Afghanistan related discussion - II

[SyedA]

Start here.

[A Haider]

Alliance asks UK to withdraw troops
Non-Afghan Taliban not ready to pull out of Kunduz; US planes bomb targets

By Behroz Khan & Hasan Khan

PESHAWAR: Tension is reported between the Northern Alliance and US-led allied forces due to heavy presence of the American and British combat troops at Kabul's Bagram airbase, as US planes heavily bombed Taliban positions around Kunduz and Kandahar on Saturday.

Pro-Rabbani Tajik spy master Gen Faheem asked the Britain to reduce the size of its troops. "Gen Faheem has asked the Americans to bring the number of Anglo-US troops to 15, because the heavy presence of the foreign troops was causing resentment among the soldiers of Northern Alliance", a source close to Gen Faheem informed.

The source said that situation was tense and the row over the number of foreign troops to be deployed at Bagram had still not been settled. According to an AFP report from London, British troops who flew into Bagram earlier this week will stay, a spokesman for the ministry of defence said, denying a reported rift with the Northern Alliance. "We can confirm that we have not had any such approach from the Northern Alliance leadership and none of our troops will be returning home from Bagram airbase," the spokesman said.

"We have spoken to our people in Kabul and they say there have been no difficulties with their presence at the air base," he added, denying reports that the Northern Alliance wanted most of the British troops to leave the base. Earlier, a senior official of the anti-Taliban coalition told AFP the British commandos were operating at the Bagram airbase without the agreement of the Northern Alliance. "The British forces perhaps have an agreement with the UN but not with us," Northern Alliance Defence Minister Mohammad Qassim Fahim said by telephone.

Around 100 Royal Marine commandos flew into Bagram on Thursday to pave the way for several thousand more troops to be sent to Afghanistan and to help safeguard aid supplies. But their precise role remains unclear, with Britain sending out mixed messages on whether they will actively chase down fleeing Taliban fighters and join the hunt for alleged terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.

The elite troops are at Bagram, 16 kilometres north-east of Kabul "solely because of the onset of winter to facilitate humanitarian aid and to coordinate the UN aid programme," Fahim said. "The Taliban, who were an obstacle to peace, have been eliminated. There is, therefore, no need for thousands of foreign troops," said the Northern Alliance minister. The Taliban denied that the militia's leader, Mulla Muhammad Omar, had surrendered control of Kandahar, a foreign ministry spokesman said. "It is wrong that we have surrendered or have the intention to do so to Bashar and Naqeebullah," spokesman Maulvi Najibullah told reporters at Spin Boldak, an Afghan border post leading into south-western Pakistan. "It is all propaganda of our anti-Taliban forces."

The spokesman said there had been clashes between the Taliban and opposition forces in Uruzgan, the northern neighbour of Kandahar province, but did not say that it had been lost by the Taliban. Top Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai, who has the support of the United States, said on Friday that ethnic Pashtun anti-Taliban fighters had taken control of the province, where Omar was born. Eyewitnesses had earlier told AFP that some Taliban forces were seen leaving Kandahar, but there was no sign of the mass evacuation reportedly ordered by Omar.

Kandahar resident Babrak Ali said that a "small column" of Taliban vehicles had been seen leaving the city and was heading north-west towards Herat. Ali's account tallied with that given earlier by Karzai, who said there were signs the evacuation had already started. "Some Taliban forces are moving up north and probably they are leaving Kandahar city and there are some skirmishes," Karzai told CNN television.

Thousands of Taliban fighters are in Kandahar and the surrounding areas to defend the city and their religion, a Taliban spokesman told the Al-Jazeera television. "Our forces are in Kandahar and surrounding provinces," Muhammad Tayyeb Agha said. "Our forces, numbering thousands, have decided to defend Kandahar, the neighbouring provinces, Islam and law," said Agha, who was identified as a spokesman for Taliban supreme leader Mulla Omar. Agha said Omar and the entire leadership of the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" also remained in areas controlled by the Taliban.

A Peshawar-based Taliban diplomat, however, told The News: "Our leadership has decided in principle to vacate Kandahar and other provinces because of severe bombing of the civilian population". "We will be in contact with our people even after deserting cities and moving to mountains", the diplomat said. Taliban sources said that the US-led forces heavily bombed Kandahar and Kunduz provinces on Saturday and the main targets, they claimed, were civilian populations.

