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Pakistan plans to axe Mulla Omar as Taliban head

IANS

MOSCOW: In a desperate bid to perpetuate its control over Taliban, Pakistan is trying to remove its chief Mulla Mohammed Omar so that the militia continues to rule Afghanistan, a highly placed Iranian source here said.

Islamabad feels that Omar is mainly responsible for sheltering Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, considered as the prime suspect by Washington in last month's terror attacks that killed thousands.

By removing Omar from the Taliban leadership, Pakistan would try to convince the world that the militia has changed and should be given a chance to continue in power.

This way Islamabad would succeed in preventing the Northern Alliance from taking power in Kabul and have its favoured regime there.

Pakistan is trying to project a liberal and moderate face of the Taliban, the Iranian source told IANS.

Pakistan hopes to get U.S. support for its project, said the source, adding the return of exiled Afghan king Zahir Shah to Kabul was not to the liking of both Washington and Islamabad.

"Islamabad's game plan is to perpetuate its influence in Afghanistan and retain the terrorist infrastructure in that country for using it as its foreign policy instrument," the source said.

Russian foreign policy analyst Yevgeny Pashentsev added that Pakistan's plan to install a new puppet government in Kabul with U.S. approval would serve the interests of both Washington and Kabul and thwart the bid to build a broad-based coalition around the Northern Alliance propped up by Russia, India and Iran.

The Taliban, which seized power in Kabul in 1996, was founded in the Islamic seminaries of Pakistan and has close links with Pakistani intelligence agencies as well as rightwing groups in Pakistan.

The terror attacks in the U.S. have, however, embarrassed Pakistan, which is the only country still recognising the Taliban regime.

Pakistani officials admit that a "loss" of Afghanistan would be a major blow to Islamabad's foreign policy objectives, including that of sustaining pressure on India by despatching Afghan war veterans to fight in Jammu and Kashmir and give the impression of an Islamic upsurge in that state.

Islamabad feels that Mulla Omar's personal friendship with bin Laden is threatening to wipe out all the gains Pakistan has made by helping the Taliban to take power in Kabul. Pakistan wants to avoid a military defeat of the Taliban - which could become a certainty if the U.S. launches air strikes and gives full backing to the Northern Alliance.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001