AFGHANISTAN - Oct. 26 - Opposition Leader Executed.

The opposition leader Abdul Haq, 43, a Pashtun engaged in secret efforts to topple the Taliban regime, and two of his companions, including a nephew, are executed by the Taliban. (This comes after Haq was captured on Oct. 25 by Taliban soldiers who ambushed him in his hometown of Hisarak south of Kabul). A Taliban spokesman in Kabul tells news agencies: "This [the execution] happened on the basis of the verdict that anyone who assists the United States is liable to be killed". Intelligence and political officials describe the execution as a devastating setback to an already floundering effort considered crucial to US attempts to oust and replace the Taliban. Some Pakistani intelligence officials say they believe Haq's capture was part of a sting operation by the Taliban authorities, who lured him to meetings with promises of possible defections when none were intended. Intelligence officials say they are suspicious of a Taliban official with close ties to Mullah Mohammed Omar who refused to meet Haq in Pakistan and insisted he travel to the Kabul region. (Haq, a commander who fought against Soviet forces, was a cabinet minister in the government that ruled after Moscow withdrew its forces in 1989. Although he was ordered out of Pakistan several years ago - because of his opposition to the Taliban and the Pakistan government - his activities were allowed by Pakistan as part of the intelligence co-operation with the US. Haq was one of the more internationally prominent of the dozens of exiled Afghan tribal leaders and former military commanders who returned to Pakistan in recent weeks in an effort to organise a new government if the Taliban are ousted from power. Haq, a wealthy businessman, was involved in coalition-building efforts under the auspices of the former monarch Mohammad Zahir Shah. He reportedly became increasingly frustrated that Washington did not provide him more support. That frustration prompted his decision to enter Afghanistan with his own agenda on Oct. 21, according to officials in Islamabad. Haq was critical of US bombing operations, telling one recent interviewer: "Bombing the whole of Afghanistan is not the right way. Instead we should undermine the central leadership, which is a very small and closed group and which also is the only thing which holds them all together").