Word: ustad
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TIME's Alex Perry was one of the first journalists to enter Mazar-i-Sharif after it fell to the Northern Alliance. There he met Ustad Mohammed Atta, a general who helped drive out the Taliban, and learned of the bloody aftermath of the city's fall. Read Alex's account at time.com/perry...
...first western reporters to reach Mazar-i-Sharif, I was ushered into the home of Ustad Atta Mohammed, the Northern Alliance commander who--along with warlords Rashid Dostum and Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq--had taken the city a few days before. An ethnic Tajik, Atta, 37, is a bearded giant given to joking and easy small talk. He invited me to sit on his carpet and share a meal of qabeli, the Afghan national dish of rice, raisins, mutton, carrots and onions. In the past week, he has established himself as the unofficial mayor of Mazar, presiding over meetings of tribal...
...According to accounts given to TIME by Alliance officials, 3,500 rebels serving under Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum, 47, pushed the Taliban out of Kishindi with a 16-hour assault that left 200 Taliban and an unknown number of Alliance troops dead. To the west, forces loyal to Ustad Atta Mohammed, another Alliance commander, lost 30 men in a barrage of Taliban tank fire but seized the outlying village of Aq Kuprik. From there the Alliance's long-promised and much delayed march on Mazar-i-Sharif gathered an irresistible momentum. Some Taliban soldiers ran and hid, others switched sides...
...Around 900 Pakistanis were surrounded in a girls' school, Sultan Razinya, in the southeast of the city. Over three days, the Alliance commanders - Ustad Mohammed Atta, General Rashid Dostum and Haji Mohammed Mohaqiq - say they tried to persuade the Pakistanis to surrender. The Pakistanis refused. By Tuesday afternoon, the commanders had exhausted their patience, and warned civilians living in the area to move away. Then they attacked, and the fighting lasted four hours. The Alliance took just 175 prisoners...
...bazaar is open. Streetside shashlik stores send plumes of the thick smoke of lamb fat into the air, and yellow taxis ply their trade. The Alliance leader Ustad Mohammed Atta has become the unofficial mayor of Mazar, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his new home, receiving a stream of visits from town elders, tribal leaders and messengers from the frontlines...