As most of the terrorists fighting the Northern Alliance in Kunduz are believed to be Pakistanis besides other foreigners holed up there, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has sent an urgent plea to his US counterpart George W Bush to allow them safe passage out of Afghanistan, media reported.
The fear is that the Northern Alliance would slaughter the foreign fighters if they fall into their alliance hands.
Reports from Kabul had said that Afghans there spat on the bodies of Pakistani terrorists who were killed in the fighting and that they were left in gutters. However, the alliance has reportedly agreed to accept surrender at Kunduz on a plea by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to follow international norms towards prisoners.
US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld asked the foreign fighters to surrendered unconditionally and rejected pleas for their safe passage.
“And if they are looking for any conditions where by the foreigners--there's Chinese in there, there's Chechens in there, there's Arabs in there, there's Al-Qaeda in there—any idea that those people should be let loose on any basis at all to leave that country and to go bring terror to other countries and destabilize other countries is unacceptable.”
The New York Times said that Northern Alliance leaders believe most of the foreign fighters trapped in Kunduz are Pakistanis.
Bureau Report
