Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia has surrendered its total grip on power in three southeastern provinces to counter growing support for former king Mohammad Zahir Shah, a report said Monday.
"Tribal elders and Jihadi commanders or their representatives will be included in the government machinery," a senior Taliban official, Rehmad Wahid Yar, told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).
The report is the first admission from the hard-line militia of any cracks in their overwhelming power in Afghanistan, and is the first time the Taliban have agreed to any form of power sharing in their seven-year crusade.
The Taliban official said the provinces where power sharing was agreed were Paktika, Paktia and Khost, which border Pakistan.
Khost was the target of the 1998 United States cruise missile attacks on suspected terrorist training camps.
In recent days there have been growing reports of local discontent over the Taliban's refusal to hand over to the US wanted Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden and expel Arab extremists from the area.
The provinces are also traditionally moderate Pashtun areas, and home to past backers of the former king, now at the center of efforts to establish a broad-based government to replace Taliban rule.
The Taliban's admission also came as the Rome-based former king -- ousted in a 1973 coup -- and opposition leaders agreed on steps to replace the ruling Taliban militia with a new elected head of state and a transitional government.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf also warned that the Taliban's days were numbered after the hard-line regime again refused to yield to US demands to hand over bin Laden.
But the Taliban official was quoted by AIP as insisting the Taliban still maintained the full support of local officials.
"A delegation of Taliban undertook a detailed visit of these three provinces and had discussions with the elders and Jihadi commanders, and it has been unanimously decided that they will be included in every institution," the official was quoted as saying.
"These leaders have announced their full support for the Afghan government," he insisted -- ISLAMABAD (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
