Contenders line up to take Kandahar

The Taleban say they are still in control of Kandahar

		By the BBC's Daniel Lak

The Taleban are nothing if they are not tenacious.

The Islamic militia is now promising to issue visas to foreign journalists to visit Kandahar in the coming days to prove that they are still in control of their southern stronghold.

This, despite days of predictions that they are about to flee, be toppled or replaced with tribal elders and former mujahideen commanders.

Sources inside Kandahar say the rank and file refused to recognise the transfer of power and it was delayed

Yet it seems as though the Islamic militia hold on power is largely because their opponents cannot agree on how to replace them.

Several leading tribes in southern Afghanistan - heartland of the country's proud and formerly dominant Pashtun tribal culture - are trying to arrange a transfer of power from the Taleban leader Mullah Omar to two of his close associates.

Their names are Haji Bashir and Mullah Najibullah. These are men who have kept a formal distance from the Taleban, yet would be theoretically acceptable to rank and file members of the militia who would remain on duty in Kandahar.

Power transfer delayed

But so far these efforts have proved futile. Sources inside Kandahar say the rank and file refused to recognise the transfer of power and it was delayed.

Other tribal sources say they would not recognise such a transfer and would launch military action.

There are also complaints among tribal leaders about their conflicting claims and plans for Kandahar.

Many Taleban have fled over the Pakistan border

Another main tribal effort in the area involves a former mujahideen commander and member of the all-important Popalzai Pashtun tribe, Hamid Karzai.

He is from a branch of the family of the exiled former King, Zahir Shah.

He has reportedly been inside Afghanistan fighting in several different areas and remains briskly confident in interviews by satellite telephone.

Another contender is Gul Agha Sherzai, a former governor of Kandahar province in pre-Taleban days.

His supporters say he can muster thousands of people if necessary to shake up what seems a moribund tribal process to replace the Taleban at the moment.

Little headway

Both say they are committed to supporting the search for broad based alternatives to the Taleban at a national level, but neither of the two leaders seems to be making headway just yet.

It is believed that the Americans may be backing some of the tribal efforts to topple the Taleban

To add to the danger of the situation, the Northern Alliance leader Ishmael Khan has forces within 200 kilometres (125 miles) of Kandahar city, well outside of his usual power base in the western city of Herat.

There is no suggestion that he is moving towards Kandahar but he was in a Taleban jail in the 1990s before escaping miraculously and mysteriously after three years of what must have been rigorous confinement.

Observers say Khan, respected throughout the country as a moderate and committed leader when he ran Herat before it fell to the Taleban - may just have scores to settle in Kandahar.

Misinformation

Whether he could take the city, or is even inclined to, is another matter, but the presence of his forces - ethnically non-Pashtuns for the most part - adds a certain unknown quantity to the mysterious goings-on across the border from Pakistan.

That is the main problem. Information from or about Kandahar at the moment is from interested parties and sources.

It is believed that the Americans may be backing some of the tribal efforts to topple the Taleban, but whether they would accept the replacement of Mullah Omar by Haji Bashir and Mullah Najibullah is not clear.

Peering across the desert border crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan, all you can see is dust.

The view of political events in Kandahar is equally murky.