"We have the information that toll of civilian deaths is very high in Saturday's bombing in both Kandahar and Kunduz", the Taliban diplomat said. According to an agency report, thousands of Taliban troops holed up in a key northern Afghan province exchanged artillery and rocket fire with Northern Alliance units on Saturday as a deadline for their surrender expired, the opposition said.

The mayor of Kunduz city, which straddles a strategically important road leading north to Tajikistan and south to Kabul, had asked the Northern Alliance to delay any advance while he negotiated with the Taliban. "We have surrounded the Kunduz province but unfortunately we have not captured it yet," said Zubai, a Northern Alliance Foreign Ministry official, speaking by telephone from Taloqan about 60 km to the east of Kunduz.

Zubai said the two-day deadline expired on Saturday, "but no one can guarantee when the (large-scale) fighting will start". US warplanes pounded Taliban positions during the night, he said, and on the ground both sides were exchanging artillery and rocket fire." The mayor of Kunduz is negotiating with local Taliban and they say they will give up the city for you. "But the foreign Taliban will never accept this," he said.

Fears of a bloodbath have been aroused by reports that foreign Taliban fighters in the province feel they have nothing to lose following assertions by Northern Alliance officials that they will kill every one of them. "There are more than 30,000 Taliban in Kunduz, but I think less than 10,000 are foreigners -- Arabs, Pakistanis, Chechens, Uzbeks and Bangladeshis," said Zubai.

The Taliban lost more areas and vacated Asmar, Angam, Naray, Nishgam and Barikot in Eastern Afghanistan to the opposition forces, said former mujahid commander Malik Muhammad Zareen. "We are in full control of Asmar, Angam, Naray, Nishgam and Barikot," Zareen told The News on telephone from district Asmar in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan

According to an AFP report, the Taliban have pulled out of western Farah province and retreated south, leaving the main city in a state of violent chaos, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported Saturday. The Pakistan-based news agency said the Islamic militia was withdrawing toward Helmand province to the south-east, neighbouring Kandahar. It said Farah city had been evacuated and there were reports of looting and fighting among various groups in which several people had been killed. The loss of the capital signals the loss of the province in Afghan terms.

US warplanes have attacked the home of a key Taliban commander in Afghanistan, the AIP reported amid intensified US strikes against the Islamic militia's leadership. The house of top commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and a seminary were bombed overnight on Friday near the eastern town of Khost, leaving two people dead and many others wounded, the AIP said. "The American objective was to hit Haqqani. Previously his house in Kabul and Gardez were attacked in which several people were killed," a spokesman for Haqqani was quoted as saying. Haqqani is a powerful Taliban military chief and minister for tribal and frontier affairs.

Broad-based govt soon: Rabbani

KABUL: Afghanistan's ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani returned to Kabul on Saturday, five years after he was driven out by the Taliban, vowing to build a new broad-based government. "The victory does not belong to one ethnic group but all Afghan people," he declared, in a bid to quell fears his mainly Tajik supporters plan to seize power for themseleves and thwart UN moves to broker a power-sharing deal. Rabbani threw the accusation of foot-dragging back at the world body. "If there is a delay because of the United Nations, we should not be blamed," he said, adding "We will try to form a broad-based government as soon as possible, it depends on the seriousness of the Afghan people and the United Nations." Northern Alliance leaders have said Rabbani should head any transitional authority until elections can be held, amid fears that Afghanistan could fall back into the bloody faction fighting that marred its previous rule.

[SyedA]

My opinion:

NA and Taliban deligation will meet within a week to discuss how to end the deud among afghans and fight the outsiders, in this case UK and US troops. Everyone has said from the beginning that Afghans wil fight with each other until they have an enemy to fight, and now they got it.

I think the only the benefit UK is getting out of this conflict is the oil in the future.

Lets sit and watch, drama has started.

[H Khan]

By Myra MacDonald


SRINAGAR, India, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Islamic militants are likely to try to make their way into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as they are routed in Afghanistan and then in turn pushed out of Pakistan, the Indian army chief in the tense border region said.

In a weekend interview with Reuters, Lieutenant General J.R. Mukherjee said the army was stepping up its efforts to stop guerrillas coming across the Line of Control which divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan. But he denied charges by Pakistan that India was moving more troops to Kashmir.

He said militants from Afghanistan's Taliban militia -- which has lost control of most of the country after six weeks of U.S. bombing -- were undoubtedly coming in to Pakistan, despite Islamabad's attempts to seal off its Afghan frontier.

