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The Rediff Special/Hamid Mir in Jalalabad
'Americans are heading for bloody September'
August 30, 2004
Maulvi Muhammad Ishaq Manzoor, a rebel Afghan leader, claims a "scandal bigger than the Abu Ghraib" jail scandal in Iraq will be exposed soon.
Ishaq is the self-styled 'supreme military commander' of the Jamiat Jaishal Muslemeen, a newly formed outfit operating mainly in southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Accusing American troops of killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan, he alleged that two lady teachers and five girl students at the Mariam school in Kabul were kidnapped, raped and killed by American troops recently.
Parents of the teachers and girls are trying to escape from Afghanistan and will contact the international media to expose the scandal, he told this correspondent in the mountains close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
"We will take revenge for our seven sisters raped in Kabul," Ishaq said, brandishing his AK-47. "The Americans are heading for a bloody September and then a deadliest October."
The Muslemeen, which includes the Taliban and four other militant outfits, also threatened to disrupt the October 9 Afghan presidential election.
It is led by Afghan jihad veteran Sayyed Muhammad Akbar Agha from Kandahar and some Taliban leaders, Ishaq said.
The Muslemeen is collaborating closely with the Taliban but also with Afghan leaders opposed to the Americans like Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani and commanders close to Maulvi Younus Khalis.
Ishaq said he was among 90 Taliban fighters led by Mullah Omar who launched the first offensive against Gul Agha, then governor of Kandahar, from Spin Boldak in 1994.
He was appointed inspector general of police in Badghis province by Mullah Omar, but lost contact with its leadership after the Taliban government fell. He then formed another outfit with Agha to resist American-led coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Agha was a muhajideen commander against the Soviet army under Khalis' command.
Taliban commanders and fighters are re-establishing contact with each other, Ishaq said, adding, "We have decided to adopt a joint strategy against the fraud presidential election in Afghanistan."
Hekmatyar, Agha and Haqqani are in touch with each other, he revealed. "We are trying to organise their meeting with Mullah Omar," he added.
"Our fighters burned three Pakistani oil tankers recently near Kandahar because they were carrying oil for American troops," he said. "We released the drivers because they were Pakistanis but in future we will kill everyone who cooperates with our enemies, whether he is Indian or Pakistani."
"We are not happy with the Indians," Ishaq said. "They are providing military training to the Afghan army. Indian restaurants in Kabul sell liquor openly and we hate liquor. We will target not only non-Muslims but also all so-called Muslims who are cooperating and guiding the coalition forces in Afghanistan."
Asked why he was creating problems for the coalition forces building roads, schools and hospitals in Afghanistan, he angrily responded that the Kabul-Kandahar highway project was initiated by the Taliban. The Americans, he said, had just implemented an old project because "they were full of money."
"But if they are so good why are they trying to impose Karzai on us through a rigged election?" he asked, "If Karzai is so good why is he refusing to resign before the election? How is it possible to hold a fair and free election when Karzai is contesting the election as president? Why are the defence and foreign ministers supporting Yunus Qanooni as the presidential candidate against Karzai?
Accusing Karzai of being a puppet like interim prime minister Ayad Allawi in Iraq, he said, "The Americans are trying to impose their puppets on us in the name of democracy. We hate that kind of controlled democracy."
Denying links with the terrorists fighting Pakistani soldiers in South Waziristan, he said: "We are already facing a big enemy in Afghanistan. We have no resources to help the tribals of Waziristan. It is our policy not to interfere outside Afghanistan. That is why all our fighters are Afghans. We don't need outsiders to fight the Americans."