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Some
Taliban Discuss Surrender In Kunduz
KABUL, Nov. 18 (News Agencies) -
Some Taliban commanders besieged in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz have
contacted the opposition Northern Alliance with a view to surrendering, a senior
Alliance leader said Sunday.
"There has been some
scattered fighting between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban during the day,
but some Taliban commanders have contacted us to surrender
unconditionally," acting interior minister Younis Qanooni told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
"Others have asked for
guarantees and assurances as to their safety before surrendering, while some
have vowed to continue the fight against the Northern Alliance," he added.
Qanooni said the Alliance had
brought off "a considerable political feat" in persuading Taliban
chiefs to swap sides.
Thousands of Taliban fighters and
their foreign Arab and Pakistani auxiliaries are besieged by opposition forces
in Kunduz -- the Islamic militia's last holdout in northern Afghanistan, AFP
reported.
Britain's Sunday Telegraph
newspaper reported Sunday that elite members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda
network had slaughtered Taliban troops in Kunduz to prevent them surrendering to
the Northern Alliance army.
Meanwhile, the arrival of the
multi-ethnic Northern Alliance in Kabul has provided a security blanket for the
Afghan capital's Tajik and Hazara minorities.
Some residents of the capital, who
belong to the majority Pashtuns, were left feeling isolated and fearful,
according to AFP.
"The situation has got a lot
better in the past few days," said Mir Wahis, the Tajik owner of a photo
studio in the city. "Just before the Northern Alliance soldiers arrived,
there was a spate of looting, but now we only see the odd isolated
incident."
The Northern Alliance -- a
disparate mix of Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and other minorities -- marched into Kabul
on Tuesday after the Taliban abandoned the city.
Their presence had sparked fears of a return to the factional feuding that
marked the 1992-96 mujahedin rule of Kabul, claiming thousands of civilian lives
and leaving the capital in ruins.
Many mujahedin leaders from that period are now part of the Northern Alliance,
but residents say they appear to have learned from the mistakes of the past.
"The alliance soldiers have
changed. They are more disciplined and they wear proper uniforms," Wahis
said. He told AFP that a strong police presence was still necessary to keep a
lid on Kabul's volatile gun culture.
Between the flight of the Taliban
on the night of November 12 and the arrival of the first Northern Alliance
forces the next morning, armed gangs roamed the streets, looking to take
advantage of the sudden power vacuum.
"There was some looting and
unrest before things improved," said Mohammad Alam who runs a pharmacy in
eastern Kabul.
Half-Tajik and half-Pashtun, Alam said he had complained to the Northern
Alliance unit in his district and order had been swiftly restored.
"It's good to see that the alliance is behaving itself better than
before," he added.
Just two kilometers (1.2 miles)
away, however, in a Pashtun district of Kabul, the attitude towards the city's
"liberators" is very different.
Afghanistan’s dominant Pashtun community made up the backbone of the Taliban
and remains tarnished by the Islamic militia's hardline legacy.
"Soldiers (of the Northern Alliance) have stolen around 10 cars and trucks
since the beginning of the week," said driver Mohammad Mourid, who has been
unable to work since his car was commandeered.
"Each time they would stop
the car, tell you that it belonged to the Taliban and then take it away,"
Mourid complained.
Mohammad Yusuf, sharing the same patch of shade under a tree, says he was
marginally luckier than his friend.
"They beat me up and smashed
my car window, but they only took the car radio and some money," Yusuf
said. "They treat us badly in the shops and blame us for the excesses of
the Taliban.”
According to Mourid, Northern Alliance troops
have also looted several houses on the pretext of searching for hidden weapons.
"They say they are looking for arms, but
when they don't find any, they end up taking anything else they can get their
hands on," he said.
In an eastern quarter of the city populated by Hazaras -- Afghanistan's largest
Shia Muslim minority -- the feeling towards the Northern Alliance is
overwhelmingly positive, AFP reported.
"Nobody threatens us any more," said
local resident Mohammad Yakub.
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