Pakistan Urges Taliban Dialogue

"A stage has to come where the military operations have to stop and the political process has to take on from there," Ali Muhammad Jan Aurakzai, a former general who is now governor of the North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, told a press conference in Peshawar, Reuters reported.

"Eventually all issues have to be resolved through dialogue, on the negotiating table," Aurakzai added.

The Pakistani general, who engineered in September 2006 a controversial peace deal with pro-Taliban fighters in North Waziristan, warned the Taliban-led resistance was already turning into a "liberation war" in Afghanistan.

It is "developing into some kind of nationalist movement, a resistance movement, some sort of liberation war against the coalition forces," he stressed.

More than4 , 000people, a quarter of them civilians, were killed in fighting last year, the most violent year since the Taliban were ousted by the United States in2001 . NATO commanders and analysts warn this year could be just as bad or worse.

As the harsh winter snows melt, the Taliban fighters have resumed their attacks, mostly in the south, where they have captured a major town and have threatened a key hydroelectric dam.

Well-placed sources told IslamOnline.net last week that US Defence Secretary Robert Gates failed during his recent visit to Pakistan to persuade President Pervez Musharraf to abandon the Waziristan Agreement with local Taliban tribes in the Northern Province which borders with Afghanistan.

Civilians Fleeing

Taliban fighters have been fortifying their positions in Afghanistan. They captured earlier this month the town of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand.

A Taliban commander said on Friday, February16 , the movement has deployed10 , 000fighters for a spring offensive of "bloody attacks" against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Fearing expected NATO strikes could mistake them for Taliban fighters, Musa Qala residents started fleeing their homes.

"We are afraid of bombings and war," Akhtar Jan told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Staturday.

He took his family to Gereshk, about65 kilometres ( 40miles) south of Musa Qala, soon after Taliban fighters overran the area on February2 .

"Taliban are there. If they (the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF) attack Taliban, we will suffer," he said.

Around1 , 500families from Musa Qala, have gathered in surrounding areas since the remote town was overrun by Taliban fighters, the provincial refugee head, Abdul Satar Mazhari, told AFP.

The United Nations said this week it had confirmed there were 600 displaced families and its partner agencies have started ferrying in food and other aid. An average family is said to number six people.

Most of the refugees were with friends and relatives, although some were in camps for people already displaced by the unrest gripping southern Afghanistan and by drought, officials said.

"I came out the second day Taliban took over. I closed my shop and we've nothing to eat," Shopkeeper Haji Nasim, another Afghan refugee, said.

"If we go home and bombing starts on Taliban, there is no difference between us and Taliban," added his relative Tor Jan.

"They would take us to Guantanamo, Bagram or Kandahar," he said, referring to US military detention facilities.

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