Kabul jails foreigners including Indonesians<\/p>\n
Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, Kabul<\/p>\n
Wrapped in a dirty brown blanket, his arm in a blood-soaked
\nsling, a deep hole gouged from his shoulder by shrapnel, Zabin
\nsays he's not one of Osama bin Laden's men.<\/p>\n
His captors think otherwise.<\/p>\n
Zabin, a Saudi Arabian, and other foreigners have been jailed
\nsince Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance.<\/p>\n
Their home now is a basement prison in a military intelligence
\ncompound, a collection of filthy, rancid smelling subterranean
\nrooms.<\/p>\n
They lay on the floor, huddled beneath dirty woolen blankets,
\nor on ratty steel bunk beds. They lay crowded seven and eight to
\na room.<\/p>\n
They were from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan and
\nIndonesia - all warriors for the ousted Taliban regime that
\npreached a strict brand of Islam, said Daulat Mir, deputy head of
\nthe jail.<\/p>\n
\"When we first arrested them, we asked them, 'Which group do
\nyou belong to?' They said 'al-Qaeda,' \" Mir said, referring to
\nbin Laden's terrorist network.<\/p>\n
In their sweep across Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance has
\ncaptured more than 500 foreigners fighting alongside the Taliban,
\nMir said.<\/p>\n
They include about 200 Pakistani militants arrested along the
\nfront in Kunduz province, the last northern outpost under Taliban
\ncontrol.<\/p>\n
Others were caught in Kabul, Herat and other cities abandoned
\nby the Taliban after Mazar-i-Sharif fell Nov. 9, leading to the
\nwholesale collapse of Taliban control over most of the country.<\/p>\n
\"First we will interrogate them and then it will be up to the
\nleadership to decide how to proceed,\" Mir said.<\/p>\n
In Washington, Pentagon officials said Wednesday that Gen.
\nTommy Franks, head of the U.S. Central Command, has discussed the
\ntreatment of prisoners with Northern Alliance commanders in
\nAfghanistan.<\/p>\n
\"Among other things, he emphasized the fact that if there are
\nprisoners, they should be humanely treated,\" said Gen. Peter
\nPace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.<\/p>\n
At the military jail, a flight of stairs leads down to a
\ndarkened foyer, where guard Mohammed Saqi fumbles with a handful
\nof keys to unlock the large padlock on the gray steel door
\nleading to the underground cells.<\/p>\n
Bare light bulbs dangle from wires, illuminating a long,
\ngrime-streaked corridor lined with padlocked steel doors. Saqi
\nopens a small window, through which several men can be seen
\nbeneath blankets.<\/p>\n
Zabin, the Saudi Arabian, wears only a pair of baggy pants.
\nThe blanket is pulled back by guards to reveal the bloodied
\nbandage and the gaping hole where he says shrapnel ripped into
\nhim while he was at the front north of Kabul.<\/p>\n
He speaks Arabic and a little Dari, one of Afghanistan's
\nlanguages. He says he's from Qasim in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
Zabin shakes his head when asked if he was affiliated with
\nOsama bin Laden, whose al-Qaeda network is blamed by Washington
\nfor the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.<\/p>\n
\"He is from Osama. We know that,\" says Mullah Mohammed, the
\nprison security chief.<\/p>\n
Grimacing in pain, Zabin won't, or can't, say more. Prison
\nofficials say he has been seen by a doctor, who sent him back to
\nthe jail.<\/p>\n
Two other Saudi prisoners are from Jiddah. Abdullah Mohammed
\nHamid and Jabbar-ul Hasan say they were employees of the Saudi
\nhumanitarian aid organization WAFA.<\/p>\n
WAFA was among several groups named by the United States as
\npossible money conduits for bin Laden and his network.<\/p>\n
Both men deny knowing bin Laden.<\/p>\n
Hasan was arrested in Karte Parwan, in northern Kabul, near an
\nal-Qaeda safe house where documents were found that pointed to
\nstudy of chemistry and chemical weapons, his jailers say.<\/p>\n
Hamid was caught in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of
\nKabul, a once posh residential area where dozens of foreigners -
\nArabs, Uzbeks, Chechens and Pakistanis - lived with their
\nfamilies.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/kabul-jails-foreigners-including-indonesians-1447893297",
"image": ""
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