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Border village celebrates sons killed by 'the infidel'
IN THE Pakistani village of Mahmoud Abad, a mile from the rugged Afghan border, several dozen people gathered at the mosque yesterday to honour a local boy killed in a battle with coalition forces near Kandahar last week.He was a soldier of Islam who laid down his life fighting the infidels, a bearded and blackturbanned Taleban commander told the crowd, which chanted Allahu akbar (God is greatest). The family of Abdul Baqi, 24, a religious student who had joined the Taleban insurgents in Afghanistan a month ago, likewise celebrated his martyrdom. We are proud of him, said Abdul Qadir, his older brother. Many young men from the dirt-poor village have enrolled as volunteers with the Taleban forces fighting in Afghanistan. Across the Chamman district hundreds have joined up since the madrassas religious schools closed for the summer. Maulana Abdul Ghani, a 75-old-cleric who is dean of Al Jamia Islamia, one of Chammans largest madrassas, said he believed many of his 3,000 students had gone willingly to fight in Afghanistan. The situation is fast changing in Afghanistan in favour of the Taleban, he said. Most of the madrassas are run by clerics like Mr Ghani who belong to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the Islamic fundamentalist party that leads the coalition government in western Baluchistan. The dusty border town of Chamman has become the main centre of Taleban activities as fighting intensifies in southern Afghanistan and many Taleban commanders are thought to have been operating from the area. The Taleban can move freely across the long and porous border. The Pakistani authorities deny they are using Pakistani territory as a base, but senior Taleban commanders admit that they receive indirect support from local officials. We cannot fight for long without support from our sympathisers in the local administration, said one, Samiul Haq. Mr Haq, who recently returned from Afghanistan, gave warning of more attacks on coalition forces. He said that as many as 600 suicide bombers were being trained and said such attacks were the most effective weapon against the occupation forces. Another Taleban commander said many insurgents had returned from Iraq. Posted by: ryuge 2006-05-23 |
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