Word: torkham
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...central Jalalabad when we heard the first gunfire. The place was empty except for an elderly bearded man at a table nearby, and my driver and I were sharing Kabuli pulao (rice), Afghani tikka (barbeque meat) and Kandhari nan (bread) with a television repairman we'd picked up at Torkham. TV repair was a bad business to be in, Sardar Mohammed told me, because the Taliban had banned television. But he'd helped me negotiate two-way cab fare with Mohibullah, the driver. It was 12:30pm, a pleasant afternoon with soothing breeze. The manager had been listening...
...gunfire was distant, at first, and we took it to be Taliban anti-aircraft firing at high-flying U.S. jets. "Eat well, don't worry," said Sardar. "The driver will take you safely back to Torkham. Don't slow down. Nothing will happen...
...Finally, he found the main road leading out of downtown Jalalabad to Torkham. Traffic was at a standstill. And then suddenly, a pickup full of militants carrying rocket grenades and AK-47 rifles was just in front of us. The gunmen asked us to stop...
...Moments later we were back on the road to Torkham. "It was a safe house. Talibans are out. They have taken over. Talibans are finished," he said. Anti-Taliban militants had hidden here the previous night before taking over the city this afternoon. I was later told by Pakistani officials at the border that Taliban forces had voluntarily surrendered and handed over Jalalabad to Younis Khalis, a former Mujahedeen commander, rather than lose it to Northern Alliance...
...Further away from the city, he accepted a cigarette even though he'd told me he didn't smoke. Inhaling deeply, he seemed calm, now. "They have gone, the Talibans out," he said with a sigh. A few checkpoints later, we were at the border post at Torkham. All that stood between me and safety was four Talibs with guns. I tried to enter Pakistan, telling them I am a Pakistani. The words caused commotion. One Talib grabbed me from the neck. Another grabbed my left wrist. The third put his hands on my chest, forcing me back to Afghanistan...