"Pakistan cannot afford to let them stay. So either they export them outside or they export them to Kashmir. A fair proportion will definitely try and be pumped in into Kashmir," he said at his headquarters in Srinagar.

Pakistan, which turned against its Taliban allies after the September 11 attacks on the United States, is under pressure from Washington to curb Islamic militancy at home as well. Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf can scarcely afford to host thousands of fleeing militants, many of whom are Arab volunteers.

India wants Musharraf to end what it calls Pakistan's sponsorship of "cross-border terrorism"in Kashmir. Islamabad denies it arms or funds the Islamic militants who then cross the Himalayan mountains to join a nearly 12-year-old insurgency against Indian rule which has killed at least 30,000 people.

Mukherjee said that despite U.S. pressure, there had been no let-up in Pakistan's promotion of militancy in Kashmir, apart from in the first week or so after the September 11 attacks.

"They were a little bewildered and couldn't get clear-cut orders from across (the border). After that it is quite apparent that there were clear orders to them that Kashmir will carry on as before," he said.

In the biggest single act of violence, 38 people were killed when suicide bombers from a Pakistan-based militant group attacked Kashmir's state assembly in Srinagar on October 1.

Mukherjee said that well over a half of the 2,850 to 3,300 "terrorists" operating in Jammu and Kashmir were outsiders - mostly from Pakistan, though also from Afghanistan and as far away as Yemen and Britain.

"They have been demoralised to a certain extent by events in Afghanistan, particularly over the last few days and therefore what we do discern is every possible effort being made to try and step up their morale by issuing orders, carrying out more fedayeen (suicide) actions and so on. They desperately need to see some success," he said.

"I see an active period ahead," he said. "We'll try our best to ensure it doesn't get worse, but I see every possible attempt made to pump in more and more, including possibly the Taliban who have run out of Afghanistan. Pakistan can't afford to keep them on their hands either. It's too early to make a categorical statement but at least that is what it appears."

Mukherjee declined to comment on whether he believed Indian troops should cross the 742-km (464-mile) Line of Control to attack militants in Pakistan, copying the example of the United States in hunting out its perceived enemies in Afghanistan.

But he said that in Kashmir troops had been stepped up along the military ceasefire line to stop infiltration by militants.

"As far as Kashmir is concerned we have definitely stepped up the quantum of troops along the Line of Control," he said. But there were no more troops in the region as a whole than before.

"I have only two divisions worth of troops on the Line of Control and two divisions worth of troops for counter-insurgency operations," he said, putting the strength of an Indian division at about 10,000 to 12,000 men each.

Both nuclear-capable foes have accused the other of moving up troops towards the Line of Control, raising fears the sporadic gunfire regularly exchanged across the ceasefire line could escalate into a full-scale battle.

India says it fires across the Line of Control to stop the Pakistani army from giving cover to militants coming into Kashmir.

Mukherjee said India had been fairly successful in reducing infiltration this year and should be able to stop many Islamic militants from coming in from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We have adopted a very strong counter-infiltration posture...with the same number of divisions that we haveand we are quite sure that we would be able to stop a flood from coming in," he said.

00:09 11-18-01

[Sultan]

http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/ne...18/ixhome.html

[Waqqas]

Answering FarazA from thread I:

I don't think it is a matter of this article writer being a traitor. It is actually heartening to see that our country has people that differ on issues and discuss the wider implications of various actions (without taking to the streets and burning cars and businesses, that is!).

I think even the "silent majority" in Pakistan is growing increasingly wary of the real US agenda. Now they are even speaking of establishing a command center in Pakistan (as they have in other overseas bases). This sure does not sound like a short campaign.

Also, look at the way they are behaving after the fall of Kabul. Notice how the flow of foreign leaders has suddenly stopped ...

We will not get any significant amount of help, whether it be cash or military hardware. The peanuts they have offered till now don't even cover the economic losses we are suffering after September 11.

The British PM has even talked about the need to weed out terrorism from Kashmir.

Is there a pattern here?

Now the question is not only what we should have done with regard to this entire conflict, but what we HAVE to do in the future to save our own interests. There are very clear sign wrt what they will target after they finish Afghanistan. We need to wake up and start preparing.

