Interview: Hamid Gul by Syed Saleem Shahzad - Asia Times - Online.

 November 13, 2001

http://www.afgha.com/article.php?sid=9441

Asia Times Online spoke to the former director-general of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence, retired lieutenant-general Hamid Gul. Gul has been a controversial figure since his days in the Pakistan Army. And before the 1988 general elections he helped form the Islamic Democratic Alliance, a coalition of rightwing parties assembled to block (unsuccessfully) the way of Benazir Bhutto into power. Even since his retirement, he is still considered one of the main authorities on Islamic forces in Afghanistan.

Asia Times Online: How do you asses the present situation in Afghanistan? Was it deliberate that Taliban retreated, or were they defeated?

Gul: It was a deliberate withdrawal of forces. Even their resistance of the last 34 days against heavy carpet bombing was miraculous.

Asia Times Online: What benefits can the Taliban get from this withdrawal?

Gul: At present, US forces are carrying out carpet bombing, which is devastating. There is no way out to resist these air assaults. Now, once the Taliban have given room to Northern Alliance forces, the US and its allies will also send in their ground troops, and this is what the Taliban's main objective is. Now the Taliban will draw them into a trap and do a real firework.

Asia Times Online: You mean they will fight a guerrilla war?

Gul: Yes. The Taliban have a policy to engage the US and the allied ground forces for a long time in Afghanistan. This will have an enduring impact on the US economy and it will force it to cut its military budget and pull out its forces from the Middle East, which is their main goal.

Asia Times Online: Are the Taliban also going to loose Kabul?

Gul: Kabul or Mazar-e-Sharif, it is not a problem. The real problem will be to govern these cities. Whoever makes these cities their center will have a problem.

Asia Times Online: The current situation shows that the Taliban will pull back their forces and finally end up in the eastern provinces, where they have already gathered their forces.

Gul: No, I disagree with this thesis. The Taliban will retain pockets in every city occupied by the US and its allies to continue their strikes and create a permanent problem for any future government in these provinces and cities.

Asia Times Online: What will the strategy for a future broad-based government in Afghanistan be?

Gul: You will see that the very day that Northern Alliance forces enter Kabul they will divide. At present, [Uzbek] General [Abdurrashid] Dostum and his militia is the main commander. Dostum would certainly demand a key role in any future government. Neither the Afghan population nor his allies will allow it. The militia has its own trait of warfare. Even during communist rule, wherever they entered they looted and plundered, and the same information is arriving at present. This situation would certainly cause resentment among allies, and they could stand up against each other.

Asia Times Online: The support of the US and its allies for secular elements in the Northern Alliance is very much in evidence. Would elements in the alliance, such as Abdul Rassoul Sayyaf, leader of Islamic Union for the Liberation of Afghanistan, and Burhanuddin Rabbani, former president of Afghanistan and leader of the Northern Alliance, who in the 1980s were considered hardline Islamic fundamentalists, allow this?

Gul: I think a broad-based government will be formed in which all secular elements will be installed, including [former monarch] Zahir Shah. UN troops will be sent to Kabul and the Pakistani army will also be sent under this umbrella.

Asia Times Online: The United Kingdom has deployed ground troops. Why is the US not sending its own troops first?

Gul: To avoid internal problems. Once the US nation starts receiving body bags, resentment will grow against the war and the US will be forced to fold this drama in the region.

End of Interview