Top Taliban Commander Resigns, Revealing Major Rift in the Leadership

[Al-Afghani]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...eadership.html

Mullah Abdul Qayam Zakir was said to be the number two to the vanished Mullah Omar. But his ultra-hard-line stance against a political solution and peace talks put him at odds with the collective leadership.

A major split in the Taliban leadership has emerged that could have far-reaching implications for the war, for the progress of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, and for the new government in Kabul as it tries to find a viable partner in peace negotiations.

According to official Taliban sources and an announcement on their Web site on Friday night, their top military commander, Mullah Abdul Qayam Zakir, has resigned for health reasons. But this follows almost two years of deepening rifts between the former Guantánamo inmate and the Taliban decision-making body known as the Quetta Shura Council. It raises fears that if the hardline Zakir was dismissed, as seems likely, he will try to make any peace settlement or truce impossible.

At a critical meeting in Pakistan late last year, the council agreed to pursue a political solution in Afghanistan rather than dramatically escalating attacks. But Zakir was conspicuously absent from that meeting. His longtime rival and likely replacement, Akhtar Mohammad Mansoor, on the other hand, played a prominent role in the deliberations.

A well-placed source among the Afghan Taliban tells The Daily Beast that Pakistan has advised the group to bypass talks with the United States or the lame-duck President Hamid Karzai and focus instead on talks with the administration of the new president who emerges from the current Afghan electoral contest, mostly likely former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

But according to another senior Taliban source, a former minister in the Taliban government before its overthrow in 2001, “Zakir was strongly against [all] peace talks and political solutions. “This will be a test for the unity of the Taliban. If there is a backlash by Zakir and his people, ultimately that will mean the Taliban split into two factions.”

Zakir had been touted in some quarters as the second-in-command and possibly even the heir apparent to Mullah Omar, the charismatic one-eyed ruler of the country in the 1990s who hosted Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda and then disappeared into the mountains riding a motorcycle at the time of the American invasion after September 11, 2001.

The Quetta Shura, in its announcement about Zakir’s resignation, insisted he was not a top deputy to Mullah Omar and did not speak for him, but merely commanded a large group of Taliban fighters.

In fact, Zakir has substantial support and influence among Taliban commanders in the war-torn province of Helmand, where many fighters come from his Ali Zai tribe. “He took hard stands against talking to the United States and Karzai, and that is the reason he is being expelled,” said the former minister. If his followers continue to back him and refuse to accept any path toward a political solution, the chances of bringing Afghanistan’s long war to an end any time in the near future will be slim to none.
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Some notes:
- Pakistan is pushing the Taliban to hold talks with the new government (probably Abdullah). This is not the first time they have offered advice to the group. Musharraf and the Saudi intelligence chief urged Mullah Omar to extradite Bin Laden before 9/11. He refused and Afghanistan got invaded.
- More information on Mullah Zakir:

Zakir is a former detainee at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility who was transferred by the US in December 2007 to Afghan custody. He was quickly released by the Afghan government. Zakir, whose real name is Abdullah Ghulam Rasoul, soon rejoined the Taliban and took over operations in the strategic Afghan South.

- This can split the Taliban movement into a moderate and extremist faction, which is good.

[khushal]

This is wack.

Pakistan would never advice them to make peace with Abdullah since Abdullah is India's right hand man in Afghanistan. Plus the Taliban has no central command and control. The local commanders have pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar but they are not controlled. They are on the HONOR SYTEM. .

[Admin Khan]

This is wack.

Pakistan would never advice them to make peace with Abdullah since Abdullah is India's right hand man in Afghanistan. Plus the Taliban has no central command and control. The local commanders have pledged allegiance to Mullah Omar but they are not controlled. They are on the HONOR SYTEM. .

What do you think of the all these former big shot Taliban people working out a peace deal?

[khushal]

This is a better article:

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...517767164.html
KABUL—Mullah Abdul Qayum Zakir, the hard-line chief military commander of the Afghan Taliban, has stepped down from his post in a major leadership change that could facilitate the restarting of peace talks aimed at ending Afghanistan's 13-year war.

Within the insurgency's senior ranks, Mullah Zakir was one of the biggest opponents of peace negotiations with Kabul. His resignation could allow the insurgency's more moderate leaders to play a bigger role in possible peace talks, people familiar with the Taliban said.

The Taliban leadership said in a statement that Mullah Zakir resigned "due to his ill health and heavy workload." It added that he remains a member of the Quetta Shura, the Taliban's overall leadership council, and that he is now busy with "other important jihadi work."

But some Afghan officials and members of the Afghan Taliban say Mullah Zakir, who rose to prominence after being freed from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2007, was effectively demoted as a result of deepening tension between him and more moderate Taliban leaders.
"Some senior Taliban military commanders had not agreed with Zakir's hard-line stance and he had lost the influence among the Taliban commanders that he had enjoyed when he rejoined the battlefield after being freed from Guantanamo," a senior Taliban official said.

Both the relative hard-liners and the moderates within the Taliban acknowledge the leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar and are committed to the idea of an Islamic state purged of Western influences. But factions disagree over how to achieve that goal, and the degree to which other Afghan political groups and the international community should be accommodated.

Peace negotiations are a stated priority for the two leading candidates in Afghanistan's presidential election. "A legitimate outcome of the election will create a new opportunity for Afghanistan," front-runner Abdullah Abdullah said Sunday with reference to the peace process. "It will give friends and foes a sense of continuity, sustainability and stability. And that will have an impact on the issue of reconciliation."

Mr. Abdullah, a rival of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, won 44.9% of the vote—not enough to avoid a runoff next month with Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official who came second. Zalmai Rassoul, widely seen as Mr. Karzai's favored candidate, came a distant third, and will be excluded from the running if preliminary results stand.

