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News Archive - 2001 and before |
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US troops arrest top Taleban official - Dec 25, 2001 Taleban ambassador seeks political assylum in Pakistan - Dec 25, 2001 General Dostum appointed deputy Defense Minister - Pakistan holds Senior Taleban Official - Dec 20, 2001
Role of multi-national peace keeping force in Afghanistan - Dec 20, 2001 Explosion rips through Mazar-e Sharif market - Dec 20, 2001 Desperation in Bamyan - Dec 11, 2001 Surrender of Kandahar for the safety of Commander Ismail Khan of Herat rejects Bonn deal - Dec 6, 2001 General Rahid Dostum boycotts the new govt. - Dec 6, 2001
3 Taleban Commanders in Opposition custody - Dec 4, 2001
Kunduz captured - Nov 26, 2001 Refugee girl hope to be a professional - Nov 26, 2001 Clashes near Kandahar - Nov 25, 2001 Kunduz resistance crumbles - Nov 25, 2001
Revolt by pro-taleban foreign fighters in Afghan prison - Nov 25, 2001 Kabul women keep the viel - Nov 24, 2001 US releases Taleban 'catalogue of attrocities' - Nov 22, 2001
Taleban flee Kunduz - Nov 22, 2001
Hazaras demands to be heard by Peter Greste
N. Alliance agrees to talks in Europe - Nov 20, 2001
US hopeful before Afghan talks - Nov 21, 2001
4 Journalist killed by armed Taleban thugs - Nov 19, 2001 Al-Qaida killing Taleban men to prevent defection - Nov 19, 2001 New great game is about oil and gas - Nov 19, 2001 Afghan TV back on air - Nov 19, 2001 Swiss plans to rebuild Buddhas of Bamyan destroyed by Taleban - Nov 18, 2001 Hazaras marching on Kabul - Nov 16, 2001 Taleban leaving Kandahar - Nov 16, 2001 The Afghan way of War - the capture of Mazar-e Sharif and the ethnic rivalries within the alliance Fight for Kunduz rages as Ramadan begins - Nov 16, 2001
UN passes resolution on Afghan rule - Nov 15 Interview with Mullah Omar - BBC Nov 15 Bamyan destroyed by Taleban - Nov 13 Map of NA advances in Afghanistan - Nov 13 Taleban flee Kabul - Nov 12 All provinces in Northern Afghanistan captured by Northern Alliance - Nov 12 Bamyan, Taloqan captured by Northern Alliance - Nov 12 Mazar-e Sharif: 200 pro-Taleban Pakistani fighters killed Afghan Women take arms against Taleban - Nov 12 3 Journalists killed by Taleban attack - Nov 12 Mazar-e Sharif captured by Northern Alliance - Nov 9 Taleban murdering Hazara refugees who try to flee the country - Nov 8 Taleban murdering fleeing refugees; Armed Taleban fighters hiding in refugee camps Student who fled to US speaks of a Land divided: Sept 4
Airstrikes on Kabul, and on Bamyan - Oct 27 Pakistani Involvement: 10,000 armed fighters cross border to fight alongside Taleban - Oct 27, 2001 Refugee Family Finds Hardships - Oct 21, 2001 Eyewitness: Hazara People's Long Suffering Looking 'Freedom' in Face Hizb-e Wahdat, the Hazara Party, Urges for Participation of Women in the future Government of Afghanistan - Statement of Hizb-e Wahdat Regarding United States Declaration of War Against International Terrorism - Sept 22, 2001 Refugees tell of Taleban Abuses in Central Afghanistan Part 1. Discrimination against the ethnic Hazaras of Afghanistan even by the UNHCR office in
Tashkent, Uzbekistan June 6, 2001: Wahdat Press Release on capture of Yakawlang in central Bamyan province 107 Pakistanis held as Prisoners of War (POWs) by Northern Alliance in Afganistan
Afghan gunmen murdering those who dare to flee AFP- QUETTA, PAKISTAN ENFORCED PATRIOTISM: Refugees who have made it to Pakistan report of having seen the Taliban gunning down masses of people who were fleeing the country The Taliban are slaughtering Hazara Afghans who try to flee the country, gunning them down in cold blood, claim refugees who have made it to Pakistan. Thousands of "invisible" refugees from the minority Shiite community exist in poverty on the outskirts of the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, near the Afghan border. They say they have fled the US bombing of Afghanistan, a severe drought and more than anything, persecution by the ruling Islamic militia. Of a dozen Afghans interviewed, all had tales of random killings, human rights abuses and persecution. Some told of mass murders. Ovr Mohd, 65, fled to the hills from Bamiyan to avoid the rampaging Taliban. When he returned he said he found his three sons shot dead. He said they were targeted because they were ethnic Hazaras, whose sympathies lie with the opposition