Sat, Dec 26, 2015 page6

• Religious leaders rebuke actions by Taliban head

  • NY Times News Service, KABUL
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  In a sign of deep political tension within the Taliban, a collection of religious leaders in the group’s headquarters in Pakistan issued a letter of rebuke this month to the new insurgent leader for his bloody crackdown on dissenting commanders.

  It was unclear whether the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the New York Times and confirmed in interviews with several Taliban commanders, would amount to more than a symbolic setback for Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor.

  He has aggressively consolidated power since he was named leader in July. Commanders say he has kept a grip on the group’s biggest sources of income, including the trafficking of opium.

  The Taliban commanders and members of the group’s ruling council at its headquarters in Quetta, Pakistan, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal negotiations, differed on how much weight was carried by the letter from the religious leaders.

  However, they agreed that it reflected unease over infighting and deadly crackdowns ordered by Mansour, including the deployment of hundreds of fighters to kill a rival senior commander this month.

  The letter continued an uncommonly public airing of internal Taliban power struggles since the revelation this summer that the group’s founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, had been dead for at least two years.

  Still, although Afghan and Western officials have sought to portray the factional disputes as a sign of weakness for the Taliban, there has been little evidence of that on the battlefield this year, where the rebels have made sweeping gains.

  Instead, the letter was a sign that little was forgiven between Mansoor and his biggest rival within the Taliban, Mullah Qayyum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay and an aggressive senior military commander.

  Although Zakir has urged unity within the Taliban and told his commanders that he and Mansoor continue to work together, he was reported to be highly disgruntled over Mansoor’s rise to power this summer. He also cited the religious council’s letter in recent communications with his commanders urging them to refuse any orders to engage in internal crackdowns, those commanders said.

  In the 15-page letter dated on Dec. 7, a group of about three dozen religious leaders in Quetta refused to grant religious legitimacy to Mansoor’s leadership. The collective condemned his recent crackdowns, saying he still lacked the stature to declare that dissenters were outlaws.

  “Today, we do not have the kind of Amir al-Muminin [commander of the faithful], according to the Shariah, with whom obedience is mandatory and dissent from whom is punishable by death,” the ruling said, referring to the title the Taliban use for their leader.

  Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Taliban, sought to play down the religious leaders’ letter, insisting that most of the names on the document were not of prominent people and that the signatures of the known academics were made up.

  “It’s an old fake version that popped up with a new date,” he said.

  However, other Taliban officials said that the ruling was real — although they differed on the weight it carried — and that it was being widely talked about within the Taliban.

  The Taliban’s recent offensive in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where insurgents are contesting several districts and even knocking at the gates of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, has helped put Zakir in the limelight. Forces loyal to him are pressing one of the three military fronts in Helmand, which is a lucrative prize for both the opium income it generates and its marble mines.

  However, Mansoor’s power does not yet seem to be in serious jeopardy. Even as Zakir’s dispute with Mansoor appears to have persisted, the two men continue to have working contacts, and Zakir’s men still receive resources from senior leadership.

  “We are not separated from the emirate and we have been receiving our ration — it has not been cut off,” said Nastrayar, a commander in Helmand loyal to Zakir.

  In the years since he began quietly consolidating power while Omar’s death was kept secret, Mansoor established a monopoly of sorts over the Taliban’s stream of resources, Taliban commanders and security analysts said.

  He is known to be deeply involved in narcotics trafficking, which has been a major source of income for the Taliban as a whole. The UN listed him as one of the earliest Taliban commanders to be involved in the drug trade.

  “Mansoor has increasingly established his control over the resources since 2012,” said Borhan Osman, a researcher with the Afghan Analysts Network who has closely tracked the Taliban.
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