Provincial authorities in southern Afghanistan said on Tuesday they had detained 19 Taliban guerrillas, including a group mounted on motorcycles to facilitate cross-border infiltration.
"Mahmoud! Are the Shriners the ones with the turbans or the ones with the fezzes?"
"Fezzes, Ahmed."
"Thanks. Here, you people! Halt in the name of the Law!" |
Hafizullah Hashmi, the governor of Zabul province, said 10 guerrillas from among a group of 20 on motorcycles were detained on Sunday night in the province’s Shinki district. Hashmi said the group arrested in Zabul had been responsible for attacks recently on government forces in which some soldiers were killed. He said they had been given new motorcycles to allow them to enter Afghanistan easily from Pakistan to carry out attacks. The governor of neighbouring Uruzgan province, Jan Mohammad Khan, said another nine guerrillas had been detained there the same day. Earlier this month, the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review magazine reported that the Taliban had bought more than 1,000 motorcycles over the past three months in Pakistan’s Quetta region. |