PAKISTAN: TALIBAN SPOKESMAN SAYS FIVE U.S. SPECIAL FORCES PERSONNEL ACCOMPANYING EXECUTVED COMMANDER ABDUL HAQ MAY BE CAPTURED OR KILLED

Record ID: 275481

  • Title: PAKISTAN: TALIBAN SPOKESMAN SAYS FIVE U.S. SPECIAL FORCES PERSONNEL ACCOMPANYING EXECUTVED COMMANDER ABDUL HAQ MAY BE CAPTURED OR KILLED
  • Date: 28th October 2001
  • Summary: (W5) KARACHI, PAKISTAN (OCTOBER 26, 2001) (ANI/REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR AFGHAN CONSULATE IN KARACHI; SCU AFGHAN FLAG (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. (SOUNDBITE) (PASHTU) AFGHAN CONSUL GENERAL MOULVI RAHAMATULLAH KAKAZADA, SAYING "When our units came into action Commander Abdul Haq was surrounded and captured with some of his friends. His other fifty colleagues a
  • Embargoed: 12th November 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PESHAWAR, ISLAMABAD, KARACHI, PAKISTAN / UNDISCLOSED LOCATION
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVACDO0ZHYOIL4FGEZEFWZY1D8ZX
  • Story Text: A Pakistan based Taliban spokesman has said five U.S.

    special forces personnel accompanying executed opposition
    commander Abdul Haq may have been caught or killed.

    Meanwhile, grieving relatives of Haq have gathered at the
    family's home in Pakistan to await the return of his body.

    His youngest brother said there are more people like Haq ready
    to resume the work of the former commander.

    In Islamabad Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez
    Musharraf said Haq's death will
    have little effect on the political future of Afghanistan.

    Pakistan-based Afghan Consul General Moulvi Rahmatullah
    Kakazada said on Friday (October 26) that Abdul Haq was
    executed for his pro-American policies.

    Kakazada said he was captured in eastern Logar province,
    only 30 km (20 miles) west of Pakistan's northwestern frontier
    after a chase in which U.S. aircraft opened fire to try to
    help him to escape.

    Kakazada added that Haq was fleeing from Taliban forces
    when he used a satellite phone to call a friend in Pakistan.

    That in turn resulted in phone calls to Washington seeking
    help for Haq.

    The Consul general said five personnel of America's special
    forces along with fifty opposition fighters were also trapped
    in the building and fighting was continuing.

    "When our units came into action Commander Abdul Haq was
    surrounded and captured with some of his friends. His other
    fifty colleagues are now being surrounded and the fight is
    still going on," said Kakazada.

    "We have also unconfirmed information that five personnel
    of Special American Commandos force are also contained in
    those surrounded companions of
    Commander Abdul Haq. The American helicopters and air force
    are also trying intensively and strictly to save their army
    personnel. But this will be very difficult to save," he
    added.

    The Taliban said on Saturday (October 27) they were
    searching for a man believed to be an American who had been
    travelling with executed opposition commander Abdul Haq.

    Meanwhile, grieving relatives gathered at the family home
    on the outskirts of Peshawar on Saturday (October 27) to await
    the return of the body of Abdul Haq.

    A steady stream of visitors arrived at the home on the
    outskirts of Peshawar, amid security, to pay their respects.

    Haq was a leading figure in moves to unite Afghanistan's
    warring opposition groups around deposed Afghan King Zahir
    Shah to form a broad-based government to take over from the
    Taliban.

    But the burly Pashtun warlord turned businessman who lost
    a foot fighting the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, was
    captured while on a mission to try to persuade local tribal
    officials to join the anti-Taliban alliance.

    He was executed in the early afternoon on the outskirts of
    Kabul along with two companions, identified as Haji Dawran and
    Izatullah, believed to be his nephew.

    Haq's youngest brother said on Friday that there were
    many others waiting in the wings to follow in his late
    brother's footsteps.

    "There are a lot of people still working. One of those
    in this mission is Abdul Haq. So we have more, more thousand
    other Abdul Haqs," said Daud Abdullah.

    During a joint press conference on Saturday Pakistan's
    military ruler General Pervez Musharraf said the execution of
    Abdul Haq would have no effect on the political
    future of Afghanistan.

    "Whatever is going on, whatever the ethnic groupings and
    the power struggle and the power equation in Afghanistan, he
    (Haq) did not feature much in any one of them. So therefore
    the political strategy and the political dispensation I don't
    think will be affected by his not being there", Musharraf told
    the media during a conference with visiting Dutch Prime
    Minister Wim Kok.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register