But by the time the meeting was held on Wednesday and Thursday this week

But by the time the meeting was held, on Wednesday and Thursday this week, he had lost his patience. Exactly what he hoped to achieve remains unclear.According to his brother, he secretly entered Afghanistan on 21 October, via the Pakistani town of Parachinar, and made for his home village of Azra. Mr Mohammed said he was accompanied by only a handful of men and was completely unarmed – a most unlikely possibility, given his own history as a warrior and the extreme danger of any kind of travel through Afghanistan.”He had a satellite phone because it was the only means of communication,” said Mr Mohammed. “But anyone who says he had guns is wrong.”His brother said: “He didn’t go to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, he went to persuade the local people to turn against them.” In any realistic uprising against the Taliban, the two goals will be one and the same.There are some who will see Abdul Haq as a has-been: a former hero who had grown soft in exile and who wrongly imagined that his prestige alone would enable him to stir a rebellion against the Taliban. Brave, certainly, but unwilling to recognise that a plump, balding man of 43 was not as likely to elude capture as his leaner, warier former self.His swift execution by the Taliban, however, shows that they still saw him as a force to be feared. Many of his former comrades had thrown in their lot with the movement when it conquered Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, but their admiration for him might have eroded their loyalty.From the regime’s point of view, there is no doubt that Abdul Haq represented a deadly threat and a rich prize. Peshawar sources say he died on the personal orders of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.How did they capture him? It can only have been an act of betrayal, and this is perhaps the most depressing lesson of the death of Abdul Haq.

Not only that he is dead, or that his mission failed, but that, despite the apparent desperation of their position, the Taliban still command enough support to win the head of a much loved commander in his own territory.He always feared that the bombing campaign would rally Afghans to the Taliban, and his end may have proved him right.. Hamid Qazai He was nominated by Afghan leaders and Islamic scholars to be the leader of the Populzai clan of the Pashtuns after the assassination in Pakistan of his father. The Populzai inhabit the Kandahar region, where the Taliban’s leaders are based. Mr Qazai is trying to muster support from Pashtun chiefs for the former king, Zahir Shah – for whom he has acted as foreign minister – and forge a pan-tribal coalition.

He left Quetta last week with Abdul Haq to try to open up a southern front against the Taliban, a move ultimately aimed at strengthening the Pashtun component of any future government.
Pir Sayeed Ahmed GailaniSpiritual leader of a minority Sufi Muslim sect. Left Afghanistan after the Soviet occupation to found the National Islamic Front in Peshawar, which became part of the mujahedin government of 1992-96.A relatively moderate Pashtun leader who visited King Zahir Shah last week and urged him to broaden his political base, Gailani’s vision for change in Afghanistan involves forming a council of “personalities who enjoy the support of the majority of Afghans” headed by the exiled king. His vision even has room for the Taliban – he said this week: “In my opinion, those Taliban who agree with our ideas as regards peace and a broad-based government should start the task immediately.”Mohammad ZamanFormer Pashtun army commander in eastern Afghanistan who switched allegiance to the mujahedin to fight against the Soviets. Fled to Pakistan with 96 troops when the Taliban came to power, but upset the pro-Taliban Pakistani government who forced him to leave. Went to Germany for eight months and spent the last four years in Dijon, France, before returning to Pakistan on 5 October Has visited the former king in Rome.

Chaired a meeting of veteran Afghan mujahedin commanders at his home in Peshawar last week, which issued the first open threat of military action against the Taliban from a group supporting the return of Zahir Shah.. In one important sense at least, the principals in the alliance against Mr bin Laden and his murderous cranks have pursued a credible and encouraging course, despite the difficulties. In one important sense at least, the principals in the alliance against Mr bin Laden and his murderous cranks have pursued a credible and encouraging course, despite the difficulties.
Politically, it is clear that they are wedded to the formation of a coalition of the several groups opposed to the Taliban. Ministers and ambassadors now talking to these bodies are not going to accept the installation of an American or UN high commission to which Afghan chiefs supplicate for money while ignoring their authority in matters of government.American bombers are now involved in operations which, among other things, show that these indigenous forces are ready to soften up and suppress the Taliban forces which Afghan troops will, in due course, overcome. Intelligence gathering, it may be assumed, is flourishing.Inevitably, however, this activity does not suit the appetite of the public and the media for information The bombers return with much the same to report each day. Government briefers have often been told that troops are about to enter operations in Afghanistan but each day brings the news that they are on the threshold, where they stood yesterday.But is everything slowing to a halt? The question is asked with increasing anxiety.