Pak controlled Afghan telecom

KABUL, Dec 26: Pakistan controlled the entire telecommunication network in Afghanistan during the five-year Taliban regime and all international calls from Afghanistan were directed via Islamabad.

Officials of the Afghanistan Communications Department said Kabul could be connected to Peshawar by a local call. From kabul a call was made to Jalalabad in South Afghanistan which had a microwave link with Islamabad.

For international calls, a caller had to dial 0092 (Pakistan code). Initially Pakistan had permitted international calls from 50 PCO’s in Kabul but later 20 private residences were also added to the list.

According to the prevailing exchange rates, calls charges to india were the highest — 1,26,000 Afghanis (about two US dollars) per minute — and for Pakistan it was the lowest with 33,000 Afghanis (about 50 cents).

Asked about the wide discrepancy in the charges, one official said it was because of the Taliban policy to discourage calls to India and encourage contacts with Pakistan.

The official, who requested anonymity, said Taliban Communication Minister Mullah Yar Mohammed "listened to his heart, not mind".

Rates for other countries were much lower than India, the official said.

For US, Britain and Saudi Arabia, the charges per minute were 38,000 (Afghanis), Belgium, Germany, Norway and Qatar — 51,000 Afghanis, and for France, Italy and Japan it stood at 47,000 Afghanis.

The charges for other countries were: (In Afghanis per minute) Canada-69,000 Cyprus-75,000 Greece-49,000 Holland-40,000 Spain-59,000 Switzerland-41,000 Australia-65,000 Kuwait-67,000 Oman-53,000 UAE-46,000 Yemen-57,000 and China-70,000.

The official said that the interim Government would have to rebuild the entire telecommunication infrastructure and it would take some time to restore order.

He appealed for international assistance, including equipment, to facilitate the process.

Presently, international calls from Kabul and other parts of the country can only be made through satellite phones. The rates vary between four to eight US dollars a minute and a satellite link is established with great difficulty.

Kabul has only five private centres with fax connections through satellite and they are mostly clogged and out of order because of heavy demand after the war. (UNI)

US forces preparing a new push into Tora Bora caves

KABUL, Dec 26: US marines and special forces were preparing for a new push into the caves and tunnels in the Tora Bora mountains where Osama bin Laden was reported to be last sighted, even as the new Afghan Government met for the second time today focussing on rebuilding the war-torn country.

American warplanes continued to patrol the skies over Afghanistan searching for remaining fighters of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network with US marines awaiting word on their deployment to zero in on the terrorist mastermind.

As mystery surrounded the whereabouts of Bin Laden amidst reports that he could have been killed in US bombing or died of natural cause or fled Afghanistan, U.S military officials said the movement of marines into the area is "imminent".

Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S Central Command said overt and covert American military operations designed to terrorism" were underway "in a great many places". Some 2,000 marines are reported to be in Afghanistan as part of the campaign against terrorism.

The Pentagon says there are still pockets of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters dotted across the country, despite reports of an estimated 2,000 having fled towards Pakistan.

No details were immediately available about the meeting of the 30-member Cabinet. In signs of growing confidence in the Hamid Karzai administration which has a six-month mandate, Afghan refugees from Pakistan started returning in numbers from Quetta and other border areas through the border town of Chaman. Some 800 families were believed to have returned.

Seven wounded Al Qaeda fighters continued to be holed up in a hospital in the southern city of Kandahar after the standoff with the anti-Taliban forces continued for the 4th day today.

They have threatened to blow themselves up if any "foreigners" came near them even as American troops observed the fighting but did not intervene.

No negotiations were planned to be held with the militants who were armed with pistols, grenades and explosives.

More than a dozen nations were also preparing for talks in London to hammer out the details of a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Between 3,000 and 5,000 troops are expected to be deployed.

Meanwhile, two senior Bush Administration officials said the U.S marines in Afghanistan discovered several dozen Soviet-era weapons outfitted with depleted Uranium warheads.

The officials said the weapons, uncovered at an ammunition storage site near Kandahar, are the only instance of anything remotely radioactive found in the possession of the Taliban or Al Qaeda.(PTI)

Canadian citizen among most wanted Al Qaeda

WASHINGTON, Dec 26: A Canadian citizen for whom Prime Minister Jean Chretien once went to bat is on a list of nine Al Qaeda members most wanted by the United States, a list led by Osama bin Laden, the Washington Post reported in today’s editions.

The list, circulated in recent days by an anti-Taliban militia in Jalalabad, named nine Arabs — five Saudi-born and four Egyptian-born — as the most wanted Al Qaeda members, the Peshawar, Pakistan-datelined report said.

