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COVER STORY: WAR
ZONE
Abundant Supplies
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TENT CITY: More than 15,000 refugee families, fleeing war, famine
and Taliban terror, subsist on rations doled out by foreign aid
agencies at camps on the banks of Amu river
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Of more immediate
importance is the fact that the alliance is now flush with military supplies.
Hours before the US strike, Attiqula Baryalai, Fahim's key deputy, drove
to an incongruous outpost in Dasht-e-Kala, about 30 km from Khwaja Bahawudin.
There the lean and muscular Baryalai met key commanders to decide on distribution
of the ammunition. On slips of paper, he scribbled the figures for each
sector: 1,800 AK-47s, 1,000 PK-type machine guns and over 500 rocket-propelled
grenade launchers. In 10 minutes, he had distributed close to 10,000 guns
to the regiments guarding the northern sector. It looked as if the Russians
and Iranians had stepped up the supplies. That included an entire regiment
of T-55 tanks and armoured personnel carriers, which lay sheltered behind
a bend in the Amu river close to the barge we had used to cross the border.
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TENSION IN AIR: News from the battlefront
is eagerly followed on radio, the only sourcez
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It was noon when we reached the regiment and
the sun was mercilessly hot. Yet General Abdul Muneer, the strapping regiment
commander from Panjshir Valley, was willing to demonstrate how eager his
men were to do battle. He ordered them to get into half-a-dozen tanks
and show off their prowess. The tank engines roared to life and they moved
swiftly across the banks of the river raising a cloud of dust. Most tanks
carried a picture of Masood who is fast acquiring a Che Guevara-like stature
in the region. I got inside one of the tanks with Muneer. Ammunition is
packed tightly all over and there is barely enough space to stretch your
legs. Muneer said determinedly, "The Talibs are terrorists. They
have become slaves to foreign powers. They will soon be thrown out."
The way he pronounces the word "terrorists", it sounds like
tourists.
A little later we are invited to lunch by General
Abdul Wahid, who runs an army base workshop. His tent offers a magnificent
view of the Amu. His deputy, Dadullah, joins us and is delighted to know
we are from India. He lost a leg in a mine blast four years ago and spent
six months in a Delhi hospital where an artificial leg was fitted. Wahid
apologises for the simple lunch of pulao and dal. We tell him it's the
best meal we have had in days. "The dal is from India," he says,
"We won't touch anything that is from Pakistan."
The visceral hatred for Pakistanis and their
interference in Afghan affairs is something that one encounters right
across northern Afghanistan. There is much anger against Pakistan's support
to the Taliban and the deep involvement of the isi in building and training
its army. Even our translator Javed, who studied Urdu in Peshawar, is
upset with their devious ways. Referring to the US move to bail out Pakistan's
economy he said, "All it takes is money for Pakistan to switch sides
and dump Afghanistan."
The Northern Alliance forces have other concerns
about Pakistan's involvement. In an innocuous house in Dasht-e-Kala, we
met General Rahimutallah Mohibullah. He is the commander of the 7,000-strong
alliance forces that has been lined up to regain Talukhan from the Taliban.
Dressed in army fatigues, the stocky Mohibullah explained, "The Talibs
we can take on any time. But it is the former Pakistani officers and Osama
bin Laden's men that will make the fight a tough one."
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