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Taliban Forces on Red Alert
September 18, 2001

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Frontier Post
Ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan put armed forces on red alert , commandeered public and private vehicles in major cities and hinted on declaring conscription and providing weapons to masses against any possible ground and air attacks on Afghanistan, the Taliban sources said on Monday.

A high level meeting attended by the Taliban field commanders and the cabinet minister in Kabul decided to provide weapons to masses in case of any eventuality.

The meeting also nominated a committee to make contacts with Afghan elders around the country in a bid to seek public support and to make a civil army to defend the country borders.

Members of the nominated committee have left for Logar, Paktia, Qandahar, Hilmand, Balkh, Baghlan and Samangan.

The source revealed that Taliban meeting also decided to deploy armed forces on the country's borders along with the Pakistan, Tajikistan, Iran and Uzbekistan to tighten security.

The Taliban had also called a meeting of new Afghan cadets, who recently get military training from defence ministry at Kabul, to safeguard the country from any foreign attack.

Source said that the Taliban authorities are also thinking to involve some former Afghan commanders, who fought against the Soviet army in Afghan war.

The Taliban Information Ministry official told The Frontier Post from Kabul, "we are not in position to inform about the detail of the meeting," however he said, "one thing is clear that Taliban are going to ready their armed forces to defend Afghan soil from any possible US attack.”

Sources further informed that some former Afghan commanders, residing out side of Afghanistan, also contacted Taliban and offered their cooperation in any sort of aggression against the country.

Meanwhile, the Kabul government appealed to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and Islamic states for help in case of an attack by the United States, a Taliban official said.

The decision to appeal for help from the OIC was taken at a special meeting of the Supreme Council of the Taliban that convened in Kandahar with the supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in the chair, he said.

"We should unite against our enemies who want to crush us because we are Muslim," the official quoted Mullah Omar.

The Taliban say neither they nor Osama bin Laden, had the capacity to organize such an international plot that caused such devastation, leaving up to 5,000 people dead.

A joint strategy should be evolved for the protection of Afghanistan, a senior Taliban official said after the council meeting.

"The OIC should give protection to Afghanistan by launching a joint strategy".

The OIC does not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, however the Afghan seat in the council remains vacant.

The council meeting reiterated that it would not hand over Bin Laden to the United States or any other country without concrete proof of his involvement in last week's terrorist attacks.

The United States accused Osama as the main suspect behind the recent attacks on World Trade center and Pentagon.
(Source)
Sabawoon Online, © 2000
A Service of the DAUD Network

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