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India helping Northern Alliance: Taleban

Muhammad Najeeb in Islamabad

The Taleban has for the first time charged India with helping the Northern Alliance in its fight against the ruling militia, saying senior members of the alliance had recently visited New Delhi for consultations.

"There is a nexus of Russia, India and Northern Alliance against the government," Taleban ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef told a press conference in Islamabad.

The ambassador said that there was evidence that India was collaborating against the Taleban regime. "Yes, we have strong evidence in this regard," he said.

Later talking to Indo Asian News Service, Zaeef said the Taleban had reports that senior members of the Northern Alliance had recently visited New Delhi for talks with the Indian leadership.

He said that The Indians were helping the Northern Alliance through the Central Asian republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Zaeef said that an Indian official was also present at the meeting held on Monday in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe between Russian President Vladimir Putin and ousted Afghan president Burhanddin Rabbani.

"Not only India, but an Iranian envoy also participated in that meeting," Zaeef said.

He said that the Taleban authorities were 'fully aware of such designs and we would never allow them to succeed'.

The United States has hinted at an important role for the Northern Alliance in the post-Taleban scenario in Afghanistan. Added to this, the meetings in Dushanbe have created a stir among the Pakistani officials.

In a flurry of statements issued over the last few days the United States, Russia and many other countries have rejected any role for Taleban in any future government in Afghanistan. This has left Pakistan as the only nation that has been pleading for a role for what it terms the moderate Taleban in Afghanistan.

The concept of a moderate Taliban has been widely dismissed as an oxymoron.

Meanwhile, reports from the battlefield say that the military resilience showed by the Taleban in defending the city of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan has surprised both Pakistani and US military officials.

Pakistani officials said that the fall of Mazar-i-Sharif to the Northern Alliance would allow Russia and other anti-Taleban forces to reopen the Termez bridge over the Ommo river. This strategically important bridge provides a crucial link for military and other supplies from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Indo-Asian News Service

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