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 The search for Qari Bilal, who according to the Long War Journal
is from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) group linked to al
Qaeda and Afghanistan's ousted Taliban, comes months before most
foreign troops are due to leave the country.
Afghan soldiers and police have been engaged in weeks of sometimes
heavy fighting against militants led in part by Bilal, according to
officials in Kunduz, a province of symbolic and strategic
importance.
Kunduz was the last northern stronghold held by the Taliban during
the U.S.-led war that ousted the hardline Islamist group in 2001,
and is a trade route linking Afghanistan with the former Soviet
republic of Tajikistan to the north.
It has been the scene of intense clashes as insurgents opposed to
the Western-backed government in Kabul and the presence of foreign
forces seek to take control of districts surrounding the provincial
capital.
Taliban fighters and their allies have launched a wave of attacks
this year, and the involvement of a known militant held in jail at
least once since 2011 will be of concern to NATO and Afghan forces
urgently seeking to impose stability.
Police said clearance operations against the militants had been
successful, and that the government had regained control of most
areas of Kunduz.
But provincial governor Ghulam Sakhi Baghlani said on Tuesday that
at least three districts out of a total of seven were still under
the control of Bilal and Mullah Abdul Salam, another militant leader
he identified as the Taliban's "shadow governor" of the province.
"(Bilal and Salam) have hundreds of Afghan and foreign insurgents
under their command," Baghlani told Reuters.
The offensive in Kunduz is part of a broader pattern of ambitious
attacks by the Taliban this summer across the country.
Emboldened by the political crisis in Kabul, where presidential
rivals are at loggerheads, and the withdrawal of foreign combat
troops by the end of 2014, militants have launched unusually big
offensives in the north, east and south.
FLEEING, RETURNING, FIGHTING
According to a police spokesman, Bilal fled to Pakistan after 2001
and entered Kunduz through a government peace body, established by
presidential decree in 2005, some 10 years later.
He said Bilal subsequently returned to the insurgency, and was
arrested and released twice by Afghan authorities.
Documents viewed by Reuters at the Attorney General's office in
Kunduz, however, indicated that Bilal was arrested only once and
served his prison term of 18 months before being set free.
Either way, Bilal's story underlines the difficulty Afghan
authorities and their foreign allies face if they want to
reintegrate militants into society and defeat the insurgency through
amnesty as well as by force.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) defended
the tactic.
"We have had a lot of success over the years with the reconciliation
process," said David Olson, a public affairs officer for the ISAF
Joint Command (IJC).
But critics said the process lacked the political vision and
resources needed to bring the insurgency's foot soldiers and leaders
into the fold in a meaningful way.
"Since the establishment of the peace process in Afghanistan,
fighting has increased," said Farhad Sediqi, a member of parliament
from Kabul. "Millions of dollars have been spent, but nothing has
been achieved."
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Haji Khan Mohammad, who was head of the National Independent Peace
and Reconciliation Commission in Kunduz in 2011, defended the
group's attempts to resettle Bilal in the province.
"If he has now turned into an insurgent, that is not our problem,"
Mohammad told Reuters, adding Bilal's defection to the insurgency
was partly the result of poor treatment at the hands of the justice
system. In a raid last week of Bilal's house in Kunduz, security
forces found a letter from the commission ordering provincial
officials to provide security for Bilal, according to police chief
spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini.
But after being resettled, Bilal helped plan several attacks in the
province, including suicide attacks and the planting of roadside
bombs, Hussaini said.
"MAJOR STEP BACKWARD"
Police in Kunduz said Bilal was arrested twice after his
rehabilitation under the peace process - once by coalition forces in
April, 2011, and later by Afghan forces - but was released by Afghan
authorities in both instances.
In April, 2011, ISAF said a senior IMU leader was captured in a
joint Afghan and coalition operation in Kunduz.
ISAF did not name the individual, but an Afghan official identified
him as Bilal to a local media outlet at the time.
In February, Afghan authorities ordered the release of 65 detainees
from the Afghan National Detention Facility, located in Parwan
province north of Kabul, whom the U.S. military deemed to be
"dangerous individuals".
"The release of these detainees is a major step backward for the
rule of law in Afghanistan," said a statement from the United States
Forces-Afghanistan at the time.
Afghan officials countered that the individuals had been imprisoned
on charges that did not stand up to examination.
The peace and reconciliation commission has reintegrated several
thousand insurgents into society, according to the organization's
web site, and assisted in the release of hundreds of prisoners.
In 2010, President Hamid Karzai formed the High Peace Council to add
further impetus to peace talks with the Taliban, but the initiative
has so far failed to produce a lasting settlement and violence is on
the rise.
Wahidullah Rahmani, secretary of the High Peace Council in Kunduz,
said that when Bilal joined the peace process in 2011 the procedure
for reintegrating former insurgents was less vigorous than it is
today.
"In our procedure, when a Taliban returns to normal life, elders of
his village, the district governor, the provincial governor and
other local officials have to guarantee that he will not turn back
to the Taliban," Rahmani said.
(Additional reporting by Feroz Sultani in Kunduz; Writing by Krista
Mahr; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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