Egypt and Pakistan urge against forcing foreign agenda on Afghans
Egypt-Pakistan, Politics, 11/26/2001

Egypt and Pakistan agreed on the necessity of ending the current military campaign in Afghanistan as soon as possible and avoiding the imposition of any foreign formula on Afghans, said an Egyptian diplomat.

"Egypt and Pakistan have reached a clear agreement based on the principles in which both countries believe on the situation in Afghanistan," Mahmoud el Sa'eed, the Egyptian ambassador in Islamabad, told the Cairo Radio.

Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher has recently visited Islamabad where he conveyed a verbal message from President Hosni Mubarak to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on global and regional affairs, with a particular reference to Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Arab and other foreign fighters defending Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar in his

Southern Afghan stronghold of Kandahar may have fled to Pakistan, a former warlord said.

Muhammad Akbar Khan Khakrazi, who went into exile in Pakistan three years ago but still visits Kandahar often, said yesterday he saw Mullah Omar driving through the city around nine days ago but had heard the Taliban chief was now trying to leave.

Khakrazi said the flight of the commanders of the Taliban's foreign forces - the Al Qaeda network tied to Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden - had been a tactical decision to spare their lives for future battles.

The Taliban melted away in most of north Afghanistan, allowing the opposition Northern Alliance to take several main cities and the capital Kabul in just two weeks.

Khakrazi estimated that the number of Arab, Chechen, Pakistani and other foreign radicals linked to bin Laden amounted from 4,000 to 5,000 in Kandahar.

In the meantime, the United States mounted air strikes yesterday to help Northern Alliance commanders quell a revolt by about 300 foreign fighters detained outside Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, the US Defence Department said.

The Pentagon had no immediate estimate of the number of casualties in the incident, "but there's no evidence at this point that any are US forces," said Pentagon spokesman Army Lt. Col. Dan Stoneking.

Previous Stories:
  Maher conveys message to Mubarak from Musharraf   (11/22/2001)
  Musharraf receives message from Mubarak on Afghan crisis   (11/20/2001)
  Egyptian-Pakistani relations, cordial and profound   (2/24/2001)

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