"We will do everything possible not to allow anything detrimental" to the Afghan government "being done from Pakistani soil," Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, said last week.
More than 400 Taliban and al-Qaeda suspects have been arrested in Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001, more than in any other country after Afghanistan, a figure that hints at the extent of the presence of Afghan militants here. Nevertheless, none of the senior Taliban leaders have been apprehended, even though they have started calling friendly local journalists and giving interviews over their satellite telephones.
Those familiar with the situation contend that Pakistan's army and secret service are allowing the Taliban to operate in Pakistan, and even protecting them. Further, the local government, now dominated by an alliance of religious parties sympathetic to the Taliban, provides them with legitimacy by association.
Maulavi Abdul Wasih talks like a Taliban. A burly, bearded man in a white turban, he was a candidate from one of the Pakistan's districts bordering Afghanistan, and is now a senior minister of Baluchistan Province, in charge of planning and development.
There will be no peace as long as American forces remain in Afghanistan, he warned.
"America is a superpower, but it should not try to control third-world countries," he said in an interview. "The Americans interfered in Afghanistan and destroyed the government there; they should leave now."
In his view, part of the problem is that the Americans have supported one group, namely the Karzai government, against the Taliban. Whether he or others in Pakistan helped them or not, he said, the Taliban would fight back.
"This is the rule here," he said. "If someone's home is attacked, he will defend it. Whether I support him or not, he will do that."
He said he had no contact with former Taliban leaders and doubted they were living in Pakistan. He knew of their declaration of a holy war through news reports, he said.
Some Taliban may have had enough of fighting, however, Afghan leaders and some foreign officials suggest.
"There are different groups of Taliban," Mullah Habibullah Akhund, a former logistics commander in the Taliban defense ministry, said in an interview. "Some are fighting, and some, like me, are waiting to see what the government will do. If they make an Islamic government in Afghanistan, then it will be OK."
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