[H Khan]

Cricket player for Afghan bretherns


Pakistani cricket players Saeed Anwar (R), Wasim Akram (C) and Waqar Younis announce their participation in a fundraising campaign for Afghan refugees, in Lahore November 17, 2001. The cricketing heroes urged fellow Pakistanis to give clothes and other goods and announced that Pakistan's entire cricket team would visit some cities to collect the donations. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

[Gaf]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1662653.stm

[Farooq]

Uzbek/Tajikstan !!!

[Maisum Ali]

Chaos in Jalalabad


By Zulfiqar Ali

JALALABAD, Nov 17: More than 5,000 armed people of Commander Hazrat Ali, a supporter of the Hizb-i-Islami (Younas Khalis group), have occupied important buildings and strategic points in and around the Jalalabad city in order to turn it into their own fiefdom.

A large number of contenders for the governorship of the Nangarhar province are trying to bargain with different factions and splinter groups of old Mujahideen organizations.

Haji Zaman Ghamshareek, a supporter of the National Islamic Front of Afghanistan, led by Pir Syed Ahmad Gillani, is said to have won over the support of Pakistan to install himself in the coveted position. On the other hand, Haji Abdul Qadeer, a former governor of the province and the brother of slain Afghan commander Abdul Haq, is trying to wrest the governorship of the province from other contenders with the tacit support of Northern Alliance forces, nesting in Kabul.

Commander Hazrat Ali, who has the blessings of Maulvi Younas Khalis, has already occupied main installations and made his position stronger than others to combat any mishap.

The city is gripped by uncertainty and confusion and no one knows what the fate of its residents and would-be rulers would be in the next few days.

The leaders of the Eastern Zone Shoora held meetings on Friday to chalk out a power-sharing formula, but they have yet not come out with an acceptable solution to all.

On Friday evening, Haji Qadeer, Haji Zaman and Commander Hazrat Ali approached Younas Khalis to decide about the slot of governorship so as to end uncertainty in the province.

Hoards of armed men, belonging to Commander Hazrat Ali, have reportedly looted offices of some Jalalabad-based NGOs. Only lawlessness and guns reign supreme in the city.

The only UN Office, which was operating till Thursday noon, has also been closed down. It shows the magnitude of uncertainty, which is looming large over the skies of Jalalabad.

A lieutenant of Hazrat Ali told Dawn that they had control over the city. "Now we are seeking a formal signal from Maulvi Younas Khalis to run the province", he added.

On Friday night, US fighter planes continued their sorties on what they called bases of the Al-Qaeda network around Jalalabad.

The residents were afraid of the continuing bombardment and were not feeling any change after the retreat of the Taliban militia. The conflicting claims, being made by the contending groups, have added to the apprehensions of the people. The rising anarchy is heading towards a sort of civil war.

[Gaf]

It is quite unfortunate that the "baboons" have unrestricted access to Scientific American to vent their propoganda against Pakistan...

http://www.sciam.com/2001/1201issue/1201ramana.html

[hassany]

November 18, 2001
Noose is tightening around bin Laden
By ERIC MARGOLIS
Contributing Foreign Editor
Osama bin Laden has survived at least 10 assassination attempts mounted by the Soviets, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. But now, after the rapid retreat of Taliban forces and fall of Kabul to the Northern Alliance, the noose is tightening around the world's most wanted man.

The Taliban's retreat was inevitable. Its 30,000, lightly-armed tribal fighters spread over a Texas-sized nation could not withstand massive U.S. air attacks and Northern Alliance Tajik and Uzbek troops freshly supplied by Russia with tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery. The Taliban's deftly executed surprise retreat wrong-footed the U.S. and Pakistan, who didn't want the Alliance to occupy Kabul before they could cobble together a government of their own choosing.

The Northern Alliance is a proxy for Russia. Its two military leaders are Gen. Rashid Dostam, a brutal communist warlord who slaughtered 30,000 civilians in the 1990s, and Gen. Mohammad Faheem, a senior officer of Khad, the former Afghan communist secret police, an arm of the Soviet KGB. Khad's forces tortured and murdered thousands of Afghans.

To Washington's embarrassment, the Alliance also controls Afghanistan's opium and heroin exports. The Taliban, a religious movement, had shut down the drug trade. The war against terrorism has plainly taken priority over the war on drugs.

