M A I N   N E W S

Shops closed, streets empty in Jalalabad
Scott McDonald

Peshawar, September 30
Afghans fearing attacks by the USA have deserted the eastern city of Jalalabad in the past two weeks, turning the once-bustling market city into a virtual ghost town.

Video footage of the city obtained by Reuters today showed closed shops, streets nearly empty in some parts of the city and houses locked and barred. It was not known how many people had fled.

The USA bombarded sites near Jalalabad with cruise missiles in August, 1998, in a strike against suspected training camps belonging to Osama bin Laden, whom Washington blamed for masterminding the bomb attacks on US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 220 persons.

The USA has threatened to punish Afghanistan again if the ruling Taliban do not hand over Saudi-born Bin Laden, the main suspect behind the suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington nearly three weeks ago.

“People are worried about US attacks on Afghanistan, so they have left,’’ said Ahmad Anwar, a tailor in Jalalabad.

“People have been leaving for the past two weeks and now there is no work,’’ he said.

The footage showed shuttered shop windows in Jalalabad’s gold market, as well as closed pharmacies.

Doors and windows of homes were closed and shuttered as residents joined an exodus of tens of thousands who have fled major cities across the country for rural or border areas in anticipation of US attacks.

“There is no business now and our financial condition is very bad,’’ Anwar said. “It is not a war on Osama bin Laden, it is a war on all of Afghanistan.’’

Except for the missile attacks, Jalalabad has mostly been a sleepy provincial city, about 70 km from the Khyber Pass border with Pakistan, since the Taliban seized control of it in September, 1996.

In addition to housing some of the suspected training camps of Bin Laden, the area was also one of the bigger poppy-growing regions of Afghanistan, which until a devastating drought and a crackdown by the Taliban, had been by far the biggest exporter of opium in the world.

Those poppy fields have dried up, contributing to the number of refugees on the move in Afghanistan, and the video showed images of empty uncultivated fields as well or fields of abandoned, stunted crops.

“The living conditions here were already bad,’’ said Mohammad Nasir, the district elder of Surkh Road district just outside Jalalabad.

“We can’t afford another war,’’ he said, complaining about skyrocketing prices of essential goods.

“A 50-kg bag of wheat now costs Rs 1,500, up from Rs 900 before,’’ he said.

A 12-member family, headed by a woman who lost her husband and son in the war against the erstwhile Soviet Union in the 1980s, had left the city and was living partly in the open in the countryside outside the city, the video showed. Many families, their possessions loaded on to donkeys, were moving through the mountain passes toward Pakistan. Reuters

Zahir holds talks with US team

Rome, September 30
Mohammed Zahir Shah, former King of Afghanistan, held “very fruitful” talks with Northern Alliance leaders and a US congressional delegation in Rome today, a spokesman for the former monarch said.

Mostapha Zahir, the former King’s grandson and spokesman, said the former King had invited the participants to dine with him later today, and the group was working on a possible joint statement.

“It was a very fruitful meeting, very friendly,” he said.

“The participants discussed in front of Zahir Shah current affairs, the problems and the possible solutions to the crisis in Afghanistan,” he added. AFP

China may aid Pak for refugees

Beijing, September 30
China expressed support for Pakistan today and said it was weighing sending aid to its long-time ally to help it cope with Afghan refugees fleeing their homes in fear of possible US attacks, state media said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told Pakistani Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar that China supported Pakistan, which stands out as the only nation to keep relations with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban.

“China understands and supports Pakistan’s position and measures taken on the anti-terrorism question and in dealing with the current situation,” Mr Jiaxuan was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. Reuters

Foreign aid workers produced in court

An unidentified foreigner accused of preaching Christianity among Afghan Muslims leaves the compound of the Supreme Court on Sunday. — Reuters photo

Kabul, September 30
A Supreme Court Chief Justice told eight foreign aid workers today that they would be treated fairly, and that the threat of a US military assault would not play a part in their trial on charges of preaching Christianity.

The court asked the detainees if they wanted Pakistani lawyer Atif Ali Khan to defend them, and the detainees said they approved. AP