Afghanistan - BBC Cries a River for Jihadists

More tears for jihadists by the BBC.

In late November 2001, as US-led forces bombed Taleban targets in northern Afghanistan, more than 1,000 Pakistanis took refuge in a girls' school in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

They had gone to Afghanistan to fight the Americans.

One thousand in a girls school? That must have been some size of a school. And please note that since said school at the time was under Taleban control, it was no longer a girls school, the Taleban having forbid girls to go to school.

Also notice Haroon Rashid's use of the word "refuge" as if to portray them as victims seeking shelter from some oppressor.

Notice too that these Pakistanis had gone there to "fight the Americans". Since they were not part of Afghanistan's army, they were in fact illegal combatants or as Rashid prefers to call them "jihad fighters".

So this should really read something like, "1000 illegal Pakistani combatants took up positions in a former girls school in support of the Taleban who were fighting American troops".

Rashid goes on to describe the trials and tribulations the relatives of these jihadists are going through. But nowhere does Rashid mention the horror that the Taleban put the locals through when they took over.

From Amnesty International.

Taleban guards deliberately and systematically killed thousands of ethnic Hazara civilians during the first three days following their military takeover of Mazar-e Sharif on 8 August 1998, according to new information received by Amnesty International.

Since their arrival in Mazar-e Sharif, the Taleban have sealed the area to foreign media and independent observers. Amnesty International's information is based on testimonies from eyewitnesses and surviving members of the victims' families.

The vast majority of those killed were from the Hazara ethnic group living in Zara'at, Saidabad, and Elm Arab areas of the city. The victims were killed deliberately and arbitrarily in their homes, in the streets where their bodies were left for several days, or in locations between Mazar-e Sharif and Hairatan. Many of those killed were civilians including women, children and the elderly who were shot trying to flee the city.

How about writing about their families Rashid? After all they were innocent civilians going about their daily lives until these murderers came and destroyed their lives.
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