Taliban read to smoke peace pipe

After stoking violence over the years in Afghanistan, Taliban appears ready to smoke the peace pipe and even willing to break its umbilical cord with Al- Qaeda. With a flicker of hope emerging from the new wish list it slapped on the NATO- led UN security mission in the war- ravaged country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rushed S K Lambah, India's special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the United States on Sunday for urgent consultations.

Taliban, forever aligned with the international terror outfit Al- Qaeda during its regime and since after its ouster by the US forces, appears to have parted ways as evident from its 5- point wish list that has not been reported anywhere yet.

India has absolutely no interest in letting Taliban return to power in any way but it won't mind any strategy that helps separate Al- Qaeda and Taliban which it sees as paving the way for the emergence of a stable and democratic Afghanistan.

Lambah's task in the US is to explore how far it will go in this respect and get back to India to report back to Dr Manmohan Singh before he heads for Germany on Thursday for attending the India- EU summit in Belgium.

Though the United States has been trying to rope in Taliban for restoring peace in Afghanistan, so far there are no formal and credible talks with Taliban.

Afghanistan watchers in India say that although Al- Qaeda may have wielded influence on Afghansitan's Taliban, it has not been able to turn the latter into a part of the global Islamic terror movement. It remains an inward movement and hence the US is trying to negotiate with its leaders after failing to suppress them with its military might.

Rahimullah usufzai ( ousafzai), a noted Pakistani journalist and resident editor group of the Jang Group's English daily ' News International' at Peshwar, says Taliban in Afghanistan are different from the Pakistani Taliban.

According to him, Afghanistan's Taliban recently came out with its wish list that has not yet come into the media but it has been secretly delivered to ISAF ( International Security Assistance Force), a NATO- led security mission in Afghanistan established by the United Nations Security Council.

Journalist usufzai, who is an expert on Afghanistan having live contacts with all underground and political groups, says no peace can take place without empowerment of the Pashtuns who are the dominant ethnic group but completely out of the current system.

In the present 249- member Parliament, there are just 88 Pashtuns as against 120 in the past.

Lambah's visit to the United States is described as part of the decision Dr Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama made during the latter's visit to India last month to hold regular consultations on Afghanistan. Obama has openly praised India's role in development of Afghanistan, post-Taliban.