Senior Afghan commanders, politicians and tribal leaders were plotting to overthrow the Taliban regime with a lightning coup backed by an armed revolt when attacks on Afghanistan were launched on Sunday.
Abdul Haq, one of the key military figures in the plot, said just before the attacks that the coup, which has been planned for months, would be jeopardized if Washington launched a military strike first.
"The Taliban system must go. I have been working with former mojahedin commanders and tribesmen and we have come together to topple the Taliban. I believe very strongly it will work," said Haq, 43, a burly mojahedin commander who lost his right leg while fighting in the 1980s war against the Soviet occupation.
"I have spoken to low-level Taliban commanders and they are willing to help," he said. He claimed half of the 45,000-strong Taliban military force was disillusioned and ready to switch sides to back a revolt.
The opposition Northern Alliance, which is made up of ethnic minorities and controls part of north-eastern Afghanistan, would take part in the revolt and would be included as one part of the proposed post-Taliban government.
Two months ago Haq met the alliance's commander, Ahmed Shah Massoud, in Tajikistan for talks. Massoud was assassinated two days before the World Trade Centre bombings.
A string of other military commanders and Afghan politicians have been meeting for months in Peshawar and across Europe to organize the details of the plot.
Zahir Shah, the elderly former Afghan king who lives in exile in Rome, would be brought into Kabul immediately after the city was captured to hold a grand council of tribal chiefs, to set up a new government. The commanders would then hunt down Osama bin Laden and his Arab fighters.
Haq, who is from Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, said his forces were ready to strike from provinces surrounding the capital.
"Weapons are not a problem. There will be more than enough," he said. "What we need now is pressure from the outside to bring all the Afghans together under the king."
Haq, a fluent English speaker, was closely involved in the UN attempts in 1992 to set up a stable government in Afghanistan. Two years ago his wife and son were killed when their house in Peshawar was bombed. Haq moved to Dubai.
Last week Haq visited the king in Rome for talks and then returned to Peshawar to coordinate plans for an attack from his large office in Hayatabad, a sprawling suburb filled with middle-class Afghan exiles.
For months Haq said he tried to sell the idea of a revolt to the American administration but with little success.
The key to the plot's success will lie with the Pakistan military regime, which is certain to resist any new government unless it includes Pashtuns and is a strong ally of Islamabad.
But some military experts have warned the chance of success for the plot is limited. "It will only work if people believe it is being supported by everybody, including Pakistan," said Rifaat Hussain, head of the department of defense and strategic studies at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University.
"Anyone who starts a rebellion that fails will face a severe retribution," he added.
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