Insurgent can be classified in four ranks....

Dear Rob Dodson,

Thank you for the good information.

Besides your classifications of the Taliban, one can see Taliban from another perspective too:

Taliban can be divided in to four groupings:

1) The ideological group who regard themselves as the guardians of Sharia and Divine law. They claim to have an apostleship to fight for the will of Allah. In their view, all who do not favor their belief are the pagans, anti-Muslims. They divide the whole world simply into faithful and Kafir. They do not let any room for the compromise and discourse on their beliefs. They see every thing either black or white. They are fighting against the current process in Afghanistan as part of their mission for a holy war (Jihad). They can get satisfied only when their divine mission is applied.

2) The totalitarian group who are looking at a monopolistic type of ruling based on ethnocentric assumptions. This group has only a mask of Taliban and Sharia but actually seek opportunity to bargain for more power and privileges. Their insurgency is because of their bad feeling towards the process which paves the way for the distribution of power and leaves no room for their arbitrary ruling. They can get satisfied when their demands for more power is answered.

3) The troublemakers who always profit from insecurity, anarchy and chaos. They are putting the mask of the Taliban to play highway-robbing and bandit. They are the opportunists who are profiting from the name of the Taliban and have made their mafia-type of gangsters. The drug traffickers and former Jihadi warlords are also in this group.

4) The people who are fed up with the corruption of the government and have been targeted by tribal feuds and retaliations. They are fighting because of their hatred against the officials and they seem to have no choice other than resorting to the gun for the sake of their own safety and security.

It seems that the major problem now is with the second group who can easily change face and turn from one side to other. They have double-sided game: Pashtunwali and Islamwali. Hekmatyar is mostly from the second group. He is an Islamist who is using Islam for his political agenda. He joined Shahnawaz Tanai to launch a coup against Dr. Najibullah, the last Communist statesman. He stood against General Dostum as a Communist and later made an alliance with him against Rabani and Masood. He left all his fronts for the Taliban out of his ethnic assumption and later joined Rabani and Masood to stand against Taliban. He is now against the international forces in Afghanistan but has always been ready to make a deal. Recently he sent his deputy and other fellows to conduct a negotiation with the government. Currently most of his former fellows are with the government. They have claimed high positions including Key cabinet posts and advisory team around President Karzai. The voice and tune of PK has dramatically changed after the influence of the Hekmatyar Hezbi Islami people has increased around him. They are the ones who do not believe in any thing other than arbitrary power.

Dear Rob,

I would be happy to have your comments on this perspective too. We might have time to follow the debate a bit closer and in detail.

Regards
Aziz Royesh

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