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Where Have the Taliban Gone?
By Hosban Allah Motawakkil
NANGARHAR, Afghanistan, Nov. 26 (IslamOnline) - The sudden and unexpected collapse of the Taliban and their withdrawal from Kabul and other major Afghan cities have led to the separating of the movement's leaders from its troops.
Being Pashtuns from Kandahar and other surrounding provinces - Hilmend and Rozghan - some Taliban commanders have joined their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, in Kandahar, heading there to continue the war declared by Omar against the United States and its allies in Afghanistan.
Other Taliban leaders are believed to have headed for Kunduz, which reportedly fell over the weekend to the Northern Alliance.
Other relatively large numbers of Taliban have taken tough mountain roads into Pakistan, carrying money and weapons, including the former governor of Nangarhar province in southeast Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Kabeer, and his deputy, Mullah Sadr A'zam, as well as many others.
Sources told IslamOnline, under condition of anonymity, that Taliban forces took government property, including Afghani carpets used in official headquarters, before they fled Nangarhar and other Afghan provinces.
The same sources added that only a few number of Taliban leaders were killed by U.S.-led air strikes, or by Northern Alliance (NA) forces, while some others are besieged in Kunduz.
"Most of Taliban members and their armed forces have returned to their areas, now controlled by NA troops," explained the sources. They added that some Taliban shaved their beards or took off their black turbans in a bid to blend in with common Afghanis. Another group has fled to Pakistan to join families in the refugee camps.
Still other Taliban groups have joined the new provincial administrations, using their old relations with the new leaders, becoming members in the new ruling elite.
However, more than 20,000 Taliban forces, gathered from northern Afghan provinces, were under siege in Kunduz. Some of these troops fled from the northern provinces and joined Mullah Omar in the south.
Thousands of Taliban forces are believed to have been killed by U.S.-led air strikes, or have been captured by Alliance troops, especially in Kabul and the northern provinces. Alliance sources in northern Afghanistan have announced that thousands of Taliban forces and foreign fighters are in NA prisons.
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