ISLAMABAD, June 15: Afghanistan's beleaguered Taliban militia has retreated from the Asmar district headquarters in north-eastern Kunar province under Opposition pressure, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported today.

AIP quoted Taliban official Molvi Sadar Azam as saying in Jalalabad, the administrative centre of eastern zone, that his forces had withdrawn to the hills opposite from where Opposition fighters had been threatening them.

Azam said the local Opposition was being militarily supported by former Defence Minister Ahmad Shah Masood, who has reactivated an anti-Taliban alliance in northern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, 300 Taliban have been dispatched to reinforce their beleaguered comrades in Kunar.

Afghan analysts said after suffering reverses in northern Afghanistan, the Taliban appeared to be losing ground to opposition in the North-East as well.

Mountainous Kunar, bordering Pakistan, had been restive since the Taliban evicted the controllers of the so-called eastern Shura (ruling coalition council) from the whole of eastern Afghanistan late last year.

Pakistan expelled two leaders of the ousted Shura, Haji Abdul Qadeer and Haji Mohammad Zaman, for organising a rebellion against the Taliban after the Taliban retook the town of Asmar.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.