta, the provincial capital — The Times was introduced to Hafiz Bismillah.
A madrassa teacher in his mid-30s with a black turban and long hair, he openly admitted that he had recently returned from fighting with the Taleban in Afghanistan.
“It is a part of our religious duty to participate in the jihad,” he said, sitting cross-legged on a mud floor. “We never had so many young people coming to join the war.” Local officials admit that there are thousands more like him in the camps in Baluchistan, which is home to about one million Afghans — mostly ethnic Pashtuns.
They say that the situation is not much different in Quetta, where Afghans now account for about 30 per cent of the population of 1.7 million, and outnumber Pakistanis in some neighourhoods.
Men wearing the Taleban’s signature black turbans walk around its bazaars and alleyways and regularly seek treatment in its hospitals, they say. Many have Pakistani passports.
“Some of the places are no-go areas,” said Agha Hasan of the Baluchistan National Movement, an influential opposition group.
Western intelligence officials have long known about this and believed that among the Afghans were Mullah Omar and other senior Taleban leaders, collectively known as the Quetta Shura.
Until recently, the United States and its allies were preoccupied with al-Qaeda figures who directly threatened the West — and they were mostly in northwestern Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Now, following a surge in US troop levels in southern Afghanistan, the US is putting unprecedented pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture the Quetta Shura.
Anne Patterson, the US Ambassador in Pakistan, and Gerald Feierstein, her deputy, have made unusual public statements in the past two weeks about the Taleban presence in Quetta. “We are confident that Mullah Omar is in Quetta,” Mr Feierstein said.
Pakistani officials say that the US has even threatened to extend CIA drone strikes — currently confined to the tribal areas — to Baluchistan.
Implicit in such threats is the allegation that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, which created the Afghan Taleban, has been sheltering its leaders, either out of sympathy or for a day when foreign forces leave Afghanistan.
The reaction has been predictably furious, especially since the army has lost dozens of soldiers fighting the Pakistani Taleban this year alone.
Some analysts even say that the issue could jeopardise a $7.5 billion (£4.7 billion) US aid Bill to Pakistan, and an imminent military campaign in the tribal region of South Waziristan.
Pakistani officials have denied that the Taleban leadership is based in Quetta, while admitting that individuals may sometimes visit in secret.
“It is not possible for entire Taleban leadership to operate from here,” General Salim Nawaz, the head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Baluchistan, said. “It’s a blatant lie.”
A senior ISI officer told The Times that the US had produced a list of a dozen Afghan Taleban leaders it says are in or around Quetta. He said six were dead, two were based in Afghanistan, and two visited Pakistan.
“We have been given no actionable intelligence,” said the ISI officer. He and other officials also warned that drone strikes on Baluchistan would cause more civilian casualties than in the tribal areas as the target areas were more densely populated.
They could also destabilise a region racked by a decades-long insurgency, and disrupt a Nato supply line running from Karachi to southern Afghanistan. “We will not tolerate drone attacks in our area,” warned Aslam Raisani, Baluchistan’s chief minister.
Pakistani officials do admit, however, that they have little control over some Afghan neighbourhoods in Quetta, such as Pashtunabad, Khrotabad and Kuchlak.
The main madrassa in Pashtunabad is run by Maulana Noor Mohammed, a hardline cleric whose students are mostly Afghans and have been growing ever more numerous.
The writ of the state is even weaker in border towns such as Chaman. About half of its population is Afghan. Officials estimate that madrassas there are now producing 3,000 graduates each year, most of them potential Taleban recruits.
Mullah Brather, a deputy to Mullah Omar, is often seen in the area, as are senior ministers in the ousted Taleban regime, including Mullah Salim, a deputy minister for the prevention of vice. Pakistani officials blame the refugee camps and have a simple — if crude — solution.
“We have long been telling the UN and Afghan Government to shift the camps to Afghan side,” said a senior Home Ministry official. “It is a security nightmare for us.” That, however, is not a viable option for Western countries, as it would violate human rights accords protecting refugees.
So the awkward reality is that the US and its allies have few alternatives but to rely on Pakistani authorities — and to gradually strengthen their capabilities.
“There is no silver bullet,” said one Western diplomat. “This is going to take time.”
The first place to look is in the Afghan refugee camps that were set up after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and provided many of the Taleban’s first recruits in 1994.