Handing northern Afghanistan and Kabul over to the Russians appears the price the U.S. had to pay for Moscow's support in the hunt for bin Laden. As this column has long warned, if the Taliban was overthrown it would be replaced by the even more brutal Uzbek-Tajik alliance dominated by Russia. Having ousted the Russians from Afghanistan in the 1980s, Washington has now invited them back in. So far, clever Vladimir Putin is the big winner in the Afghan mess.

Mullah Omar, the Taliban's leader, ordered his men to retreat into Pashtun territory in southwest Afghanistan, and into neighbouring Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun Northwest Frontier Province (NFP). This wild region, birthplace of the Taliban, is only under nominal control of Pakistan's government. The NFP's heavily armed Pashtun tribesmen are a law unto themselves.

Taliban says it will now wage guerrilla warfare from NFP and from the central Hindu Kush mountains north of Kandahar. The Talibs believe guerrilla fighting will allow them to finally engage U.S. troops hunting for bin Laden at more equal odds. Unless the Taliban quickly collapses from mass defections, the war has entered a new phase.

ON SCHEDULE

The U.S. military plan for Afghanistan is on schedule. The overthrow of the Taliban regime has opened the way for U.S. special forces to hunt down bin Laden, who is believed hiding in cave complexes north of Kandahar that he helped build during the jihad against the Soviets. It is essential for the U.S. to capture bin Laden or at least recover his body. If he somehow escapes, or is buried alive in a cave, the U.S. will be unable to proclaim victory and will have to face charges it tore apart Afghanistan, killed large numbers of civilians and created tens of thousands of refugees - for nothing.

Last week, pro-Taliban sources in Pakistan reported bin Laden vowed he will not be taken alive, a position perfectly in keeping with his record as a courageous fighter against the Soviets and a "mujahed," or holy warrior, ready to become "shahid," or martyred, for his faith.

The multi-million-dollar reward being offered by the U.S. for bin Laden will certainly tempt local tribesmen and even some Taliban leaders to hand him over to the Americans. Sudden betrayal and double-dealing are the norm in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military government would also reap huge additional rewards from the U.S. by handing over bin Laden.

Last week, President George Bush authorized closed military tribunals for the first time since World War II. They are clearly designed to avoid having bin Laden and his associates, if captured, stand trial in open courts where they could defend themselves and win sympathy in the Third World. These hanging courts, which are sure to hand down death sentences, are more worthy of the Soviet Union than the United States.

There is still a remote chance the elusive bin Laden could escape. He may slip across the border into the Northwest Frontier and be hidden by friendly Pashtun tribesmen. There is much sympathy for the Taliban and bin Laden in Pakistan. Some Islamist officers of Pakistan's army or intelligence service might aid bin Laden's escape. But it will be very difficult for the world's most notorious man to change his appearance. Bin laden is over 6 foot 4, gaunt, and possesses the world's most famous face.

There are very few places where he could hide. Nations like Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria or Indonesia would be unable to withstand American pressure to hand him over. Bin Laden and Iraq's Saddam Hussein are bitter enemies. Libya is lying low. Iran and the Russian satellite states of Central Asia are his bitter enemies. China is hostile. Wherever bin Laden might find refuge, he is almost certain to be sold to the U.S. for cash or political favours.

The day bin Laden openly declared a one-man war against the U.S. over Israel, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, he signed his own death warrant.

[SyedA]

The killing of Mohammed Atef, bin Laden's chief lieutenant and chosen successor as leader of the al-Qa'eda, is believed to have dealt a blow to morale within the terrorist network.

How the hell do they know he is dead, I mean what is the assumption? Or is to make the americans happy and feed their ego? I doubt any of this news coming out is true. Anything that comes out of UK or US newspapers are 95% propaganda and 5% fantasizing.

The most fierce attacks have come from Arab and Pakistani fighters, who are prepared to fight to the death because they assume that they will be killed if captured by anti-Taliban forces.

Very interesting, wonder how many Pakistanis are still there fighting.

It is assumed that the terrorist leader may be disguised. He is also thought to have several lookalikes dispersed around Afghanistan.

This is the 5% I am talking about!!

[SyedA]

ERIC MARGOLIS article is pretty insightful. He is right that Russia is back in atthe invitation of US. If russia providing arms then obviously they have a big say in the future govt. setup in Afghanistan. It is ironic that US was fighting Russia in the past afghan war, more so that Putin was a intelligence officers in KGB most likely serving in Afghanistan, now both US and Putin govt are fighting the same people they fought over a decade oe so ago!!!

