All Pashtoons Taliban? NO
By Helmand Khan At this point in time, the west is trying to understand the causes beyond the renewed strength of Taliban's led insurgency in Afghanistan, fighting the war on terror in the remote mountains of Southern Afghanistan and closely watching developments in the tribal areas of Pakistan which has recently been dubbed as virtual mini Taliban state by an international Think Tank, ICG ( International Crisis Group). One obvious finger is being pointed towards one community called Pashtoons and is suggested that Taliban are pashtoons and pashtoons are Taliban. However, is it fair to associate the whole community- spreading over large swaths of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with extremist Taliban. The obvious answer is a big No. It is not the first time that pashtoons are on the sponlight. When earstwhile Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the whole free world rushed to this remote corner of the world, pursuing a a guerrilla war through its proxies in Afghanistan against soviet force...