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![Pakistani authorities have attempted to clamp down on Afghan Taliban militants [AP]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/Pakistan/2/1/2/Taliban-militants.jpg "Pakistani authorities have attempted to clamp down on Afghan Taliban militants [AP]") | | Pakistani authorities have attempted to clamp down on Afghan Taliban militants [AP] |
The Taliban in Pakistan functions in North and South Waziristan in the country's North West Frontier Province.
The group wields significant power in the region, and uses the territory to assist attacks in border areas of neighbouring Afghanistan. The Taliban in Pakistan formed after Western forces in 2001 forced the Taliban government from power in Afghanistan, where it had ruled since 1996.
Members of the now outlawed group are Sunni Muslims wishing to re-establish their political role using a system based on Islam in Afghanistan. After the fall of the Afghanistan government, men fled over the porous border with Pakistan and found refuge in the inhospitable and mountainous territory of Waziristan.
There they paid local tribal leaders for their support against Pakistan's security forces.
Al-Qaeda elements are believed to hide in the same terrain, planning their assaults against US and other Western nations.
The Taliban and al-Qaeda have close ties. The US invaded Afghanistan on the pretext that the government would not hand over Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, the Taliban has been able to set up bases of organisation and has regrouped.
Afghan attacks
Professor Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the advisory board at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University, Scotland, said that the Pakistani Taliban is the Taliban on Pakistan soil, helping to relaunch its efforts to regain control of Afghanistan by sending weapons, other materials and launching attacks into nearby regions of Afghanistan.The Taliban in Pakistan works in small groups and are highly mobile, carrying out surprise attacks on military and civilian targets often causing a large number of deaths. Although it is difficult to say how many members it has, its nucleus may number several thousand.
Those Pakistanis whose support they have been able to buy are typically jobless Pashtun tribesmen.
They do not have a single leader, but look to the Afghan Mullah Mohammad Omar as a symbol and iconic figure for their movement.
Taliban members are motivated by the belief that they will succeed in regaining control of Afghanistan.
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