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COVER STORY: WAR ZONE
Secret Alliance
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CROWN OF THORNS: General Fahim Khan is Masood's successor, but
lacks his charisma
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There are nagging
suspicions that the US has entered into a deal with Pakistan to deprive
the Northern Alliance of a final victory by inducting defectors from the
Taliban into a future government. Reports that the US may be on the verge
of deploying ground forces from bases in Uzbekistan are viewed with alarm.
The alliance plans to counter this by capturing as much territory in the
north-particularly the cities of Kunduz, Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif-so that
it has an adequate bargaining clout for the future.
Pakistan's role will again be key to the stability
of any future Afghanistan regime. Over the years, Pakistan has invested
much of its resources in nurturing the Taliban and will now make every
effort to have a say in the emerging dispensation. Islamabad has always
been against the alliance saying it lacked the support of the Pashtoon
community that accounts for 41 per cent of Afghanistan's 16 million people.
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| MARCH OF
DESPERATION: The US bombardment sparked a fresh wave of exodus from
Kabul (above) and other Taliban-controlled cities
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There is some truth to Pakistan's criticism.
Tajiks, who form 22 per cent of the population, dominate the alliance
(Masood was a Tajik). The Uzbeks account for 6 per cent and are led by
General Rashid Dostum who has made a comeback after years in exile. The
Hazaras constitute another 5 per cent and have rejoined the alliance.
Also back is Ismail Khan, the respected former governor of Herat province.
Fearing that the lack of Pashtoon support may
derail their efforts, the US and its allies have begun work on other solutions.
Even before the war, moves were afoot to bring back former king Mohammad
Zahir Shah, who is living in exile in Rome. The idea is to get the king,
who is a Pashtoon, to convene a Loya Jirga or assembly of tribal and regional
leaders to determine the fate of post-war Afghanistan.
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CHANGE OF GUARD: Alliance forces have consolidated their hold on
Takhar province
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Afghanistan's real tragedy is the enormity of
suffering that the many wars have wrought. Even before the US strikes
began, over a million people fled to Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan. Meanwhile,
three years of a devastating drought has all but destroyed Afghanistan's
agricultural production. In some perverse way, the Taliban has achieved
its goal of taking Afghanistan to the medieval ages in its bid to establish
a purist Islamic society. Most Afghans now live in Stone-Age conditions.
The once-proud people are dependent on doles from aid agencies that are
constantly harassed by the Taliban.
In the town square at Khwaja Bahawudin, a crowd
of refugees had gathered to collect the weekly ration of sugar being distributed
by Acted, a French relief organisation. Among them was 38-year-old Syed
Kareem who fled with his wife and two children from nearby Khwaja Gar
after the Taliban police repeatedly set fire to his house for not following
their orders to pray five times a day. He lives in a tent on the banks
of the Amu like 15,000 other families.
Acted is the lone agency helping out refugees
in the northern region and Cyril Dupree, its coordinator, says, "The
real emergency is inside Afghanistan. And there is just not enough being
done." The economy lies in tatters. The Afghani, the official currency,
fluctuates wildly. Moneychangers have to distribute notes in gunnysacks.
A day before the war broke out the exchange rate was 80,000 Afghani to
a dollar and now it hovers around 50,000 to a dollar. Prices are absurd
with tomatoes and onions costing one lakh Afghanis a kg ($2). Vegetable
sellers don't have iron weights but use round stones to measure quantity.
Petrol, mainly imported from Uzbekistan, is sold in tin drums with a 100
litres costing $200 (Rs 9,600).
The progress of the war is followed keenly.
At the Najibullah Hotel in Dasht-e-Kala, which serves the best kebabs
in the region, every other person carries a transistor to listen to the
latest from the front. Refugees are another source of news. At the centre
of attention is 14-year-old Khaled who escaped from Kabul before the US
bombardment began and undertook a traumatic 24-hour journey to return
home. Khaled said the Taliban police were constantly picking on him for
not growing a beard. They even arrested him and kept him in detention
for a day.
While the Taliban has shut down all girl schools,
the ones that the boys go to are in no better shape. In Dasht-e-kala,
for instance, constant bombing by Taliban forced the only school to shift
its premises away from the town. There, next to an overflowing nullah,
groups of boys learn under thatched huts. Abdul Mahmood says he hopes
to become a doctor when he grows up. Headmaster Fakruddin is pessimistic.
He says the drop-out rate is 80 per cent with most of the students joining
the mujahideen.
As the war rages, the refugees in Kashlok camp
No. 1, on the outskirts of Khwaja Bahawudin, wait in anticipation. Ghulam
Rasool, a farmer, hopes that it will end soon so that he can return to
his house in Talukhan. He recollected the trauma of escaping with his
wife and three children after the Taliban captured his village. Like most
Afghan women, his wife Gul Afrooz covers her face and refuses to speak.
But whenever her husband misses a detail she prompts him. Rasool is in
tears as he points to the torn clothes of his children Javed, 10, and
Sharbana, 12. They have no shoes.
By then it is evening. The sun is still an incandescent
white globe on the horizon. In the ruins near the camp, the elders offer
namaaz. Waiting patiently for her father to finish his prayers is five-year-old
Mallika Abdul Rashid. She is clutching a schoolbook titled My Hero. What
strikes me is the sparkle in her big brown eyes. I pray that it never
dims.
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