Divided: The Pashtana

The Taliban "problem" is entirely and exclusively co-extensive with that of the Pashto language community. At least according to Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason, in their article "No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Paksitan-Afghanistan Frontier."1 There are other language groups in the area, they reject the Taliban. There are other groups in the region with the same cultural traditions and economic situations, and they do not support the Taliban.

The Pakistan-Afghanistan border, drawn up by the British with no consideration whatsoever for the people involved, divides the 25 million Pashtun community in half.

Within the Pashto community, it must be noted, there are two important aggregating forces, Pashto nationalism and conservative Islam. The former was used by Afghanistan to show its power in Pakistan, while the latter was pushed by Pakistan, starting in the early 1970s and massively stepped up after the Soviet occupation,