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Afghanistan
Taliban bigwigs taking it easy in Baluchistan
2002-02-10
  • "We shaved off our beards, changed our turbans from white Taliban to Kandahari [green or black with thin white stripes], got in cars and drove on the road across the border," says Maulana Abdullah Sahadi, the former Taliabn deputy defence minister, adding, "My beard was as long as this." He gestured down to his chest. The Pakistani authorities, he claims, turned a blind eye.

    While US special forces based in Kandahar continue to go on daily operations in the Afghan mountains searching for al-Qaeda and Taliban, just across the border it is an open secret that senior Taliban ministers are sheltering in madrassas and houses. Among those are Turabi, the Justice Minister, Abdul Razzak, the Interior Minister, Qadratuallah Jamal, the Culture Minister, and the spokesman for Mullah Omar.

    According to Sahadi, bin Laden was still in Afghanistan when the Taliban fell at the end of last year, and he laughed at the Americans' failure to catch him. "I spoke to him on the telephone the day we surrendered Kandahar and he was in Paktia and he was fine. I briefed him and he wished me Godspeed. Now we think he is in Saudi or Yemen."

    "Thank God this war happened because now we really know who is with us and who is against us," Sahadi adds. "Karzai went to the other camp. Once he pretended he was with us, but now we see he just wanted power. They will all be brought before justice and punished according to Islamic law."
    Yeah, yeah. Save your Taliban money, boys, 'cuz the Pashtuns are gonna rise again. That's Afghanistan, and everybody changes sides so fast the eye can't follow it. The cycle only has to stop once.
    • Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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