Maulana Fazlur Rehman, you had said in your dispatches, wanted to start a dialogue between the Taliban and Islamists to end the violence. Is that correct?
Yes. Right. He wanted to try and start a dialogue, and according to some reports he was a go-between the Taliban in Quetta and some Western diplomats or sources because Rehman increasingly (travels) in both worlds and his role is interesting and has transformed in the past one year. He has been really referred to as the godfather of the Taliban in the past. But now because the Taliban views him as being 'soft' he is as much a legitimate target as Musharraf is.
Do you think a dialogue between the Taliban and pro-Islamist groups in the future is a possibility at all?
There is dialogue there. But it's just that the Taliban groups view the Islamist groups as having lost their street credibility.
How are these neo-Taliban or new generation Taliban, as you have described them, different from the original Taliban, whether in Pakistan or Afghanistan?
I think the original Taliban that existed in Afghanistan had a very specific goal that was to stop the warlording and also to implement the Sharia. There is no question about their ambitions. With the new generation of Taliban, it is unclear what they want, whether they want to create such a Pakistani State (as in Afghanistan)...
One knows the State of Pakistan today is a much more stronger force that what Afghanistan was in 1996 when the Taliban came to power there. That is the biggest difference, I think, in trying to assess what the Taliban wants today vis a vis what the Taliban wanted more than 10 years ago because they cannot jump on to a pick-up truck and go all the way to Islamabad and think they can push the police and security forces out of their way and take over the capital.
But that being said, it seems the new generation of the Taliban in Pakistan are content just with creating havoc but then it also begs the question as to who is the ideological mastermind behind this? Is there some sort of coherent game plan or strategy or game plan or just to kill as many Pakistani soldiers?
Image: Maulana Fazlur Rehman, centre, a leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, leads an anti-Musharraf protest rally in Islamabad on November 16, 2007. Photograph: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: On the plane with Nawaz Sharif
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