Teenager a casualty of war - but not this one

TORKHAM - The refugees will do anything to get across the closed Pakistan border to flee United States air raids. And 16-year-old Afghan ice cream vendor Assadullah was no exception.

On Monday, he told border guards, reporters, doctors and nurses that he had lost a leg in a US strike. Everyone believed him and the border guards let him in.

His tale of horror was relayed around the world and ran in the Herald on Tuesday.

But Assadullah, the stump of one leg wrapped in bloodied bandages, had lied.

He was one of many Afghans who have had the misfortune to step on one of the 10 million mines that pepper his rugged, war-ravaged homeland - a legacy of the 10-year Soviet occupation from the end of 1979.

Doctors told reporters that the boy had cheated his way into the country and that his injuries were consistent with those of a mine victim.

In telling reporters that he was injured in a strike by US forces on Sunday night, Assadullah just wanted to make sure that he could cross through Pakistan's tight border controls to receive better medical treatment.

He was not a victim of the US attack on the Taleban, protectors of Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in last month's suicide strikes on the United States.

But he was among the frightened, the ill and the injured who have resorted to subterfuge to get out of Afghanistan.

Assadullah and his companions were among the few that the Taleban allowed to cross the border on Monday.

Most people were turned back when trying to enter or leave Afghanistan, and the Taleban appeared to be allowing only trucks carrying goods to cross into Pakistan.

Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, has stressed repeatedly that Pakistan will not open its border to an exodus of Afghan refugees fleeing the war.

This is because it already plays host to more than two million and its resources do not allow it to accept any more.

But officials of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, preparing for an exodus from Afghanistan, have said they are optimistic that Islamabad will cooperate with them if and when a humanitarian problem develops.

- REUTERS

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