After a few hours of green tea and small talk in Panjpiri — 60 miles northwest of Quetta, the provincial capital — The Times was introduced to Hafiz Bismillah.
A madrassa teacher in his mid-30s with a black turban and long hair, he openly admitted that he had recently returned from fighting with the Taleban in Afghanistan.
“It is a part of our religious duty to participate in the jihad,” he said, sitting cross-legged on a mud floor. “We never had so many young people coming to join the war.” Local officials admit that there are thousands more like him in the camps in Baluchistan, which is home to about one million Afghans — mostly ethnic Pashtuns.
They say that the situation is not much different in Quetta, where Afghans now account for about 30 per cent of the population of 1.7 million, and outnumber Pakistanis in some neighourhoods.
Men wearing the Taleban’s signature black turbans walk around its bazaars and alleyways and regularly seek treatment in its hospitals, they say. Many have Pakistani passports.
“Some of the places are no-go areas,” said Agha Hasan of the Baluchistan National Movement, an influential opposition group.
Western intelligence officials have long known about this and believed that among the Afghans were Mullah Omar and other senior Taleban leaders, collectively known as the Quetta Shura.
Until recently, the United States and its allies were preoccupied with al-Qaeda figures who directly threatened the West — and they were mostly in northwestern Pakistan’s tribal areas.
Now, following a surge in US troop levels in southern Afghanistan, the US is putting unprecedented pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture the Quetta Shura.
Anne Patterson, the US Ambassador in Pakistan, and Gerald Feierstein, her deputy, have made unusual public statements in the past two weeks about the Taleban presence in Quetta. “We are confident that Mullah Omar is in Quetta,” Mr Feierstein said.
Pakistani officials say that the US has even threatened to extend CIA drone strikes — currently confined to the tribal areas — to Baluchistan.
Implicit in such threats is the allegation that Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, which created the Afghan Taleban, has been sheltering its leaders, either out of sympathy or for a day when foreign forces leave Afghanistan.
The reaction has been predictably furious, especially since the army has lost dozens of soldiers fighting the Pakistani Taleban this year alone.
Some analysts even say that the issue could jeopardise a $7.5 billion (£4.7 billion) US aid Bill to Pakistan, and an imminent military campaign in the tribal region of South Waziristan.
Pakistani officials have denied that the Taleban leadership is based in Quetta, while admitting that individuals may sometimes visit in secret.
“It is not possible for entire Taleban leadership to operate from here,” General Salim Nawaz, the head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Baluchistan, said. “It’s a blatant lie.”
A senior ISI officer told The Times that the US had produced a list of a dozen Afghan Taleban leaders it says are in or around Quetta. He said six were dead, two were based in Afghanistan, and two visited Pakistan.
“We have been given no actionable intelligence,” said the ISI officer. He and other officials also warned that drone strikes on Baluchistan would cause more civilian casualties than in the tribal areas as the target areas were more densely populated.
They could also destabilise a region racked by a decades-long insurgency, and disrupt a Nato supply line running from Karachi to southern Afghanistan. “We will not tolerate drone attacks in our area,” warned Aslam Raisani, Baluchistan’s chief minister.
Pakistani officials do admit, however, that they have little control over some Afghan neighbourhoods in Quetta, such as Pashtunabad, Khrotabad and Kuchlak.
The main madrassa in Pashtunabad is run by Maulana Noor Mohammed, a hardline cleric whose students are mostly Afghans and have been growing ever more numerous.
The writ of the state is even weaker in border towns such as Chaman. About half of its population is Afghan. Officials estimate that madrassas there are now producing 3,000 graduates each year, most of them potential Taleban recruits.
Mullah Brather, a deputy to Mullah Omar, is often seen in the area, as are senior ministers in the ousted Taleban regime, including Mullah Salim, a deputy minister for the prevention of vice. Pakistani officials blame the refugee camps and have a simple — if crude — solution.
“We have long been telling the UN and Afghan Government to shift the camps to Afghan side,” said a senior Home Ministry official. “It is a security nightmare for us.” That, however, is not a viable option for Western countries, as it would violate human rights accords protecting refugees.
So the awkward reality is that the US and its allies have few alternatives but to rely on Pakistani authorities — and to gradually strengthen their capabilities.
“There is no silver bullet,” said one Western diplomat. “This is going to take time.”
the Times
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