Word: quetta
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...ARRESTED. ABDUL LATIF HAKIMI, spokesman for Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime; in Quetta, Pakistan. Boastful but possessing no combat experience, Hakimi frequently contacted reporters to issue statements from Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and to make often-unsubstantiated claims of Taliban successes against U.S. forces. The Afghan government, which welcomed Hakimi's arrest and requested his extradition, has long complained that Taliban leaders have been able to find sanctuary in Pakistan...
...interviews with Pakistanis, Afghans and Westerners in Peshawar and Quetta, Pakistan's two gateway cities to Afghanistan, as well as in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, evidence emerges that a large portion of the U.S. military aid--some claim as much as 50%--never reaches the mujahedin. Because of the secrecy that surrounds the pipeline (Pakistan denies that it exists), the figure is difficult to confirm. In Washington, Reagan Administration officials and members of Congress concede that shipments to Afghanistan are being skimmed, but there is sharp disagreement over how significant the losses...
...Taliban's fall has been a long time coming. After U.S. forces took Afghanistan in December 2001, many Taliban simply melted away into their villages. But plenty chose to fight on. Using Pakistan as a sanctuary, and recruiting fresh volunteers from seminaries around the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar, die-hard Taliban commanders led by Omar conducted a jihad against American forces. By late 2002, say Afghan officials in Kabul, nearly half the country was out of bounds to foreign relief missions. And without the lifeline of aid, Afghans saw no point in supporting the U.S.-backed government...
...That may be partly because the Taliban's paymasters are losing interest. Al-Qaeda's rich backers have "focused their attention elsewhere," says Olsen-by which he means Iraq. Without al-Qaeda's funds to support them, groups of Taliban can now be seen roaming the streets of Quetta begging for food. Khaled Pashtun, the Kandahar security chief, says the Taliban still get a cut of the opium trade and receive donations from sympathizers in Pakistan and the Gulf. But for Islamists wanting to fund jihad, Iraq has become a bigger game than Afghanistan...
...forsaken us?'" one U.S. officer recounts. And the Taliban's sanctuary in Pakistan may no longer be safe. Under pressure from the Bush administration, Islamabad has begun to crack down on its former protégés. Last month, 18 middle-ranked Taliban commanders were arrested in Quetta and Karachi, including Akbar Agha, leader of a Taliban splinter group named Jaish-al Muslimeen, which kidnapped three foreign aid workers in Kabul last October...