New Delhi, November 24
Stung by the amazing military successes of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s military regime has instructed all its foreign missions to launch an all-out propaganda offensive against the Alliance.
Thousands of leaflets have been prepared by Pakistan about the alleged human rights violations by the Alliance when it was in power in the nineties before the Taliban seized power in September 1996, diplomatic sources said here today.
The objective of the exercise is to somehow prevent the Alliance from forming government in Afghanistan, the sources said. Pakistan’s propaganda material was based on reports from Amnesty International, Asiawatch and other human rights organisations.
An important component of Pakistan’s operations was to play the ethnic card in a country which was a mosaic of a large number of ethnic tribes often at war with one another. Pakistan, the sources said, was trying the Alliance to pit against the majority ethnic group, the Pashtoons, who form nearly 42 per cent of the country’s total population.
The Pakistani game plan is to woo the Pashtoons by propagating that the Alliance is predominantly a Tajik group which can never be friendly to the Pashtoons.
The Alliance obviously refutes the charge. Alliance leader and Afghanistan President Burhanuddin Rabbani is a moderate Sunni Tajik. Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, also a Tajik, has Pashtoon connections.
Another important Alliance leader, Rasool Sayyaf, is a Pashtoon-speaking ultra Wahabi Sunni. Ustaad Atta, another prominent leader, is a moderate Tajik Sunni. Gen Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek, has connections with Pashtoons as his wife happens to be a Pashtoon.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is understood to be in a dilemma in view of the Alliance military victory as more than 2,000 Pakistani soldiers, including officers, are trapped in Kunduz.
Three days ago, Pakistan had sent its helicopters and was able to pick up some senior officers to avoid embarrassment regarding its pro-Taliban links.
