Afghan People Are Urged to Prepare For a Holy War
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Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 19, 2001; Page A01
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 18 -- The leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban
militia rebuffed a demand by Pakistani officials to surrender alleged terrorist
Osama bin Laden to avert a U.S. military attack, government sources here said
today. The Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar, has formally shifted responsibility for
deciding bin Laden's fate to a council of senior Islamic clerics. But a source
familiar with the talks in Afghanistan between a Pakistani delegation and the
Taliban leadership said Omar told Pakistan's intelligence chief, Gen. Mahmood
Ahmed, "Osama will be the last person to leave Afghanistan." The Pakistani
delegation left this evening. The clerical council was supposed to convene today, but reports from the
Afghan capital, Kabul, said the meeting was delayed because of challenges in
assembling the several hundred men who will decide the fate of bin Laden,
identified as the prime suspect behind last week's terrorist attacks in New York
and Washington. Taliban officials said the meeting could be held Wednesday or
Thursday. As the clerics converged on Kabul, the Taliban urged Afghans to prepare for a
holy war, and residents fearing U.S. military strikes fled the capital for the
Pakistani border and mountainous rural areas. U.N. refugee officials estimated
that tens of thousands of people have left Afghan cities in recent days. Reports
of disturbances along the 1,500-mile frontier prompted Pakistan to attempt to
close all border crossings today. Though the council still has formal responsibility for deciding bin Laden's
fate, Omar has been the Taliban's undisputed leader since its formation seven
years ago. Bin Laden, who has been living in Afghanistan since 1996, has
provided money and troops to help the Taliban, earning him substantial support
within the radical Islamic militia. Analysts suggested it was unlikely that Omar
would surrender him voluntarily. The Taliban has called bin Laden a "guest" and said that handing him over to
the United States would betray a tenet of Islam. And even if a narrow majority
of clerics decided to surrender bin Laden, officials and analysts said, he is
believed to have as many as 3,000 well-armed fighters under his command inside
Afghanistan, as well as the support of many of the Taliban's soldiers. "It would not occur without a fight," said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani
journalist and analyst. "If the moderates were to try to get him handed over, it
would lead to a civil war." Some Taliban officials repeated suggestions today that bin Laden could be
transferred to another Islamic nation to face trial in exchange for
international recognition of the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government
and a lifting of U.N. sanctions, Pakistani officials said. U.S. officials, who
have demanded bin Laden's unconditional surrender, have said such an offer would
be unacceptable. Pakistani officials said their delegation bluntly told the Taliban that if it
did not turn over bin Laden, it would face certain attack by a multinational
force led by the United States. "Our delegation conveyed in stark terms the
gravity of the situation and what the international community expects from the
Afghan leadership," said Riaz Mohammad Khan, a spokesman for Pakistan's Foreign
Ministry. Before leaving Kabul, the Pakistani delegation met with eight foreign aid
workers being tried on charges of illegally preaching Christianity, a Pakistani
official told the Associated Press. Pakistan asked Taliban authorities to
release the aid workers -- two Americans, four Germans and two Australians --
and the authorities promised to consider the request, he said. With a U.S.-led attack appearing increasingly likely, Taliban leaders called
on Afghans to prepare for a holy war against the United States, the official
Bakhtar News Agency reported today. "If America attacks our homes, it is necessary for all Muslims, especially
for Afghans, to wage a holy war," state-run Voice of Shariat radio reported
Mohammed Hasan Akhund, the deputy Taliban leader, as saying. "God is on our
side, and if the world's people try to set fire to Afghanistan, God will protect
us and help us." Widespread expectations of a U.S. strike have led to panic buying in Kabul's
markets and a steady exodus of residents. Residents reported that shops are
running low on supplies, and international aid workers, who pulled out of the
country last week, said donated food supplies, on which thousands of residents
rely, will run out in a few weeks. "People are very nervous here," one resident said, speaking by satellite
telephone. "Those who have the resources to leave are on the run. Those who must
stay behind are relying on Allah to protect them." Thousands of people have been heading toward Pakistan, where more than 2
million Afghan refugees already are living in camps near the border. U.N.
officials reported that about 5,000 refugees have massed at the Chaman border
crossing between Kandahar, the Taliban's headquarters, and the Pakistani
provincial capital of Quetta, where police fired warning shots to force back
surging crowds. Thousands of others attempting to flee Kabul and other large
cities, however, have been prevented from nearing the border by Taliban
fighters, the United Nations said. But Pakistani authorities said they nevertheless feared an onslaught of
refugees. "The major worry that we have at the present is that hundreds of
thousands of Afghans are leaving cities and heading toward the border," said
Khan, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. In Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, about 5,000 people staged a boisterous
demonstration to protest possible U.S. military action against Afghanistan. The
rally, the biggest in Pakistan since the terrorist attacks, underscored the deep
divisions that exist in this overwhelmingly Muslim country about cooperating
with the United States in efforts to target terrorist activities in
Afghanistan. The protesters, chanting "Osama is our brother" and "An attack on Afghanistan
is an attack on Pakistan," attempted to march toward the U.S. Consulate but were
turned away by police and soldiers. The demonstrators later burned an effigy of
President Bush. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said today that the State Department had
authorized nonessential embassy and consulate staff members and their families
to evacuate Pakistan because of fears of possible violence and terrorist strikes
against Americans. Several other Western embassies and multinational companies
have taken similar actions. Correspondents Pamela Constable and Molly Moore in Islamabad and special
correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi contributed to this report.
