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Northern Alliance Frees Afghan Staff, Foreign Aid Workers
KABUL, Nov. 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Sixteen Afghan staff and eight foreign aid workers, detained by the Taliban for more than three months, are all safe after being released by Northern Alliance forces when they took Kabul from Taliban control, news agencies reported Thursday.
The 16 Afghans broke out of the Poli Charkhi prison in central Kabul late Monday, as the Taliban militia abandoned the Afghan capital to the waiting forces of the opposition Northern Alliance, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The 16 Afghan staff spent the night sleeping in the desert or in mosques before being reunited with their families the next day.
One of them, Mohammad Nazir, 42, a father of six, hailed the news that the eight foreign workers from German charity, Shelter Now International (SNI), had been plucked to safety on Thursday and were in Pakistan, said AFP.
The eight Westerners and 16 Afghans had been detained since August 3 by the Taliban on charges of preaching Christianity - a charge they denied.
Nazir claimed no one in SNI, where he had worked as a gardener, had been trying to spread Christianity in Afghanistan.
"The foreign staff of our office had a high respect for our religion. Whenever we offered prayers, they kept silent," Nazir told AFP. "During the holy month of Ramadan, they did not eat or drink in front of us and we Muslims were not bothered."
Taliban officials had found Christian books, tapes and videos in Pashto and Dari, two Afghan languages, in homes visited by the Shelter Now workers.
Nazir said he had been distressed by the charges brought against him by the Taliban as "me, my forefathers and my family are all Muslims and I have spent most of my life in Islam, and in piety. This was a black spot on the white name of our family when they said that I had been converted to Christianity."
The United Nations assistant envoy to Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, confirmed the 16 Afghan workers were released by Northern Alliance forces when they took Kabul from Taliban control, BBC's online service reported.
Meanwhile, the eight foreign aid workers freed in Afghanistan have arrived safely in Pakistan.
The eight - two Americans, two Australians and four Germans - were airlifted out of the country by three U.S. special forces military helicopters from a field outside Ghazni, a town 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south-west of Kabul, said the BBC.
They arrived at Chaklala military air base near Islamabad early Thursday morning, then left the airport in a motorcade, apparently on their way to their embassies.
An Australian diplomat in Islamabad, Alistair Adams, said that no negotiations were involved in the release of the foreign aid workers.
An earlier report in The Washington Post said that the workers had been handed over peacefully by the Taliban to an unidentified non-governmental organization.
The Post report concurred that the aid workers were rescued from a field southwest of Kabul, but two senior U.S. defense department officials told the daily that the aid workers had been turned over peacefully by the Taliban to an NGO (non-governmental organization).
Taliban officials had said they would protect the aid workers in the event of any U.S. attack.
One of the German aid workers, Georg Taubmann, said the Taliban had moved them from Kabul on Monday, just before it fell to Northern Alliance troops.
The plan had apparently been to take them to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, but they only reached as far as Ghazni, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Kabul.
On Wednesday, Taubmann said there was an anti-Taliban uprising in Ghazni by local
mujahedin commanders who stormed the prison along with Northern Alliance fighters.
"They broke into the prison and just opened the doors," Taubmann told reporters here. "We were actually afraid that the Taliban were coming and taking us to Kandahar. We were really scared."
Taubmann said he and his fellow aid workers had been given a rousing reception by the people of Ghazni.
"We got out of the prison and into the city and people came out of their houses and they were hugging us all and clapping," he said.
"They didn't know there were foreigners in the prison. It was like a big celebration. I think it was one of the biggest days in my life."
Opposition in the town informed the International Red Cross, who arranged for their evacuation by U.S. Special Forces.
U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlin, said that the two Americans Dayna Curry, 29, and Heather Mercer, 24, both from Waco, Texas, had "been enjoying a very joyous day" at the ambassador's residence.
"They have been taking a hot bath, eating their favorite meals and been to a beauty parlor to have their hair done."
After the six men and two women were freed Wednesday, U.S. President George W. Bush described the operation as a "facilitated rescue," without offering details.
Bush, at a news conference in Texas where he has been meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, called the release of the aid workers, "incredibly good news" and that they were "in good physical condition."
In a statement read to journalists Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the foreign aid workers were all "in good physical condition."
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