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.