Taliban being paid $150 a month to stop fighting

The Taliban must be laughing their asses off over this. Get paid to take a break from killing the kuffur while waiting for the allies to pull out of Afghanistan. What more could a jihadi ask for?

FROM NDTV.COM:

Taliban being paid $150 a month to stop fighting

Indo-Asian News Service, Updated: November 28, 2011 11:56 IST

London: Taliban cadres are being paid 100 pounds (over $150) a month for desisting from action and will be allowed to keep their weapons as part of a new initiative to end the insurgency in Afghanistan, a media report said on Sunday.

The "reintegration" program, which has the full support of NATO, is intended to keep them from attacking troops of the NATO-led International Seurity Assistance Force (ISAF), the Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday.

Those who have attacked and killed British forces are also given an amnesty, meaning they will not be put on trial.

The amnesty extends to all Taliban fighters, including those involved in atrocities, such as killing children, beheadings or hanging women.

The agreement is part of a policy signed by the British government in which insurgents are being allowed to "walk off the battlefield" and enter a "reintegration" scheme.

Instead of interrogating members of the Taliban joining the program, they are asked to fill up a questionnaire to seek from them their reasons for joining the insurgency.

The strategy has been formulated to encourage the Taliban to stop fighting and return to their communities with "dignity and honour".

Over 2,700 insurgents have been reintegrated into mainstream Afghan society since October 2010, with 800 now described as "showing interest in leaving the Taliban".

Major General David Hook, the director of the Joint Force Integration Cell in Kabul, admitted in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that the program would be difficult for many British families to accept but insisted that reintegration was vital if peace was to be achieved.