Taleban chief gives Masood ultimatum

Taleban chief gives Masood ultimatum

JABAL OS-SIRAJ, Afghanistan (Agencies): Taleban commander Abdur Razzaq said yesterday he had called on former government military chief Ahmad Shah Masood to "surrender or be wiped out".

Razzaq told Reuters at this town at the mouth of the Panjsher Valley, Masood's stronghold, that he had sent a letter to Masood saying that if he stopped fighting he would be forgiven.

"If he goes on fighting, we will clear the area of his presence," said Razzaq, who commands Taleban forces which have swept north from Kabul in the last few days.

He said no time limit had been set for Masood to reply to the ultimatum, but he was busy planning an assault on the Panjsher valley.

He was speaking after a strategy meeting with his officers at a small district office in this dusty town. There were constant interruptions from black-turbanned Taleban fighters.

Meanwhile, Afghan troops forced out of Kabul dynamited the entrance to the key Panjshir Valley yesterday to halt the rapidly advancing Taleban fundamentalist militia.

"We are going to put up a very strong defense, and God willing deny the Taleban entry to the Panjshir," said Bismillah Khan, a commander loyal to Masood, one of the key defenders of the previous Kabul regime.

The Panjshir Valley, some 100 kilometers north of Kabul, is now the frontline of troops loyal to Burhanuddin Rabbani, whose Kabul government was routed by the Taleban last Friday.

But in the Salang Pass, west of the Panjshir, there was no fighting reported between the Taleban and Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostam. The Taleban deputy foreign minister held a press conference yesterday to deny that his group had given a 24 hour deadline to Dostam to give in.

Bismillah Khan and his men were seen burying massive quantities of explosives to blow up the single lane dirt road running alongside the river.

There is now no access to the Panjshir Valley by car from the nearby town of Gulbahar, which is occupied by the Taleban. Scores of families were seen leaving the Panjshir on foot yesterday before soldiers blew up the road.

Two smaller explosions on Monday denied Taleban tanks access to the Panjsher, but civilians were able to get through.

Soon after the Taleban captured the provincial capital of Charikar on Sunday they pushed north to Jabal us-Saraj and Gulbahar. At least three Taleban infantry attempts to get into the Panjsher from Gulbahar were repulsed, Bismillah Khan said.

"We have put men on top of all the mountains here. This is our native country and you can expect that we know how to deal with our enemies who trespass," said Bismillah Khan.

Masood, who travellers reported seeing in the Panjshir town of Bozarak Monday, has massive stockpiles of heavy weapons and ammunition, but observers have raised doubts about the morale of his men to stand firm.

Bismillah Khan used to be commander of Bagram airbase to the south, from where Masood saved jets, transport planes and helicopters before it was captured by the Taleban.

East of the neighboring provincial capital of Kunduz, is Takhar province where the ousted government of Rabbani and ex- prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is reportedly based in the capital Taloqan.

During the 10-year Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, Masood resisted more than a dozen major Red Army offensives into the 150 kilometers long Panjshir Valley.

In New Delhi, hundreds of Afghan refugees in India protested yesterday against the fall of Kabul, and said they were praying for the ouster of the Islamic Taleban militia now in control of most of war-ravaged Afghanistan.

"We are praying that the Taleban forces would be ousted soon. Then we can return to our country," said Habib Mustafa, 30, an Afghan refugee in New Delhi.

Police said more than 400 Afghan refugees, including some 70 women and two dozen children, took part in the demonstration in the Indian capital's diplomatic enclave. Police eventually used water cannon to disperse the protesters.