Afghan Race a Karzai Cliffhanger

The Taliban's activities are hogging the headlines, as they spill over to the northern and western provinces of Afghanistan. The murder of the police chief of Dasht-e-Archi district in the northern Kunduz province on Wednesday following the Taliban overrunning the district and storming his headquarters in the town center comes as an eye-opener. Sizeable numbers of "foreign fighters" have moved northward with the intent of reaching the Ferghana Valley in Uzbekistan.

The alienation of the Pashtun settlements in the north, the split between the Uzbekis and the Tajiks in the Amu Darya region and the steady fragmentation of Rashid Dostum's Jumbish are factors that help the Taliban. All in all, therefore, the presidential election in Afghanistan on August 20 has assumed immense significance for the geopolitics of the region.