New Delhi, November 20
With the retreat of Taliban from all the cities and provinces of Afghanistan, except Kunduz, there is bad news for Pakistan. About 1400 Pakistanis have already been killed in fighting in Afghanistan and about 400 Pakistanis have been taken prisoner.
According to classified reports here today, the fate of 600 Pakistanis, who were forcibly sent by terrorist outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba is "not known", which in military slang means "presumed dead". They were mostly from Sindh and belonged to poor families.
Well-placed sources quoting the above-mentioned reports said the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet had already mounted a surveillance of all ships leaving Pakistan waters to cut off marine escape routes of bin Laden.
The American move obviously shows that it is not 100 per cent sure whether Bin Laden is in Afghanistan or has managed to escape to Pakistan. If he is in Afghanistan, the tightening of noose around Kunduz should yield the desired results.
If Bin Laden is somewhere in Pakistan he may try to get out of that country through sea route. Strict surveillance by American Navy will take care of that probability also, sources said.
Sources said the US Navy had sent signals to all commercial shipping companies through its maritime
liaison office in Bahrain to start search operations of all commercial vessels.
The US Navy is understood to have given clear instructions to its sailing units to destroy the commercial vessels in case such vessels block search operations and confront the US ships with armed resistance.
