Pakistani fighters flood into Afghanistan

THOUSANDS of Pakistanis wielding guns, rockets, swords and axes streamed across the Afghan border yesterday pledging to fight against America.

Young and old, fit and lame, they carried a dizzying array of arms from 19th-century muskets to modern machineguns.

They collected in the town square of Lagharay in the Bajaur tribal area, about four miles from the border, to hear religious speakers exhort them to do their duty for Islam. "We must protect our brother Muslims," said one. "This is the first of the Muslim armies."

As Atta Ullah, 20, a Pakistani college student, leapt up on a truck heading for Afghanistan, clutching his father's ageing machine-gun, he said: "I'm not going to wait until the British and American ground forces arrive to start killing kaffirs [infidels] to defend my Afghan brothers.

"Pakistan has tried to stop us, but they can't and so now we are going to teach a lesson to the Western infidels," said Mohammad Zahid, 25, who has helped recruit fresh fighters for the Taliban. "We have so many fighters and guns that we don't know what to do with them all," he said.

Pakistan, while publicly discouraging its own religious militants, appears helpless, or unwilling, to staunch the swelling tide of recruits from the Pathan frontier regions where an estimated three million ethnic Pathans live on the Pakistani side of the border.

Some recruits said they were heeding the call of Osama bin Laden to do battle with America, but most claimed to be on their way to defend fellow Pathans from "cowardly air strikes".

Yesterday, hundreds of pro-Taliban Pakistanis seized the remote northern town of Chilas about 210 miles north-east of Peshawar, demanding the government stop supporting the US-led strikes on Afghanistan. They took over most government offices.

Pro-Taliban Pakistanis also continued their control of a stretch of the key Karakoram Highway for the fourth consecutive day, severing northern Pakistan's links with China. The Pakistani interior ministry said troops were being sent to oust the rebels and open the road.

The 750-mile highway was built along the ancient Silk Road that linked Asia with the West and connects Pakistan with Kashgar in China's north western Xinjiang region. It is a major trade link between Pakistan and China, though the Chinese all but sealed it after the September 11 attacks.

No details were available because of the remoteness of the mountainous region, a major attraction for foreign tourists. Hundreds have been stranded. Hardline Muslims, specially those living along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, are outraged by the government's decision to help the United States.

In Peshawar, militants raising funds and recruiting fighters, say their recruits are destined for Kabul's front lines near the Bagram airport, where allied jets have been bombing Taliban trenches and bunkers. A pinpoint US air strike in Kabul last week killed 22 Pakistani fighters.

The recruiting drive in Pakistan has been largely overseen by the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islam party of Maulana Fazlur Rehman who was placed under house arrest by the Pakistani police before the start of the air campaign.

Elsewhere city dwellers and villagers from the remotest parts in the North Western Frontier Province have been collecting horses, chickens, gold, silver and guns to support the Taliban's fight.

The Al Rasheed Trust that has been cited by US Treasury officials as an important financial backer of bin Laden's al-Qa'eda network, is running the publicity campaign for the fund raising.

One of its posters credits villagers from Bajaur with having "raised 40 kilos of gold, 66 kilos of silver, 2,583 wrist watches, 110 rifles, 25 pistols, innumerable bullets, 75 horses, 1,200 chickens and five trucks of blankets and pillows".

Pakistan, while publicly discouraging its own religious militants, appears helpless, or unwilling, to staunch the swelling tide of recruits from the Pathan frontier regions where an estimated three million ethnic Pathans live on the Pakistani side of the border.

Seems to me the best thing in the world for Pakistan is to let them go. Keep them at home and they will agitate there. Let them go and they can cause problems in another country, and quite likely die there. Solving Pakistan’s militant problem, 72 virgins at a time.

patent +AMDG

Well, you know… if bullets don't do the job, they can always go after our soldiers with chickens and pillows.

Well, you know… if bullets don't do the job, they can always go after our soldiers with chickens and pillows.

Chickens and pillows are not a problem for me.

Now, clowns and spiders.....!

Different story.

Pakistani clowns?

Oh! ...... The horror.

Bravo, I say let as many into the killing zone a possible. The Paks will thank us, the Iranians will thank us, the Tajics will thanks us, etc. These folk have to go. The more the better, especially with winter coming on.

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