Pakistanis skeptical of US claims that Afghan Taliban leaders are hiding in Baluchistan

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Pakistanis doubt Taliban chiefs in Baluchistan

QUETTA, Pakistan — If Afghan Taliban fighters and their top leaders are roaming around this remote part of Pakistan as the U.S. alleges, the police chief here says he hasn’t seen them.

“Point them out to me,” Abid Hussain Notkani says. “I will arrest them.”

Interviews with residents and officials in and around Quetta, a dusty frontier city of 1.2 million, reveal widespread skepticism that Pakistan’s vast Baluchistan province harbors Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Omar, his aides or their foot soldiers.

It’s a disconnect that does not bode well for Washington-Islamabad relations — and America’s already tattered reputation among Pakistanis — as Baluchistan grows in strategic importance for the United States.

The U.S. is pouring in thousands of additional troops across the border in southern Afghanistan, a surge that could make Baluchistan an alluring refuge and recruiting ground for the Taliban. Baluchistan also is home to one of the two main border crossings used to ferry supplies to U.S. and NATO forces — a route that has come under attack.

The region also could figure prominently in another plan gaining support in the U.S. — reaching out to Omar and his aides in the so-called “Quetta Shura” — or governing council — to negotiate peace.

Washington is so convinced that Afghan Taliban traverse this province that it has debated firing missiles in the area, a move that would certainly infuriate residents. The U.S. hasn’t helped its case, offering virtually no public proof to back its allegations that Omar and his aides operate here.

Pakistan denies Baluchistan is a Taliban haven, perhaps because it wants to avoid further unrest in a province already gripped by separatist sentiments. It also may be trying to maintain cordial relations with the Taliban, in case the U.S. abandons Afghanistan and the militants return to power there.

Baluchistan is a rugged region with a lengthy and porous border with Afghanistan and Iran. Geographically, it is Pakistan’s largest province, covering 44 percent of the country. It is also the most sparsely populated, with some 6.5 million people. A driver can go for hours without seeing anyone else.

When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, many Taliban fled to Baluchistan, finding cover among their fellow ethnic Pashtuns, a group that lives on both sides of the border. Communities of Afghan refugees have also lived in Baluchistan for decades.

“We wouldn’t recognize them,” said Ahmadullah Noorzai, 38, a shawl merchant in Quetta. “How could we? I have a beard. Am I Taliban?”

A long-running insurgency by Baluchis — ethnically distinct from Pashtuns — feeds off resentment against the central government, which they say exploits the resource-rich region but leaves them to wallow in poverty. That insurgency is not believed to be linked to the Taliban, but it has made Pakistan especially sensitive about keeping control of the province.

A U.S. counterterrorism official told The Associated Press that Afghan Taliban leaders use Quetta as a base to plan attacks in Afghanistan. He requested anonymity, because he was not authorized to discuss intelligence publicly, and declined to provide evidence to back his assertions.

Candace Putnam, the head of the U.S. consulate in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, told local journalists in December last year that al-Qaida leaders also use Quetta as a base.

If the Taliban are in Baluchistan, they keep a low profile.

Pakistani officials say there are no signs of convoys ferrying fighters across the border, no training camps, not even much Taliban propaganda. Unlike Pakistan’s northwest, where the army is actively battling militants, any Taliban groups in Baluchistan avoid contacting the media.

Quetta, the provincial capital, lies some 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the border. It has a heavy military and intelligence presence, and a reporter’s every move is tracked. In communities beyond Quetta, residents said they were not aware of Taliban fighters in their midst, though some reported seeing them four or five years ago.

“There might be Taliban coming and going back, but they have not created any problems for our local administration,” said Mohammad Akbar, 39, a shopkeeper in the town of Pishin, some two hours drive from Quetta.

U.S. missiles routinely target militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions in the northwest in attacks that are deplored by many Pakistanis. Nearly all those interviewed in Baluchistan said expanding U.S. missile strikes to their province would promote sympathy for the Taliban.

“If such missile attacks happened, they would be harmful not only to our people, but for America as well,” said Abdul Qayyum, 35, a pharmacy owner in Chaman, a border town where many supply trucks headed for U.S. and NATO forces cross.

Despite the denials of any Afghan Taliban presence, a Pakistani intelligence official in Islamabad said that the CIA and Pakistani counterparts carried out 60 joint raids aimed at militants in Baluchistan over the past year, a jump from previous years. But he said he did not know how many people were caught.

He also said the U.S. had provided no recent intelligence on the whereabouts of Omar, whom he suggested was more likely to be in southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban control wide swaths of territory.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media on the record.

The U.S. lacks the intelligence on Omar’s exact whereabouts, or it would have rushed to take him out, said Kamran Bokhari, an analyst with U.S.-based global intelligence firm Stratfor. He said the Afghan Taliban chief and his aides are likely located somewhere in a large stretch of Baluchistan between Quetta and the provincial border with the northwest tribal regions.

“That’s a big area. It’s harder to find evidence. These people don’t have a shop somewhere,” he said.

Trucks carrying U.S. and NATO supplies into Afghanistan have been attacked in Baluchistan. But provincial officials said most of the strikes were by criminals or truck owners trying to get insurance money — not the Taliban. They also downplayed reports over the years of Taliban suspects getting arrested, saying most turned out to be illegal Afghan migrants.

Sympathy for the militant movement is not hard to find in Quetta, home to several hardline Islamist parties.

In an interview, Maulana Noor Muhammad, the head of a conservative religious school, defended the Taliban and suicide bombings, and invited President Barack Obama to convert to Islam. Still, the cleric, too insisted the Afghan Taliban aren’t in Baluchistan.

“Now they can’t come to Pakistan. They can’t come here. The intelligence men would find them,” he said.

Associated Press Writers Abdul Sattar in Pishin, Matiullah Achakzai in Chaman and Pamela Hess in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.