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Monday,
November 12, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Don’t
capture Kabul, ex-king’s men warn Alliance What
caused the Taliban rout at Mazar
Pak
redeploys N-arsenal at 6 new sites Key role
for India in US plan |
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New Pak
curbs on Taliban envoy Apache
copters, F-16 spares for Pak army Anthrax
found in 3 Senators’ offices Kumaratunga
sacks 31 airmen
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Don’t capture Kabul, ex-king’s men warn Alliance Rome, November 11 “They promised us they would not go into Kabul and we expect them to stick to that promise,” Abdul Sattar Sirat, a senior representative of the ex-king, told newsmen. “We fear that if they enter Kabul, other powers and factions would also enter from the southern part and so there would be some confrontations,” he said. In the past 48 hours, the Northern Alliance appears to have captured huge swathes of territory in the north and west of Afghanistan, including Pul-i-Khumri, a strategic town on the main road to Kabul. The opposition force, which is being backed from the air by U.S. bombing raids, has said it is in a position to advance on the capital at any time and will enter the city if there is a “political vacuum”. Another adviser to the former King Zahir Shah, who lives in exile in Rome, warned the Northern Alliance not to repeat the mistake it made in capturing the capital in 1992, only to slide into a civil war with rivals. “We don’t want the mistake made again, we don’t want history repeated and for Kabul to become the victim of different factions fighting,” said adviser Hamid Sidig. Kabul: Mazar-i-Sharif is savouring “a taste of freedom” after three years of harsh Islamic fundamentalist rule under the Taliban militia, the opposition said today. Music is being played on the radio, men can choose whether to shave their beards and women can also show their faces for the first time since the Taliban entered the northern city three years ago and went on a killing spree. Speaking from the city, Mohammad Sardar Saeedi, top adviser to the leadership of Hezb-e-Wahdat, a Shia Muslim faction, said, “It is peaceful in Mazar-i-Sharif today. Residents are back on the streets, most shops are open. It is getting back to work.” In Taliban territory, men have been lashed for not having a beard long enough to be grabbed by a militia guard. Black burqas that cover women from head-to-toe leaving only a small slit in a veil to see out of have been one of the symbols of the Taliban rule, a practice condemned as repression by critics. Most women are expected to still stick to Afghan tradition and wear a burqa or scarf, analysts said. In addition, the ethnic Uzbek warlord Gen Abdul Rashid Dostum ended yesterday a Taliban ban on women’s schools and television in the areas he captured from the hardline Islamic movement. “Now women can continue their education,’’ he told the BBC, a day after his forces took the key northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif, the first major prize for his opposition alliance since the start of the US air strikes on the Taliban on October 7. He said he planned to resume radio and television broadcasts. Meanwhile, two Afghan sites suspected of involvement in efforts by Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaida followers to produce deadly chemicals have been identified by the USA, The New York Times reported today. “The US bombing has spared the sites, even though US intelligence officials believe that Al-Qaida may already have produced cyanide gas at one of these, a crude chemical weapons research laboratory in Derunta, a small village near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad,’’ the newspaper reported. When approached by the Times, officials at the CIA, the White House and the Pentagon refused to say why the sites had not been bombed. “The US officials say intelligence reports showing the possible production of small quantities of cyanide gas provide the strongest indication they have received of Al-Qaida’s success in its efforts to develop chemical weapons,’’ the newspaper said.
Reuters, AFP |
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What caused the Taliban rout at
Mazar Dolon Sang, Charikar, November 11 Within minutes, fierce fighting erupted up and down the frontline that ran in a smooth arc around from the south-west of Mazar-e-Sharif and up around the airport, five miles to the east of the city. And then the unthinkable happened: the Taliban line collapsed. Taliban infantrymen leapt from their trenches and ran. Others scrambled into jeeps, pick-up trucks and lorries. Soldiers jumped out of their tanks and joined the flight, together with the crews of the few big guns not already smashed by days of intensive air bombardment. By midday, the first Northern Alliance units had reached the outskirts of the city, reporting that they were encountering feeble resistance. The two generals in joint command, Ostad Ata and Abdul Rashid Dostum, ordered their ubiquitous pick-up trucks — the vehicle of choice in a country almost devoid of paved roads — to be brought forward. By last light, the first columns of these vehicles, with soldiers packed in and some clinging to the sides, nosed their way into the city. They found the darkened streets deserted. The enemy which had held Mazar since 1998 had fled. All of this was sweet revenge: three years ago, when the Taliban captured Mazar from the Northern Alliance, they celebrated with a murderous rampage that left 6,000 men, women and children dead. By morning, the flying columns of the Northern Alliance, many now running out of fuel, reported they had captured the town of Pol-e Khomri. The implications of this rout are enormous. In less than 24 hours, the whole political, strategic and military picture of the entire region changed. The extraordinary speed of developments on the ground has left Washington scrambling to reassess its policy. On Thursday, US officials were embarrassed by the lack of progress, despite five weeks of bombing, by Northern Alliance forces. By last night, the collapse had left Washington sending out anxious signals to the anti-Taliban forces that it now wants them to slow down. But, with the smell of victory and with Taliban commanders now queuing up to defect, there is no reason why they should. What the USA is afraid of is that the Northern Alliance, which is dominated by the country’s Tajiks, Uzbeks and other minorities will now move to seize power without seeing any need to share it with Pashtoons, who make up between 38 per cent and 45 per cent of Afghanistan’s population and are its biggest single ethnic group. Until now the USA has been pushing a political process by which the Northern Alliance will send 60 delegates to a meeting, with another 60 selected by the former King, the 86-year-old Zahir Shah, who is a Pashtoon and lives in Rome. But this process has faltered. He says his troops will come to the gates of Kabul and they will not fight inside Pashtoon ethnic territory, where, like the Taliban in the North, they would then be considered the foreign occupiers. Qanuni’s plan is that, once the Taliban have been driven from non-Pashtoon lands then, ‘we will come to a political understanding. We are not interested in a division of the country’. What this amounts to is an American nightmare, that is to say a powerful Northern Alliance dictating terms, rather than being dictated to by them. The Americans fear that if this happens, the Afghan wars which began in 1979 will continue. And also expand, forcing Pakistan, with its own powerful Pashtoon lobby, to stay deeply involved. An even worse scenario foresees that unless a power-sharing offer acceptable to the Afghan Pashtoons is made, then this will provoke a new wave of Pashtoon nationalism in Pakistan itself, which might then rapidly descend into civil war.
