Word: talibanism
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...months, residents of the southern frontier city where the Taliban was born have awoken to "night letters" left on their doorsteps and pasted on walls ordering them to boycott Afghanistan's second-ever presidential election, on Aug 20. Those letters have now turned into death threats. The latest, seen by TIME, is purportedly authored by Mullah Ghulam Haider, the alleged Taliban commander in Kandahar city. It says those who vote will be considered "enemies of Islam" and could "become a victim" of "new tactics." It does not offer details. Another letter promises to cut off the fingers of people with...
Mullah Omar, the elusive one-eyed founder of the Taliban, has reiterated his call to disrupt the election. Responding to overtures from the government for an election cease-fire, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said via e-mail, "We don't feel it is important to have contact with the slavish and corrupt administration, and we don't need them to contact us." He pledged that the election "will be sabotaged in everywhere possible." On Aug. 16, three rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) were fired into Kandahar city, killing a young girl and injuring four children. The following evenings, small-arms...
...corruption, insecurity and a lack of basic services. His trademark black vest features an embroidered white dove of peace. But he talks tough about President Hamid Karzai and self-serving warlords he says have betrayed the Afghan public through their criminal dealings, and, in doing so, given the Taliban a "second chance." (See pictures of a U.S. Marine offensive in Afghanistan...
...third option is for the Pakistani Taliban's leadership to pass to one of its leaders farther north in the tribal belt. Maulvi Faqir Mohammed, who had been leading the Taliban in the Bajaur tribal agency, has been named as a possible, albeit unlikely, successor. Like Bahadur, he was a contender when Mehsud assumed the leadership of the group. In 2008, after his cohorts faced a steamrolling military offensive, he became the beneficiary of a peace deal with Islamabad...
...leader establish himself," says Sherpao, the former Interior Minister. "The government will have to try and win over some of the tribes who were too afraid to challenge the militants." Over the weekend, elders from the Mehsud tribe announced they were prepared to fight the Taliban if they received government backing. That challenge, in the form of a local tribal militia, is already paying off against other Taliban militants to the north of the Swat valley. In Waziristan, it may succeed where previous military operations have failed...