Pakistan aiding Taleban offensive: Masood

Pakistan aiding Taleban offensive: Masood

ISLAMABAD (Agencies): Afghan opposition military chief Ahmad
Shah Masood vowed to fight on despite setbacks and accused
Pakistan of backing the Taleban's offensive in an interview
published here Wednesday.

"The Taleban with the support of Pakistan and troops of Osama
bin Laden have launched the heaviest offensive yet," Masood told
The Nation daily.

Masood, interviewed in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan, also
called on the international community to step up efforts for
peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

The Taleban Islamic militia's attacks are centered on the
northeast of Afghanistan, close to the Tajikistan border. Osama
is wanted by the United States for the bombings of two of its
embassies in East Africa in 1998, in which 224 people were
killed.

"The current resistance in Afghanistan needs the support of
the international community to stop the Pakistani intervention,"
Masood said.

"Once the intervention stops I strongly believe the ground
will be restored for the restoration of peace."

Pakistan has always denied giving military support to the
Taleban militia, saying it backs the formation of a broad-based
government in Afghanistan representing all segments of society.

Masood said he would not retreat into Tajikistan and would
hold the present frontline, on the border separating Takhar and
Badakhshan provinces.

His aides told The Nation they would counter-attack in the
winter when the Islamic militia "are more vulnerable."

Masood urged the Pakistani people to oppose the policy being
pursued by the regime of military ruler General Pervez Musharraf
in Afghanistan.

"The policy ... is neither in the interest of Pakistan, nor
Afghanistan, nor the interests of Islam," he said, warning it
would have "bad consequences" for the region.

The Taleban militia has made significant advances since
fighting erupted once more in July, capturing several key areas,
including Taloqan, a strategic opposition base and capital of
Takhar on Sept. 6.

The closeness of the fighting to the Tajikistan border has
raised fears that it could spill over into neighboring Central
Asian states and destabilize the region.

Russia last week sent a special envoy, Sergei Yastrzhembsky,
to Islamabad to meet Musharraf and underline Moscow's concerns.

Moscow has expressed worries that a recent string of Taleban
victories in northern Afghanistan could embolden Islamic
militants in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia,
particularly in Tajikistan, where the pro-Moscow government is
under attack by rebels wanting an Islamic state.

Last month Russia asked Pakistan, which is one of only three
countries to recognize the Taleban, to use its influence to get
five training camps in Afghanistan shut down.

Moscow claimed these camps were being used to train Islamic
terrorist to wage war against Russian troops in Tajikistan and in
Chechnya, where rebels there want an independent state.

Russia currently has 25,000 troops deployed in Tajikistan on
the border with Afghanistan.

The Taleban foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said his
impoverished country hasn't the resources or the desire to
interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors.

"It is wrong to blame Afghanistan for the internal problems of
the Central Asian states," Muttawakil told a news conference in
the Afghan capital on Tuesday.

"The Russian propaganda that the Taleban threatens regional
peace and stability surprises us," he said.