The Observer, London |
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Pak redeploys
N-arsenal at
6 new sites Washington, November 11 Quoting “senior officials’’ in Pakistan, the newspaper reported that General Musharraf took these steps “in the weeks since Pakistan joined the US campaign against terrorism’’ to protect Pakistan’s nuclear weapons from theft or attack. The Pakistan military began relocating critical nuclear weapons components within two days of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the USA, the newspaper said. General Musharraf created a Strategic Planning Division within the nuclear programme, headed by a three-star general, amid a shuffle of top Pakistani military and intelligence leaders hours before US bombing began on October 7. Gen Khalid Kidwai was now directing operational security of the country’s nuclear sites and weapons, the Post said.
Reuters |
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Key role for India in US plan Washington, November 11 “New Delhi is counting on this and at the same time reminding Washington of its importance in order to avoid the re-emergence of a strong, US-backed Pakistan on its border,’’ the Texas-based Strategic Forecasting (StratFor) said. To improve its leverage with the USA, India — besides drawing attention to Pakistan’s historic ties with the Taliban and the Kashmir militants — had also turned to Moscow for support, it said. Russia — a key component of the US coalition against terror — also faces problems from Islamic extremists in Chechnya. By leaning towards Russia, India hoped to stir Washington to quick action to prevent closer Moscow-New Delhi ties that ultimately could weaken US influence in South and Central Asia, StratFor said. “Moscow has been seemingly happy to oblige, offering to represent New Delhi’s opinions in talks with Washington and to push for India’s inclusion in any ultimate discussions of Afghanistan’s future.’’ “Russia has already backed India’s position that the USA is adopting double standards in differentiating Pakistan-based ultras in Kashmir and other insurgents”, StratFor said quoting Russian President Vladmir Putin’s recent statement that “there cannot be good and bad terrorists.’’ To seal its ties with India, Moscow had promised to deliver the first batch of advanced T-90 tanks to be deployed in the north and the west opposite Pakistan, StratFor said. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had met President George W. Bush armed with Russia’s moral support and the imminent delivery of T-90s, it added.
UNI |
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New Pak curbs on Taliban envoy Islamabad, November 11 Ambassador Abdul Saleem Zaeef, who has already been asked not to hold regular press conferences, has now been told to seek the permission of the Pakistan Foreign Office to meet anyone other than Afghan nationals, Pakistan daily The Nation said. The restrictions were imposed as he indulged in anti-state-interest activities, it said. It also said Zaeef had not stepped out of his residence during the past three days and security personnel were seen discouraging visitors. Security officials, however, have said there were no restrictions on his movements.
PTI |
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Apache copters, F-16 spares for Pak army Islamabad, November 11 The six AH-64D Long Bow Apaches will be part of the $73 million US assistance to Pakistan announced last week to strengthen its western borders with Afghanistan. Although it is not possible to confirm the version of these choppers, it is believed they will be either AH-64 or AH-64D, a report in Al-Akhbar, a daily said. The batch of six Apaches comes after President Pervez Musharraf promised the US authorities he would launch a crackdown on cross-border movement along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border but required help in terms of military hardware including helicopters, spare parts for Pakistan’s fleet of F-16s and other equipment. Another report in a Pakistani daily said the country would soon receive the first shipment of spares for its depleting fleet of F-16s. Islamabad believes international concerns about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets can only be put at rest if the country is provided with state-of-the-art ground and air equipment. “The batch of six Apache helicopters will give lethal teeth to the Pakistan army, which has not inducted any top-of-the-line system into its inventory for more than 10 years now,” says a defence
analyst. IANS |
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Anthrax
found in 3 Senators’ offices Washington, November 11 Environmental sampling in the Hart Senate Office Building revealed traces of anthrax in the offices of California Senator Dianne Feinstein, Idaho Senator Larry Craig and Florida Senator Bob Graham, Capitol Police Lieutenant Dan Nichols said yesterday. More sampling was underway late yesterday, along the path which the anthrax-contaminated letter might have taken into the building, he said.
AFP |
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Kumaratunga
sacks 31 airmen Colombo, November 11 Three other high-ranking Air Force officials, including the number three in the hierarchy, were sternly warned to be more alert in the discharge of duties. An increment in their salaries is to be stopped for lapses that indirectly contributed towards the devastation, a the local daily Sunday Times said. The President also recommended two officers and 10 airmen for gallantry awards.
UNI |
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(
Australian-Israeli dual citizen Mark Eden (L), 37, is arrested for offering to spy for Iran,
in Petahe Tikva, November 6, 2001. Eden, who received Israeli citizenship in 1990, was charged on Sunday with walking into the Iranian embassy in Cyprus and offering to spy on Israel.
Prominent Irian Jaya leader Theys Eluay was found dead near the border of the remote eastern province and Papua New Guinea on
Sunday, the official Antara news agency reported. Eluay is shown in a file photo at a news conference in Jakarta
on April 7, 2000.
— Reuters photos
