Pakistani holy warriors are deserting Taliban ranks and streaming home in large numbers, tribal leaders said Friday, while in the streets of Peshawar, portraits of Osama bin Laden go unsold.
In northwestern Pakistan, just across the Khyber Pass from the heartland of Afghanistan, the Taliban mystique is waning.
"It was shameful to us to see them run away from Kabul," said Syed Rais ul Hassan, a business executive who is a Pashtun as are most of the Taliban. "Our way is to stay and fight."
Fazal Ullah, son of clan leader Maulana Sufi Mohammed, said a main force of 10,000 to 11,000 Pakistanis had been routed and at least half of them have come home over the past few days.
Ullah, reached by telephone in the autonomous tribal areas east of Peshawar, said he feared hundreds of those still missing may have been killed or captured. He said he had lost contact with his father in Afghanistan.
"This retreat was a war tactic of the Taliban because they could not resist both bombing and a ground attack," he said. But, he added, the Pakistanis chose not to follow the Taliban to their Kandahar stronghold.
One Pakistani tribal group, Tehrik Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammedi, claimed they had sent more than 12,000 people to fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Of those, 6,000 to 7,000 have returned in recent days, they said, while between 600 and 700 others who went to Mazar-i-Sharif have not been heard from.
Other leaders confirmed that Pakistani fighters had returned from Afghanistan, leaving many casualties behind, although some had lower estimates.
The reports could not be confirmed with precision since neither foreigners nor uninvited non-Pashtun Pakistanis are allowed into the tribal land that adjoins the unpatrolled mountainous border.
But in Peshawar itself, the picture was plain.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the US, when US President George W. Bush blamed bin Laden and the Taliban, tents went up by crowded markets to collect money and recorded Koranic chants fired up sentiments. When Kabul fell, the tents disappeared.
"The Taliban have gone and those tents went with them," said a banana vendor who uses the single name, Ashfaq.
Nearby, 18-year-old Taj Wali offered a discount on a T-shirt emblazoned with bin Laden's enigmatic smile and the words, "The Great Mujahid [warrior] of Islam. Jihad is our mission."
Wali had been selling at least a dozen a day, sometimes many more. Now, he said, he was lucky to unload two or three.
In late September and all through last month, crowds in the thousands marched regularly through Peshawar's ancient narrow streets. After fiery abuse of the US and Jews, they burned a comical effigy of Bush.
This Friday after prayers, several hundred Muslim militants shuffled through the streets, followed by a handful of policemen carrying sticks who looked more like a bunch of old friends on an afternoon stroll. When speeches ended, there was no burning Bush.
Maqsood Ahmad Salfi of a local religious party assured the small crowd the Taliban was merely regrouping for a big finish. "We should not be disappointed," he said. "There will be a triumphant end."
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