The final name was that of Ahmad Sa’id Al-kadr, or Abu Abdurrahman, 53, an Egyptian-born Canadian citizen who operated Afghanistan operations of human concern international, a Canadian-headquartered charity, the Post said.

Kadr was detained by Pakistani police in connection with the Nov 9, 1995, bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, the Post said.

"While he was in prison, Prime Minister Jean Chretien was on a state visit to Pakistan and raised Kadr’s case with then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Kadr was released a short time later and joined bin Laden in Afghanistan," the report said.

A small number of US special forces troops are leading the search around Tora Bora, in the White mountains about 35 miles southwest of Jalalabad, where Al Qaeda fighters made a last stand and where bin Laden was last reported to have been sighted.

According to the Post, the special forces have been aided by Afghan guerrillas fielded by Mohammed Zaman Ghun Shereef and Hazrat Ali, the two military commanders of the eastern Shura —the militia coalition that took control of Jalalabad and surrounding Nangarhar province when Taliban rule collapsed last month.

Their search has been spurred by Washington’s promise of up to 25 million dollars in reward for the Al Qaeda leader and lesser but still juicy premiums for the other senior members of his organisation.

Ali’s guerrilla leaders say the current list is shorter by far than an earlier wanted list provided by US intelligence officers, the Post reported, citing an Afghan journalist in Jalalabad.

At the top of the new most-wanted list being cited in Jalalabad is bin Laden, the Saudi-born militant whom the United States blames for the attacks that killed more than 3,000 people on Sept 11. His fate was unknown.

Next named, according to the Post, was Ayman Zawahiri, an Egyptian physician born to a wealthy family in Cairo 50 years ago whom US investigators consider to be bin Laden’s second in command.

The list was said to next name Mohammed Atef, or Abu Hafez, a former Egyptian police officer who was a top aide to Zawahiri in the Egyptian Islamic jihad. Now, US officials say, Atef is bin Laden’s military commander, coordinating training of recruits at Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan as well as most of the group’s strikes, the Post said.

Atef’s daughter married bin Laden’s son at a videotaped ceremony in Afghanistan last January.

US officials reported last month that Atef was believed killed in a US air attack against a house used by Al Qaeda members in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

"It is unclear whether his presence on the list making the rounds in Jalalabad means US intelligence now believes he was not killed in that attack," the Post said.

Next on the list was Sa’d Al Sharif, 33, also known as Shaikh Saiid, Mustafa Ahmad Al-Hisawi and Abu Mohammed — a Saudi who is bin Laden’s brother-in-law and financial chief, the Post reported. According to court documents, Sharif allegedly wired money to Mohamed Atta, accused of being the leader of the Sept 11 hijackers.

Two other names on the list about whom little was known other than their Saudi nationality were Abdul Hadi and Saqr Jaravi, the Post said.

Bilal bin Marwan, another Saudi named on the list, is said by US investigators to be a senior bin Laden lieutenant, but little else is known about him, the Post said.

Saif Al-Adel, another Wgyptian on the list carried by guerrilla commanders in Jalalabad, was described as the head of bin Laden’s personal security detail, the Post reported.

He is on the FBI’s 22 most wanted terrorists list and has been indicted in the United States for conspiracy to kill US nationals, murder and destruction of buildings and property of the United States in the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings. (AGENCIES)

Pak opposed to war with India: Foreign office

ISLAMABAD, Dec 26: Pakistan does not want a war with India and would like to resolve its disputes with it peacefully, according to a top Pakistani official.

"We have exercised restraint from the very beginning. We have said that we want the solution of every thing through negotiations. We do not want war. Despite provocations we have not taken any action of the kind that might create tension in the atmosphere," Foreign office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Claiming that Pakistan has always denounced terrorism, he said Pakistan condemned the attack on the Indian Parliament.

"When this attack on Indian Parliament was carried out we denounced it. We cooperated with the international coalition in its operation against terrorism. We also told India that if it provided proof against individuals or organisations we would take action against them," he said.

Replying to questions on the build up at the borders, Khan said "we have taken only precautionary measures in reply to Indian provocative approach."

Also speaking to BBC, Pakistan High Commissioner in London, Abdul Qadir Jaffer, said relations between India and Pakistan were now at the lowest ebb due to growing tension on their borders.

"Relations are at the lowest ebb between India and Pakistan due to rising tension at the borders. India and Pakistan have been engaged in escalating war of words since the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13," he said.

He said Pakistan has frozen the assets of Lashkar-e-Toiba following a similar move by the United States. He added that despite this India is "not satisfied" and has said it is not enough.

He said since September 11 India has been most unhappy. He elaborated that they have been trying to malign Pakistan.

"They don’t seem to realise that Pakistan is now a member of the coalition. We are trying to fight terrorism and we would like to see that terrorism is eradicated from all parts of the world," he said. (PTI)

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