2/1/2012 1:56 AM ET
(RTTNews) - The Taliban is hoping to regain power in Afghanistan with Pakistan's assistance once the NATO-led international troops, currently deployed in the war-torn Asian nation, are withdrawn, media reported citing a leaked confidential NATO report.
The report, cited by Britain's Times newspaper and the BBC, stated that Taliban insurgents were being assisted in their ongoing fight against foreign forces by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
According to the Times, the leaked "State of the Taliban" report noted that the Taliban's "strength, motivation, funding and tactical proficiency remains intact" in spite of the serious setbacks suffered by the group after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
"Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban. Once ISAF (NATO-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable," the newspaper quoted the report as saying.
"It remains to be seen whether a revitalized, more progressive Taliban will endure if they continue to gain power and popularity. Regardless, at least within the Taliban, the refurbished image is already having a positive effect on morale," the daily said citing the NATO report.
Meanwhile, the BBC indicated that the NATO report was based on materials from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives as well as other foreign fighters and civilians.
"Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly. ISI officers tout the need for continued jihad and expulsion of foreign invaders from Afghanistan," the British broadcaster reported quoting the leaked document.
The report also alleged that Pakistan and the ISI are aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders despite claiming otherwise. But it stressed that the "document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical."
Although President Hamid Karzai's government in Afghanistan as well as several Western nations, including the United States, had accused the ISI of assisting the Taliban in the past, Islamabad had consistently denied those allegations.
Last year, Karzai had accused Pakistan of playing a "double game" in the ongoing fight against militancy in the region, following the assassination of his peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani last September.
At the time of his death, Rabbani was the Chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council tasked with holding peace talks with the Taliban. He was assassinated by a man claiming to be a Taliban envoy. Afghan officials have since linked Rabbani's killing to the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based Taliban-affiliate, and accused the ISI of involvement. Pakistan, however, rejected the allegations.
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