Northern Alliance. "When we decided to leave Afghanistan we saw the Taliban attacking people who were fleeing. People were gathering on the road to leave and they were shot. We have seen this," he said. "I saw 50 people in front of me who were killed. They were women, children and men," he added, claiming the killings happened a month ago. "I hate the Taliban for doing this." Senior officials at the Taliban embassy in Islamabad were unavailable to comment on the claims. Peter Kessler, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman in Quetta, said: "Clearly the Hazaras and other minority groups have been victims of massacres over the last years but there are also reports of Hazara exactions on Taliban prisoners they have taken. "It is difficult to verify any reports coming out of Afghanistan right now. But these ones certainly deserve to be examined very carefully." Most of the 5,000 or so people who live in "Hazara town," a dusty maze of dirt roads and mud brick houses in west Quetta, are Persian-speaking Shiite Muslims descended from Mongol troops. They are among the 100,000 Afghans believed to have crossed the border illegally since the US began pounding Afghanistan. They have no identity papers and officially do not exist in Pakistan. They refuse to move into refugee camps for fear of deportation. Consequently they receive no help from aid groups. Saeed Zaman, 35, said he witnessed similar killings in Kabul, the Afghan capital. "There is a roundabout where the people go when they want to leave. The Taliban are attacking them there. I saw dozens killed [on Friday]. The people were pleading to leave but the Taliban shot them," he said. "They left the bodies where they fell. The animals were eating them." Zaman paid a smuggler 1,300 rupees (US$21) to escape the terror, arriving in Quetta on Monday. Six of his family members have been killed by the Taliban, he said, including his wife. Sad Shah Musa, 50, echoed these experiences. "People are running and the Taliban are shooting them," he said. "We have lost our lives in Afghanistan. We have lost everything. "`Why are you fleeing, this is your country,' they say. They say, `You are against the Taliban, you are running away' and then they shoot." The Taliban have also been accused of forcibly conscripting young Afghans to fight their holy war jihad. They came for the three sons of Baqhtawar, a 60-year-old woman from near Herat, in western Afghanistan, 12 days ago. When she protested she was punched in the face, losing four front teeth. She was left sprawling on the floor with a bloodied mouth and has heard nothing from her sons since. She fled soon after under the cover of darkness and arrived in Quetta 10 days ago. "The Taliban took our husbands and our sons. They burned our homes and our mosque," she said. Refugee Family Finds Hardship, Oct 21, 2001
Afghan refugee Bakhtnisa holds her son Mahammed Zukir in a room her family has rented in Hazar Town near Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001. The family said that they had been living in a cave after the Taliban burned their home and they fled to Pakistan the day after the United States began bombing Afghanistan. The family belongs to the Hazara ethnic group, which lives mainly in Afghanistan's forbidding central highlands. In part because of religious differences--they are Shiite Muslims, not the majority Sunnis--they have long been at odds with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. (AP Photo/Laura Rauch)
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- At the start of their journey, the family had a small stone house, a few goats, and not much food, but enough to fill the bellies of the children. By its end, they were hungry, sick, deep in debt to human smugglers, and counted two cracked cups as their sole possessions. Afghan refugees are spilling by the thousands across the border with Pakistan, and for nearly all, the passage has been filled with difficulty and danger. But even against such a backdrop, this family's sojourn was remarkable for the sheer number and variety of hardships they have faced -- with more to come. ``Every day, it seemed there was something else to be afraid of,'' said Bakhtnisa, a mother of seven with a careworn face and broken teeth, who thinks she is about 37 years old. ``I couldn't accustom myself to it, because there was always something new and terrible.'' The