The Taliban Beyond the Pashtuns by LSE's Antonio Giustozzi

The Taliban Beyond the Pashtuns

Antonio Giustozzi

Afghanistan Paper #5

Although the Taliban remain a largely Pashtun movement in terms of their composition, they have started making significant inroads among other ethnic groups. In many cases, the Taliban have co-opted, in addition to bandits, disgruntled militia commanders previously linked to other organizations, and the relationship between them is far from solid. There is also, however, emerging evidence of grassroots recruitment of small groups of ideologically committed Uzbek, Turkmen and Tajik Taliban. While even in northern Afghanistan the bulk of the insurgency is still Pashtun, the emerging trend should not be underestimated.


http://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/Afghanistan_Paper_5.pdf

Image and text from CIGIonline