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Mujahideen to Fight for Taliban Against Northern Alliance
By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent in Afghanistan
CHAMAN, Pakistan, Oct 3 (IslamOnline) - Maulana Faizullah, 35, a religious leader in
Pakistan, said he has trained hundreds of
mujahideen to fight against the Northern Alliance for the Taliban, who now are ready to face an imminent U.S. attack on Afghanistan.
Faizullah, along with 200-trained mujahideen, was about to enter Kandahar, some 250 kilometers from this small rugged town in Pakistan's southeastern Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan.
The 200 mujahideen belong to Shahpur Chakar, a small town in Pakistan's southern Sindh province, considered the weakest base for pro-Taliban sympathizers in Pakistan.
"Thousands of mujahideen are ready to face [the] crusade attack which the U.S. has declared to launch against the Muslims of Afghanistan," Faizullah said in an interview with IslamOnline.net at the Pakistani-Afghan border near Chaman.
"These 200 mujahideen, most of them ages between the 25 and 30, used to attack military facilities and stage deadly encounters with Northern Alliance forces," the soft-spoken Faizullah explained calmly.
"Now it is the U.S. which will have to face these deadly attacks," he added.
"Amir-ul-Mominin - Supreme Leader of Muslims, Mullah Muhammad Omer - has called us to defend Afghanistan. After his decree, how can we stay in Pakistan when our Muslim brothers in Afghanistan are in trouble," he added.
"We bow to the call of our amir [leader] and are going there [Afghanistan]," he maintained.
He said these 200 fighters, along with other thousands of fighters trickling in from other parts of Pakistan to Afghanistan, would be deployed at Kandahar.
"We may be sent to some other place, but it is up to our commanders," he added.
Faizullah, a black belt in karate, said that he serves as an instructor for Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, one of the main
jihadi (struggler) groups fighting Indian forces in occupied Kashmir, where, according to Harkat figures, Indian forces have so far claimed 70,000 lives.
Faizullah said it was the teachings of Islam that led him to join the mujahideen, and maintained that the Pakistani government had no role in running the training camps inside or outside Afghanistan.
Asked how the mujahideen were able to travel from Pakistan to Afghanistan when the latter has closed its borders and no one is allowed to get in without a visa, Faizullah noted with a wide smile that the two countries share a rugged 1,375-mile border.
"The Pakistani government cannot control the border with Afghanistan," he said.
"There are various ways to enter Afghanistan without confronting the security forces, although they often do not give us a hard time."
Asked about financing for the training camps, he said there was "no single person or group" who provided the money.
"The whole Pakistani nation is behind us. We do not have any funding problems, the people of Pakistan give us more than generously.
"I can count a number of people who give hundreds of thousands of rupees [Pakistani currency] every month for the cause of
jihad [struggle]," he said.
Faizullah remained silent for some time when asked about suspicions that some of the money came from Afghan-based Osama bin Laden, accused of masterminding the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11th, in addition to the bomb attacks that killed 212 persons at two embassies in East Africa last year.
"Not exactly," he said. "We do not receive any funding from Osama, although we support him and his mission unequivocally." He refused to comment further on the matter.
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