Taliban forces swarming Tajikistan border

Tajikistan is the weakest link in the Central Asian defence system and Taliban, if not repulsed, will certainly make the Tajik territory a springboard to fan out northwards to join hands with pro-Islamic elements in the area, the Moscow broadcast commented.

Being so close to both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Taliban will have no second thoughts to move upwards, as they may assert that the central Asian states with Muslim majority do not abide by the strict Islamic edicts, it added.

“They are clearly seeing the Russian borders,” points out Novosti dispatch from the war zone.

Tajik president Imamali Rakhmonov held an emergency meeting with his defence force commanders and Russian generalsin-charge of frontier troops guarding Tajik-Afghan borders. Dushanbe reports said that the Tajik government has ordered mobilisation of its reserve forces. Besides, Russian troops and defence personnel from other CIS nations are also present in the troubled state of Tajikistan, where already a civil war like situation prevails.

Tajikistan has also urged its partners in the CIS to help it reinforce the mountain frontier with Afghanistan. “This appeal has been prompted by the worsening of the situation in Afghanistan,” the Tajik Government said in a statement issued after Rakhmonov met his senior security officials yesterday.

“Our specific concern is that the Afghan conflict is being directly fuelled by outside forces which is adversely affecting the situation in the country and constitutes a real threat to regional security,” it added, without being more specific.

Tajikistan, long the poorest of the former Soviet republics, is still struggling with the aftermath of years of civil war between theMoscow-backed secular government and Islamist rebels, many of whom were based over the border in Afghanistan.

Moscow, long wary of the spread of radical Islam on its southern flank, still runs Tajikistan’s frontier defences.

Rakhmonov’s defence adviser, Mirzob Kabirov, said that Tajikistan had also urged the 12-member CIS’ defence ministers to meet immediately to discuss the situation.

“The situation as it is could greatly affect not only Tajikistan or Central Asia but also Russia,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Taliban captured a strategic northern town today after facing little resistance from the opposition, a Taliban official said.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Hayee Mutmaen said by telephone from Kandhar, the militia headquarters in southern Afghanistan, that Pul-i-Khumri in Ghaglan province was seized by its fighters. No other details were immediately available.

Mutmaen said the Taliban forces were rapidly advancing in the south after fighters loyal to Ahmed Shah Massod, the military chief of theousted Afghan government, fled towards neighbouring Bamiyan and Samangan provinces.

Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic press earlier reported the fall of Nahrin, one of Masood’s military headquarters, to militia fighters today morning.

The Taliban fighters passed through Nahrin to reach Pul-i-Khumri, which is less than 51 km south.

Pul-i-Khumri, about 230 km north of Kabul, is a key town on the Salang highway connecting the Afghan capital with the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif that was captured by the Taliban on Saturday.

Pak occupying Afghanistan, says deposed envoy

The ambassador in Russia of Afghanistan’s deposed President Burhanuddin Rabbani has accused Pakistan of “virtually occupying Afghanistan”, the Russian Interfax news agency reported. Ambassador Abdul Wahhab Assessi told a press conference that the current offensive by the Taliban had been launched “under the command of Pakistan and with the direct involvement of its armed forces”. “The Afghan people has reached a new stage whenall ethnic, religious and other groups must unite to fight the invaders, as was the case during the war against British and Soviet invaders,” Assessi said. He urged “all Afghans wherever they are to fight to defend their country,” and called for pressure to be brought to bear on Pakistan “to force it to stop aiding the Taliban”. “A victory of the Taliban could lead to an explosion of terrorism in Europe where there are many Muslims,” Interfax quoted him as saying.