Taleban execute rebel leader

28 Oct, 2001 07:34 PM5 mins to read

KABUL - The Taleban executed a commander of the exiled opposition captured on Friday after he crossed into Afghanistan to raise rebellion against the government, which in turn scored battlefield gains during a US bombing lull.

The swift execution of Abdul Haq, a veteran mujahideen holy warrior who fought the Soviet occupation, undermines US efforts to forge a broad opposition alliance around deposed King Zahir Shah to rule the country if the Taleban are toppled.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taleban, called on the supporters of the hardline Islamic militia to hold worldwide rallies within 72 hours, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said.

Taleban forces said they seized on a break in US bombing of their frontlines north of the capital Kabul to recapture the town of Marmul from Northern Alliance opposition fighters.

US bombers, however, did strike Kabul itself, killing at least five civilians and wounding six. They also hit for a second time warehouses of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The buildings housed food, tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other aid supplies intended for the impoverished people of Kabul.

The Taleban seized Haq, a Pashtun warlord who lost a foot fighting the Soviets, as he tried to flee on horseback after having called in cover from US helicopters and a fighter plane.

"The Taleban have killed Abdul Haq along with two other people," Information Ministry official Abdul Himat Hanan told Reuters, saying he was carrying dollars to distribute to tribesmen.

"This happened on the basis of the verdict of the Ulema (Muslim clerics) that anyone who assists the United States is liable to be killed," said the spokesman.

The capture showed that despite the US onslaught the Taleban have not crumbled and that people in the more than 90 per cent of Afghanistan that the hardline Muslim militia control have not turned against them.

Hanan said Haq was captured alive, taken to the outskirts of Kabul and shot around 1:00 p.m.

The Taleban's intelligence chief warned leaders such as Haq who support deposed Afghan King Zahir Shah not to enter the country.

Afghan exiles, fearing the Taleban would execute Haq, 43, had appealed for mercy.

"Our appeal to the Afghans and peace-loving people is that they should put pressure on the Taleban not to harm this man who was making peace efforts," his brother Haji Mohammad Din Haq told a news conference in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

The son of ex-King Zahir Shah, in exile in Rome, also urged the Taleban to spare Haq's life.

"This is a blow to my father's peace plan," said Mir Wais Zahir, son of the 87-year-old former monarch.

Haq was a leading figure in moves to unite Afghanistan's warring opposition groups around the king.

He slipped into eastern Afghanistan on October 21 to try to turn Pashtun tribes against Kabul.

"We had secretly surrounded the place for two days where Haq was hiding with his supporters," said a Taleban spokesman, adding that Haq had been captured at Azra in Logar province, only 20 miles west of Pakistan's northwestern frontier.

"US helicopters bombed the Taleban to enable Haq to escape, but we were able to capture him when he tried to leave at 2:30 this morning," the Taleban spokesman said.

Airwaves in the area were crackling with congratulations as Taleban commanders radioed around to spread the news, AIP said.

His capture blows a hole in the opposition's hearts and minds strategy of persuading Pashtuns, the main ethnic group, to switch allegiance from the Taleban to exile groups working to bring back Zahir Shah.

However, another prominent Afghan noble had also entered Afghanistan.

An aide said Hamid Karzai, one of the leaders of the large Popalzai tribe that lives around the Taleban spiritual capital of Kandahar, entered the country on October 8 and was last in contact with associates in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Wednesday.

The opposition, which had been expected to try to sweep south toward Kabul when the US bombing started, acknowledged that its plans to capture the war-ravaged city were on hold.

"Before entering Kabul we would like to see a broad-based government," Muhammad Yunis Qanuni, interior minister in the United Front government, told Reuters. The anti-Taleban coalition is also known as the Northern Alliance after the area where it holds sway.

The United States launched the assault on Afghanistan to punish the Taleban for sheltering Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11 suicide hijacking attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Opposition forces reported heavy fighting around the northern Taleban-held city of Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday, as US fighters took a day off from bombarding the Taleban frontline.

A spokesman for Ustad Attah, a senior opposition commander said the Taleban had taken back the town of Marmul.

The opposition had held the town, which lies around 10 miles southeast of Mazar-i-Sharif, for only a few days before losing it.

The loss of the town may not signify much in Afghanistan's interminable civil conflict but it suggests the Northern Alliance, a small and ill-equipped fighting force, is encountering significant resistance.

- REUTERS

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