http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-taliban22oct22,1,4433739.story?coll=la-home-headlinesOffshoot of the ousted Afghan regime wants to compete in legislative elections. Some say its leaders are moderates, but others are skeptical.
By Paul Watson
Times Staff Writer
October 22, 2004
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three years after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban, a breakaway faction of the hard-line Islamic movement is trying to make a comeback by seeking government permission to participate in next year's parliamentary elections.
The former Taliban members have turned against their fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and want a share of power at the ballot box, according to intelligence and diplomatic sources and Taliban leaders.
With backing from the U.S. and British governments, interim President Hamid Karzai is in the final stages of negotiations with leaders of a "moderate group" who said they were no longer involved in attacking government and foreign troops, said the sources, who included Afghan and Indian intelligence officials.
Karzai, who is expected to be elected to the post he has held since June 2002 when ballot results are announced this month, is hoping to neutralize a significant part of the insurgency by persuading the group's leaders to become lawmakers. Sources said that after persuading leaders of the group to run for the parliament, Karzai would be freer to crush the core of the insurgency.
The sources said the breakaway group was based in Quetta, Pakistan, where many Taliban fighters and supporters fled after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Indian intelligence believes that the group has the blessing of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who is trying to regain influence in Afghanistan that was lost when he supported the U.S.-led war against the Taliban. Pakistan previously had been a key supporter of the Taliban government.
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