family belongs to the Hazara ethnic group, which lives mainly in Afghanistan's forbidding central highlands. In part because of religious differences -- they are Shiite Muslims, not the majority Sunnis -- they have long been at odds with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. In the family's home district of Bamiyan, about 50 miles northwest of Kabul -- best known to the world as the site of enormous carvings of the Buddha that were blown up by the Taliban this year -- tensions rose after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. When blame fell on Osama bin Laden as his Taliban protectors, the Hazara community began to feel increasingly menaced by Taliban loyalists who expected American retaliation and resented Hazara sympathies for a rebel military alliance trying to topple the Taliban. A few nights before U.S.-led airstrikes began on Oct. 7, Taliban supporters burned down the family's house, along with those of several neighbors. They took shelter in a cave and sold their goats to raise money. Once the American airstrikes began, they knew it was time to leave. Taking only a small supply of patiri, a traditional flatbread, they set off on foot through the mountains for Ghazni, a province south of Kabul where there is another concentration of Hazara. The journey took three days. At night, they wrapped themselves in cloths and slept on the ground. Bakhtnisa and her husband, Azizullah, did not eat; they saved the food for the children, the youngest a toddler of 2 and the eldest a boy of 16. Along the way, they heard the distant thud of explosions and saw fireballs lighting the sky outside Kabul, bombarded nightly by American warplanes. When they saw Taliban troops or officials, they hid; Azizullah feared that he and his eldest son, Sharif, would be forcibly conscripted if they were spotted. In Ghazni, they decided to try to make their way across the border to Pakistan. Together with two other families, several dozen people in all, they hired a smuggler to sneak them across a remote, unmarked stretch of frontier. They traveled mainly at night, on switchbacked, rutted roads that left them bruised and battered from being flung against the truck's wooden bed and bare metal sides. Packed together, the children vomited, and there was nothing to clean up with. Whenever they approached a checkpoint or a stretch of road where they might be stopped, the families were ordered out of the truck and told to make their way through the countryside, meeting up with the driver miles down the road -- a trek that sometimes took hours. All the while, Bakhtnisa and Azizullah worried about how they would pay the smuggler what they owed. He was charging the family nearly 8,000 rupees -- $140 -- an amount of money they had never possessed. The proceeds from selling their goats fell far short. The smuggler told them he would work out payment later, but did not explain how. Once in Pakistan, they found out. Azizullah and Sharif would be indentured to the smuggler, working in a coal mine outside the border city of Quetta. It would probably take them several months to work off the debt, they were told. Four of the other children, aged 6 to 12, were sent to live and work in a carpet-weaving workshop. The smugglers arranged that, too. The family is effectively indentured. In a Hazara neighborhood on the outskirts of Quetta, Bakhtnisa found a room to rent while she waits and hopes for the family to be reunited. It is a storage cellar, down a steep flight of stone stairs from a dusty courtyard where a dozen other refugees are sheltering. She sleeps on the bare floor with the two youngest children, 2-year-old Zakir and 4-year-old Bakir, in blankets lent to them by the landlord. All they own are ragged clothes and two cups. Bakhtnisa thinks the landlord may lend them a plate to eat bread off of, perhaps next week. As the days pass, she worries about one thing, then another. The nights are growing cold, and Zakir has been running a fever. She misses the other children and is afraid they are being mistreated at the carpet workshop. She has borrowed more money to pay for food and the $6 monthly rent, and wonders how long her husband and son will have to work to pay off this new debt. ``I don't see any hope for our lives here,'' she said. ``I don't want to stay in this place. I think of all of us together in our home. But how can that ever happen again?''