What Pakistan needs to do for a secure western border is to get the dostum and faheem assasinated. Get on the leaders bribed and get thme to take these two leaders out. This is very important that any pro-communist leaders be taken out of this picture ASAP.

[AkramIshaqKhan]

There are two groups that fight the hardest in Afghanistan. Even the NA recognize this a say that the Pakistanis and Arab fighters are the fiercest. I am so SAD at what is happening with the poor Arab and Pakistani fighters in Kunduz. I mean these guys are so far removed from the happening in Sept 11. For them it is their conviction of religion, and struggle for life that makes them fight. May God give them justice, and eternal peace.

JK.

[Gaf]

I haven't heard a 'peep' out of Musharraf since he landed back in Pakistan..... i wonder what he has to say for himself.

It is unfortunate that the fighters, numbering about 20,000 (according to NewsNight) have been abandoned in Kunduz. I don't see how they can survive, especially with B52's bombing them. It seems that the troops are prepared to negiotate a handover of the city under guaranteed UN control but it seems that all the Americans+N.Alliance are interested in is a bloodbath.........

Given that the N.A. have become the goverment (with the exception of course, of the "lip service" to a broad based goverment), i don't at present see how Pakistan can influence events in Afghanistan.

If the Taliban left Kandahar, and handed control over to a Pashtun leader, then Pakistan potentially have some leverage through this as this important city will not be under N.Alliance control. If however, Kandahar 'falls' to the Northern Alliance, then Pakistan, and more importantly the Pashtuns have no leverage left at all, since they will not be "players"........

[Uzair]

The south is still under Pushtun control though, but not the central government of course.

[Saad Hasan]

Originally posted by jkhan
There are two groups that fight the hardest in Afghanistan. Even the NA recognize this a say that the Pakistanis and Arab fighters are the fiercest. I am so SAD at what is happening with the poor Arab and Pakistani fighters in Kunduz. I mean these guys are so far removed from the happening in Sept 11. For them it is their conviction of religion, and struggle for life that makes them fight. May God give them justice, and eternal peace.

JK.

I see major shift in your stance as oppose to a couple of months ago....

[FarazA]

Waqqas,
I understand what you are saing. I just heard this morning DR. Israr Ahmed's lecture about The Great wars. If you can get hands on it it is very interesting. Interms of Sunnahs and the current situtions and also the 1990 Gulf war. I will post in more details later tonite. InshahAllah.

[SyedA]

Afghan opposition plays hard-to-get on UN power-sharing plan: KABUL, Nov 18: Leaders of Northern Alliance kept their cards to their chests today over UN moves to convene a power-sharing council with representatives from the dominant Pashtun ethnic group and other factions. Spearheading the diplomatic push was UN envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell who was expected to meet today with ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani. Vendrell is urging the Tajik-dominated Northern Alliance, which seized control of the Afghan capital in dramatic fashion last Tuesday, to meet other Afghan factions in a neutral country. The top diplomat was "holding talks with senior Afghan officials" about a timeframe for setting up a broad-based post-Taliban regime in Afghanistan, a UN official in Kabul told AFP today.

[H Khan]

.c The Associated Press


OTTAWA (AP) - An international conference to discuss a reconstruction program for Afghanistan will be held Nov. 27-29 in Pakistan, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said Sunday.

The conference in Islamabad will be led by the World Bank, the U.N. Development Program and the Asian Development Bank. An initial meeting held by the United States and Japan is scheduled for Tuesday in Washington, with the World Bank and U.N. development agency taking part, Wolfensohn said.

Any reconstruction plan would be implemented only when humanitarian relief efforts have been completed and a political solution has been found, he said.

``We would not want to go for a reconstruction plan decided by foreigners for a government that has not come into place,'' Wolfensohn told reporters at the end of World Bank-International Monetary Fund talks in Ottawa.

A World Bank statement said the conference agenda would include ways to stimulate agricultural recovery and generate employment, along with developing education and health services and rebuilding essential infrastructure such as roads and irrigation networks.

There was no cost estimate, but the statement said reconstruction was expected to be high.

AP-NY-11-18-01 1825EST

[AkramIshaqKhan]

Check this out. This is the first time - Now Kashmiri rebels are being called PAKISTANI MILITANTS.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/649816.asp?0dm=C315N

This is a diaster.

JK.

