AFGHANISTAN: AFGHAN FIGHTERS LOYAL TO WARLORD GENERAL ABDUL RASHID DOSTRUM SAY THEY WILL BLOCK ATTEMPYS BY TALEBAN TO TAKE THE SALANG PASS

Record ID: 649375

  • Title: AFGHANISTAN: AFGHAN FIGHTERS LOYAL TO WARLORD GENERAL ABDUL RASHID DOSTRUM SAY THEY WILL BLOCK ATTEMPYS BY TALEBAN TO TAKE THE SALANG PASS
  • Date: 1st October 1996
  • Summary: SALANG TUNNEL, PANJSHER VALLEY AND KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (OCTOBER 1-2, 1996) (RTV) SALANG TUNNEL, NORTHERN AFGHANISTAN (OCTOBER 2, 1996) SLV ENTRANCE TO THE TUNNEL, VEHICLES COMING OUT 0.13 SLV JUMBASH FIGHTERS WITH WEAPONS/ BUS LEAVES TUNNEL (4 SHOTS) 0.38 SV UZBEK MILITIA LEADER GENERAL ABDUL RASHID DOSTUM'S DEPUTY GENERAL MADJID RUZI (WHITE HAIR) WITH FELLOW OFFICERS AT TUNNEL ENTRANCE 0.43 SV ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS BEING SPUN ROUND BY FIGHTERS (3 SHOTS) 1.01 SV/TRACK BUS DRIVING INTO TUNNEL, FIGHTERS LINED UP 1.09 GV'S FIGHTERS LOOKING DOWN VALLEY/ GUN EMPLACEMENTS SEEN FROM AFAR/ TANK AIMED DOWN VALLEY/ FIGHTER WITH GUN LOOKING DOWN VALLEY SV RUZI TALKING WITH STAFF 1.32 SLV ARTILLERY (2 SHOTS) 1.42 PANJSHER VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN (OCTOBER 2, 1996) SLV REFUGEES IN VALLEY WITH STREAM OF REFUGEES FLEEING 1.45 SLV WOMEN COVERED WITH VEILS WALKING/ VIEW OF VILLAGE IN VALLEY / REFUGEES AND CHILDREN 1.55 REFUGEES WALKING ALONG MOUNTAIN TRAILS 2.07 SLV WOMEN REFUGEES WITH FULL VEILS WALKING 2.16 SLV RIVER FLOWING THROUGH DEEP GORGE 2.30 HAS TANK ON EMPLACEMENT COMMANDING VIEW OVER RIVER 2.34 SV FIGHTER LOYAL TO FORMER GOVERMENT MILITARY LEADER MASOOD LOOKING DOWN VALLEY (2 SHOTS) 2.43 HAS VILLAGE IN VALLEY/ MAIN STREET WITH PEOPLE 2.50 WALKING SLV ABANDONED TANKS LEFT BY MASOOD FIGHTERS (4 SHOTS) 3.08 KABUL (OCTOBER 2, 1996) GV'S UNITED NATIONS CONVOY OF SUPPLY TRUCKS ARRIVING IN CITY (3 SHOTS) 3.21 SV UNITED NATIONS ENVOY NORBERT HOLL COMING OFF PLANE/ GREETING OFFICIALS AND GETTING INTO CAR (3 SHOTS) 3.44 KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (OCTOBER 1, 1996) (AUDIO AS INCOMING) SLV WIDE OF MEDIA CONFERENCE WITH ACTING DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER SHER MOHAMMAD STANAKZAI 3.54 SCU ITANAKZAI SAYING: "WE ARE NOT GOING TO STOP THEM (WOMEN) FROM EDUCATION. WE'RE NOT AGAINST WOMEN'S EDUCATION. THIS RIGHT HAS NOT ONLY BEEN GIVEN BY OUR GOVERNMENT, BUT BY OUR RELIGION ALSO" (ENGLISH) 4.03 SV REPORTERS LISTENING 4.08 SCU STANAKZAI SAYING "IN ORDER TO SAVE THE LIVES OF THE CIVILIANS AND LOCAL PEOPLE IN KABUL CITY FROM THEIR ROCKETS WE WILL HAVE TO CLEAR MASOOD FORCES FROM PANJSHER AND WE ARE HOPEFUL THAT WE WILL BEAT THEM VERY SOON." (ENGLISH) 4.26 SV STANAKZAI AND AIDE AT NEWS CONFERENCE 4.29 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 16th October 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SALANG TUNNEL, PANJSHER VALLEY AND KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA4XPMO1BFKQ7S1N6AFM5A3YGK2
  • Story Text: Militia forces continue their defence of a strategic tunnel against Taleban fighters.
    Afghan fighters wearing thick shirts and turbans guarded the entrance to a strategic road tunnel through the Hindu Kush mountains on Wednesday (October 2) to ward off any attack by Islamic Taleban forces from the South.
    Members of Afghan warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum's Jumbash faction, the fighters were reinforced with tanks, artillery and missile launchers placed around the entrances to the Salang Tunnel.
    The tunnel, 70 km (45 miles) northwest of Kabul and abandoned by deposed President Burhanuddin Rabbani's forces last week, forms a vital link between the capital, northern Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics beyond.
    The Taleban's lightning advance northwards, bringing with it its fundamentalist brand of Islam, have alarmed therelatively liberal northern territories controlled by Dostum.
    Taleban forces are moving into the nearby Panjsher Valley in pursuit of former government military chief Ahmad Shah Masood.
    Before them, refugees are fleeing.
    Scattered around are wrecked tanks, either remnants of the ill-fated Soviet intervention from 1979-1989 or abandoned by Masood fighters in their flight.
    Buses and trucks full of refugees, piled high with bags and bicycles, teetered over the mountain pass away from Kabul to find sanctuary in Dostum's territory.
    United Nations (U.N.) special envoy to Afghanistan Norbert Holl arrived in Kabul on Wednesday fresh from a meeting with Dostum. He went to meet the head of the ruling six-man Taleban shura, or council.
    A U.N. convoy had rolled into the capital earlier in the day bringing food, medicine, fuel and shelter materials to needy residents.
    Ismail Omar of the U.N. World Food Programme said 19 trucks from the Pakistani city of Peshawar brought 150 tonnes of wheat flour to feed the infirm, disabled and orphans among the Afghan capital's population of about one million.
    The new Taleban regime has frightened many in Afghanistan by its determination to enforce strict Islamic or sharia law. There are fears there will be orders for men to cover their heads and grow beards, and women are already donning the burqa, or all-enveloping robes. Women are also fearful that they will not be allowed to attend schools or visit the bazaar, but will be forced to remain at home.
    The Moslem Taleban movement that captured the Afghan capital last week has yet to rule on whether women must veil their faces or simply cover their hair to be suitably attired.
    "There are different opinions," Acting Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammed Stanakzai told reporters on Tuesday (October 1).
    He said women would not be banned from education, saying not only was the right to education granted by the government but by their religion also.
    Stanakzai also said the Taleban were determined to force Masood's fighters from the Panjsher valley because otherwise civilians in Kabul would not "be safe from their rockets".
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