Tussle Within
As the war drags on, the US discovers the perils of allying with a dictator who wants to appear a statesman abroad and a politician at home.

Battle Weary Wasteland
An exclusive photo feature captures images of Afghan life during unending conflict.

Down and Out
An account of sebi's undoing under D.R. Mehta and the tasks for a new team that will be at the helm in the regulatory body early next year.

AFGHANISTAN: WAR DIARY

Battle Weary Wasteland

The scars of war are everywhere. Machine guns are now an extension of the body, a walk to the battlefield a daily chore, the debris of destroyed tanks grotesque milestones. There is not much left now to live for in Afghanistan. Or to die for, as Chief Photographer Dilip Banerjee, who travelled through northern Afghanistan, found.

GUNFIGHT AT SHOMALI The frontline, just 30 km from Kabul, is an anticlimax. Artillery and tanks are nowhere in sight. Instead it is a battle for control over villages that dot the vast scrub covered Shomali plains, acting as the line of control between the Taliban and Northern Alliance. Like in the Rabat outpost where Alliance soldiers trudge each day with their Kalashnikovs and rocket propelled grenade rifles and take positions atop sheltered rooftops. They let loose a volley of fire on Taliban soldiers, who are ensconced in houses just 200 metres away. There are a few victories and minor advances. In most areas, by the end of the evening it is a stalemate.

CAUGHT IN A TIME WARP Much of Afghanistan is like journeying back in time. The market town of Barak near the city of Faizabad in northern Afghanistan hasn't changed in centuries. Carpet sellers jostle with fruit vendors. Stones from the rivers are used as weights. The Afghani, the official currency of the Alliance government, has seen its value drop so drastically in recent times that you need gunny sacks to carry the amounts needed for big purchases. A dollar is worth 80,000 Afghanis. The war has brought in American imports: Pepsi cans. As well as yellow food packets dropped by US planes as relief.

DEATH OF INNOCENCE In Afghanistan dreams die very young. As does innocence. At 40 you are over the hill, at fourteen fully grown. Boy or girl. At Shamali village near Kabul, 14-year-old Yashmin is one of the many teenagers in her village toting Kalashnikovs with ease. The Alliance forces are more liberal than the Taliban. Schools for girls continue to remain open. But dropout rates are high and early marriage a rule. Yashmin shunned marriage and a life of servitude to take up arms. Her fragile loveliness doesn't hide her calm determination to defend her village from the Taliban forces. Death is a constant companion. But fear rarely crosses her eyes.
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