HVK Archives: Half of Taliban soldiers are Pakistanis, says report
Half of Taliban soldiers are Pakistanis, says report - The Times of India
A. K. Dhar
()
August 29, 1998
Title: Half of Taliban soldiers are Pakistanis, says report
Author: A. K. Dhar
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 29, 1998
Half of the Taliban soldiers currently engaged in major
offensives against the forces of northern alliance in Afghanistan
are Pakistanis who are providing logistic support, command and
control, Janes defence weekly has reported.
The current Taliban offensive has been described by western
military sources as, "operating like a professional army" and
independent evidence has corroborated Pakistan military's deep
involvement in Afghanistan, prominent Afghan expert Anthony Davis
has reported from Kabul.
"Some 400 new pick up trucks imported from Pakistan, were used to
spearhead the Taliban offensive which began on July 12 and an
estimated 1,700 Pakistan military men are involved in a mobile
Taliban force of 8,000 in northern Afghanistan," the defence
weekly said.
Besides this, Mr Davis said, western military sources believed
hundreds of other Pakistani religious volunteers from Islamic
terrorist camps based in southern Afghanistan, hit recently by
U.S. cruise missiles, and in Pakistan are being coordinated by
Pushtun dominated Afghan Bureau of Pakistan's Inter- Services
Intelligence directorate.
Citing how Pakistani army commanders were directing battle
fronts, Jane said logistic support was well co-ordinated, with
water tankers and food trucks accompanying the Taliban columns as
they moved north across the and terrain.
Mr Davis said as troops captured Dostum strongholds of Maimana,
Shiberghan and Mazar-I-Sharif, Antonov Transports immediately
were ferrying reinforcements into airbases.
"Similarly the campaign as a whole was characterised by several
relatively sophisticated manoeuvres across a fluid and fast
moving battlefield.
Such actions has no precedent in recent Afghan military history,"
Mr Davis said.
He said the operation had all the hallmarks of the capture of
capital Kabul by Taliban in 1996, which had definately been led.
Directed and co-ordinated by senior Pakistan military officers,
western intelligence sources believe a big element of Pakistan
army, including artillery and armoured units, was operating with
the Taliban and senior Pakistan army Puhston officers were
directing major manoeuvres.
The defence journal said that as a consequence of Pakistan army's
active involvement, an outcome of the present military crises in
Afghanistan would be continued guerrilla struggle by the northern
minorities like Shia Hazares, Uzbeks, Ismails and Tajiks.
The weekly predicted Pakistan army's involvement now could lead
to more active and open involvement by Iranians and Russians
through central Asian nations' militias.
"There is a big danger of Iranian forces, angry over capture of
their diplomats could mount an air bridge to Bamyan Valley in
central Afghanistan, where opposing forces still hold on to two
airstrips to re-supply Shia Hizbe Wahdat forces and this could
lead direct clashes between Pakistan and Iranian army inside
Afghanistan," the journal said.
The magazine said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps
(IRGC) had already announced staging of large-scale military
manoeuvres along the border with southwestern Afghanistan in what
appears to be a show of force amid rising tensions with Taliban
and Pakistan authorities. It quoted Brig Gen Mohammad Jafaar
Asidi, the IRGC, ground forces deputy commander saying "no time
frame for exercises had been set. But they were being held
because of the problems posed by Taliban."
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