- Kandahar (IANS) Northern Alliance forces have killed
around 300 Pakistani and Arab fighters in Kabul, besides hundreds of Taliban
supporters who had surrendered, an eyewitness claimed.
Northern Alliance leader Burhanuddin Rabbani has declared amnesty for Afghans
in the rival camp after his forces took over Kabul Tuesday, Online news
agency reported.
But Ebad-ur-Rehman, a middle-aged Afghan who reached Kandahar from Kabul
a day after the Northern Alliance entered the capital, said, "They
(NA troops) were slaughtering people."
"They were killing people, especially Arabs and Pakistanis,"
Ebad said. "I could have been among the deceased, but I saved myself
by getting my long beard shaved," he said.
He said Northern Alliance troops were looking for Taliban supporters. Wherever
they found men with long beards, they either killed or detained them.
"Whoever could not speak Pushtu or Persian was killed on the spot.
Whoever they found to be Arab or Pakistani they sprayed with bullets,"
Ebad added.
"There was a hue and cry in the streets. The jubilant alliance troops
entered any house they wanted. They raped and dishonoured Afghan women
and even minor girls," he contended.
"I don't know much about other areas, but there was no law in Kabul.
The alliance troops were looting even personal belongings like jackets
and boots," he said.
"They were beating and spitting on the bodies of Taliban soldiers.
I personally saw that the Northern Alliance forces brought foreign media
cameramen and forced men to get their beards shaved and women to remove
burqas so the cameramen could record the scenes," Ebad said.
Online said BBC and some other agencies also endorsed Ebad's claim that
Northern Alliance was forcing women to remove burqas and men to shave their
beards.
Reports reaching here say many Pakistanis and Arabs were killed by Northern
Alliance forces in Mazar-e-Sharif after capturing it last week. People
had taken shelter in a local school when they were gunned down without
any warning.
"I think the Pakistani and Arab supporters of the Taliban could not
leave Kabul because of lack of communication. The entire communication
system has already been destroyed by U.S. bombing, and Taliban forces were
not using satellite phones fearing U.S. troops could track them,"
Ebad said.
Copyright © 2001 IANS India Private Limited. All rights Reserved.
|
