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Afghans' fears of attack grow
©New York Times, JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- An abundance of Afghan men gathered outside Pakistan's consulate here Sunday. They were apparently feeling closer to eternity than they would prefer and thought it a good idea to obtain permission to leave the country. "They either want a visa to get out or a weapon to defend themselves," said Lalbar Saleem, the ruling Taleban's chief of security at the compound. "We had 180 application forms to give out, and within a few hours they were gone." Afghans are nervous. One after another, local news bulletins say America has decided to attack them in reprisal for last week's terrorism in the United States. On Sunday, the Taleban ordered all foreigners out of the country, saying their safety could no longer be guaranteed. The International Red Cross, which rarely pulls out of a war-torn nation, reluctantly complied. Foreign employees of the United Nations and dozens of aid agencies had already left, leaving their Afghan staff in charge. The only foreign aid workers probably left in Afghanistan are eight jailed members of Shelter Now, including two American women, who are being tried on charges of preaching Christianity. Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taleban's supreme leader, remained defiant. He summoned religious scholars to the capital to discuss waging a jihad, or holy war, against the United States. About 700 to 1,000 elders and Islamic scholars from Afghanistan's 32 provinces are expected to attend the meeting, scheduled for Tuesday. In Jalalabad, east of Kabul, the capital, and near the border with Pakistan, people seemed caught in a combination of bewilderment and denial. "We're not expecting trouble because we are totally innocent," said Haji Sali Muhammad, the leading eminence among the city's money lenders. If Osama bin Laden, the financier of militants who has been given refuge in Afghanistan, is guilty of terrorism, he said, let America show Afghanistan the proof and a trial will be held in a court of Islamic law. By and large, comments made in public in Kabul, Jalalabad and other locales repeat the same themes: Only a government, not an individual such as bin Laden, could have coordinated multiple hijackings; the United States is looking for excuses to wage war on Islam; American soldiers will find only their own graves in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, thousands gathered Sunday in a small village in Afghanistan's mighty Hindu Kush mountain range to bury opposition leader Ahmed Shah Massood, who died from wounds in a suicide attack against him. Supporters of Massood shouted slogans against the ruling Taleban militia and also condemned Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, which U.S. officials blame on bin Laden, who has been given sanctuary by the Taleban. The opposition is ready to support American actions against the Taleban, opposition spokesman Dr. Abdullah (who uses one name) said in an interview broadcast on Russia's state RTR television Sunday. "Definitely, we expect a reaction" to the American attacks, "a military reaction," Abdullah said. "I think the aim, the sole purpose of that military reaction, should be destruction of the terrorists' camps," he added. "The whole people here are against the Taleban." Massood was buried in his home village of Basarak in the Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul. The opposition said Massood died Saturday from wounds suffered in a Sept. 9 suicide bombing that they say was ordered by the Taleban and bin Laden; other reports said he had died earlier in the week. He was 48. A veteran guerrilla commander, Massood was dubbed the "Lion of Panjshir" for his military prowess defending the Panjshir Valley against the former Soviet Union during its decadelong war in Afghanistan. He later held the valley against the Taleban. Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and Massood rode triumphantly into Kabul on a tank in 1992, the year the pro-Moscow government fell. Massood was defense minister in the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani, who attended Sunday's funeral and condemned the terrorist attacks in the United States, opposition spokesman Wasuddin Salik said in a telephone interview from Panjshir. Massood's death was a shattering blow to the anti-Taleban front. He had quickly rallied warring factions against the Taleban, forming a northern alliance that has fought to prevent the Taleban from gaining full control of Afghanistan. The Taleban controls about 95 percent of the country. The opposition comprises small groups mostly representing ethnic and religious minorities. When it ruled Afghanistan, fighting sparked by internal feuds destroyed vast neighborhoods of Kabul and killed 50,000 people, mostly civilians. In the attack on Massood, two men posing as journalists detonated a bomb that may have been hidden in a TV camera in northern Afghanistan. - Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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