Word: islamabad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...worry is bin Laden's slipping away. "It's reasonable to assume he has a Plan B as to his own safety," says the intelligence official. The Pentagon is watching the mountain passes along the south and west of Afghanistan's long, porous border with Pakistan, and pushing the Islamabad government to mount stringent patrols. The search concentrated last week on the ridges of Tora Bora, just southwest of Jalalabad, where a thousand or so Arab fighters were holed up. Last month Afghans passing through reported spotting bin Laden near the Tora Bora bunker built by mujahedin in the 1980s...
...After a trip to the U.S. embassy in Islamabad a month ago, the portly, mule-jawed Sherzai came back to the southern Pakistani city of Quetta throwing around cash. Merchants say he bought himself over 30 new four-wheel vehicles and then set off to an Afghan refugee colony called Jungle Piralzai known for its thieves and opium smugglers. As one associate of Sherkzai's admitted: "Of course, these men are bandits." There, he recruited men for 15,000 rupees ($250 a month), and outfitted them with weapons and at least 40 kilos of hashish, according to this associate...
...visit Pakistan for talks with President Musharraf. Pakistan has traditionally been fiercely opposed to an Alliance backed by old foes such as Russia and India, and had backed the Taliban's five year war against Rabbani's group. But Pakistan is home to the majority of Pashtun, and Islamabad has set itself up as the guarantor of Pashtun interests in Kabul. If Rabbani, whose own claim to power is strongly backed by Russia, can cut a political deal with Musharraf, whatever transpires in Koenigswinter may well prove to be primarily symbolic...
...Pashtun tribes of southern Afghanistan, had mercilessly persecuted the Uzbek and Hazara ethnic minorities. After the city fell, they hauled up guns hidden under the floorboards and took revenge as the Taliban forces fled in disarray. "From the houses, the Uzbeks were picking off the Taliban stragglers," said an Islamabad-based aid worker in contact with the northern Afghan city...
...right now, and that may be more than a little alarming, not only to the Pashtun but also to Pakistan, erstwhile patron of the Taliban and now Washington's key regional ally. Pakistan wants a friendly (and predominantly Pashtun) government in Kabul, while the Northern Alliance is antagonistic to Islamabad. And even as local, regional and global powers scramble to arrange a power-sharing formula for a new regime in Kabul, it's worth remembering that the Taliban are bloodied but not yet beaten - they've surrendered most of their territory without much of a fight, and could potentially regroup...