The town of Musa Qala in Helmand province symbolizes the new tactics that the US and NATO are trying out in Afghanistan. The town was held by British forces in 2006. But they held talks with the tribal elders and then handed over the town to them. There were many mutual recriminations between the British and the Americans then as the moment the British forces left, the tribal elders had promptly handed it over to Taliban.
It was retaken by a joint US-Afghan-British operation last year. Days before Taliban were forced out of Musa Qala, the local Taliban commander, Mullah Salaam, defected to the side of the allies. He was handed control of the town after it was re-taken. The British government is putting in a lot of money to rebuild the town in order to win the minds of the local populace. It is to be seen if the experiment works. It is feared that Taliban will come back as soon as the Brits leave.
The strategy of trying to win over the ‘good’ Taliban has been in the minds of US, NATO and Karzai for a long time. The allied forces feel that any Taliban fighters with Al Qaeda links are taboo. They want to wean away lower and middle level Taliban fighters.
The Afghan government has always aimed at national reconciliation. Karzai had set up the national reconciliation program, Takhim-E Solh in 2005. Following a deadly suicide strike in Kabul on September 29, President Karzai invited Mullah Omar, the Taliban’s supreme commander, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former prime minister and fugitive terrorist leader for talks. Of course they did not respond.
Karzai and his western allies have clashed on the approach to win back Taliban. Some months back Karzai had expelled two European diplomats as they were having secret talks with Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the Taliban’s southern commander, without informing him. Ironically Taliban top boss, Mullah Omar, also threw out Dadullah for talking with the enemy.
Via: Independent
Image