Syed Mohammad Akbar Agha, a former senior Taliban commander now living in Kabul, said the election's results were unexpected, and that they show Afghans voted for change—a message that may have resonated with the insurgency.
"The country isn't happy with the current situation," said Mr. Agha, who added that the Taliban "may have realized that people want change and may have decided to embrace reform."

He said the removal of Mullah Zakir may show the Taliban's stance on reconciliation is softening: "If he stepped down just because of his illness, that doesn't indicate a change within the Taliban. But if there is another reason, then it's possible."

A relatively junior officer with the pre-2001 Taliban regime, Mullah Zakir was freed from U.S. detention at Guantanamo after he persuaded prison authorities that he was a harmless farmer who had been mistakenly arrested.
Since then, he steadily rose through the ranks of the Taliban, orchestrating the movement's military advances in the southwestern province of Helmand and then becoming the movement's top military commander. But as he gained influence, differences grew wider between him and figures such as Mullah Mansoor Akhtar, a senior and more moderate Taliban leader who backed the peace process. Mullah Mansoor was the minister of aviation in the pre-2001 Taliban regime, and is close to the insurgency's overall leader, Mullah Omar.
"Mullah Zakir and Mullah Mansoor were having verbal clashes for the past three months. Finally, Mullah Omar dismissed him, using his illness as an excuse," said a senior Afghan official.

A figure close to the Taliban said that the leadership council had received several complaints against Mullah Zakir and many weren't happy about his "harsh behavior" toward his commanders.
"The Shura had also asked him to resign but he had refused to step down for two years. He was finally forced to quit," he said.

A Taliban commander in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday said he was informed by the movement's leadership that Mullah Zakir didn't resign because of his illness: "He disobeyed the guidance and leadership of the Commander of the Faithful"—a title the Taliban bestow on Mullah Omar—"and he was fired."
While many field commanders were happy with the dismissal of Mullah Zakir, "he still has many supporters among mujahedeen fighters, and they are upset," the commander added.

Ties between Mullah Mansoor and Mullah Zakir were further strained with the opening of the Taliban's political office in Doha, Qatar, in June last year, according to people familiar with the movement.
Afghan officials saw the support of Taliban leaders including Mullah Zakir as important for the success of the peace process.

But while Mullah Mansoor looked favorably at the Taliban office as a venue for peace negotiations, Mullah Zakir "gave no signal that he supported Doha as a peace platform," said an analyst who carried out field research on the subject at the time.
That initiative, however, quickly faltered: The office was rejected by Mr. Karzai, who said it gave the insurgency undue legitimacy, and was shut down shortly after.

The Taliban played down the impact of Mullah Zakir's resignation on a possible peace process. "The position of all Taliban is the same toward peace talks," said Zabiullah Mujahid, the movement's spokesman.
The Taliban leadership has repeatedly said it wouldn't engage in peace talks so long as foreign troops are in the country, and that it refuses to talk to Mr. Karzai, dismissing him as an American puppet.
Mr. Mujahid also denied Mullah Zakir was demoted, saying he had repeatedly tried to step down because of his illness.

If elected, Messrs. Abdullah and Ghani both said that they will quickly sign a long-term security pact with Washington that would ensure a small presence of U.S. troops in the country after the current mission ends in December. Mr. Karzai has refused to sign that agreement, partly out of fears it could complicate peace efforts.

A representative for the Afghan High Peace Council, a body created by Mr. Karzai to negotiate with the Taliban, wasn't available for an interview on Sunday.
Since the botched opening of the Taliban office in Qatar, attempts to start the peace process have made little headway.
The arrival in Kabul of a former Taliban official who launched a peace outreach to the Afghan government right now offers one of the best hopes for peace.

Agha Jan Mutasim, who heads a breakaway faction of the Taliban, earlier this year hosted a series of meetings in the United Arab Emirates aimed at promoting a peaceful end to the Afghan conflict.
Mr. Mutasim arrived in Afghanistan a week ago after officials in the U.A.E., where he had recently moved, warned him of security threats. He briefly went into hiding in the U.A.E., sparking speculation that he had been arrested. In a statement to the British Broadcasting Corp., Mr. Mutasim denied he had been detained by Emirati authorities.

"I accepted their advice and moved to a safer place where I didn't have access to phone and Internet and was disconnected from friends, the media and co-workers," Mr. Mutasim said, according to the statement.

[Catya Sher]

I think these American publications spend way too much speculating over political
infighting in a culture unfamiliar to the authors.
I feel Mullah Zakir probably WAS ill and did resign.
After all, he was a prisoner, and the toll on the system cannot be
exaggerated. No one is a superhuman to endure all that and
then go out in the field and fight or organize others.

If we all take a close look, the major publications which are under
control of the usual quarters ONLY write about negative news
regarding the opposition in Afghanistan.

Have you seen any articles ever lauding Mullah Omar or any of
his staff ? I hardly call the WSJ even-handed.
Even during the Anti-Soviet war, the WSJ did not do much of an
in-depth job of covering the mujahideen.
I remember their reporter, who flew into Peshawar and flew out
with a few sensationalist little nothings.
And, since then, the Journal was bought from the original owners,
a family. It became, I suspect, more biased. I almost never read it
except on domestic American topics, and that only extremely rarely.
I would not trust any of their international news. Especially not
on such a major political topic affecting the perceptions of American
businessmen.

[Zubr-Zubr]

Taliban will save the unity, InshaAllah. In the dissidence of Taliban many enemies of the Afghanistan people are today interested: collaborationists, Pakistani government, the West, Russia, China, India. However Allah will provide unity and firmness of Taliban. All know that Taliban it is Afghanistan, and Afghanistan it is Taliban.