- Saudi Arabia cuts diplomatic ties with Taleban. - Afghan opposition claims pushing back Taliban - UAE cuts diplomatic ties with Taleban - US hints in seeking help from Northern Alliance in
Hizb Wahdat Statement regarding Assassination attempt on Ahmad Shah Masood by Bin Laden / Taleban group - Sept 13, 2001 Arab-isation of Afghanistan Commander Masood seriously injured in the suicide bomb attack carried out by two Arabs News Update from Northern Afghanistan: Sept 20, 2001 : 16:00. Joint forces of Hizb Wahdat and Jumbish launched a big attack on the joint Taliban Taleban Website Hacked AGAIN - Aug 19, 2001 The second hack of the site in two days shows the helplessness of the Taleban site administrators. Taleban Website Hacked - Aug 16, 2001. June 4, 2001: Taliban's leaders approves war budget of $80 million dollars Taleban's Hindu Tagging Condemned Pitiable Afghan Women Taliban launch new offensive Fighting breaks out in Afghanistan It makes sense for the US to be nice to Iran Second, work with Iran to defeat Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, which threatens Central and South Asia as well as the West. Third, recognize that the Islamic Republic is of enormous strategic importance to the US and its friends and allies. Sixty-five per cent of the world's known oil reserves lie below and around the Gulf. UK officials makes first trip to Kabul in 3 years A United Nations official said four Britons and two Americans were part of the trip planned by the UN Drug Control Programme to survey the ruling Taliban militia's efforts to stamp out poppy cultivation. Taliban to slash war expenses Taliban's war expenses on Takhar front alone were estimated at US $200,000 per week and the fronts in Bamiyan and the northern plains had weekly expenses of about $400,000, said the sources. Amid straits emanating from ban on poppy cultivation, the Taliban income of Rs100 billion from the border trade with Pakistan was also in trouble due to the tightening of borders by the Pakistani anti-smuggling forces since last year. Shift in US policy as envoy visits Afghanistan. Peshawer, April 16. Mullah Rabbani, second in command of Taliban, dies Taliban declares 3 days of state mourning in Afghanistan contradicting their own stand against open mourning. Recall that the Taliban had banned the mourning of Prophet Muhammed's (SA) family by the Shiite muslims in the month of Muharram. Thus either (naooz billah) Mullah Rabbani is more important figure then Prophet Mohammed's (SA) family. Or they will themselves become "infidels" according to their own religious decree they have issued against the Shiites in Afghanistan for mourning during the month of Muharram. 107 Pakistanis held as Prisoners of War (POWs) by Northern Alliance in Afganistan Switzerland announces new Sanctions against Taliban European MPs back Masood Masood seeks dimplomatic pressure against Pakistan ... Afghanistan: New alignments on the anvil Pieces of Buddha Statues on Sale in Peshawer, Pakistan. Kabul lifts curb on Shias during Muharram Statues can't be restored, says UNESCO Newsmen visit site of destroyed statues March 12, 2001: Hizb-e Wahdat's Statement with regards to the demolition of inimitable Buddha
Statues: The Taliban leaders issued a religious edict deeming the two of the World's tallest Buddha Statues, which are carved into a mountain, as non-Islamic and ordered their destruction. The Taliban are supported by their masters - the Pakistan army and Saudi Royal family. Islamic scholars all over the world have condemned this decision and act of barbarism. The 2000 year old Buddha Statues (see pics on this page) are believed to have been carved during the time of the Kushan dynasty which are believed to be the ancestors of the Hazara tribe that inhabits Bamyan, the heart of Hazarajat region. March 12, 2001, Dawn News completely destroyed: Afghanistan's two colossal Buddhist figures were completely destroyed on Sunday, the Taliban militia said, as a delegation of key religious leaders arrived in a last-gasp bid to save them, adds AFP. "Consider them finished," Taliban spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen said in Kandahar. March 11, 2001, Dawn News March 9, 2001, Interior Ministry of Afghanistan Press Release:
March 9,2001 Dawn News Muslim Intellectuals condems destruction of Buddha March 5, 2001: Dawn News March 2, 2001 Hizb-e Wahdat Press Release - March 02, 2001: Dawn News New York, 27 Feb 2001 - Annan Urges Taliban to Preserve Afghan Relics The Secretary-General has learned with alarm of the edict issued yesterday by the Taliban supreme leader ordering the destruction of all statues and non-Islamic shrines in the country. This follows reports of the recent destruction of a number of precious items in the National Museum of Kabul ... [ more ] Feb 26, 2001: Taliban leaders order destruction of ancient Buddha statues in Bamyan: In a display of extreme prejudice against the Hazara people the Taliban have decided to destroy two of the world's tallest ancient statues of Buddha in Bamyan, Afghanistan. Bamyan is the center and heart of Hazarajat region inhabited by the Hazara people since the 11th century and maybe earlier ... [ more ] Feb 27, 2001: Hizb Wahdat Islami Afghanistan - March 2, 2001 Hizb-e Wahdat Press Release - Wahdat expresses sadness over the destructions of the
Buddhas March 02, 2001: Dawn News New York, 27 Feb 2001 - Annan Urges Taliban to Preserve Afghan Relics The Secretary-General has learned with alarm of the edict issued yesterday by the Taliban supreme leader ordering the destruction of all statues and non-Islamic shrines in the country. This follows reports of the recent destruction of a number of precious items in the National Museum of Kabul. The General Assembly has repeatedly called on all Afghan parties to protect the cultural and historic relics and monuments of Afghanistan which are part of the common heritage of mankind. The Secretary-General appeals to the Taliban leadership to abide by their previous commitments to protect Afghanistan's cultural heritage in general, and the two great Buddhist sculptures in Bamiyan in particular. The Secretary-General urges the Taliban to do all in their power to preserve the unique and irreplaceable relics of Afghanistan's rich heritage - both Islamic and pre-Islamic -- as the strongest foundation for a better, more peaceful and more tolerant future for all its people. Destroying any relic, any monument, any statue will only prolong the climate of conflict. After 22 years of war, destruction and drought, there can only be one priority for the Government: to rebuild the country, to renew the fabric of society, and to relieve the immense suffering and deprivation of the people of Afghanistan. [ This Article on UN Website ] Feb 26, 2001: Taliban leaders order destruction of ancient Buddha statues in Bamyan: In a display of extreme prejudice against the Hazara people the Taliban have decided to destroy two of the world's tallest ancient statues of Buddha in Bamyan, Afghanistan. Bamyan is the center and heart of Hazarajat region inhabited by the Hazara people since the 11th century and maybe earlier. In September 1998 when the Taliban held the Bamyan Valley, they made good on their earlier statments and fired several rockets at the Giant Buddha's statues, eliminating half of Shamama's head and causing considerable damage to the rest of the statue. The Taliban have declared this an Islamic act in accordance with the beliefs of the religion. This presents a distorted, inaccurate and damaging extremist view of the religion to the entire world, as Islam is a religion of tolerance not vitriolic destruction. Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, Chairman of the Political Committee and General-in-Charge of the Northern areas controlled by the Hizbe-Wahdat Islami Afghanistan, and Hazaras all over the world has stongly condemed this barbaric decision. The main support for the Taliban comes from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Taliban movement is supported by the Saudi Government which believes in the Wahabi Sect - an extreme and radical sect that deems destroying the archeological artifacts as Islamic. It is interesting to note that the so-called guardians of Islam who order the destruction of such historical monuments are the biggest hypocrits themselves. Most of the Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and UAE are all ruled by Monarchies which are strictly prohibited by Islam. The Saudi's have also validated the decrees given by the Wahabi Taliban that killing the Hazara people is not a sin as they consider Hazaras to be non-muslims. [see Mazar Killing] |
ISLAMABAD, March 9: Taliban have blown up the top quarter of one of the
ancient Bamiyan Buddha statues, AIP reported today. Sources said Taliban used a large amount of explosives to destroy the top part of one of the giant statues. It was not clear which of the two statues had been blown up, AIP
added. (Reuters) (Posted @ 11:45 PST)
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Last Changed: Mar 26, 2008
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