The grievance of Pakhtuns by S.Iftikhar Murshed Some of the most ruthless fighters among the Taliban on both sides of the Durand Line have been non-Pakhtuns. On August 8, 1998 Mazar-e-Sharif was recaptured by the Taliban. To reach the centre of the city, the Taliban sent in suicide squads. Jeep-loads of their fighters, each following the other after short intervals, were sent into Mazar-e-Sharif. The first four or five vehicles were destroyed by Northern Alliance rocket fire but each succeeded in advancing some distance toward the city centre. When this was finally reached, the Taliban ground forces entered the town and what followed was fierce fighting unparalleled in its savagery even by Afghan standards. I was in Kandahar at the time for a meeting with Mullah Omar when the one-legged governor of the city, Mullah Hassan Rehmani, made the startling disclosure that “it was our Punjabi brothers from Pakistan, not the Afghan Pakhtuns, who fought the most fiercely in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Posted on: Sun, 04 May 2014 12:49:39 +0000
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