All chapters of Afghan Taliban have retained their independence, since 2004 has support for them begun to rebuild.
ISLAMABAD: Ejaz Haider has made two important and incisive points regarding the change in the Pashtun tribal structure, but they are inconclusive. Also, the Pashtun have never become one with the Taliban, except in the case of Baitullah/Hakimullah and Fazlullah in Swat. It should be noted that their faction of the Mehsuds is, in fact, hated by the larger tribe.
All chapters of the Afghan Taliban have retained their independence and only since 2004 has support for them begun to rebuild. This has been slow and it has not been confined only to the Afghan Pashtun. All Afghans, even the Hazara and the Dari-speaking ones, have been seeking Taliban support as recent as late 2009.
What is perhaps more worrying is the Punjabi takeover of Pashtun territory and neither the Mehsuds nor the Wazirs can explain this development. Both tribes contend that the Punjabis are being run by their factions of the TTP. My impression is that the Punjabis are running he Mehsud and the Wazir factions of the Taliban. As for the Mohmand, there has been some penetration by the Punjabi Taliban but it has been insignificant. The writer is correct in both conclusions: Multiple groups are operating all over the place and they can extract a price from the army, even though they cannot win.
Brigadier Shaukat Qadir (retd)
Published in The Express Tribune, March 15th, 2011.