[Gul Khan]

Originally posted by jkhan
Check this out. This is the first time - Now Kashmiri rebels are being called PAKISTANI MILITANTS.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/649816.asp?0dm=C315N

This is a diaster.

JK.

MSNBC is an Indian mouth piece it even has an office in the terrorist state.

[SyedA]

Taliban agree to surrender Kunduz


By M. Ismail Khan

PESHAWAR, Nov 18: The Taliban surrounded in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province agree to surrender before a UN-supervised neutral authority as incessant US bombings leave hundreds dead and wounded.

"We have authorized the governor of the province to take necessary steps in this respect," Mulla Fazil, the Taliban's chief commander for Afghanistan's northern zone told Dawn by satellite telephone from Kunduz on Sunday night.

He said that 800 people had died in one of the heaviest bombings on Kunduz in the last two days, and over 250 were killed in Khanabad district on Saturday, he said.

The Taliban, however, have made it clear they would under no circumstances surrender to the Northern Alliance. "We don't trust them," Fazil said. 20

The puritanical militia has been alarmed by the killings in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul by the Northern Alliance forces.

The Taliban have set out four conditions to surrender Kunduz:

* They would surrender the province only to a neutral Afghan under the UN supervision;

* Foreign fighters, including Arabs and Chechen supporters of Osama bin Laden would be handed over to the UN to be sent back to their respective countries;

* Heavy weapons would be surrendered to the neutral caretakers; and

* The Taliban should be allowed a safe passage to disperse and go home.

Afghan sources put the total number of Taliban troops holed up in Kunduz at between 20,000 to 25,000 and a significant number of Arab and other foreign fighters linked to Osama's Al Qaeda organization.

Earlier, Mulla Dadullah, a top Taliban commander, dismissed reports of Taliban's proposed surrender to the UN as "lies". However, he said: "We are prepared to resolve this matter through negotiations," Dadullah, who with two other top Taliban commanders, Mulla Fazil and Mullla Berather, are in Kunduz.

A Taliban official clarified: "Our promise made to those negotiating a peaceful transition holds."

Dadullah who had gone to Mazar-i-Sharif with 8,000 men late last month to preempt its fall later returned to Kunduz, but could not leave as all routes leaving the northern province #had been cut off and seized by the Northern Alliance forces.

Haji Omar Khan, the brother of a former Mujahideen commander and late governor, Arif Khan, who was shot and killed by unknown assailants in Peshawar last year, rules the Pakhtoon-dominated Kunduz.

Earlier, tribal elders from Kunduz told a news conference in Peshawar that the Taliban were prepared to surrender and support a neutral administration.

Afghan sources said that the Taliban's offer had been communicated to the US and Britain.

Tayyab Agha, personal secretary to Taliban supreme leader, Mulla Muhammad Omar, acknowledged that the Taliban were faced with difficulties in Kunduz but denied having knowledge of a possible surrender.

The Kandahar governor, Mulla Muhammad Hassan Rahmani told BBC Pushto Service: "The people of Kunduz continue to support the Taliban and are prepared to resist the Northern Alliance."

He claimed that the situation in the Taliban's spiritual headquarters was calm and peaceful. "People are happy," he said but added that 20 to 25 people were killed in the US bombing in Kandahar on Sunday.

[MohammedA]

Pakistan detains Islamic 'army leader'


The tribesmen have machine guns and swords

An Islamic leader who led thousands of Pakistanis across the border to support the Taleban in Afghanistan has been arrested, his son has confirmed.
Maulana Sufi Mohammed was detained by paramilitary police on Sunday when he slipped back into Pakistan, his son Fazllulah told Reuters news agency.

Fazllulah said about 1,000 of his father's followers were still missing in Afghanistan.

Mohammed is the head of Tehreek Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammadi, a group which supports the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in Pakistan.

'Robbed by Afghans'

Mohammed and many of his supporters spent much of last week stranded in the border area because Pakistani border guards insisted they leave their weapons behind.



He was arrested near the town of Parachinar, some 250 kilometres (150 miles) north of Peshawar.

His supporters, who entered Afghanistan armed with machine guns, rocket launchers, axes and swords, began trying to get home after the Taleban retreated from the north of the country.

Fazllulah told the Associated Press news agency recently that many Afghans tried to rob his father's fighters of their weapons and money.

The Pakistan tribesmen gathered in response to calls for volunteers by local Islamic militants.

Most come from villages inside the North West Frontier Province, which has strong cultural and family ties with Afghanistan.