Posted on 11/23/2001 7:18:58 AM PST by blam
Taliban accused of holding families hostage
Taliban hardliners in Kandahar have been accused of holding hostage the wives and children of hundreds of Afghan fighters to prevent them surrendering.
The families are being held in three heavily guarded compounds while their husbands and fathers are forced to swear on the Koran never to let opposition or US forces enter the city.
The Washington Post reports that three Pakistani fighters who escaped described the families' detentions as part of "a reign of terror" inside Kandahar by Taliban leaders.
Others who have fled the besieged city have spoken of tensions between the most radical Taliban and Afghan fighters thinking of surrender.
The three Pakistanis said they walked for four days through desert and hills to escape Kandahar and sneak back across the Pakistani border.
"We made a grave mistake by going there," said Abul Kalam, a 23-year-old former student from the University of Karachi.(Abul, a lot of people did, now die)
Recruited by a religious organisation that preaches holy war against the US as an Islamic obligation, Kalam and his two friends began their jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan just days before US air strikes started on October 7.
All three said they decided to return to Karachi once they saw Arabs and some Taliban militia leaders forcing hundreds of fighters to take up defensive positions around Kandahar by confining their wives and children to three residential compounds.
Ahmed said: "Mullah Omar's lieutenants and Arabs have told these Taliban that they would only be allowed to meet their wives and children once the war is over."
"Jihad doesn't allow us to force Muslims to fight by holding their families as hostage."
Story filed: 10:59 Friday 23rd November 2001
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