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Amanullah Khan asks Karzai to dump Ismail Khan...
BBC.co.ukA key faction in western Afghanistan has called on President Hamid Karzai to act on his promise to end the rule of the gun in the country and to replace the governor of Herat province, Ismael Khan. The call by supporters of a regional leader, Commander Amanullah Khan follows recent fighting around Kalantar between the two sides. The fighting has now died down but a spokesman for Commander Amanullah says civilians feel threatened by the prospect of further attacks by forces loyal to Ismael Khan. No doubt they do. They always feel threatened when somebody fights back... Ismael Khan says he deployed forces at the request of regional elders who had complained of looting. Oh, they're Pashtuns, are they? Sources close to Commander Amanullah say the fighting began when his men tried to set up a checkpoint on a key road linking Herat to Iran. They set up the checkpoints, stop the cars, buses and trucks, and loot them... The BBC Kabul correspondent says Commander Amanullah is identified with local Pashtuns who live close to the Iranian border. She says the Pashtuns believe Ismael Khan is using ethnic differences to increase his power. We know Pashtuns would never do anything that merited a crackdown... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2002-10-23 |
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