Author: Reuters
Publication: www.expressindia.com
Date: November 16, 2001
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=4606
Quetta, Pakistan, November 15: The
people of the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have risen up against the
embattled fundamentalist Taliban and heavy fighting was raging in the city
on Thursday, a leading opposition figure said. Pakistani border officials
said US jets were bombing the city but they had heard of no fighting in
the city, fuelling the confusion over who controls the stronghold of the
Taliban and their last major bastion not yet captured by opponents.
Tribal leader Hamid Karzai, drumming
up support in Afghanistan for the return of ex-King Zahir Shah, told Reuters
the Taliban were withdrawing heavy equipment from the city, stronghold
of their supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. "The people have totally
risen against them," Karzai said by satellite telephone from the central
province of Uruzgan. "The Kandahar people have taken to the city streets.
The Taliban are withdrawing heavy equipment out of Kandahar."
It was not possible to get independent
confirmation of his information. But local non-governmental organisations
say there are reports of hundreds of Afghan families fleeing towards the
Pakistani border because of fighting. "It's clear that people are fleeing
here and there," said Mohammad Akbar, an official in Pakistan with British
charity Islamic Relief.
"There are 200 to 300 families (of
refugees) from Kandahar coming to Spin Boldak (near the Afghan-Pakistani
border)," he told Reuters in the south-eastern Pakistani city of Quetta.
A spokesman for US-based Human Rights Watch said the pressure group had
heard similar reports of refugees on the move in the Kandahar region. The
fate of Kandahar is now in the spotlight after the opposition Northern
Alliance, backed by US air strikes, swept into the formerly Taliban-held
cities of northern Mazar-i-Sharif, western Herat and the capital, Kabul,
in the last six days.
The ancient walled city lies in
the heart of the Pashtun tribal belt where the Taliban had found most of
its support. A senior Pakistani border official reported a heavy US aerial
bombardment in Kandahar. The bombardment was at its fiercest when Taliban
trucks of troops retreated back toward Kandahar, the border official said.
Opposition figures in the south say tribal chieftains, including former
Kandahar mujahideen governor Gul Agha entered Afghanistan at the start
of the week to try and retake the city. Karzai said he was in touch with
moderate Taliban elements and reports of mass desertions were correct.
NEGOTIATING WITH TALIBAN
He declined to identify the Taliban
but said negotiations on a deal were making progress. Karzai gave no further
details. The former deputy foreign minister of a pre-Taliban government
and leader of the Popalzai tribe has been in Afghanistan since shortly
after the United States began its bombing campaign on October 7. Karzai's
aim is to win the backing of local tribes for the establishment of a Loya
Jirga, or grand council, to be presided over by Zahir Shah, in exile in
Rome since being deposed in 1973.
Karzai confirmed reports from U.S.
officials that Taliban forces had withdrawn from Uruzgan. "The people moved
into the town of Tarin Kowt (in the south of the province) just carrying
pick forks," he said. "The Taliban, they are withdrawing from many areas."
Hamid Achakzai, a member of the powerful Pashtun Achakzai tribe, said various
Afghan-linked parties met in Quetta on Wednesday and were unanimous that
a Loya Jirga, or grand council, should decide on a broad-based government.
"We were all in favour of a Loya
Jirga with the king as a nucleus. The stress was on a Loya Jirga," Achakzai,
brother of tribal leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai, told Reuters. Achakzai
also dismissed concerns being voiced in the southwestern border region
that the Pashtun tribes of the south could clash with advancing Northern
Alliance units. The Northern Alliance is a coalition formed mainly of Uzbek
and Tajik ethnic minorities. Achakzai said people were losing sight of
the fact that the Alliance also included sizeable Pashtun elements. "Northern
Alliance is Pashtun-dominated even now," he insisted.
